I thought the panning on the drums was cool to me, I could discern panning on your cymbals, open hat and a little on the toms. The kit was a little weak in the bass and mid departments. Some parallel compression on just the kick and snare might be all you need to beef them up a little.

Also the mix seems to be built around the guitar which I think is not best for this song. The vocalist can actually sing, so the voice doesn’t need to be hidden and what I could catch of the lyrics was pretty solid too. I would have built the mix on vocals. Maybe even some very subtle delay on the vocals would add to the feel (SUBTLE )…

Overall I thought this was a cool track…I actually enjoyed listening to it and that’s really what it boils down to in the end…

Peace.

I tracked my vocal to this using an Apex 460 through an MPA Gold Pre, (probably used an API EQ and API comp too, probably a little Waves RVerb, VST’s of course). Admittedly, I felt it was dry and a pinch thin, but I didn’t mind it enough to change it prior to final. Believe it or not, I actually hand held the mic while tracking while reading the lyrics as I sang in a seated position to work the Edirol surface. Pfft. Can you say self-imposed deadline? LOL!

Interesting comment about the panning on my drums. These are PDP CX’s. Mic’s on snare top/bot (57’s), kick inside (Audix D6), rack (Audix D10), floor (Audix D12), o/h’s (Apex 125’s), and one room (Apex 460). Kick, both snares, and room are up the gut, rack @ 50% right, floor @ 70% left, and o/h’s 100% L&R. I play with Vic Firth 2B’s and LOTS of good Zildjian’s and Sabians (14″ AA Sizzle Hats, 18″ A Custom Crash, 16″ Z Custom Crash, 20″ HHX Ride, 18″ Paragon Crash, 18″ China Trash, 18″ Z Rock Crash).

Keep the comments comin’, guys…good or bad!

First impression that it sounded very professional – A lot of tracks I’ve heard in this workshop thus far have been blatently home-produced.

I definitely agree with Stephen Schappler, but with a further emphasis of guitar – It doesn’t kick me and leave me for dead when it needs to.
I’m not really good enough to tell you -how- to fix that, but Stephen had some good sounding ideas.

The vocals seem to lack any power or punch to me. They sound too thin and a little unconvincing. Especially before the doubling comes in after the first half of the first verse. Could use some EQ.

Same with those rhythm guitar tones. Give them more meat and power. I really want to feel that verse rhythm. Now, it kind of sounds like the guitars are going through the motions. Toughen ‘em up! Try a little EQ in the low mids (maybe a little higher), and run those suckers through a Distressor if you can to give them some more color and oomph.

Drum panning sounds a little too narrow to me. I know you’ve got the guitars hard left and right, which works, but I think you can afford to spread the drum imaging out a little.

Last suggestion. Something needs to be done to that lead guitar line during the chorus. It needs to scream a bit more. Maybe try moving it around a little to separate it from the vocal and try riding it up slightly, maybe 1dB.

A lot of these are nit picks, the track is sounding good. But I think if you make a few adjustments, you could really take it to the next level.

(Listened through Genelec 1030a’s at Dubway Studios, NYC)

In my experience this is the hardest bit to get right, making them stand out without resorting to dated sounding effects so interested in learning how others would approach this.
Perhaps a stompbox/amp sim set to kil mixed low alongside the main vocal track?

Other than that, liking the song mate…