MIX CHALLENGE - MC096 February 2024 - Winners announced

[jules666]

Ok being a metal head this was not something I would have normally listened to, let alone try to mix
So, decided to not use my normal routing template, and just create a rough mix. Then I thought I would split the tracks into three groups: low/mid/high
Processed pretty much all tracks using Scheps Omni channel mainly for the saturation/compression, if I wanted extra saturation (which I did a lot) I used Decapitator. Limiter and/or clipper was also used a on a lot tracks

Created five fx sends which were:
Filterfreak
Huge verb
Room verb
Tap delay
Ping Pong Delay
Chorus

I also created a parallel distortion track - honestly not sure what I thinking with this at the time , but I sent the High group to this and blended in quite low.
A parallel compression track was also used on the quieter part after the vocal only, as it thickened up the sound a little.

I sent the tracks into the fx sends in varying amounts based on how felt at the time, my idea was to use these effects to generate a little movement.
The low and mid "busses" were compressed, and some transient shaping, little EQ for rolling off top/bottom end, and clipper/limiter, High bus just had a clipper.

Master bus had Kiive tape saturation and a compressor which I was mixing into. I then used BX-Digital to mono the low end/little stereo width, MAAG EQ to a little brightness the overall top end in the mix, followed by a multiband saturator as I wanted a little more on the low end, finally a limiter to just tame the odd rogue peak.

Definitely took me out of my comfort zone which is a good thing.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RW70fL ... sp=sharing

Thanks for listening,
Jules

[SimaGT]

Hello,

This was some hell of a track to mix. It is superbly produced with some very nice sounds and arrangement. So with all that in mind since it sounds good just with some levels adjustments biggest challenge for me was how not to ruin already
good sounding track and at the same time enhance most of its parts. So after some rough levels adjustment I went for some creative panning route to give it interesting stereo excitement. Also did some parallel processing to get some more richness
in the mids. Lots of tracks are brought up with Waves "Magma Lil Tube" and "Trash 2 plugins". Stereo job was done with a plugin that I forgot i have it on my PC it is "Brauer Motion" from waves and also some stereo fx was done with Shaperbox3.
So those are most interesting plugins I've used here. Some standard eq and compression here and there and offcourse automation of volume and fx.

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

[albinista]

Hi, this is my first time taking part in this, and good lord was it fun! I started out aiming for an approximation of the demo track, but got a little distracted halfway through.

Anyways, most of the tracks got their share of Reaper stock eq, mostly high passing, mud clearing and a little of bringing out the mids in bassy stuf (sequencer 1 and 2 most prominently). Not much compression on individual tracks, but a fair amount of parallel processing. Lots of saturation on midrangey stuff, I bussed most of it, cut out the low end, destroyed with compression and huge amounts of saturation, and then subtly blended it in the whole mix.
Kick got some eq, sub synth, more eq, and then some transient shaping and saturation. Kick tail got sent to massive reverb, then lots of eq and distortion until it sounded not quite unlike brown noise, and then I gated it with sidechained kick, and brought it down until it's barely audible, but after muting and unmuting it a couple of times, I really liked the effect it makes in the overall mix so there's that.
What really caught my eye in the instructions is playing with the stereo image part, so I got a little bit wild with that. Lot's of stereo field managment on individual tracks, lots of auto panning, ping-pong delays etc. I'm not shure how it will translate to other systems, to me it sounded ok and without any serious phase and polarity issues, althought the correlometer was going WILD at certain sections.
Saturation and reverb on vocals, I didn't really try to clean up the background music in the vocal, it adds a great atmosphere when sent through reverb.

Some important plugins I used, besides Reaper stock plugins:
Variety of Sound: DensitymkIII and ThrillseekerVBLmkII for less or more coloured dual mono compression, and epicPLATE and epicCLOUD for reverbs
Analog Obsession: Transsature, DIstox (saturation), BusterSE (compressor)
Auburn Sounds' Panagment2, probably the best stereo automation tool in existence
AIrwindows: Srsly2 (stereo widening), Dirt (ugly distortion), Density (saturation)

So that would be it, more or less. Here's the link, hope I didn't miss the mark too much.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BZVivr ... drive_link

[StudioHeli]

Hi,
First time here and what a wonderful material! I usually use Digital Performer for mixing, but I also have Ableton Live. I thought this EDM track and Live would be a good match, so I did everything in Live. The original mix is pretty solid, so my mix is more like from the "mixing to taste" category. I ended up not using the kick tail track, making my own variant of the rumble kick. And also I mixed the hats separately. Added various delays and pan automation to percussion and a few other tracks to make them more interesting in the stereo field. The ride got the Shifter treatment that I liked. The vocal went through the Resonator to give it a metallic character. The rest of the tracks only needed a touch of reverb and volume automation here and there. No compression was used on the master track and the true peak never exceeded -2dBFS. Overall I used only Live stock plugins except the LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven as a main reverb.

Enjoy the mix!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZXQqT ... sp=sharing

[StudioHeli]

Ok being a metal head this was not something I would have normally listened to, let alone try to mix
...

That's a hell of a mix I would say! I got goosebumps when I listened to it. Nice work!

-Mike

[juhu]

Hello!

1) Please enjoy my mixdown of "Memorization" by Mark II:
http://tinkerstate.com/mix-challenge/MC ... __juhu.wav

2) Documentation available below (click on "SHOW" to expand):

► Show Spoiler

• I felt that the techno sections needed a more consistent low end than what was being offered by the provided kick tail rumble track, which consisted mostly of LF reverb and thus lacked mid-channel heft and definition. So, I created an auxiliary kick tail by sending a gated copy of the kick punch track into a tuned-by-ear tape delay that essentially created me a bass note, which I then gated and ducked a couple more times rhythmically, then compressed for consistency and distorted a bit for some added harmonics, and finally blended in with the provided rumble tail using EQ in order to provide a heftier and more consistent foundation to the song. It’s not so prominent that the listener would register it as a separate newly added bass instrument, but rather it melds into the song as if it was just extended ringing of the kick drum, giving the other instruments some foundation to sit on top of in-between kick hits so that the mix doesn’t thin out;
• During the middle trance section, I ducked the FX filter swells by a ghost kick that I created out of the normal punch kick track, as I felt this section needed some additional motion to propel it forward;
• A lot of the instruments ended up getting treated by a transient shaper in the form of Logic’s stock Enveloper plugin in order to give them the rhythmic snap required, as well as balance out the relative “snappiness” - if that is even a word - across different parts;
• In particular, I discovered that in addition to the obvious task of controlling snap with the attack shaper, I could also achieve interesting rhythmic and dynamic results by modifying the release shaper, so I ended up automating the release shaper on the Sequencer3 track quite a bit throughout the song in order to add interest, almost using it as a “counterpoint” relative to what was going on in other parts - for example, while the ducked FX filter swells were falling downwards in pitch, I usually ended up gradually amplifying the release tails of Sequencer3 more and more, making Sequencer3 gradually fill more space as the falling FX swells yielded more space, and conversely, while the ducked FX filter swells were rising upwards in pitch and taking up more and more space, I usually ended up gradually suppressing the release tails of Sequencer3 more and more, causing the Sequencer3 to gradually open up more space for the FX riser swells to take over - I think this bit turned out rather nicely and imparted something fresh to the song that isn’t obnoxiously obvious but yet can be felt, even if not heard consciously;
• As for stereo imaging - I ended up creating an auto-pan LFO effect on my entire Sequencers subgroup by messing around with Logic’s stock Tremolo plugin in such a way that certain notes seem to emanate from certain different locations in the stereo field. I quite liked the result, so I then also crafted a similar auto-pan effect to my HiHats as well as my SnareRoll subgroups, and finally also to the Ride cymbal track;
• Speaking of the Ride cymbal - I distorted it by 5x downsampling and 6 bit quantization which made it fit in better with the rest of the song;

That concludes the moves I wanted to highlight. That being said - don't hesitate to ask in case of any further questions.

[Dodgingrain]

Fun retro track. Nice to work on something that isn't folksy or rock. My mix is here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrlaQr6Dh ... A?e=7mH5NT

I'm not really a techno fan so I went for an early to mid 90's trance vibe, something that screams access virus, novation supernova, JP8000, etc. Its all about the arps making people zone out and dance.

drums: mainly eq and compression, the rides are using a tempo synced LFO that give them some grit and interest. Most of the tracks have a slight sidechain via the kick but not an overwhelming amount. If I were to mix this at a louder level that would be more prominent but mixing at -16 the goal is dynamic and loud without sounding squashed. The hats have a little bit of delay added to give them that chugging feeling that is in most dance mixes.

Basses: Just a little distortion via decapacitator that is automated in in certain sections. along with some eq and compression.

Arps: These needed quite a bit of saturation to make them sound more analog and less like VSTi's. I also used a widener that fades in in certain sections to add width as the builds grow, it makes things sound bigger and bigger as the builds go on without being obvious that its a widener. I believe I added a delay on one of the arps as well.

Vox: the vox part is filtered but has a delay that comes in to widen the word "devastating".

Other than that I did use a significant amount of reverb, both an early reflection ambience reverb and a more traditional longer verb. There is the usual volume/panning/eq automation, etc. going on.

[MFTWC]

Hello there !!

The tune was mixed in Cubase pro 13.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15CdORQ ... drive_link

Kicks: Kick punch got compressed with a slow attack to accentuate the snap, on the Kick tail I scooped out a lot of the low end to fit the kick and all the other low-end instruments.

Hats,perc,snareroll,tops and ride: Snare roll got compressed with a slow attack to accentuate the snap, Hats got hi-passed, Extra tops go SC with ShaperBox 3, Ride got some ring modulation and distortion.

Sequencer 1-4: 1,2 and 3 got SC with ShaperBox 3 and some dynamic eq on specific frequencies, 3 got some pin pong delay.

Synth Shots, Lead and EDM Stab: Some automated reverb on different phrases and hi-passing to fit the mix.

Vocal: Got some deessing at 3,7 Khz with a dynamic eq.

All other instruments got hi passed and some reverb/delay send.

Plug-ins used:

UADx 1176LN Rev E Compressor
UADx dbx 160 Compressor
UADx LA-2
TB_Equalizer_v4
Voxengo Tempo Delay
MF-102S Ringmod
TDR Kotelnikov GE
Loudmax
ValhallaVintageVerb
ShaperBox 3
SSL Native Bus Compressor 2

[Michael_K]

Hi everybody! Another great mix challenge!
Great track, very well prepared for mixing!
There were a lot of elements in the mix so I tried to balance and create space everything can be heard to the extent possible.
I also kept testing with heavy limiting on the master buss since this type of music is usually mastered really loud.

Main Kick: Scooped out some low mids in order to empahsize the lows without boosting them. About 3 db of slow attack compression after that.
All other tracks: eq used very little .
Additional processing
Perc: compression to tame pointy transients, panning automation.
edm hits: compression for emphasis, panning automation.
All sequencers: panning automation.
Extensive automation of volume and effects on sequencers, choir, and strings during the long build especially towadrs the end before the drop.
Vocal: doubler and slap-back delay.
Master buss: FF C2 in buss mode, with ssl style settings.

Here's my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15zEr6B ... dzNvq/view

Good luck to everyone!

[DIVESPANNER]

Hi thanks for another opportunity to have experience in mixing a wonderful song
I firstly carried out a static mix mainly filtering and subtractive EQ and a little bit of compression to level things out then due to CPU restraints I transformed the tracks to renderd audio
I used mainly saturation plugins PA - Black Box - Sat2rate2 - Vertigo VSM - Pesonus - Red Light District
Carried out some parallel processing EQ PreSonus stock pro eq blended in some stock plugins autofilter - Bit crusher - Flanger - XTrem Pan function
compression SSL - API 2500 - TownHouse - stock compresor - UA - LA2A
Reverbs and delay Presonus Analog Delay - Grove Delay - Waves Abbey Road Chambers
Heres the link to my mix hope you enjoy and again many thanks for the oppertunity
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoWtKkpqMH3IgrNiSpA ... A?e=tvceR2