Would like advice on this indie pop mix

[joachim_s]

Been working on this mix for quite a while but feel like stuff could stand out better and be more interesting. Especially for vocals, guitars and drums, in that order.

Any suggestions on the mixing part? (This is not an arrangement or production question.)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6axn9mfu96j14i/Beyond the boundaries (221015).wav?dl=0

[Steve Kudlacek]

I get the feel you are going for here. Very mellow and subdued. Overall it’s a good piece! Very well balanced!

My ears drew me to a few parts. Of course this is all preference, so take it for what it’s worth to you:

1.) The tambourine sounds processed. Missing some high-end sparkle which I love. Leave it natural.

2.) Vocals are subdued. Sets the tone and very good feel. No complaints. Could use some lift around 1.5k and some air in the highs to get it to pop in the mix. The lows you have dialed-in should keep it grounded and still subdued.

3.) The snare could use a little more high-mid pop and air. Like the vocal, it can shine a little without taking-away from the overall feel.

4.) Experimentally, I may try to add a delay to the snare. Something in stereo like a ping-pong at 1/8th and 1/4 note that opens the snare into the stereo may be very nice! The Logic Stereo Delay is good here. Soften the attack with some Hysteresis. And maybe add some % variability to the repeats. A perfect 15 or 1/8 may take away from the feel.

5.) The bass sounds like it is living with the kick, sharing the same lower frequencies. Maybe a low cut around 100hz and a boost around 800 could help it pop. Maybe add some air to the kick as well around 5-8k and 8-12k.

6.) Perhaps add a little punch using parallel compression to the kick with an LA-2A compressor (Logic Vintage Optical). Allow the transient to cut through and then squash the sustain. I would use all default settings except turn-off auto gain and set the attack to 20ms and the release to 0ms. Add this aux channel back into the mix to taste. It should not detract from your feel but allow the kick to punch a little but naturally using the original source without a bunch of EQ wizardry.

7.) Love the lead synth at the end. Very cool!  It needs a little more high-end air to cut through the mix.

8.) Finally, I would add some clipping gain or at least some limiter gain and a tape emulator to the stereo bus. It could use some loudness and tape distortion. This will give it some drive and saturation. Your mix is really clean, and that is a great start! The subdued nature of the song wants me to drive it even more and and give it a saturated “analog” feel.

The Logic Adaptive Limiter on the Stereo Bus with a 3-6dB gain would be fine. But I am leaning towards clipping to dirty it up a bit. if you want a free 3rd party clipper, try Free Clip (https://www.vennaudio.com/free-clip/). It has some good drive and should give you 3-6dB of gain without issue.

For tape saturation, you can try the Phat FX in Logic as a substitute for a Tape Sat plugin. It has a very tasty, 3 stage distortion section. Turn everything else off. Apart from that, there are a ton of tape emulators that are not free. Slate, Waves, and Softube have some good ones.

Best of luck! Lemme know if anything here worked or turned it to shite. If I had your stems I would take a crack at it without hesitation!