MIX CHALLENGE - MC082 November 2021 - Winners announced

[jules666]

Hi All,

I loved playing around with this track!!

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

Drums:
All tracks had SSL 4000 G (plugin alliance) console on for basic eq/compression.
Also applied some gentle saturation to all tracks and put a clipper (Kclip) on to trim the peaks.
All sent to a DRUM BUS - applied 1176 into a transient shaper to give the drums a little more attack, followed by a limiter for any rogue peaks.

Drum Bus was also sent to:
Drum Verb1: Used Echoboy & Microshift for a very quick tape delay
Drum Verb2: Plate reverb
Parrallel Compression: Using an SSL style compressor (Townhouse, plugin alliance)
Drum dist: Used Trash 2 to mangle the drums a little and blended back in

BASS: Lindell 80 Channel strip used on all bass tracks for EQ/Compression
Bow: Saturation, EQ, into a clipper then decided to put some chorus effect on.
Bass B: Saturation and chorus and further EQ.

All tracks sent to a Bass Bus, which had 1176 compressor, some EQ rolling off the highs from around 3k and a bit of a boost around 68Hz
Also sent Bass A to another track with a little saturation and Gallien Krueger 80 on it, to give a little more low end.
Bass B was sent to a distortion track and blended in.

"GUITARS"
Latino 1 - Panned hard left, Focusrite SC (plugin alliance) for eq and a little compression. Then into Waves J37 to give some warmth and smooth the transients.
Latino 2 - panned center, Focusrite SC (plugin alliance) for eq and a little compression. Then into Waves J37 to give some warmth and smooth the transients. Also used a tranient shaper to give the mids a little more snap, and a stereo delay to give some more width,

Bouzouki 1: Planned hard Right. EQ/Compressor and limiter.
Bouzouki L - Panned 50% Left - EQ and limiter
Bouzouki R: Panned 50% right - EQ and limiter

Guitar sends included:
Heavy Saturation: just some heavy distortion/saturation which was blended in.
Verb: Pheonixverb to add a bit of depth to guitars

VOCALS
Split these into various buses for the Choir/outro/Chant and main
All the vocals had a Lindell 80 channel strip for EQ/Compression and a also De-esser/ sonme subltle saturation and a limiter.

Choir and Outro group: Compression/EQ and also placed a clipper (Kclip) and used CLA Epic for some delay/reverb.
Chant group: This had some extra compression/EQ and reverb applied.

Vocal FX Sends included: Parraellel compression/distortion/doubler effect and a long delay, all blended in with some automation bring some parts up and down.

FLUTE
All 3 flute tracks had the Lindell 80 channel strip on for some eq/light compression, followed by some saturation.
Flute Anja Mic 1 - panned hard left
Flute Anja Mic 2 - Panned hard right

Sent also to the follow FX:
Doubler effect
Delay: Echoboy Jnr to create 1/16 note delay
Heavy Saturation: used low in the mix and automated in and out.

Master Bus
Used Rear Bus technique
On master added some tape saturation (Waves J37), little EQ then some SSL style compression which was only doing 2db max to tame the odd peak.

Used a lot of automation to bring elements up and down.

Hope you enjoy!!

Jules

[soundspace73]

Hello everyone!
it was very nice to mix this song, the tracks are well recorded and that helps the job.
this is my mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cfttf5 ... sp=sharing

the maximum peak value is -1.2db
the integrated LUFS value is -17.1


I mixed mostly with AKGK712s.
I tried to mix most of the time listening to all the tracks along with the track I was mixing.
I focused a lot on the drums.
I wanted to enhance that sense of tribal rhythm by giving body to the low-medium low frequencies that give that sense of depth and presence to the drums.

summing up the whole more or less these were the processes.

on the voice I used an eq that cuts the lows and softens the highs, 2 la2a, exiter, de esser, exiter on frequencies from 200 to 800.

on the flute I used an eq cutting the lows from 230hz and softening the highs, then a la2a, a simulator of an analogue preamp circuit and a saturator.

on bouzouki 1 i used eq, opto compressor, exiter.

on the Latina tracks eq and analogue eq simulation that emphasizes the medium-high high frequencies.

on the bass I used 2 la3a, eq, saturator

on the bass bow track I used a cleaning eq, a puigtec on the bass, an ikmultimedia eq pa that emphasizes the 800 and 2500hz, 2 opto compressors and a saturator.

on the drums I used a cleaning eq, dynamic eq, 2 bus compressor, eq pb, saturator on the low and puigtec always on the low then on the group bus I used a cleaning eq, a dynamic eq and a bit of parallel compression.

[hjchjc]

This was so fun to mix!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RIa0jN ... sp=sharing

TPdb -1.68, LUFS 16.4

Main vox:
DPR-402
Mouth De-Click
Spectral Shaper
RVOX
PuigTec EQ
Essence
Sweetvox

Sends: Abbey Road Chambers, Bus 18 (which I'll get to at the end)

all BVs are Maag EQ3, F6, RDeEsser, TUBA, and Kolin sent to a bus with PuigChild and the Ozone imager

Drones are PuigTec, MagicDeathEyeStereo, OldSchoolVerb, Radiator, Rubber Band Compressor, and some Logic EQ, bussed out to a Valhaalla Vintage VErb and a Little Plate with the "infinite" setting

Ending bvs are Mouth Declick, RAXX, Radiator, Space Designer, and Maag EQ4

Flutes: PuigChild, EQ at 6k, Trackspacer sidechained to main vox, bussed out to Rubberband/Puigchild/Bark of Dog/ Rev PLATE-140

Bouzouki, PuigChild and PuigTec everywhere, sent to Bus 18

Latina has the Gem EQ550/Puigchild on one and the Latina 2 with a heavy low pass filter on 500 hz


Bells: DevilSpringVerb, Channel EQ, Little Plate, RAXX, bussed out to Dangerous EQ cutting at 8khz

Bass: DPR-402, CLA-76, Scheps 73 for distortion on first two, third one has Scheps and VintageVerb, all bussed out to ReLIfe, in turn sent to Bus 18

Finally, drums are just the Rubber Band Compressor, send to Devil-Loc, with another thing to Bus 18

Bus 18: Basically a distortion bus - everything is sent to the Devil-Loc with a small low-mid boost from Logic's EQ.

Mix bus:
ReLife
bx_Opto
Infrasonic
Dangerous cutting at 11khz. Phew!

[maxovrdrive]

First off, thank you to Pål (@Naturecord) for this month's challenge and to @Mister Fox for putting it all together. This is probably the first medieval-type song that I've worked on. It's not a genre that I come across too often.

Here's my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17STGov ... sp=sharing

I wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel here. I wanted it to sound as if we brought modern equipment to record this medieval ensemble.

Except for Drum 4, which had a transient controller to reduce attack and increase sustain, the rest of the 'drums' had no processing on the track level. The all shared a 'room' effect to glue them together. I grouped them and did a little eq, compression, and transient control to further sculp the sound.

The rest of the instruments were grouped together and further processing included: compression for glue, tape, and an eq with a single dip at 163Hz. The individual tracks had some eq, which is usually a high-pass and one or two dips to clean the instrument out --- nothing wild. The Bouzouki's had some Spring reverb while the Bells had some Ambience.

There were three groups for the vocals, where your typical eq and compression (for level) happen... no processing on the track level. All the vocal groups were again grouped for additional processing -- additional compression for glue, tape, and final eq.

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2w6lzb68o1h3q ... m.wav?dl=0

For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[LCM!]

Many thanks to the people who make this possible.
A song plenty of Epic, and that's what I have tried to underline.
This is my take:

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

Drums: parallel comp and tone sub generator. Every track has its own compressor. An slight ping pong effect.
Bells: tremolo and eq. Track 1, hard panning.
Bass: parallel compression. The bow has phaser and distortion effect, though not 100 wet.
Flutes: Louder in lead voice abscence. Saturation. Anja mic 2, muted.
Strings: Latina 2 duplicated and pitched. Saturation.
Voices: Parallel comp. Tuned. Lead voice naked at the end of the song.
Two reverbs and two delays sparingly used (I tried).

Reaper stock pluggins.
-1.1 dBTP
-16.3 LUFS-I

[akshatryder]

Hello everyone,

Here is the link to my mix.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sozE6 ... sp=sharing


I have tried to make the whole mix sound glued to each other.
Have boosted the bass and drums to pop out in the mix.
The melodic instruments and the chorus vocals were panned accordingly.
And finally i have increased stereo width of the mix so that it feels more wider and the instruments get more space in the mix.



**Mixed in the Box

~~DAW~~
Logic Pro X

~~PLUGINS USED~~
I have used my DAW's EQ and Compressors.
Other plugins that i have used are FF proQ, bx_digital v2, vertigo_vsc 2 and waves CLA Unpluged and CLA Vocals.

[LowlandsWave]

Hello all,
Pleasure to work on this mix.
My mix: MC082_Canardus_Horribilis_Saga_Bjorling_Langtan_LowlandsWave.wav

How did I try to approach the mix?
In the intro the flute and Choir set the mood for the song, after the intro Saga adds to that with her voice. The reverb adds to the mood and gives a sense of space. The voice is the main instrument.
After this introduction to "the situation they are in" the drums come rolling in supporting the voice with the heartbeat of hope/desire. The voice is still the main instrument.
After a small "break" with the second Shepards call (flute and stringed instruments back off a bit), its all in. Driven by the "heartbeat drums", bass, everybody( the choir, Saga and doubles from Saga) joins in to tell us it will be OK.

Of course some technical stuff was used to get to the end product:
DAW: Logic
General clean up in RX, not much but there were a couple of metronomes I attenuated
Voice: Gain riding to tame the dynamics, Nectar (resonant freq's reverb and compression), saturation ,pull-tec emulation to tame the high freq's
Strings: general eq and compression
Bass: general eq and compression
Drums: General eq and compression, saturation and fixing some fase issues. Gating to tame drum tail build up. Added some sub to the drums (gated sine wave)

All instruments were routed to an instrument Bus with an SSL Channelstrip emulation on it. Those busses were routed to a master bus with an SSL master bus compressor.

[bluesation]

A new style to mix, well done!

I find the original mix quite good for that kind of music. I wanted mine quite near to the original but with more depth, width and brightness.

How often, first of all, I compiled some tracks into a single track, were it made sense, the choirs, flute, bouzoucki.

After checking the single tracks, it was clear, there is no need for surgical or extreme intervention. Just fight some sibilance. The dynamics were done quickly. The Eqing with done with the goal in mind to get a brighter mix.

More important were the settings for the panning and width of the tracks. Via automation the flutes are in the mid or panned l/r when vocals are there. The choirs were compiled to fill the whole space from left to right. They were just put in the mix session.

Most of the time I spent finding the right amount of reverb and delay. The instruments went through a combination of 2 room reverbs. The vox went through a hi detailed room with longer decay. The flutes got a 8th dot delay.

The master track has just one plugin, a brickwall limiter for loudness metering and celling to -1 db.

Here is the result: https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/WlyzWywp

[m_tree]

Thanks for sharing this, it was an honor for me to work on.

My mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ihdp7sdynb0sd ... e.wav?dl=0

This time I mixed fast for my habits (but with accurate mix-preparation) to not overthink the mix and give the result a more intuitive feel.

I followed a conventional mixing approach with no special effects like multiband-compressors, de-essers, dynamic & linear-phase EQs, transient-designers and so on. But with use of saturation and automation.
I tried to find a compromise between maintaining the natural sound of the acoustic instruments and the vocals and achieving a modern, bright and transparent mix.

The panning is very conventional with drums, bass and lead-vocals dead center. Otherwise I panned 100 and 50% only.

I worked with busses and (in addition) parallel distortion and compression.

On the masterbus is a mastering compressor (Elysia Alpha) with 1.5:1 and slightly automated release, followed by a transparent sounding mastertape emulation (Ozone 7 Vintage Tape).

As I sighted all the tracks in my rough-mix project I was pretty shure that the choir vocals need separate pitch correction. So that they appear more as a unit and don't attract too much attention.
This was the only 'correction' I made. No further pitch or timing corrections. No pitch correction of the lead vocals to preserve a natural feel.
I rendered the separate correction of the choir vocals in my rough-mix project pre-mixed (volumes, panning, slight limiting of some tracks) on stereo-tracks.
Then I inserted them with all the other tracks in my prepared mix project.

I wish good luck to all participants!