MIX CHALLENGE - MC095 December 2023 - Winners announced

[Vongluck]

Hello,

I thank you for this new contest.
This song is original and beautiful with a good voice. But it's not one song, for the mix, the differents parts it's like 4 songs. It was a good challenge.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ftbu6Z ... drive_link

I take an appointment for the next challenge.

A french beginner sound engineer.

[SimaGT]

Hello

This song is very cool andwas really fun to mix because of its diverse dynamics and much more...

I've used alot of modulation through the whole track specially on delay and reverb sends, and man that was real fun.

So to sum it, there was lot of modulation cause this song really calls for it. I have used many plugins but I focused on my new toys from Sonible.(Smart EQ, Comp, and Reverb)to save some time.

Got some UAD La2A and 1176 on vocals KotelnikovGE for some transient cleanup, more colors from tapes and saturators like TR TapeMachine 440 and, Tape MELLO Fi, Magma Lil Tube...ext.

There are some really important Dynamic EQ unmasking setups where I took aux from kick to bass track to make some room for lows, EL GTR 1 track was duplicated and "haased" to get that stereo,
mono chugs just don't work here.

There is alot of small details I took care of, I can even remember them all.

Anyways, awesome song and thank you for providing us with a huge amount of entertainment!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M8Ljtq ... sp=sharing

[Michael_K]

Hello everyone!
Thanks to Christoph K for providing this great track!
Challenging mix, wonderful song!
Drums acoustic: API comp on the kick and 1176 on the snare. All other drum tracks just eq.
Tiny bit of SSL bus-comp on the drum bus.
Drums electro: Just eq, and a little multiband on the kick.
Bass electric: la2a, eq
Bass synth: slicht multi band comp.
All Guitars: SSL channel eq and channel comp.
The electric guitars also go through la3a.
All other instruments just eq.
Lead vocals: 1176, eq, de-ess, v-comp
Backing vocals, same as lead with faster attack.
Mix Bus: SSL Bus comp, Sonnox Inflator(just a touch)
Here is the mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fgpWTo ... YTuGK/view

Good luck to everyone!

[gioele.cortese]

Hi everybody, it's been a while since my last post on the forum.

Before starting, I'd like to thank the guys for the incredible production, the tracks are very neat and the instrumentation very unusual!
My approach was very minimalistic, not great processing but small Eqs and clipping, making every sound sit in its place without mangling it. I tried to spread the panning, leaving the center to the main vocal and the rhythmic stuff.
Comparing with the provided mix, mine is dynamic and warm, leaving lots of headroom and taming the highs. One particular processing is a distorted parallel mix buss that add punch and body without affecting the transient of the mix buss itself.

Hope you enjoy it!

Gioele

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g1Pyk3 ... sp=sharing

[Mork]

Hi,

here's my take, thanks for this "unusual" song!

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

First mix in Luna, so I was a little slow and still have stuff to figure out.
My goal was to let the song grow and become really powerful towards the end.
I think this one is a lot about presentation, there are not that many plugins at work. However, since this is mixed in Luna, "taping" things to take off the edge gets used a lot on drums, vocals, guitars, bass (A800, Oxide). Master gets the ATR. Bread and butter eq is a mixture of API Vision (drums) and MBEQ. Another tool that gets used a lot is LTL Chop Shop for some broad strokes on vocals guitars and keys. Vocal compressor is Fatso, but more for tone and character than control. Vocal Plate is the new Soundtoys Superplate, it's quite good. Two important things to give the rock part some power: The bass guitar is absolutely hammered through an A800. The drum room is hammered through a Distressor on 20:1. I know, nothing special, just classic hammering

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your mix for the extended deadline.
There will be no more extensions or grace periods given.

As of this moment, we have about 47 entries. (45 entries prior to the old deadline, 2 more entries prior to the new deadline).



If you've been sitting on your mix, now is the time to get everything sorted out, post both your link and documentation. Do not forget the deadline. And please triple check that everything is in order (file format, signal strength, accessibility, filename template).

As mentioned multiple times over...

The Filename Template is:
MC095__Arvo_Kim_Noah__Home__ForumUsername.wav

Document your edit, make your file accessible.


Please pay attention to detail. Do not put your entry at risk of being disqualified.
Your submission is final !

[hjchjc]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f184xF ... sp=sharing

Great song! Love how it evolves.

I wanted to go for a very in-your-face but still warm indie rock sound like Bombay Bicycle Club ("Shuffle") or Frightened Rabbit ("Woke Up Hurting").

The biggest challenge was maintaining momentum through the earlier sections without giving too much away about where the song is going.

Going to put all these in a spoiler below:

► Show Spoiler

DRUMS:
Kick: Kramer PYE, Scheps, SubTight
Snare: Omni Channel, 1073, and the PSP Impressor with a send to the UADx Pure Plate Reverb
Trash and Room: Stressors
Drum bus as a StandardClip, sent out to an Xtressor going into a clipper

Bass: heavy mid-range boost from Pro-Q 3, a cut at 2.5khz, and a Distressor

Guitar; Pultec dipping at 300Hz and boosting a Ton at 1.5, a dynamic EQ taking out additional 300hz, and an H-Delay giving a kind of Ben Howard (or John Martyn) sound

I sent that to a 1073 boosting the mids into a Distresssor, a massive low pass all the way down to 53 and the OneKnob Pumper to keep the momentum going during the less rhythmic sections

I know the chugs are really loud but mixing them any lower would lose the rhythmic quality of the track, so I'd rather have them be a little distracting if the overall mix sounds "alive"

BOTTLE Solo: The regular Bottle Solo has Denoiser Pro and Kramer Tape, then that and the amped track are sent to Scheps 73, Xtressor, and TDR Arbiter for resonances.

Bouzoukis: Kramer PIE, Scheps 73, and an ADT Also added a VintageVerb at the end of Bouzouki 3 for a reverb trail effect

Action Strike: Pultec again, FabFilter Micro for some low pass filtering, SubTight, and a low-mid boost to give it some space

Piano melo:
Transient designer, plate reverb, MAAG EQ4 taking a ton off low end and boosting 2.5 and 5khz.

Pitched drops: izotope Ozone Impact, Xstressor, and Pro-Q 3

Piano Pluck: pullet, Logic's binaural panning features

VOCALS (strap in): RX 10 Mouth DeClicker, Denoiser Pro, Scheps 73, UADx LA-2A absolutely SMASHIng with mix on 75% wet, Fairchild to catch the peaks, Essence, TDR Arbiter for resonances.

All that insanity gives a really aggressive vocal sound that still doesn't compromise the intimacy of the earlier verses, to minimize automation on my poor computer.

Sends: VintageVerb verb side-chained to the drums, and a separate instance of 1989Verb for general ambience

Farvox: Superplate, Xtressor, H-Delay, OneKnob Pumper

Home BGs: 1073, low shelf EQ, Kramer Tape for distortion, TDR Arbiter and Pro-MB on bus

"Is this the way back" and additional "home" are various permutations of 1073 and RX de-clicker

Finally, the mix bus is Elysia Alpha (the best mix bus for pumping imo) and SoundToys Sie-Q.

[cpsmusic]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my entry for Mix Challenge 095.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jyrB_7 ... sp=sharing

Thanks to the song provider and to the challenge organisers.

In terms of mix style, I had one primary goal for the mix - achieve good separation between the sound sources so as to be able to create a clear sense of space. This was something that I felt could have been improved in my mix for Mix Challenge 094. To do this I followed Mike White's approach where you use a corrective EQ, functional compressor and then additive EQ and saturation (if needed) on each channel. The basic idea is that the three processors all enhance the "imaging" of the source and position it clearly within the mix.

With respect to references, I followed the song provider's advice ("...rather like to hear your perspective on the track") so I didn't refer to the original mix at all. I used Coldplay's Parachutes album as "spatial reference" however I didn't use Michael Brauer's "Brauerize" mix method.

In light of this, each channel processing was essentially the same. As I'm working in Studio One I used the stock EQ (Pro EQ 3) and stock compressor (Compressor) for the primary tasks. For additive EQ I used Kit's BB N105 which is a Neve 1081-style EQ and preamp. Where I felt the BB N105 wasn't giving me what I wanted I used a range of other plug-ins including Flywheel and Devil-loc on drums, Volume Shaper on guitars and strings, and SSL X-Limit on some of the more dynamic sources. Because I wanted the vocals to be upfront I used a different plug-in chain for them. In this case I used the Lindell 254E compressor and well as the Purple Audio MC77 (1176) compressor. I also added a Lindell 902 de-esser and finally some high-end EQ with Luftikus.

Spatial effects is another area where I followed one of Mike White's ideas of adding early reflections (or a sense of "space") to each instrument group, before then using more conventional delays and reverbs. This varied across each instrument group. The drums used a short stereo delay, the bass used the Symphonic preset from my SPX990 (what else!), the guitars and keys used a spring reverb, while the vocals used a conventional H3000 Factory vocal widener. The main reverb was from my Roland SRV-330 (stereo plate) which I enhanced with pre and post delays, saturation and pitch-shifting. I also used a small room reverb for contrast in one part of the song.

Most of the mix was done with nothing on the mixbus! In the end I decided to add the SSL Bus Compressor doing minimal gain reduction and then Oxford Inflator for its "magic", and finally MSED for a little additional stereo width.

Specs:

24-bit/44.1 kHz
-19.0 LUFS (int.)
-1.4 dBTP

Good luck to all contestants and once again thanks to everyone involved in the challenge.

Cheers!

[ggibson1988]

Thanks @Christoph_K for providing this interesting production. I really loved the tonality of this song.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a6MRPy ... share_link

After rough leveling. Applied UAD LA2A Silver plug-in to highly dynamic instruments (Guitars, Bouzuki, Piano, FX, and most vocals) to tame peaks. Level matched prior to GR. Focused on “average” dB sections, and sed GR just below needle moving in those sections.
Then Added CLA76 for further compression. Focused on highest peaks and set to 3dB of GR @ 4:1 ratio, then level matched. Then EQ to taste.


All compression on drums was done with either stock PT compressor, UAD’s version of Empirical Labs Distressor, and or CLA76.

All drums sent to 2 aux’s, one for normal processing including API 2500 bus compressor and Pultec EQ’s.
The other for Parallel Compression with same plug-ins plus CLA76 fast attack, fast release, crushed at 20:1 ratio then folded in just until audible.

Added plate and room reverb to background vocals, and plate reverb to lead vocals.

Added 1/2 note reverse delay to 1st phrase of Lead Vocals and 1/2 note standard delay on exit of 1st phrase as well as 2nd phrase.

Guitars, Vocals, Drums, Bass, Keys and FX all sent to separate leveling faders. Then drums and bass sent to their own fader, instruments, vocals and FX sent to another fader, both of these bussed to Mix Bus with light compression, saturation and gentle EQ.

Monitored for loudness using Youlean Loudness Meter 2 and Tonal Balance Control.

[crispy]

Hello

nice song, I had fun mixing it!

Gone pretty heavy on compression, eq, saturation, reverb and delay to achieve a solid and colorfull mix.

For compression I mainly uesd Kazrog Avalon VT-747SP and Mixland Vac Attack, very nice compressors, I highly reccomend to give them a free try if you havn't already
I also used PA SPL IRON on the stereo mix bus on mid side mode.

For EQ I mainly used DMG AUDIO EQuilibrium (really the best sounding parametric EQ to me).

I also used PA AMEK 200 EQ on the first kick because I like the colour it gives on the 50 Hz and Harrys Doyle Natalus DSCEQ on the drum bus.

For saturation I used KILOHEARTS DISTORTION on bass, on rev guitar, on the final verse vocals and on some other sound probably I don't remember.

Some instance of KILOHEARTZ TRANSIENT SHAPER to enhance some transients like on firs kick and other elements.

Some KILOHEARTZ GATE where needed, a couple of waves NS1 for noise reduction and a couple of LFO TOOL to autopan main guitar and live HH to create some movement.

For reverb I used my go to one NI RAUM, really a hidden gem to me and for delay VALHALLA DELAY, mainly on vocals, automating the send just on some words.

I also used one KILOHEARTZ BITCRUSH on MAIN GTR ECHO automating the rate to create a nice effect.

Max loudness peak is at about -16 lufs as requested.

Hope you enjoy it!


Merry Christmas, stay creative, stay crispy ;D


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