MIX CHALLENGE - MC083 December 2021 - Winners announced

[Green-Dog]

Hi everyone,

The first thing I did was to align the backing vocals, remove the clicks in the main vocals and make the breathing quieter. Then I cut out the unpleasant resonances, compressed and added maximums at the end.

The acoustic guitar seemed to me very humming, so first of all, I cut out this hum and compressed it.

The harmonic guitar has been compressed and processed by EQ and added tape delay.

I decided to make the Guitar melody more atmospheric, so I added spring reverb.

I mixed the pure bass signal with the sound of an amplifier. Then I processed both signals together. Equalizer - saturation - compression and equalization again.

Mix

Good luck to everyone!

[Michael_K]

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

A beautiful, interesting and challenging track to mix. I found myself going the "Daniel Lanois" route.

The acoustic guitars are panned 90% left and right. Some eq to clean up lows and low-mids into a sonnox compressor to control dynamics.
They also have a touch of multi-tap delay to create a subtle sense of rhythmic motion.

Same process with the two electrics with an additional opto compressor in the end. The lead is panned about 20% left and the harmonic about 40% right. There is quite a bit of automation in the delays and reverb in those two tracks in the instrumental solo section.

The bass has an eq for low-end management into a low ratio C2 compressor.

The lead vocal is split into 2 channels.
The first channel is the dry vocal that we hear in the mix and goes through a light de-esser and a GML 2020 with a thouch touch of eq into the compressor in soft-knee setting.
The second channel is what is sent to the effects and is heavily de-essed to avoid emphasizing the "s's". There is a combination of medium and long hall reverbs, an 8th not delay, and a touch of blackhole reverb.

The backing vocal is panned about 30% right, lower in volume with a heavy de-esser to minimize 's' conflict with the lead vocal.

Good luck everybody!

[KarlxVinten]

Hi everyone,
Here is my mix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3dgar5ze1qbb ... n.wav?dl=0

In the guitar I have added some compression and remove some boominess then added some high mids.

Bass was good just added some compression.

In the vocals I did minor compression and added some air to the vocals .

And in the lead guitar added some long reverb to make it atmospheric..

Thank you .

[Mork]

Hey!

For me this was all about the vocal. It should be the center of the universe, every word and emotion should be heard, the rest follows. I manually (and automatically) de-essed (yikes) the lead and manually "time-alinged" the double (yikes again). I tried to find a spot for the instruments where they speak for themselves but support, not overtake, the vocal. That's why the acoustic isn't spread out like crazy and "back there". Both mics are used and panned the same. There is EQ, a little (!) 1176 compression, UAD API560 (this is the main color) and soothe2 on the bus. It is subtly spread out with a hard panned mono delay. Bass is eqed (BigFreq) reamped with the big Bainworx Ampeg (forgot the name), slightly "edged up" with SansAmp and compressed with LA-2A. The harm and solo guitar are slightly saturated (Decapitator) and a little eqed. With the instruments i tried to keep it "beautiful" and not end up clanky and distracting. Space is provided by PCM VintagePlate and Seventh Heaven. I found a new love during this mix and it is the 224 Chorus! It's used for the Solo guitar and vocal double. Awesome!

Vocal double is eqed (Claro) and gently compressed with MagicDeathEye. As mentioned before it's spread out by 224 Chorus and some Seventh Heaven Chamber.

Lead Vocal is de-essed and eq'd (LittleFreak), compressed by Arousor (fast) into LA-2A (gentle) into 32C Leveller (even more gentle). The 32C EQ section is also in use. This may seem like a lot of compression, but every comp is doing it's job gently, instead of one being nuked. After that a little HG-2 goodness. Delay, PCM Plate and MicroShift for LV.

Mixbus is parallel SSL (1.5:1, fast Attack and Release) into Pultec into VariMU style compression. Again everything gentle. This is performed dynamically and I did not intend to remove that, just give it a little more steadyness.

I wish there was some high percussion like a tambourine and maybe a little background choir (like ooohhs and aaahhs) in the last chorus. I think the production would really benefit from that. Anyway, it was fun (not the editing part )

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RPcj4- ... sp=sharing

[FromAtoZMix]

Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYjWv5 ... sp=sharing


Hello everyone,
The final mix is -14LUFS. No mastering, no volume maximizers.

First of all, many thanks for the opportunity. Today's mix is based on one plugin only, which is SSL E style, from PA. Only vocal needed more than one plugin( d-esser etc.). I have challenged myself with it. Fundamental compression, when required, basic EQ, to my taste, and DLY/ReV to my liking. That would be all, good luck to everyone.

[Jaime]

Hello!

I’m Jaime and I had fun at mixing your song.

I’ve mixed as there was a live band playing.

I’ve thought that making this version as live as possible would have brought a better interpretation of the genre and the song writing.

-I’ve created sub group for:
Acoustic Gtrs, Gtr solos and one for the vocals

-Acoustic Guitars:
Multiple eq as linear, tube and the Q3 alongside a standard comp at 1.6 ratio.
>I like them and I think that some little scratch make these two tracks more natural

-Bass:
Eq, bass reamp and compressor
>I wanted to emphasize a bit

-Gtrs solos:
Eq, reame and compressor
>same as the bass. I’ve panned to make them wider

-Vocals:
Eq, comp, de-esser used several times to make it natural without adding to much in one step.

-Aux Rev:
Small ambience and one to make a little bit airy

-Aux amp voice:
Reamp as an aux of both vocals to add a little bit of harmonics and space

-I’ve used a little of flex pitch to make more fluent the
Lyrics related to the song

Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y1N3Bi ... sp=sharing

Hope you like it

See ya

Jaime

[dadomachado]

Hi All,

Very interesting song to work this month with few tracks. I've tried to keep it simple and make it intimate.

Follows my take:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aFd8kk ... sp=sharing

Started with the Acoustic Guitar as it drives most of the song vibe. I've used the PA Lindell 80 channel and EQ'd to make it bighter. Light compression there as well.

On the bass I've used the SSL 4000 E channel strip for some EQ and compression and added a little saturation (Saturn) on the the mids to make it more present in the mix.

On the Eletric guitar I've used the SSL 400 E as well. Some EQ with Waves API-550B and sent them to a Plate reverb.

A lot of work on the vocals, especially with deesing. I've use the SSL 400 E channel strip, A Deeser, Waves RVOX and Puigchild for compression. Another deeser and a passive EQ to bring some highs back. Sent them to a room and plate reverbs. Also sent them to two delay busses (1/4 and 1/8) which were sent to the plate reverb. Tried to keep it sutil.

On the master buss I've use the SSL Channel, SSL light compression to glue it up. Small touch of MB compression for some movement and some light saturation (Black Box).

Really look forward to any feedbacks.

Cheers from Brazil,
dadomachado

[unclesnuggles]

Hello friends! a bit in a rush!
here is my proposal, for this superb song. Mixing is done on Cubase pro10.5, Focals CMS40.
Plugings used: Uad, Softube, Cubase.

I started mixing using a tape simulator (studer A800), then corrective EQ, groups, vocal realignment, comp ...
I didn't want to distort the tracks, not a lot of processing, slight // compression, except on the bass.
I had fun with the chorus guitars by adding a delay from Valhalla Super Massive.
For the vocals I used a comp // with an 1176 followed by La2a, with automation. The bass is processed with an 1176. Lots of little automations throughout the mix. Side chain reverb delay on the vocals.
I wanted to keep the intimate side of the song, I liked mixing this song!
good listening

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13m-nDs ... sp=sharing

[Franz]

Sometimes the fewer tracks we have and the more delicate the mix promises. This is the case for this title.

First I opted for an atmosphere equivalent to that of a group playing in a pub. Live atmosphere. So no big sound effects.

First, I cleaned the tracks. For the main voice I removed the awkward breaths, used a de-esser, a slight equalization and
a "rider" type plugin from the publisher Wawes. Then the delicate work to put the choirs back in sync (manual cutting in Wawelab 11).
For the vocals I added in the sub-group a slight reverb / delay to give a little concert atmosphere.
For guitars, each track has been cleaned if necessary with just an equalizer. The whole sub-group was sent to a reverb / delays
to properly place each instrument in the stereo space which would be that of a small stage. The only intervention I made was
to follow the guitar solo.The rest of the instruments keep their natural dynamics.

I hope you like the general atmosphere.

Cheers

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

[fcamp]

The link to the song is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SeIBOL ... sp=sharing

Cleaned the tracks, removed clicks with RX, removed breaths from the vocals and added a bit of pitch correction with bx crispytuner. Multed the bass, to pan some slides during the song and some harmonics at the end that I found very interesting.
I went for some The National or maybe Wilco’s Yanke Hotel Foxtrot feel. Hope you like it.

Tracks:

AcRode: HP filter at 120, cleaned at 250 Hz, LP flter at 12 kHz. Some levelling and collour with Kush AR-1 and finally ST Tremolator for some pulsating sound at 1/16 to have some movement.

AcSM58: HP filter at 120, cleaned at 250 Hz, LP flter at 12 kHz. Some levelling and collour with Kush AR-1 and finally ST Tremolator for some pulsating sound at 1/8 to have some movement.
Bass: Panned center. HP and LP filters to clean the ends, SansAmp plugin to give some dirt, compression form pulsar Smasher in parallel and bx opto for levelling, pultec eq to add some 100 Hz and 3kHz, and subsynth to add some lows. Multed the bass with more HP filtering with automated panning and delay in some sliding parts and the harmonics in the outro.

Main Vocals: Panned center. HP filter at 70 Hz and dip at 300 Hz. Added 1176 style comoression, deessing, levelling with opto compressor plugin. Added some saturation with tape plugin, Devil-Loc and some Plate reverb.

Backing Vocals: Panned center HP filter at 70 Hz and dip at 300 Hz. Removed some 2kHz in the Mid. Added varimu compression for darker sound, deessing, and Plate reverb and Echoboy delay for depth.

Electric guitar rythm: Panned left at 64%.HP filter at 200 Hz, cleaned some 2kHz at LP filer at 11kHz. Then added some Neve saturation, 1176 style compression, added 700 Hz and 5kHz with kush Electra eq and added subtle tremolo and delay and spring reverb

Electric guitar solo: Panned right at 48%. HP at 260, LP at 7 kHz, added some opto levelling , added 1,6 kHz and 360 Hz and removed some highs. Added ssubtle tremolo and delay and spring reverb

Reverb tracks: One for room sound with Bricasti style plugin and other with Valhalla VV form blade runner type sound mixing very little for ambience. For the outro I add here volume, filters, phasers, autopanning, distortion and subsynth. Was trying to do very little of Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot thing.

Groups:
Acoustic guitars: Little notch at 5 kHz, levelling with a dbx style comp, removed some 100 Hz and 2 kHz to make space for bas and vocals and added some 15 kHz. Added short delay to give some depth.

Bass: Some compression varimu style for saturation

Vocals: The Glue for some compression centering the voice in the main, and kotelnikov in the backing vocals.
Electric guitar: pulsar mu for added body.

Mix bus:
Very little of (they were form the very beginning):
DDMF Magic Death Eye for glue, Dangerous BAX for HP and LP filter, Elysia alpha for stereo widening, Maag eq fro 10 kHZ shelf to give air, Inflator and Voxengo Elephant doing almost nothing.