MIX CHALLENGE - MC083 December 2021 - Winners announced

[jake sg]

Hi All,

Care to listen and comment on my mix if any . TQ

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JaleM4 ... sp=sharing

Pls find below - fyi

Acoustic Guitar
Avox Warm
APi 560
Mono to Stereo
New fangle eq
PuigTec

Bass
Avox Warm
COmpressor
Fabfilter pro q 3
New fangle eq


Guitar harmonic & melody
Fabfilter pro q
Cla guitar
Compressor


Main vocal
Avox Warm
Compressor
Api 560
Gate
Cla vocal
Mreverb
Puigtec
Newfangle eq
Desser



Vocal chorus
Avox Warm
COmpressor
Fabfilter pro q 3
Chorus dimension D
CLa vocal

Submix
Abbey ROad Plate stereo
COmpressor
Puigtec
Newfangle eq
L3 Multimaximer

Thank you



____________________________________________________________________________________

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 83 - December 2021


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the evaluation process and the first posts for re-submissions for Mix Round 2 and (possible) Mix Round 3.

!

Bonus Info

This month, you have the chance to work on an "Acoustic / Contemporary Singer-Songwriter" production by John Henderson (better known to us as forum regular @Johnny_Fingers). Thank you for kindly providing multi-tracks as final Mix(ing) Challenge for 2021. The song is called "Sun Returns". The biggest challenge this month, is working with a sparse arrangement of only 7 tracks. Additional twists result from not ideally recorded/edited takes (noises), maybe unusual dissonances thanks to the use of a fretless bass, and you can experiment with time aligning vocals. All while trying to retain a natural sound and offering your own twist to the mix compared to the original version. Piqued your curiosity? Then please take special note of the attached TXT files (Technical Details section in "Words by the Song Provider") and please read about the details and special requirements for handling this mix further down below.

IMPORTANT: Before you get started, please consult the official "Rules and Guidelines" for the Mix Challenge regarding principles of the game, upload/submission guidelines, the concept of documenting your edits, and maximum allowed loudness values (see Rule Book - post #6). Interaction is highly encouraged, including asking questions for the song provider. Giving and receiving constructive feedback to your entry, and sharing tips and tricks should ideally happen after Mix Round 1 has ended, to not influence each other during the main competition round.




This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:


Submission Period: General Information, Source Files, Sponsors
Mix Round 1 Statistics/Data Sheet: Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters?
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Mix Round 3: <optional>
Results of the Mix Challenge: Winners announced

[LowlandsWave]

Hello,

A small song with sparse arrangement. Lyric wise there is continuous switch between "the hard winter times" in de the verses and then sun come trough in de Choruses. I tried to get that back in the mix. The verses are slightly darker in tone than the choruses. Not to much exitement in the mix, but a constant bass/guitar section to set the mood. Instruments and vocals are routed to separate Reverbs to set the space and contribute to the mood of the song.
The sparkle comes from the harmonics guitar and the melody guitar.

DAW: Logic

All instruments/instrument busses have a tape emulation as the last plugin. Add a bit of wamth to the mix. It also takes away the spikes and results in a more "rounded sound" (or is that warmth ....)
All instruments/instrument busses have an SSL channelstrip.

Bass: Audio Cleanup, Arouser compressor to tame the transients and gat a rounder bass sound. Bettermaker plugin for some extra low end

Guitars Rythm: Audio repair to try and attenuate the picking noise and squeeks. Both guitars panned hard left and right. Not to much high end boosting to keep the squeeks under control. Bettermaker boost at 6 kHz and cut at 5kHz.

Guitars Melody: reamp with Helix, added some autofilter effect to the guitar and used a Fender style amp.

Guitars Harmonics: no special besides SSL channelstrip and tape emulation

Vocal: Used nectar fx chain for voice enhancement, compression, eq and reverb. In the choruses I doubled the main vocal and pitch that real high and then used the reverb signal to get a very small effect of "children singing in the background"
Adjusted timing of the harmony vocal. There is still some timing difference, I left that for character.

Here's my mix: Sun Returns

[Dodgingrain]

here's mine:https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrkqMpS-p ... A?e=DASUYf (link corrected, if this disqualifies me so be it)

A lot of the tracks needed some cleanup in RX to pull out clicks and pops and guitar squeeks, etc. Otherwise not to much here.

Bass: very little here other than some compression and a small amount of eq.

Gtrs: again not much here, some compression and eq, the acoustic needed some help with a lot of clicks and spikes in the level, used soothe to tame it some as well as some manual editing and dynamic eq.

Vocals: again some cleanup in RX, lots of automation to even out the levels which were not consistent. Sibalance was a big problem once the vocals had any amount of compression.

Main bus had the usual tape treatment.

[delicate]

here's mine: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrkcwUtm2 ... A?e=f49mwk

Hey there!

The link leads to your submission for the previous challenge.

[ChrisK99]

Firstly thank you so much to Johnny for giving us this wonderful track to mix. I really enjoyed working on this though I did have to fight off the odd tear.

I put Brainworks AMEK channel strip across all tracks though there really wasn't that much to do aside from some gentle EQing and some just went through straight for the tone.
I put one of the voice tracks through SPL Iron and the other through ACME Opticom to give two different chara\cters (I favored the Iron slightly in the mix)
I put some slight delay (Valhalla) one on of the guitars to give a sprinkle of 'magic' without triggering too many delays. Smooth operator operated smoothly on the guitar bus to sweeten ever so slightly.
I used the Bright Hall preset on Convology XT for a single reverb across all sources to tie them all together and put them in the same space.
I used Izotoped doubler to slightly thicken the choruses.
A final light compressor on the mixbus for 'glue'.

Hope you all enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed mixing it.

Mix can be found here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7om9v0k4i4pg ... 9.wav?dl=0

[ilrenton]

Hey guys !

Here is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nJS_Hn ... sp=sharing

I wanted to create an intimate atmosphere on my mix, here below what i did more or less:

Send channel : Delay ,Plate reverb, Room reverb, voice reverb

Bass :I added a bit of saturation and then controlled with a multiband compressor + eq
Guitar: panned to find a right balance with the bass, stereo processor + compressor + eq +another compressor+ tape simulation

Voice:quite long chain: eq, de esser ,doubler ,compressor + multiband compressor , 1176 , pultec , opto compressor , tape simulation

I wish everybody to have fun in the mix !
Cheers
Luca

[elroms]

Here is my mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uJVliU ... sp=sharing

Here is a quick explanation of the main things I did aside from EQ/compression which I applied to all tracks :

I reamped all guitars with CLA guitar. I sent the acoustic ones to a vintage reverb, and the solo guitar to a delay and a Valhalla shimmer reverb. I also sent the harmonics guitar to a delay.
I panned one acoustic guitar 50L, the other 50R to get a nice stereo image, then I processed them together sending them to the same group.
I used a bit of clean tube saturation on the guitar group to make it brighter.

I reamped the bass with guitar rig.

I used two reverbs on the lead voice, a plate and a hall. Among others things such as EQ and compression I put 2 DeEssers and saturation.
I edited the backing voice a bit to get it more aligned with the lead voice. I didn't do any pitch correction to keep a natural feeling.

I used a side chain compressor on the solo guitar track triggered by the lead voice


Good luck to everybody!

[georgwalt]

hi everyone

good stuff
also to test some new stuff

https://we.tl/t-qNaEmet3NM

enjoy!

merry xmas

georg

[Mister Fox]

Let me quickly step in to address some quick glaring issues

Especially for new participants - do check in with the Rules for participants of the Mix Challenge.

1. to everyone that is yet to submit a mix: you have to use every track of the 7 available ones. Those that already submitted their edit, since your entry is final, please wait for Mix Round 2. (also see Mix Pack attached TXTs and the TL;DR summary)
2. Please also keep in mind, part of the game is to create a good mix with your own spin on a provided production. Also, please leave some breathing room at the beginning of the track
3. broken or wrong links... please check them! Do not use WeTransfer (see Upload and Submission Guidelines - sub-point #06)
4. Document your edit - this is not a "nobody reads this anyway" type of deal - this is part of the "learning experience concept" of the community.

As of the time-stamp of this post, a little more 8,5 days left to submit your mix.

[Bologna57]

Thanks for the opportunity to be able to mix such an intimate and interesting track.

Some points:
I would have liked the bass to have been played more "mwah", I proceeded with expander / compressor (and chorus ...) to make it a little softer.
As for the guitar melodies and harmonics, I decided to re-amplify the guitar, obtaining a more dramatic sound, similar to what I did with the voice, giving it a slightly "old-fashioned" space.
The guitar was only slightly reverberated.
The voice has get very minimal re-tune interventions in some places.

I hope that the song you can find here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lj9HbH ... sp=sharing
is to your liking.
I hope to read some comments.

Have a good evening.
G.