It sounded ever so slightly harsh sometimes to me. Maybe just ease any top end boosts (on some of the guitars?) just a small hair. All the layers felt pretty well blended. I think I only felt once like it was too busy. Overall, it's really solid, sounds ready or pretty close to it!

It sounds really good, im just not sure whether at the section about 1 min 10, the snare is a little quiet, its fine but maybe +1 or 2 db, other than that it sounds really good.

Hi Helmut!

Love this! As a reference I would recommend something from Friedemann Witecka. It's a similar style. Here are two tracks from the CD Aquamarin I think could fit.





Over all Memories of a Journey sounds very professional. There are a few things I would like to suggest:

Soundwise I agree with Trevor. The picked steelstring from the beginning sounds a little bit brittle to me. Also the acoustic solo guitar from 1:43 on is a bit harsh in my ears.

The mix is good but I think the pads are often a bit too loud. They cover a lot of small things in the background which could be interesting ear candy. For instance: at 0:40 and 3:19 there is a line in the piano echoing the solo which is not present enough. Also the little fill with the reed sound at 0:53 and one or two times later on gets a bit lost in the rest of the pads.

One part needs attention arrangement wise. From 2:40 on I think there are too many counter lines in the background. These are distracting from the main melody.

As said before this is very professional sounding solid work which I enjoyed listening. I hope my review wasn't too picky.

have a nice sunday
Christian

Hi Helmut:) I agree with the suggestions you were given. Maybe, after fixing those problems, I would try to glue everything onto the main bus a little more. Not much but slightly more, but always leaving good dynamics and breathing room to the song. I don't know why, but the guitars make me think of Carlos Santana. It could be an inspiration^^

Hi TBT, Sam, Christian and Vittorio
I'm very grateful for all of your comments. Every one of you gave extreme good and helpfull ideas; thanks a lot!
I'now back in the studio and try to translate this in my mix.

@Christian Piller
the two tracks from the CD Aquamarin a really good references for me, thanks!

Hi Helmut!

First of all, I love this track! Personally, I appreciate music that has a strong melody to it, something that you hear once and then can recall and hum the next day. It's definitely true for this piece, especially the part that starts at 1:45, love it!

It also sounds very very good! It's great that you managed to get it loud enough to adhere to modern hosting standards but not over-compress it (DR 11 at the RMS 14), which is a blessing to my ears considering that most post mid-90s music is squashed.

And here are a few things that could possibly be improved:
- the picked guitar is a little too bright (in fact, the whole mix is a touch too bright)
- the pad is sticking out a bit
- the mix in general is a bit too busy, all instruments are trying to do too much (in particular, the bass and the drums). I think that thinning out the arrangement a bit would work well towards making the mix sound more relaxed and get more depth.

I would also like to recommend you this track as a reference.


Keep them coming!

@Denis Migounov
thanks so much for your comment, very interesting. I'm still working on... many comments went in the same direction. Hopefully I'm back with a new version this week. I know what you mean with the busy drums and bass. There is one place exactly before the 1:45 I already changed the drum pattern. On the other hand my ears are so used to the other pattern...I guess they will be unchanged. But I try for the drums and base to sit better in the mix.
Very good reference song for me, thanks a lot!