I think my deep dive on vocal mixing is finally complete. I did actually redo the "Mirror Land" vocal structure yet again (I've lost count how many times I've done it at this point) but I'm actually really glad I did because this latest round of changes, as minor as they may have been, really make the clarity considerably better. I'm actually very pleased with these mixes and I've heard them more times than I can count now between my stereo and both of my cars. This finally landed on structure has now become my "vocal chain", as they like to say, that I'm using on all other tracks going forward.
Piggy backing on the above, I finally made it through all of the "...Fish!" songs and redid the vocal chain on each onen to this new structure. I haven't physically listened to them thoroughly but I did hear the ones that I was the most concerned about one day in my car and was amazed by how good they sounded so I'm not too terribly concerned at this point. Even if I need to make some tweaks (fully expected, mind you), I don't think it'll be anything major or super time consuming.
I spent about half of yesterday finally cracking open the "Wrecking Ball" album, doing an initial mix on the first track which I've had some issues with both the drums and the guitars, and I basically need to make a decision on whether any of the electrics need to be re-recorded. I spent about 4 hours on it and ended up doing an entire mix whereas my initial intent was really only to focus on the drums. It's amazing how different things sound once you set it all up and starting tinkering. The downside but also upside is that I realized that there's simply no way to judge what might need to be re-recorded until I do this entire process on each song, so essentially there's no point in wasting my time right now. Therefore, I won't get into the "Wrecking Ball" stuff any further until my week off during Memorial Day week and will just wing it, re-recording whatever I think requires it.
This means back to Defrost Nixon! Yes, I'm now juggling 3 full albums and 2 EP's...all at the same time. I'm intending to finally close out the 2 EP's over the next 2 weeks, and yes, I'll do some sort of minor celebratory dance once that's done because it's been, well, quite a road to this point. In the meantime, the next 3 weeks will also be Defrost Nixon heavy mixing time with the intent of having pretty solid mixes by the last week of May. Then, I'll start mixing "Wrecking Ball" during Memorial Day week, and then after that it'll be time to bounce back to "...Fish!". Yeah, it's a bit chaotic, I'll admit. My hope and plan is to have all of the above done by Labor Day.
The good news it that everything is still on track for the year and I am actually feeling strangely confident overall. I also had and took the opportunity to listen to all of my rough tracks for the upcoming "Beautiful Silence" album, which is more or less the follow up to "Theories for the Opsimath", and I was super pleased with what I've got down already. I can't wait to be able to focus on this new album for I think it'll be really somethin'. The "Wrecking Ball" album also seems super promising and quite possibly a dreamy album for me in regards to a harder rock sound. Even though I'm not quite 'there' yet, I feel like the actual reward from all of this is finally on the horizon, where I can start focusing on bigger and better things. Wow.