2024-MAR-01 Info: Check out Songwriting Competition 079 if you're into "Synthwave" music making.

MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Winners announced

Join the Mix Challenge - recurrence: February until December
s&f

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#31

Post by s&f »

Hello, thank u for letting us mix ur song. Here's my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/54aojiwobrcvl ... F.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ub4giggr291 ... F.wav?dl=0

it was a very interesting project to mix, as it's so different.

VOX- Waves Silabance x2,CLA76, Fab filter.
VOX BL and BV - same + Doubler 2 - logic space designer stereo delay

Drums - L2 Phat FX and doubler 2 for most of the stuff. some automation. Logic SPACE designer reverb.

Piano - EQ and compression

Keys and FXs - PHAT FX for the most part and stereo delay

BASS Sansamp plugin

sent everything but bass and drums to a Parallel compression CLA76

Mixbus - to make them sound more tight and more cohesive I had to add limiter from the start, as the song is very dynamic. as it's for a mixing FX, I hope I don't get disqualified for that. I also side chained the mixbus from the kicks, which made everything a lot simpler.

thank you!!!
bitpart
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2021 15:07 CEST

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#32

Post by bitpart »

Thanks to all involved in making this happen.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v0sgx1nkzaw0 ... aLRsa?dl=0

The mix was done in the box on PT 10.

The session was sent mainly in stereo files with a couple of parts in mono. I had a lot of problems with the natural stereo of the song and converted quite a few of the files into mono. For example ; Kick, clap, flute and some SFX. I had a lot of trouble with the sibilance in the vocals and hopefully i haven't over done it with the editing. Other issues were the bass end of the track in general ; Bass and heavy pad. The piano being in three stereo files also caused some problems to create a clear image in the stereo. There were also clicks in the audio of the synths, piano and some other files, but this was mentioned at the beginning of the challenge.

I was in the process of changing my studio setup and ended up discovering at home that in general the track was bass heavy and i just lowered the bottom end of the either mix with a simple EQ.

With regards to the mix process, i used reverb, delay, played with the stereo of the mix ( making things more mono to help the stereo image ) and also i time delayed a few things to help groove the drum section better. I need a few mutes and fader automation but mainly FX aux sends were automated to get that dubbed floating feeling. I generally do not use a lot on my mixbuses, and as normal i used just a compressor, SSL, and the needle almost never moves.

Overall, i would have like to improve the vocal sound in the mix ( the sibilance ) and a clash of frequencies around 1K, 5 to 6K and high in the 10k region. Also the target level did have me going back a forth a bit, so hopefully I'm ok. the bombfactory VU didn't read the same as other VU's i had in other DAW's but i checked on a LuFS meter i am well below -16 ( which i read was a general ball park) The idea to use VU readings is always better to achieve a more balanced mix, because i think LUFS do not take into consideration extremely high peaks that technically could blow speakers.... but maybe I'm talking rubbish.

Once again, thanks to all involved and look forward to the next challenge and following stages of MC77.
Peace and love.

P.S. - please inform me of any problems you may have with regards to the download
DeifDiamond
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 14:10 CEST

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#33

Post by DeifDiamond »

Hello everybody

Mix:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Voice:
There was a lot of difference between the strong parts and the weak parts, and it seemed that the voice was moving flat all the time. To correct this I have edited the gain of the voice word by word, so that everything was in the same plane without moving. In my opinion it is something that can only be achieved by editing, a compressor would drown out the strong parts.
Then I applied de-esser, eq to get a voice timbre as natural as possible, compression to mark the consonants a little more and make the words better understood.

Drums:
Eq to clean and get the ringtone you wanted. Compressor to mark more the attacks and that they are distinguished well in the mix.

Bass:
Expander to define well the envelope of the notes and not to form a bass ball. in my opinion, with bass, before the next note is played, the current note should have stopped sounding. Eq for shaping the timbre

Pads:
There were many tracks in stereo, and this causes the big mono effect, and that the ear does not distinguish where each sound is in space. To correct it, I have changed almost all the tracks to mono and I have placed them in the space where I liked the most.
Eq to clean and get the buzzer

Lots of handcrafted automations to let the song breathe.

Good luck to everyone,
Thank you so much!
aalekso0
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu May 06, 2021 08:10 CEST

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#34

Post by aalekso0 »

Hi to everyone, it was a pleasure to make this challenge, great song by the way.
Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/65anufhp9gfur ... 0.wav?dl=0
I decided to build everything around the Vocals. Worked in Studio One.
Good luck to everyone hope you enjoy
Ungifted

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#35

Post by Ungifted »

Hi Mix-Challenge Community,

here is my submission, hope I don't get disqualified again, ADPTR-Meter reads -17,5 LUFS int.

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/od3bxwephjttd ... d.wav?dl=0

Notes a bit shorter this time:

I was curious if I could push the song a little bit from world music into the neofolk direction, just a little away from the provided reference songs list. All the neccessary gritty parts are already there, so i tried to not be shy with the radio and synth pad parts and to give everything a bit extra drive and grit. By happy accident the modulation and ducking of the synth pad started to interact with the digeridoo part.

This is my first mix with my new console 1 and i used a mixture of Empirical Labs, American Channel and Weiss Channel across all channels and busses and returns. In addition it was also my first try to integrate acustica audio plugins via audiogridder over ethernet from a second machine - startet to work good, but at the end it did cost the same power to manage the audio streaming as if the plugins were calculated directly in reaper.

Some editing notes:

- vocal processed in many steps: some plopps and harsh esses removes by hand in rx6, then printed to tape sim (AX102), 2 stage de-essing with toneboosters comp 4 and empirical labs cs, compressors weiss cs and aa indigo comp.

- 11 sends: Perc-Reverb (Phoenix Verb), Clap-Reverb (LS Reverberate), Vocal Short Reverb (LS Reverberate), Lead Vocal ducking Reverb (LS Reverberate), LV Doubler (MUnison), LV Doubler2 (Eventide Quadravox), Delay (Lemon), Eventide Shimmerverb, Kick-Verb (LS Reverberate), Distorted Reverb (Lexicon MPX).

- used some dynamic eq's and ducking here and there but main goal was punch and density at the same time...

cheers from Hamburg/Germany
Bianca / Ungifted
Bologna57

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#36

Post by Bologna57 »

Good morning,
I learned ahead of your very interesting initiative and I wanted to participate immediately. I apologize for my English with which I do not think I will be able to express myself perfectly, for those who eventually know Italian below is the text.
Being the first time that I participate I hope that the standards and the positioning of the file correspond to what was expected.

The song Afterglow is very interesting and I felt that a hypnotic, monochord and "monolithic" approach was needed. Not having something with adequate sound in the tracks, I used the piano parts to generate the necessary frequencies, using the guitar pedals (wha wha, distortion, tremolo etc.). To better understand what I mean, the insistent hypnotic sounds that continue in the background for the entire piece can be heard "semi-naked" at the beginning of the piece, before the voice enters. Those hypnotic sounds / frequencies are then integrated with the flute in obsessive figures.
Feeling the rhythmic loop somewhat incomplete, I inserted an echo in 4th and 8th at the claps.

The voices unfortunately suffer from numerous beats on the microphone in the p, t, b, f ... I intervened individually to fix them. Similarly, it seems that some attacks did not come perfect in the recording phase: I also intervened on those by cleaning where necessary. Some points have also been put in sync and some t and s resized (east, west, wake ...). In principle, the talented singer articulates a lot of consonants thus revealing her formation and (I believe) her Northern European origin, I did not consider it appropriate to reduce this feature (articulation) too much.


As for the dynamics of the piece, starting from the conclusion of the first (wonderful!) Didgeridoo intervention - in my opinion the apex of the piece - I didn't want to insist further, keeping it light until the delicate ending.

My mix is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1itVW_k ... sp=sharing

I hope you like it.

G.Giorgetti


Buongiorno,
sono venuto a conoscenza avantieri della vostra interessantissima iniziativa ed ho voluto subito partecipare. Chiedo scusa per il mio inglese con il quale non credo che riuscirò ad esprimermi perfettamente, per chi eventualmente conosce l'italiano sotto c'è il testo.
Essendo la prima volta che partecipo spero che gli standard ed il posizionamento del file corrispondano a quanto previsto.

Il brano è molto interessante e ho ritenuto che fosse necessario un approccio ipnotico, monocorde e "monolitico". Non disponendo nelle tracce di qualcosa con sonorità adeguata ho utilizzato le parti di piano per generare le frequenze necessarie, utilizzando i pedali della chitarra (wha wha, distorsore, tremolo ecc.). Per meglio capire cosa intendo, le sonorità ipnotiche insistenti che proseguono in sottofondo per l'intero brano sono ascoltabili "seminude" all'inizio del brano, prima che entri la voce. Quelle sonorità/frequenze ipnotiche si integrano poi con il flauto in figure ossessive.
Sentendo il giro ritmico in qualche modo incompleto ho inserito un echo in 4th ed 8th alle claps.

Le voci purtroppo soffrono numerosi battute sul microfono nelle p, t, b, f... sono intervenuto individualmente per aggiustarle. Similmente pare che alcuni attacchi non siano venuti perfetti in fase di registrazione: sono intervenuto anche su quelli pulendo dove necessario. Sono state inoltre messi in sync alcuni punti e ridimensionate alcune t ed s (east, west, wake...). In linea di principio la bravissima cantante articola molto le consonanti svelando così la sua formazione e (ritengo) l'origine nord europea, non ho ritenuto opportuno ridurre più di tanto questa caratteristica.


Per quanto riguarda la dinamica del brano a partire dalla conclusione del primo (meraviglioso!) intervento di didgeridoo - a mio avviso l'apice del brano - non ho voluto insistere oltre, mantenendolo leggero fino al delicato finale.

Spero che sia di gradimento.

G.Giorgetti
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Mister Fox
Site Admin
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Posts: 3111
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 16:15 CEST
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#37

Post by Mister Fox »

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your mix.
dhiser21
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2021 01:58 CEST

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#38

Post by dhiser21 »

Hello Everyone

So this is my first Mix Challenge so I hope I did it right. Used a Waves SSL E on everything and gain staged all of the tracks before I started. Looking to see more challenges and I will do better taking notes on what I did to each track.

dhiser21

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf72hedm6c6gs ... 1.wav?dl=0
Clueless
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:54 CET

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#39

Post by Clueless »

Here’s my attempt

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1n0xpjgldo89 ... s.wav?dl=0
► Show Spoiler
I placed everything in groups
Drums
Vocals
Pads & Synths
Piano

Added parallel for most, some were atmospheric
Panned drums and reduced width to gain some balance
Piano, I attempted to make it creeky
Pad, tried to turn it into a chant type drone
User avatar
TomImmon
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2019 18:03 CEST
Location: near Berlin (Germany)

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Submissions until 21-06-2021 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#40

Post by TomImmon »

What a beautiful and atmospheric song. I really enjoyed mixing it.

My Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/095as39wj04b4 ... n.wav?dl=0

The tracks are all very well recorded and sound good together, so I used significantly less EQ than usual. Instead, I tried a lot with coloration through tape and tube saturation.

Mix documentation:
Drum tracks and percussion: Softtube Tape Saturation and a little HG-2 Tube on top. Slightly parallel compression
Bass: Compression with Iron, HG-2 Tube Saturation
Piano: Focusrite EQ, MS stereo extension, SPL Iron compressor
SFX Tracks: MS stereo extension
Vocals and Backings: Optimization with Nectar Elements, Compressor, ducked Stereo Delay, some Air with Fresh Air, Deessing with Waves deesser
FX: Big reverb (convolution): Boston Hall, Drumroom: Waves Epic CLA4, short stereodelay for depth
Master: Townhill for Glue, a little bit limiting for just some nasty peaks
A lot of fader and pan automation

Expose readings:
Integrated LUFS: -16.5 LUFS
Short Term LUFS: -13.5 LUFS
True Peak: -3.8 dBTP
Peak: -3.9 dB
Dynamic Range: 7.5 DR
Loudness Range: 8.9 LU

Greetings from Berlin
Tom
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