MIX CHALLENGE - MC078 July 2021 - Winners announced

[CeZar]

Hello, new to the community. I tried my hand on mixing this record. I've heard some awesome mixes done already but as a newbie to the craft I wanted to see what I could come up with.

Video Rocking Out:

phpBB [media]

My Mix:

The Song:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16sSkYC ... sp=sharing

Instrumental:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBiCV0 ... sp=sharing

Performance:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gOk31F ... sp=sharing

Mix Setup:

Daw: Protools Ultimate 6.2021
Interface: Apollo X16, X8, X6 (2)
Clock: Antelope OCX HD

Riser: No Processing
Lead Guitar: Pro Q3, AudioScape 76 A
Solo Guitar: DIYRE Vintage Eq, Golden Age 3A
Bass: Golden Age 2A
Keys: ITB, SoundToys Crystalizer
Organs: ITB, H3000 band delays
Lead Vox: Nebula 4 Henry Olonga u87 preset, SCA 1272 Preamp, soothe (desser), Pro Q3, Black Lion Audio B172A
Lead Reverb: CXM 1978
Adlibs: SSL 9K Super Analogue Channel
Horns & Sax: AudioScape 2A, Acustica Audio Purple, UA 224 XL
Drums: Sound Skulptor TS500, Pro Q3, UA Pure Plate on Snare Top
OverHeads: SSL DYN 500, UA Pultec
Chorus: Great River Harrison EQ, Capi FC526 XFMR, UA 480L

Master Buss; Audio Scape Pultec, Heritage 609, Handsome Audio Zulu

Man, you've worked so much for this mix, all that analog gear, I have to hand it out to ya! But you're risking disqualification because you haven't respected the rules in naming your tracks, I'm not even sure if posting on youtube is allowed, posting 3 mixes...

I really encourage you to check out the rules and do the proper adjustments so you don't risk having put all that work for nothing. Check them out on page 1, it will help!

[Analog4Lyfe]

Hello, new to the community. I tried my hand on mixing this record. I've heard some awesome mixes done already but as a newbie to the craft I wanted to see what I could come up with.

Video Rocking Out:

phpBB [media]

My Mix:

The Song:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16sSkYC ... sp=sharing

Instrumental:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBiCV0 ... sp=sharing

Performance:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gOk31F ... sp=sharing

Mix Setup:

Daw: Protools Ultimate 6.2021
Interface: Apollo X16, X8, X6 (2)
Clock: Antelope OCX HD

Riser: No Processing
Lead Guitar: Pro Q3, AudioScape 76 A
Solo Guitar: DIYRE Vintage Eq, Golden Age 3A
Bass: Golden Age 2A
Keys: ITB, SoundToys Crystalizer
Organs: ITB, H3000 band delays
Lead Vox: Nebula 4 Henry Olonga u87 preset, SCA 1272 Preamp, soothe (desser), Pro Q3, Black Lion Audio B172A
Lead Reverb: CXM 1978
Adlibs: SSL 9K Super Analogue Channel
Horns & Sax: AudioScape 2A, Acustica Audio Purple, UA 224 XL
Drums: Sound Skulptor TS500, Pro Q3, UA Pure Plate on Snare Top
OverHeads: SSL DYN 500, UA Pultec
Chorus: Great River Harrison EQ, Capi FC526 XFMR, UA 480L

Master Buss; Audio Scape Pultec, Heritage 609, Handsome Audio Zulu

Man, you've worked so much for this mix, all that analog gear, I have to hand it out to ya! But you're risking disqualification because you haven't respected the rules in naming your tracks, I'm not even sure if posting on youtube is allowed, posting 3 mixes...

I really encourage you to check out the rules and do the proper adjustments so you don't risk having put all that work for nothing. Check them out on page 1, it will help!

Oh ok thanks. Language Barrier. I always have mixed and have done instrumental and so forth. Sorry about that. I did you tube too show no cheating and the video in unlisted.

Now I know for future.

[Mister Fox]

First and foremost, welcome to the forum. Great to have you here, experimenting and honing your skills.


On the topic of "Disqualification" (this is important for everyone):

Yes, technically our entry will be flagged as such in the statistics sheet (File Name Convention). However, if you do not touch your mix (submission is final, no edits/resubmissions), it is "merely a flag" and offers you the chance to fix that mishap through the use of a "Wild Card", should your entry be selected for Mix Round 2.

See also:
Mix Challenge - Addendum: Wild Card Mechanic (Test Run until AUG-2021)


You realized what went wrong, you've learned from that experience. One can't ask for more. Except for maybe in the future: just release a full mix, not also instrumentals and "performance" mixes. So again, don't touch your links/audio files, and wait for Mix Round 2.

Looking forward to hear future mix entries from you in follow-up games.

[bitpart]

HI everyone, i hope you are all well and healthy.
Thanks to management as always for all their hard effort and Sun Follow for allowing us to mix the track.

Firstly, i would like to mention that i thought the recording of the tracks were of very high quality. i did have one or two clicks but nothing major and it was a real joy to have been given the opportunity. Without doubt the Brass recording was my favourite.

Secondly, the mix itself wasn't too complicated but it did have the challenge of making it sound better than it was already without making it sound worse.. classic !
I tried to give the track more dynamic in the drops and between sections, mainly using automation of the drops and delay and reverbs to create a feeling of more excitement. I hope i haven't taken in a direct that the artist themselves don't like, which is very possible.

Finally, the mix was worked on mainly over weekends, last Sunday 11/7/21 finished but still listening for improvements. Yesterday, i went into the studio, did the last three touches to the mix and here it is. All in the box using PT10

Thanks again to all involved and speak soon.
Bitpart

Mix Process.

Drums grouped, no reverb or delays - cut low end on the OH and kick had a some saturation. Snare nothing but EQ and levelling. No tracks were put out of phase, the panning of the OH was less than 50%. Even though i didn't use any consent FX's, i did set up a short delay to use and created a snare roll/skip at times and also a dub delay to help cover up so of the drops.

Bass was a problem and found that the two tracks provide were the same. i put the DI out of phase and the bass disappeared - so either it was a mistake in the recording or when creating the tracks for the mix. Apart from that, just EQ and Compression.

Guitars sounded great and just EQ'ed them, had a small reverb on the main one and the 2nd guitar that comes in with more FX. There is also a delay on the track when the 2nd guitar comes in but very mild. At one point, to enhance one of the drops, i used a weird delay that slowed down to create a record stop.. i hope it's not too subtle and it help to push the track at that point.

Brass ( great sound) just balanced it with panning and used a bit of EQ but can't remember how much. But they sounded perfect from the start and it was more the balance and panning than anything else. I also used a large reverb which had a big pre delay and it sound perfect.. to me : )

Piano was a lot of work. I didn't like the sound of it, and i thought it was a plugin piano but you can correct me on that. There were moments that the piano was played late or early and really wasn't as tight as the Guitars, Bass or Brass, or thats the impress i got. I started to use 1/8 delays and 1/4 delays to create a different feel to the piano and help cover up the issue i had with it. But its not the first time i obsess of things that in the big picture aren't as important. i fall into a production mentality and not mix which doesn't always help. I tried to make the piano less reverb or plugin sounding and used a bus of the original, filtered it to sound more telephony and it help to keep my mind at rest.

The BV chorus was the first to attack and i played around with lots of different FX's to get a nice floating feeling on the BV's but i'm not sure i achieved it, at times they sound a bit dry. The main two tracks were panned slightly 50/50 but not fulling and used a short delay to balance them and thicken. The low BV was treated with a filter fx and made to be stereo.

Th Main vocals and ad-libs had a lot of work. Grouped the leads and setup a reverb and nothing else. The Adlibs were panned 50/50 and sent to a short delay like the BV chorus to balance them and create a big stereo sound but then had to side chain it so it didn't get in the way of the lead vocal. Lots of small fx for certain moments and others that were constant.

I did a couple of mute drops to help the arrangement move along and quiet a few fx's send to create atmosphere and feeling.

On the Master bus, as always just a Compressor (SSL G) and an EQ (maag 4) - the EQ just gave a bit more top end

Thanks again and here is my mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/Public/ ... e=personal

[Trev138]

Hi
This is my mix of Sunflowers by Droga

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_1sBt8 ... sp=sharing

I've kept it simple by just using SSL Native Channel Strip Eq across ALL Channels along with SSL Native Bus Compressor on the Group Channels and the Main Out.

All Channels were gain staged before starting

Drums -
EQ'd - added a boost in the Low, Mid Low and Highs to get a little punch. then gained it down to taste.
Added an R Bass with a boost at 62Hz
Panned the Snare left 18%
panned the Overheads Hard L & R

Riser -
I fed this through an FX Channel with Roomworks Reverb and a Ping Pong delay

Bass -
Basic EQ with the Bass Straight down the middle to give room for the Kick
Added an R Bass with a boost at 119Hz
Dropped the level for the DI and blended to give a little support to the upper mids
The Group was then sent through a reverb

Guitars -
Basic EQ
fed the Solo through a reverb and then Automated the volume

Keys -
Again basic EQ'g and Compression using SSL
Fed into a Reverb before going to the Main Out

Sax & Trumpet -
Panned Hard L for the Sax & hard R for the Trumpets
Sent through a grouped Reverb and a S1 Imager

Vocals -
These were EQ'd again with the SSL, then fed through the Soothe 2 to de-ess
Adlibs were Automated and Panned to give more presence.

On the Master Bus i have used the SSL Bus Compressor along with the Amek EQ200 where i have automated the width and applying subtle EQ tweaks.

I hope you enjoy
As always feedback would be appreciated.

Regards
Trevor

[Naturecord]

Nice tracks and a fun song to mix!

Nicely recorded and more than enough happening in the song so it was easy to focus on mixing instead of fixing. I focused mainly on vocals and drums, and tried to create some dynamic between the song parts with automation (pan, level, effects). I wanted a create some old school hip-hop/funk feel, but still having the feel off a modern mix.

I started with gain staging and setting a initial mix with levels and pan, and then made some mixbus decisions (so that I was mixing into it):


On the mixbus I have a little glue compression. I started using two compressors in series lately, barely moving the needles: shadow hill and API 2500 on this song, not much compression but adds some colour, there is a EQP-1A for colour, slate saturation and some EQ scooping out some mid freq and trying to get a touch better separation by removing low (under 100) from the sides to concentrate the low end.

There is a parallel compression mixbus track feed into to mixbus for added punch (Fabfilter-C)

There is some level automation on most tracks (also some minor level adjustments on the Mixbus) and there is also some panning automation on break and verses (a narrower mix on verses). Effects are also automated on most tracks if it is used.

Both vocals have the same chain: Neve 1073 - Pro-Q3 (Low pass)- Pro-Ds - Fairchild 670, EQP-1A (For some body) - Maag EQ4 (for top) - RVox - Soothe2 - LVOG - Fabfilter Saturn 2 (The kings microphones is also on, but only in the break)

Both Vocals are sent to a EMT140 plate, a Lexicon 480 verb, a parallel compressor (1176), a 1/16 delay (echoboy), valhalla Shimmer, a CLA epic Throw, a Morphoder track (whisper) and a Crunch track (Devil-Loc). Not all at once; especially the shimmer and throw are automated just to be there in transitions and gaps.

Guitars are very simple, EQ for low pass and deducting some 300Hz, a parallel compression (1176) and Fabfilter Timeless automated for transitions and end. Valhalla Reverb on both.
The Solo guitar goes via a Neve 1073, VMS (eq and compression) and a Fairchild 670 (Ocean Way). Compression to even it out a little, but the 670 also for color.

Keys has a low cut and a massive Passive eq for adding a nice top.

Organ has a low cut and some eq to make it mix in well.

Brass Low cut, Massive Passive EQ ond some added top with Maag EQ4. Sent to a valhalla reverb and shimmer

Bass has a EQ to remove middle and make room for kick, a sansamp for some drive and top, RBass compressor, Soothe and lastly Spiff for top.

Drums Bus has a EQ for adding some top and making room for bass, and a Echoboy for effects in the end (not using bypass but instead mix level automation, so there is a little bit on the whole track, it was a mistake initially but it gives it some color nad i wanted to leave it in). It is feed into a lexicon 224 room verb.

Kick has Dverb, a EQ to find top and bottom and scoop out mids, a MH thump for some added low end and a decapitator.

Snare has a API VLC adding bottom and top, removing some 240Hz, Spiff for some top and a decapitator. It is then sent to a lustrous plate that is heavily modified. Reverb time is set to fit between beats, and a lot of top and bottom snare sound are EQed in and mid and low end subtracted.

The overheads have EQ on it with focus on cutting lows (low cut under 100) adding top, snare and toms to the mix using the OH EQ.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tkdcl3gytqobs ... 1.wav?dl=0


44.1KHz, 24Bit
Lufs 18,5 (int)
Peak -2,2

[blackbird]

Hello everyone,

Here is the link to my mix uploaded on google drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q8Z01x ... sp=sharing

Gone through the English lyrics provided in the folder. The song is indeed upbeat and mixing it was really a great experience, especially due to the language.

Kick drums needed a little extra EQing and a noise gate to make Kick more punchy and Bassy. Alos applied two compressors one after the other serially on the Kick bus.

Snare needed a little warmth and EQing to remove the leaked highs of the cymbals and Hi-Hats.

Overhead tracks are also applied high pass filter to remove the snare and Kick Drum leakage.

Nothing was done for the Riser.

The Bass guitar is side-chained with the kick, as usual, to bring the kick above the bass. The first bass track is applied with a low pass filter while the DI Bass track is applied with a high pass filter. The DI Bass is a little higher in level than the other bass track to hide the ducking of bass due to kick. Also a slight compression on the bass track to level the whole track.

Guitars are EQed so that they do not interfere with each other. A little saturation on the guitars to make them brighter and a slight compressor to make the level consistent throughout the song.

For Keys and Organ a little low pass filter and also the high pass filter. Low Pass filter so as to make them sound farther from the vocals and guitars and high pass so as to reduce the low end of the song.

Sax and Trumpets are all applied with a little EQ to make the sound cleaner. Also, a little saturation is applied to make them brighter, since they have an important role in the song replacing the vocals.

Vocals tracks are EQed a little and again a slight saturation to make them brighter. The compressor is also applied to make it stand out in the mix.

An overall reverb has been applied to all the instrument and percussion tracks. And individual reverb also applied to the lead guitar and vocals.

A slight delay with long feedback but a very low level is applied to important vocal tracks.

In the master bus, slight tape saturation is applied to make it sound better.


Hope you guys like the mix. I'd love to hear about any possible improvements in the mix.
Thank you again. Blackbird flying away...

[Christoph_K]

Thanks to Sun Followers for providing this track! Here's my take:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bk335ur49yvkw ... K.wav?dl=0

I used the API Console from LUNA to mix this track, Studer tape on all tracks and API Summing for the groups.

The drums are augmented with parallel processes (compression, distortion, reverb and room) to let them come alive. UA VOG on the Kick to get more oumph. Deesser on the Overheads to tame the crashes. Distressor on the snare tracks.

The bass has got a little help with the UA Ampeg SCTVR and Distortion.

The main guitar has a slap back effect which gives it more room and out of the way from the center to give room for the vocals.

I duplicated and re-amped the solo guitar with the UA Fender Tweed for more grit. Slap delay and Echo as FX.

The horns got remiced with UA Ocean Way to put them on a stage.

For the piano and organ I used the UA Capitol Chambers to put them into perspective. I corrected one timing issue in the chorus on the piano track.

I distributed the rap vocals for the throws left and right at the spots suggested by the original mix. Little bit of soothe to tame harshness. Track 31 has a Soundtoys Devil-Loc. The Raps and Chorus Vocals are treated with 1176 and LA-2A plus parallel comp (CLA76, Micro Shift, Aphex). I also nudged the Chorus vocals a bit back and forth for timing reasons.

I added some flavor with a reverse piano effect (reversed the first chord and added reverb/delay) and dub delays to make the transitions more interesting.

Rearbus with Pulsar 1178, mixbus with UA Neve 33609, Pultec, Oxford Limiter (only for enhancement) and Ampex ATR.

BX True Peak Limiter on the Masterbus.

Puremix Loudness Meter says -16.3 LUFS-I

[kirurg]

Hello everyone,

Thank you Sun Followers and Los Ady for the song to mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwpzos69n1wv0 ... g.wav?dl=0

There is some eq and compression used on almost every track.

Vocals: gentle compression, harder compression as parallel. Little amount of
small room/slap echo. Additional delay added for the chorus vocals.

Bass: EQ boost at around 2Khz, some low cut, some limiter.
Added multi band comp that acts in sub-low frequency area and getting sidechain from the kick.
Didn't use DI bass track.

Guitar: rhythm guitar has pretty much high pass eq, tiny amount of simple flanger fx as well.

Drums: Added some parallel compression overall. (SKNote C165a). There is no direct compression
for drums bus. Paid more attention to the kick and OVH track. Kick has eq and transient shaper (Eventide Fission).
OVH has Waves RDeEsser for compressing the hi-hats, but keeping lower frequency parts more prominent.

Brass: panned to make wider, eq to make brighter as well. There is some room/plate added for brass section

Generally I've paid more attention to transitions between verse/chorus.
There are transitions/riser parts from verses to choruses. I used a drum part from OVH,added flanging fx
and there is a reversed vocal part and piano sound and included original riser used as well.
The piano has Eventide Blackhole reverb (pretty long tale) on choruses which creates some
ambient synth pad vibe. I could not to resist and created an intro riser, which is a combination of
OVH drums and snare top.

There is some stuff in master bus: Slate VCC , some SSL type compression and some ("smiley" curve) eq.

[A-Max]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gRT31Q ... sp=sharing

Hello, Max from Torino here.
Good song, I love the mixing of languages, cultures, musical styles. I've always liked those things.

Anyway, I have some problems at first because the song recorded is not exactly "on BPM". So I passed a time thinking to quantize the song or not.
At the end I've decided to leave it as it is. Just few adjustments on the piano because some hits were really out of the grid.

Drums : Love the funk vibe. I've used some parallel compression on the Overhead tracks cutting below 150 hz because I didn't like the way it sounded with kick drum. Some gated reverb on the snare tracks and automations on the cymbals 'cause some were really loud

Bass : I've decided to use just he DI track with Waves RBass and sidechained with the Kick track. I cut some low frequencies.

Guitars : Ok, I hope you like them. I've "reamped" these on the box with Waves Guitar Amp Simulator. An AutoWha on the rhythm guitar and a normal re-amp with the solo one with some spring reverb.

Keyboards : some light reverse reverb on the piano and a little of pingpong delay on the organ track to give some more wideness

Vocals : compressors, exciter, light chorus and a bit of distortion somewhere in the double tracks

Brass : distortion!! I wanted them just like brass in the Beatles' Savoy Truffle.

Hope you like the mix.
Have fun.