MIX CHALLENGE - MC082 November 2021 - Winners announced

[d8bflup]

Well, I had a blast mixing this. I had some experience mixing this kind of music in a live setting, this was the first time I could mix traditional music in a studio setting.

Going in to the mix I had only two ideas/goals. Making the drums somewhat larger than life and making the drone part at the beginning of the song deeper. I would "go with the flow" with the rest an d see where the mix ends up. In the end I used way more processing then I initially tought I would.

All mixing was done with my Soundtracs CM4400. only exeptions were some bussing in the DAW to reduce the channel count, some EQ within those individual buss channels was done with the console 1 plugin. Main reverb of choice was the TC electronic DVR250 plugin, fed from an desk AUX

Drums were bussed in a stereo pair, except the low hits at the end, thos got their own channels on the desk. This channel was EQd on the desk (add Low, remove Low mid, add some Highs) Some individual EQing on the channels in the DAW. All drums were sent to a group. On this group I inserted a Aphex exciter (with big bottom) to make them "larger then lafe". After that a SPL Transient Designer to add some snapp and extend the sustain. After a few mix revisions, I decided to add a couple of dbx 560 compressors to this group

Bells, no EQ/Compresseion/... straight trough the desk. I only changed the panning to move them a little to the center.

Bass. added a little low on the desk an trough a Lindell 7x-500 compressor (4:1, only shaving a couple of dB's off)

Bowed bass, added plenty of LF, shaved off some HF and split to a group together woth the drone voices and the mixbus

flutes, I didn't use mic 2 on the Anja flute. Panned both flutes L-R, however, not to the extremes. I added some volume autoration to Ranveigs flute. No EQ, no compression. Just a liberal dose of reverb (TC DVR250 large hall)

All the string instruments kept their seperate tracks on the desk. Some EQ to avoid drowning in the mix. Bazouki L-R and the Latina channels were not only routed to the main buss, but were also fed trough a KT 3RD dimension via a seperate group. The latina was also fed to a tape delay via an aux.

Main vocals: added some low mids and highs on the desk. inserted a KT-76 an 2A-KT. The 76 was working hard at some points, on the 2A, the needle barely moved. Another instance of the TC DVR250 was used on an aux for the lead vocal (Medium hall)

I made several vocal groups, according to their function/place in the song:
Choir (stereo)
Choir ending (stereo)
high vocal (mono)
drone (stereo)

Except for the high vocal, only EQ and some minor volume autoration was done. The high vocal was fed trough a Lindell 7x500 compressor. All recieved a liberal amount of reverb (some the same large hall as the flutes, some the same Medium hall as the lead vocal).
The high vocal was also fed trough a TC 1210 plugin set on a spatial expander program to widen it up a little

The lowest drone voices were also brought out of the DAW to a seperate mono channel on the desk. A high Cut at 100Hz was set, so only the LF remained. This channel was sent to a group (together with the bowed bass). On this group I inserted a dbx 510 subharmonic synth.

On my masterbuss lives a Focusrite MixMaster. Only the 3-band compressor was active at a 1,7:1 ration, only compressing the mids a few dB in the louder parts.

Unless I knew upfront the group wanted this sound, I would never mix a traditional tune this way, I would definately keep it more natural. However, the challenge was to give your own interpretation. So here we are...

Thanks for the great material.

Philippe


https://www.dropbox.com/s/klr9n2cic39w8 ... p.wav?dl=0

[SuC76]

Hi,

Here's my mix:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZ9BcF ... sp=sharing




DRUMS: split into 2 tracks, cla 76, stock eq, some parallel comp.


BASS: split into 3 tracks, cla 76, cla2a, stock eq


BOUZOUKI's_LATINA : subbed into stereo stack, added some stock eq and dbx 160 for parallel comp.


FLUTES: subbed into stereo track, sidechain to main LV, DBX-160, stock eq, some delay


LV: some fairchild and cl2a compression, stock eq, added some reverb


DRONES_CHOIR_MS_CHOIR_BV'S:subbed into stereo track, roll off some tops and lows, cla2a comp., added some delay's


Little bit of Automation on some channel's




DAW: Ableton Live 10



Mixbus:
VTM Brit-N, UAD-Pultec, VTM


Dear friends, stay safe and healty !

Bye.

[DonIgnatius]

Hello everyone! Completely new here. Eggxited to see what's to come!

Here's the link to my mix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A-4E7Z ... sp=sharing

All about getting the levels right and making sure the instruments are not overpowering each other.

Amazing song! Thank you!

[JanLefr]

LINK
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ka8h801k38h8i ... r.wav?dl=0

Hey everyone!

This is my first submission to the mix challenge. Also my first approach on this genre. Thanks to Canardus Horriblis, Saga Björling and Pal Isdahl Solberg for providing this song!

It was very interesting to work with these kind of instruments and exploring how to process them. I'm quite happy with the result and looking forward to your feedback. Here's how I approached the mix:

BASIC THOUGHT
I tried to keep everything as natural sounding as possible. That seemed about right to me after giving a listen to the tracks.

- Compression:
>Little to no compression on the single tracks, basically all I really compressed was the bass tracks, where I applied some parallel tube compression.
>I added some tube compression on the whole mix to reduce peaks and give the mix some more brightness.

- Effects:
Besides the mentioned tube drive the only effects I used were reverb and RX Breath Control.
>RX did a good job reducing the breath sounds on the flute tracks without completely removing them.
>For creating a natural sounding room I used seperate convolution reverb send effects with different amounts of pre delay, then sending song elements in the front to the FX with more pre delay and the ones I imagined in the back to the FX with less pre delay.
>For the lead vocals and the bass tracks I used side chaining to a compressor on the reverb, allowing to give a good amount of reverb without covering the dry signals up.

- EQing and De-essing:
HPFs on every track besides bass and drums.
>Voices:
Adding some presence at around 3kHz, reducing resonances at around 300Hz. De-essing made a huge difference especially at the part starting 3:00!
>Instruments:
Flutes: little to no EQing, just reducing some resonances.
Bouzouki/Latina/Bass: I gave a little boost to the fundamental tone of each instrument and did a cut around 300Hz for a cleaner sound.
Also removing resonances on each track.
Bells: a little high shelf boost, thats all!
>Drums:
Boosting the fundamental tone and cutting resonances as well as the ~300Hz area. Also giving a boost at around 3.5kHz for more "kick".

- Level Automation:
I gave a +3db boost for the whole section until 1:23
Further level automations mainly on the 05 Flute Ranveig and the lead vocals, setting the focus depending on the song arrangement.


Thats about it!
Peace out

[alavault]

Hello !
Mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1afa8Z2 ... sp=sharing

All voices : Highpass@80, 1176 style comp
Lead vox (ie Saga) : EQ into LA3A into limiter. Sent to plate and various delays.
BG Vox (ie not drones and not saga) : EQ into limiter. Sent to short verb and flanger
Drones : EQ and slight fast attack comp. Sent to long and FX verb + delays
Flutes : EQ and fast attack comp. Sent to delays and FX Verb
Guitar-like : EQ and flanger.
Bass : multiband comp into limiter into EQ. Sent to flanger
Drums : Removed a lot of 500-ish. Parallel compression and sent to short and medium verbs.
Master : Kotelnikov into EQ into ToTape6 into limiter

[mixedbyadn]

Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lwdiy7dug833o ... N.wav?dl=0

The work I've done is based on how I like the sound in this musical genre, with influences of Mikolai Stroinski where the percussions are more cinematic and the bass has a nice low end.

I wanted to highlight the high choir/vocal background and in general I've done a work of increasing the brightness and the stereo field, using the minimum processes because the recording are very good.

[Dodgingrain]

Here's my mix: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrkcwUtm2 ... A?e=L9Hom3

This isn't a style I normally listen to so I wasn't really sure where to go with this. Overall there wasn't a lot of processing done compared to a normal mix. There is some subtle neve saturation on pretty much every track and bus.

Drums: Each drum routed to its own bus and mostly processed there. Did a little bit of panning and compression.

Bass: The bass felt a bit weak so I boosted the low end a bit and did some low end saturation. Other than that there is a little bit of compression and some eq to cut the high end a little so it stays out of the way more.

Flutes: Big low pass filter cuts on these. Beyond that it was a small amount of eq on different settings for each flute, some compression to control levels, and some ADT blended in to make them sound bigger and more present, the waves plugin seems to work well for this. Breaths were attenuated manually.

misc string based instruments: largely just eq to carve out some space and a small amount of compression with panning. Really not much was altered.

vocals:
Most of the vocals were tuned although much more less than a pop song.

Lead: went with a more modern sound, so eq, multi-band compression, parallel compression, and some delays that come in mid way through the track. Reverb used to ad space especially for things like the kulning track.
Drone/BGV's: these were blended to taste based on the rough, In almost every case they are hard panned with a supporting reverb panned opposite. Again some mild compression and parallel compression.

[Mister Fox]

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


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[JohnK]

Hi, Is a Dolby Atmos mix allowed to submit?

[JamesMusic]

Hi all. Another great song and fun mix, thanks @Mister Fox for hosting and @Naturecord for contributing.

Here's the mix - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_6Jyuz ... sp=sharing

Lead Vocal - wanted this up front and clear, but feeling like occupying a large space. Those amazing high bits, I wanted them to sound like they were being sung from the top of a mountain down into the valley!

Backing vocals are all spread across the spectrum, and to feel like a group of singers sitting behind and supporting the lead.

The flutes needed to be clear when isolated but fall slightly behind when the vocal was in, again occupying a larger than life space.
One of the flutes was slightly sharp and so brang this more into line.

The Latina and Bouzouki provide the higher frequecy rhythmic component so I wanted them bright and very controlled and had them opposite ends of the stere field. That stereo Bouzouki track sounds amazing too and really fills out that section.
Gave the bass tracks a load of low end to fill out this part of the spectrum, but sidechained it with the drums to ensure they werent competing.

Drums, I wanted these very controlled and punchy. I added a load of subs and top end to to these. The puctuated drums that come in right at the end had a load of reverb too.
Rare for me but I actually added more reverb to the mixbus to glue everything together some more, really helped it feel like it was being performed in live in a space.

Hope you like it and I can't wait to hear everyone elses.

Cheers,
James