MIX CHALLENGE - MC085 April 2022 - Winners announced

[Coiled_Ear]

Ok, let's go
BASSES - Pro-MB, PRO-q3, Analog Obsession LALA, PRO-MB again, Klanghelm SDRR2
CLAP - PRO-MB
DRUMS2nd - Pro-q3 midside, PRO-mb cut mid, IK Pultec, Analog Obsession Fetish, Ableton's utility bass mono reduce width, Soundtoys Devilloc Deluxe in Parallel mode
EFX BAss growl - Ik Pultec
EFX sub - Softube Transient shaper
Guit-AC - Ik Pultec for the shine
Guit Funky - same but with AA Fetish
HH Claps - Ik pultec, Utility (same setting as for Drum 2nd btw!), PRO-q3, AA LOADES (deessing a bit)
Kick - AA Lovend, Ik pultec, khz Transient shaper
(Kick in the bridge was been heavily destroyed so I move this part to another track where only Pro-q3 to reduce harshiness)
PAD-END - Pro-MB
PIANO - Proq3, AA LALA, khz Transient shaper (basically everything to make it not so flat, more warmth and longer sustain)
PIZZ - Pro-MB (uggh multiband addictive)
Snare (Pro-MB, softube transient shaper)
Synth-001 - Proq3
Synth 002 - same but khz Transient shaper as well
Synth blip - Proq3
Synth perc rhytm - Proq3, IK pultec, DMG Essence
All Vocals were been collected to the one group and here are the settings -
Pro-MB, Proq3, Soundtoys decapitator
AUX busses - ValhallaVintageVerb (mainly vocals), ValhallaRoom (mainly hihat)
Master chain - Pro-q3 (kinda tilt eq), DMG Essens (to tame highs a bit), Matthew Lane DRMS (soundwide preset), Klanghelm DC8C3 (amazing master buss comp!)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qnj3b_ ... sp=sharing

[pabloAT]

Dear all/bonjour,
Many thanks to the song provider for this nice track to mix, and to Mr Fox for taking care of this game.

Please find below the (dropbox) link to my mix for MC085:
[Dropbox's link to MC085]

Please find below some details of the mix:
DAW = Cubase 11.0.41
Integrated LUFS = -19.6
True Peak = -5.25 dB
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

Preliminary work : cleaning-up, raw balance, panning/stereo spreading, Removing noise, etc. and grouping tracks. All tracks benefited from Focusrite console SC emulation by bx_braiworx. Filters LPF/HPF where needed. I’ve used the dry tracks for LV and BV.

Drums, percussions & EFXs
Kick
Infinity EQ, boost @75hz and 2.0khz, dip@365hz; Compressor FA/SR; and saturation
Snare
Infinity EQ, Compressor 1176, Enhancer with Type A, a bit of saturation
HH
Infinity EQ, Compressor 1176, Exciter with Type B
Sample percussions and effects
Mostly functional compression and EQ to fit into the busy mix.
Drum and percussion kits sent to bus with Verbsuite Classics (rooms, long chamber)

Bass
Functional compression first to set the bass in the mix, then U73b compressor emulation for color. A touch of saturation with REDDI.

Acoustic Guitar
Functional compression to uniformize, then CLA-2A to bright-out the original sound. Send to a bus with a small, bright reverb (Reverberator)

Funky Guitar
Functional compression to uniformize, then CLA-3A to bright-out the original sound. Send to a bus with a spring reverb.

Piano
Fairchild compressor to reinforce the density, then a bit of saturation. Send to busses with a delay and subtle reverb.

String Pizzicato
Opto compression to enlighten the sound of pizzicato. Send to a bus with subtle reverb.

Synths
A lot of automation work to clean out the space of frequencies. Some synths benefited from a touch of saturation to reinforce the sound. All synths were sent to a bus with Space Station reverb.

Lead Vocal
1176-like saturation and de-essing. As I used the Vox-Dry file, I did a LOT of work with Little Alter Boy trying to recreate the vibe of the printed vocal track. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded…Send to buses with reverb, doubler, delay and compression (parallel).

BG Vocals
Heavy mu-compression to uniformize the sound, and an instance of Kramer Pie at the end of the chain. Send to buses with two different reverbs.

Stems & Master busses
Different instrument groups were sent to 8 stems (“Bass”, “Drums&Perc”, “Guitars”, “Orch&Piano”, “Synths”, “EFX”, “Aux” (where I’ve sent most of reverbs to have an extra control) and “Vocals”). For the different stems I’ve used instances of tape machine emulators. The stems were in turn sent to the master buss, where I applied saturation (Black Box), SSL compression, 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.

Good luck to all participants!
Pablo

[studio equator]

ciao!
my fist time here and a mixer newbie too (but a lifetime musician).
I really liked the track and ejoyed """working""" on it, since i'm a big fan of the French-Touch movement (Jackson and his Computerband, Justice, SebastiAn, Daft Punk, Together and so on...)
So my initial idea was to blend the more pop sound referenced by the artist with the compressed, glam and dance flavoured sound that these other artists shared.

while mixing i tried to not overdo, keeping single track and full mix signal flow always the same and simple:
- single track flow: graphic EQ (always) -> non linear/character EQ (ssl or neve emulations) coupled with preamp saturation -> compressor (when needed) -> FX(s)
- full mix flow: single track -> subgroup bus (additional compression stage followed by eq - the opposite from single track) -> master bus (empty, except a 20hz lowcut. i would have loved to use a tape simulations but wasn't sure it was allowed)

what was i trying to achieve:
- overall mix: create a "smooth ride" / "glued mix", the way most pop songs feel
- percussions and bass: punch, deepness and groove in the foundations; movement, interest and variability in loops
- synths and piano: difference in space and depth to give to every key is defined place
- vx: i wanted second voices to be interesting, with different and unique characters: some are hard driven, other with flanger, different compression etc

I used cone filtering/eq technique to bring separation between synth and G ac at 1.10
A lot of work was done automating different things to give more impact to the rit and keep interest in the various sections.
I checked and secured that the song's foundmental would translate well in mono.
I used the unmixed/NObright vx tracks, since they gave me the freedom to work and do stuff (also because i didnt like the teenage like sound of the remixed version, specially for the ending)

The mix is fully done in the box with Logic, except for a pitchfactor, a phaser and a compressor guitar pedal i used to give some character to some vx and drum loop track.
The plugins used are all freebies from: acustica audio, analog obsession, melda, airwindows etc...
My ears were feed by Sony mdr7506. I cross checked and referenced the track on my home stereo system too.

On a final note i would have loved to work on more dry tracks, since i felt sometime limited by the FX printed on some of them.

here the link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vhvs4luolies ... r.wav?dl=0


ciaociao ale!

PS: if the link it's not working please tell me, i tried and i can open the file but you can never be sure i guess

[JanLefr]

Hello everyone and thanks to Tom and Dirk for providing this song!
It was a fun and interesting challenge, first time for me really tuning vocals, plus them being french... great opportunity.

MIX: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctsezlfd8g3o9 ... r.wav?dl=0

My main focus were the vocals, as the VST-instrument tracks sounded really good already. My basic idea was not to aim for perfect pitch or the common "auto tune sound". I reached for a more natural sound despite pitch correction that would fit the songs mood and lyrics.

Instrument treatment included:
- Low-end cleaning
- EQing: eliminating harsh frequencies / moderate boosting of keynotes / cleaning that 200-600Hz area
- Compression: slight compression mainly on Kick and Snare
- Bus Compression: Tube Compressor working as a glue compressor while also adding some drive/overtones / slight parallel compression on the drum bus
- Panning: Panning was already nice on the printed tracks. I only did minimal adjustments and narrowed the stereo image of some tracks to leave more space on the sides.


Vocal treatment was much more extensive:

- Tuning: I did the vocal tuning using Cubase's "VariAudio".
I didn't aim for perfect pitch, thing I did was listening to the track and correcting manually wherever my ears told me to.
Biggest challenge was making the end part sound appropriate - the printed reference didn't quite fit the tone of the other vocals, so I tried tuning it right but remaining a more natural tone.
Plus I used Volume/Reverb/EQ automation to make it sound like the voice is fading away.
- Timing: Fixed some timing issues using Cubase's "AudioWarp"
- Removing mouth-clicks using Izotope RX8
- Effect chain: EQ/Compressor/De-esser // Glue Compressor on the vocal bus

- Volume Automation: making sure the vocals are always present + boosting the background vocals for the last chorus climax + "Fade out"-effect in the end
- FX Sends: Reverb (Reverence Plugin) - also used for the instruments
- other Vocal FX Sends: Short Delay, making the voice sound fuller / 1/4-Delay with phasing modulation popping up at the end of some vocal phrases via automation

Je ne comprends pas le francais, but I loved the vibes of this song and hope I got the vocal mood right!

Looking forward for the evaluation,
all the best and peace out
Jan

[jules666]

Hi All

Here is my attempt at this months track.
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16mhDCm ... sp=sharing

Drums
Kick:
EQ scooping out around 250Hz
Saturation (trying out the Kit Plugins Burier, which is I have used on most the tracks)
Compression
Limiter

Snare:
Saturation/Compression/EQ (Little boost around 220Hz, cut around 770Hz and wide Q boost around 4.8k)
Then into a clipper.

RotoToms:
EQ: Small cut around 250Hz
1176 comp then into a limiter
Then used Soundtoys Microshift, but blended in at about 10% wet
followed by some reverb, again blended more dry than wet.

The above went to a shells bus, rolling the highs above 12k off.
SSL comp and a clipper

Drums2 track: COmpression, little EQ dipping around 250Hz then used Baby Audio parrell agressor to add extra energy to the track followed by a limiter

Rest of the drum/percussion tracks we just EQ/Comp and some subtle saturation
FX on drums was a plate reverb & some parallel compression

The EFX-Sub & EFX-Swish - did not touch except for the swish track in the breakdown, mangled the opening and closing swish to that section with some distortion and verb.

Bass:
Duplicated Bass-1
Both treated with some saturation, SSL channel strip for EQ/Compression and a limiter.
Duplicated track had slightly more saturation and the EQ was rolling everything below 1k and above 3k off - blended then in to taste
Bass-2 - treated same as default Bass-1, but a little more saturation.

GTR-AC: Roll off below 100hz & slight dip around 1k, Microshift and echoboy also put on
GTR-Funky: Focusrite Channel strip(PA) for some eq and general brightness I find that plugin gives. A little saturation, followed by Waves Reel ADTV to widen the sound...and Echoboy used again.

SYNTHS:

All had saturation/high pass filter a clipper to lop off any peaks.
Sent to echoboy and reverb for some of them.

Piano: Compression/Stereo widener/Reverb and a subtle delay, EQ was just a high pass.

Vox:
Have owned a version of Melodyne for a while but never really knew what I was doing...so watched a few tutorials online then had a go at "tuning" the vocals...I think they came out ok, but let me know
Also used an LA2 and 1176 compressor with an EQ between them not doing too much, a little low removal and some dips around 500Hz/1k.

Vox had sends to 3 different reverbs: ambient, chamber and large hall which I blended to taste. Also used a slapback delay, and 1 effecty type of send with some flange and valhalla SpaceModulator which were for the end vox. I used the printed end vocals which I blended in.


All tracks went to a respective bus which I used some further compression and a clipper/limiter.

Used Rear bus technique for all tracks except drums.

Master:
BlackBox for some subtle saturation
SSL comp 2db or so max reduction
and Pultec style EQ to push around 30Hz and slight boost around 8k

There was also a lot of automation to help blend parts in and add some feeling of movement (hopefully )

[tomearwaker]

Hey,

My first mix challenge, really enjoyed working on this - would appreciate any feedback!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RUt7bk ... sp=sharing
I tried to keep the vocals sounding fairly natural compared to the rough mix, although I still did some tuning on the less accurate notes.
The individual drums already sounded pretty good, so the changes I made were more focussed on gelling them together and making the groove feel a bit more bouncy to suit the lyrics.
A lot of really great sounds in this track and I enjoyed the printed FX. Initially it sounded a little erratic to me with the wide variety of different VSTi sounds, so I tried to make the different elements sound cohesive and 'glued' together (saturation and reverb really helped with this), as well as working on making the transitions feel right. Details below...

Kick
EQ to add some sub-bass and cut a little low mids ~300Hz (Melda MDynamicEq)

Snare
EQ shelf to add some treble and give more presence (Melda MDynamicEq), plate reverb for more sustain and splash (Ableton convolution reverb)

HH-Claps-Snare
EQ shelf ~5kHz to add some brightness and bring out hihat a little (Melda MDynamicEq)
Compression - just a touch to control hits with clap (Klanghelm DC8C3)
Dynamic EQ - to reduce sustain of upper mids ~1 - 3kHz, make them a bit tighter to help with the groove and less interfering with vocals
Volume shaper - to pump with the kick a little and make the groove feel more bouncy (Ableton CV shaper)
Reverb - Small amount of room reverb and a larger, longer reverb with automation to smooth transition into pre-chorus and outro (Melda MTurboReverb)

Perc
EQ to cut lows, limiter to control peaks, room reverb to push it back in the space a little (Melda MTurboReverb)

Synth-perc
EQ to cut low frequencies below ~300Hz
Autopan to give a small stereo movement
Compression sidechained from Kick to make it pump a bit
Reverb - room reverb to push it back in the space a little (Melda MTurboReverb)

Claps
Vibrato to add a small amount of pitch variation and make it sound less static
Autopan to add some variation in stereo position for interest
Reverb - room reverb to add some depth and glue it to other drums (Melda MTurboReverb)

Rototoms
Panning automation so they move around the stereo field for more excitement
Sub-octave - added some -1 octave for more bass thump (Melda MHarmonizerMB)
Saturation - thickening and adding a bit of sizzle (CHOW tape)
Delay - 1/4 note ping pong to widen the stereo image
Reverb - fat sounding plate reverb for a bigger sound (Ableton convolution reverb)
EQ to cut super lows below ~70Hz and boost ~100Hz for more body (Ableton EQ)

Crash
Delay and reverb to lengthen, compression SC from Kick to make it pump a bit

DRUM BUS
Saturation to give them a bit more thickness and weight (Soundtoys little radiator and Klanghelm SDRR2)
Compression to glue drums together, ~2dB reduction with slow attack (MTurboReverb Distressor model)
Limiting, occasionally catching some of the bigger peaks (Toneboosters Barricade)

Bass 1
Compression to add a little more attack (Melda MTurboCompressor SSL model)
Volume shaping to make it more 'plucky' and to reduce volume when kick hits at the same time (Melda MTremolo)

Bass 2
Chorus to add some movement and texture, quite subtle (Melda MChorusMB)
Compression sidechained from Kick to make it pump a bit

BASS BUS
EQ to add sub-bass below ~100Hz, small dip ~70Hz to make space for kick and small bump at ~600Hz to cut through on smaller speakers
Saturation with SDRR2 to add some sizzle/grit

EFX
Autopan and delay on bass growl, EQ to reduce 'chirpy' sound on sub (Ableton EQ)
Lots of delay and reverb on swish

Guit-ac
EQ to brighten a bit (Ableton EQ), light compression to even out volume and add some attack

Guit-funky
Dynamic EQ to reduce sustain ~600Hz (TDR Nova)
Saturation to add thickness and weight (SDRR2 and Decapitator)
Boost ~150Hz to give more body
Reverb - room reverb to give it some space (Melda MTurboReverb)

Pizz
EQ to cut lows below ~90Hz and boost a little presence ~2kHz (Ableton EQ)
Light compression to even out dynamics (Ableton compressor)
Reverb - large plate (Ableton convolution reverb)

SYNTHS
Cutting lows to reduce muddiness
Adding filtering for build ups and movement (automating cut-off and resonance, particularly on pad)
Saturation on bus (Airwindows BusColors)
Reverb - large plate (Ableton convolution reverb)
Compression sidechained from Kick to make it pump a bit
Dynamic EQ sidechained from vocals to duck the midrange out the way in the mid channel

Piano
EQ to remove low mud and nasal frequencies ~1kHz
Light compression to even out and add sustain (DC8C3)
Compression sidechained from Kick to make it pump a bit
Compression sidechained from vocals to duck out the way
Saturation to add a little dirt
Reverb - large plate (Ableton convolution reverb)

VOCALS
De-essing quite a lot (Airwondows and Analog obsession LOADES)
Some tuning using Melda MAutoPitch and GSnap, with automation to change settings to suit different phrases. Also did some manual tuning using Ableton clip transpose in certain words
Saturation to thicken (SDRR2 & Analog obsession TUBA)
Doubling effect on chorus, more in later choruses than first (Melda MUnison)
Compression to bring vocals forward and even dynamics (MJUCR & TRacks 1176)
EQ to brighten and to cut lows below ~90Hz. Also added a bit of warmth ~150-200 Hz
Dynamic EQ of upper midrange to even out tone a bit and control some harshness on certain words
Saturating high frequencies to add 'air'
Plate reverb (Melda MConvolution)
Automated Hall reverb adding more atmosphere in intro and outro
Chorus and delay in outro so its a bit more dreamy
Background vocals widened and doubled, with automation to increase effect in later choruses. BGs were de-essed more and slightly wetter reverb to push them back a little.

MASTER BUS
Compression with slow attack fast release, 1-2dB, to add a little punch and make the rhythm feel a little tighter (TRacks SSL model)
Saturation for energy and thickness (Airwinbows BusColors and FerricTDS tape simulation)
EQ for some tone shaping (adding shelf below ~100Hz, shelf above ~8kHz and cutting some lower mids)
Limiter just catching the big peaks (TRacks STealth limiter)

Cheers!
Tom

[Mister Fox]

Just as a personal note... Aside from seeing new faces on the community (welcome!), I am also reading a lot about summing bus processing this month.


One way or another... there are 3 days left to submit your mix.
Have fun, and good luck, everyone.

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://mega.nz/file/T2BTHTaK#xoaONDLMK ... uoP3Md3Km4
For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[Eight8]

Hi Guys!

I love the song and I loved working on it.

I like the voice of the singer and the details in his voice. So I choose to use the clean vocal track and aim for a clean ish vocal on top of the massive track. It’s a remix and a dance song, so I choose to go for side-chain pumping feel in the rythm section and generally snappy compression to give more energy to the track. And I have also tried to pay “attention to detail” by automating and emphazise small things throughout the song.

Link to the track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t4qjcc5qwtvpt ... 8.wav?dl=0

Organising/cleaning up the track:

First I separated all snare hits from the loop tracks
Then I separate to individual tracks all the sounds that changed throughout certain instruments/sounds to have more control, gain-wise
Then I clip gain and level everything and start cleaning up “unwanted” frequencies with eq.

I first concentrated on the kick, bass, piano, guitar and strings.

The piano had some ugly harmonics in the F note that I removed with MAutoEqualizer (MeldaProduction)
And I used Trackspacer from Wavesfactory on the piano to make some space for the vocals in the middle
UAD Pultec on the kick to add some bottom (30hz) and to remove some click (10khz)
Then I added side-chain to the bass and piano (from the kick)
On the funky git I added some delay, saturation and auto-pan, and tried to make it more groovy with compression. I also nudged it 30ms backwards. And I made a double of it on a new track that comes in half way with a widener to make it sound bigger and more progressive.

At this point I set up my FX busses which is spread out between most of the tracks. UAD ETM140, UAD Lexicon 224, UAD Galaxy Tape Echo, UAD Brigade Chorus, Valhalla VintageVerb, Eventide Blackhole. FilterFreak

The Blackhole is set up to create an atmospheric sound, and I used it on the strings in the beginning, and on the vocals in the outro i.e.

Then I start adding in the fx tracks, percussion elements, snares, claps and lastly the synths
On the claps in the bridge I used the new SplitEQ from Eventide to turn up the higher transients, only at 7K
On the rototoms I used SPL De-verb and UAD Distressor and Blackbox HG-2 from Plugin Alliance to make them pop out
I used a DBX160 preset from Nebula (Acustica Audio) on the snare to get out all the details from it and to add some punch. I also used a Bricasti IR sample called “snare plate” loaded into Waves IR-1
I rendered some of the keys tracks through some “analog” Nebula plugins (preamps/eq’s) to make them sound more real and give them more character.
I also added in some Filterfreak from my bus to the synths to create more movement and make them more interesting.

On the main vocals I kept the harmoniser parts in the choruses and in the outro
The timing between the lead and harmonised vocals wasn’t perfectly matched so I needed to move some words individually
I used Antares Autotune on the lead vox in the choruses since it fits the sound quite well
I also added some autotune and ChoirFX from Antares to the dubs
On the lead vox in the verses/pre’s I used Melodyne to make it as clean sounding as possible. I also did some amplitude adjustments here on the individual words. Kind of manual compression.
My plugin chain on the vocals are: First Fairchild from UAD default settings, 1176 Blue Stripe default settings, Did some low cut and Multiband comp on the mids with FF Pro-Q 3 and a tiny bit of FF-DS. And then added in FX’es from my buses. And some parallell compression with more crush/character setting with the Waves CLA76. And a touch of Soundtoys Microsoft in the choruses for widening/size.
I also created a new vocal track and added some doubles in the verses which was a cool thing from the original processed vocal track. But I choose a harmoniser fx instead. Eventide Quadravox.

On the Mix Bus I used a Nebula Focusrite Compressor daily for some character. And UAD BAX EQ to boost some top and low end (230hz and 1.8khz. Amek EQ 200 (only widener 105%), then UAD Massive Passive (2db at 27K) and last Elevate from Newfangled Audio for some slight limiting (0.6db drive and 1db limiter gain.

That’s it pretty much

[studio equator]

Just as a personal note... Aside from seeing new faces on the community (welcome!), I am also reading a lot about summing bus processing this month.


One way or another... there are 3 days left to submit your mix.
Have fun, and good luck, everyone.

I got confused by bus processing: reading the article and infos about bus processing i thought only a couple of inserts were allowed, without going too far in dynamic control and eq, but with the intent of using them more as general color boxes.
Or should I have processed more my track? maybe i cant really understand where mixing should stop and premastering/mastering should start
(Yes, i have been on the conservative side in my masterbus)