Good job.... I had to listen on 2 different computers.... one with speakers and then the lappy with cans. What I heard on the speakers, I wanted to either confirm or not, on the cans. Since you have sent this off to a publisher.... that tells me you're obviously trying to play the game with the "big boys and girls" .... I will give you my thoughts on this mix. And understand that this is MY OPINION. The pro's are submitting their best and the publishers now days will accept nothing less than perfect. The song must be top quality in every aspect to be competitive in film & TV. What you submit will eventually be used "as is" if it's selected for a cut.

I'm not trying to be mean or discouraging here.... this is intended to simply point out the things I hear that would result in the producer passing on your cut and give you a differing point of view so that, if you decide, perhaps you can work on these things.

Yes, publishers do want to use "other than the big names" but less costly stuff that sounds like the artist style and sonically sounds very similar.

To understand what I'm saying here, you should A/B the song you did with Lorde's version. There's quite a difference between the sound quality of the 2 tracks. The genre style is similar enough and you did a super job on the genre/style match, but it has to go much deeper than that when you are trying for a spot on TV./film with a "sounds like" cut.

First thing....and I don't know if this is the case... but if they are asking for a "sounds like" this song, from artist Lorde....and the artist is female....... you might want to consider a female vocal unless they specifically say the gender of the vox don't matter.

Beyond that.....I think you're still lacking on the overall EQ and reverb quality of your mix vs the pro mix.

To my ears...and this is the short, quick, eval version..... the mix you did has a vocal that is much dryer and in your face a bit too much. Find a good reverb and set the vox back a bit into the mix. make it smoother sounding. Laying and doubling the vocal track might help in this area..... if you listen to Lorde, she has layered the heck out of her vocals especially in the chorus where the sound gets huge. I would also use vocal fixing such as Melodyne on something like this that's being submitted to film & TV.

The EQ of the instrument track is off as well... compared the the sound of the pro mix. When the chorus comes in the pro mix has a really clean, deep sounding bottom end that comes in and just kills. That is lacking from your mix. The mix you did has a lot of "confusion" going on in the bottom... and that makes it much muddier than the pro mix. Simply A/B the two mixes and listen on some good speakers or cans. Your mix is well on the way, you simply need to make some tweeks and do a bit of work to get it closer to the pro version.

Production chops.... where you come into the chorus... "You bring it like a ......." I'd mute the instruments for a second there to make the impact of the instruments hitting the chorus larger on the word STORM... little things like that make it huge.


I know you put in a lot of effort. It shows and your OP also documents it. I think what you have done here is really close.....and no harm in sending this to publishers.... heck you might get it signed to a library. It's not easy to get close to the sound of the pro's without a lot of hard work and production skills. I applaud you for doing this. But... have another look at the things I mentioned..... improve your skills in this area and keep working.

Do keep us posted on the publisher's comments on this.


Feel free to ignore this post as the ramblings of a nut case.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 01/22/15 05:19 PM.
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