Only listening on my editing headphones which are very flat Sennheisers as I still have no desk so no monitors until next week, not too shabby at all and has a great pub rock feel but I have a few thoughts in the edit that may help tighten it up and make it a bit more solid.
Feel free to ignore all or pick and choose, remember this is all as I hear it and maybe not what you are shooting for.
Pan bass & drums dead centre and tighten the timing, Kick, rhythm guitar and bass are wandering about and mainly behind the beat, through the headphones this is particularly obvious.
The drums and bass could use more punch, achieved with compression and EQ in that order ( ReaComp and ReaEQ ) are more than adequate for the task
Once the timing is tightened I'd look at duplicating the rhythm track and sitting it the same percentage off on the other side, better still an acoustic rhythm.
Use automation to move the pan the solo guitar to centre stage for the solos.
To achieve this highlight the guitar track and then press P ( pan ) this will create another field below the track where you can set beginning and end points to move the pan around.
To automate the guitar volume create a send from the vocal track to the guitar track and send it from Ch 1 & 2 to Aux Ch 3 & 4, then add ReaComp at the end of the VST chain for the guitar and set it's input to Aux and then adjust the compression to taste ( do not tick the auto make up box ), this will duck the guitar when the vocals are happening.
Remember pan gives you width and volume gives you depth as does reverb if used with care.
When I use reverb for effect I use a short pre delay of around 25ms to allow the note to form before the reverb hits, when I use it for depth I use no pre delay.
Another trap when using ReTune and delay ( echo ) make sure the tune time is shorter than the echo, default for ReaTune is 250ms and for slapback delay it's 30ms, Tune should be first in the chain but if the tune time is longer than the delay you'll get delay on the bum note which is interesting.
When I go through this process this is the order I use YMMV
1. tight edit, align the beats ( and vocals if there are harmonies )
2. Solo Drums and apply Comp and EQ to get the sound I'm looking for (could be Charlie Watts or a cardboard box that I want)
3. Solo Bass and apply Comp and EQ, unless the bass player is a pro the volume will wander quite a bit.
4. Rhythm instruments, guitar / keys etc treat as above and pan left and right.
5. Balance these up and these become the nest that the lead parts reside in
6. Add lead instruments one at a time and treat each accordingly to get " the sound "
Vocals are still not yet in the mix.
I normally add a Band Master Buss and send all instruments to it and remove their master send for the individual tracks, pan this master to the centre ( individual panning is preserved )
Balance these tracks and add a bit of Comp and EQ to glue the tracks together and a bit of EQ to brighten the mix.
Now bring the vocals in and treat with plugins to get the desired results.
Now add Comp and EQ to the master Buss and the Master Limiter from the JS bank to bring it up.
I normally add a bit of verb after the EQ to master to give it a bit of a live room sound and sometimes add a Stereo Widener directly after the verb.
EQ on bass and drums should be cut below 40Hz, below that lives mud and also only dogs hear up above about 12KHz so that should be cut as well, even though you won't hear the frequencies they are there and take away digital headroom which will cramp you mix.
Most importantly don't edit and mix above a level that you can't hold a normal conversation over, just makes your ears tired and you won't hear the true sounds.
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Originally Posted by blinddrew
