Thank you all!
Yes, this is different from my usual tastes. And even unusual at that as it is a style that doesnt really fully fit in any typical slot. I have become more used to genres that typically have the vocal front and center over everything, and that may have led me to this result. I am not sure. Rock is often more Guitar driven and maybe I need to re-assess that.
And yeah, its less dynamic than I usually prefer and am kind of feeling that out, for similar reasons to the vocal question.
You think thats compressed you should hear my "mastered" versions!
And not a "client" but stems supplied for a mixing contest. I like to do these from time to time more for the practice than any dream of winning any prizes. In an effort to learn as much as possible, I often avoid listening to any efforts to reduce the chance of influence, and explore doing it "my way" and to my own taste. Just load up the tracks and assess, go with my gut.
In a case like this, you get to work with pro level recordings and later evaluate your work against others efforts, and in many cases some
very good other efforts........ I would consider the production source (Fab Dupont and Ben Lindell) and many participants quite certainly "pro level" and I admit to feeling pretty intimidated. The recordings are so freaking high quality that after I got a rough balance working, I just listened to it over and over wondering what the heck I could do with it. I felt lost. But after I got started trying some things I started to get some flow and a felt a little more of a sense of direction. And learning some things about working with very large track counts when my computer says NO! to adding much in the way of plug-ins.
The vocal tracks were clearly processed when recording, and I didnt add much as far as that goes. They stand pretty forward as is. The style of having clean "poppy" verse sections combined with some pretty gritty chorus sections kind of leaves me guessing if that is the intent, or an opportunity to experiment?
I still have some ideas to explore and a little time before submission deadline.
Thanks again for the feedback, I'll probably post another attempt sometime next week, as I will be taking my lovely wife away for a weekend adventure.
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