MIX CHALLENGE - MC089 December 2022 - Winners announced

[scottfitz]

my mix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OkEEI1 ... sp=sharing

I will write the technical notes later due to lack of time

My mixing process:

I did a lot of editing work in order to obtain a similar level through the vox tracks and the guitar tracks along with a proper gain staging for all the tracks.
I've used all the tracks, in particular both d.i and amped tracks. For bass case I use d.i track to obtain the low-end with a HPF at about 350Hz and the amped track for the mid/high end with a LPF at the same frequency. The two tracks go to a bass bus with a comp, eq and send to a mono delay effect and a parallel compression. Amp track was send to a saturation bus.
For Drums: I isolated snare ghost notes (I like it!) and put it in the mix for more groove. I used parallel compression and a tape saturation on all the drum set. All track go into a drum bus with a sslcomp for glue effect. Previously the tracks are treated in a typical way with comp, eq, limiter.
I also used a sub-mix bus in order to enhance sub-frequencies from bass d.i. track and kick track.
For guitar case I used d.i. tracks to obtain more attack and thickness. On some tracks I reversed the polarity to avoid phase issue, then I put them in the bidimensional space using pan and Combined Panner cubase option. Guitar 1 amp and d.i were routed to a guitar bus 1, the same thing with the second guitar and both are routed to a same bus. The process is repeated for the lead and guitars octaves and all converge in a guitar total bus with a send to grungelizer and saturation. FX used: stereo delay and rverb

VOX: I grouped the backing vocals, the clean and screamed vocals into three buses that converge into a voice bus
I used 4 parallel process to compress, give more presence, attitude and saturate. FX: stereo delay with different values and rverb, the same used for guitar.

All main buses go to mixbus with sslcomp as glue and eq to give more air.

I would like to receive any kind of feedback from the challenge participants

Hi againstpower,
you definitely have some attitude in those drums! the thing that stuck out to me as an aspect to improve upon was on the chorus I think the top end of your drums are stepping on the vocals too much. The test I try to use for my tracks is I'll 'sing along' with the song in my head, try to immerse myself in the vocal and then see if any other sounds are distracting to your focus. Anything that is from like 2kHz through 8kHz can disrupt the vocal greatly, it's such a sensitive area. Anyway I hope that helps and feel free to tell me anything you can hear wrong with my mix and of course anyone else is always very welcome to do the same, it's the only way I learn a lot of the time!
Cheers all

[diegoneryproducoes]

I really liked this track!
I mixed everything in Reaper, 1176 UAD, reaeq, filters, ssl comp, TSAR-1R and delay.
Fierce vocals please me, but these took a lot of work to highlight..
In short, lots of automation, parallel compression, saturation, peak control with limiters and pitch corrections.

My mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cja0d1 ... p=drivesdk

Due to lack of time I think I didn't do my best for the vocals in terms of panning, volume and effects. But after this submission I've already made changes that I'm proud of and I'll be happy to show the result soon. Good luck guys! Hugs!

[LnMStudio]

Checked out several mixes and all I have to say is I'm glad I do not have to choose!!!

The only contestant I could critique is my own, after listing to yours

Great job to all of you and good luck and happy holidays!!!

[diegoneryproducoes]

Can we post new revisions of what we mix for discussion purposes or is that not allowed? I've been working on the master and would like to discuss loudness for this track.

[LnMStudio]

Can we post new revisions of what we mix for discussion purposes or is that not allowed? I've been working on the master and would like to discuss loudness for this track.

I thought we are not supposed to master?

[scottfitz]

I found a good way to create stereo guitars from the one track. It roughly repeats the same stuff twice, so just double the early part with the later part and double the later part with the early part! It sounded so wide and just great like that. But I decided it would probably be breaking the mix challenge rules, so didn't do it. But one for the notebook.

[scottfitz]

Can we post new revisions of what we mix for discussion purposes or is that not allowed? I've been working on the master and would like to discuss loudness for this track.

This is not usually done in my experience of this forum. However it is allowed as far as I know and such discussions can benefit anyone.

[Mister Fox]

This is not part of the game concept, no. At least, it hasn't been up until now.

The problem with "let's talk revision" is, that this can spiral a bit out of control, and would go against the game mechanic if everyone would do it. Not talking about things, goes a bit against the concept of the learning aspect of the forum however.

The topic of "revisions" or "final-final versions" usually happens after Mix Round 2 or 3 has ended. Because then posted mixes won't influence others, including the Song Provider, so I kindly still ask you not to do that. Additional, we're indeed not doing "mastering", @LnMStudio / @diegoneryproducoes.


I have to think about a possible option for this type of discussion for the future. I won't be making any promises however.

[Hoek]

I found a good way to create stereo guitars from the one track. It roughly repeats the same stuff twice, so just double the early part with the later part and double the later part with the early part! It sounded so wide and just great like that. But I decided it would probably be breaking the mix challenge rules, so didn't do it. But one for the notebook.

Thats flat out genious!!!! never thought of that!

[Mister Fox]

While I thought of similar, this would actually only work if the guitars play the same. This is where you have to pay attention to intricate details.

There are many ways to handle this. While testing on my end, I used a very carefully crafted subtle modulation setup on top of using hand selected amps/cabinets that sound similar to each other, yet introduced enough difference to revitalize the "doubled" guitar tracks.

Also something for the notebook for future challenges, or maybe similar future projects you might encounter.