MIX CHALLENGE - MC078 July 2021 - Winners announced

[UHLS]

hello and thanks for the song.
i'm not a rap listener and i have no idea how to mix rap, but i like the cultural mix in the work and was guided by the music while mixing.
slate vmr on all tracks and busses.
drums:
all tracks on a bus, processing (vcc, fg-n, fg-bomber). snare: (vcc, london, cs-eq, fg-116, fg-n). kick: (same chain, different settings). snr bottom: (vcc, fg-116, fg-n, fg-a). ohs: (vcc, fg-a, fg-116).
bass: (vcc, fg-bomber, fg-a, fg-116). bass di: izotope trash2.
rh gtr: (vcc, fg-a, fg-116).
brass: bus processing (vcc, fg-73, fg-a, fg-116), trash2.
solo gtr: (vcc, fg-73, fg-a, fg-116), trash2, H910 dual harmonizer.
keys & organ: EZmix.
ayoub vox: (vcc, fg-a, fg-116), Rvox, trash2.
cabu vox & adlibs: eliosis E2 desser, (vcc, fg-73, fg-a, fg-116), parallel comp with the same settings and trash2.
riser: (vcc, fg-a, fg-116).
-----------------
Effects: repeater (as delay), H910 harmonizer, lustruous plates.

2bus: loudmax in ISP mode as "peak eater": threshold 0.0, output -2db. youlean: LUFS -16.9 integrated, true peak max -2.1db.

download:
https://www.file-upload.net/download-14 ... S.wav.html

[CeZar]

Cool song to mix.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dfxeym4vw4bv ... r.wav?dl=0

So, on each track I had an instance of Console 1 with a custom console (SSL4k Shape/Weiss Gambit Eq/SSL 4k Compressor or Softube Fet Compressor(1173)/Tape drive on Drums
Adittionally, I've used either Soothe2, Weiss De-esser or Bx_Refinement to get rid of some harshness wherever I needed to(horns/guitar/vocals) and Tube-Tech Compressor to level the vocals initially.

The bus channels have the Weiss Gambit Console with the SSL 9k drive in the back, so I played with the VHD on each one of them to give it the appropriate flavour.

FX used: Soundtoys LittlePlate, Soundtoys Echoboy,Soundtoys LittleMicroshift, Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Pro for the mix ambience, Valhalla Delay for the solo guitar, Repeater for rap vocals.

The mixbus has Steinberg's Frequency Eq(subtractive), Tube-Tech Eq for boosting, Drawmer 1973 for a bit of multiband dynamic control and Shadow Hills Class A for glue, a tiny bit of Gullfoss EQ and softube Tape for saturation.

PS: I've mixed in 48k and exported in 44.1, I didn't use a dither when downsampling (it is considered part of the mastering process)
so the sound is a bit more muffled compared to my working mix. I'm not sure if it affected the quality in any way, but I wanted to mention it.

Hope you enjoy it, I'm open to criticism/opinions.

Cezar

[Los_ady]

Yo Yo Yo thank you for your submissions!!!

[alavault]

Hello there !

Mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qlo1HW ... sp=sharing

• Clean GTR : Airwindows Tape -> EQ -> 1176 -> limiter -> chorus. Sent to short verb, flanger and parallel GTR comp.
• Solo GTR : Amp emulation (Clean SLO100) -> EQ -> LA3A. Sent tp 1/4 delay & stereo delay, plate & short verb, stereo widener.
• Bass : added Parallel SansAmp -> Multiband comp -> Limiter -> EQ. Sent to flanger and parallel comp
• Ayoub : 1176 -> EQ-> Luftikus -> Wider. Sent to plate & medium verb, slap,1/4 &1/2 delays, stereo widener and parallel vocal comp
• El Caby : 1176 -> EQ-> Luftikus -> Wider. Sent to plate & medium verb, slap & 1/4 delay, stereo widener and parallel vocal comp. Pan and 1/8D delay on AdLib 2.
• Brass: Transient designer -> EQ -> Limiter. Sent to short verb, stereo widener and aux parallel comp
• Keys : Transient designer -> EQ -> Limiter. Sent to short & medium verb, stereo widener and aux parallel comp.. Flanger and 1/8D on organ.
• Drums : EQ->Comp->Clipper. White noise on snare. Short & medium verb on OH. Sent to parallel comp. Side shelf cut on OH + reverse crash from OH
• Master Bus : Kotelnikov into Buster into BussColors into MS EQ into ToTape.
• Automation : master fader and FX.

[RuediRena]

Well then,
formalities of mixdown first:
-20.5 LUFS Integrated
-3.8 dB True Peak

So then I want to thank Los_Ady for that nice song. I enjoyed mixing this a lot!

... and the uploaded file:

Download here: Sun Followers - Droga - RuediRena

What I noticed on the original tracks:

• Winds and brass is played/recorded rather static, also the organ sound.

• No typical Hip Hop sub bass is provided.

• Crash cymbals are LOUD.

• Nice vocals both singing and rapping.

What I did and went for:

DAW: Reaper 6.30

Bass:
Tickled the sub octave of both bass tracks with Sonic Anomaly Bassprofessor 2, got some analog flavour and grit with Analog Obsession Fiver and Kabin, sent the DI bass through an Ampeg emulation and made space for the Kick drum via side chaining through Wavesfactory Trackspacer.

Kick:
Gate, Fiver for EQ and a little compression from Airwindows Drumslam, sent simultaneously to the subs and the drum bus.

Sub bus:
Tightened low frequencies with Ignite Amps Pultec clone and applied a high pass, also a little compression from Channev.

Snare:
A bit of carving out the desired frequencies with Airwindows Baxandall EQ on both tracks.

Overheads:
Made an auxiliary track that only contained the crashes and used it as a sidechain via Trackspacer on both overheads to control the crashes without cushioning those fine hihats, tweaked everything with Analog Obsession Channev channel strip (Mic preamp, EQ for some air, a little compression, tape emulation).

Riser:
Went to drum bus, beginning is with no track FX, risers during the guitar solo got lots of Dub delay and Supermassive reverb.

Drum bus:
Fiver, Airwindows Pressure 4 for some parallel compression, and a very short plate reverb.

Rhythm guitar:
ReEQ lots of low shelf at 450 Hz and a bit of high self, Channev and Kabin for tightening the sound, a tiny bit of chorus and plate reverb.

Solo guitar:
Essentially the same treatment as rhythm.

Keys:
Tweaked and warped by Fiver, Valhalla Space Modulator and Supermassive.

Organ:
ReEQ for lowering low frequencies and some highlights, diy Leslie FX (JS 3 band splitter, different pitch shifters and volume/pan smoothers, 3 band joiner)

Sax and Trumpets:
Lots of volume automations on the long notes, to make more impact, ReEQ for high pass and high shelf, panning all over the place.

Sax/Trumpet bus:
Full treatment with Channev and some plate reverb.

Vox Ayoub 1-3:
Just panned and sent straight to the ...

Ayoub bus:
Channev, Valhalla Freq Echo and Supermassive to get a really wet feeling on the vocal melodies as contrast to ...

Vox El Cabu 1/2:
Full Channev treatment (Pre, De-Esser, EQ, compressor and tape) to have the voice dry, round and on front, panned slightly left and right.

Vox Adlibs:
ReEQ for some drastic low and high cut to get out of the way of the main rap vocals, vocal doubler, delay (one eighth note), longer reverb, slight panning.

ElCabu/Adlibs bus:
Channev for some glue and a very short plate reverb.

... and True Iron by Kazrog all over the place for some analog fairy dust.

So this is my first submission to the Mix challenges. Please feel free to give me some feedback, either Los_Ady or anyone.

Have a nice weekend!
Ruedi

[Beja]

Hello everybody !!!

Special thanks for having access to this production.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ub24ask8cwqbk ... a.wav?dl=0


-17.2 LUFS INTEGRATED
-2.2 dB TRUE PEAK MAX


Mix document:(Google Translate)

Decisions ... decisions ... decisions ...

I started listening to the percussion of this song and after having processed it
a very clean, very crystalline sound came out of the drums. It all sounded really, really good, and
this is precisely why he could not convey any feeling of struggle.
I mean that "I grit my teeth and keep fighting"
I listened to the song several times and finally opted for a mix with sounds,
like life itself, and not because of a clear and transparent sound in Drums and
guitar_solo.

That has been the north of the mix and therefore I processed the sounds like this:

01_KICK, 02_SN.TOP, 03_SN.BOT, 04_AVH.L, 05_OVH.R were processed and sent to
your own group. This sound set has eq, then Virtual Tape Machines
SSL and a peak limiter.
Two aux sends were made for processing, for Reverb and
Delay respectively.

02 SN.TOP and 03_SN.BOT: metallic sounds were found, can sounds, which were
hidden, and gave a very real touch to the percussion. Eq + Saturn + Eq + Comp + Peak Limiter
in both cases.
04_ovh.L 05_ovh.R have been highlighted by API type eq.
API 550A and API550B reach different frequencies, for
both were placed so that they work together.
Best result was achieved in Analog mode.


Editing was performed on the traps: trumpet aligned 14, 15 and 16.
trumpets: 12 and 13 have a blow at the end.
It could be corrected.

11_Organ: I could hear a kind of overdrive in this sound. Too much saturation.
All plug-ins for treating white noise and other noises on vinyl records worked
very good to bring it back: Eq + xnoise + znoise + Exiter + Compressor + Eq + PeakLimiter.

All the trumpets were grouped and worked individually in the plane from L to R.


Editing was carried out on the voices so that they synchronize and also leveling their volumes.
voices: voice sync: tracks 17, 18, 19.

Greetings to all participants and good luck!

[jules666]

Ok here is the link to my attempt on this one:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ppAHu2 ... sp=sharing

True Peak: -4.2
Lufs: -18.1

Riser: Just a little reverb and EQ
DRUMS: Gate on Kick and snare to clean up

Kick:
SPL Transient designer (Plugin Alliance) to bring out the attack more. Then some EQ and saturation (Black Box) and also put n bx_boom (plugin alliance) to give it a little more thump.
Snare:EQ & Comp - going into a Snare Reverb Send

Kick and Snare into a Shell Bus, which has further compression and limiting applied...this then goes to All Drum Bus

Duplicated Overhead Tracks

1st set processed by removing everything below about 1k, and adding some Waves J37 tape saturation and further EQ and light compression to bring the cymbols out
2nd set was processed with EQ to remove the high end, and create a fake "room" track adding some reverb to help diffuse it.

ALL Drum bus then had some further EQ to help low end fit better and compression, limiting.
The All Drum bus also was sent to a parallell compression Aux, a saturation Aux and a drumverb Aux which were blended in.

GUITAR

Duplicated main Ryth guitar track
One processed with SPL Transient designer to bring the attack out a little more
EQ/Reverb and also ran through a BassDude (plugin Alliance) to get a little more snap.

2nd Track had high end cut around 3k and was EQ/Compressed and phase inverted to hopefully give a little more warmth to the guitar,.

BASS

Used DI, which I duplicated.
1st track had the bassdude on it with comp/eq and limiter
2nd track had the eq used to emphisies the upper mids
Blended together to a BASS BUS which also had some EQ and comp on it to glue together.
Did also create a saturation Send for the bass, but it is very low in the mix.

Vocals
Pretty much just EQ and compression and some sibilance removal (Waves) on all the tracks.
Split the vocals over 3 busses for each singer and the Adlib parts.
Used Little Alterboy/Echobuy and Noveltech vocal enhancer here andthere to tweak a little more

Few sends set up for
slapback delay
Saturation
Tape effect for width
Pararelled compression

Various amounts sent to each of the above

Horns
Just EQ/comp and LittleAltboy again (just to add some more depth)
Some Reverb also used

KEYS: EQ/Comp/saturation and some reverb
Organ:Duplicated track
EQ/Comp and tranisent designer again to increase sustain and reduce attack

One track then had some saturation reverb and played around with a stutter effect to try and add a little movement.
Blended together.

Master bus was a little tape saturation and an SSL type compressor doing a couple of dB's or so of reduction.
Some automation for volume and panning here and there.
Faded end out as well.

[PistolPete]

Hey everyone! This is my first post, read the rules so hopefully everything is all good. I've worked in hiphop for quite a while, but most of
the work I did was mixing vocals into 2 track beats. I came looking for a song to mix, and found this site and contest and thought this was awesome!
I just wanted to have fun and the song was really enjoyable and upbeat, and so really this is one of very few full instrumental mixes I've done... Hope it stacks up I downloaded it last night and here I am this morning submitting it... I know its generally advised against...

MC078_SunFollowers_Droga_PistolPete.wav
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NcYpR- ... sp=sharing


DAW: Cubase 10.5
Plugins: Mainly Waves, Some Analog Obsession, Valhalla,
Mixed completely ITB, and with Sennheiser 280HD cans... didn't use monitors as my current situation isn't ideal, or treated.

Slight 4:1 compression on the stereobus for glue
Mixed to VU at -18db, very few overs.
Brickwall limiter set at -6, without limiter peak at -5.8db
LUFS average 22 long term, 23 short term


My main focuses were keeping the instrument sounds similar to the original, but enhancing their place in the mix, overall crispness and musicality,
as well as focus on a nice 3d structured vocal presentation that kept the main vocals sitting right in the pocket. Lately the trend in hiphop has
seemed to be more minute backups so I tried to keep the backups/adlibs low, but used space and verb to accent them as well as panning.

I started with my VU meter set to -18db, my Waves Analyzer set to monitor LUFS, kept the mix around 22 LUFS and I tried to keep my peaks under -6db. I mathed the snare adn built the drums around it,
focusing on panning and volume. Then I mixed in the bass, the overhead percussion and then moved on to the vocals. I saved all saturation and reverb for last, after everything is sitting
nicely in the pockets and has good punch, clarity..etc...

Each Channel was processed seperately with a Waves Shepps Omni-Channel (eq, gate, dynamics).
A Group Channel/Bus for each like instrument was created and all instruments were routed to appropriate BUS.

additional plugins/changes per track as follows.

Riser: Reverb and Panning/volume automation

Main Vocals: Both sent unprocessed to a group/bus.

Backup Vox: panned equally right and left, one channel went right, other left.

Guitar: An additional guitar plugin with eq, compression, verb was added to each Guitar channel separately, then all guitar sent to a single bus.

SAX: Panned Left, one of the sax channels I used a vocal rider to automate the volume, to give it liveness and feel and the sense of motion

Trumpet: Panned Right, The trumpet is rivaling the sax and since they shared similar frequencies I decided to pan each one to a different side, Sax Left, Trumpets Right

Mix Bus/Group Channels

Vox 1 Main: Used vocal plug (eq, compress, delay, verb, stereo), abbey road saturation,
abbey road compressor, vocal rider, de-esser, reverb, tape saturation
Vox 2 L: channel strip and then vocal plug (eq, compress, delay, verb, stero)
Vox 3 R: (vocal plug) all 3 vocal plugs are set differently to stack and complement each other. Right channel has a much heavier delay
Trumpet: Omnichannel, saturation, reverb
Guitar: Omnichannel
Sax: Omnichannel
Drums: Analog Modeled compressor, transient shaper, tape saturation
Piano: Omnichannel, reverb, tape saturation
Bass: Omnichannel, analog modeled compressor


Stereo bus: was a SSL compressor Set to a 4:1 for glue and a brickwall limiter set to -6db.

Hope everyone likes it. I would love feedback, especially about how the eq/shape translates to others systems/rooms/listening devices.
Always more to learn and hope all are well! Thanks for the opportunity to put my mix up

[Patrick@1master]

Anyone else see the vocal dropout at:57 on 31_VOX.ADLIBS.EL.CABU.3?

[Mister Fox]

Anyone else see the vocal dropout at:57 on 31_VOX.ADLIBS.EL.CABU.3?

Thank you for that question. However, there is sadly not much you can do about that.

I've checked all versions of the multi-tracks on my HDD, and every one of them has "a dropout" at that time code. Since it's a double-track/overdub, please work with what you have, blend it in as well as you can.

Including today, you still have 9 days for your mix. Have fun!