MIX CHALLENGE - MC076 May 2021 - Winners announced

[elroms]

Hey Christoph_K thanks for the multi track, really nice one to mix!

Here is my submission : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jBav35 ... sp=sharing

I applied classic EQ and compression on the drums, and gathered the snare and claps to a group which I sent to a medium chamber reverb. I decided to treat the drumloop track with saturation, heavy compression and reverb.

I applied saturation to the bass among other things (EQ, compression...)

For the melodic tracks, I applied a small hall reverb to the piano to make it more spacious. I kept the guitar 1 in mono but gave it a bit of reverb too.
I put the drip plugin by Kyle Beatson the strings, the solo synth and the bursted flute which give them quite a nice creative effect.
I also applied some delay and auto pan on the blip arp track.

I opted for a large room reverb for the lead vocal, I wanted to keep it clean given that the rest of the mix is quite spacious, I hope it is not too dry to your taste. I also sent it in parallel to a track i which in applied vintage excitation and more compression, to keep it above the mix.

Cheers!

[Coiled_Ear]

I absolutely love this song, so groovy but calm!
To get the most out of it however I applied a huge amount of different tricks.
And the first one is time correcting. Just phasing tracks via internal track delay (+ and -) in Ableton to get groove more punchy and stable. Especially good with interaction of the kick and the rest of percussion. Got very nice (imo) rhythmic result adjusting elements even by 30ms forward and backwards and also moves tracks when getting in trouble just visually taking the kick drum as a guide track. Better separation between instruments was been also as resulting goal.
Next thing is cutting excessive midrange on the most instruments to get vocal a space. Pretty common technique instead of correcting vocal by EQ and get harsh results then. And EQ is not good for that kind of operation imo, Fabfilter ProMB with its super clean filter is much better option. Just one huge band just to tame out midrange but not change the sound of instruments.
Also transient shaper was in the game. To glue up all drum section and cut excessive release on some elements especially FXed vocal parts or so.
Then go to compression side for taming instruments at their virtual place. Analog Absession LALA was the greatest and freebiest choise for that purpose.
Also some kind of console emulation from Analog Obsession to make some instruments like guitar strong. It also comes in when you decided to place an instruments somewhere in stereo and its lost it's bottomness and strenght. Console like emulation fixed that. And also then Klanghelm SDRR for more advanced (tweaking) solution.
So good luck every one in this challenge, cheers!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/049mtv0g9bkhb ... r.wav?dl=0

[A-Max]

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

Hello everybody.
I'm Max from Torino, Italy and I apologize if my english is not good. (I hope the mix is better).

I have to say, this is an interesting song, love the vibe.
I used Cubase 10 for mixing and I passed a good amount of time with gain staging trying to leveling the tracks, then I started to eq the tracks.

Every section (Drums, bass, guitar, vocals etc etc) has its own subgroup.
I didn't want too much effects, just a bit of "freshness" here and there.

For Drums just Eq on Bass Drum, volume leveling, pans, some stereo widener on certain tracks (808 toms and claps)
Bass : eq and a bit of compression
Guitar : on the rhythm one just eq and a bit of reverb
Keyboards : delay and chorus on the sequence. The rest of the tracks are "as they are"
Lead Vocals : I love to work on vocals and I hope you like them. Compression, Eq and Exciter in insert. Reverb, delay and chorus on sends. I also added some doubler
Background Vocals : just compression, exciter and some effects on sends


Hope you enjoy my mix.

Max

[alavault]

Hello,
Mix : [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GEdSwY ... sp=sharing]

Funny song to mix. And now, bullet points time :

• Clean GTR :
  • Limiter on GTR 1 we
  • GTR2 into saturator
  • EQ + comp on bus. Sent into stereo delay, 1/8D delay, short verb, parallel GTR comp and flanger
• Solo Synth :
  • Amp emulation (TH-u w/ SLO100)
  • EQ + comp on bus. Sent into stereo delay, 1/4 delay, short, plate and shimmer verb, parallel GTR comp
• Bass :
  • DI + time aligned SansAmp
  • On the bus, Sub harmonic into multiband comp into limiter into EQ + comp on bus. Sent short verb, parallel comp and flanger
• Lead Vox:
  • 1176 on each track (ratio 4, att. 1, rel 7)
  • On the bus, leveler (VOLA2) into EQ, deesser into limiter and widener. Sent into vocal parallel comp, slap,1/4 and 1/2 note delays, plate and medium verbs
• BG Vox:
  • 1176 on each track (ratio 4, att. 1, rel 7)
  • On the bus, EQ + comp into widener. Sent into vocal parallel comp, flanger, short and long verbs
• Drums:
  • Kick : distortion into EQ. Sent into short and gated verb + parallel comp
  • Snare: distortion (a lot of it) into EQ. Sent into short and gated verb + parallel comp
  • "transitional" snare (before choruses) : EQ into distortion, different settings than original
  • Toms & conga: EQ + limiter. Sent into short and medium verb + parallel comp
  • The rest : EQ+comp. Some delay on the reverse crashes
• Keys and synth:
  • Blip Arp : auto pan + EQ-comp, sent into stereo delay
  • Bursted flute : flanger + delay + long verb.
  • Pads/Strings : EQ-comp. Sent into shimmer verb.
  • Keys : EQ-comp. Flanger on rhodes
  • On the bus, nothing. Sent into parallel GTR Bus
• Master Bus: Kotelnikov in Pt-EQx into limiter
• Automation : Fx muting and master volume

[Ungifted]

Thank you for the great opportunity to mix this fine track. My favorite moment in this song is at minute 2:00:
The second repeat of "you hold the key to unlock you mind" is sounding so great, it has a touch of glam rock.

Here is my version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flbgm1ttbr7g6 ... d.wav?dl=0

Notes:

After listening to the rough tracks I had the idea to go for a more funky version than the original mix, the vocals sounded perfect for this ...and there is a Rhodes! First I tried to get the bass in groove with the rythm parts, sacrificed the kickdrum for a more pronounced bassline, used Oxford Dynamic EQ for expanding and ducking around the kickdrum. I never used this much different reverb sends on a mix before, but I tried to give some parts a lush verb while other parts stay short and focused. Had some fights with a flock of transients and I preferred to use clipping and saturation before comps/limiters on the busses. Masked the outro vocal line slap with more saturation and delays.

Stats:

Mixed in Reaper DAW
Integrated loudness -16,9 LUFS, with enough headroom for mastering

9 busses (group folders)
- drums
- loops
- bass
- voc lead
- voc BG
- guits
- synth
- keys
- fx sends

12 fx sends:
- kick+Bass-Verb (very short, just for the groove)
- clap doubler
- vocals crush reverb (short and distorted reverb)
- vocals reverb
- lead vocals doubler
- background vocals plate
- snare reverb
- percussion reverb
- guitars delay
- synth delay
- guitars reverb
- outro vocals delay

Master buss:
- Toneboosters EQ 4 (as dynamic eq)
- Acustica Audo Opal EQ (just for the tone of itself and small nuances)
- Acustica Audio Snow Master Buss (master buss compression and texture)
- Newfangled Audio Saturate (as a last safety transient catcher with no gain increase)

FX in total:

Acustica Audio
- 1x Amber 3 Comp - lead vocal buss
- 3x Blonde Premixer - busses
- 2x Cream 2 Comp - bass and drum buss
- 1x Cream 2 EQ - bass
- 1x Lemon Delay - outro vocals
- 1x Lemon Stereo Delay - guitar delay
- 1x Opal EQ - master buss
- 2x Snow EQ
- 1x Snow MB - master buss
- 1x Titanium Basstard - bass
- 1x Ultramarine 4 - lead vocal buss
- 1x Ultramarine EQ27 - GTR1
Audiority
- 1x Tube Modular - panning effect on synth blip
Blue Cat Audio
- 1x Late Replies - synth delay
Exponential Audio
- 1x Phoenix Verb - percussion
IK Multimedia
- 1x Amplitube 5 - bass doubled and amped
iZotope
- 2x Ozone Imager
Liquid Sonics
- 6x Reverberate
Melda Productions
- 1x SpectralDelay - bursted flute
- 2x Unison - doubler
Newfangled Audio
- 1x Punctuate - transient shaper drum buss
- 1x Saturate - master buss
Plugin Alliance
- 1x Ampeg SVTR Classic - GTR1 over amped
SIR Audio
- 3x StandardCLIP
Sonnox
- Oxford Dynamic EQ - bass
Sonic Charge
- 2x Echobode - amped bass and GTR2
Toneboosters
- 2x TB Compressor 4
- 12x TB Equalizer 4
Wavesfactory
- 4x Spectre - saturation

Cheers from Hamburg, Germany
Bianca
(Ungifted)

[Clueless]

Thank you for the great opportunity to mix this fine track. My favorite moment in this song is at minute 2:00:
The second repeat of "you hold the key to unlock you mind" is sounding so great, it has a touch of glam rock.

Here is my version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flbgm1ttbr7g6 ... d.wav?dl=0

Notes:

After listening to the rough tracks I had the idea to go for a more funky version than the original mix, the vocals sounded perfect for this ...and there is a Rhodes! First I tried to get the bass in groove with the rythm parts, sacrificed the kickdrum for a more pronounced bassline, used Oxford Dynamic EQ for expanding and ducking around the kickdrum. I never used this much different reverb sends on a mix before, but I tried to give some parts a lush verb while other parts stay short and focused. Had some fights with a flock of transients and I preferred to use clipping and saturation before comps/limiters on the busses. Masked the outro vocal line slap with more saturation and delays.

Stats:

Mixed in Reaper DAW
Integrated loudness -15,2 LUFS, with enough headroom for mastering

(Ungifted)

If this is okay, then I apologise
However
Sorry to be bearer of bad news
As per Rulebook

viewforum.php?f=20

the final mixdown / export must not undershoot -24 LUFS ILk (Integrated), neither exceed -16 LUFS ILk (Integrated), while the maximum digital signal strength must not exceed -1.0 dBTP (True Peak) - NO (Pre)MASTERING. Recommended measurement specifications are ITU-R BS.1770-2+ (ideally ITU-R BS.1770-4) or EBU R-128

[pabloAT]

Dear all,
Please find below my mix for MC076. Many thanks the song provider for this nice track to mix and to Mr. Fox for taking care of the game.

[Dropbox link to MC076]

DAW = Cubase 11.0
Integrated LUFS = -18.6
True Peak = -3.77 dB
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

Preliminary work : cleaning-up, raw balance, panning/stereo spreading, HPF on all tracks (>20 Hz depending on the track), LPF on some tracks. All tracks benefited from a SSL-4000 E console to reinforce the "dancing" vibe of the song.

Drums
I’ve created 2 main groups: drumkits & cymbals and percussions. Most sound modifications were done with the EQ, filters and compressors from the SSL console. On the HH2 I’ve also applied an API-560 to better control the higher end. The 3D position of Claps1, drumloop, tambourine and shaker were reinforced with a dbx-160 compressor

Bass
I’ve rounded the sound with a CLA-2A compressor. Additionally, RBass and parallel saturation were used to reinforce the low end.

Electric guitars
Duplicated the DI and reamped, then panned L/R. DI and GTR2 benefited from a CLA-3A compressor. A tube modulator FX was added to GTR2.

Synths and piano group
Lots of leveling, panning and chirurgical EQing to fit everything in the mix. Piano and Rhodes panned hard L/R.

Vocals
I’ve put vocals in the front, where I’ve intensively worked on EQing, compressing (Kramer Pie), de-essing. The BV benefited from a CLA-3A compressor and a bit of chorus JUN-6 that I liked. I finished with several sendings to reverbs and delays.

Master Buss
Console SSL-4000 E plus a very gentle SSL compressor, and tape saturation.

All the best to the participants!
Pablo

[Ungifted]

If this is okay, then I apologise
However
Sorry to be bearer of bad news
As per Rulebook

viewforum.php?f=20

the final mixdown / export must not undershoot -24 LUFS ILk (Integrated), neither exceed -16 LUFS ILk (Integrated), while the maximum digital signal strength must not exceed -1.0 dBTP (True Peak) - NO (Pre)MASTERING. Recommended measurement specifications are ITU-R BS.1770-2+ (ideally ITU-R BS.1770-4) or EBU R-128

Thank you for the hint, updated it.

[Mister Fox]

Please, everyone... we do have established Rules and Guidelines. If you have been with the community for a years, but haven't participated in a while, get re-acquainted with them before uploading / linking anything.


With the entry by @Ungifted:
An "overshot" would have resulted in an option to access a wild card (if you are selected for Mix Round 2). But now, this is a non-allowed "resubmission"...

[EmZU]

• Hello,
  I did the mix in Cubase 10
  Kick: I added dirt from the Decapitator and subtracted the EQ -3db 530khz
  Snare: I cleaned up the dirt and added NON LINEAR reverb
  Bass: Compression from Distressor without EQ was used
  Vocals: Fabfilter, Distressor, automation
  On other instruments I used an EQ and Cubase compressor
  Reverb: integrated from Cubase and Altiverb

https://www.dropbox.com/s/133g68ejkaxnk ... U.wav?dl=0