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

[anthonyw]

Hey everyone,

One of the main things I noticed with all the tracks was that there isn't much body in any of them so that was mainly what I wanted to achieve as well as adding space between them.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6x6g3y52eiwcc ... w.wav?dl=0

DAW - Logic

Vocals - Waves Tune RT, Vocal Rider, DMG Essence, Valhalla Delay, Plugin Alliance SSL 9KJ, Arturia 1176, Nebula TimP Sontec EQ, Nebula AlexB MLC

Guitar - Doubled, time delayed and phase reversed for stereo effect, Plugin Alliance SSL 9KJ, Arturia Tube STA, Nebula TimP Sontec, Nebula AlexB MLC

Piano - Plugin Alliance SSL 9KJ, Arturia Dimension D, BRA VLA 3A, Nebula TimP Sontec, Nebula AlexB MLC

Strings - Plugin Alliance SSL 9KJ, BRA VLA 3A, Nebula TimP Sontec, Nebula AlexB MLC

AUX Reverb - IK Sunset Studio

Mix Bus - Nebula AlexB MLC, PA Townhouse, IK Revox 99 Tape

[Coiled_Ear]

Hi and thanks to very nice and emotional song!
Let's start
Master BUSS
The Glue 10:1 ratio (1db reduction however just to keep song in place) auto release and 3ms attack (and yeah I'm mixing into compressor guy so you can see them I used individual compressor for the Vocal only and bunch of little dynamics tool across the track)
IK Pultec - both low and high little boosts
Stereo width ableton utility - automation of wide parameter through all song. It's nice effect overall to make vocal moments more intimate, non vocal moments bit wider and choruses wider, first time I tried it and sounds pretty situable imo.

Acoustic guitar - mid cuts, high boosts and voxengo teote just to give a bit more life to dynamics because I don't like how it supports vocal initially.
Cello piz - boosts high, lows, cut mids and also voxengo teote
Cello - I wanted to make it bass so pretty low boosts on IK pultec cut mids then and added Soundtoys microshift a bit for extra wide and support both sides and mids
Piano - I didn't like initial sound at all so PRO-mb fabfilter helped to tame extra mids and then also dynamic eq on PRO-Q3 and add highs
Strings piz - full microshift chorus and cut mids
Violins were been grouped and then addes Soothe2, Decapitator to bring them in front especiall for chorus parts and then fabfilter to cut lows and bring a lot of highs
Vocals - just reduce something at 7k and then compensated presence at 3k, then AnalogObsessions LALA compressor which suits perfectly here imo!
Then decapitator, DMG essense set to 5.3k, and at the end PRO-MB to tame occasionally 1-3k peaks especially in choruses

AUX busses
ValhallaVV - Random Space 1.3 sec with a bit of predelay (really love that!)
ValhallaVV - Bright Hall 3.2 sec
ValhallaRoom - LargeRoom 0.11 sec just for exciting some instruments in space
SoundToys EchoBoy - 1\32, cut lows and highs, EchoPlex mode - perfect for adding closer space imo
Arturia Delay Tape - that's for vocal
Arturia Chorus-D - just for add some movements to vocal
ValhallaSpaceModulator UpDown - that's interesting one, tried to mimic backing vocals in chorus to add feelings to them

Loudness - 17intLUFS, -1.5db true peak (Youlean meter)

So yeah and that's the link. Good luck to everyone - https://www.dropbox.com/s/tdrea8k9u1qvh ... r.wav?dl=0

[Hoek]

Hey y'all!

I felt I was gonna be short on time this month so I wasn't gonna participate. Then...I thought I should download the files and check
them out at least. Maybe do a quick mix at home on my laptop friday night while enjoying a beer. Only use a channelstrip on each channel and some reverb.
Well that didn't happen, I fell down the rabbit hole as the song grew on me so here I am now several sessions and revisions and 60 plugin instances later... But now it will have to go, best version or not.

Here's my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pph47w ... sp=sharing

And here's some notes on my work:

I work in reaper, the whole mix is in the box, besides a hw comp and eq on the masterbus. (Tk audio bc1 ssl style and Tk-lizer that I mix into) comp is barely touching the mix 1, max 2 db 4:1 attack 10ms release auto.
eq is 1 db low shelv boost at 132 hz, and i db high shelf at 12k so nothing dramatic. and there's a Soundtoys radiator on the master too , for some tube warmth.

Guitar: Had to do some editing to get rid of some squeeks and blemishes. there's a scheps omnichannel adding some saturation, low cut at 112 hz, boostin 1.8k and 7 k and 128 hz. Parallel compression. cutting 271 hz.
theres a transient designer bringing up the sustain and taking off some string attack. Decapitator gently, and "acc gtr warmer" preset from soothe 2. i made a duplicate thats distorted and mixed low to the right side only in the bridge part.
the guitar is panned in the center until the strings and piano kicks in again, then it moves more tho the left.

Cello: This will be the track carrying the lows so i treated it almost like I would a bass, minus the compression. Boost 70 hz, cut 204 and added 1k, decapitator for some warm saturation. Waves Rbass. lightly panned to the right.

Piano: Low cut at 125, boost at 600 and 1900 hz, high cut at 13k, again decapitator and transient designer for more warmth and sustain. A little compression from pro c 2 and some Gullfoss magic. In the outro the piano gets heavyly high and low passed and boosted 1k. Piano is panned 67% right.

Violins: Hard panned left and right. sent to a group. high passed at 183 hz. saturation from Saturn 2 and Radiator on the bus. Soothe 2 Violin warmer preset.

Vocals: Some editing out noise, Scheps omnichannel for saturation, boosting and compression. FF pro q taking out some problematic frequenses, soothe 2, waves tune, waves vocal rider.
I struggled with the tuning as I don't like when it's obviously auto tuned, but I ended up leaving it on, but at 70 %, still think it glitches sometimes... the cool part is the vocoder send that kicks in on the choruses.
theres alot of manual riding too, volume, reverb send, delay send. Reverb is a plate from FF Pro R, theres a short (16th triples) and a long delay from Soundtoys Echoboy, the long delay only occasonaly ridden up to the right side.

All instruments goes to the same FF pro R reverb, Piano room large preset, eqed to taste.

Well, the most time I spent automating volume and sends.


Wish averyone Good luck!

All the best/ Hoek

[Bologna57]

Hello, and thanks for the interesting song that was made available: mixing it was a great and fun exercise!
My aim was to obtain a good spatiality while respecting the dynamics set by the musicians: the guitar and string levels were NOT changed in any way during the entire piece. The level at which they start they end: in my opinion they have been executed with great taste and skill.
- Unfortunately there are some small noises in the performance that were annoying to me, especially in the guitar track. Thanks to the automation I have reset them (when possible) obtaining - for example - absolute silence immediately after the introduction (min.0.18)
- I also found myself forced to intervene in some points of the voice track to correct intonation defects : it is a practice that I do not like at all, but the defects were really unacceptable to my ears.
- To reinforce the voice in the second part of the chorus, sub-harmonics have been added to the voice: the result allows for a richer impact in that part. It seems to me that a similar enrichment has been made (by means of a chorus) in the mix of the song I listened to on Spotify.
- Unfortunately the guitar part in 8 (quaver) which starts at min. 2.40 has numerous playing inaccuracies: I tried to camouflage them with a delay, I believe the result has been achieved.
- The piano track in my opinion was a bit meager, I think it would have taken more fingers on the fretboard to have more body. I tried to remedy as much as possible by increasing the "hit" by means of a compressor: now the piano is always "small", but it has the necessary aggressiveness.
- To obtain more full-bodied sounds, a small detune with minimal delay has been added to strings and piano (avoiding flanger effects of course).
- Spatiality was achieved by applying different delays and reverbs ( !) to each instrument and to the voice: the experiment of using reverbs of different make seems to me to have achieved the aim of defining each instrument in space. I was lucky: in my opinion a nasty mash was not created.

Here you can get the mix :

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

I will be happy to read your comments.
Thanks.
G.

[flyrecords]

Hi, here is my mix of this beautiful contest song, it was mixed in the box with Protools 12 and native plugins. I hope you like my work since it is the first time that I participate in this contest.
I leave here the link of the mix, I hope you like it the way I liked it.
Greetings to the entire community and good luck to all!

From Argentina

Sergio

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18b2gnQ ... sp=sharing

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your mix.

For all new participants, please keep the Rules and Guidelines (post #6) in mind (warning: no re-submissions!). Thank you.

[m_tree]

Hi,

thanks for sharing this multitrack, very nice.

My mix - 48kHz / 24bit, -17.7 LUFS / -3.1 dBTP
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bi92mx61kj0nd ... e.wav?dl=0

My goal was to set the focus on the vocals, without mixing them too loud in relation to the instruments, but distinct in front of the instruments.
Relating to the instruments I set the focus on the guitar. I wanted to keep it a bit 'fighting' with the vocals respectively treat it as the lead instrument with good presence.

I started with the guitar and the vocals. When I had both in basically good shape, I went on with the other instruments and started fine-tuning.
Partially I did a lot of volume automation, especially on the vocals (pre-FX and post-FX).
Mixed with REAPER.


Vocals
1. Pre-FX volume automation to restrict the dynamics in a first step and feed the compression gently.
2. 'Chirurgical' EQ cuts: sucked out some lower mids and bass with a shelf (-6dB), two narrow cuts at 1kHz (-3dB) and 4kHz (-2dB).
3. A little bit De-Essing (just the highest peaks).
4. Sent from this automated, EQed and slightly de-essed track to:
- parallel compression (1176 blue, 20:1, fastest attack and release) with additional 3rd order distortion
- 16th note slap-delay with a broad bandpass at 1kHz, panned left -> sent to a haas-delay panned right -> both sent to a Lexicon plate without pre-delay
- two slightly delayed (11 and 15ms), pitch shifted (+/- 10 cents) and hard L/R panned tracks
... the parallel compression is further sent to the delays and the pitch shifted tracks
... the pitch shifted tracks are further sent to the delays
These parallel tracks are just blended in subtle.
5. All tracks go into a main vocal bus with gentle LA2A compression (max. 10dB GR), an 80Hz HP and a broad 2dB boost at 6-7kHz with different EQs. Volume-automation of the bus in relation to the whole mix.

Acoustic guitar
1. Three different EQs: At first two narrow cuts in the midrange (-2dB at 500Hz and -1dB at 1.55 kHz), then broad 'brushstrokes' with the SSL 4000E-channel with cuts only (HP at 50Hz, sucking out some lower mids and bass with the shelf and sucking out some mids for the vocals in two areas) and at last a high-end boost with a passive EQ. Knowingly before the compression -> thereby the vocals have more room to my ears.
2. Slight limiting with an L1 (just the loudest peaks) and slight clipping with KClip2 (max. 3dB, 50% soft). No further compression ... tried a black 1176 with 4:1 and moderate timings but ended up with less compression here. Let it breathe.
3. Pre-FX volume automation to tame some crackle and noise in the breaks. Post-FX volume automation (+2dB between 2:42 and 3:02).
4: Panned 25% left. Sends:
- pre-EQed parallel distortion (2nd order)
- haas-delay, 100% right
... the parallel distortion is further sent to the haas-delay

Cello (Piz on a separate track)
1. SSL 4000E-channel: -11dB at 350Hz (Q: 1). Post-EQ compression with 3:1, fast attack and 790ms release (piz 390ms), 3dB GR (piz 6dB)
2. Bass-boost with a passive EQ
-> Emphasized it's role as the bass instrument and leave some space for the other instruments and the vocals.

Violins - on two separate tracks, panned hard L/R, but with the same adjustments (volume automation slightly different)
1. Narrow -2dB cut at 5kHz
2. SSL 4000E-channel: HP at 150Hz, -12dB at 200Hz with the low-shelf, -7dB at 3kHz (Q: 2). Post-EQ compression with 3:1, fast attack and 790ms release, max. 10dB GR
3. Volume automation, especially between 1:47 and 2:42 to support the 'drama' in interaction with the vocals

Piano
1. Narrow -3dB cut at 450Hz
2. SSL 4000E-channel: 200Hz HP, +10dB at 5kHz (Q: 0.75). Post-EQ compression with 2:1, long attack and 790ms release
3. Panned 50% right. Sends:
- pre-EQed parallel distortion (2nd order)
- haas-delay, 100% left
... the parallel distortion is further sent to the haas-delay

Strings piz
1. Narrow -2dB cut at 5kHz
2. SSL 4000E-channel: HP at 150Hz, -12dB at 200Hz with the low-shelf, -7dB at 3kHz (Q: 2)
3. Panned 25% right

Instrument Room
I tested something new here. At first I used separate instances of the Lexicon Room (Small LA studio), with different panning and partially additional compression.
But I ended up using only one stereo instance and sending all of the instruments to it. The acoustic guitar and the piano are sent only from the haas-delays, which results in less reverb with a longer pre-delay for them . The Cello is sent 6dB quieter than the violins and the string piz 3dB quieter.
I like this as a compromise here. Sometimes I use no reverb on some isntruments, not only on bass instruments, or delays only.

Materbus
1. Elysia alpha master compressor: stereo-mode (no M/S), 1.5:1, fixed 20ms attack, fixed 390ms release, average 2dB (max. 4dB) GR
2. Ozone 7 Vintage Tape
3. Volume automation (1dB max.)

Little hint about the Waves SSL 4000-E channel ...
A few yeras ago I measured the Waves SSL 4000-E channel with pink noise and an analyzer and found out that the EQ section (especially the LMF and HMF) is a little displaced. For example 3kHz with the HMF are rather 4kHz and 1.2kHz with the LMF are rather 1kHz.
Don't know if this follows the original hardware, but's it's nice to know about ... the data above is relating to the adjustments in the plugin, so it differs accordingly as mentioned.


Cheers!

[SyroniC_GP]

Hi there,

first of all, thank you for providing the tracks and for organizing this forum.

My thoughts on this song were to make everything sound as natural as possible. No special effects should disturb the melancholy of the voice and the lyrics. It should sound like the band is playing right in front of you. The voice in front clear and warm; smooth acoustic instruments in the background.

I processed the voice, violins and guitar with a WA76 and a Tube EQ made by Warm Audio (good copies of famous devices). In my opinion this results in a pleasant saturation and warmth in the voice and silky highs. The guitar gets pleasant transients and the violins stay smooth in the highs.

In detail:
Guitar:
- copied and re-amped the guitar twice
- changed polarization of one track to create stereo width
- on the main track I used the C6 Multiband-Compressor to slightly attenuate the highs above 8kHz
- Send to Reverb 1 (Room)

Piano:
- here I have the J37 plugin to achieve a pleasant saturation
- a transient designer to lower the hard attacks
- Send to Reverb 1 (Room)

Cello:
- CLA-2A preamp with slight gain reduction
- C6 Multi-Compresser, used as a dynamic EQ
- Send to a track with spreading effect (only between 800Hz - 7kHz)
- Send to a track with low-end bass (only below 120Hz)
- Send to Reverb 2 (Hall)

Violin:
- here I have the J37 plugin to achieve a pleasant saturation.
- Send to Reverb 1 (Room)
- Send to Reverb 2 (Hall)

Vocals:
- C6 Multi-Compresser, used as a dynamic EQ
- Send to a delay to create width (SuperTap 2, 60ms left, 120ms right)
- Send to Reverb 3 (Vintage Plate)
- Send to an exciter
- DeEsser on the main vocal track

A SSL-Comp is used on the master buss (attack 30ms, release 1.2 seconds, ratio 3: 1, gain-reduction: 1-2 dB).
I used an EQ (Q6) on all tracks to reduce unpleasant frequencies.
I used automation to support the dynamic (the Chorus is supposed to sound a bit more open than other parts).
Of course, I did the usual work to clean up tracks or to improve the timing. Some notes had to be pitched slightly.
All plugins by Waves.
DAW: Logic X

And here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oPywH- ... sp=sharing

Greetings
Syronic

[s&f]

hi, thank u for letting us mix ur songs.

Here's my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0t24qyvjijhkx ... F.wav?dl=0

as there were few tracks in this challenge, I passed all tracks through a hw compressor (Mpressor 500) and also printed heavy cpu reverbs (abbey road plates and chamber). I also used heavy cpu plugins like j37 and Tokyo dawn in the mixbus.

I found very challenging dealing with the voice, I passed through the compressor 3 times and automation, but I'm happy with the results.

I didn't clean up the tracks this time, as I thought the noises and breaths were kind charming and fitting the track. it kind of give a vintage feeling.

one of the "aha" moments I got from mixing this song was rising the mix level by 1.5 db from the bridge. that solved a lot of problems.

I also struggled between leaving the tracks dry or clean, as the reference tracks were very dry and clean. finally, I decided to give a bit of delay and reverb (but much less than I wanted).

thank u!!

[Gloo]

Hi! Here is my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ln0dnejzbzncc ... o.wav?dl=0

Daw: FL studio 20.8

Plug ins:
Fab filter Pro EQ and Comp, stock reverb and delay,
melodyne for vocal tuning.

I dont use so much things on this mix.
Guitar and piano: Eq, comp, reverb, delay, automation panning on guitar.
Strings: Eq, comp, reverb
Vocal: Some tuning, eq, comp, reverb & delay fx, automation.


Mix bus: Bus Comp