MIX CHALLENGE - MC095 December 2023 - Winners announced

[Christoph_K]

Thank you @Christoph_K for advancing me to round 2.
Just a clarification if you have the time:

Leadvocals could have a little less reverb (Verse 2 ff)

Is the less reverb note for verse 2 only, or the entire LV part (not the intro)?
By verse 2 we mean the part starting at about 3:27, correct?

Thanks again!

From 3.27 on, exactly!

[Wyku]

@Christoph_K If you feel so inclined, would you be able to pass along some feedback on my mix please? Kinda surprised I didn't make the cut comparing to the other mixes TBH, but everyone probably thinks that heh. I'm guessing I might have pushed things too far with creative choices and missed the mark on the heart of the challenge?

Hey @Wyku
To be honest, there are many mixes on par when it comes down to the lower places. And you still have to pick 12, how do you do that? When reviewing the mixes I started from part 3. If that part wasn’t in the ballpark I could sort out the best mixes quite easily. Your mix unfortunately just did not pass there. But to be fair, it’s hard to stay objective all the way down to the end. It’s also a matter of taste, that’s what makes mixing competitions hard and unfair, at least to me as a contestant. I have been through this too often. Sometimes the winner mix is just not my taste and I still find my mix better. So I keep on doing it. Hope that helps

Hi @Christoph_K Thanks for the reply! Interesting that you would start at Part 3 since that's arguably the least important part for capturing and maintaining a listeners attention for the song/mix quality before they hit the skip button heh. It might be the lasting impression though, if the outro drop out doesn't take that spot.

I listened to all the tracks while they came in throughout the entry period and went back through the Top 15 and I'm still struggling to find what was so egregious in Part 3 of my mix that would have sent it to the bin right away when comparing your notes on the tracks, which I agree with (i.e. a lot of balance issues, thing poking out too much/not enough, etc.). One thing I thought after I posted it was the snare could have been a bit louder and hoped to make a revision on that for the next round. *sad trombone sound* I'm not trying to be a dick about it as what's done is done, I'm sincerely curious what I could improve on. I hope you could/would listen to the mix in it's entirety as I thought I brought a lot of width and space to the song where a good number of other songs were flat and narrow, especially outside of Part 3. Might come in useful if you're a song provider again in the future too.

[Christoph_K]

@Christoph_K If you feel so inclined, would you be able to pass along some feedback on my mix please? Kinda surprised I didn't make the cut comparing to the other mixes TBH, but everyone probably thinks that heh. I'm guessing I might have pushed things too far with creative choices and missed the mark on the heart of the challenge?

Hey @Wyku
To be honest, there are many mixes on par when it comes down to the lower places. And you still have to pick 12, how do you do that? When reviewing the mixes I started from part 3. If that part wasn’t in the ballpark I could sort out the best mixes quite easily. Your mix unfortunately just did not pass there. But to be fair, it’s hard to stay objective all the way down to the end. It’s also a matter of taste, that’s what makes mixing competitions hard and unfair, at least to me as a contestant. I have been through this too often. Sometimes the winner mix is just not my taste and I still find my mix better. So I keep on doing it. Hope that helps

Hi @Christoph_K Thanks for the reply! Interesting that you would start at Part 3 since that's arguably the least important part for capturing and maintaining a listeners attention for the song/mix quality before they hit the skip button heh. It might be the lasting impression though, if the outro drop out doesn't take that spot.

I listened to all the tracks while they came in throughout the entry period and went back through the Top 15 and I'm still struggling to find what was so egregious in Part 3 of my mix that would have sent it to the bin right away when comparing your notes on the tracks, which I agree with (i.e. a lot of balance issues, thing poking out too much/not enough, etc.). One thing I thought after I posted it was the snare could have been a bit louder and hoped to make a revision on that for the next round. *sad trombone sound* I'm not trying to be a dick about it as what's done is done, I'm sincerely curious what I could improve on. I hope you could/would listen to the mix in it's entirety as I thought I brought a lot of width and space to the song where a good number of other songs were flat and narrow, especially outside of Part 3. Might come in useful if you're a song provider again in the future too.

I understand that feedback is probably one of the best ways to improve your mixing skills. And the mix challenge is the only free Plattform I know of, where you can get any feedback in mixing contests. That’s what I like about the MC. But in other communities other participants are more active to give feedback to one another. This isn’t happening here so much unfortunately and could also help a lot. I chose the top 15 route because of my time restraints. I apologize but I won’t give any mix critiques for the rest this time.

[Wyku]

@Christoph_K Understandable! I thought I'd try to take advantage of a direct line to the judge, worth a shot anyway haha. I'm not really sure the etiquette for feedback here as this is my first try at the MC. There are a lot of rules I don't want to break.

[jw_]

@jw_
One of the best feelings in part 1 and 2 in your mix, nailed it! There is some noise in the intro though. Great transition to part 2. I dig the FX in part 2, very tasty, gives me goosebumps. The brass swell is to low and the cinematic percussion is not hitting hard enough (too muffled). The 909 kick is a bit loud, match it with the kick in part 3. It’s much better when the synthbass drops in. Maybe the some compresssor glues them together, because when the bass is alone it’s also too loud. The vocals in verse 2 sound scooped. In part 3 the acoustic snares fundamental at 200hz is poking out a bit. I’m not a fan of the creative panning of the vocals. The Solo is coming to strong, compression could help. BGV are too low. Part 3 in general has balance issues, it's all there, just not in the right pocket.

Thank you for another round of mixing, @Christoph_K!

Here's my mix for round 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gdWRUr ... drive_link

And here's what I did:
-got rid of some of the intro noise
-raised the cinematic toms
-raised the brass portion of the vocal swell by a subtle 3db
-tamed both the 909 and synthbass
-spread out the melo piano a tiny bit more; feels better to me, esp. in part 3
-slight midrange boost for the verse 2 lead vox
-thinned out and lowered the snare, tiny bit more crack on it as well
-lowered the solo
-adjusted some volume rides and levels on keys and guitars in part 3, hopefully the focal points of the mix are clearer this time round
-raised BGV in part 3
-Adlib-Arvo is back in the center
-everything's louder (and slightly more contained on the 2bus comp) because that's obviously better

[MartialFromentin]

@Christoph_K, thank you to have selected my mix for the round 2!

Here is what I've done from your feedback:

- Intro is very noisy, guitar is too bright and too loud: true, I removed the "intro GTR parallel" track (the noise came from this one), repanned the main intro GTR and added a Maag EQ (little boost at 2.5kHz). The guitar tone is much darker and there is no more noise.
- Accordion is nice, vocals are nicely blended with fx: thanks!
- Part 2 is great. The swell could be a bit louder though: thanks, I love the part 2, it really "launches" the song. The swell's volume has been increased.
- Very good vocal treatment overall: thank you very much! I was really happy to read that because vocalse are... Vocals, you know what I mean.
- The BGV hall has to much sizzle. In part 3 there is some bright reverb wich is smearing the top end too much (maybe the same as on the BGVs?). Pay attention to your reverbs, they tend to get out of control: yes, I know that managing reverbs properly will be an eternal fight for me! There's a mid/side EQ on the reverb bus to tame the mid and push the reverb aside, I re-EQed the reverbs to tame the side high frequencies and it seems much clearer. Maybe your comment will make my reverbs fight easier for the future.
- GTR solo is too lost: yes, it's true. I send both bottleneck GTR tracks to an aux track and compressed them to get more consistency and sustain. The volume has been increased too.
- BGVs are too low: the reverbs EQ helped a lot to get them clearer, but the volume has been increased a little bit.
- The cinematic percussion in part 3 is barely audible: I added a transient shaper to get more attack and a parallel comp to make it more powerful. And there's now a volume automation to get it louder on part 3.

The R2 link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NDSaF5 ... sp=sharing

[WrightAudio]

Hello @Christoph_K

Thank you for selecting my mix for round 2. I have made the revisions as requested.

- Had a play with FX track
- Removed the creative panning throughout
- Removed the delay from the first chorus
- Removed reverb from the hats
- Increased the 909 kick level in line with acoustic kick
- Reduced the Room ambience level on the drum kit.

Here's the link

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

[Michael_K]

Thanks again @Christoph_K for advancing me to round 2.
Revisions:
Brought up the hihat on the first part till the second hat comes in over the electro kick.
Took a little of the lead vocal reverb in the second verse.
Tried to tuck in the snare a little bit by bringing down the volume slightly and adding a tiny touch of additional compression.
Tucked in the delay in the acoustic guitar in the end of the track so it is not left hanging... (it was not in the notes but I took a chance that it is an improvement).
Here is the mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHaD8f ... Nnhqk/view

Good luck to eveyone!!

[EmClrk]

Thanks @Christoph_K for the inclusion in round 2 and for the focused feedback, easy to work on and I hope you like the amendments.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6o9xy08h ... iii1k&dl=0

I chose to focus pretty narrowly on the points raised in Christoph's feedback and not to fiddle around with too much else.To do this I;

Reduced the level of the end section bass subs simply by introducing a high pass filter to subdue the subs but not to disturb rest of the low end. This did help the kick to beef up too.

Moved the 'farvox' part further back in the space in part 3. Nothing flashy just reduced the level of the part and introduced a high shelf eq to dull the tone a tiny ammount, also moved the high pass filter up a little bit to cut some lows for that natural distancing. I then adjusted the reverb sends to get it situated right to my ears too. Sounds much better this way and allows the lead vocal to contrast nicely.

I addressed the issue with the bouzouki accents being to quiet by turning them up. They are now better balanced with the guitar but not getting in the way of the vocal either.

As for the high end smearing I did remove some reverb on the hi hats and OHs and checked any mid/side processing for adverse effects, hopefully this did the trick.

Good luck to everyone, I look forward to hearing the final mixes.

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
Thanks for another chance to mix this beautiful track. Thanks to Christoph_K and Arvo Kim Noah for creating the music and submitting it. Thanks as usual to Mister Fox for making this all possible.

The feedback given by Christoph_K was excellent in that it was easy to follow, direct and comprehensive. I followed all of the steps as best I could but after some of the moves it implied knock on effects so further adjustments to make more sense of what just happened. This is mixing

I tried a different mixbus compressor with a higher ratio and slower timings as the dreamy feel I wanted for the end section seemed to be suited more to that. In the end I used:

Weiss Compressor/Limiter
Ratio 3.85:1
Attack 100ms
Release 125ms
doing about 1dB GR

I'm always a little unsure of my mixbus compression settings, so if anyone can hear that this is wrong or that they'd prefer to hear it more like "......" then please make suggestions. I chose a long attack as I wanted a big fat kick to come fully through and then I chose 125ms release which isn't really long at all, but it was longer that my round 1 mix. Now that the kick was much bigger I need to be more careful with how that release was affecting the track.

I also removed THE OVEN saturator from the mixbus as I started to dislike what it was doing to the top end. I'm also not that confident with how to go about adding layers of saturation on the mixbus. Yes use your ears, but it seems to me like every single saturation plugin is making it worse when I a/b test, I always end up removing it again. Could be I'm just too heavy handed with them.

Anyway, I loved working on it and sad to have to stop here.

Here's the link:

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

Thanks for listening and good luck to round 2 ppl.
Cheers