Great work to everyone attending this challenge. Here is some feedback on five randomly selected entries, I tried to make sure I didn't pick anything that had gotten feedback by anyone else
Good luck everybody!!!
@cpsmusic
It was a really nice touch on the intro with the pluck delay fading in and the lead synth is really crisp and adds to the 80’s sound. The main snare reverb, which sounds like longer gated one, while giving an 80’s vibe, still gives me more of a Phil Colins feel as opposed to a synth wave feel though. The pluck drowns a bit behind the rest of the tracks as it’s either low, or has a darker eq on it. I like the idea of using the reverb/delay on the vocals as a tool to build movement between the verses and choruses, but personally I would’ve want the verses a little bit wetter to better align with the overall sound.
@floodo
Really tight kick sound and again a big gated reverb on the snare. I like that you’re punching in the vocal delay on the last phrase before chorus which adds excitement and anticipation for the chorus, however I would’ve wanted a bigger dynamic lift when the chorus starts as it currently feels a bit even to the verse. Nice delay punch-ins on the second verse as well, but maybe adding some more overall vocal reverb would’ve added some more 80’s feel to it. The lead piano on the bridge is drowning a bit, but the raw sound is rather dark and needs a bit of EQ-ing to pop out.
@hjchjc
Solid overall balances and panning of all of the tracks, however none of the synths really pop out of the mix and they somewhat all blend together a bit. This could probably be improved with EQ:ing them a bit more, allowing them to each fill their own space in the sound. The lead piano on the bridge is beautifully processed with nice reverb and chorus (at least I think so) which really makes it cut through the rest of the tracks!
@LCM!
Solid drums sound, maybe the extra snares used for accents are a bit loud, but that might also be a matter of taste. Great vocal sound with that nice big 80’s reverb. It sounds that there’s quite a lot of compressions on the chorus synths which removes the initial ”swell” of the synth panned to the right in your mix. While making it more even, it removes some of that accentuated punch on the beats that I think was a nice touch from the original sound.
@Quince
Nice drum sound, but it sounds like there’s some kind of 16 or 32 note delay happening which somewhat interferes with the delay from the main pluck, also the toms feel very small and crushed. The vocals are very loud an up front in the mix, I assume this is intentional, but perhaps a couple of db’s less on the main Vox would’ve made it sit better in the mix. Nice creative use on punching in delays for different phrases during the song which adds excitement. Nice processing on the lead piano during the break and also a very cool touch to bring everything down with filters and reverbs during the break-down before the last chorus!
Old-school mixer that started out in -95 on tape-machines and analog desks. Today mostly in-the-box. Big UAD fanboy
