MIX CHALLENGE - MC072 December 2020 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 72 - December 2020


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.



For the last Mix(ing) Challenge of the year, we have the chance to work on a Spanish "Pop-Rock" production by Mix Challenge member javiramallo (Javier Ramallo) with his band project "Vanagloria". The song is called "Grita".

One the the specialties of this month, is having access to a not-so-typical drum recording. Else, you'll run into the usual tasks of proper cleanup work (fades and click removal). The focus should be on having a good balance between "feel" and "natural sound". It is highly recommended to consult the attacked TXT files with the Mix Package.

Please read about the details and special requirements for handling this mix further down below.




Please take note of the following

• Please consult the official "Rules and Guidelines" for the Mix Challenge regarding principles of the game, recommendations and upload/submission guidelines
• IMPORTANT: please only provide WAV files, files need to be accessible/downloadable, try to work within suitable work levels (the focus of this game is "mixing", not mixing and finalizing), document your edits, name the files properly to distinguish your edit from all others.
• please use the following naming convention (Contestant Name = Forum Username):
  • MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestantName.wav
  • MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestantName_R2.wav for those that go into Mix Round 2
  • Example: MC072__Vanagloria__Grita__ForumUsername.wav
• please only upload to cloud storage spaces (DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc), not SoundCloud - and check that your material is downloadable
• 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

• Our Song Pool has dried up! Future Mix Challenges are in jeopardy. We're looking for new source material for future competitions. Please follow our official campaign. Your only investment is time in turn for a free mix by our very talented participants. No new tracks mean no more challenges! Please reach out!

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 1 Statistics/Data Sheet: Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters?
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Results of the Mix Challenge: Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Tuesday, 01st December 2020 to Monday, 21st December 2020 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-12-2020, 23:59 UTC+1/CET (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: Vanagloria (Javier Ramallo)
Song Name and Length: Grita, 4:25 min
Song Information: 128 BPM / Signature: 4/4
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Pop Rock


Preview of the Song:

phpBB [media]

A word from the song provider:

Hello friends.

I am very happy to be part of this wonderful initiative.

This song is from the band "Vanagloria" (my band), and is part of the last group of songs that the band made just before putting the project on pause.

This song was recorded in the band's rehearsal room and was never published anywhere, it has been hidden in the closet, maybe it was because it had to be mixed in Mix Challenge! Who knows.

From my point of view the weakest element is the voices! Hard work will have to be done there. Feel free to do whatever it takes with this.

For the sample mix we made a mix based on our own taste looking for
balance and naturalness.


Possible reference tracks:

Coque Malla - She's My Baby
https://open.spotify.com/track/0w9CsKQ3n3uspCBuJofEtG

Quique Gonzáles, Los Detectives - Charo (feat. Los Detectives)
https://open.spotify.com/track/3WIqOmbVEbDEtyoj4MFiXK


I Hope you enjoy mixing this one.

Hugs from Spain.



(more technical details in the Mix Pack bundled TXTs)

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

A very interesting production this month. I also agree that the biggest point of attention should be the vocals. You have a second vocal take available as option for edits, which is not as "clean cut" as the main take.

Similar attention should be paid to the recorded drum set, as this features a very specific microphone setup. Nothing like your typical wide A/B mic setup with a center supplement. I therefore highly recommend watching the "Recorder Man Technique" video which was linked from the Technical Details (see TXT), before you get started.


As possible additional inspirations, I also found the following two productions. Although the first song is a live recording and therefore more "dry" than what Javier went for with his mix and references. The second song features very over-processed, mid-range heavy vocals, but I found the instrument mix fairly interesting.

Vetusta Morla - La Deriva (Directo 15151) (2017)
Leiva - Mi Pequeño Chernóbil (2020)


Other than that, since this is a pop-rock production, there are plenty of possibilities for the mix. Either go by good old "cookie cutter" methods, or be creative - the decision is up to you.

But as usual - have fun!

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.

Rule Summary / 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 for this production)
• make the best out of the provided audio material (EQ, compression, transient tools, etc), no "drum sample triggering / replacement"!
• summing bus processing is allowed, as long as the dynamic range (average signal strength to maximum signal strength) doesn't suffer - artistic use only!
• the focus of this game is "mixing" - NO MASTERING
• render the edited material in the same sampling rate and bitrate as originally provided (MC072/December => 48/24)
• ADD-ON RULES - PRODUCTION RELATED:
  • <no additional add-on rules specified>

Please consult the official Rules and Guidelines for a more detailed set of rules. Failing to adhere to the rules will result in instant disqualification


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Source Files:

Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (726,38 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)
IMPORTANT NOTE: file unavailable after 21-DEC-2020


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 1747,67 MB, packed 726,38 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

If you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months:
Please consider supporting us

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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.



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



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



IK Multimedia is kind enough give away one license of T-RackS ONE to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia: https://www.ikmultimedia.com



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/



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/



Tone2 is kind enough to donate a license of Ultraspace to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com



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!

[GIANCARLO]

Hi everyone!
I loved this song. Reminded me of 90s Los Rodriguez.
I mixed the song completely in the box (Ableton Live 10 Standard).
I used mostly stock plugins and a couple of freebies.
Drums: I tried to tame and round the transients with saturation, tape emulation and clipping.
I didn´t use limiters at all.
The drum reverb comes from the OH (I cranked that fader). I also added reverb to the snare.
Bass: saturation + compression.
Piano and organ: Just panning and eq.
Acoustic guitar: I used both line and mic files. Loved the line guitar timbre.
I used a combo of reverb + short delays to make them sit better. The final sound reminded me of "Under The Milky Way."
Electric guitars: panning and eq. Little to no compression on the cleaner ones. Slap delay and reverb on the solo.
Vocals: I cleaned the "s" and some short bursts of transients that occurred in some words here and there before processing.
Automation, eq, serial compression, double (delay) and plate reverbs (one short, one long).
Panning, eq, compression, heavy deessing and chorus on the back vocals.
Mix buss: eq, a touch of multiband compression and the new "air" plugin from Slate.
Thanks to Javier, Vanagloria and the Mix Challenge for the opportunity.
Good luck to everyone!
Giancarlo

https://www.dropbox.com/s/38smocvo55hio ... o.wav?dl=0

[Alex Van mixland]

Hello,
Here is my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ympid5qtu1foe ... d.wav?dl=0

Nice song, beautiful Piano player and singer. Other instruments was also good played.
Guitars: It was challange to get good stereo acoustic guitars because souns doesn't match to each other. Same with oter guitars, so i eq it to get Balance L,R channel. Also i added 8k and cut some boxiness.
Vocal: I didin't did too muh. I just conroled it with compressor, eq with hpf and get mids right. and added reverb, delay.
Drums: I like drums but snare eeed some volume corretion, because in some parts it has way more volume then needed. Also i added eq with high shelf and ut boxiness.
Bass: I added a bit of lows because in some parts it has not bass i some parts it has so it is challange to get bass right.
Piano: beautiful recorded and played. Only issue that it has was too much noise. But i leaved it as it is and aded high end for clearity.

Cheers!

[tomigoi]

Hi all

Thank you for the opportunity. Attached is my mix for Grita.
Notable edit notes:
- The brush snare I put way in the background, and only used one out of the two.
- The same goes with the distortion guitar track.
- Piano and organ are more up front.
- Main vocal was left mostly dry, with a so ever lightly touch of reverb.
- BGVs are applied with delays.

Grita Mix

Cheers to all mixers


Best regards,

[alavault]

Hello,

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y171Sy ... sp=sharing

Drums :

• Toms : ditched them. The room/OH is enough.
• Kick : mainly the D112. Remove some 400-500 and added 1k + transient designer (for snap). Goes to parallel comp and short verb.
• Snare : Parallel compression (via multing of the top snare) and white noise helper. Gate, Bell@200 et bell@2k + shelf@8k. Sent into parallel compression.
• Brushes : Treated them as "shakers" ie highpass and shelf@3k. Automation
• HH & percussions : similar to the brushes. Panned 50/50 for triangle and egg. Full left for the HH.
• Room/OH : interesting combination. Limiter into EQ. Ditched 500 and 3k ("boxy" frequencies and hi-hat energy).

Rhythm Guitars (stereo GTR and acoustics)

• Treated the stereo guitars as stereo stems (i.e full L/R). Filtering. Automation on post choruses.
• Acoustics : Pan 20/20.
• Everybody : Multiband Comp (roughly Sneap setting), EQ. Into short verb and parallel comp 2.

Clean GTR (Guitar & Guitar Tremolo) :

• Filtering, EQ, comp, chorus
• Sent into parallel comp2, 1/8D delay, stereo delay, short verb
• Auto pan on tremolo GTR

Lead GTR (slide & solo):

• Filtering, EQ. Comp sidechained to the vocals (for the ending)
• Solo GTR : not agressive enough for me. "Re-amped" through a soldano emulation.
• Sent into 1/4 delay, stereo delay, plate verb (w/ pre-delay), pitch shifted reverb and parallel comp 2.

Bass :

• Parallel distortion, automated.
• multiband comp, limiter, EQ.
• sent into short verb, drum paralle comp and parallel flanger.

BVox :

• Bvox 3&4 centered, 1&2 panned 50/50
• leveller into comp into multiband comp into eq into limiter.
• Sent into short verb, medium verb, FX verb and vocal parallel comp (not as much as the lead vox though)

Lead Vox :

• Lead Vox 2 used as a double. Tuned, sorry, intonated.
• leveller into comp into deesser intomultiband comp into eq into limiter into eq into deesser
• Sent into short verb, plate verb, slap delay, 1/4 note delay, stereo dealy and vocal parallel comp
• Added a 1/2 note throw.

Synth (piano & organ) :

• shelf@2k and automation

Master Bus : Kotelnikov into EQ into limiter. Volume automation.

Automation : yes.

[Mark Andrews]

Hi all

Thank you for the opportunity. Attached is my mix for Grita.
Notable edit notes:
- The brush snare I put way in the background, and only used one out of the two.
- The same goes with the distortion guitar track.
- Piano and organ are more up front.
- Main vocal was left mostly dry, with a so ever lightly touch of reverb.
- BGVs are applied with delays.

Grita Mix

Cheers to all mixers

Best regards,

Hi there @tomigoi ! I believe your file needs to be a wav but is currently an aif.

[javiramallo]

In addition, it must not exceed -16 Lufs integrated

[Dodgingrain]

Early this month for me. Great song BTW, it was a joy to work on. It felt like it had a bit of a jazz vibe to it with some of the guitar parts/brushed snare and piano/organ and reminded me of hanging out at the zoo listening to Jazz concerts with the kids during summer evenings.
Here's my mix:https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrj-McOiI ... Q?e=Kol1oS

Notes:
Drums:
I actually didn't do a whole lot here other than some eq, levels and basic compression. The brush snares are on their own bus to glue the tracks together. The egg shakers have some distortion and an exciter and are panned hard right to stay out of everything else's way.

Bass:
I ran this through a Reddi to give it a little bit of character and a little more low end. Beyond that it has about 3-6db of compression. The kick is also ducking the bass so the kick can peak through a little. I didn't want the kick to prominent as I was going for a little bit of that jazz feeling so it really needs to duck the bass to be heard. The bass also side chains to most of the guitar parts pulling down the guitar parts low end with a shelf around 250-300hz to keep the low mids from getting to muddy when both parts are playing.

Piano:
Not to much here other than a little bit of eq and compression. The piano is boosted at .85kHz and 2k by about 5-6db. The organ and guitars are lowered at the same spots by about 3db. I felt it was important for the piano to come through a little more than normal on this track.

Organ:
Used a rotary emulation, just the stock cubase plugin. Peaked the eq on the organs at .54 and a pretty big peak at 1.2kHz.

Guitars:
Very little here other than cutting out the low end and eq as noted in the piano description. The guitar solo does have a small bit of space added with microshift and echoboy at some parts. The acoustic guitar's eq is automated so there is more body in the beginning and then after the beginning its high passed at about 450hz as I'm just interested mainly in the strumming sound.

Backing Vocals:
Did some pitch correction here. Then added a boost at around 4k. Also added some air with maag4. Used an add track that was highly compressed and blended back in to taste.

Lead Vocals:
Some pitch correction but honestly the lead vocal was pretty tight as is. Took the click at around bar 100 out with spectra layers. Used a chain of several desssers and compressors. During the choruses I used more delay and microshift to widen out the vocals a little bit. The vocals have an add track that is heavily compressed and blended back in. I also added some high end to the vocals with a parallel send to give them a little more of a pop sound. Beyond that I used a small slap delay.

Most of the subgroups in the mix have a little bit of level automation between the sections of the song. Short-term LUFs peak by around 3 in the final choruses like the should.

[Mammy]

Hello .Hi all

Thank you for the opportunity. My mix is here.Hope you like it.

https://soundcloud.com/muhammet-cev-k/grita-vanagloria



Drums
added analog tape saturation.neutral eq.room reverb (short )
used tubed compression saturation for drum bus and analog desk plugin.

Vocal
eq ,compressor and final eq used .used analog tube compressor for lead vocal bus .and used analog desk saturation.I used doubler for harmonich richness.Short plate verb and mono delay .

Back vocal
used tubed compression .mono delay and doubler.Used analog desk saturation for back vocals.


Guitars
guitars are a bit hard.I used eq ,compressor to soft them.Used abalog tube compression and room reverb .

I did not use automation and sample for this mix.


Cheers!