Hi, Beth.

Nice song and vocals! I enjoyed listening. smile

You said "appreciate nitpicky mixing comments", and I'm happy to oblige. wink

For me, the key question of mixes is: Can I hear everything?

In this case, I can, so it's a success.

But, if I were to be super-picky (my default mode), there's a certain "sameness" to much of the song. It's pleasant to hear, but the delineation between sections could be stronger.

The song isn't "glued" together as tightly as it could be. The vocals are great, but a bit out of sync. For example, the opening lyrics "With..." at 0:25 and "solar" at 0:28 comes in a bit after the beat. I'd have gone back and shifted the vocal to land on the beat.

At 0:52, the guitar chugs over the same chords while the piano does a riff. But since the guitar overpowers the piano, so it sounds like the song is treading water.

At 1:11 at "ever shine", there's a sudden jump in volume.

At 2:08, there's a nice change as you go into the verse again - excellent! But the guitar is chugging moments later. I would have liked to have more of a change - perhaps even dropping out the guitar for the entire verse, as substituting something else. That would make the return in the chorus even stronger.

At 2:57 when the chorus kicks in, I'd have liked to hear drums. But they are mixed way, way in the back - so far that I wasn't sure they were in that part of the song. Without the lift the drums give, the chorus feels more like a continuation of the verse. I'd consider bringing the drums up in general, and as nice as the chugging guitar is, back it off more. Perhaps solo the piano, as it's constantly being buried by the guitars.

I'd have put the cadence after 3:56 for a stronger ending.

I'd probably also move the vocals more to the front, and turn down the reverb on the background vocals to make them a bit more subtle.

Anyway, good job!

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?