MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your mix.



Please let me point out once more, that we have an established set of RuRules and Guidelines. Your entry is final (no mix edits / re-submissions unless you're selected for Mix Round 2). That means - please triple check prior to uploading that:

• you have exported your mix in the correct sampling rate and bitrate
• your mix is within given maximum loudness parameters
• your files are properly named
• you have checked that your files are accessible / can be downloaded without any need of special log ins
• you document your edits (ideally also with screenshots) - which does not only teach you how to do proper "project recalls", but also helps with the learning aspect of this community (this is part of the rule set)

[romaingarnier]

I corrected my file name in Google Drive. It was misspelled, I hope this is OK.

Thank you

[m_tree]

• you document your edits (ideally also with screenshots) - which does not only teach you how to do proper "project recalls", but also helps with the learning aspect of this community (this is part of the rule set)

I'm a little confused about this. How far should this go in detail? I've already made a draft with a description of my mix decisions (ca. 20 sentences). But I don't want to reveal every single step of my mix. I've already done a lot try and error and found my own ways to mix at some points ...

[Mister Fox]

Regarding the documentation:
It should ideally be anything between "hi, I'm new here, this is my submission, please enjoy" and what alavault posted a bit higher up.

[alavault]

Regarding the documentation:
It should ideally be anything between "hi, I'm new here, this is my submission, please enjoy" and what alavault posted a bit higher up.

So... How much should I trim then ?

[Mister Fox]

You're doing fine - don't worry about it

[Alex Van mixland]

Hello,
Here is my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q14ghtdk6pu7z ... d.wav?dl=0


Drums -I try to get drums in phase. It was totally out of phase. I also add some high end too snare ad kick to get right sound.
Vocals - Main vocal was too muddy so i cut unwanted lows.
Bass - I add more ultra low end to make song more bassier, because for me it has too thin low end.
Intruments - almost nothing. a little bit multiband compression to control sound.

Cheers!

[Naturecord]

Lots of fun mixing this track! Nice tracking and lots to choose from.

Here is my contribution:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zi4ebtca26q0i ... d.wav?dl=0

As I understood that we had some artistic fredom, I opted to pull the vocal more in front, but pushing it a little back in the mix with more reverb than I usally use.

I ended up using most of the recorded tracks, only leaving out some room mics for drums and two guitar tracks. I used most of the guitar tracks, and one of the DItracks to reamp and mixing it in with the original track (Dirty chords: I reamped with a clean AC30 and mixed in with the original tracks to get some more definition in the mix)

I started up with a rougth mix, sorting out instruments, making (lots of) aux buses, did some gain staging and corrected phase issues, before i started mixing.

Main Vox
The chain: VCC channel -> Neve 1073 -> Fabfilter q-3 rolling of some bottom -> Pro-DS -> LA-2A -> EQP-1A -> 1176SE
Sends:Vox plate (EMT 140), Vox Verb (Lexicon 224), Valhalla Shimmer, Delay 1/16 (Echoboy)

As I wanted quite alot of reverb but still did not want to drown the vocal and push it back in the mix, there is a sidechain going to the Vox Verb compressing the verb while Main Vox is active, with a quite slow attack and slow release. The aim is to only have the verb filling space before and after vox.
There is also a sidechain compressor going to all guitar room mics (the guitars are panned 2 tracks LR, with the room mic in the center). The aim was to have the guitars fill the space in the center when there is no vocals, but get out of the way when main vocal needs the room in the center.

Back Vox
The chain: VCC channel -> Neve 1073 -> Fabfilter q-3 rolling of some bottom -> Pro-DS -FG-N -> FG-116 -> FG-S -> FG-Stress -> Revival -> Echoboy (Radiovoxspread)
Sends: Vox plate (EMT 140), Vox Verb (Lexicon 224), Valhalla Shimmer
I wanted the background vocals to fill up lots of space in the midrange and feel dreamy. I kept them in center, not paning them, but spread them out with Side EQ (stereo enhancer) and Echoboy Radiovoxspread. I scoped out some room in the center with mid EQ, and used Little Alterboy adding a subtle low octave to the individual tracks.

Guitars
Electric guitar chain: VCC -> API Vision channel -> GF-N -> FG.401 -> FG-stress -> Revival
Dirty Chords Chains: VCC -> Neve 1073 -> FG-N -> FG 401 - Fabfilter q-3 (stereo enhancer)
Main guitar Aux: Pro-Q3 -> Pro-C
Sends: General Verb (ValhallaVintageVerb), General Plate (Lustrous plate)

Guitars are generally paned 57/419 left, 609/d112 rigth and room mic in the center. The "Dirty chords" tracks have a reamped clean Vox AC30 mixed in.
All room mics have a fabfilter Pro-C compressor sidechained to the main vox, to push them away from the center when main vox is active.

Bass
Bass AUX chain: Pro-Q3 -> API Vision channel
Bass effects AUX: Pro-Q3 -> Soundtoys Little Alterboy (adding a octave up) -> C1 Chorus

I used both original tracks, but sendt a signal to a seperate signal to a bus (bass effects) to add chorus, mixing it in with the original tracks. I feel that adding effects to bass often takes away the punch and body, so wanted the effects just to blend in, keeping the body intact from the original tracks.

Drums
Drum Mix bus chain: VCC -> SSL 4000 E-channel strip -> EQP1-A -> Fabfilter Q3 (rolling of under 50HZ) -> Soundtoys Decapitator (to dirty the track up a little)
There is a Paralell compression and a Drum destroyer bus, sends going in from from the kick, snare, toms and room.
Snare has a SSL 4000 E-channel strip
Kick has a transient designer, a Slate VMR (thick rock kick) and a Decapitator
Sends: Drum Room (Lexicon 224) and drum plate (Lustrous Plates)
Snare also sendt to Delay 1/16 (Echoboy)
OH are sendt to Valhalla Shimmer.

I did strugle a bit with finding the rigth Kick and Snare sound. I tried to blend in some triggered samples (I know it is not allowed, and they are not on the final track) and I found that to be a very pleasing sound, so I had to take a step back and try to recreate some of that "fuller" sound that the sampled blends gave me in the finished mix. If this had been outside the mix-challenge, I would have left them in to get a better body on the Snare and Kick. To get more body to the snare, i opted to not put a Low-pass filter on the overheads but rather using the full spectrum, and try to boost the snare from the OH with EQ at around 200HZ . This create a somewhat fuller sound to the snare. I did the same with the kick on the room mics, boosting the kick on the rooms mics with EQ at around 60HZ to create a fuller body. The kick is also sendt to the drum plate for the same reason, creating more air and feeling of space on the kick

Mixbus
Sligth glue compression from a SSL G, and a tape saturator from Slate Design.

Sends:
All plates and reverbs are EQed (rolling of bottom, and a little top), and some automation on the instrument sends feeding them here and there.

int Lufs is measured to be between -19,7 and peaking at -15,7, usally sitting at around -19-17. Peaks should be comfortable under -3db (-7-8 up to -4,2). File bounced in 48KHz/24bit



Thanks for a nice Challenge

[Trev138]

Hi All especially Ady.

This is my Basic Mix of Waterfall. Loved this process, many thanks for allowing this Ady.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YiUwmr ... sp=sharing

My process for this mix was
as follows:-
Set the project to 48kHz at 24bit
Import all files except the Reference Track as this was at 44.1kHz (I listened to this separately)

I started with inserting the SSL9000J on each channel and set the gain to -10dB

Next was balancing levels, Phase aligning and selecting the tracks for the feel i was looking for which after listening to each track was a clean mix with minimal hard guitar sounds as i found it matched the vocal (to my ear). this i felt would give room for additional elements further into the collaboration process before the final mix.

Once the levels were where i wanted them i then set to panning.
The Drums have been panned in Drummers Perspective with the overheads complimenting this along with additional Reverb using Room works and McDSP Opto L3.
Both the Kick C1 & AKG have been used and have been tweaked with:-
REQ4, MV2, Eddie Kramer DR & R Bass
These along with the main kit have been grouped where i have added another Opto L3

The Bass DI has been EQ'd with the SSL 9000J and REQ4 to Hi & Lo Pass to give the kick some room and fed through a Room works reverb, i then added a R Bass to thicken it up, i then Panned the 2 Bass mic's Hard Left and Right and tucked them under the DI to add more Body

The Vocals were Panned, EQ'd and Automated, the Main Vocal was sent to an FX Channel for Reverb and the Harmonie Vocals were sent to a separate FX channel for their own reverb, these were all then sent to group channels for additional EQing and Ping Pong Delays (Subtle).

The Guitars used were minimal as i only used the following:-
Gtr Intro Chris DI
Gtr Verse DI
Gtr Arp DI
Gtr Hvy Lft DI
Gtr Dirt Chorus
These were all EQ'd with the SSL 9000J, these were also sent to an FX Channel for reverb (Room works) then Grouped and sent through a Brainworx Purple MC77 and MOO Q & Opto L3

All of the above were then sent through the AMEK EQ 200

Fantastic Challenge, Hope you enjoy.

Trev.

[Los_ady]

Hey everyone, awesome thank you so much!!! Digging into your mixes again!

Wow and thank you for describing your processes so in detail, I bet this will help the learning curve on this forum, really appreciate it!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend