MIX CHALLENGE - MC065 May 2020 - Winners announced

[Dwic]

My submission:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kfr96 ... IntCzifBt1

Tried to embrace the effort for a '70's' vibe. I got a very 'Steely Dan' feel so i used that as my reference. To keep that vibe I decided not to edit any timing issues, except for a couple. The tuning of the vox had to be addressed though.

DRUM BUSS - bit of parallel comp, tape sat
- gate, comp & eq on kick, snare, hat & oh
- Loved! the sound of the room mics so I used that as the majority of my drum sound. Bit of gate, of course, to keep the 70's/80's vibe.

BASS - used the DI for the attack and the ribbon for the meat.

GTR - solo was beautiful, bit of verb and a half bar delay.
RTHM - mic'd tracks panned hard lr with a bit of treated DI panned 15% opposite side for width.

KEYS - bit of treatment and Liquid (Audio Dammage) for mod.

VOX - chorus panned 25% lr lead & double to keep a center image, but hard lr for the verses for width and smoothing the timing and tuning issues.

[Luca]

Hi,

This is my first post so let me start off by thanking you guys for doing this, especially the admins and the artists!

My mix

Refernece song: Rosanna, Toto

Drums:
I kept the processing simple as I was after a natural sound. Kick and snare have a generous boost (10dB or so...) around 3K but that's it. No gating, no saturation no reverb. The other mics (oh, room, hi-hat) are just blended in to provide the big picture of the kit. Also no processing on the drum bus. I found that preserving the transient with this tracking was important to keep the drums punchy without an excessive amount of bleed.
One of the disavantages of not having compression is that inconsistent snare hits poke out very obviously, especially during the verses. I fixed that by manually volume adjusting the major offenders.

Bass:
Re20 mic with an 1176 emulation to keep dynamics in check.

Piano:
Some boosting of hi frquences and some reverb to put it in context

Keys:
I found the arrangement to be a bit empty in the verses so I applied some long delay to lengthen the sound and allow it to fill more space.

Guitars
Some 5k boost on the rythm guitars. Some reverb on the solo.

Sax
Putting the sax solo in context was challenging. For some reason it was either too much in or too much out. I ended compressing the sax and riding the volume during the solo.

Vocals
This is where I spent most of my time. I started by tuning them (cubase variaudio) and volume adjusting the takes (e.g. the second verse was sung louder and needed more tuning).
There was a good bit of proximity effect so I used a steep high-pass at around 100Hz. A modest boost with a high shelf at around 6K was enough to make them cut through the mix nicely.
Compression is after the eq to help with sibilance. I bussed the doubled takes and compressed them together.
Effect wise I used a combination of a short delay and short reverb to enhance the widening effect which I was enjoying. I also added some medium length plate (1s or so) especially on the "ooohhhs" in the choruses so the vocals wouldn't sound too dry.

Overall this was a challenging mix for me. I'm happy of how it came out but most importantly it was fun and a good chance to learn something new

Luca

[tomigoi]

Hi folks

Here is my submission for the contest.

Cameron Crowson - Take Your Time

Daw: Logic X
Plug-ins: Logic built-in plug-ins, FabFilters Pro-R.

Stay safe, have a nice day and a wonderful contest everybody.

Best,

[maxovrdrive]

Hi everyone... hope you are all safe and well.

Many thanks to Cameron for providing this his song for this month's competition. I certainly enjoyed the vibe of this cut. Hope my mix gives it justice.

Here's my mix...
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y8ina ... AnxRfEV4Pu

Mix notes:
Master Track
.....tube eq
.....tape saturation

Global F/X
"SNRPlate"
"Plate1"
"Room1"
"Room2"

"DRMS GRP"
.....compression
.....passive eq
.....saturation
.....room verb
.....eq

"KICKaux"
.....compression
.....limiter
"KICKpar"
.....compressor

"SNRaux"
.....transient
.....limiter
"SNRpar"
.....compression

"BRIGHTaux"
.....imager
.....eq

"ROOMaux"
.....imager
.....eq

"BASS GRP"
.....compressor
..... eq

"SUB BASS"
.....sub/low

"BASSbod"
.....drive/distortion

"PERC GRP"
.....transient
.....multi-band comp

"KB GRP"
.....harmonics
.....light chorus

"GTR1 GRP"
.....dynamic eq
.....tube compressor

"GTR2 GRP"

"SAX GRP"
.....synth/oscillator plugin
.....reverb

"BGV GRP"
.....passiive eq
.....compressor
.....imaging

"LV GRP"
.....passive eq
.....compressor
.....low-freq enhancer
.....imaging

"LVfx"
.....harmonizer

"Lead Vocal Chorus"
.....To "LV GRP"
"Lead Vocal Chorus Double"
.....To "LV GRP"
.....To "LVfx"
"Chorus ooh 1"
.....To "BGV GRP"
"Chorus ooh 2"
.....To "BGV GRP"
"Lead Vocal Verse"
.....To "DenRoom"
.....To "LV GRP"
"Lead Vocal Verse Double"
.....To "LV GRP"
.....To "LVfx"

"Bass Ribbon"
.....To "BASS GRP"
"Bass RE27"
.....To "BASS GRP"
.....To "BASS GRP"
.....To "SUB BASS"
.....To "BASSbod"

"Kick"
.....compressor/gate
.....eq
.....To "KICKaux"
.....To "KICKpar"
.....To "SUBKIK"

"SUBKIK"
.....sub/low
.....To "KICKaux"

"Snare"
.....eq
.....multi-band compressor
.....gate
.....eq
.....To "SNRaux"
.....To "SNRpar"

"Hat"
.....To "BRIGHTaux"

"OH"
.....eq
.....compressor
.....eq
.....To "BRIGHTaux"

"Rooms"
.....passive eq
.....multi-band
.....eq
.....To "ROOMaux"

"Shaker"
.....To "PERC GRP"

"Shaker 2"
.....To "PERC GRP"

"Tambo"
.....To "PERC GRP"

"Piano"
.....eq
.....To "Room2"
.....To "KB GRP"

"Keys"
.....imaging
.....To "Room2"
.....To "KB GRP"

"RTHM GTR L"
.....To "GTR1 GRP"

"RTHM GTR R"
.....To "GTR1 GRP"

"GTR Solo"
.....eq
.....compressor
.....To "Plate1"
.....To "Room2"
.....To "GTR2 GRP"

"Sax"
.....eq
.....compressor
.....plate
.....imaging
.....To "Room2"
.....To "SAX GRP"

[alelachowski]

Hello Guys,
heve is my mix, set to -3dbfs,

I don't have much to shay about my mixprocess because I almost used the SSL Channel by Waves to many channels, and the La-2A combined to the La-76 for vocals.
I worked with pan for the vocals of the chorus and used clasic Abbley Road plates and chambers,
Well, a simple mix looking for match the sonority of 60s, 70,s and 80s.

I think that is all.

heve is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IQ4C7 ... BMPO3BYZdp

Cheers

[doobop]

Hi there,
here is my mix. I had in my mind "Rosanna" from Toto while mixing it, as the song provider suggest it as reference. Although my mix is far from Totos', I've tried to give a happy feeling and I used a lot of reverb to emulate the 80s vibe.
Tell me what you think.

And please someone tell me if you can download the file.
The last time I was excluded because the link was not working.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0km40ctaez2t ... p.wav?dl=0

Regards!

[MattRocket]

Hello,

mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/udjxc26zjfpi2 ... t.wav?dl=0

screenshot1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w6ttv0ocf7bt6 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
screenshot2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qt89sp6qcxvf1 ... 2.jpg?dl=0

Interesting challenge
I tried to used a gated reverb on the snare.

[KrissK]

Here is my contribution. Hope you like it!

Wav : https://drive.google.com/open?id=16GdQ5 ... VLrmEmYc20

Screenshots : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YYjVt ... -39M_2toB4

[Drumwizard]

Hi,
Here is my submission.

Mp3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15b_-E ... L0Mnx8Q9QE
Wav: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PMOAw ... xv5O8g5w3t

Screenshot 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uryXU ... DAxuAvL1LN
Screenshot 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f7s8n ... r-pTVchv4q

[Armenelli]

Thanks to Cameron and Mister Fox!

MC065_CameronCrowson_TakeYourTime_Armenelli.wav

Screen Shot

This song was both fun and challenging to mix. I did this mix in Ableton, which I'm growing to be a fan of for mixing.

To get the drum sound I tried CLA MixHub for the first time. It was interesting, but I feel like until you can change between individual channels for manipulating channel settings (not just levels), it's a little pointless. Getting levels with it was nice, though.

In addition to the MixHub, the snare, kick, and tom (tom was snipped from the overhead channels and given their own channel) have SmackAttack to bring out the transients and the snare and toms have Torque to bring out the lows a bit more than I could get with just EQ.

Then I processed the skins and a little overheads in a parallel bus being crushed by H-Comp and it rides in and out with the choruses to make sure the drums don't completely disappear.

The drum bus overall got the API2500 for a bit of tone shaping and the SSL bus comp for some glue and, again, to help the drums not disappear in the chorus sections.

I treated the Bass DI as the highs, RE27 as the lows, and the ribbon as a general picture / support. This allowed me to compress to get more even highs and lows throughout. I also manually reduced some of the string noise on just the DI to make it a smidge less distracting.

I used the guitar DI with the PRS Dallas Mono plugin, Pultec Pro Legacy (UAD), and 1176 (blue). The rhythm bus then got an IR based spring verb and another 1176 (black) to keep them in the background (fast attack, slower release).

The vocals each have RVOX, Waves Tune, and Waves Tune RT (in that order), an LA2A for the leads and backgrounds separately, and an additional LA2A on the entire vocal bus, which included the delays and verbs. On the BGVs I also used Reel ADT to make them a little bigger / doubled.

Thanks again, and hope you enjoy!