MIX CHALLENGE - MC081 October 2021 - Winners announced

[Dodgingrain]

Great to see Math Rock here!
For different flavors, you might also listen to
Elephant Gym (eg. on Audiotree w/interview)
Polkadot Stingray (often mixing with catchy J-Rock hooks)
Tricot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJW7kS9AAI4 example, always crossing over with Pop, it's a lot about how to position the guitars in the mix.
(it is interesting to check out their live concerts to see how this is being done, from the position of the "vibe", not just the digital construction.)
Original is a bit more mellow, but the Asian examples might remind on what not to forget to let it shine.

Hey @White Punk OD , is it just a youtube issue on every math rock track I listen to or is the genre in general pretty squashed on the dynamics side?

[fcamp]

I was wondering the same. I have the song almost mixed with some dynamics, and I don't know if I must start squashing them. The raw mix, at least, looks very compressed.

That said, what a beautiful song. I love songs that feel like several songs inside, and this is one of them. In the very first listening I was not so sure about it when I heard chorused guitars. I grew up in the 80s and I was overexposed to that sound. But, hey, I see that it is something characteristic in this genre, and now I am enjoying it.

[alanvaldez]

My Mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v2PJ5s ... sp=sharing

Hi! This was a fun song to mix! great to hear amazing music in my own language, saludos desde Ensenada B.C. Mexico!

For this song I used MAutoAutoAlign on all Drum tracks to be able to eliminate all the phase issues, it always works great!
Kick: Used Mdynamic / Gate just to clean the noise that was bleeding from other parts of the drum kit, MAutoDynamicEQ to eliminate some low frequencies, and enhance the hi, it's working as a Dynamic EQ, and MTurboComp using the 160 emulation (DBX 160).

Snare: Top and botom are using MAutoDynamicEQ one ez screen that has all special eq for a snare, then those are mixed on a group track. That group track has MFreeFormAnalogEQ, just a small amout of hi freq and lo mid freq, then MTurboComp using the 160 emulation (DBX 160). One interesting thing on this next fx is the MNoiseGenerator is that every time the snare sounds it dynamically adds white noise to make it sound brighter, then added MTransientMB only on the Lo Mid freq to add some body and punch and that goes to the the SnareFx channel with MTurboReverb Wooden Hall space.

Hi Hat: MAutoDynamicEQ Tilt EZ screen to enhance the hi freq and a small amount of saturation, then MTurboComp just touching the needle on the gain reduction.

Toms: MAutoDynamicEQ Tom Screen to eq both toms using dynamic frequencies and give them more body to the low mid freq and hi, then MTurboComp using the Road 124 emulation on unlink mode with the dry wet on 34%.

OH: Both channels are routed to a stereo group track, I'm using MUtility to invert the pan on both channels because apparently paned the wrong way... hehe... MAutoDynamicEQ on a Classic EQ "EZ window" with added dynamics filtering low frequencies and enhancing hi freq, using the dynamic mode just to compress a little. then MTurboComp using the Fairchild emulation, compressing not more than -1.60 db. Unlinked at 0% both sides are compressing independently I use the compressor like that on stereo tracks normally. Dry / Wet at 26%

Room: using the MAutoDynamicEQ Graphic Monster screen, it works like a 7 bands graphic eq with dynamic mode, with this one just eliminated some low and hi freq nothing special, then MTurboComp using the 124 emulation on 60% wet.

Drum Group: I used MSaturatorMB to give more air on the hi freq and a little rumble on the low, and some 18% on the mid.

All drums are grouped to an Fx Channel called DrumVerb that has an instance of MTurboReverb on the Antovo Studio mode, just -19 db

Bass: Routed this one to an stereo Group containing only the bass and it has a plugin called DFiX by SoundDevice Digital from United Plugins, using the bass light preset, just to make it sound a little better, it gives more body to the source. then used the Waves GTR bass amp on the Thunder amp type, stereo mode. the only difference is that it has different mic on each channel, then MTurboComp on the MPI-2500 (API emulation) Waves MV2 and MDynamicsMB on some kind of Waves Mv2 multiband screen to give it some balance on each frequencies, a small amount of this track goes to the Drumverb fx Channel.

Guitars: I created a stereo track for each guitar then used the MAutoAlign, then on both tracks used the MCabinet to simulate an IR cabinet different for each one with some "Room" verb then for those I used the MSpectralPan to pan both guitars from 1k to 20k to L and other to R and create some fake center using the frequencies that weren't paned. Those tracks are grouped stereo and that track contains the Ozone 9 Spectral Shaper to kill some harsh on the hi freq, then used the Tape by Softube just a small amount, this one is adding some tape wobbling and noise, then MAutoDynamicEQ just eliminating some resonances, I used the Auto function to find those resonances, also added some saturation and vintage mode that is build inside, then MTurboComp the 2500 mode, and unlinked, not more than -3.5 db of gain reduction. then used the Waves S1 to make it sound wider, that was send to an fx track with MTurboDelay on the tape mode.

Vocals: sent that to an stereo group then used the Vocals and deeser mode screen, added some presence and air, then added the MCompressor like if it was a Waves MV2 to UP compress the low volume on some parts. then used the MTurboComp on the 1176 mode with some -5.5 db of gain reduction.

The vocal track goes to 3 fx channels one with MTurboReverb on a screen called Hall 2D that creates a 2D space and makes you out the fx in front or behind you this time is behind the listener, to add some dimension, then the other channel fx is the MDoubleTracker to add some John Lennon Doubling, and the final fx is MTurboDelay using some kind of a echoboy delay.

Master Bus: first it has the Kilohearts Tape Stop, I'm using this on the end of the song, to tape stop the song, then Waves GW ToneCentric just 1.4 was necessary to make it sound bigger, then Ozone Advanced 9 Vintage Tape, to create some glue and help to enhance the hi freq, MTurboComp using the Bus compressor mode kind of an Ssl, unlinked, MAutoDynamicEQ just eliminating some small resonances wet at 17% almost doing nothing, and at the end Ik Multimedia T-Racks Stealth limiter just to accomplish the loudness needed for the contest.



note all the M fx are from Melda Production
Mixed with Cubase Pro 11
guitars were treated with Rx Advanced
used Melodyne as a Deeser

Probably you're sleepy after reading all this

[White Punk OD]

Hey @White Punk OD , is it just a youtube issue on every math rock track I listen to or is the genre in general pretty squashed on the dynamics side?

Seems they want some serious density, and Japanese mixes are going their own ways, but probably influenced by 80ies Punk and Hard Rock.
math rock seems to play with the compression and saturation deliberately, the guitar players and drummers are doing stuff that even might not work otherwise, and I guess the live concerts are quite loud.

"AiNA The End" has interesting mixes that are also quite different from each other. I love that noisy wild stuff much more than the Western "Reinheitsgebot" of the current era (everything super clean and pristine and hitech clarity).
Another example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZxJi1jaW7k not math rock, but similar perception about compression. watch the kick, fat toms, and the snare-ringing..
(My voluntary "Droga" revision sure has Japanese influence but a bit less of compression because it's not rock.)

[alavault]

Hi,
Mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/19KY1XC ... sp=sharing

• Guitars :
  • Hard Panned LR
  • Multiband comp (Andy Sneap preset), EQ, fast attack SSL comp
  • Sent to short verb, flanger, FX verb (pitch shifted long verb), and parallel GTR comp
• Bass:
  • Added parallel SansAmp OD
  • Multiband comp (Andy Sneap preset), EQ, Limiter
  • Sent to short verb, flanger, and parallel comp
• Vox:
  • Pitch correction
  • 1176 comp into LA2A comp, deesser and limiter + stereo widening
  • Sent to vocal parallel crusher, slap and stereo delay, plate and long verb
• Drums:
  • Kick : Gate; EQ, Comp. Into parallel comp
  • Snare : Duplicated (one raw, the other crushed 1176-style), added white noise. Sent to parallel comp
  • Toms : Cut around 600. Limiter. Sent to parallel comp, short and medium verb. Too lazy to edit.
  • HH&OH : Tape sat into room verb into into EQ into limiter. Sent to parallel comp, short verb.
  • Room : verb into crusher (1176 style). Sent to parallel comp, short & med & long verb.
• Master Bus:
  • Kotelnikov into Celestial. Hi-shelf@18k-ish.

[Mister Fox]

Just a quick reminder:

I appreciate the talk about J-Pop/J-Rock examples. But keep in mind, there have been additional references provided for inspiration (see the attached TXT file and post #2). In the end, you can try to mimic a certain sound, but the overall concept of the Mix(ing) Challenge is to still add your own spin to it.

As of this moment, a bit more than 11 days left for this challenge.

Have fun!

[JamesMusic]

Another great track to work on, thanks for sharing!

Here's my mix - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eJrP1h ... sp=sharing

Here's the info

-Kick-
polarity inversion, gate to remove spill, compression for punch and control dynamics, transient design on bass and treble for more punch. Bit of Pultec low end sculpt.
EQ - dip at around 200Hz, boost at around 60Hz, massive high shelf 1.7kHz and a high pass at 38Hz.

-Snare Top-
14 samples of time aligning, subtle high shelf, a slight dip at 500 Hz and a gentle boost at 150Hz
Gating to remove bleed, upward compression for more body, downwards compression for more attack

-Snare Bottom-
Gentle high pass at around 150Hz, 5 db high shelf fro more presence, gating to reduce spill, compression for more attack

-Hihat-
Highpass at around 6kHz and 5db high shelf for more sizzle, some saturation for a dirtier sound

-Tom 1 and 2-
4db boost at fundamentals, dips around 400Hz, and 10 db high shelves, compression for punch, reduced sustain on floor tom with transient designer

-Overheads-
High Pass at 150Hz, Cut at 500Hz, 3db high shelf at about 12kHz
Pararlel compression to bring out room and sustain. Automation of high shelf to bring down cymbals during certain sections

-Drum room-
Polarity inverted, bost at 75Hz, cut at 400Hz and 2.5k, boosted high shelf at 8k, additional reverb for enlarged room sound

-Drum Bus-
Paralell compression for extra power, automated additional compression and saturation for the intense latter section of the song.
There is a gated reverb and a longer hall reverb on the drums which automate in and out at various points during the song.

-Bass guitar-
Bit of 50Hz boost, masssive high shelf boost at 1kHz, upward compression, subharmonic processing, firm comprssion, some ducking on super lows sidechained from kick, saturation and subtle chorusing on top end

-Cindy's Guitar-
High pass at 100Hz, cut at 650Hz high shelf boost at 8k, gentle compression, panned left

-David's guitar-
High pass at 120Hz, boost at 650Hz shelf at 8k, gentle compression, panned right

-Guitar bus-
Delays, washy reverbs, extra distortion, chorus, stereo widening effects, in different combinations automated in and out throughout course of the song.

-Vocal-
Subtle tuning - High pass at 200Hz, dynamic eq cut at 1kHz when too much, automated tape echo on certain bits. Upward compresion and saturation, some additional distortion during song's climax, compression, several delays/reverbs of different lengths that come in and out by sections or to enhance a single phrase.

-Other-
Tweaked the timing of some of the stabs, to make super tight. Automated reverb and eq to make the song sound like its fading into the distance at the end.

Master bus -
Glue compression, bit of pultec and compression on low end, and a shelf at 15k, bit of saturation and a limiter to avoid overs above -1dbTP

[PistolPete]

Title;Statistics - "MC081_Por_Mientras__Sable__Pistolpete"
Date;Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Loudness_Value;-16.15 LUFS (Integrated LUFS)
Loudness_Range;6.01 LU
Max_True_Peak_Level;-1.96 dBTP
Max_Momentary_Loudness;-12.06 LUFS
Max_Short_Term_Loudness;-13.08 LUFS
Sample Rate;48.000 kHz
Average RMS (AES-17) Left;-15.09 dB
Average RMS (AES-17) Right;-15.07 dB
Max. RMS Left;-11.92 dB
Max. RMS Right;-12.11 dB
Max. RMS;-11.92 dB
Min. Sample Value Left;-2.08 dB
Min. Sample Value Right;-2.04 dB
Max. Sample Value Left;-2.37 dB
Max. Sample Value Right;-2.00 dB
Peak Amplitude Left;-2.08 dB
Peak Amplitude Right;-2.00 dB
True Peak Left;-2.07 dB
True Peak Right;-1.96 dB
DC Offset Left;-61.11 dB
DC Offset Right;-62.76 dB
Bit Depth Left;24 bit
Bit Depth Right;24 bit
Estimated Pitch Left;1320.5Hz/E5
Estimated Pitch Right;1358.6Hz/F5

Download Song Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RgVucA ... sp=sharing

Software: Cubase 10.5 pro
Plugins: Waves, Valhalla, Analog Obsession, Melda, and a few other random freebies.
Computer: custom built in 2011, AMD phenom II 1090T with 12GB ram and Steinberg UR22 interface.
Monitoring: Mixed entirely in Sennheiser 280HD headphones, and mix checked on my Fostex T20RP open ear headphones.
Visual monitoring: Waves WLM, Waves PAZ analyzer, Waves VU set to -18, waves main meter set to K-14 to ensure lots of headroom in the premix stage.


Where to start:
Well this track was definitely a very unfamiliar territory for me, so after loading the files I listened and listened and listened again. Generally, I have a vision and go with it, however this song was giving me difficulty as at first I wasn’t vibing with it. (this changed later). I started getting everything gain staged and “pre-mixed” with panning and volumes. Once I got everything set at target volumes and panning I then started to feel the song come to life more but I still wasn’t completely happy with it until I decided to phase align the drums, all of a sudden, it came to life, and I really loved this song. Very enjoyable to mix after getting things organized.

On the original “reference mix” I noticed that it was mixed “very commercial/radio” sounding where it seemed very compressed and in your face (as most modern music is) but I didn’t like that approach. I wanted to give the drums, guitar and bass a more natural Band style feel and clarity with the vocals being more commercial sounding but clear. (hopefully the client/judges agree with my decision on this).

I went with what sounded right for me as far as instrument eq, presence and overall feel of the track, so very little referencing of the reference mix was done. Eventually the song grew on me as I organized the mix and I really started to fall in love with the song. I spent A TON of time automating FX sends, volumes and panning to really drive motion in the song.

General Mixdown setup:

• Since I am working with an older PC, my plugin limitation although not terrible, are nowhere near what I should have for this day and age, so I did a lot of parallel processing.
  
  I started off by getting each track volume/gain staged and panned properly leaving plenty of headroom for later. For each mono track I used Scheps Omnichannel (love this plugin) to adjust EQ, Compression, saturation, and hi/low cut filters, and I used a ton of noise gates to cut out unwanted bleed through on certain tracks, as well as to help enhance the silent parts of the song when the song attention was more on the quiet than the instruments.

I set up 9 FX sends:

• Reverb (slap), Delay, Reverb (ambiance), Reverb (special), Compressor, Saturation, Tape, a Hard panned left “ambience” group, and a crazy vocal delay/verb for vox. Depending on the mono track, different amounts of sends were used, and not all mono tracks used all 8 FX. Most used about 4-5 total. The use of FX send really helps me cut down individual track processing as well as allows me to automate the sends to really help craft the motion and the 3d soundstage.
  
  The “Tape” FX send was not as much for saturation, but instead I tuned it to a tape echo and flutter to create a very unusual distortion/delay that I could use selectively to build character in the vox and guitars as well as to give depth to the mix. This also helped with bringing motion to the instruments.
  
  The “left ambience group” was hard panned left with a nice room verb on it and slight delay and only the snare, right guitar and hi-hats were sent to this channel to help give a nice open room feel.
  
  A lot of FX Send automation was done for each instrument to really give a feel of motion, depth and vibe to the song.

Group Channels:

• I set up 6 group channels: Bass, Drums, Guitar, Toms, Snare, and Vocal “touch of an angel”. BASS, Drums, Guitar were used mainly as volume faders (similar as a VCA would be used) to control the overall volume.
  
  The touch of an Angel group was a send from my main vocals, in which I used to heavily automate the vocal send to create build ups, effects and dimension in the vocals when needed.
  
  Toms and Snare groups were created to help save on CPU processing DSP load where most of the generic processing I could share across both channels where I could, and individual EQ, Gate and Compressors were used on the main mono tracks for each instrument individual need.

Drums:
The toughest challenge for me was mixing the drums as there was a lot of “bleed through” on the silent parts of the drums and for me it was balancing the good bleed through with the not so good bleed through. Each drum channel used Scheps Ominchannel for main processing (pre, eq, gates, compression) and then if needed additional plugins were used on some of the drum channels. My goal was to have nice hard hitting kicks, snares and toms and found that the drum room channel really helped drive the transients on these, so I focused a lot of time on blending the OH and drum rooms to get a nice ambience but a strong live punchy sound. A lot of high shelf filtering and low shelf filtering was used to cut out unneeded frequencies, mud and unimportant frequencies to really get a nice live drum sound. I also used a lot of noise gates to cut out some unneeded bleed through but allow some instruments like cymbals and high-hats to come through.

After volume, individual effects, and panning I still was not happy with the drums. They sounded muddy, with phase issues and I really wanted the snare, kick and toms to be clean, almost like a live band type of vibe. I decided that I needed to align the drums to the Left OH channel, as the timing was close but not perfect and was causing some noticeable phase and mudding issues. Once I did this, the drums really cleaned up and came to life, where I was finally able to be happy with the drum sounds. I also did a lot of sidechaining of the bass and guitars to the drums as I wanted the snare, toms and kick to really cut through the lower frequencies to be present.


Bass: The bass I had a hard time with balancing to get a nice picking sound but also to have some nice sub bass come through to blend with the song. I tried a bunch of different plugins to get the right sound and finally used CLA Bass (eq, compression, sub harmonics, stereo and distortion) and followd up with bass rider to give the bass volume some movement, and then used waves vocal rider sidechained to the kick, and toms so the bass would duck the drums and the drums came through much more loud and present. The bass was sent to 4 FX sends (reverb, delay, tape and saturation) in various amounts. I still felt that the bass needed more sub/lows and to balance out the picking and mids, so I used waves maxxbass to balance the harmonics in, and take out a little of the 60-120hz range to help with peaking and overall volume.


Vocals: The vocals were fairly easy to mix on this song for me as the original recording sounded really good. I didn’t want to go with too “processed” of a sound and wanted a more natural, powerful vocal with very minor supporting delays, verbs. I wanted the effects to play the background and not be too distracting. After some very minor autotune, I eq’d the vocal to cut out the low end, and tune them slightly to my liking, I then hit them with a CLA-76 to really get them up front and present. I then used waves vocal rider to give the vocals a little motion in the mix after compression, and followed up with a noise gate to eliminate any “fuzz” from the recording and any noticeable breaths and background noises. The vocals had FX sends to all 8 of the sends in various amounts as well as I created a group channel called “touch of an angel” which was very heavy reverbs, delays and compression to give a almost backup vocal type effect, in which I automated the send as needed.

Guitars: Guitars were panned Mid left and Mid right. I didn’t do a lot to the guitars in terms of eq/compression and just went with an eq/comp that made them sound good to me. Most of the guitar magic was in the send and send automation to the reverbs, delays, tape, and saturation. The FX automation was really where I created a lot of the changes in the feeling and presence of the guitars. I didn't like the Left guitar having so much low mid end so I cut a bit out with re-amping/eq to keep the general sound the same, but allow for more punch from toms and snares that share that low end.

Mix Bus: I noticed that some of my “analog modeled” plugins as well as some of the original recordings had brought in some noticeable hiss and noise on the final mix bus, so after eliminating as much as I could with editing/automation, there still was some noticeable hiss and noise. I added a DC offset filter which removes the very low sub bass and some rumble and then followed up with waves Xnoise which I tried to focus on only the added “noise” this really helped minimize that analog hiss to a more acceptable level. I then followed up with a SSL compressor with a minimum compression and no extra gain to add some glue, and 2 different saturation plugs. (J37 and Msaturator). On the final output I only added a waves L1 Thresh -2, output -2 to prevent any overs or peaks but with no noticeable gain.

I spend much longer on this song mix than I have on previous mix contest months, and really enjoyed getting into the nitty gritty on each instruments presence, sounds and automation to make this mix come to life. I hope it is well received by the client.

[Christoph_K]

Thanks for providing this interesting track. It was really fun to mix. Here’s my entry: https://www.dropbox.com/s/edgxy34oog500 ... K.wav?dl=0

My main focus lied on creating a mix with a band playing live together. When I read that the history of the making was more like a puzzle I thought it would be cool (or necessary?) to bring everything together in the same space.

I listend to the provided mix carefully and here’s what I tried to improve: The midrange was missing some fullness while the vocals sounded quite harsh and thin. Also balance wise the kick drum poked out way to much for my taste and introduced too much pumping on the whole mix. I assumed that the artists probably were looking for a punchy sound, so I kept that in mind.

For the drums I used the Ocean Way plugin to create a bigger room where the whole band would fit in. Kick, Snare and Overheads got parallel compression going on (UAD 160dbx, CLA76, UAD Fatso) and a dedicated plate sound for the snare with reverberate. I used Softubes Saturation Knob before the input signal going into the Reverb.

The Bass definitely needed some growl so I duplicated the track and put the Ampeg SVTVR Classic on it. The bass also got some of the Ocean Way Plugin to put it into the same room as the drummer.

I refused to play around with the guitars too much to keep the flow. There was already a lot of math going on so I kept the formula simple. Just some chorus and occasionally the UAD TS Overdrive on Cindy’s track. I left David’s track alone, just some EQ and compression. I again used UA Ocean Way for the recording space. On some places I used the Soundtoys Echoboy and Valhalla Delay to add some space.

The vocals hat some really nasty harsh frequencies and soothe took care of those. I used the UA 1176 REV A for the peaks and the LA-2A to smooth out the dynamics. As Reverb I combined the UA EMT 140 and a Bricasti Hall from Liqudsonics Reverberate (great plugin btw). I added a bit of tape echo when the band escalates later in the song.

The rest is UA LUNA’s incredible great API engine to create a punchy and warm sound with lots of analogue goodness. The Scheps Rearbus worked with the Pulsar 1178. On the mixbus is the Softube Chandler Zener Bender, a plugin I fell in love recently. It just glues everything together really nice. Finally the bx V3 for widening, UA ATR102, Oxford Limiter and bx true peak limiter on the Master Bus.

Good luck everyone!

[pursgo]

reaper daw. stock reaeq and reacomp on channels. acon verb on vox and drum. bass also had loudmax. stereo bus had js 1175 , loudmax and hpf at 55.2 down 11.5.
really liked the chaotic middle section.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8rzumgbngsr17 ... o.wav?dl=0