MIX CHALLENGE - MC31 April 2017 - Winners announced

[viceverser]

Of course... The fault was clearly mine... When looking around properly I see plenty of info, In the midst of the frantic deadline, I had to prioritise mixing over research... It just bit me in the arse... It's one of those hindsight things. I'm still happy with what I did for the most part, but there is definitely a LOT more work I would have liked... I went for a little more textural and ambient than others here... I wanted the mix to fit the song title, so I chose to make some things "uncomfortable" in the mix. It was a blast, but I definitely spent too much time taming those synths... the resonance in those things was ear piercing at times... Definitely a challenge
Thanks for your effort in organising this whole thing, well done

Cheers... V.

[Studio Saturn]

I have a question though, What do you mean when you say try to not(!) pre-master the track (please no overuse of mix bus treatment)?

I ask this cause when I start mixing I mean from get going I have The glue in and mix on that. Not a single mastering engineer told me to remove it. Are you saying that we are not allowed to use that?
To be honest I like to put 2 to 3 gain reduction of compressing the 8 mix buses but I didn't do that on this mix. However, on the master bus there is glue.

[Mister Fox]

I'm still happy with what I did for the most part, but there is definitely a LOT more work I would have liked... I went for a little more textural and ambient than others here... I wanted the mix to fit the song title, so I chose to make some things "uncomfortable" in the mix. It was a blast, but I definitely spent too much time taming those synths... the resonance in those things was ear piercing at times... Definitely a challenge

Tell you what - submit it regardless - but it will be out of the evaluation process. This way you can gather some feedback from other participants and add to the learning experience. I'll mark your post properly of course.

Thanks for your effort in organising this whole thing, well done

You're welcome

I have a question though, What do you mean when you say try to not(!) pre-master the track (please no overuse of mix bus treatment)?

Valid question.


In general, it is meant to have a focus on the mixing process, and not mix and master at the same time. Hence the name "Mix Challenge".

The idea of the Mix Challenge is to "barely touch the Master Bus / the Master Fader", not squash the material to smithereens. If you have a plugin on it though that adds to the general "sound design" like "The Glue" (the SSL Compressor mix-through trick, 2-3dB gain reduction to "gel things together" - great for Rock), in my case for this Mix Challenge e.g. "Slate Digital VCCv2" with a Trident Console (which is a saturation device), or for vintage mixes many tapes on groups and the master (I did that with MC14 to create a 70ies type mix), the "Brauerize" technique over several groups, etc. That particular use of tools is still okay as it would mean "general sound design" still - even though the line is super thin.

General speaking: you should try shoot for an average signal strength of 0-3VU or -18dBFS to -15dBFS RMS avg on the summing bus while keeping the maximum signal strength (dBFS peak max) untouched. Unless you went crazy with transient designers if various kind, or your material lacks any bit of lowend, you should never exceed -1dBFS max on the sum anyway. Which in turn means for the next step (mastering), that you kept all options open.

But once more-in-depth editing happens (like overall frequency fixing, multi-band compression, loudness raising, limiting), then this is what I'd consider "pre-mastering".



I hope this is a bit more clear. Should I add this to the Mix Challenge FAQ?

[Studio Saturn]

Thanks now I understand I'm safe.

[OctopusOnFire]

Tell you what - submit it regardless...

I've been looking for some info about this in the rules... is it possible to submit a mix past the endline only to receive feedback from other contestants? Maybe in a separate forum thread or something?
I've found out about the site recently and only could get to mixing the song during this weekend, so I'm late for the competition but I'd like to put up my mix for feedback if anyone is so inclined. I'm aware this could get in the way of the main goal of the site, which is the competition, that's why I'd rather ask beforehand.

[Mister Fox]

There are no set guidelines for that (yet). But it might be worth trying something new with the "current place":
http://www.mix-challenge.com/forum/view ... p?f=8&t=17

Let's see how this goes and how much the interaction will be. The same rules apply as with the official running Mix Round (great would be additional documentation what you did on top of that) - though there won't be a 2nd Mix Round of course. And probably no feedback by the current "virtual client". So please keep that in mind.

Who knows, maybe this warrants a dedicated subforum at some point.

[Jorgeelalto]

Hi guys,

I'm Jorge, the one who contributed the song for this 31th edition of the Mix Challenge. I'm listening to your submissions and taking some notes. If you have never done this, you have to know that choosing these kind of really subjective is very very difficult, so I ask you for some days more if Mister Fox approves (also I'm super-busy with the university, exam season ) Anyways, I'm working on it, will have finished on Wednesday afternoon (Spain timezone).

Regards,

Jorge

[Mister Fox]

...so I ask you for some days more if Mister Fox approves (also I'm super-busy with the university, exam season )...

Mister Fox approves

[Jorgeelalto]

Hello! Here I come with the evaluations. This time we are less people so I can extend myself a bit more. Let's start:

balanceinnumbers: A great sounding overall mix. It sounds clean, the bass has a kind of delay/reverb that sounds really cool, very subtle. I wish the drums would sound more saturated/compressed/distorted, but your approach has been more minimalistic I suppose. The glitched break loop previous to the slow part also has an effect I like...

davemcisaac: You've modeled the kick and the snare in a way I really love, this mix sounds really powerful and balanced. You've been creative with some effects and SFX, and I like that! The reverb of the snare sounds a bit out of place, though, in the slow melodic part, although it sounds great when the bass enters.

Jonssin Musiikki: Wow, the drums are really destroyed (in the good sense)! It sounds really big and powerful, and it's a really creative mix. I really enjoy the effect play that has every part of the song, but the bass has literally disappeared! What happened? There is also a lot of reverb on some parts and the song sounds like if it were far far away.

kevin gobin: Um, the overall balance is not bad, but this sounds a bit dry, unpowerful and static. It's a pity, because the bass doesn't sound too bad...

Mister Fox: Creative with some SFX and the pads (I like the pumping in the slow part). The filter automation of the bass does some abrupt jumps that seem not to be aligned with any grid that... sound strange. Overall great sounding mix, nonetheless.

Monk: The sub-bass may be a bit loud, but the drums sound really tight together, the different elements sound like they are part of the same instrument.. In general I like this mix, it's very punchy (in-your-face!). Some great FX's here and there.

Photonic: Dark ambiental character, the melodic parts are really beautiful, with some great drumming there. The overall balance (volumes, panning) is also really good, not too much sub bass in the melodic parts, but the distorted tech growls (the bass) are totally lost...

Studio Saturn: I like the distortion of the sub, it gives it a gritty character... The melodic parts are great, the kick is well positioned but the snare is lost in it's own reverb. Like the vibrato/tremolo in the strings in the melodic part, sounds all really creative!

VasDim: Great balance, sub bass not too loud, but the snare is a bit dry for my liking. Love the detuning effect in the pad, sounds really old and dirty! Not the most FX intensive mix but not bad either.

viceverser: I like a lot the effect of the glitch percussion loop in the part where everything stops. But the snare is too thin, the bass is in other dimension and in general everything sounds really quiet with respect to the drums and those exploding SFX


So the mixes I want to see improved for the second round are (in no specific order):

balanceinnumbers: you can still add all those FX Mister Fox talked about in the first post!
davemcisaac: A bit of room for improvement in the creative section too!
Monk: Not really know what to say, you'll know how to get better for Round 2
Photonic: The bass.
Studio Saturn: Again, I can't really tell you much
VasDim: Let's get into Round 2!

Special section for Mister Fox: You've not been selected for Round 2 but being you the admin and having worked this much on all the infrastructure of this Mix Challenge so we can be here having fun, if you submit something for Round 2 I won't add it to the podium but I'll review it again. I can't thank you enough for this.

Thanks for participating everyone! I'll see you in Round 2.

Jorge

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, Jorgeelalto.

Let us kick off Mix Round 2, which will end on Monday, 01-MAY-2017 11:59pm GMT+1/CEST (check Berlin / DE on the forum world clock)



The following participants go into Round 2 (alphabetical order)

balanceinnumbers
davemcisaac
Monk
Photonic
Studio Saturn
VasDim


A thank you to everyone, and good luck for Round 2