MIX CHALLENGE - MC082 November 2021 - Winners announced

[alanvaldez]

My Mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VuUnEQ ... sp=sharing

first time mixing something like this!! was really a new experience! thanks to the song provider!

Mixed with Cubase Pro 11, all vocals were aligned using Revoice (I was testing the demo... hope to get that one someday) and tuned with Melodyne 5.

main vocals: autoformer/ Tracks British channel / neutron sculptor/ neutron advanced EQ /MsaturatorMB
all other vocals were grouped and they have the MEqualizer and Mcompressor yes.. those "free" fx from Melda Production that is one of my favorite compressors! also added MUnison to multiply the group vocals!! probably they sound huge!
flutes: Mautoalign / Tracks classic eq and the Comprexxor. MspectralDynamics on the flute grup to eliminate some masking with the vocals. (MS)
Strings: MturboEQ (Pultec) and MTurboComp (124 Comp)
Bells: Msaturator / Mcompressor / MautodynamicEQ.
Drums: Rbass Khs NON linear filter, carve eq /khs compressor

all to one reverb the Mconvolution all fx channels were treated like there were inside a real room with different levels.

on the masterbus is the Townhouse compressor a small percentage of Sculptor to give a little more brightness and 8% of width and the Waves L2 just 1 db to add some color.

[eusseffhan]

Hello and greetings to everyone. Special thanks to the song provider, Mix Challenge Team!
This is my first!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

All tracks were sent to particular buses and all bus sent to another bus labeled “pre-MIX”, then sent to a final bus labeled MIX where I put a limiter (LoudMax) set output to -0.3. And my “Master” fader where I only put my Level Meter for loudness/peak monitoring. I will share a snapshot of my bus and send faders.

I have to admit I am not familiar with this type genres and it is bit difficult for me to plan my direction of mix. So I start with typical approach which start off with the lead vocal as the main focal point. All my Lead Vocal plugin process are in my bus track.
I somehow saw this song is going to be very reverb driven mix which I think is more suitable.

For Lead Vocal process I start with parallel compression using Studio One stock FET comp with a ratio of 12, fast attack and release. Then another compressor using ADHD Levelling Tool. Then I add a little bit of wet using Studio One “Open AIR” reverb. I personally think that by far it is the best stock reverb plugin. Then De-essing, bit of EQ boosting, analog saturation (PSP Vintage Warmer), and lastly TDR Nova to tame down bit at 218 Hz.

After a rough colouring to the Lead Vocal I make a quick overall mix. After all that balancing, I still haven’t found my directions. My percussion sounded very raw and weak at the beginning. Even after searching for references and listening to Northern European Folk music I still couldn’t get to see my mix direction.

To cut the story short I finally use this song called “In A Lonely Place” by Bush, taken from The Crow: City Of Angels Soundtrack album for my mix idea. This song contains only floortom like percussion, and a lead vocal as the centre mix which I think it is perfect for my mix. The percussion set it at very dominant next to the main vocal. This approach also helps cover up some of the guitars that sounded bit off, almost like mistake.

The mix process i mostly crafted with reverb and a lot of automations, especially the lead vocal and the comp vocals where I use only bus fader to control them. All plugins were static.

Hope this help explaining and once again sorry about my English. I am very amateur in mixing music and been doing this for a decade now. Really hope can find useful in this community. Feedbacks and comments are very welcome.

To whom it may concern, thank you for your time. Please enjoy.

Eusseff Han

[Mork]

Wow!

This is easily one of my favorite challenges! The recording is superb, maybe the best we ever had here! I love the song for its vibe and honestly didn't look at the translation or a reference other than the original mix. I hate to sound like a cliché 80s guy, but the whole time I had Conan in mind and wanted to get a warmish yet crunchy sound like VHS, but more modern, with more extension and war drums.
Processing is minimal and the real challenge was to paint the canvas with spaces and create an arch. For example the lead vocal , SHE IS SO AWESOME, has only the slightest bit of EQ on it (32C, 1db@300, .5db@2kish and .5db@5kish). This is only to fit the 2bus chain (Pultec style eq, vari-mu style comp). Again, it's all about the spaces in this one. Spaces used are Lex224 on Drones, 7th Heaven (Briscasti style) on LV, Lex PCM Room, Vintage Plate and Random Hall on everything else.
For example the choir is only de-ess into some space. Did I mention this is awesome? The singer is just goosebumps... thanks so much for this!

MAY MY ENEMIES DIE BY SWORD! Gather your horses! Destroyeth the evil snake dude!

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

[Emelowsky]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ags2H4kkvaUahNso2mR ... w?e=8XcX8C

At first I wanted to say hi.

This is my first attempt in the competition, so I count on your understanding.
I took the mix as a lot of fun with a genre that I had never dealt with before.

At the beginning I started to equalize the phase between close and distant mics of the same sound sources.
Then without any freaks, EQ to tweak the bands of individual instruments followed by compression, but not on all tracks because I wanted to keep quite a lot of dynamics. Additionally, on a group of drums I took out transients to add punch.

One of the main foundations of my mix is ​​the space built with two reverbs and a delay with sidechain by the vocal. A lot of changes to the automatics as well, which makes the track still alive.

The individual traces went to their groups, and from them the signal went to the main bus with an additional correction to clean the mix and a compressor that made the whole thing glue together. In the end, everything went to tape simulation, and that's about it.

Personally, I am happy with the effect, but I leave the decision to you.


Regards
Emelowsky

[Arthur Labus]

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

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

DRUMS: Thrillseeker VBL compressor, Gem EQ550 for extra clarity
Drum 4 treated "as kick" - Waves CLA Drums, Pultech kick trick
Toms 1,2 and 3 trated "as toms" - Waves CLA Drums
Bells - channel strip with lot of satuartion to tame the highs, Wavegrove Vastaus extra saturation, TB Sibilance de-esser

BASS: GMonoBass for mono under 150Hz, Drawmer S73 (de-rumble) comp, Gem EQ550 for extra crunch, Scheps 73 channel strip with hi pass 80Hz
Bass Bow, Bass B- Waves Brauer Motion, narrowed to 15%
Bass A - only eq

ACOUSTIC GUITARS:
Bozouki 1 and Latina 1 as group panned opposite with send to reverb, also panned opposite - Waves CLA guitars (acoustic mode)
Bozouki flagolette - Brauer Motion, hi pass 80 Hz, SlickHDR for warm tone
Bozouki L and R grouped with Waves CLA guitars
Latina 2 - ReaEQ with diap 400 Hz and hi pass 150 Hz

Drone vocals
panned through panorama, VLA-3A comp, Slate Revival for extra grit

Main Vocals
Intro : de-esser, bx_console N, SlickHDR (extra clarity) comp, de-esser again
SEND - u-he Protoverb (Cathedral)

Verse and chorus vocal: CLA-3A comp, Waves CLA vocal, SlickHDR for warm tone

Backing Vocals: Waves CLA vocals (background mode)

FLUTE - eq and de-esser

All groups except for Bass are send to channel with Acustica Silver reverb (big church) with hi pass

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

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K0LHBS ... sp=sharing

WAV 24bit/44kHz, round 2,2 dB headroom / loudness -17,0 LUFS

Good succes everybody !

[White Punk OD]

Mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ygnoh1 ... sp=sharing



Thanks to the artist and producer for a beautiful piece of music!
I hope you enjoy my take on it, with a little "magic forest" walk, that is somewhat cinematic.


Most important is to construct the bus structure, for musical reasons.

Voc Lead Bus - 3 trks, intro voc got a printed RX declick.
This holds most of the compression (parallels..)
Further alot of dynamic EQ with TDR Nova. Also automated.
DeEssers, Haas Delay

Vc soprano adlibs - highpassing, saturating compressor..

choir - SPL Vitalizer, DeEsser, 3 reverb sends
individual hipassing

Drone bus - strong panning of components, Terje has EQ
strong haas delay, focusrite channel strip for different air band flavor.
3 rev sends.
attention - there is trackspacer technology (free plugins wired by me) triggered by lead vocals

choir finale bus - very diligent shaping of individual voices with dynamic EQs, hipassing, console N for Alex
SPL Vitalizer, haas delay, deesser, Lindell 354 multiband comp
3 reverb sends

flute bus - components have all different compression to give different feeling.
flutes trigger the trackspacer as well! (they play over the drone voices)
3 rev sends

guitar / string
first I checked the instrument tracks, to have a base for everything else.
some buzukis got Lindell 354. this gives us modern brilliance.
buzuki bus has tape sim.
latina git has 2 different instances of Noveltech Character, to enhance the typical sound components.
focusrite channel strip. tape sim.

bow bass has strong saturation. some revverb
after I had a rough mix together, I decided to use ampeg SVT-VR for the bass bus. speaker+mic choice is crucial, I used a soft, low-heavy one.


drums have Luftikus for the air band.
I reinforced the low end for section 4 with a mult track that has a short gate to create just an impulse, and there is EQ boost for low end there.
drums have only some of the reverb, and the drum roll is a bit automated.


Reverbs

1. Oril River with multiband comp at the input, to suppress all sibilants and sharp transients.

2. GlaceVerb in a hard-panned double construction for the two string chord instruments.
this creates a lot of space.

3. SIR impulse that creates some hollow forest delay effect that ia like a reverberated echo.

4. EMT 350 ambience with same multiband technique as 1.


Thanks and lets see what happens, good luck!

[Mister Fox]

It is the 22nd November 2021, 00:30 UTC+1/CET - the first Mix Round has officially ended

Another very warm welcome to all new participants, from which there are plenty this month. As usual, a huge thank you to everyone that is spreading the word about the Mix Challenge. Please help get the Songwriting Competition as popular (less than 3 days left).


STATISTICS:

• If I didn't miscount, we have 70 submissions this month (70 prior to the deadline, 00 after the deadline)
• We have 0 submissions after the deadline (as of 22-NOV-2021 0:33 UTC+1/CET)
• We have 3 submissions that could not be downloaded by the time of this post and is therefore disqualified (@DennisBastioni, @eusseffhan, @vealparm - known Google Drive "access permission" issues)
• We have 0 submissions not submitted in public, but via PM (see Rule Book, post #6, Upload and Submission Guidelines)
• We have 0 submissions that have been withdrawn (but counts as entry within the deadline)
• Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters? (PDF - updated: 24-NOV-2021, full sheet)
• Overview of Submissions (disqualifications only) (PDF - updated: 24-NOV-2021)

INFORMATION:
Statistic sheets have been updated (on 24-NOV-2021 09:00 UTC+1/CET)
Statistic sheets are not available yet, please wait for the official announcement post -- sheets will arrive by mid 25-NOV-2021 latest
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INFORMATION:

Please take note of the announcement of (officially) implementing both the Wild Card Mechanic and the Statistic Sheet.

You can find that announcement post in the "News and Announcements" section:
Mix Challenge - changes to main game (October 2021)

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	Important Update: As of MC081, the Song Providers can now decide from the start, or once the Statistics Sheet has been provided, which route to go in terms of providing feedback. You can read more about this in the Mix Challenge - changes to main game (October 2021) thread. Our Song Provider for this month, @Naturecord, decided to go the "(Feedback for) Top 15" route.

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I now open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however.


Please watch this spot for the statistics sheet, client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.

Good luck to all participants.





The Songwriting Competition 51 (SWC51) is still in full swing.
The deadline is 24th November 2021, 23:59 UTC+1/CET. The genre is "(anything) Rock / Metal". So far we have 5 entries.

Please spread the word!

[White Punk OD]

addendum for those interested:

ask me for particular settings.

stereo bus has IRON compressor with a preset that I had made some months ago. I automated the output so after the drum roll it gets 2dB louder, to get the main part up.
the "bigness" of the sound is also thanks to IRON, but Oril River plays a role as well.
also there is ozone EQ (not the maximizer!) that was suggested by the autopilot, but I decreased the values a bit.

drum bus has the townhouse comp. here, this was a total game changer to discipline the whole thing and keep it still dynamic and always thriving.

a particular concern may be in the hipassing. I used cleansweep pro, which has a 6-pole Bessel filter (and a ton of other options)! this also sounds very very different from your regular one-trick hipasser or the channel strips.

Flute Anja mic 2 got a printed "Hum Removal". this plugin works better than anything I know. RX has nothing on it. but i have to do it in 32bit.
unfortunately I have no clue from where I got this. it shows no signs of any professional or business identity.
so that one helped me to get some better brilliance in the flute sound, because this plugin is absolutely transparent to the sound source.

progress of sound scape:
for the choir 02 the effect was Vitalizer.
for the finale choir 04 it was Vitalizer + Lindell 354.
for the drone vocals it was only the panning, the Haas delay and the reverb mix, plus normal channel strip use. (Focusrite SC)
the 3 main reverbs were used on busses and sometimes channel tracks with different component intensity, which allows to paint different characteristics, and also different position or distance of sound sources.

---
nice to see some comrades again!
Hi Mork , exciting again to see a totally different version from you.
You made it more like an intimate chamber celebration, quite dry (but the bell is loud), very good progress of sounds according to song structure, while I have the intro take place in a magic echo forest, and then move to a huge stone castle dining hall.

[Mister Fox]

The "Overview of Submissions" PDFs have been uploaded.
You can check them through the upper post (post #77).



As officially announced here earlier this month (September 2021), this data sheet is used to give an overview of all entries, and whether or not they are within given parameters (loudness, sampling rate, bitrate). This is adding to the overall learning process of the "Mix(ing) Challenge", and there will be a dedicated "Mix Challenge Addendum thread" explaining the mechanic in even more detail in the foreseeable future (I need some time for that). Please take note that creating this sheet is not a fully automated process. I am using Wavelab 10's "Batch Analysis" tool (EBU R-128 specs / equivalent to ITU-R BS.1770-4), but the overall layout and highlighting issues/mishaps, is time consuming. If you do not find yourself on this list, please let me know.


We have a disqualification rate of 27,14% for November 2021 (70 entries, 19 disqualifications, 0 "Out of Competition" submissions).

In comparison to previous months (detailed in spoiler tags):

► Show Spoiler

• October 2021 (15,90%, 44 entries, 7 disqualifications)
• September 2021 (24,00%, 75 entries, 18 disqualifications)
• August 2021 (20,45%, 44 entries, 9 disqualifications)
• July 2021 (20,34%, 59 entries, 12 disqualifications)
• June 2021 (26,08%, 46 entries, 12 disqualifications)
• May 2021 (22,73%, 66 entries, 15 disqualifications)
• April 2021 (24,59%, 61 entries, 14 disqualifications)
• March 2021 (25,64%, 39 entries, 10 disqualifications)
• February 2021 (35,05%, 77 entries, 27 disqualifications)
• December 2020 (22,67%, 75 entries, 17 disqualifications)
• November 2020 (31,15%, 61 entries, 19 disqualifications)
• October 2020 (33,70%, 92 entries, 31 disqualifications)
• September 2020 (32,60%, 46 entries, 15 disqualifications)
• August 2020 (28,57%, 35 entries, 10 disqualifications)
• July 2020 (40,37%, 109 entries, 44 disqualifications)

On average (16 months), we currently have a disqualification rate of 26,94% (compared to last month's 26,92% avg), the rate is on a slight increase.

Please keep in mind, your mix being tagged "disqualified", does not automatically mean "you're out of the game" (see Wild Card Mechanic, read more about that below).




A commentary on this month's entries:

Once more welcome to all new participants that joined this November. This is a more than pleasant surprise. I am happy you found our small community, hope you enjoy your stay and you will learn something from this experience.

This month, we sadly had 3 entries again that weren't downloadable, even hours after the game has ended (I checked several times). Not counting those entries, we have 16 entries with slight mishaps. By that I mean, 12 entries that are not within loudness specs (either too loud, exceeding -1,00 dBTP or falling way below -24 LUFS), 2 with have no written documentation (from which 1 entry couldn't be downloaded), 0 entries that were in the wrong bitrate this time around, however 4 entries which were in 48,0 kHz (wrong sampling rate).

A lot of these are what I call "rookie mistakes", especially from our long-term participants. Please take note that every game is unique in terms of sampling rates. However, the maximum loundess specs and allowed tolerances have been known for quite a while. Same goes for what tools I use for analysis (tolerances are usually lower!). And while the topic on documentation always results in heated debates, this is not only for you to learn how to document your edits (something that is not taught a lot anymore), but also for the overall community experience to learn from each other. So please, in the future, pay a bit more attention to detail.

I would still love to read more about what you enjoyed with each particular challenge, what you took a closer loo at, focus on one specific sound you were proud of creating/modeling. I've read this on occasion, yet I miss the final "I really liked this sound, so I did this <posted details>". We're getting there.

Overall, I am very happy with the participation this month. Let us make that happen in the future months as well. Ideally also for the Songwriting Competition
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Important to point out (for all new participants): :

Unless your file couldn't be downloaded, or it has been re-uploaded/re-posted during the course of the main submission round, having your entry being tagged as "disqualified" does not mean that you're completely out of the game (yet). Should you be selected for Mix Round 2 by this month's "client" (Song Provider), you have the option to advance through the use of the Wild Card Mechanic.

Please don't be frustrated but rather learn from the experience, find out what went wrong, and use your possible chance to fix this in a follow-up round. This is why the concept of the "Statistics Sheet" and "Wild Card mechanic" exists. It offers you an additional learning factor. Something you usually do not have the chance to outside of this community's monthly competition.
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I now (re-)open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however. Though please note - criticism on the rule set and angry posts will be moved to the General Gossip Thread without further notice.


Please watch this spot for the client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.
This will happen sometime within the next 14 days (starting tomorrow).

[White Punk OD]

@Mister Fox thanks so much, sorry for the file name,
I also would like to mention that there is at least one mix that i could not get to open (on Win 10) because of some conflict with the umlaut code.
Finally I did a file name change with retyping.