Which mix do you prefer? (country content)

[ninepoundjammer]

Had some time to kill in the studio last night with my honky tonk band, so we remixed one of our older tracks. Wondering what differences others actually hear, and which they prefer:

#1: Link Removed

#2: Link Removed

Or is "recordings" the right forum for this? Seems like the people with good ears are over here.

 

[Tusec]

Definitely the second one is better. The vocals were a little too up-front in the first one but you fixed it in the second. The harmonica and fiddle were kind of buried in the first one. They're more up front in the second one but could still stand to come forward a little more I think, both when they're doing fills in the choruses and during their solos (fiddle has a solo, I can't remember if harmonica does or not). The vocals are a little too dry in my opinion. They sound like they were recorded in a booth with a lot of sound deadening going on. Vocals that dry sound slightly surreal to me, I guess because they're never that dry in real life. I'd add just a touch of reverb to them. I think the drums could be just a little louder and I'd like to hear just a little more crack in the snare. Liked the song -- good performance. And you've got nice clean well recorded basic tracks it sounds like. Whoever engineered the tracking did a good job.

 

[williamk]

well I kinda prefered the 1st one, it sounded beefier.

 

[Smorgy]

well I kinda prefered the 1st one, it sounded beefier.

my thoughts exactly.