I think it's fantastic. A bit of buss compression to smooth out some peaks and I think you're done. Sometimes some of the vocal transients come out and smack me in the ear (1-1.5KHz?).

Maybe...maybe two much 8k plus. Grain of salt, I have issue with my high end. Sounds great.

Thank you Tyler and Darryl!! Yeah a bit more bus compression could be good to further glue it a bit more, too, I guess. In the waveform I saw some strange peaks comming from the punch of the snare and kick, I think. Isn’t that something a clipper like the „Standard Clip“ is good for? (1-2 dB) because I already have quite some bis compression going. Did any of you miss more dimension or room sound in the mix in general? I was going for a kind of early dry 70s sound but I‘m not sure if some more settle room sound would destroy the „dry feel“ and Staccato parts of the song . Any opinions ? Thanks so much!!

Love it man!
This is my kinda music and love the arrangements and chord changes.
Im actually real interested in the sounds you achieved! Is it in the box type stuff or have you recorded it with amps and drums (if so which ones? ha ha)
A clipper could smooth out some peaks, and just saturation. Really light saturation or clipping into really light compression just to ever so slightly trim the tops off everything before a bus compressor will really keep all the levels in nice order.
There is a few, short incredible videos on the the recording lounge podcasts youtube channel about saturation into compression and the transient life cycle that really opened my eyes to taming dynamics when using digital recordings. A recording used to be saturated at every stage before digital (- mic pre, tube compression, desk, 4 track tape, line amp, desk, EQ, tube compression, 2 track mastering tape recorder) so peaks werent as much of an issue as what we face now and we have to be a lot more considered and follow a similar approach with plugins if you want to tame transients properly.
In regards to my thought on the mix, i thought it was awesome! If anything, I would of liked to of heard a touch more delay and echo to fill out the space a bit more and give the sounds a bit more body.
But thats more personal preference.

I only just read your reply above, and I personally felt like I missed a little bit of room sound and dimension!
Doesnt need to be swimming though, just atouch more.
Only because, as much as I love the dry 70s sound, the key changey chords, song writing and the dreamy slide seems to lend itself a bit more to 60s, beach boys, spector type production in my mind.
You might be able to keep it drier but fill space and amplify the room sounds with more tape saturation plugins...?
Also, do you like Emmet Rhodes? Im picking up some vibes like that

Thank you Jake for your detailed comment! Yeah thats the thing.. it tried to that Emmet Rhodes (i know him but just a few songs) Intimacy.. but also you can make it much fuller and try to make it feel like a Spector production.. I'm a bit torn apart when it comes to room with this song.. I increased the Spring Reverb and the Plate Reverb on the Drums a bit and give the whole Song a bit more Studio Room to breath and glue a bit more.. Its subtle but it does a thing.. as soon as I'm ready I will upload it. The guitar stuff was in the box.. mixture of amplitube 5 and kemper profiler.. and lots of lofi goodness (I mainly use Sketchcassette, Tape Mello Fi, RC 20, Decapitator and J37). Actually I also have a Portastudio 4 Track Tape Recorder , which I intended to use on this track. But recording wise I was too lazy for the extra turnaround. I'll surely gonna use the Tape Recorder more on my next track.

Hello, In general it is good recorded track and the arrangement is also good, but i think that vocals and some instruments has too much mid highs. For ear is very painfull to hear it.

Thanks for your feedback @Aleksandre L. .. you're right the midrange is pronounced quite a bit for more retro 60s/70s stuff.. maybe I went over the top! Sorry to hurt your ear 😅

I uploaded a new version with a bit more room and reverb. Its subtle but its there if you listen for it. https://soundcloud.com/andik-music/just-a-little-out-of-reach/s-f3XSf17jTP8?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Unreal man, I think it sounds a lot fuller!
Something I do sometimes to make sounds more roomy is bounce the sounds out of my monitors super loud to the room next door with the door open and record them through a 57.
Hi and lo pass it, delay them by 20-30ms and voila, natural sounding reverb with character. I find it usually sounds better than digital reverb! Unless the room is just absolutely horrendous, but I find even average rooms have character still.
I do it a lot with Digital Synths and VSTs and just replace them with the room recorded version.
Anyways, you know what you're doing man. Any advice here should be taken with a grain of salt as you're definitely in control of what youre doing to my ears and doing it well. Keep it up!
Love the George Harrison style slide.

I use the 4 track and a lot of those plugins too. Its great to see you achieving these types of sounds completely in the box though. So good

New version sounds way more professional than the old one! Wish there were more bad mixes on this forum. I want to give critique but everything is better than what I would do. I'm going to have to start uploading my stuff.

Oh man at this point you're showing off haha. Great Job! it reminds me of some beautiful 60s Abbey Road Analog Sound! I would add a bit of reverb at the end of the song just as you did with the guitars. Great work again!

You really nailed THAT sound, and I love it. Mix-wise I do feel the guitar and voice are fighting each other in the midrange.

thank you so much for youre feedback. @Israel Higuera @Wouter De Smedt Great that you feel that way. That people get reminded on abbey road (although I clearly know that mine doesnt sound like the orginal at all) is the best compliment you could make because thats what I wanted to achieve. Thank you also @Jake Cruze and for your insights about the room. I will definitely try this out. Still got a lot of time experimenting with my 4track Tascam ahead of me. ;) @Tyler Roberts cool that you feel that way about the new version!

oh man! what a dope song!!
Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Was this all in the box or did you use some legit analog equipment to achieve this sound?

Thank you Sergio! Yes, this was done all in the box.. I guess mic choice was also a big thing for the lofi/vintage sound.. recorded the vocals and the acoustic guitar with an Electro-Voice 635A.. On the next track I will use my 4track tascam recorder to get some more analog grid on some of the instruments.. when it comes to plugins which destroy audio in a good way (at least in my opinion) I can recommend Sketch Cassette and Tape Mello-Fi...

thanks again for all the feedback and for lending me your ears. I'll release this song in the next few weeks. 👍

Geile scheiße Andreas! Fun song and an awesome mix. You should be proud!

stark! Ich mag mich täuschen, aber ich musste spontan an den Novatron von Kush denken, als ich die Drums gehört habe. Grandiose Lofi and Tape-Noisy-Analogish -Produktion.

Danke @J N and @Konrad Bohl : den Novatron besitze ich leider nicht, freut mich aber, dass es für dich klanglich in die richtige Ecke passt! Danke!!

Hi Andreas. Nice to hear your tracks as always. I see and hear that you have gone for a LOFI tape vibe, but for me its too much .. some sparkle and AIR added back in, would be good

der Novatron Sound könnte dir gefallen:

Du machst ernsthaft ganz grandiose Musik. Kenne dich eigentlich von Spotify und bin mit einigen deiner Songs vertraut- Get On With It - top!

Yoh the newer version sounds way more better love what you've done with the depth as well.. Arrangement is solid! How were the drums recorded?? Are they live or programmed? @Andreas Kaufmann

Love the vintage feel. The later version is much smoother in overall texture. I see House of Kush is already mentioned here, so no need to go any further myself!

Couple of niggles for me:

Background hiss: is it really necessary?

Just around 0:44 I notice things get very complex and tiring to make out, unlike the rest - maybe not have so much going on, or ensure the tracks have different regions carved in the EQ?

All in all though, it has a very consistent tone and feel.

The novatron plugin sounds great. Thanks for the advice. Reminds me a bit on my vulf compressor. Maybe next black friday. :)
@Cedz Imagination Did you like the drums? the percussion and drums were recorded and then sweetened by some samples. The direct sound of the kick and snare are mainly replaced samples by pasttofuture drum kits. You should check them out if you like retro drum sound. The last songs I mostly played/recorded the drums myself, but if I do use sample kits I play them with my keyboard to sound more natural. Especially with the vintage stuff you dont want to stick to much to the tempo grid. If you listen closely my song Just a little out of reach varies in bpm quite heavy. I didnt stick to a bpm at all to get the vibe of older recordings like zeppelin and the older beatles stuff. But I guess you already knew that anyways ;)

Really loved those drums man..thank you for the detailed answer...I wasn't aware of pasttofuture drum kits...Definitely will check them out. I haven't yet had the experience of working with a live drum kit... closest I've got it bongos, congas. All in all great stuff...looking forward to hearing more!! @Andreas Kaufmann

@Patrick Martin @Jeremy Munns thank you for your feedback! Yeah, I know I was quite aggressive with the vintage feel at times.. maybe too much.. but it felt right for me somehow at the time I made it..

I just wanted to say that I dont think its too aggressively vintage at all. The track sounds totally modern still (and offers a new angle to this style of songwriting while borrowing old sounds) compared to an early stones track or even super old blues recordings like robert johnson, which just sound like beautiful mush. If you want a certain feel, you have to use the correct emulations/ recording methods and youve done that so well with in the box tools. Thats not being aggressive, thats committing to a sound/ vibe as a producer. Thats not being too retro/ throwback/ lofi.
Its borrowing from the well of the golden age of songwriting and recording.
No modern addons and daw gimmicks added to the sounds, just good songs recorded well.
Just tape emulation sounds and desk emulation and the like to saturate and tame large digital transients properly.
Digital needs to be degraded to not sound absurdly hi fi and modern music has a tendency to be over totally produced and sound like shit.
One of my favourite records is skip spence's oar which is barely mixed or engineered coherently.
Nobody could (or would because of workflow) touch that emotive rawness with protools now.
Youre just using particular sounds to convey a particular emotion in the production, and doing it well. And lastly, nobody ever picks on or picks out the 80s / 90s throwback bands as being too vintage ha ha.
Which is why ticks me when people throw that on people trying to do classic era songwriting as too vintage.
Not to throw any shade on the person who made the comment directly either! And sorry if it appears that way. I just see this opinion thrown around a lot and think its always used a bit haphazardly

Thank you Jake! Really appreciate that. I also think its important that it mustn't be the exact sound of the old recordings, but rather should remind you or make you feel like the old records did.

Really really like the vibe ! Especially the way you've produced the vocals ! I find you even a bit too gentle sometimes, i would have gone with more vintage prod vibes ( add more delays around, flanger, drum mono'ed on the left, etc !
Actually that'd be my only little point so far, to get an even more vintage feeling, i'd see the drum mono center, with many a slapback on the side to get space ? Like mixing with just the Overhead track kind of? At the moment, i feel it's taking a bit too much space in the mix.
and more MOOG :D
But really, love the vibes !

@Komoy Project thanks for good and kind feedback. Unfortunately the song is now already on spotify, so I'm not able to make any more changes ;D really helps me for the next time though.. Actually I have something planned were the drums are on the left side and bass on the ride side to get that old 60s hard panned feel. Do you mean a moog synth?

Oh, i'll be sure to pump up your listening figures then :D
Drum hard Left and bass hard Right ? Definitely curious to hear that !! And yes i meant moog synth, i think it would have suited the song ( more than a mellotron for example ).
I tried a bit of unexpected drum mix too on one of my song, having two drums playing simultaneously, panned hard L and R as well. But Dealing with the low of the kick when hard panned is really hard, i don't think i managed it too well haha !

The drums wont be panned 100percent hard to a side..especially not the kick. bass is also more 50% to one side... you can hear panned drums pretty often in old songs.. (for instance Beatles - Ticket to Ride).. but I'm not sure how strong I'll go for it! Thanks for pumping my listening stats ;D I'm curious about the song where you panned the two drums playing.. do you have a link? @Komoy Project

Yup, you can find it on my profile, it's called a tale in the desert. The intro drum isn't but when you get to the main part of the song they are there. Same as you said, it's not 100% pan, (it's more about 70% from memory ) but the effect is still there 😅

love it you nailed the lofi analougish mixing style 😍

@Ruben Degendorfer Dank dir! ;)

Fireeee! Really good. Sounds like you nailed it. I'm a big whitney fan, sounds pretty on point.

Thanks @Kurt Owen yeah, Whitney is great!