MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Winners announced

[kirurg]

Hello everyone,

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1i1ooscjk8jaf ... g.wav?dl=0

Thank you RodA for the song to mix.
My version turned out pretty airy.
I decided to add a bit weight to the vocals (lower mids),
but cut some from drums. There was almost every low frequency
instrument with long sustain. I used a transient designer to
shorten (kick) drums tails, also eq to cut in muddy-boxy areas.
Bass side chained from the kicks.
Piano has some manual volume level edits. Vocals some manual
de-essing, because there was so many different sounding "ssss"
things in the vocal and I could not find a good result with
any plugin only. There is very slight compression on drums.
There are Acoustica Audio pre-amp plugins for groups
(drums, vocals, other instruments) and in the main bus. Some eq is
used on every track as well. There is a small amount of ssl type
compression on the main bus.

[Ronson79]

Hey guys,

here is my contribution to the mix challenge. I enjoyed the track a lot! Thanks for this opportunity. Used a minimalistic approach on this one and focused on full natural tones, atmosphere, dynamics and feel/groove.

2-Bus:
Soundhteory Gullfoss, Acustica Audio Diamond Transient LP-3X and DMG Limitless

Plugins used on tracks and groups:
Fabfilter Pro-C2 + Pro-Q3 + Pro-DS + Pro-R, Nembrini Audio - LoFi + CrunkV2, OEK Soothe2 + Spiff, PA Elysia NVelope + BX_ControlV2
Izotope Ozone Imager, A1Audio - Stereo Control, Polyverse - Gatekeeper, Leapwing Audio - DynOneV3 + StageOne + CenterOne + RootOne
Audiority - TubeModulator, Baby Audio - Spaced Out + Magic Switch

Downloadlink:

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

[canese]

Hi guys,

This is my take on this song. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HBcDgg ... sp=sharing

I started with drums. Added some EQ and compression to make them more punchy and in your head.
THen added, bass and sidechained with the drums.
Later I added piano and pads to the point I had a backing track for a movie or videogame. I like it.
WHen i added the voice it was just awesome. The voice has many compressors, reverbs and delays.

ForCompression I use TDR Kotelnikov, and for EQ and compression I use MH Channel Strip and Izotope Alloy 2. Reverbs and delays are stock plugins except for one I love called Spaceship Delay.

Thanks for hearing.

[Frequency Painter]

Hi everyone,

A very dense arrangement with lots of conflicting frequencies. M/S eq and track spacer were my best friends

Drums: Basically a transient designer on all tracks, a good amount of tape saturation, some HP eq and here and on the bus an eq to tame the building up of resonances. I gave them also a slightly different stereo image using Dr MS (more depth). Reverb is a gated room and a long reverb on the claps. The whole bus got compressed with a 33609 to give it some more groove. On some of the toms I also used waves one knob pumper for the same reason.

Bass: Side chained to the toms. a HP eq, then a surgical eq to tame resonances, another EQ to correct the low-end with broad strokes, a stereo spreader (very subtle), a multi-band limiter to contain the low mids.

Pad: HP and low mid (400) cut, one know pumper, I carved out low & high mid frequencies in the mid channel only. Flanger to give it some frequency dependent movement.

Piano: all track to a buss, some corrective eq , wider, sooth and saturation. Long reverb.

Choir: HP and LP and I scooped out the high mids in the mid channel, track spacer side chained to the lead vocal. Dr MS to place them behind the lead vocal.

Flute: LP and a cut @ 420, long reverb.

Strings: HP and cut @ 1100, hall reverb

All synths to a bus with track spacer side chained to the piano.

Radio: auto pan

SFX: all long reverb and some EQ, mostly HP

Lead vocal: DS, compression, EQ (nasty resonances), sooth, saturation, reverb, chorus, delay.

Backings: EQ and reverb.

Masterbus: saturation (tube), Pultec, clean up of resonances, compression (SSL), tape.

Thank you for listening and for making this possible @RodA !

My best,
FP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/md7uwpc7yc5xr ... r.wav?dl=0

[A-Max]

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

What a challenge!!!
It was a very interesting song and, as they said in the Tech Infos, it's not "easy as it seems".
Lots of tracks to mix, and I am still not sure about the result. Hope you like it.

I wanted the drums/percussions to be present and strong (for reference I wanted some percussions like in Battlestar Galactica OST) so I added some parallel compression, reverb and light, very light delay.
For bass I opted to dub the track and add a distorsion
No important manipulations on the other instrumens, just few compression and Eqs here and there. Except for the piano tracks : added a good amount of compression and reverb.
Vocals were a challenge too : compressor, reverb, chorus, delay

Enjoy the mix.

LLAP

[dadomachado]

Hi All,

Great song to mix this month. Different elements to blend in. Really fun to work on. Follows my mix below:

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

I started creating subgroups for Drums, Percussion, Bass, Keys, FX, LV and BGV. I went with BX Console SSL 4000 E on most tracks.

Drums

Just some EQ using Waves Pultec and compressions using MV2. Sent the Toms to a plate reverb (Valhalla Plate)

Percussion

Basic EQ on the SSL Console and sent some elements into the plate reverb.

Bass

Duplicated the track, added oposite filters on them got get just the low end on one of them. Added some distortion to the other one (NA PSA1000). Sent them both into the Bass Buss and added some EQ there (Pro-Q 3) and Rbass.

Keys

Just EQ using the SSL Consoles and sent the piano into a room and a hall reverb.

FXs

Just a little EQ using the SSL Consoles.

Lead Vox

Subtractive EQ to remove some ressonances, desser (sibilance) RVOX and CLA-2A, another light desser and added a little high end using waves putec EQ. Sent the vocals into a hall reverb and some delays (Valhalla Delay)

BG Vox

A little EQ using the SSL Consoles and sent the into the Hall Reverb.

I hope you like it and would really like to hear all feedbacks.

Cheers,
dadomachado

[maxovrdrive]

My thanks to @RodA for providing us with this month's challenge, and @Mister Fox for running the games.

When I first heard the track, I figured this was going to be another puzzle. "...jostling for space in the low frequencies" was a severe understatement. I knew that high-passing or side-chaining was not going to cut it. I didn't want the track to sound "thin," so I meticulously carved the low-end between instruments to ensure space, and automating the pad volume significantly.

Hiedi's dynamic vocal was no problem, instead, a 'blessing' because it fits the vibe of the song. With a little compression and volume automation, I got the vocal where it needs to be. Of course, it all starts with clarity (less sibilance), which I believe was achieved.

Reading that you put Sting's Desert Rose as a reference, I got excited as I like that song... and I tried my darndest to keep the same vibe.

Here's my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LEBm51 ... sp=sharing

/////

All LV and BGV Vocals
- ReaComp
- deesser
- apUnmask
- Omega N
- FabQ3

- room for LV and BGV
- long chamber for LV
- DDL for a couple of BGV tracks

Choir
- pultec MEQ5 to control mids
Pad
- FabQ3
Didgeridoo
- ReaEQ

Bass
- ReaComp

Drum1
- SPL Transient Designer
- API 550A
- RootOne
Drum2
- SPL Transient Designer
- API 550B
- RootOne
Drum3
- API 550A
- dbx-160
- FabQ3
Drum4
- Reverberate
- API 550B
Clap
- ReaEQ
Percussion
- ReaEQ

PNO GRP
- ReaEQ
- chamber

PAD GRP
- ReaEQ
- Room

SFX GRP
- TDReq
- Chamber

BASS GRP
- Reacomp
- ReaEQ
- MV2
- SPL Transient Designer
- ReaEQ

- Vitamin as send fx
- BOD as send fx

DRMS GRP
- Vulf Compressor
- EQ
- Fresh Air
- Omega A

Drums/Bass Parallel Compression Bus
- Chandler Limited Compressor
- FabQ3

2Bus
- Oxford Inflator
- Dynamic EQ for movement
- light compression for glue
- True Iron
- Limiter for safety

[pabloAT]

Dear all,
Please find below my mix for challenge 077. Many thanks to the song provider for the nice track and to Mr. Fox for taking care of the game.

[Dropbox's link to MC077]

DAW = Cubase 11.0
Integrated LUFS = -17.4
True Peak = -1.75 dB
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit

Preliminary work and comments
Cleaning-up, raw balance, panning/stereo spreading, HPF on all tracks (>20 Hz depending on the track), LPF on some tracks. All tracks benefited from a Pre TridA console emulator (by Arturia) as I liked the sound tonality it gives to the track.
The direction I’ve tried to give to the track was more ‘Peter Gabriel’s oriented’ (for example, from the albums where he used a lot of percussion and drums) than ‘Enya’s oriented’ vibe. I hope the song provider will like this approach.

Drums and Percussions
The sound and vibe were already there, very beautiful sounds. I did some EQ adjustments to put everything in a cleaner context. Sends to busses with ER, plate and room reverb.

Bass
I really liked the ‘dark’ sound of the bass here. A bit of LA-2 compression into the bass track and a couple of sendings with gentle distortion and spreading (a kind of subtle chorus effect with Valhalla’s Space Modulator).

Piano
Grouped the low/mid/high piano tracks, balancing (panning & frequencies) and a lot of work with a diode-bridge 609 compressor emulator. I’ve treated the piano as an additional but important percussive instrument in the mix. Group send to a vintage reverb.

Synths (instrument emulations)
Play quite a lot trying to get a nice separation between the instruments. Special attention was put to the flute to avoid clashing with vocals.

FXs
Mainly balancing, frequency cleaning and separation.

LV / BV
A lot of traitement here, from a classical vocal chain: EQ, deeser, compressor (Kramer Pie) to a lot of automation. Sends to busses with ER, vintage & plate reverb, and tape delay.

Stems & Master buss
Different instrument groups were sent to 4 stems (drum, keys, fx, vocals), where I used instances of tape machine emulators. The stems were in turn sent to the master buss, where I applied a gentle SSL compression for gluing, NLS for ‘analog electronics’ vibe and tape emulation. Last but not least, a touch of Pultec-like EQ for final low/high end frequency adjustments.

Best wishes,
Pablo

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ynlhkkel7znc ... m.wav?dl=0

For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[AskAndy]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E6xL25 ... sp=sharing
Goal here was to sound like everyone else, and sound different. I was going for an Armageddon, tribal, ethery feel. side chained the bass with the low toms towards the end . Choose to clean up the lead vocal by hand , started out leaving in all the breaths but changed my mind and took them out late in the process. and duplicated the LV tracks. I Struggled unsuccessfully to clarify the lyrics.
I use an FX stem and a "SPACE" reverb stem that consists of a near , a middle , and a back ( 3 stereo aux trx). these are bussed to the master bus. All the trx are organized into stems then bussed to the master bus. the members of a stem are bussed to the stem folder(aux trck) and to a Parallel compression track which is then bussed to the stem folder. All that is on the Master bus is a Slate VBC Rack for some glue .
DRUMS stem plug in chain-VBC rack,Pro Comp,L1 limiter
Dr1 and 2 - EQ, llcomp=Soundspot Cyclone
Dr 3 EQ llcomp=ProComp,SSL G
Dr 4 llcomp= H-Comp
Dr 5,6,7 llcomp=AR RS124, L1 limiter
Dr 8 llcomp= dbx-16o

BASS stem-Pro Comp, JST Clip, BassRider llcomp=AR RS124 ,Pro Sub

Vox stem- EQ,Waves C4, 1band EQ,L1 limiter
choir- EQ llcomp=RComp
LV 26, 27 Soothe 2 EQ, Sibilance, llcopm dbx 160
LV 28-31 llcomp= FG-MU
SFX stem F6-RTA ( TRX 19-24 =llcomp H-Comp)
SFX5 - Paradox
SFX3 S1 Imager
KEYS stem TRX10-12- F6-RTA
TRX10-12 EQ llcomp= TG12345
PADS stem (TRX14-18 =llcomp RenaissanceAxx) -F6-RTA
TRX 14-17 - EQ
TRX 17- Stereo width
other fx - Tape Echo, Sugar, D-verb, MondMod, MOd Delay III, MaseratiB72,
FX stem bus - API-2500. F6-RTA