One last Radio Rock-ish mix before I send to the band

I'd make the guitars a little darker- automate some kind of room impulse underneath. I think that would widen it up a bit if you can't quad track.

When the acoustic guitars come in- the first thing I noticed was that the strumming was conflicting with the hi-hats and the pattern the drummer was playing. I'm not sure if that's because it's not synched or that maybe I feel like the hi-hat could be more isolated.

I also think I'm hearing a clean electric playing root chords underneath. I may have wanted to compliment that with acoustic guitars playing the same progression or whatever to then put more emphasis on the vox/snare/kick/hat during that part.

I'd maybe pull a little away from the 200hz on the direct mic on the snare and maybe try getting some snare thump from some room mics/samples. I feel like the kick could be about the same- get some room in there for more splat or something. Definitely take advantage of those flam drops with some big reverb swells or something to make that stick out too.

I think the vocals could be a bit brighter/louder as well.

Not picking away at your mix, but when I hear rock/metal like this I always think of like Shinedown or Breaking Benjamin approaches. Keys, quad tracked geets and that focus on vocals/snare/hat throughout the songs.
 
Thanks for the insight dude! I've been trying to seperate that high hat but I can't figure it out for the life of me, haha. I'll try out the room impulse idea.




EDIT: Okay, mix update. I took away the reverb for a room impulse, and fook it makes a difference. I can't change the clean guitar part, but it's a single strum of the chords that the acoustic is playing, so I dropped it a bit lower so it's less distracting. I also LP'd the acoustic so the hat would stick out better, and it sounds like it made a good difference. Vocals took a boost to the 8k before the deesser to catch any added siblance. Guitars were darkened.

I didn't add any snare swells/woosh effects or anything because this band wants their music to speak for itself. Originally they had a ton of electronic stuff written, but decided to scrap it for a more "natural" sounding product, and I respect that.

Wat u gaiz think?!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1742937/Full Circle TEST-015.mp3
 
Sounds a lot better dude- just having the vocals sitting better like that. I'd focus on the snare now- sounds kind of boxy. Really maybe just a slate room sample or something along those lines would help.

As far as the hats go, just close mic next time and maybe automate the OHs down a bit during that part.
 
That line between fat and boxy is a hard one :\. I'm working at it, thanks dude. The hats were close mic'd lol.


Last one for the night! I tried to beat the boxiness by playing with compressor settings/changing the "explosion" frequency boost. Any comments for tomorrow would be great, mix is due tomorrow night!


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1742937/Full Circle TEST-016.mp3