MIX CHALLENGE - MC077 June 2021 - Winners announced

[Dodgingrain]

@RodA Just curious, Is the song your material or was it taken from the Cambridge library?

[Mister Fox]

Let's cut this short here.

@Dodgingrain, @alavault and @White Punk OD, if you have further questions on possible licensing/use of the material outside of the scope of the Mix(ing) Challenge, please reach out to RodA directly.

This forum (as of this very moment) is merely providing access to the material as part of a competition. I have a specific deal with the corresponding song provider/producer for the month in question. The rights will always lie with the original songwriter and/or producers (also see: Cambridge-MT FAQ on using the material as part of a portfolio or a video tutorial - I fully agree with Mike Senior here - maybe I should adapt that in a dedicated FAQ).



Regarding the copyrights:
"Keystone Angel" was/is a collaborative project by Hiedi Limebeer and Rod Alexander (@RodA).

As also mentioned below the Youtube video:
Music written - Hiedi Limebeer and Rod Alexander
Music Produced/mixed - Rod Alexander

Attributed credits to @RodA can also be found via:
"triple j Unearthed" and "SoundBetter"


Please direct any future questions on that topic to RodA in form of a PM. Thank you!



Mix Round 2 is still in full swing.
Including today, 4 days left for your edit

[elroms]

Thanks for chosing my mix! Here is the new version : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VQpgND ... sp=sharing

Although I don’t mind the reverb on the vocal I feel it pushes the relative position of the vocal when compared to the music too far back into the distance.

I lowered the decay time and also the overall volume of the reverb by 2dB

Also it would be great the hear the piano cut through a bit more especially between vocal phrases.

I raised a tiny bit the low end piano (about 0.5 dB) and then the overall piano group by about 1.5 dB. I also added a dynamic EQ sidechained from the lead voice to the piano group, to give more space to the vocals.

Cheers!

[alavault]

Hello,
First, thank you @RodA for choosing my mix for round 2 !
White Punk OD raised a good question : can we use the mix in our portfolios ? If so, how are we supposed to make it work while respecting copyright laws ?

The edit is not yet uploaded, but what has been done is :

• More aggressive filtering on the reverb sends to reduce muddiness (?)
• Changed pre-delay on medium verb (9ms->16ms, #PCM60)
• MS EQ on the master bus, for muddiness hunting
• Supplementary EQ on piano, because...reasons ?
• Fixed some routing oddities with the flanger
• Added a parallel stereo widener (on vox and keys). For science.

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

[s&f]

S&F
Very strong bass drum I think maybe a bit too much. Think maybe this needs more attention to getting the low mid region too work. The piano and vocal in the 150 to 500 hz region.

Hi Roda, thank u for choosing my mix for round2.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv0k89u07fqig ... 2.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yeqhug4acnybj ... 2.wav?dl=0

Here's what I did for the 2nd round:
-took out a lot of mix bus processing.
-tried to put piano and BV in a more appropriate place
-cleaned a lot of the vocals S that were appearing in the dl Fx.
-lowered BD a lot
-took out a lot of 150 to 500 hz in piano and vocal.
-automated a lot. things that made a big difference were the SFX that were ducking the mix bus.

Hope this is an improvement and I can fine tune more if it's needed.

fun fact: I changed monitors.

thank u!

[RodA]

Further, in regards to copyright and using our song in your mix portfolio which obviously some of you would like to do. Basically the way I feel about it is I cannot give blanket permission for everyone to use our song or It will end up everywhere including Spotify with people making money off it. However if people contact me directly and ask “can I use this in my portfolio” then generally speaking I would be happy to grant permission for that.

I need a record of who I have given permission to otherwise it would get out of hand with everyone thinking they can use use it anywhere. So if you would like to use Afterglow in your portfolio send me a message saying you will only use it in your portfolio, where you would post it online, that it it for promotional and not profit and That you will correctly give credit as :Written and produced by Rod Alexander and Hiedi Limebeer.

If you don’t get personal permission from me you don’t have permission.

[White Punk OD]

thanks for the permission info and patience.

[Dodgingrain]

Agreed, thanks for the clarity around that.

[maxovrdrive]

Thank-you everyone who had a go at mixing our track “Afterglow”. Its been a very interesting and educational experience to listen to so many mixes and hear all the different approaches taken.

I have approached my critiques to all the mixes as if I am talking to a professional mix engineer and asking for a revision.

maxovrdrive
Nice mix. Think the high frequency percussion elements could be louder. Punchy low end. The piano could be a bit more present.

Thank you.

I brought up the 'high frequency percussion' (percs and tamb) and adjusted the eq a little so they don't fight with each other. The piano was brightened by opening up the high cut frequency, and a touch of an exciter.

Here's R2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xY1fbp ... sp=sharing

[bitpart]

Dear RodA, thanks for the feedback on the mix and the opportunity.

Congrats to all those that got through to Round2 and a big thanks to management for all their work.
See u all soon