everything else kind of falls into a "well it's enjoyable enough but didn't leave an impression" or "other folks were hyped about this and I wanted to love them but they were just okay"

very safe, and kind of boring...
- Mone Kamishiraishi - "25Kome no Senshokutai"
- Hanaregumi - "Sokkenai"

cursed reinvention that Did Not Work but I appreciate the wilingness to do it
- iri - "Futarigoto"
- YOASOBI - "Kaishin no Ichigeki"

standouts:
- SEKAI NO OWARI - "Saidai Kouyakusuu"
- Hiroji Miyamoto - "Oshakashama"
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE - "Kyoshinsho"

very safe, but I loved it
- Kenshi Yonezu - "Tremolo"
- DISH// - "Keitai Denwa"

I guess I like them best when they're a full-on pop confectionery

don't you love when your bias starts looking a little uncanny valley 😅

wow the new Love and Deepspace update looks great

originally I tried to have 2 compressors on the vocal chorus bus (one to tame peaks, another to add warmth and shape tone) which is what I've seen in tutorials but ultimately what sounded better was taming the peaks on the bus, and then routing to do the second compressor in parallel

I felt like I was fighting a losing battle trying out a bunch of stuff bc I'd either get a vocal stack that was beautiful and full (but had low-mids mud that even post-comp EQ couldn't fix) OR something bright that cut through but felt brittle

but parallel compression worked like a charm

I saw this while driving home from work 2 weeks ago