MIX CHALLENGE - MC093 August 2023 - Winners announced

[scottfitz]

You are nicer about my mix than I am! I wouldn't want to list everything that I know Is wrong with it

However ,I'm interested to know what does "Dept" mean?

In response to your other comments, the guitar I placed down a bit because I wanted the rhythm to be the main thing at that point. The lead vocal I thought was ok personally but I accept if you want more. When you say opened up, do you mean less compression? Or perhaps you mean less interference from frequencies around it? Or perhaps you mean more top end frequencies ?

Thanks v much for your feedback.

Hi

We are encourage to comment on other mixes. Here's my view on some of the mixes. It's perfectly fine to disagree, it's my impression and taste. I'm only comment on what I think could be improved.

@ZioPaperone358 - Vocal could be a bit more upfront and "opened" up.
@Punchipum - There's a click from the kick in the beginning. My first impression is that it was clipping. It became better later in the song. Piano could be more natural, sound thin. Reduce some high freq on the snare. Dept?
@alan_mix - To much reverb on the lead vocal? Drums need to be more upfront. Dept?
@Michael_K - There's a little click from some hit on the kick in the beginning - clipping? The bass are a bit woolly at low freq and could be cleaned up a bit(especially in HP). Give it more character.
@Piranha - Vocal and piano could be more upfront. The lead electric guitar could be louder when it start playing. Dept?
@Piotr - To much reverb on lead vocal? The lead electric guitar could be louder in general, but especially in the beginning.
@rvalle - The bass are a bit woolly(especially in HP) at low freq and could be cleaned up a bit. Give it more character. There is something with the mid freq on the snare in combination with the reverb that make it sound boxy to me.
@scottfitz - Open up the lead vocal. The lead electric guitar could be louder when it start playing. Dept?
@FallenAngel - Vocal and piano could be way more upfront. To much reverb on lead vocal. I'm not sure that the fade in of the piano is a good choice. The bass are a bit woolly and could be cleaned up a bit. Give it more character.

I'll update this post if I got time to listen to more mixes.

Keep up the good work.

Steinar

[MarcinCypressCA]

Enjoyed this song and mixing it. Hope you enjoy it. Including the documentation video too.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t9i8lbhg ... abxzt&dl=0

[MarcinCypressCA]

Doesn't look like the link to the video appeared on my last post. Anyhow, here it is.https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9ivghfp8 ... abxzt&dl=0

[sthauge]

@PauPeu Now I have listened and you are quite right. It's a mystery why I didn't hear such a obvious mistake. Probably to tired before posting. Had some problems with sliding tracks for no reason while doing automation on the vocal. Fixed 2 or 3 of them but this slipped through. Thank you for notifying me.

[Mister Fox]

Folks... I have nothing against giving feedback to each other. It's indeed highly encouraged. It is just that we still have "Mix Round 1" going on, and that would confuse our usual go-about with each game. So please, if you can manage, don't overdo it until 25th August.



On that behalf... No re-uploads - your submission is final!.

If you already do some stuff behind the scenes as preparation for a possible chance to work further during Mix Round 2, that is your personal choice. However, if you re-upload your entry, and I catch you doing that, you're out of the game!

Please adhere to the given Rules and Guidelines.

Also -- triple check that your mix is accessible and uses the correct filename template. Please also read my announcement from 21-AUG-2023 (post #067).

Paying attention to detail is important! You've worked probably for hours on mixing this song. It would be a shame if you're being "tagged disqualified" or even "tagged out" (see Mix Challenge - Addendum: Statistic Sheet and Wild Card Mechanic).



There are still 2 days left, so far I have collected 56 entries.

I can still not access 1 entry (doing an official ping to @Mange now)
There are currently 3 entries that don't use the proper filename template, or not at all (pinging @Christoph Stoll, @Necaster and @IMM)

Again, please reference my post from 21-AUG-2023 (post #067) regarding file access and file naming.

[Mange]

Should be fixed now!

[trackerjack]

I hope cover art suggestions are permitted?



"Hip hip hooaaargh!"

[1ktone]

Hi all,

Thanks heaps for the opportunity to mix this track.

It has been a great way to test mixing a track in Logic Audio on my iPad. Mostly monitoring through my headphones and the iPad speakers. Hopefully it’s not too far off the mark.

This is the link:
LUFS 17.5

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4g0w6hmn ... joxk6&dl=0

Had a great time with it.

I basically sat down and listened to A Night At The Opera, a bit of Yes and got stuck into it. Started with a rough balance on the iPad speakers and then dove in.

Here is my track list. I used all the tracks and blended front and rear mics for taste and then bussed these to stereo tracks. So, mostly the processing is done on the relevant bus. Occasionally i inserted FX on a track directly. Hopefully I haven’t missed any in the list.

I actually wasn’t sure I was going to get this done so I’m pretty happy I got this far. iOS has a plethora of really quality plug ins and with Logic Pro it’s a nice sonic experience. I used mostly a mixture of FabFilter plugins and stock Logic ones. I also used the Toneboosters Reverb for some subtle background reverbs, the Nembrini PSA 1000 for a little more edge to one of the acoustic channels and I put an instance of the Eventide QVox on Simon’s vocal channel (it’s pretty subtle, but it worked really nicely. I did try it on Frank, but he had some low note stuff going on which just made it all sound a little too weird.

I really liked Gaz’s vocal take. I didn’t have to do a lot as he was already sounding great. I just wanted him to sound kind of like Freddy Mercury. A bit of size and space and making sure he was the star of the show.

I didn’t mind any of the piano noises. A bit of character is a good thing especially when it comes to pianos.

The acoustic sound was kind of tricky to get to sit in a good way, but adding a little edge with the PSA-1000 really helped.

I felt like the electric guitar needed to be a bit noisy and a little messed up. I was aiming for something that would make me feel like I was in the middle of a war zone and with a blend of an Eventide Blackhole and Saturn 2 it got me somewhere close. Although I could eq from inside Saturn adding Logic’s Vintage EQ just helped to balance the tone.

The Leslie I didn’t do much except just balance to taste.

The Prophet channels I just worked to enhance and balance.

The radio is what it is.

The bass I balanced the individual channels and ran it through a little EQ and a multi compressor.

The drums I didn’t effect to much. More just EQ and compression and put them through a Magic Death Eye compressor.

I played around with the tambourine a bit. I decided it was best in the centre sitting with the the snare, but I’m still not sure about the level of it. I feel it’s actually really important to the feel of the arrangement so hence I have spent a bit of time with it.

The extra track was a bit of a goldmine.



Frank and Sion

Grouped into a Magic Death Eye Stereo compressor with a mono reverb and a wider softer reverb for space. I also put a an instance of Pro-DS on here.
On individual tracks :
Both had Pro Q3, Toneboosters Reverb, Logic Pro Comp, Sion had Eventide QVox added as well. I tried it on Frank’s track, but it didn’t really work there.
Sion Vocal 4 had Saturn2 added.
Sion yelps: Timeless 3, Pro-R, Compressor and panning

Soon was relatively easy to get sounding good. Frank was a little trickier especially when I was going for more volume. There are some weird clicking sounds and mouth sound that never really went away so in the end I just put it down as character and moved on.
Gaz:
All bussed to one stereo track
Volcano3,, Vintage Tube EQ, Pro C2, Pro-R, Magic Dice

Voc FX. Volcano3
Also used Vocal rear for panning effect in guitar mayhem solo

Acoustic guitar:
Bussed to stereo track with Pro Q3, Compressor, Pro-R
Main track had a nembrini PSA-1000 Jnr inserted

Elec Guitar stereo bus: Eventide Blackhole, Saturn 2, Vintage Tube EQ

Leslie stereo bus: Pro -R, Pro C2

Piano Stereo Bus: Compressor, Pro-Q3, Vintage Tube EQ, Space Designer

Prophet 1: Volcano3, Pro-r Pro Q3

Prophet 2: Space Designer, Pro Q3, SubBass

Radio: Space Designer

Bass Bus: Volcano3, Saturn 2, Multipressor

Drums stereo bus: Magic Death Eye Compressor

Kick Stereo Bus: Pro-G, Pro Q3, Compressor
Condenser Volcano 3, Pro- R
Dynamic Volcano3

Snare: Volcano 3, Compressor
Send to Chromoverb

Overheads: Volcano 3, Compressor, Pro-R, Stereo Spread
Rack and Floor Toms both have Volcano 3

Tambourine: Saturn 2, Pro-R, Compressor
Additional Mix Elements track: Magic Death Eye Compressor, Pro-Q3

Stereo Bus:
ProQ3, MagciDeathEyeStereo, ProL2

[Ntsakosoul]

Greetings Everyone, I wish every participant good luck on this mixing challenge. I really enjoyed mixing this song and it was my first time mixing a progressive rock song. it was indeed challenging as the song was dynamic. Here's my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-WKAN ... drive_link

Before I start mixing I listen to the song intensively and try to get the emotion of the song till I understand it. Then before any processing, I tried to find a reference song that is similar to this song.

- I started by fixing my level before and processing.
- Grouped every instrument into its category e.g. Drum group, Bass group, Harmonics group, vocals group lastly efx group.
- Inserted every channel with an SSl channel strip plug: SSL 4000 E on drums only and SSl 9000 on other channels.
- Once I'm happy with my levels while referencing then I start with eqing and compressing my drums.
- The same applies to other instruments and efx.
- I then go to my busses and do more treatment on groups specifically compression so I make sure nothing jumps out and creates unnecessary peaks.
- While I do my processing I make sure I reference every time using a MetricAB plugin by "Plugin Alliance".
- There's also a send for parallel compression on my kick, snare, and vocals.
- There's also a send for reverb and delays but I used it suttle.
- My 2 buss have a glue compressor so I tighten up the song.

Good luck Everyone.

[servandisco]

https://we.tl/t-2pBXhYRnMC

File name: MC093_Rocketgoldstar_Born_Taurus_Man_Servandisco.wav

Process:
-import all the tracks into that well known berliner DAW.
- trim silences,
-make groups , (main voice, chorus, Drums, bass, guitars, etc)
-import the reference tracks and color the structure / parts of the reference track according to the amount of energy of the song.
-in order to give more punch to the drums and bass I added compressor & saturator and I automated the amount depending on the part of the song.
-for 'radio effect' I used a ms-20 type filter with a bit of drive.
-for the bass, I used my own chain that I use in my bass when plugged directly. I just used the DI track.
I dedicated to this a couple of hours here and there spread in like 3 or 4 days.
-My mix approach was to keep it as natural as possible.
I didn't used pitch correction and I have been very careful when applying Eq.
in the master track I just slapped a volume level and the free youlean level meter.
Good luck to everyone!

http://servando.teks.no/