MIX CHALLENGE - MC090 February 2023 - Winners announced

[Dodgingrain]

Fun song, I really enjoyed mixing it. I tried going for a warm mix on this one and let the acoustic guitar and vocals drive the track. My submission is here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrlKdWey1 ... g?e=8SY2u9

Drums:
I intentionally left the kick in the background. I would have probably done some sample enhancement if it was allowed but unfortunately it is not. I did add some distortion and a gate to the kick and then used it as a side chain source on the bass. The rest of the drums mainly have levels set and some eq but not much else.

Bass: Cut the far low end to make some space for the kick. The kick triggers a ducking compressor on the bass. Other than that the bass has some eq and a little bit of distortion and compression.

Gutars: This is where most of the work was. The direct and amp signals were blended in each instrument. I did warm up the guitars a little bit with a neve preamp on a few of them. I also used some basic panning and delays. The bass also triggers a dynamic eq to drop off the acoustic guitar when the bass is playing. There is judicous use of soothe to keep the spikeyness of the guitars in check.

Keys: Again used neve preamps to warm up the tones. The rhodes has a rotary applied to help it sit easier in the background with a little bit of added saturation.

Vocals: Standard de-essing, compression and eq. Most of the vocals also go to a parallel compression bus to help even out the vocals and add some weight. Added some delay on the lead vocals.

[LCM!]

Many thanks to the people who make this possible, the provider and MisterFox.
My goal: warmth, rhythm and natural feeling.
Somewhat relevant stuff.
Drums: less impact for the kick (transient attack), important role for hats, tambourine, claps...
Bass: clear and present.
Guitars: Acoustic is doubled and hard panned, both lead guitars are reamped (Guitar Rig), I used the clean version of the electric tracks.
Keys: Organ slightly to the right and Rhodes to the left.
Vox: parallel comp for the lead, the back3 has a telephone effect.
Reaper stock plugins (except Guitar Rig).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zxoLY8 ... share_link

The result: some Latin vibes?
Good luck to you all.

[Tony Black]

Hello!!!

First of all, thanks to the song provider and the Mix Challenge staff for the opportunity.

To mix this song, of course i started from listening to the original mix.

Editing was mainly about cleaning tracks, removing noise, vocal tuning, timing correction.
Pre-mixing was about compression, equalization, saturation, level ride.
I also used the DIs to reamp the guitars.

Once the multitrack started to work at a basic level i proceeded with the actual mix.

The mix was done 100% ITB using SSL channel strip, FabFilter Pro Q, FabFilter Pro Mb and a bunch of compressors (1176, Vertigo VSC 2).
Every track needed eq and compression.

I had 4 busses + Parallel compression bus for all the mix.
Bus A > Drums/percussions + Bass > Saturation, Vertigo VSC 2
Bus B > Guitars (Except the guitars placed in the center of the mix) > Saturation, Vertigo VSC 2
Bus C > Keys (except piano) > Saturation, Vertigo VSC 2
Bus D > Background vocals > Saturation, Vertigo VSC 2

All the elemements not bussed were sent directly to the mix bus.

Even if my goal was to make it sound simple, there's a lot going on with the FXs. Their parameters are automated continuously during the song.
Faders are moving during the entire song. A lot of the channels have fader/pan automations.

Hope you like it
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mq2Ymw ... share_link

TB

[EmZU]

Cubase 12 and its integrated effects
MY MIX:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/kjkciiib5jluu ... U.wav?dl=0

[EchoOread]

Thank you for the music. I enjoyed mixing it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18GRKke ... share_link

Kick/snare: paralleled, EQ, comp, limiter
Bass: split, paralleled, EQ, comp, limiter
Hats/ride: EQ, reverb
Keys: EQ
Guitars: EQ, comp
Vox: EQ, comp

[sthauge]

Hi

Thank you all for the opportunity to mix these tracks

I'm retired and a oldtimer, so I prefer the great sound of the 70s and 80s. That means dept, air, space, clarity and separation In the mix.

I use Harrison Mixbus32C DAW for mixing. The "console" layout and way of working this DAW offer suits me well as doing most FOH types of jobs in the past.

Mixbus32C have channels, mixbuses and master fully equipped with EQ, compressors etc, so I mainly use the DAW for most tasks, but add plugins if needed.

To make this sound I use the following approach to preserve the transients that needed to get depth, air, ++ :

- No compression in the signal path, besides one or two single tracks.
- compression on master bus only in the lows(multi-band).
- In this mix it's 5 parallel compression buses with separate adjustment according to the group of instruments or vocals and where to place them in distance.
- Some M/S adjustments.

To put the musicians and the recording in to the "same room" I only use one reveb (mverb - freeware) as we did back then.

I do not use compressors to "glue" things together. That usually kills the depth, air and space.

Last but not least, a lot of automation is done to get rid of unwanted noise(eg. chord changes guitar), adjust gain in different parts of the song to balance things out and elevate the small "gold nuggets" in the tracks.

Not mastered. The Levels are:

-16.7 LUFS
-1.5 dBFS
-1.5 dBTP
6.4 LU
44.1/24

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sMl-K ... share_link

[tiptoe3]

Hi,
i focused my work on the core elements. Vox, bass and drums. I did the same kind of treatment to the drums as last time. Mainley for a different kind of drum sound. I used things like drumgator, dsm v3, distortion boxes and what not. Stuff i have not used for a long time. ;-)

After that i left everything for nearly two weeks and came back to mix the stuff as fast as i do it generally.

Vox got cla76 and eq for lowcut, mid bump and a bit sheen on top. short room with trueverb.
Bass with sansamp and 2k push.
Guitars with api style 100 and 10k cycles push
Synths, B3, piano: L1 for 3db gain reduction max.

Bus got a Vca Comp: 4:1, 30ms, auto. Gainreduction 4db max. Eq for bass and treble lift, L2 with -0.2db for occasionally peaks.
Few fader moves for chorus vocals etc.
Following the vibe... done.

Cheers, tippy

https://c.gmx.net/@317237882228053658/T ... JELeYtshYA

[FallenAngel]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for this great song Mix Challenge! It really was lots of fun to mix. Just found it by typing mixing challenge in one day and I'm glad I did.

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link

Drums:
-Most EQed and panned
Kick: Compressor, Parallel compression
Snare: Compressor, Gate, Parallel compression
Toms: Compressor
Drum Channel: Enhancement Eq, Compressor, Sent to Distortion FX channel

GTRs:
-Most EQed, panned
Acoustic: Compressor
Bass: Distortion
Solo: Compressor, Distortion, Panning guitar pedal + amp, Delay
Clean: Distortion, Compressor
Rhythm: Distortion

Other instruments:
-Most panned
Rhodes: Compressor
Claps + Tambourine: Eq, Distortion

Vocals:
-Most panned
Artificial back octave: Distortion old radio preset
Back 1: Distortion old radio preset
Lead: Main Eq, De-esser(high frequency), De-esser(high-mid frequency), distortion, Enhancement Eq, Compressor
Vocal at end of the track: Distortion

Various amounts of Plate, Room & Spring Reverb were added to most tracks and busses using FX channels

[AlexShieh]

Hi there this is my mix
I hope you will like it.
Completed on pro tools、UAD、Waves
Good Lucky!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/176ojX7 ... share_link

[LughSenderson]

Today is a holiday in Brazil, so I decided to mix the song which is really cool. I did everything in less than two hours and as simply as possible, as always. I basically EQed by adding a good amount of highs and eventually mids and lows.

All instruments were equalized and compressed with the BX SSL 9000J. For reverb and delay, I used personal presets from the LX480. On the bus out I used SSL Bus Compressor 2, with fast attack and release.

Finally I used a considerable amount of automation. Hope you like it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14bMZQj ... 9Futx/view