Stepped away from music for a while, but decided to work on a new track. Take a listen, feedback welcome on the mix as I don’t have anything remotely close to a studio setup. Just headphones 
The mix sounds slightly dull and muddy. It could do with a bit more brightness (though exactly how much more is probably a question of taste). The treatment on the vocals (crunch/distortion and reverb, it sounds like) make them less distinct than they perhaps should have been. I can’t say anything about the lower freqs, because I’m not on the best speakers right now. These are all minor issues though. The song/arrangement/playing/singing/programming all sound great.
I listened with studio type headphones.
Cool tune, very dirty/rocky sound. Don’t know if its really too muddy, it isn’t sterile for sure, and I prefer organic soundscapes over too synthetic sounding ones. Soundcloud compression seems to make all the reverb go artefact, maybe it sounds cleaner when uncompressed.
I second, it is mixed too dull. It sounds like a fat blanket hanging over speakers, or suffering acute hearing damage. Muffled so to say, though one can still hear most detail somehow. Haven’t you a/b compared it to other peoples’ mixes while mixing this down?
Also I find the way the drums are processed are a bit problematic. It sounds like a small savage beast being constantly pressed into a way to small space, and it is fighting back. Like the lower mids seem boosted somewhat and overdriven a bit, and the choice of dull reverb with the audible compression pumping going on on and in about that range makes the impression even stronger. This is what makes a strong “rock/dirt” feel, but I find it is overdone, almost claustrophobic. At first the drums sound like pressed through a weak ghettoblaster in a backyard or so, but the illusion is broken by the much cleaner bass instrument’s low end. This boxy stuff on the drums is a cool effect somehow, but I find it is just too prominent in your tune. Maybe it could work better with an overall brighter mix, and more spacious and brighter reverb choices, opening more air and room around the whole arrangement.
Yeah I kind of had the feeling the highs weren’t prominent enough and there is probably a bit too much reverb. Although unfortunately there was some reverb in the vocals I had to work with that I could not really gate out properly without making it sound wrong.
I definitely find it a challenge mixing a rougher / rock sound. I certainly want some organic warmth to the sound and nowhere near as crisp as most EDM is, but I definitely don’t want to make it dull or lifeless. If there are any frequencies in the mix you think could be something to look at then that might help given I might not be hearing them properly with my setup.
And also, does Soundcloud really add a lot of compression? I wasn’t aware it did that.
Yeah I kind of had the feeling the highs weren’t prominent enough and there is probably a bit too much reverb. Although unfortunately there was some reverb in the vocals I had to work with that I could not really gate out properly without making it sound wrong.
I definitely find it a challenge mixing a rougher / rock sound. I certainly want some organic warmth to the sound and nowhere near as crisp as most EDM is, but I definitely don’t want to make it dull or lifeless. If there are any frequencies in the mix you think could be something to look at then that might help given I might not be hearing them properly with my setup.
And also, does Soundcloud really add a lot of compression? I wasn’t aware it did that.
SC doesn’t compress the volume, it compresses the data to a lossy format, mp3 192kHz if i remember correctly. This will shrink file size, but also degrade the sound quality. It has nothing to do with the compressors we use in audio production.
I think it sounds pretty good, great track!
Maybe it needs a bit more highs and less reverb in the kick and snare and i wonder if mix perhaps sounds a bit over saturated?