MIX CHALLENGE - MC090 February 2023 - Winners announced

[filipandrei]

First of all congrats on the production, very nice, and easy to mix

My processing:

MIX BUS - SSL Bus Compressor, aiming for no more than 2 - 3db / bx_digital V3 for some small nice stereo widener and a bit of mono making around 60Hz

DRUMS / PERCUSSION - UAD Distressor with 6:1 ratio, squeezing about 5-10db compression with a reasonably slow attack and a fast release, followed by an SSL Channel Strip with a bit of top end and small boost on 60Hz.

BASS track, I've used a UAD 1176LN Compressor 4:1 slow attack and very fast release, just to make the bass a bit "grittier" and have a low dynamic range

GUITARS BUS - Mild compression with an LA-3A and / SSL 9000J console for a narrow 360hz boost and a bit of 6KHz

KEYBOARDS - SSL 9000j console with no EQ, just THD cranked for some harmonics

VOCAL BUS - Started with some DeEsser / SSL 9000J for a bit of air and 2KHz clarity / Tube-Tech CL1B for some compression and finishing with a 902 De-Esser plugin.
I also have some effect sends to a Slap Delay (Valhalla Delay 90ms) / UAD Lexicon 224 on Plate Setting with no Bass and very low Mid reverb time and 20ms pre-delay and Convology XT with some IRs from PastToFutureReverbs (CLA 480 Vocal Plate 5 IR). For this last one, I've made some send automation between different sections of the song

I also have some parallel compression for drums with a Neve 33609 and another one with a FATSO for some punch and Tape emulation

MC090__Cristian_Condrea__Big_Eyes__filipandrei.wav

[doobop]

Hi!

I always do a rough mix first to get to know the song better, understand the parts, and get the feeling of how the elements.
I liked the guitars so I didn’t make any reamping.

Then I get into the processing of stuff. Just EQs, Compressosr and FX. I dint use any gate this time because of programmed drums didn’t have any spil.
Reverbs and final some automations.

Hope you like it!

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cp358n4y42piz ... p.wav?dl=0

Cheers,
Doobop

[Ronson79]

Here´s my take on this nice and smooth track.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15k-NeW ... sp=sharing


Drums:
A touch of eq and compression with the BX_SSL 4000 G, Transient designer on kick and snare
no processing on the room track, Vitalizer on tom group, Leapwing Al Schmid on the drum bus

Bass:
AA Cerise for some eq and compression, took out some bass and added mids, Spectre for even more mids

Instruments:
eq + comp + reverb with Leapwing Al Schmidt, some Kush Omega 458A for harmonics and Overloud Gem550 for more eq
Tube Modulator from Audiority for movement on piano, organ and rhodes and some Fix Flanger on the guitar

Vocals:
auto leveling, de-esser, eq, compression with Leapwing Ultravox, some Fresh Air and Spectre for tone
backing track 3 - telephone eq curve and some spring reverb to make it different from the other vocal tracks

Mixbus:
AA Baxter for a touch of smiley curve, Basslane Pro for low end management, AA Arctic for a touch of mix glue, DMG Limitless for safety

[LowlandsWave]

Nice song to work on!

My mix setup, completely in the box:
individual tracks go to instrument busses, those busses are routed to 4 submixes A, B, C and D (drums, bass, instruments, vocals) and those are send to the mixbus. Gives the oppotunity to do broad strokes on groups or "repair" on track level.

Standard,
individual tracks have eq, compression and gain
instrument busses have SSL 4K channelstrip
Submixes have tape simulation
Mixbus has pultec eq, SSL buscompressor, Oxford inflator

Listening to the vocal and the song as a whole I felt that the song could use a warm vibe. That's what I aimed for. To get some more contrast I used the good old telephone filter on de vocal during the brake.

Automation is used to reduce low end in the verses, the same goes for volume automation, add some volume in the choruses
Organ and Rhodes were also volume automated to raise their heads now and then in the mix.

Original guitars where used but I "reamped" the clean signal using Line6 Helix. The reamped guitars get a little more grit than the original recordings.

That's about it, see link below to listen:

LowlandsWave Mix

[Mellow Browne]

Nice song! I had a lot of fun while mixing.

I used all the amped tracks for the mix.

I first created busses for the keys, guitars, background vocals, toms, percussion, overheads and room mics and stacked them with the drum bus, the bass and the lead vocal to a Premix bus.
After gain staging, panning and stereo/phase correlation check I went for the top-down-mixing approach and started with stereo bus compression and overall tone shaping by using ssl g bus compressor (needle barely moving) and Ampex tape machine, the right formula and some tweaking on the knobs and I had a good base to start with.

Some saturation for the drums> studer
Bass > ampeg svtr classic
Vocal buss > Neve preamp 1073

I then inserted reverb and/or delay fx (echoboy and lexicon 224) to the different busses to get some mojo and movement.
To make things more interesting I inserted Valhalla Space Modulator to the rhodes and the acoustic guitar for a very subtle flanging effect. I also added a rotor cabinet to the organ, a tremolo to the acoustic solo, Valhalla Supermassive as delay for the electric solo and Gem Mod as chorus fx for the electric rhythm track.

Next thing was to first tame the peaks by using clippers (standardClip and TR5 Clipper) on the busses and individual tracks and then the microdynamics by using eq/compression (mainly UAD SSl E Channel or G Bus Compressor). Some tracks like the bass or the vocals also needed some more compression so I added an LA2A to bring them more up front.

I then had to make some minor tweaks on the fx inserts to get get a better separation in the low mids and upper frequency range, I first had the impression to need a deesser for the vocals, but I was able to solve it with less feedback and a high cut on the delay and reverb.

A last final touch on the Ampex ATR and the ssl g buss compressor and the mix was done.

I included some pictures but you won't be able to follow the process by simply looking at the plugin order as I described here. So, feel free to ask for further information.

I used SoundID Reference for mixing and TC electronic Clarity M for metering.

Here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link

Happy mixing!

[t.playsitcool]

Hi everyone,

this is my first submission here. Thank you for the opportunity and providing a platform to learn.

Overall it is a very well recorded track.

Here is a quick breakdown of my mix (ITB):
PRO TOOLS HEAT enabled for a touch of saturation

Bass: HPF, dbx160 - around 5dB of compression, Neve 1073 - boost @ 110Hz and boost @ 0.7 kHz, Studer tape
Kick: cut @ 300Hz, Neve 1073 - boost @ 60 Hz and boost @ 4.8 kHz, transient designer, parallel compression - dbx160 followed by Pultec (with Bob Power's low end trick)
Snare: HPF, API Vision boost @ 200 Hz, 3 kHz and 12.5 kHz (shelf), 1176 (blackface), medium attack and release around 3dB of compression, parallel compression with dbx160, followed by Pultec and Black Box HG-2 AUX: AVID Space RMX-16 reverb on ambience setting
OH: Digital EQ (cuts 225Hz, 550 Hz and around 11 kHz) and compression medium attack and release
Room: Digital EQ HPF, Boost at 100 Hz, cut @ midrange and -11db high shelf cut, squashed with compression, AUX: Liquidsonic Bricasti M7 (Marble Foyer preset)
Vox: fast attack and release comp (to catch the peaks), HPF, dip @ low mids LA2A (for rounding), multi band compression to even out the sound in verses and chorus, Pultec EQ (100 Hz and 12 kHz boost), soothe, parallel compression with 1176, EFX: Lexicon Plate, Slap delay, Short room
Rhodes: 1176, API 560 boost @ 1 kHz, cut at 300 Hz
Hammond: 1176, API 560 (with boosts and cuts to distinguish it from the Rhodes)
G Piano: Pultec 10 dB @ 12 kHz boost into LA2A
Acoustic Guitar (my favourite track): HPF, serious cut at 100 Hz, comp with fast attack med-fast release, API 550 boost at 200 Hz and 12.5 kHz
Solo: HPF, API Vision Channel strip, Binson delay
Cleanup with occasional boosts on other tracks.

Drum Bus: Townhouse comp. There is also automated parallel compression on drums (Zener)
Vocal Bus: Shadow Hills
Keys Bus: Neve 2254
Guitar Bus: Nothing
MIX BUS: API2500 for Glue, Hitsville EQ (No EQ just saturation), Brainworx digitalV3 0.8 dB cut @ 300 Hz (monomaker enabled, a touch of stereo spread during chorus)
Reverbs and delays are EQed and Delays are feeding into reverbs.
Hope this was informative.

Here is the link to the mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6am1jmh6wvrc ... l.wav?dl=0

All the best,
T

[TomImmon]

What a great song. A real pop gem. The hook line definitely has potential for a hit.
It was a lot of fun mixing these very well recorded tracks.

I hope you like my mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aj2vfv873yab5 ... n.wav?dl=0

Drums: I used saturation on almost all tracks to make the somewhat dreary and sample-sounding drums more interesting. Above all, Abbey Road, Blackbox Analog Design HG-2 and the new Magma Tube from waves were used. On the kick, snare and toms I did the sound shaping this time mainly with a multi-band compressor (C6 from waves). This was the best way to bend the static sounds. Kick gots some subs from bx_sub.
I also used saturation to create harmonics on the overhead and room, and used the Scheps Omnichannel and Izotops Neutron for EQ.
The drum bus was fitted with Soundtoys Tape, HG2 and New York style compression.

The claps gave me some trouble, I would have liked to have had a different sample here. But with Soundtoys TransientShaper, CLA76, C6 and HG2 I got the sound a bit shorter, stronger and darker because it fits better with the snare. I also advanced the clap track by 10ms.

For Bass i used CLA Bass (really 1st time ;-) ) and added double saturation with HG2 and Magma Tube. RBass from Waves added some subs.

I edited the sound of the acoustic rhythm guitar a little differently for the verse and chorus. I also doubled the track with a Hass delay and panned L/R. The Amek 2098 and Neutron were used for sound processing. Here, too, strong harmonics with saturation were added.
The original amp track was used for the acoustic solo guitar and edited with Magma Tube and CLA76 and Neutron. It was also converted to a stereo signal with bx_stereomaker.
The funk guitar was re-amped with Presonus Ampire. In addition, Cymatics Diabolo was used for a bit more bite and the MannyM Tone Shaper for the sound.

The HG2 with its saturation was also used discreetly on the keyboards and the stereo width was increased using bx_solo.

All vocal tracks were pretreated with Nectar and optimized with the Milennia EQ and Neutron. Additionally, the CLA76 was used along with the Hill compressor for compression.

Vox-Back 3 was difficult to integrate. Especially the last line (tacos) doesn't fit that well rhythmically to the lead vocals. So I decided on a kind of ghost whisper and realized it with extreme compression and extreme EQ.

A 6/12ms slap delay without feedback for depth gradation was used for effects, a vocal preset was selected with Epic, only a small additional space for the drums. div. Delay for the solo guitars. The snare got a nonlinear reverb from the TC6000 to make it a bit fuller.

On the master bus, the Townhill was used for the glue and EQ adjustments were made to the sound curve using Izotope. A limiter was used to eliminate just some nasty peaks. And to add some warmness again the Magma Tube was used on the master.

Greetings from Berlin
TOM

[Tapwater]

Hey everyone, here's my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sSB70Q ... p=sharing
Drums: Added some extra high end to kick to get it to punch through the mix. Added some low mids to the snare for more power. Filtered out the room track for some vibe and added some bus compression.

Bass: Added some distortion and compression to get it to sit right in the mix.

Guitars: Added a slight delay to the acoustic solo track. Automated the regular acoustic track up during the verse where its more sparse. Filtered out some highs from the electric guitar.

Keys: Added some low end to the organ. Automated the Rhodes up during the verse.

Strings: Just a mid range bump and some reverb.

Vocals: Slight delay, widener and lots of automation.

Thanks!

[Farlakesch]

Hello there, this will be my first ever mix here (or anywhere else..)

Enjoyed working on this, had to grow a bit into the song but ended up liking it very much.

Mixing is done using Studio One (pro) and the plugins that come with it. Here’s what I did with it.

I used 3 effect busses. A delay, a reverb and a rotor (Leslie emulation)

On drums it is mostly EQ per channel and Compression on the summing bus.
Snare and toms separately to the Reverb.

Guitars are mostly re-amped using guitar rig. The electric rhythm is send to the rotor.
Channels have individual EQ’s but combined compressions in sub busses.

Bass guitar is kept simple, EQ and a bit of compression.

Organs and piano are send to a summing bus and blended in the mix without any further processing as well as the strings.

The backing vocals:
The artificial back octave track is send to the rotor and blended in the backing mix. This summing bus has a compressor that handles the complete backing vocals. No EQ on the backing vocals.

The main vocal:I did not use the channel that already had some fx on it.
Doubled the original and panned those hard left and right. EQ and compression used in the entire song. For the parts were the backing vocals come in I fattened the main vocal by duplicating, hard panning and adding a range of pitch changes and a delays to a separate bus and blending this in the mix.
For the quiet piece near the endow the song I used a delay as an effect on the main vocal.

In general that is what I did, I hope that you all enjoy the result.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/yi9ugfahdxc2n ... h.wav?dl=0

[jake sg]

Hi all,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ww26rK ... sp=sharing

Firstly, gain staging.
Balancing, panning in the context.
Eq individual track.
Compression. THen eq all the tracks in the context. apply effects.
Finetuning.
tq for listening guys