MIX CHALLENGE - MC084 February 2022 - Winners announced

[Badgerface]

Hello all. First time round these parts.
Here's a mix. Hopefully I've followed all the rules properly. It reads as under -16dB integrated but it seems a bit louder than some others from a quick check through the posts. Is it OK?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/115n_lB ... sp=sharing

Drums: I wanted to even them out and catch the occasional sudden peak etc, so there are quite a few layers of compression, limiting, clipping in places. None of it doing very much but the cumulative effect was designed to make the performance more consistent and increase the density. Individual channels have EQ, compression, and then into a drum bus with more compression, parallel comp, tape sat.. There is also another parallel process for punch on the kick/snare, using sends and a tightly gated return.
Percussion: Some compression but most shakers/tambourines just EQ and balanced.

Bass: parallel Ampeg model blended with the DI and then through some saturation, EQ, a touch of 1176

Guitars: Acoustics EQd for more brightness, a bit of opto compression. Electric rhythm similar treatment. The lead was split across 2 channels to separate the solos/licks from the chords and treated slightly differently, with some extra modulation. Quite a bit of automation of level/pan on the lead.

Keys: just EQ mainly, a touch of saturation (more on the hammond)

Vocals: Lead and backing were all tuned gently (The rough mix has tuning so I figured this was a green light!). EQ, compression, light saturation all round. Doubler effect used subtly (increases a little in choruses on lead). Lead vox has a Slate VMR chain with both LA2A and SSL compressor models into a parallel 1176 (mix knob about 40%). Again I was looking to even out the performance and keep it fairly steady, then automate further where needed.

Effects: a handful of global FX on sends which things are sent to - a chamber and a vintage spring reverb, plus a non-linear verb just for the snare/toms. 3 different delays from a tight 16th to a ping-pong 1/4 note for the odd ear candy moment and one in between. Also a modulated micro-pitch type thing. Lots of things sharing these effects in various levels throughout the mix, often automated rides (especially for vox and lead gtr)

Mix bus: Tape sim, a couple of dBs glue compression from Kush Silika and then slight EQ from Kush Blyss, max +/-0.5dB. Both of these 2 add a touch of saturation as well. Blyss also has a slow-acting compressor for another 0.5dB GR. Most of the compression is done on a per-channel basis but these 2 plugins just bind it together a bit more. Final limiter doing next to nothing but just checking level via loudness meter.

Hope you enjoy!

[PauPeu]

Hello. I have to say that the tracks are quite messy, mostly with time problems all over the place, I guess that's what it is.

I mixed this song using Ableton and a bunch of plugins.
The tracks are quite messy (mostly with time problems) But I've tried my best with this mix, It's kinda a "power" mix, with lots of compression and saturation.

Here's a quick resume of some of my process:

Kick: heavy gated, eq'd, nd compression
Snare: filtered (highs and lows) and quite a lot of saturation
HH : filtered : high pass, and compression with fast attack

Drum Buss: Saturation, Compression and clipper

Bass: A little eq, saturation, and comp

Guitars:

Tried to fix the time problems (offset) In all of them, then pan and add reverb ad some chorus to the Lead.

The LEAd guitar is sidechained to the main vocals, the kinda overlapped too much

Hammod: a Rotator plugin (worked quite well)

VOX: a lot of the tipical processing, eqm gate, dnamic eq, delay, etc...

BACK vox: panning and filtered with reverb.

There's aspects of the mix that can be improved, but I think it's sounds kinda powerful and clear at the moment.

Thanks for listening, Good Luck. (sorry for the bad english)

My mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Db1Rlv ... sp=sharing

[Raiccu]

First I gain stacked all the audio tracks.
I cleaned all the tracks that required cleaning with EQ as well as I could.
Then I compressed them a bit and tried to make the individual instruments sound good and fit the sound image.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SWJ6J7 ... sp=sharing

INTRO: Pan center. Paraller FX: CLA EchoSphere(slap delay, plate reverb.)

ACC1: Pan 75% right, CLA-76 Compressor. Paraller FX: TrueVerb(medium plate)
ACC2: Pan 100% left, CLA-76 Compressor, EQ. Paraller FX: CLA EchoSphere(slap delay, plate reverb.)
ACC3: Pan 100% right, CLA-76 Compressor, EQ. Paraller FX: CLA EchoSphere(slap delay, plate reverb.)

BASS: Pan center, EQ, PuigChild Compressor, Saturator

VOCALS: Pan center, EQ, CLA-76 Compressor
ALTO: Pan 65% right, EQ, CLA-76 Compressor
TENOR: Pan 45% left, EQ, CLA-76 Compressor
VOCAL SUB BUS: GWVoiceCentric(delay, doubler, reverb). Paraller FX: TrueVerb(medium plate), CLA EchoSphere(slap delay, plate reverb.)

LEAD GUITAR: Pan 30% right, EQ, CLA-76 Compressor, Saturator. Paraller FX: CLA EchoSphere(slap delay, plate reverb.)
RHYRHM GUITAR: Pan 75% left, EQ, Saturator

HAMMOND: Pan center
SYNTH: Pan 30% right

COWBELL: Pan 32% left, EQ
HIHAT: Pan 20% right, EQ, high freq enhancer, CLA-76 Compressor
SNARE: Pan 8% right, EQ, high freq enhancer, listen mic compressor, CLA-76 Compressor
KICK: Pan center, EQ, Gate, transient shaper, high freq enhancer, low freq enhancer, listen mic compressor, CLA-76 Compressor
FLOORTOM: Pan 55% left, EQ, Gate, transient shaper, high freq enhancer, low freq enhancer, listen mic compressor, CLA-76 Compressor
RACK TOMS: Pan 7% right, EQ, Gate, transient shaper, high freq enhancer, low freq enhancer, listen mic compressor, CLA-76 Compressor
DRUM SUB BUS: DPR-402 Compressor

LEFT OH: Pan 55% left, EQ
RIGHT OH: Pan 55% right, EQ
OVERHEADS SUB BUS: stereo width, high freq enhancer, listen mic compressor. Paraller FX: TrueVerb(medium plate)

SHAKER 1: Pan 45% left, EQ
SHAKER 2: Pan 45% right, EQ

TAMBO 1: Pan 60% left, EQ
TAMBO 2: Pan 60% right, EQ


MIX BUS: API-2500 Compressor, J37 TAPE

[mixedbyadn]

Hi,
this is my vision of the mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nka6eeewe31q1 ... N.wav?dl=0

For me the important thing has been to go back to the records of the 70s.

I didn't do any kind of fancy process, I just emulated every single track on an SSL console before a cleanup and after gain staging.

I've worked from big to small, starting from the Mix Bus where I've put saturation, bus compression and tape emulation, to groups and finally tracks, as well as using a Pulsar Echorec delay on vocals and some hard panning.

I love the overall result!

Thanks for this great song.

[Ronson79]

Here´s my mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SuyG6p ... sp=sharing

Enjoyed the mix as I listened to such music back when I was a teenager.

Drums - general cleaning with eq, slight compression
Bass - scooped out some of the mids, boost some lows
GTRs - cut some resonances + general tone shaping
Vocals - went for an aggressive sound with saturation and slap delay

[zed999]

@Mister Fox
I'm a bit confused with the loudness thing.
If I drop my mix on Loudness penalty and none of them turn it down, is that going to be a pass here or is it more complicated than that?

No limiter or compression on the mix bus, but plenty elsewhere. Maybe I should just post it up and take a chance.

[Mister Fox]

@Mister Fox
I'm a bit confused with the loudness thing.
If I drop my mix on Loudness penalty and none of them turn it down, is that going to be a pass here or is it more complicated than that?

No limiter or compression on the mix bus, but plenty elsewhere. Maybe I should just post it up and take a chance.

Let's assume you check a track and it tells you: "Youtube -- not adjusting, Spotify -- adjusting by +2, TIDAL -- not adjusting -- iTunes -- not adjusting"... technically that would tell me your entry is about -16 LUFS ILk but there is literally zero information if it's with a tolerance in consideration or not. Loudness Penalty (at least the "online analyzer") is not really helpful in this case, as the target levels are shifting ever so often (as of this moment: Youtube/Tidal/Spotify - about -14 LUFS, iTunes -- at -16LUFS max), and the online analyzer doesn't give you a definite numeric readout.

Please cross reference with the Youlean Loudness Meter (Free Version), set the preset to either EBU R128 S1 or ITU-R BS.1770-4, run your track from start to finish, check the "Integrated Value". If it's not going higher -16 LUFS or lower -24 LUFS while also not exceeding -1,00 dBTP, your entry is within loudness specs.

[zed999]

@Mister Fox
I'm a bit confused with the loudness thing.
If I drop my mix on Loudness penalty and none of them turn it down, is that going to be a pass here or is it more complicated than that?

No limiter or compression on the mix bus, but plenty elsewhere. Maybe I should just post it up and take a chance.

Let's assume you check a track and it tells you: "Youtube -- not adjusting, Spotify -- adjusting by +2, TIDAL -- not adjusting -- iTunes -- not adjusting"... technically that would tell me your entry is about -16 LUFS ILk but there is literally zero information if it's with a tolerance in consideration or not. Loudness Penalty (at least the "online analyzer") is not really helpful in this case, as the target levels are shifting ever so often (as of this moment: Youtube/Tidal/Spotify - about -14 LUFS, iTunes -- at -16LUFS max), and the online analyzer doesn't give you a definite numeric readout.

Please cross reference with the Youlean Loudness Meter (Free Version), set the preset to either EBU R128 S1 or ITU-R BS.1770-4, run your track from start to finish, check the "Integrated Value". If it's not going higher -16 LUFS or lower -24 LUFS while also not exceeding -1,00 dBTP, your entry is within loudness specs.

Thank you very much sir!
-16.8 LUFS / -2 dBTP - seems like I had it about as "loud" as I'd like anyway - after all, it's rock and roll not jazz.

[zed999]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hx63nzeyulp8 ... 9.wav?dl=0

Drums - clean up, EQ, clippers, compression, parallel compression, gated reverb, Tape sim
Bass - EQ, distortion, Amp sim, sub filter, compression, Tape sim
Guitars - EQ resonance notches, cab sims, Tape sim
Acc guitars - EQ, chorus, widener, compression
Vocal - EQ compression, delay, reverb, Tape sim
BK vocal - EQ, delay, widener
Hammond - Low cut
Synth - nothing!
Percussion - didn't use it.

Mix bus - TEOTE flicking 0.5dB here and there + meter to check loudness.

[pabloAT]

Dear all,
First to all, many thanks to the song provider for such a nice track to mix, and to Mr. Fox for taking careful care of the game.
Please find below the dropbox mix for entry MC084 and some details of the mixing procedure that I've followed.
Best wishes,
Pablo

[Dropbox's link to MC084]

Submission
DAW = Cubase 11.0.41
Integrated LUFS = -16.6
True Peak = -4.21 dB
File Format: WAV, 44.1kHz, 24bit

Preliminary work: cleaning-up, raw balance, panning/stereo spreading, Removing noise, etc. and grouping tracks. All tracks benefited from API console emulation by Lindell (50 Series). Filters LPF/HPF where needed. Simple fade-out.

Drums
For each kit, the compression was applied from the Lindell 50 Series console strip. Additional control for kick & snare was provided by a FG-Dyn compressor. Drum and percussion kits sent to busses with LoFi reverb and // compression for glue (Diode 609).

Bass
The bass was reamped with an Ampeg SVT-VR. Functional compression. Send to buses with Dimension-D (chorus) and saturation (provided by an instance of Darkglass).

Acoustic guitars
Ac1: Functional (Rcompressor) and Opto compressor to bright-out the original sound. Sends to a bus with subtle reverb.
Ac2 & 3: Idem Ac1, but panned hard L/R.

Rhythmic Guitar
Functional compression to even the sound, saturation, LA-2A compressor to bright-out the original sound, and a Fairchild compressor emulation at the end of the chain for body and extra detail. Send to a bus with subtle reverb.

Lead Guitar
Split in 2 for easier control of the sound: verse and chorus. Functional compression to even the sound, saturation, and an instance of Pultec’s emulation for body and vintage vibe. Saturation tape at the end of the chain. Sends to buses with instances of further (dirty) tape saturation and H3000 (for a bit of sparkling).

Hammond Organ
Compression from the channel slip, then an instance of Opto to shine a bit and further control. Send to a bus with subtle reverb.

Synth
Compression from the channel slip, then a bit of saturation. Send to a bus with subtle reverb.

Lead Vocal
1176, Kramer Pie and upward (MV2) sequential compressors to have everything under control and bring the most of the lead vocal, de-essing, fresh air (a touch) and saturation at the end of the chain. Send to buses with early reflection, reverb, distortion, delay and tape saturation.

BG Vocals
The two provided tracks were panned -70L/70R. Applied functional compression to uniformize the sound, and an instance of Kramer Pie at the end of the chain.

Stems & Master busses
Different instrument groups were sent to 4 stems (“Drum” (included the bass), “Guitars”, “Keys” and “Vocals”), where I used instances of tape machine emulators and the nice Console7 by Airwindows (free). The stems were in turn sent to the master buss, where I applied saturation (Black Box), VCA API 2500 compression (from the console strip), a touch of bx_digital V3 for final low/high end frequency adjustments and wideness (very subtle). I added a tape machine emulator (Kramer) at the end of the chain, together with an instance of standardClip to tame the very high peaks.