MIX CHALLENGE - MC080 September 2021 - Mix Round 2 in evaluation (staff taking over)

[Lollozio]

Here is my mix.

I used various UAD, waves, ik multimedia, fab filter, oeksound and plugin alliance "AU" such as the SSL channel and some reverb (ALTIVERB,UAD).

Panning and reverb to recreate the structure of an orchestra.

Maximum prudence in respecting art and loudness.

The mix reaches a maximum peak of -5 -6 db.

I hope you like it and thank you for the opportunity.

Link dropbox wav 48 Khz 24bit

https://www.dropbox.com/s/np7bvn2bw5d0e ... o.wav?dl=0

[jules666]

Hi All,

Thanks as always to Mister Fox and @Square for the song.

Here is the link to my submission this month:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xHVhB7 ... sp=sharing

All tracks have the Plugin Alliancce Lindell 80 on them for warmth, EQ, and compression.
All tracks also had the NeOld V76U73 (plugin alliance) for some further compression and colouring of the sound on all tracks, though it was not always at 100% wet though.

Vocals: Some dessing, and a little bit of shaping with EQ
then sent the Vocal track to another track where I used the 2 pultec's and LA2 trick to give a little them a little more precense.

Both these vocal tracks then went into a Vocal Bus where I applied some further dessing, then compression(Townhouse, Plugin Alliance), and tape saturation (J37, Waves), then I used a MAG EQ4 (plugin alliance) for some boost on the air band at 20k.
Finally the CLA Epic by waves was used to mix in a little reverb & delay.

The vocals also were sent to the following Aux'
Distortion: Headcrusher, blended under to help thickened the vocals
Enhacer: Noveltech vocal enhancer used on the lower frequences to give them a little more precense.
Parallel Compression: Used a LA2 only on the higher frequencies.

The Instruments had EQ/Compression using the plugins mentioned above and I panned them where they sounded pleasing to me.
Piano had a transient shaper on, to bring the the attack up slightly.

Acoustic Guitar:
EQ for some subtle cuts around 120/194/347 and a HP around 60. Also used a transient shaper to try and bring up a little more sustain.

Acoustic guitar was sent CLA Epic for delay and reverb.
The guitar was also sent to a stereo doubler which I used the Waves ADT2V for this effect, to try and give the guitar more depth.

All Instruments were sent to the same bus, where I added some tape saturation using Waves J37, little bit of compression (Townhouse) and some limiting. I then used Ozone Imager2 with the width at 30% across the bus

Instrument Aux'
Sent various instruments to 1 or more of the 3 reverbs and delay which I set up and balanced to taste.
Delay:Echoboy
Verb1: Artura Rev Plate-140
Verb2: PheonixVerb (More room style)

Lots of automation of volume also used, mainly on the vocals and acoustic guitar to clean them up.

Used the Rear Bus technique, but only sent a limited amount from this into the main bus, just helped thicken the sound a little.

Master Bus:
EQ: Just HP on everything above 30Hz and little shelf boost at 8k
Comp1: Townhouse (Plugin Alliance) very gentle compression (1-2dB) and have sidechain to ignore below 100Hz
Tape/Saturation: Using Waves J37 to add a little warmth
Comp2: Focusrite Red 3: Just doing about another 2dB max of compression (no makeup gain)

[Seba S]

Hello and thanks for the chance!
This is my version!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lolE2A ... sp=sharing

[jake sg]

Hi Boss,

Greeting from Singapore
Tqvm for the opportunity to mix this lovely song
Please click below to view both images of my mixing structure

https://ibb.co/LgSwGmD
https://ibb.co/t2p948Z

wav : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rK8dGO ... =drive_web

Cubase 10.5
Ath M40x Headphones
Yamaha HS 7
Steinberg C1 audio interface
Novation Launchkey 49
Avantone mix cube

Tq again

[dnlptn]

Hi all,

Thank you Square for providing this month's song. I expect we're going to see a lot of interesting interpretations.

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

Decided to try experimenting with this one. With the Strings, I used Ocean Ways plugin on remic setting to add some ambience (blended with the original dry signal). I also set up several reverb sends with different lengths, and types. Put a bit more emphasis on the sustained strings throughout the track rather.

Vocals
eq reduction, 1176, some de-essers before and after compressor, Maag eq4 for air, Limiter
Plate verb, short Room reverb, A largish reverb automated for some words, tape echo with Ampex atr plugin, parallel distortion using LA2A, Delay with reverb automated for one word

Ocean Ways Strings
LA2a, Massive Passive, Dangerous Bax Eq to boost lowend, multiband for high frequencies duck during vocal sections
Dry Strings
Sometimes used soothe to take out edge, little eq reduction
Pizz Strings
Transient designer into LA-2a
Plate Reverb, 7th heaven reverb, CLA Echosphere

Piano
EQ, 1176 (8:12), decapitator
Valhalla Supermassive mono panned opposite direction

Guitar
RX to remove noise, and some clicks
Neve 1073 plugin (increased preamp and decreased gain), 1176, decapitator, maag eq4 for air
Parallel FX panned in opposite direct (Saturation and compression)
Some sans amp distortion in the bridge section
Delay (feedback) ambience added increasing near the end

Automation
Volume automation on the strings and vocals. Automated some effects. Tried to be subtle with these.
Had panning more outwards in the chorus

Mix Bus
Pultec EQ

Cheers,

[jeffssoloband]

Dear @Square, the Mix Challenge community, and anyone else reading this,

Please find my submission for MC080 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mh2rpalinpcfo ... d.wav?dl=0

Everything was done ITB w/Logic Pro X with RX 8 set as my external editor. I started the session by cleaning the individual tracks. All silent areas were chopped, guitar squeaks and other random noises were attenuated, and vocals were tuned. I also added a couple of beats of silence to the beginning, so the first notes weren't so close to the beginning of the track.

Acoustic Guitar: I high-passed to about 80Hz, added some tape saturation, and ran it through a console emulator. I used a stereo imager (in stereoize mode, obvs) to give some width, and hit it with a bit of room reverb.

Piano: I hit it with a little bit of a high-shelf boost, and a touch of compression. It was also given a little room reverb.

Pizzicato strings: There's a transition shaper to help tame the attacks. Then they're run through a console emulator, a vintage-style compressor, and hit with some room reverb.

Strings (arco): Pretty much the same chain as the pizzicatos, but with a chamber reverb.

Vocals: I used a vocal rider plug in to even out the performance. Then some EQ, compression, saturation, and a narrow chamber reverb with some alterations to the tail (to try to get the vocal to sit on top of the reverb, rather than become immersed in it).

The vocals and piano are straight up the middle. I used stereo panning on the other stuff to give the vocals some room, and to widen the image.

The master buss has a bit of compression on it to try to hold everything together (2:1 ratio with a really low threshold, barely getting any reduction except for some sneaky transients).

That sums it up (lol).

Thank you for listening, reading, and for your consideration.

Best regards,
Jeff (jeffssoloband)

[LCM!]

Hello and thanks for the chance!
This is my version!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lolE2A ... sp=sharing

Hi mate. Just to warn you that your link doesn't work properly.

[nealgiedd]

Greetings!

Here's the link for my mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykejzcdp0yspz ... d.wav?dl=0

I wanted to capture a warm, singer-songwriter tone with this mix. I could tell the acoustic guitar was the primary instrument that was supported by a string quartet (or trio?) and piano. The mood of intimate loneliness was what I wanted to help convey.

I wanted to make the vocals feel more proximate than distant and alone. So, I started my mix by focusing on this instrument. To accomplish this, I used the NEVO setting of the Waves NLS system with a fair amount of drive on the line setting. I tend to like the SSL E-channel strip for generic tone and slight dynamics. I like the gate/expander (usually on expander mode) to clean up some of the low-level noise. The compressor sounds good for moderate compression. Based on the information provided, I was sure to mitigate some of the nasal midrange of her vocals by using the F6 Dynamic EQ to pull about 4dB out of that register in her voice. Then I gave a slight bump of 1dB around 600 Hz and 4.75 kHz. After the EQ, I added Reaper’s JS Volume/Pan Smoother v5. This plugin is supposed to mimic the Waves Volume Rider plugin. By adding it between the EQs and character compressors, it allows for more consistent sound going into the compressors. I used the CLA 1176 to get a few dB on her quicker transients. Then I sent the signal through the CLA-2A for smoother and warmer overall compression. After this FX chain, I did a little more volume automation for macro levels. Then I sent (and automated the send-level) her vocal to H-Reverb on a hardware emulation of TC Electronic M5000 Church mode at 2.07s. I pulled out some of the mids prior to the reverb and provided a little more feedback by sending the signal to another channel and returning it at a lower volume.
After I got a rough mix in, I realized I wanted some more warmth and harmonics. So I inserted Variety of Sound’s TesslaPROmkII at the first insert for most of the channels. I set it to tape mode and gave it some drive, bass, and turned the transient-pass-thru all the way up. I set this so that it would rarely be in the red so it would sound like decent tape saturation without being too much.

The strings gave me a few issues. I felt like the violins were orchestrated to be more melodic than supportive of the artist. I tried to balance their performance with their role. I pulled some of the high-mids so that they would be less prominent in the mix. Then I spread them L/R about 20-30%. The cello provided a good solid bass, so I kept that center. The pizzicato portions were panned further out and were fairly simple to tame. I ran the strings through the MIKE setting of the NLS to give them more of the EMI color. Slight drive added some slight saturation. I felt that these settings provided a more natural string sound than the original mix provided. Then I sent the strings to a bright hall reverb at 2.52s. I automated the return levels for different sections of the mix. I tried to keep the overall string reverb audible without being too distracting. My goal was to give them a little more space to reverberate without making them sound like we were listening to them at a concert hall.

My next focus was the acoustic guitar. The raw tracks were noisy, so I used the Waves NS1 to pull a little noise from the track. It was very distracting once the air conditioner was audible. And in a few places I cut the “silence” between a few notes. This dramatically cleaned up the track. Though, there remain a few places that I felt that any more tweaking was damaging to the sound quality, so I had to leave a little bit in. At the end of the day, I think it makes the song more intimate anyway.
After some tape saturation and some slight NEVO drive, I added a lot of highs with the SSL channel strip. Then I pulled some honky mids that can be problematic with acoustic guitars. Then I ran the guitar through CLA-76 for quick transients and then the CLA-3A. I wanted some more color from the 3A that the 2A doesn’t provide. After this FX chain, I wanted to provide a little more brightness with reverb, so I sent it to a plate-like reverb setting at 1.45s. Then I pulled out some mids after the reverb and boosted some top end to provide more air.
The piano came as sort of an afterthought. It’s there and needs to be heard to provide some harmonic structure. But it’s not a prominent instrument in the arrangement. However, because of its rhythmic pattern (hitting mainly on the chord changes), it provides something different. I wanted to make the piano bright without being tinny. I boosted the top-end and gave a slight rise to the lower-high-mids. Then I pulled some of the honky mids.

The master bus uses a C6 multi-band compressor to keep around 1K tamed and to keep the lows from becoming boomy. This is not doing much. Then everything runs through an SSL bus compressor with the slowest attack and medium release. It’s only doing 2-4dB of compression. Then it has the NLS bus section, and I added some more drive on the overall MIKE mode setting. My master bus always has the SSL bus comp and an L2 peak limiter. I left the L2 in line, but I’m not sure it actually limited anything in this song, especially since the rules are clear that we shouldn’t be pre-mastering.

[DIVESPANNER]

MC080_Eavesdrops__Alone__DIVESPANNER.wav

Hi, thanks to Mr. Fox AND Square for enabling another mix for us to present.
Here is the link to my interpretation of Alone by Eavesdrops.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzw6jhz8l8dk8 ... R.wav?dl=0

I took my inspiration from the suggestions supplied by Square mostly in the style of Kasey Chambers Don't Go with a nod in the direction of the Levelers Julie whilst being roughly guided by the original mix supplied.
I added a little silence to the start of the track to give the beginning a bit more provenance.
Spent a lot of time on automation volume panning and some eq to get a good blend and give all the instruments their time to shine. Spent a lot of time trying to get the sound I wanted from the reverbs have used a combination of rooms and plates plus some effects options available in the open-air plugin. I got the reverb where I would like it and checked against the supplied suggestions and thought I have to give it more, have I overdone it not enough I welcome all views and comments.

Here are the plugins used
PRESONUS.

• Pro EQ
  Red Light District
  Compressor
  Room Reverb
  Open Air
  Limiter
  Spectrum Meter
  VU Meter
  Phase Meter
  Level Reader

KLANGHELM.
MJUC

• DC8C3
  VUMT Delux
  WAVES.
  • • API-2500
      GEQ-Modern
      CLA-76
      SSLG-Channel strip
      Vocal Bender
      Vocal Rider
    J37 Stereo
  Abbey Road Chambers
  SSL-Compressor

LEXICON.

• MPXI Native

PLUGIN ALLIANCE.
BX Opto Compressor
BX Cleansweep
Maag EQ2
SPL Attacker

Thanks again to Mr, Fox and Square for the opportunity to mix this song, and thanks to the rest of the community for reading and listening to this I welcome any and all comments and or questions from any and all of you whether you believe your a beginner and don't want to ask something stupid there is no stupid question or if your a fully seasoned pro and would like to point out some glaringly obvious faults that I'm not hearing everything is much appreciated.
All the best and good luck to everyone DIVESPANNER.

[Yann]

Hi there !

This is my first participation to the "mix challenge".

I tried something very soft on this track.
I worked with Reaper, and mostly with the plugins available with the DAW.
EQing on all the tracks, a little bit of comp on the piano & vocal, transient processor on the guitar, piano, cello piz and violin pizz.
A room reverb for the instrumentals tracks and a slapback for the vocal.
I hope my work is OK !

here is the link to download the .wav :
https://mega.nz/file/qX5CxSrA#nY1QRtboI ... gLHJSeW1PE