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MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Winners announced

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 02:18 CEST
by Mister Fox
Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 046 - August 2018


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the evaluation process and the first post for re-submissions for Mix Round 2.



This month, we have a chance to work on a Punk Rock production by the band "Danny & the Deadbeats". The song is called "Margarita", is about 13 years old and can't be anymore "punk" than it is.

The challenge of this month, is to work with the given material. The guitars are "printed", the drums have a ton of microphone bleeding. One of the biggest requests in recent months, was the ability to use "drum sample triggering". Wish granted, you can use drum sample triggering. With one caveat - no full replacement, only use the samples as supplement.

Read more about the production below, and in the bundled TXTs.




Please take note of the following
  • IMPORTANT: It is mandatory to provide WAV files (FLAC bar minimum on low internet bandwidth), files need to be accessible/downloadable, try to work within suitable work levels, document your edits (as simple or as detailed as you like)
    IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention: MC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName_-_ContestanttName.wav/mp3 and MC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName_-_ContestanttName_R2.wav/mp3 for Mix Round 2. The order of the tags might change in upcoming challenges - though this is up for debate
  • It is highly encouraged to give feedback to each other, to share tips and tricks. Ideally, this should happen after Mix Round 1 has ended, to not influence each other during the main competition round

Also please take note of the following
  • We're desperately looking for new source material for future competitions (currently mainly the Mix Challenge). Please follow our official campaign. No new tracks mean no more challenges! Please reach out!
  • Social Media accounts can be found via the handles @MixChallenge (Twitter) and MixChallenge (Facebook). Please spread the word!
  • if you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months, please consider supporting us.



This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:


Submission Period: General Information, Source Files, Sponsors
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Results of the Mix Challenge: Winners announced

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 02:18 CEST
by Mister Fox
CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Wednesday, 01st August 2018 to Saturday, 21st August 2018 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-08-2018, 11:59pm CEST/GMT+2 (Germany) - until further notice.

Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please consult the following options:
The Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. You can also consult the World Clock at the top of the forum or alternatively the following tool - in this case please select "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2: Time and Date - World Clock Meeting Planner. We do post reminders via our Twitter account and Facebook page.



Song Provider: Danny & the Deadbeats (Richard Clarke)
Song Name and Length: Margarita, 2:43min
Song Information: roughly 167 BPM / Signature: 4/4, E min (according to Hornet Sonkey mk2)
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Punk Rock


Preview of the Song:
phpBB [media]




A word from the song provider:
Richard Clarke wrote:This track is called Margarita by Danny & the Deadbeats, its my old band in the UK and the recording is about 13 years old. It was recorded at Subway Studios on an old ADAT on 16bit, through a Soundcraft Ghost desk onto Logic 5. Last year I ended up finding the original logic files and rerendering the files from .aif to.wav as 24bit 44.1k in the vain hope I might try and do a better mix of them if only for practice.

Here's the low down on what happened and what I would like to be done.


Drums:
At the time i didn't do room mics very often and so there is just a pair of stereo overheads in an XY config. The toms are not actually hit during the recording however I left the files in just in case someone wants to have it as alternative room noise. Obviously they do not need to be included if you see no use for them, i probably wouldn't have but maybe some has some wizard tricks i don't.

I have not checked phasing on the kick and snare on the overheads, it might be ok, but bear that in mind!

I have included a triggered kick sample and Snare sample. You can use your own samples, but do not completely replace the original snare and kick, just use the samples as a supplement.


Bass:
Was recorded with a Pod, should reamp ok and you are free to do this.


Guitars:
There are 4 tracks, you are free to use any combination you want and edit them however you want.

2 are recorded during tracking, SM57 & Ambient C3000. The ambient C3000 was further in away to create a less direct sound. However its a quite dead room.

Guitar Extra and Guitar Extra warm are overdubs done with a Pod.


Vocals:
Disclaimer First! We had the ethos that as no one in the band could sing, so we all sang and shared the humiliation and joy!...its punk, etc. Please don't auto tune, or chop them up, etc. We were a punk band, see it as part of the challenge (maybe enduring it that is!).

There are some bits I would like cut however. At the end Rich Vox 2 and Mark Vox carry on past the song end, you can cut these off. Listen to the reference track for how it needs to be cut (its around 2:31). There is also a bit in the bridge were I mumble on and on and on in Rich Vox 2 (1:56). It can be cut out, I was just bored waiting for the next part to come in.


Overall comment...

Basically its punk music with stupid lyrics, that clearly does not take itself seriously, but loved rocking out and the power of punk music. We want a that weird duality of frivolous, silly / power, energy to come through in some way.

Included is a rough version of a mix I recently banged out as a guide for this competition. I could not find one from the time that I knew would be the same version. To be honest I also always suffered that issue of being the artist and recording/mixing engineer. I was never happy with my own versions and would have been happy to have another engineer do it (we just didn't have the cash or willing people with the know how to mix half decently).

So see this as just a very rough guide and I look forward to hearing what you all do with it!

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:
Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:Yes, this is definitely Punk Rock... step on the Gas pedal, have a screaming crowd and Pogo in front of the stage, enjoy the evening.

As you'll find out self, there are a lot of tracks from the drum recording that can be ignored. Or as mentioned, used for "dirt tracks" for additional effect (like a fake room). Then again, this track offer you to demo de-bleeding tools that are all the rage as of late. Maybe this is worth a shot

There are two "Trigger Tracks" provided, that I think work perfectly as supplement already. Although you can use your own drum sample material.

The guitars might look/sound limiting at first, but they're actually very good recordings to begin with. The right EQ / room effect, and you should be good to go. During integrity checks, I ran the Bass guitar through an amp - just to see how well this would work. The provided track can definitely be further edited (hint), if you want to do so.


Work with what you have, make something great out of it. But most important, enjoy yourself while doing so.

Please also consult the TXT files that are bundled in the source files package below. There you can find more information about the individual files and changes to the time signature.

Special Add-On Rules:
  • try to create a mix that complements this production (in your own style)
  • Clean / Alternative versions can be used if you need more flexibility over a certain sound (if present in this production)
  • No rearrangement or pitch shifting of the song structure, with the exception of the following add-on rules
  • PRODUCTION RELATED: drum sample triggering is allowed, but only as supplement - no full replacement
  • summing bus processing is allowed, as long as the dynamic range (average signal strength to maximum signal strength) doesn't suffer - use of this method is artistically!
  • try to not(!) pre-master the track (please no overuse of mix bus treatment, no loudness adjustments / limiting) - read: NO MASTERING

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Source Files:

Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (158,73 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 440,51 MB, packed 158,73 MB (ZIP, LZMA)
In order to extract the files, we can recommend these programs:

Macintosh:
The Unarchiver - get it here
Keka (open source) - get it here

Windows:
7zip - Installation / Portable


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Please take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Mix Challenge - Official Rules and Guidelines

Please address any OT question in the official Gossip thread:
Mix Challenge - Gossip and Discussion

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SPONSORS (Prizes):

Prizes for Mix Challenge participants:

Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.


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Acon Digital is kind enough give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
License will turn into NFR
More info on Acon Digital: http://acondigital.com


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Black Rooster Audio is kind enough to give away one bundle of all currently available plugins to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Black Rooster Audio: http://blackroosteraudio.com/


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Hornet Plugins is kind enough give away one license from the depicted tools (see image) to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins: http://www.hornetplugins.com


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Metric Halo is kind enough to give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
License will turn into NFR
More info about Metric Halo: http://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/


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MuTools is kind enough give away one license of MUX Modular 7 of winner's choice (until End of 2018)
License will turn into NFR
More info on MuTools: http://www.mutools.com/


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NOS Audio is kind enough give away one license of NOS Roomer to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on NOS Audio: http://www.nosaudio.com/


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Nyrv Systems offers AGENT incl. all currently available NyrvDevices and free update to at least v1.5 of winner's choice (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info about Nyrv Systems: http://www.nyrvsystems.com/


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Tone2 is kind enough to donate either a bundle consisting of AkustiX Enhancer and WarmVerb, or a license of Ultraspace to the winner (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com


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Two Notes Audio Engineering is kind enough to donate one license of Torpedo Wall of Sound III to the winner, loaded with 57 cabinets (equivalent to "Torpedo WoS II")
License will not turn into NFR
More info on Two Notes: http://www.two-notes.com/en/



THANKS FOR THE LICENSE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.

If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on mix plugins, bundles and the likes), please get in touch with the Mix Challenge staff.

Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated Twitter Account or Facebook Page

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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 08:07 CEST
by JonasLasse
At the drive-in meets Talking Heads. Nice!

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 01:44 CEST
by Mork
Whaaat, samples are allowed? :sing: :hyper: :wink:
But I have to say I really love the "trashy" vibe that's going on in the rough. It makes me wanna drink a beer, or ten. :cool: I will definitely try and preserve that, so maybe no samples are needed, only beer.

Cheers
Mork

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:15 CEST
by OctopusOnFire
No no.... samples in punk is a no-no. I've got my principles, damnit!.... What is this, pop punk??

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 09:21 CEST
by JonasLasse
OctopusOnFire wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:15 CEST
No no.... samples in punk is a no-no. I've got my principles, damnit!.... What is this, pop punk??
Computers in Punk ? I've got my principles, i will copy on my Tascam 8 Track MC.

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 13:05 CEST
by OctopusOnFire
JonasLasse wrote:
Fri Aug 03, 2018 09:21 CEST
OctopusOnFire wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:15 CEST
No no.... samples in punk is a no-no. I've got my principles, damnit!.... What is this, pop punk??
Computers in Punk ? I've got my principles, i will copy on my Tascam 8 Track MC.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Okay, so here's my mix, done with a handcrafted 8-track made of cardboard, aluminum foil, bubble gum and tiny Chinese slaves working inside.


[-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. EDIT .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-]

Something happened when printing and apparently I ended up printing a rendition of 4'33" by John Cage. I fired my chinese staff as well.
Now seriously, Reaper was giving me hell, freezing and crashing while printing this mix, so I screwed up somehow. It was the clariphonic vst making it crash, still not sure why.

Anyway, here's the actual mix, dunno if I can enter the contest anymore but I'd like to get feedback:

MP3: https://mega.nz/#!pHBDzSyL!4U1MtVNhJ0dA ... 4TXxUJW5Y8
WAV: https://mega.nz/#!gXZjRAbT!FPRYUq-agaeC ... dGPisIiF30


[-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. EDIT .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-]

Drums: Gated kick and snare. DBX and Devil Loc on parallel to add character and aggressiveness. Radiator on the drum bus to add more of that, plus bass and treble. The snare has a few instances of distortion and some clipping to make it stand out by itself. Also, I used the floor tom tracks (the one with less resonance) to heavily distort it and add even more midrangey punk to the sauce.

Bass: Added a fuzz track.

Guitars: panned the "Guitar Extra" and "Guitar Extra Warm" to the right, then used the Mic Room plugin to switch the SM57 from the other guitar into a ribbon 161. It actually works pretty well. Panned them to the left.

Vocals: Both tracks with Chris Vox have a 1176 with all buttons in. Aslo Rich Vox on the verses, that also has a widener to let it stand out. There's a dirty slapback going on and extra delay for the "oohhhh" in the chorus.


Goes without saying, EQ in pretty much every bus and whenever a track needed it.

I left the voices as they were, including the "on and on and on", it was funny and I'd rather leave it in.

Also, some readings:
Image

This is from the busiest part. Peak dances from -3 to -2db, and DR from 8.6 to 10.5db approximately.

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 16:01 CEST
by JonasLasse
Sounds great !

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 20:25 CEST
by gyerosaski
Ok, after couple months I back to mix challegne. Hi everyone!!

Here is my submission.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ygikkunx5s5j ... i.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z59f28w5z43g ... i.mp3?dl=0

Song is really energetic and I wanted to keep that energy but at the same time give track some polish

Couple words about mix itself:
-devil-loc and arousor parallel on drums
-couple instances of virtual tape maschines for color purposes mainly on bus tracks
-guitar are panned but not too hard
-fairchild 660 on guitars
-bass is reamped with use of helix
-my reference was The Offsprings so mix could sound little americanish :lol:
-~15 LUFS (long term)
-while mixing I notice that some hits in snare trigger track are off time so aling them by hand
-snare is de-bleeded

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC046 August 2018 - Submissions until 21-08-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 15:30 CEST
by Photonic
Hi Richard,

This is a great Punk Rock song, which made fun to work with. I used all the provided tracks. See details below. I tried to make the sound not too clean, so I used a lot of satturation tools. Mixed in Reaperv5.51.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gy0oympxtsiqr ... c.mp3?dl=1
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/940tw2ah4hqhh ... c.wav?dl=1

Drum-Bus: Thrillseeker VBL for compression and satturation, TDR VOS SlickEQ
Kick: used Kick plus Kick-Trigger. ReaEQ, ReaComp
Snare: Snare top,bottom and Trigger used.ReaEQ, ReaComp
OH: ReaEQ, TDR Nova for De-essing the cymbals
Room: I used the 3 tom tracks for creating the room sound. I panned them tom L and R hard left and and right and used the floor tom for center. Than I EQ'ed and compressed the sound and sent it through the Uhbick-A reverb.

Bass: Bass Professor II by Sonic Anomaly for compression and satturation

Guitar-Bus: Thrillseeker VBL for compression and satturation, TDR VOS SlickEQ
All single Guitars: ReaEQ

Chris Verse: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay (Slap delay), TDR VOS SlickEQ
Rich Vox: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay (Slap delay), Green Eugene for Satturation
Mark Vox: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay (voice on left side, slap delay on right side)
Rich Vox2: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay (voixe on right side, slap delay on left side)
Chris Chorus: ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay (voixe and slap delay centered)
Chris Oooohh...: ReaEQ, ReaComp, NastyDLA

Reverbs: Uhbik-A
Masterbus: MQ57, Presswerk (Bus Compressor Mode), SPAN