MIX CHALLENGE - MC076 May 2021 - Winners announced

[Ungifted]

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"...

Sorry for the inconvenience, it was a pleasure anyway, even if it pulls down a little to be disqualified now.

[ciaranchrisoshea]

Hey folks!!

First of all great Production this month, had a ton of fun mixing this! Thanks to Suspicious Flashlight and to Mr.Fox for all their hard work.

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

Stats:

Integrated LUFS -19.8
True Peak Max -2.7


Mixing Plan:

My idea for this mix was to accent as much as possible the Disco/Pop aspect of the Production, with a focus on the vocals throughout. A mellow electro pop track that you could dance to basically! Trying to keep it punchy and textured was the balance i was constantly reaching for.

Pre-Mix:

Hp/Lp filtering on a lot of the elements to clean up any unwanted frequencies.

Drums:

Bx SSL 9000G was used pretty much across the board here to do EQ and small amounts of compression. Not a whole lot compression but enough to squeeze a lot of the groove together. I used the UAD Pultec EQ-1 on the kick drum to fatten up that 60Hz fundamental, but that ran into a Pro-Q 3 to tame the low lows and cut a little 80-100 for the bass guitar to sit into

I used a Waves RBass on the 808 Toms to coax some more low end from them, and did a large cut in around the 350-400 range to make them cleaner and less muddy.
Snare and Tom reverbs were using Waves H-Verb with slightly different Pre-Delay and decay settings.

The only other thing to note was the "Drumloop" track was washed out with HP Eq and a stereo Delay just to give the chorus more movement and background groove and texture.

Bass:

On the Bass I highpassed at around 45Hz, cut a small bit at 60 Hz to let the kick live and ran that into the RBass for more low end. That fed directly back into the High Pass and the 60Hz cut again to tame that a little.

I then Eq'd and compressed the bass using the SSL, cutting a little 250 wooliness I heard. A little Sans Amp after this and then finally into the MV2 from Waves to even out the performance as a whole.

Guitar:

The guitar no.1 I found a little more tricky to get the tone that I was going for. I ended up using the SSL to Eq and comopress, putting on a HP filter up to 180Hz in tandem with a boost at this frequency to create a little resonance here. I shaved off a little of the highs, and ran it through 2 Aux's, A H-Verb and AIR Phaser for some Character.
Guitar no.2 was hardly touched.

Pads:

The pads I ended up using a Mid-Side Eq process to remove a lot of the low mids from the Mid Signal and Pushed the High Mids in the side signal to push these instruments to the side and clear up the middle channel for vocals.

Piano/Rhodes:

Very Similar to the Pads, Mid/Side to clean up the centre and push them out from the centre a little. I also used a Transient Designer on the Piano to get a little more attack and presence from the piano as i thought it really lifts the Chorus rhythm. These also got treated to a little Verb using the Waves H-Verb.

Vocals:

Vocals were first of all bussed together to Process as a whole. I used my standard enough Vocal chain here.
Staring with The Pro-Q 3 dynamic EQ, I tamed any frequencies I didn't like the resonance of with a very narrow Q. I paired this up with a HPF around 100HZ.

This then into Waves Sibilance to tame the sibilance. After I had a nice clean signal, this Fed into Waves R-Vox for a little compression and to bring out some Low-Mids. After this the UAD LA-2A to even the vocals even more. Not a lot of compression but enough to even everything out.

I finished with another Waves Sibilance barely touching the Vocals for good measure and then finally a UAD Pultec eqp1 to add a little sheen around 8Kz and up.

FX Wise on the vocals i had Auxiliaries set up to do a Plate Reverb (Avid D-Verb), that was high and low filtered, sidechained to the vocals to duck and then Saturated with Decapitator for texture. I also used a Dynamic Delay using Echoboy for width and finally a stereo Verb using H-Verb with a long Decay as an overall textural thing.
All the FX were bused to a VCA FX channel and Automated throughout the track.

I added a Vocal Delay throw leading into the 2nd Chorus using the Echoboy also on the "Unlock Your Mind" lyric to add a little more drama going into the Chorus.

BV's:

BV's, again simple enough. All bussed together, Bx SSL9000 for Eq and a little Compression, this fed into a UAD LA-2a for a little smoothness.

Auxiliary send on these was the UAD- Realverb Pro, which gives a lovely wide spread. This Reverb was filtered high and low also to clear space and reduce muddiness.

Automation:

All the Main busses were volume Automated using my Faderport to add movement and drama leading into different sections. I also Automated each instrument to poke its head out of the mix wherever there was a little space to be had!

Mix Bus:

Nothing really. A Pultec EQ-1 pushing a little 12k on a very high Bandwidth and a Bx Townhouse Bus Compressor doing at MAX 2dB compression with a Sidechain Filter at 110Hz to allow the Lows to pass through.


I think that covers everything!!! Thanks again all involved and good luck to everybody in the competition!!

Ciarán

[loger]

Hi everyone
Nothing special one this mix, just the basics stuff
eq, comp and reverb.
The song are very cool i enjoyed to mix it,i mixed it quickly cause i'm a noob at mixing and i'm done to waste my time on a mix for bad result.
(I hope i'll be at least in round 2)
Good luck everyone!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fLoQp6 ... sp=sharing

[dnlptn]

Hi all, here is my entry. Thanks Christoph for a fun track, hope you enjoy it!

Drive link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18FWUAb ... sp=sharing

Lead Vocals
EQ, Comp (BF-76), Decapitator
Lexicon 224 Verb (with gate), Primaltap before the reverb in the choruses

Kick
EQ, Comp, Rbass, Pultec EQ
Snare
EQ, Comp, Rbass, Decapitator
Reverse Crash 1
Small amount of time-adjuster to line it up with the clap.
Gate to make the cutoff snappier

Drum Buss
Shadow Hills comp
Pultec EQ

Bass
EQ, Rbass, MV2, SC comp to the kick

Guitar
EQ, Comp, Decapitator, Gate, SC comp to the vocals

Synths&Strings
EQ, Comp, Decapitator, SC comp to the kick for small amount of pump

Verbs
lexicon 224, valhalla plate, R4, nimbus, some with gates

Mix Bus
Bx Townhouse, UAD manley passive

[Estudio del Leon]

Hi!! here is my mix!!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

great song! very funny!

i use HP and LP to clean!
add a lot of stereo image, i want the song very big.
i use automation! A lot of!!!
and i love saturation!

good luck!!!

[jules666]

Hi All,

Thanks as usual to Mister Fox for organising this, and to Christoph_K for supplying the track this month.
Not the sort of stuff I listen to or ever really try and mix, but thats why I like it here as I am getting to really try and push my mixing skills with lots of genre's

YouLean showed the final levels as:
Integrated = -17.3
True Peak = -3.9 dB

My process, which is probably a little all over the place using REAPER was:

Main Drums Bus:

Tom/Conga & Drum loop directly to main "Main Drum Bus"
TOM: Scheps Omni to sculpt the sound, using a bit of thump and saturation, gated to tighten the tail a little, heavy compression then hard clipped (Kclip3).
Conga Loop: Some EQ and comp (1176 - IK Media), Smooth Operator to tame some highs, then into a limiter to tame some peaks.
Drum Loop: Some EQ, into 1176 and then Kclip3 again to shave the peaks off.

KICK/Snare: In same folder with some EQ on, routed to "All Drum Bus"
Duplicated Kick track
Kick 1 going into bx_console Focusrite for some EQ/Comp. Then in Pultec EQ (Waves) and finally into an 1176(IK Media).
Kick 2 was just EQ'd to give a bell around 1.5k with a wide Q, and pulling down each side, liked the sound I got and blended in with Kick 1.

Snare: Scheps Omni and Kclip3 to try and improve the thump.

Perc Folder:
Everything else on the percussion side went into this folder, before then going to the "All Drum Bus".
SSL 4000 G (Plugin Alliance) used most track for EQ and some light compression.
If the SSL was not used it was only EQ using Maag EQ 4

Drum Sends:
-Created a "Kick/Snare" only parallel send as I wanted to tighten them up, using an 1176

-Drum crush bus 1 with EQ, mainly HP around 60Hz, going into a Mercurial Audio "greed Smasher" to add some overdrive then another eq to pull some mid back out around 3.5k, blended to taste.

-Drum crush bus 2 - Black Box, using just mid processing, to push more around in and blended again to help make what I hope is good sounding drum sound.

Bass Bus:

Bass Folder feeding into main "Bass Bus": which also has some EQ (pultec) and smooth operator and an 1176 on it.

Duplicated Bass DI and on of them added Scheps Omni to shape a little before using TH3 and their "ampeg" emulator. Then into a Pultec EQ and puigchild 660 compressor.
Second Bass DI had everything above 1k rolled off, then into a SSL 4000 G for a little more EQ and then Puigchild 660 compressor.

Bass Send: Had some saturation (Audio Assault - XCTR) taking a feed from the Bass folder and blended into the main Bass Bus.

GTR Bus:
Duplicated DI and panned hard left/right
10ms delay added to Right side to try and help fatten this up.

Both tracks use a Diezel VH4 (Plugin Alliance) on a clean setting, with the treble rolled back quite a bit. Then into the Black Box to add some harmonic warmth.

GTR Dist: Just added some EQ and Black Box.

Guitar Sends: only the clean guitars was sent to these:
- Created a phaser/chorus sound using TH3 and blended in
- Reverb: Plate using Arturia Plate-140
- Delay: ADA with a slapback that is just to try and thicken the sound

ALL Vocals Bus:

Lead Vox Folder: Used a LA2 type compressor on this folder with it set to only compress above 1K. Followed by some EQ and then into a Purple Audio MC77 (plugin Alliance), which supplied some stero width.

All main vocals went in this "Lead Vox" folder and they were processed indivually, but all with a combination Waves Sibilance, Pultec EQ and 1176 for compression

The outro chous vocal was duplicated with a copy in the lead vox folder and the other copy in the BG Folder (see below). Melodyne was used to tweak 2 word on the Outro Chorus - "same stars" (the 2nd time it was repeated) - the original just sounded odd to me and stood out heavily when I processed in the telephone effect(maybe the sound was an result when the vocals were sped up?).

VOX - BG Folder: LA2 comp again on the 1K and higher and some EQ to roll off high/low a tad.

The BG vox tracks just had some EQ, compression and tried a little bit of Smooth Operator on these as well.
I also duplicated the Outro Chorus Vocal track here (same effects as the track in the Lead Vox folder, but also added an EQ with a high pass around 850hZ going into the Waves J37 to get a subtle "telephone" sound.

Following sends were set up for vocals to be routed to:
x 2 Reverbs - used a couple here (Waves Epic & Softube TSAR-1R) here and blended to taste
Waves ADT2V: Doubling effect
Chorus (Arturia Jun-6)
"Vox Bright" send using the Scheps technique of 2 pultecs and a LA 2 in the middle.

Instrument Bus: All other instruments fed into here, with just some EQ and smooth operator on the actual bus.

Scheps Omni on all pretty much all the instruments for EQ/Comp.
SoloSynth and Bursted Flute: ADA flanger added as insert on both of these tracks to give them a bit more depth.
Solosynth also had some saturation added (SGA1566).

Blip - was sent to a ping pong delay (Waves H-Delay)
Strings/Solosynth/Bursted Flute: sent a little of these to these some of the vocal sends, mainly the ADT2V, and reverbs.

Main Bus:
EQ - Maag EQ4 for some air band boost
Puigchild 670 just doing a some subtle compression 1-2dB max of gain reduction
Youlean loudness meter

There is automation here and there to help brings thing out, especially around the outro choruse.

Think that is it, hope you like!



Link to listen is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XQF5JN ... sp=sharing

[Elver]

Hello,
I Love Groovy Sound like This

Here is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vON8gi ... sp=sharing

MainVocals:
After cleaning out some harshness I send all vocals to one bus into CLA-76 for Radio Vocal sound
then I add some Vintage delay for the texture and Aireq for some AIR, after that, I send the vocals to the Plate reverb to glue this with the other instruments

Drums&Bass:
First, Clean the muddiness
Second, send those summed drum bass to one compressor BSS-402,Ratio 2\Attack 200\release 150

Clap/OH/Percussion:
Some EQs and all send to DPR-402 for the glue and De-esser

GTRs:
Soundtoys Echoboy delay
Tape simulate&saturation that's all

Snare:
EQing for some clean hi-end an punchy sound,tape simulate for texture

Plugins I've used,
SeventhHevean Reverb
Soundtoys Radiator
Bx_V3 eq
AA Coral2 eq
Weiss Limiter
Cla-76
Cla-2a
AA lemon delay
Eiosis AirEQ
soundtoys microshift
Softube Abbey Road EQ
d-verb
Nimus Reverb
StereoSavage
AA Tape
API-2500 from waves
Soundtoys Panman
PSP PianoVerb/Spring Reverb
Elysia Phil's Cascade
S1 imager
Soundtoys echoboy
Waves Bss dpr-402
Bx-Subfilter

Wish you all well!

[AndyM]

Here's my Mix. Great track to Mix.

https://signalflowau-my.sharepoint.com/ ... Q?e=SETqr1

- Scheps Omini Channel on most tracks for EQ, Filters, Compression.

- Used Rear Mix bus technique for Parallel Mix compression.

- Lead Vox had RVox Vox and 1176 Parellel Compression with Pultec Eq - FX delays, Plate Reverbs with some throws throughout

- Some of the Vocal lines that were heavily compressed I seperated and added back the top end they'd seem to have lost in the recording.

- BV's all had parallel Compression with Abbey Road Plugin

- Bass lows and mids were compressed serpately

- Drum mix had light compression and Kick and Snare had Parallel 1176 Compression.

[RodA]

Spent way too long working on this. Fun song.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kpagwrnl6wjwb ... A.wav?dl=0

Firstly I routed all tracks to one of four busses. LO-END, DRUMS, MUSIC, VOX. The Kick and Bass went to the LO-END. All other percussive elements to DRUMS. Everything else except vocals to MUSIC. All vocals to VOX. I like to mix the lo-end on its own bus but this means the kick is separated from the drums so I put a compressor on the DRUM BUS sidechained to the kick which allows me to have these elements interact.

GUITAR 1.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkcakno1cgdp7 ... r.png?dl=0
No I’ve not rearranged the intro; it is still the guitar just heavily processed. Here’s some of the plugin settings. I’ve used the Pedal board to parallel process (compression, distortion and chorus) stereo delay is a 1/16 note stereo . A lot of the sound comes from the Phat FX; I used a preset called Resonant stutter and tweaked it a bit. SENDS L.R-MU is a 3 sec. hall reverb. L.D-MU is a 1/4 note stereo delay. CH-MU is chorus. The rest of the guitar is has some parallel compression, high pass EQ and logics amp Fender sim.

BASS
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvc90ux1eufot ... S.png?dl=0
Some parallel distortion. Broad boost with logics tube EQ at 6khz (really its boosting down to about to 1khz). The only compression is on the LO-END bus compressing the kick and bass together about 3db(Vintage FET 50ms attack).

BD-KICK
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ocjx1278g2g0f ... K.png?dl=0
Stillwells Transient Monster to increase transient and reduce the tail volume. Parallel distortion. Tube EQ using pultec lo-end trick to add thump. Logic platinum comp with long attack 65ms and longer release to further add transient and reduce tail.

SD-SNARE
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgppackqfhxsb ... e.png?dl=0
Channel Eq high shelf 5.5 db boost from 2 kHz. Transient Monster adding attack. Tube Eq broad boost at 16 kHz (again its really boosting along way down the spectrum). No compression.

808 TOMS
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qq2wzmcaimbre ... S.png?dl=0
I’ve really made an effect of the toms with a big stereo delay 1/4 note on the left; 1/2 note on the right but with the left feeding back into the right so the whole delay pans back and forth. The delays are high passed at 980 hz so it doesn’t muddy up to low mids.

HH1-HIHAT
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rhkw696p4xrabr9/6HH1.png?dl=0
Big delay also on this Hi-Hat sound. Stereo 1/4 note; 1/2 note. 50% feedback

PIANO
https://www.dropbox.com/s/neh5gosi10t1g ... O.png?dl=0
A lot of parallel distortion on this. In isolation kinda sounds horrible but adds beef to the mix. Mid-high boost with Tube EQ and logics exciter plugin

RHODES
Added tremolo. Logics exciter

STRINGS AND GLASS PAD
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1n3m0vwz4im9 ... S.png?dl=0
Used logics Tremolo plugin to turn these into rhythmic elements pulsing at 1/4 notes; one in the left one in the right. Used similar effect on SOLO SYNTH.

LV MAIN VOCALS
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9g2h2vtt7hikk ... L.png?dl=0
High pass 50hz. Tube EQ broad boost at 16 kHz. Vintage Opto comp. 20ms attack. 500ms release. 5:1 ratio. Max 6db reduction. Pedalboard for parallel compression and distortion which is EQ’ed to mainly affect the mids to help the vocal cut through. Exciter to add sparkle above 10khz. Logic multipressor as de-esser. A lot of automation; volume as well as on delay and reverb sends. I added a send called WIDTH and added logics pitch shift plugin. I used it to pitch shift and delay the right and left very slightly differently; dialled this in to create width on the vocal.

I used dynamic EQ on both the MUSIC and DRUM busses which I side chained to the vocal. In this way I could have the music and percussion very slightly ducked by the vocal

Towards the end monitoring in mono I felt the reverb was a bit muddying so I cut more low out and used channel EQ in MID mode to reduce the reverb in middle but leave it in the sides. I used BrunoMars ‘Versace On The Floor’ as my main reference.

Cheers. Thanks again to the song provider; really fun to work on. And Mr Fox.

[NGGstudios]

Firstly congratulations for such an energetic song, i ve made my first mix with my new reference monitor.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q6I_Bv ... sp=sharing

My main goal for this mix to obtain overall clean and fresh mix. To do this i almost put hp and lp filters to almost every channel according to channels need.

For Drums, i balanced all rhythmic elements (general volume, pan, hp & lp filtering) then send all off them to a bus which called drum bus. And tried the glue percussion elements with waves Ssl comp. And a tiny reverb to fullness.

For Bass, it was pretty muddy sounded at first, i ve made eqing for fixing muddines. I ve made Sİdechain compression to make space for kick hits.

For Gtr, all i did was little tape saturation to colorize it.

For Piano and Rhodes, i tried top find sweet spot between them, asnd little eqing.

For Pads, i put hp and sidechain with vocals to give space to vocals.

For Vocals, basic hp lp and slate Vmr eq and colorizing compression.

AlL Channels had been routed to its respected busses. Then sends ara set to fx channels which include delay and reverb.