MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Winners announced

[satchboogie]

Hi !

Thank you for the opportunity. I tried to maintain a retro vibe.
I used v3, bx_HG, megasingle, and Friedman and LUNA daw.

my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C-DMUD ... share_link

cheers,

satch

[Mister Fox]

It is the 22nd April 2022, 00:05 UTC+2/CEST - the first Mix Round has officially ended

Another very warm welcome to all new participants, nice meeting you and I hope you'll enjoy your stay. Also, a huge "welcome back" towards old regulars. It's a pleasure seeing you. As usual, a huge thank you to everyone that is spreading the word about the Mix Challenge. There has been a massive influx all of a sudden, I'd love to know how this happened.

Please help get the Songwriting Competition as popular (less than 3 days left, currently 3 entries).


STATISTICS:

• If I didn't miscount, we have 73 submissions this month (73 prior to the deadline, 01 after the deadline)
• We have 1 submissions after the deadline (as of 24-APR-2023 6:00 UTC+2/CEST)
• We have 0 submissions that could not be downloaded by the time of this post and is therefore disqualified (re-checked 24-APR-2023 6:00 UTC+2/CEST)
• We have 0 submissions not submitted in public, but via PM (see Rule Book, post #6, Upload and Submission Guidelines)
• We have 0 submissions that have been withdrawn (but counts as entry within the deadline)
• Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters? (PDF - updated: 24-APR-2023 22:15 UTC+2/CEST, full sheet)
• Overview of Submissions (disqualifications only) (PDF - updated: 24-APR-2023 22:15 UTC+2/CEST)

INFORMATION:
Statistic Sheets have been updated (on 24-APR-2023 22:15 UTC+2/CEST)
Statistic Sheets are not available yet, please wait for the official announcement post -- sheets will arrive by mid 26-APR-2023 latest
.

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	Important Update: As of MC081, the Song Providers can now decide from the start, or once the Statistics Sheet has been provided, which route to go in terms of providing feedback. You can read more about this in the Mix Challenge - changes to main game (October 2021) thread. Our Song Provider for this month, @JeroenZuiderwijk, decided to go the extra mile with a "(Feedback for) everyone" route (even if short and limited compared to the top 15 entries for Mix Round 2). We will keep you updated.

.


I now open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however.


Please watch this spot for the statistics sheet, client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.

Good luck to all participants.





The Songwriting Competition 068 (SWC068) is still in full swing.

The deadline is 24-APR-2023, 23:59 UTC+2/CEST. The genre is "free to select" (Theme: "Postcards" - Picture Theme). So far we have 3 entries, with some interaction. Please share feedback, and maybe join yourself.

Please spread the word!





Additionally:

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	The Song Pool has run dry! The Mix(ing) Challenge can not continue without your help. Unfortunately, known "multi-track repositories" won't work for our community due to a myriad of reasons. Please reach out, become a Song Provider. Else, this might be our final Mix(ing) Challenge on the platform in the foreseeable future. Read more about the Song Pool Campaign and how to become a Song Provider here: Song Pool Campaign (Homepage) Song Provider Guidelines (Mix Challenge Rule Book) To those that sent me a PM -- please read them and reach out via email. Thank you!

[zed999]

Great selection of mixes.

I find very interesting the variation in overall "tone" between each mix. Is it a reflection on monitoring? I include myself of course, I know my monitoring is a long way from ideal.
There appears to be a LOT of thin or alternatively veiled sounding mixes, all of them really, so I guess it's MY monitoring that's the problem. Back to the drawing board!

Top of page 5 if anyone cares to comment. I'm a big boy, I can take criticism, I'm always trying to improve, I never get out of round one. lol.

Good luck to all.

[BenjiRage]

Top of page 5 if anyone cares to comment. I'm a big boy, I can take criticism, I'm always trying to improve, I never get out of round one. lol.

Hey Zed!

I think you've got a good solid low end in your mix, the kick and bass guitar have a very good weight to them, not too little, not too much, just right IMO. I also like the way you've shaped the transients in your drums, very nice and crisp!

Some improvements I think you could make:
• The reverb on the drums is too much, try bringing down the level and shortening the decay time a bit (<1s decay is a good aim)
• Guitars could do with some more distortion and grunge to help fill in the frequency spectrum and drive the energy of the song!
• Vocals are a little too quiet in places and I think you've removed a bit too much high-end as they do sound a little muffled (they also sound like they're off centre to the left a little bit?)

Other than that, a solid effort I would say. I also get your comment about thin sounding mixes, I don't think that's just your monitors as I've been hearing that a lot too, it seems the smiley-face EQ is very prevalent!

Best of luck!

Ben

[BenjiRage]

Ok folks, that was not easy. No time for snare jokes. And so many guitars - what could possibly go wrong.

Dude you've nailed the energy of the song in your guitars, great work! Lovely contrast too between the verses and choruses! It sounds like you've added some delay work on them there too? I love it, spacious and lush

A few small improvements I think you could make:
• The distorted chorus guitars I'd maybe give a bit more top end, they sound a bit muffled or like they're been rolled off quite sharply
• I think the snare needs a lot more top end too
• Vocals are very good but I'd perhaps add just a bit more low mid to them and make them 1 - 1.5dB louder (great effects though)

My favourite part of your mix though is the tremelo effect you've added to the guitars in the build up to the final chorus - I freakin' love this, wish I'd thought of doing it!!

All the best

Ben

[zed999]

Top of page 5 if anyone cares to comment. I'm a big boy, I can take criticism, I'm always trying to improve, I never get out of round one. lol.

Hey Zed!

I think you've got a good solid low end in your mix, the kick and bass guitar have a very good weight to them, not too little, not too much, just right IMO. I also like the way you've shaped the transients in your drums, very nice and crisp!

Some improvements I think you could make:
• The reverb on the drums is too much, try bringing down the level and shortening the decay time a bit (<1s decay is a good aim)
• Guitars could do with some more distortion and grunge to help fill in the frequency spectrum and drive the energy of the song!
• Vocals are a little too quiet in places and I think you've removed a bit too much high-end as they do sound a little muffled (they also sound like they're off centre to the left a little bit?)

Other than that, a solid effort I would say. I also get your comment about thin sounding mixes, I don't think that's just your monitors as I've been hearing that a lot too, it seems the smiley-face EQ is very prevalent!

Best of luck!

Ben

Thanks for taking the trouble Ben. Pretty much agree with your criticism, It's nice to hear I didn't overdo the low end too! The drums. After listening to the mixes up to when I downloaded I could see they were going to be difficult so the first thing I did was spend an hour cleaning the tracks up with clip volume. Then I tried some compression, but in the end there was a LOT of 3 band transient shaping to get a bit of meat into them. Can't abide clicky drums.

BTW you commented earlier that Franz had used drum replacement? I think you got the wrong end of the stick, I think something something got confused in translation, I had to read it a few times after you posted to understand why you thought that. Franz goes into great detail about treating each drum track?

[BenjiRage]

Thanks for taking the trouble Ben. Pretty much agree with your criticism, It's nice to hear I didn't overdo the low end too! The drums. After listening to the mixes up to when I downloaded I could see they were going to be difficult so the first thing I did was spend an hour cleaning the tracks up with clip volume. Then I tried some compression, but in the end there was a LOT of 3 band transient shaping to get a bit of meat into them. Can't abide clicky drums.

No worries, you've very welcome!

BTW you commented earlier that Franz had used drum replacement? I think you got the wrong end of the stick, I think something something got confused in translation, I had to read it a few times after you posted to understand why you thought that. Franz goes into great detail about treating each drum track?

Yeah, I believe that in addition to the processing Franz has done there's also some undisclosed drum sample replacement going on. I've listened to every single mix that's been submitted this week and the drums in this one are just so wildy different. The snare and kick have no dynamics, snare fills sound very "machine gun" like, flams have both hits at the same volume - as both a drummer and an audio producer my ears are screaming at me that these are not 100% real drums and I can't see why (or how) you would take a recording of real drums and process it to sound the way it does without the addition of samples.

I'd love to be proved wrong though and if I am I'll hold my hands up and admit it, @Franz please weigh in!

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

So now it is time for me to make the difficult disicion about the 'top 15'. I've heard some amazing mixes and every mix had something unique. So I realy enjoyed listening to all the mixes and reading about how you've got that sound. Writing down my comments on 71 mixes will be some work but I'v been making notes since the beginning of the challange so although I will need some time to translate it all to english it probably won't take 2 weeks. Choosing the top 15 is another matter.....so many great mixes. I'll do my best. My compliments to all of you. I'll get back with the comments and top 15 as soon as possible!

Cheers,

Jeroen

[White Punk OD]

Regarding samples, since a couple of years I am trying to create drum sounds without, but with the use of multing.
After I copy eg. a snare track (that delivers only one mic signal), and have cleaned and perhaps gated it, I end up with 3 tracks that are the same.
I might hipass one of these, to create some attack and carpet sound.
I might attenuate highs, and focus on low mids and body sounds with the two others.
With very different compression or limiting, saturation, EQ, and inline reverbs/ambience,
each component can work like a sample, because its frequencies and dynamics are tightly controlled.
Then, we mix it together into a snare bus. Beware the phase problems, when adding up correlated signals that have different EQ on them.
one trick might be to choose the separation in a way that the phase cancellation occurs around 400Hz, which is usually a range that we would EQ down anyway. Use 6dB slopes. Try the phase button. Make EQ differences only so weak that it creates some difference, that is useful enough. Saturation and comp should be less of a problem.
My reason to do that is to make it sound more organic and "idiosyncratic" (unique foot print).

[zed999]

Regarding samples, since a couple of years I am trying to create drum sounds without, but with the use of multing.
After I copy eg. a snare track (that delivers only one mic signal), and have cleaned and perhaps gated it, I end up with 3 tracks that are the same.
I might hipass one of these, to create some attack and carpet sound.
I might attenuate highs, and focus on low mids and body sounds with the two others.
With very different compression or limiting, saturation, EQ, and inline reverbs/ambience,
each component can work like a sample, because its frequencies and dynamics are tightly controlled.
Then, we mix it together into a snare bus. Beware the phase problems, when adding up correlated signals that have different EQ on them.
one trick might be to choose the separation in a way that the phase cancellation occurs around 400Hz, which is usually a range that we would EQ down anyway. Use 6dB slopes. Try the phase button. Make EQ differences only so weak that it creates some difference, that is useful enough. Saturation and comp should be less of a problem.
My reason to do that is to make it sound more organic and "idiosyncratic" (unique foot print).

You might like shaperbox 3. 3 adjustable band volume curves, set off (as compression) by the sound. Each band has separate controls including mix. Draw the curves down to zero and you have a gate until the next hit hits. Curves can be any shape - you can un-spike over compressed single hit drums with an appropriate curve. But that's just one part. You could forward that to the 3 band distortion with it's plethora of distortion, you could have different amounts of different types of distortion on each band.. Curves are drawn and adjusted as you listen. Phase is controlled within shaperbox. Dan Worrall did a good video on YouTube, well worth 30 mins. It barely uses resources either and most of it will work real time (there's a time stepper that can't).