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

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !
Very thankful for the oppurtunity and here is what i've done:

Specs:
Tracks set to 0 VU. Izotope Neutrino and NLS Channel (Neve) on every instrument bus.

Acoustic Guitar:
split into two tracks for different treatment
"Solo" - smartEQ2 (sonible),Acon Digital Multply chorus (gentle warm)
"Rhythm" - smartEQ2 (sonible),Acon Digital Multply chorus (romantic)

Strings:
Cello - smartEQ2 (sonible), BusDriver (Nomad Factory) for the grit, Waves Brauer Motion, GMonoBass (under 2kHz)
Cello piz- smartEQ2 (sonible), Luftikus EQ (add air), Soundtoys MicroShift (add width)
Violin 1 +2- smartEQ2 (sonible), panned opposite 70%
Strings piz - smartEQ2 (sonible), Izotope Ozone Imager for width, Variety Of Sound epicVerb (intimate small)

Piano:
- smartEQ2 (sonible), Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 50Hz/15kHz, Izotope Ozone Imager for width, Waves TG12345

Vocal: split into 3 tracks
"verse"- smartEQ2 (sonible), Waves CLA Vocals, Overloud Gem Mod (modulation and space)
"chorus"- smartEQ2 (sonible), Waves CLA Vocals (here with delay and reverb)
"bridge"- smartEQ2 (sonible), Waves CLA Vocals
duplicated complete vocal track with Waves Morphoder - whisper track

Instuments are slightly ducking via vocal group sidechain in Wavesfactory Trackspacer

Master Bus:
NLS Bus (Neve) analog summing, Acustica CoralEQ (pulling down 350 Hz a bit),Waves TG12345 console with subtle EQ, Overloud Dopamine as exciter, Density MkII compressor (summing), Toneboosters ReelBus tape sim, Toneboosters Sibilance, Charly Limited analog gain
as metering: Toneboosters TB_Barricade, Youlean Loudness Meter

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

WAV 24bit/48kHz, round 2,1 dB headroom / loudness -16,4 LUFS

Good succes everybody !

[mattaroni_and_cheese]

Hello everyone ! Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I2g72O ... sp=sharing

.It’s been tough and challenging and fun and great learning. Thank you Mister Fox and everyone else who has been hosting these for so long !

So this was a beautiful song and I got no complaints from the family about having it constantly playing I love that it has everything it needs, nothing it doesn’t. For me the challenge was vocal dynamics, but also they are very sizzly and it sounds like they were already hit hard with processing like aggressive de-essing etc. I did not want this to be too modern or energetic, and didn’t want hot vocals so this was a challenge. I spent a couple days just working vox and learning. Here is what I finally ended up with after so much experimentation:

-Piano: hint of eq to bump it slightly above vox, and then nimbus verb so I could tailour out any sheen/metallics and keep it warm.
-cello and string plucks: nothing but a gain knob, and then delay automation on outtro.
-Violins: touch of an 1176 and Soothe 2 on a trial – I’m really just playing with Soothe and trying to learn it.
-Cello: Touch of eq only with output ducked from vox. Cello is generated, super thick, needs nothing imo.
-Violins; just panned.
Guitar: Went a little ham here. Soothe2 cause why not, stereo expander, some sat,pulteq, 1176, nimbus and my own acoustic “secret sauce” – just a pinch of chorus to thicken.

All instruments then bussed to a plate verb.

And finally: VOCALS. So much automation, pre and post-fx, then I’m not product of how much time I spent drawing pre and post vols and working it and working it. I really didn’t want to just squash them in comp because they sounded so hot to me already, yet still so dynamics, so I formed them as best as I could. Then formed some guitar parts to restore a crescendo to the entire song. Vox processing: Soothe2 (I’m really getting a lot out of this trial lol), LA-2A just barely skimming the surface. Nectar with some pitch correction. Originally automated some harmony on it but I can’t really tell if that was allowed, so I disabled that. An opto comp on RMS just skimming, then a digi comp just skimming with no makeup. Then a pultec, 1175, and Nimbus verb.

Master bus: Youlean and Insights, came out right at -20.

That’s it, hope nobody straight out hates it : ) looking forward to hearing all the mixes and learning more !

[Vongluck]

Hello,

It was a great moment to mix this beautiful song, with the acoustic instruments and this wonderfull voice. I have liked to have not to much tracks, it was so subtil to mix it.

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

I used these plugins :
WAVES: SSL E-Channel / CLA-2A / CLA-76 / Scheps 73 / Sibilance / J37 / NLS
RELAB DEVELOPMENT : LX480 Essentials
VALHALLA : VintageVerb
SOUNDTOYS : Decapitator / EchoBoy / Radiator / PanMan
YZOTOPE : Ozone

I thank you for this challenge.
Best Regards, Vongluck from France

[MattP]

Thanks for the opportunity to mix this great song!

Mixed in the box. Nothing too fancy throughout the session.

Brightened up the instruments and low passed the vocal and de-essed for better balance.

Most tracks ran through a mono parallel compressor

Master: Pultec, SSL Comp, Inflator

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kotr5vlrqruuz ... P.wav?dl=0

[LCM!]

My take:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_0lJ2 ... p=drive_fs

Mixed in Reaper ITB. Wanted an organic sound, and a small to medium soundstage to reflect a bit the feeling of the song. It has been a pleasure to do the mix.
Vocal chain: initially, it felt too middy, corrected mainly with a pultec style eq.
1. Fuse Audio VPre-376: for the colour, which contributes to reduce some nasal mids.
2. Kush Electra DSP: boosting tiny bit of 1,8 kHz , high pass at 100 Hz.
3. Softube Fet compressor: 4:1 ratio, slowest attack, fastest release to catch some peaks
4. LSR VLB902: for deessing
5. Klanghelm MJUC: MkIII, attack at 2, release at 4, no density or istage, used as a leveler, barely reaches 4 db of GR sometimes.
6. Black Rooster VEQ-1P: boost and atten at 4 at 100 Hz, boost at 3 at 10 kHz. To give some air and lows, smoothens the mids.
Some volume automation was used, no pitch correction. The feeling of the song (loneliness) allows for some pitch deviations, feels more vibey.
....

Hi, I think your link doesn't work

Thanks! I think it was the configuration of my google drive. I have updated it, could you please check if it works now? I would be very grateful.

Sure. I think it is fixed. Good luck.

[Saccharine_trust]

!!--my logic had a meltdown during my last bounce and the project is now unplayable. RIP my entry. I also don't know how to delete posts on here.--!!
Howdy y'all!
Gave myself a few extra days (this second time participating) working on this wonderful song & I feel like I learned a lot from this wonderful song.

Link to my mixdown: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17LV7xV ... sp=sharing

Thoughts & process

At first I found the song difficult to connect with, but on a second listen I think I caught the depth of the song-writing and the exciting possibilities of building an atmosphere when jumping in to the mix. The first exciting thing was the audio-quality -
Then, that cello-lead! <3
I made some notes on wanting to build a sense of openeness, while emphasising the emotion of being lonely.

Techniques on individual parts and summing: (everything is in the box on my macbook)

CELLO
Track: midcuts, Vintage tube (boosting >100hz aswell as <1khz) ->
SEND: Spring-reverb, ProQ (lowcut all mono signal, decapitator (beefy-preset with tweaks,) Overdrive ->
BUS: sharp cut 342hz (-15db,) slight multiband compression around 220hz -> Goes to master-output

Guitars:
MELODY
Track: Compressor (Logic VCA) FabQ subtractive EQ'ing, Puigtec EQP1A(4khz attenuated,) Izotope Trash2 (tape) -> guitarStack -> BUS

PLUCK & comp-DUB (split stereo pair)
Track:ProQ (subtractive, cut most lows,) Rbass 100hz+Rbass 235hz, Compressor (Logic Studio VCA,) Puigtec EQP1A, valhalla room -> guitarStack -> BUS
guitarStack: Pro-MB 5k control, Saturn warm tube saturation, Izotope Trash2 saturation(tape), ProQ mids-shaping, Ozone Imager +22,6w

COMP
Using the same Track chain as the stereo guitars, not going into the guitarstack but straight into the guitar bus.
BUS: api560 EQ, api2500 compressor


VOCALS: (soooooo much editing before processing anything - also did too much, accomplishing barely anything here LOL)
Track: HP200, CLA-7A, Pro-Q, ProMB (highs deess, mids,) API550(shaping), Rbass(bringing in new lows,) Izotope Trash2 (tape,) Pro-R ('Vocal Reflections Warm' preset at 7% mix,) Cerize (Parallel Compressor, spread, eq, texture)
SENDS :
chorus-Room - EQ, Chorus, valhallaroom
bandpass-blend - HARD CLA-76, shaped bandpass (900hz-2.5khz peaks)
Medium Room - EQ, Rverb, Microshift, direction Mixer(stereo spread)
Doubler/delay - MannyM delay (Vocal Wetness preset tweaked,) CLA-7A, Ozone Imager
Ambient Delay - Echoboy (Sidechained with vocal track), Valhalla vintage (70's concert hall,) HP

VIOLINS: Panning these was honestly the most fun thing when assembling the mix at first. Changed up the panning automation through-out the track at least three times before I settled on something I felt ok with.
EQ (hard cuts, subtractive only,)
I chose to cut out the strings on the second and third chorus, lowering them in the mix and adding: TDR Nova (Vocal sidechain,) ProMB (3-11khz compression)

PIANO: split the melody-part in to one track, the second chorus in to two tracks, and the third chorus in to three.
melody part: EQ, CLA-3A, Tremolo (SoundToys EffectRack,)
second chorus: Track1. EQ, Rverb, Devil-Loc(crunch), Pro-Q, TDR-Nova (vocal sidechain) Track2. Tremolo, Microshift(width)
third chorus: has a split of the second chorus tracks with tweaks on the devil loc on each channel, as well as the microshift-track.

PIZZ CELLO: Split in to stereo pair using two different delays with a >30ms difference > bounced in to >
Stereo track: Sausage fattener(YUP ) PanMan('hard random' preset with a LOW width-variance for just a slight movement)

SUMMING:
Cello legato + FX-send >> ALL BASS: MB Vocal sidechain (very minor at 230hz) >>master-output
All instruments (except cello legato) + FX-sends >> ALL MELO: API-2500 compressor + MB Vocal Sidechain(very minor at ~2khz) >>master-output
Vocal + FX-sends. >> ALL VOX: Little Alterboy (pitch harmonics,) I also did some last second EQ'ing & DE-ESSING here. >>master-output

Master-output: CLA-3A
I Hope you like it!

[fcamp]

Thanks!!

My take:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_0lJ2 ... p=drive_fs

Mixed in Reaper ITB. Wanted an organic sound, and a small to medium soundstage to reflect a bit the feeling of the song. It has been a pleasure to do the mix.
Vocal chain: initially, it felt too middy, corrected mainly with a pultec style eq.
1. Fuse Audio VPre-376: for the colour, which contributes to reduce some nasal mids.
2. Kush Electra DSP: boosting tiny bit of 1,8 kHz , high pass at 100 Hz.
3. Softube Fet compressor: 4:1 ratio, slowest attack, fastest release to catch some peaks
4. LSR VLB902: for deessing
5. Klanghelm MJUC: MkIII, attack at 2, release at 4, no density or istage, used as a leveler, barely reaches 4 db of GR sometimes.
6. Black Rooster VEQ-1P: boost and atten at 4 at 100 Hz, boost at 3 at 10 kHz. To give some air and lows, smoothens the mids.
Some volume automation was used, no pitch correction. The feeling of the song (loneliness) allows for some pitch deviations, feels more vibey.
....

Hi, I think your link doesn't work

Thanks! I think it was the configuration of my google drive. I have updated it, could you please check if it works now? I would be very grateful.

Sure. I think it is fixed. Good luck.

[diegoneryproducoes]

Your music is beautiful! I made some modifications that I thought were necessary in the tuning for voice and synchronized cuts on the strings. Eq SSL for more presence. Automation and clean vocals. 2.1.1 soft compress with 3dB reduction. Cello has been split into two tracks for greater frequency control. Lots of volume and PAN automation. Lexicon 480 Reverb. A bit of openness on the solo guitar and stereo guitars on the stanzas and choruses. Hope you like it! Hugs!
My mix:

https://mega.nz/file/7lJAwTgY#VEkUR_X-8 ... -1tonlU3Xk

[shoma]

Hi@all!

Thanks for giving us this wonderful song to mix!

This is my attempt:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k3UbEC ... sp=sharing



This was not an easy task at all, but I had a lot of fun working on this mix.

Mixed in Cubase Pro 11

48kHz, 24 bit

EBU IL: 23,6 LUFS
TP: -7.6 dB


Acoustic Guitar:

Chopped into little pieces to even out level differences in picked and strummed parts.

Denoised the track with Brusfri (Klevgrand), added some transient treatment to soften the attack and add some sustain, where possible. Next was Softube Tape and VCL4 by Fuse Audio to give some soft compression and levelling to the guitar. Next step was eq-ing with CraveEQ and Frequency (Cubase Dynamic EQ), Gullfoss and some softening with Unharsh (EndeavorFX)

Then I routed the track into it's own stereo subgroup for further treatments (Kramer HLS for clour, Abbey Road Chambers (Waves) and Cinematic Rooms (Liquid Sonics)

Piano:

Chopped into little pieces to even out level differences

ChannelFX used: Acon Digital Declick, HammerDSP (Kush Audio) Sonible Balancer and Frequency Dynamic EQ (Cubase)
Stereo Subgroup: Multiband Envelope Shaper (Cubase), CraveEQ, Voxengo MSED, Cinematic Rooms

Cello Pizzicato:

ChannelFX:

FrequencyEQ (dynamic eq) ,CraveEQ (static eq), Sonible Balancer, MultibandEnvelopeShaper (Cubase) a little bit of Waves Maxxbass



Cello:

ChannelFX: Waves Maxxbass, CraveEQ, Frequency, Sonible Balancer, Wavegrove Vasters (softening the topend)
Stereo Subgroup: Cinematic Rooms, Voxengo MSED


Strings Pizzicato:

ChannelFX: CraveEQ, Sonible Balancer, Newfangled Audio Equivocate
Stereo Subgroup: Abbey Road Chambers

Violin 1 + 2:

Chopped into little parts to even out level differences

ChannelFX: CraveEQ, Sonible Balancer, Unharsh
Stereo Subgroup: Abbey Road Chambers, Newfangled Audio Equivocate, Gullfoss, Cinematic Rooms

Note: SendFX for all Strings: LX480 (Relab)

Vocals:

Chopped into little parts to even out level differences and to eliminate noises and spill from headphone

ChannelFX: Equivocate, Lala (Analog Obession La-2A), HammerDSP, Novatron (Kush Audio) Vertigo Audio VSE-2, Noveltech Vocal Enhancer, Vastaus and finally Waves NLS Channel "Mike"
SendFX 1: Abbey Road Chambers
SendFX 2: PSP2445 (mono reverb) into Eventide SP2016 (stereo Reverb)
There is some level automation on the Eventide SP2016

Stereo Bus: CraveEQ (HiPass), Tonelux Tilt for some colour and additional gain, Waves NLS "Mike" for colour.

[Mister Fox]

Thanks for the reply ! I've reviewed the rules and FAQ's and addendums many times but they just seems to confuse me more than anything else, which is why I was hoping for some clarification here. It says vocal comping is allowed, but don't change the arrangement and don't change the sounds, and I'm honestly not sure if adding a harmonizer would be considered arranging or not. I see for "don't master" there's a series of explanations that seems a bit subjective, like if you do this and this and this plus eq well now it's right on the line, and I'm not sure how Soothe would be considered. I guess using maximizer would be 'mastering' so to be better safe than sorry i will just remove all three, better than to be disqualified !

"Vocal Comping" is not the same as "Pitch Correction"!

There were no multiple vocal takes to "comp" into one. These are rare instances for the Mix Challenge and usually declared separately (see previous games).

If you think "the melody needs additional harmony lines (doubled voices, in-key additional melody on top), as in content that wasn't there before, this is where things end as you would then act as "producer", not mixing engineer (read: arrangement change).

If you think that the singer has a wonky pitch, you can adjust that as long as it's not noticeable and/or in the cent range (not full notes or octaves). This is explained in FAQ Q/A10. If you want to use a "harmonizer tool" to "fatten up" a vocal (Chorus, or micro-pitching as send FX, see Roland Dimension D or Eventide H910), that is also allowed.



"Summing Bus Treatment" is not equal to Mastering

It depends on what you're doing. The summary of the rules in post #2 straight up say " Edit/Mix in such a way, that barely any after-touches other than loudness adjustments and final limiting is needed in a possible follow-up mastering step."

If you only use "Soothe EQ" for overall sound shaping, that is fine. If you only use a Maximizer for "rogue peak control" and pulling down the loudness, that would have been fine.



Again... this has all been explained in minute detail and I fail to see any given confusion. Also... please don't ask such questions within the last hours/minutes of a game as there is a risk of not getting an answer in time (turnaround times!). Thank you.