MIX CHALLENGE - MC085 April 2022 - Winners announced

[Mac So]

Hello all,

I am Mac, another first-timer

Here's my mix. I hope you'll like it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xHuDMk ... sp=sharing

What I've done:

All the drums were grouped together and then treated with Ableton's drum buss and glue compressor + some minimal eq movements.
Also, OTT on a parallel bus but on transients only.

Kick deep cut around 100Hz.
Hihats and claps separated for more control.
Insert reverb on claps.
Autopan on Toms.

Whole group then grouped with Bass group.
Glue compressor again and MBassador to add a bit of subs to everything.

All the synths grouped and auto filter added for some dj style transitions. Example at 2 min 32 sec.
High pass on everything.
On synth 001 chorus, amp and side chain to kick drum.

Instruments also high pass on eveyrything + glue compressor.
Some saturation on funky guitar.

Vocals tuned with melodyne. BVs panned left and right slightly.
BV 001 changed for a vocoder with chords from piano track.
Vocoder fx only on Refrain with mix automation. Endings with effect slighly louder for a change.

Reverb and delay sends added to a vocal group.
Both side chained to dry vocals.

Glue compressor on a master to catch some peaks, plus small eq changes.
Around -15 RMS, -1.4 True Peak

[Cadence Soundlabs]

Here is the link for the MC085 Mix Challenge.

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

I would like to take a moment to thank Mister Fox for running these competitions and Tom and Dirk for providing this song for us to work on. It was really fun to work on.

So for this song, I used the Plugin Alliance SSL 9000 J console on every track. I didn't necessarily use the EQ or the Compressor on everything but every track was passed through that. That was the meat and potatoes of what I did. The tracks being VI, I didn't feel the need to control much or EQ much. The vocals I ended up using an autotune plugin into the Pro Tools stock De-Esser into an 1176 compressor for transient control into a LA-2A compressor for leveling and then into the 9000J with a slight lift in the high band for some air. And for Refrain Vocal FX I used the Space Station emulation from Audiority, a fast slap with a Lo-Fi distortion on it. For the overall Vocal FX, I used an Eventide Harmonizer, a plate reverb and a stereo throw delay.

After I got my general tone, I wrote panning automation for individual elements to create some interesting ear candy. For example, the pizzicato strings at the beginning felt like they were too wide and competing with the synth so I made them I bit more mono so the synth could occupy more of the sides. And during the funk guitar, I didn't really like how the drum loop was resonating so I brought in a high pass filter for that little section and it opened it up and allowed the guitar to breathe a bit more and it made the transition to the next section more interesting.

Finally, I had typical bus compression for glue.

That was my approach on this mix.

Thank you!

[s&f]

hi, almost missed this challenge.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4t6ylo1wt0acq ... F.wav?dl=0

simple mix, i used the original LV recordings as i thought it sounded better.

a lot of multiband and waves real time tune used

drums waves cla mix hub

drum loop - logic bit crush

a little bit of automation.

had some trouble finding where the clicks are

BV i used both stems provided, panned hard left and hard right. used the same processing as the LV


thank u

[AskAndy]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al0k-deoMtpH4n6Feed ... 5?e=6Qcq2P Wonderful piece. I will highlite the three aspects I concentrated on. The Intro, The coda And the feel. By Feel, in this work its the use of side chaining Kick or snare or vocals to the melodic tracks ( or the snare to the HH) , using upward compression( Avid Pro Expander ) to create more bounce in the piece.
The Intro is an attempt at being "watery" . PIZZ track along with being bussed to the mix bus, has a send to an aux with EQ,S1 Imager, kilohearts Trance gate. which is sent to the mix bus and a send to aux with anH949 Harmonizer and a S1 Imager aslo sent to the mix bus. which gives the woosh which adds an ' opening up or rising-out-of feel . helps the emotional swell .
The coda was intended to be like a re-immersion to the emotions with some 1/4 dely and extra rvb and slowly sucking the bottom out of the vocals during the final line.
Also The vocals are parallel compressed . thru Waves RCompressor into The Kings Mircophone

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !
What an oppurtunity to feel like i am twenty again

As you clearly recognize, i went for "au naturel" vibe on vocals

Tracks set to 0 VU. Izotope Neutrino and NLS Channel (Neve) on every instrument bus.

DRUMS
Kick: Pultec Kick trick
All other tracks without additonal processing

BASS Bus:
WA Fundemantal Bass (some drive), Overloud GemEQ550 (extra clarity), Waves Scheps 73 EQ with hi pass 80Hz, GMonoBass (mono under 150Hz)
EFX-bass-growl with additional Audo Assault Bass Grinder for extra clarity and grit, Waves Brauer Motion (panning moves) and Waves RBass - all for extra impact

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Instant Audio QuickAG (some eq and hall for mre "space"")

RHYTHM GUITAR funky: Black Rooster Audio Cypress TT-15 amp sim, clean setup for some extra grit

FX
sub - "as is"
Swish - "as is", in transition to queiter part (twice) there is u-he Protoverb giving lush, long reverb

KEYS: GMonoBass on bus (mono under 150 Hz)
PIZZ: Overloud Dopamine - giving extra clarity ramp automation in intro

VOCALS
Vocals are tuned at 90% accuracy. Used Waves CLA Vocals in different setting for verse, verse accents and chorus
Backing vocals also treated with Waves CLA Vocals

All instruments and vocals, except bass, are send to extra track with Acustica Silver reverb (modern church)
Instuments are slightly ducking via vocal group sidechain in Wavesfactory Trackspacer

Master Bus:
NLS Bus (Neve) analog summing, Variety of Sound Baxter EQ with analog balance setting, Density MkII compressor (summing) barely gain reduction, Toneboosters ReelBus tape sim, Toneboosters Sibilance, Charly Limited analog gain
as metering: Toneboosters TB_Barricade, Youlean Loudness Meter

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

WAV 24bit/48kHz, round 2,3 dB headroom / loudness -16,2 LUFS

Good succes everybody !

[alantwelve]

Hi Everyone

Here's my submission for mix challenge 85:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q5R394 ... sp=sharing

This is quite a departure from what I'm used to, and also a bit of a change from my first mix challenge in February. It's been an education, I'm glad to say. In some ways I found it a lot easier than the rock music I'm used to (although I suspect that the tracks having a lot of prep work done on them helped here). Not fighting with mic bleed on live drums was a pleasant change... I guess you guys can judge whether that ease was an illusion.

Rather than writing an essay here, I've documented my EQ moves and plugins used in this Google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1quS ... sp=sharing

Besides what's in there, you'll hear there's a lot of volume automation going on (there's also a lot of less obvious narrowing of the stereo field of a lot of the tracks to make space out wide).

Fingers crossed, and best of luck to everyone.

[delicate]

My mix →

Hello there! A great remix.

I started top-to-bottom. Built a rough balance, added some SSL compression on the mix bus, two tape saturators. Then I tried to EQ and process everything to sit a little better and clearer in comparison to the rough. I spent most of my time on vocals. I loved its effects in the original mix, but I also loved the performance, so I opted for a natural feel.

Overall, it was a quick mix. I now try not to overthink things and stick with my initial decisions more often.

Stay safe

[SuC76]

Mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZKE7zm ... ?usp=shari


Kick, Snare : stock eq, slightly added parallel compression
Drums 2 : parallel comp. added som tops and lows with stock eq
GTR : stock eq, some modulation
Vocals : rolled off some bottom, cla76, some pultec eq, med. reverb and delay on some parts.
Basses : copied to 3 tracks, low, mid, top, stock eq , mixed to taste
Synth : volume automation on some tracks, stock eq on some, little bit of modulation on some parts
Automation : some parts of keys, guit and choruses on submix

DAW: Ableton Live 10



Mixbus:
VTM Brit-N, UAD-Pultec, VTM

[alphoc]

It was a pleasure mixing this exquisite piece.
I used Reaper6 for mixing.

I cleaned the drum tracks with gentle eq and compressed the uad 1176. I used 1073 eq for coloring on drum tracks. I used bx-console, distressor, pulteq eqp in drum bus. I used plate reverb, echoboy delay on drums.

I used lindell 7x 600 compressor, waves rbass, waves mv2 for bass.

Electric and acoustic guitars have la2a compressor and 1073 eq.

Synth and piano have overloud gem eq, waves mv2.

Vocals have waves rider, distressor, mv2, pultec eq. Reaper stock plugin for Vocal Delay.

Gentle limiter slate fgx and bx_digital eq in master bus.

My mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXWESb ... sp=sharing

[Edu Cesar]

Hello!


First of all, thanks for the opportunity to mix this song, it was both fun and challenging.
I mixed it last weekend and didn't have time to really work on it, just revised and did some changes before posting here. I'm not too happy with the vocals on this one, but at least I tried.

I started my mix by setting the levels with no effects, then slowly testing some panning and reverb where needed. Then I usually clean frequencies that are clashing between tracks or that need in general and start adding effects individually. I used Fabfilter pro-q and pro-c for more clean sounds and Slate VMR for when I want some more character.

Drums:
Gave the kick a little top and compressed a little using the distressor. For the snare I used some saturation, cut the bottom resonance at about 180hz and compressed in parallel. Ran it through a room reverb and a hall reverb as well
The second drum loop I also saturated it a bit and compressed it fairly well with a LA-2A. Also used trackspacer to carve out some space for kick and vocals.
In the HH/Snare track I used some mid-side eq to cut some side information from the bottom end and to spread out the high frequencies (as well as pan the hh o the right a little). Some mild compression applied as well.
The rest of the tracks I used some minor eq and compression and ran some of them through the same reverbs as the snare.
On the bus I used some eq boosts on highs and low midd and a LA-2A to get more punch.

Bass:
Some cuts on between 300 and 650hz, a little bit of RBass and just a little bit of compression to get the main bass more round.. The second bass I added some small cuts on the low end and a boost on 1.2k as well as some saturation. On the bass buss I added trackspacer to open up some space for the kick in the low end.

Synths:
Cut most of the very bottom frequencies of all tracks and where I see frequency clashing happening (specially with the vocals). Used trackspacer to open up some more space in the low end for the kick and the same for the vocals on the mid frequencies.
I also used the J37 tape plugin for some slight saturation and wow on the pad to give it more a vintage vibe.

Piano:
Sent them to a hall reverb (the end piano a little more).
On the bus I high passed at 40hz, cut on around 250hz, boosted the mids and cuts on the hights to make it a little more mellow. Then a slow compressor to get a little more attack.

Guitar:
Some mid-high cuts on the accoustic and some high boosts, nothing too drastic, just wanted to add more clarity. A slow compressor on the electric guitar and room reverb on both.

FX: sent them to a general room reverb.
For the strings sample (pizzicato) I removed a click on the very end of the audio using RX, then used a high shelf filter on the sides, a boost on the mid highs (on mid mode) and a cut at around 250hz

Vocals:
Used the dry vocal takes and ran through Izotope RX to clean some hiss and a little bit of sibilance.
Used MetaTune with a little more “natural” pitch correction on the main vocals and a more aggressive correction on the BGV. All vocals went through (with different amounts of send) a common room and hall reverb) then a dedicated reverb at the bus. I also added some taoe saturation in the bus.
I did some dynamic cuts on pro-q to remove some sibilance in the bottom end and highs, then some eq for coloration and 2 compressors: one to tame the attacks and the other to level everything. The BVG I compressed more the attack than the main ones.

Master bus:
Low cut (stereo and side) at around 20hz and Slate VMB with very little compression (around 2db) to glue it all together and give it a more colorful/vintage sound as well as a little bit of gulfoss to add some spark and a tape feel (I know it’s not a tape plugin, but I got what I was looking for in it).
I also used a limiter with very little gain (around .5db) and a TP setting just to be safe that my mix wasn’t clipping above -1TP and with the correct loudness.

Here's my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QVdGs1 ... sp=sharing

Thanks for the song provider and good luck to everyone! Cheers