MIX CHALLENGE - MC096 February 2024 - Winners announced

[rvalle]

Hello mixing community!

First of all, thank you @Jorgeelalto for the feedback. I'm glad you've enjoyed my mix and put it in the 2nd round.

In this R2 version, I tried to improve the balance of the synths in the mix. I used a bit of saturation and also a bit more gain in the stabs and synth shots. I made a group with these sounds and applied some very short reverb to it, just for better cohesion, with the excellent Raum from Native-Instruments.
On the hats, I compressed moderately with the Acme XLA-3, which also adds a bit of saturation. This way, I think it's closer to ideal.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wqIh1u ... sp=sharing

[cpsmusic]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my entry for the second round of Mix Challenge 096.

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

Thanks to the song provider and to the challenge organisers.

I've addressed the first round comments as follows:

1. "The hi hat sounds a bit thin and it doesn’t fill the spectrum as much as I would like..."

This was my first time mixing an EDM song and something I hadn't realised was the role that the hihat plays in supplying the "groove" of the track. Because of this in the first mix I mixed the hihat too low and also didn't give it enough high end. With this in mind, I went back and re-EQ-ed the hihat. Also, rather than simply combining the three hats, I used each separate hihat for a specific part of the overall hihat tone which made it brighter and more audible in the mix. I also added some chorus (JUN-6) to make the sound fuller and smoother.

2. "The flanging effect on the ride is interesting but I feel like it changes the character of the sound too much."

I ditched my first attempt at processing and went back to something closer to what's in the demo mix (I think). I used Softube's Saturation Knob for some distortion into kHs ring modulator. This now sounds more like a conventional ride and also adds a bit more to the high-end of the track overall.

3. "In general the mix is quite well balanced but it sounds a bit muffled..."

To make the mix sound less muffled I thought the best approach would be to apply more of a "smiley-face" curve. The challenge was to do this without over-doing the low-end or making the high-end too sizzly. To increase the low-end I first reduced the sustain part of the kick with a shelf EQ (Ozone 11 - free BTW!) before dynamically expanding it with ToneBoosters EQ4. For the high-end I did a similar thing, dynamically expanding the side signal. I also reduced the low-mids by 1dB and increased the high-mids by 1dB. And finally I reduced the Vitalizer parallel by a couple of dB as this was adding more mid-range. In addition to all this, I added some hard clipping as the dynamic EQ combined with the more prominent hihats was adding some rogue volume spikes.

Specs:

24-bit/44.1 kHz
-16.5 LUFS (int.)
-6.0 dBTP

Good luck to everyone in the second round and once again thanks to everyone involved in the challenge.

Cheers!

[MartialFromentin]

Here is my mix for the round 2 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bo9RML ... sp=sharing

Subtle changes have been made on the drums bus :
- clipping;
- saturation;
- tonal balance;
- added a little bit of sub;
- volume.

Theses changes have been made through a brickwall limiter (-9 LUFS) on the mix bus to simulate mastering conditions and to test the brickwall limiter behaviour.

The V2 drums seems to be more balanced, I hope it is good...

[PauPeu]

Zanx @Jorgeelalto for selecting my mix to Round 2.

Here's my revision.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2hmBa ... sp=sharing

I removed as you suggested the "reverb kick" in the speech section.

Also I made a few changes here and there, the overall mix changed quite a bit, essentially I tamed the highs in the percussion elements and boosted the mid frequencies in the tonal elements. The original mix was a bit harsh and mid scooped.

In particular:

Retuned the kick a little bit, it was a little "clicky".

Retuned the HH1, the behavior now is more centered in the 2k's range, acting more "snareish" and leaving room for other highend elements of the mix.

Boosted the mid freq in the string section.

Tape saturation for taming the attack on the sequencer group, also a high freq limiter on the buildup section.

Adjusted the volume of the risings.

A little saturation in the mixbus.

Removed the limiter of the mixbus.

And that's all.
Cheers! good luck to everyone.

[Mister Fox]

Quick reminder:
A little less than 2 hours left on the clock. Please get your edits ready and uploaded now.

I currently count 11 out of 15 Mix Round 2 entries.

[Pitta]

Here's my revision:

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

Hello @Jorgeelalto and everyone. Hope my intentions translate and are to your taste. Hope I preserved what you liked about my mix cos I couldn't help the chance to have a bit more fun and throw some more details. I like it much better.
There's a conversation between bass and lead that I couldn’t highlight in previous version with just volume automation. Didn't work. Now, for the bits that there are variation on bass ostinato, I've inverted panoramic, compress and distorted with Soundtoys Devil Lock, and put a 18ms delay on a high passed send to a track that I pan to the right.
Used Devil Lock also on the drum bus to just highlight some transitions.
All equalization was revised and two more side chains were added: Kick ducking second sequencer and bass ducking the subs on kick tail track.
Kick, Kick tail and bass were brought down a bit. Synth shots up a bit.
To enhance back to front movement, added a spring reverb to that schhhh sound on Synth shots track, automating it so that there's reverb being sent on the beginning of the sound and none at the end and filtering it so it's thin and then opens to fuller spectrum. Added a pitch bend to some reverb throws.
Cheers

Pedro Pitta

[Ronson79]

Here´s my second round version.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ErXh-2 ... sp=sharing

Made changes according to the suggestions.
Raised the level of fx and lower synths

Tried to integrate my new hardware fx to polish the tone but failed miserably due to the "easy handling" of RME TotalMix and ReaInsert.

[Davias]

Thank you for having me to the second round !!

I tried to boost a bit the clarity on everything, and adjusted the bass to taste, I multiband compressed the low end to assure a better consistency all around, I fixed the ride fx, adding some kind of distortion (FM & AM) and automating the phaser fx. I changed the compressor on the beat. I boosted a bit the snare rolls by reading the reviews, hope I didn't overdid it. I adjusted the reverbs on some elements. Slight changes here and there to add more glue, and consoles saturation for some mojo, I cleaned some harshness from the voice too...

Here is the mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/11wOyE8r0s71FCpILj15cg6cOCTyLz5_4/view?usp=sharing

Good luck to everyone

[FromAtoZMix]

Hi there,

Here is my mix, long story short, I rushed and updated to Mac OS 14.4, ooooo boy! How I regret that right after Logic scanned my AU plugins. All of them connected to iLok stopped working. I had to make another mix from scratch. I have read producer's sugestions and tried to mix it a bit difierent way.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SiOziv ... drive_link

Thanks for an input, thanks for another opportunity, good luck to everyone.

[Mister Fox]

It's the 13th March 2024, 00:45 (UTC+1) - the 2nd Mix Round has officially ended.


STATISTICS

• Everyone has sent in an edit, we therefore have 0 disqualifications (with an exception, see below)
• We have 1 Wild Card uses to advance into the next round (@SimaGT)
• We have 0 participants that decided on not to advance through the use of a Wild Card (01 available this month)
• We have 1 submission after the deadline (@FromAtoZMix - both the upload and post were after the deadline - tagged OUT)
• We have 0 submission that could not be downloaded by the time of this post and are therefore disqualified (re-checked 13-MAR-2024 0:45 UTC+1/CET)

I will reach out to @Jorgeelalto and forward all entries/statistics by sometime tomorrow (Thursday, 14-MAR-2024). Please have an eye on this thread for more feedback and a possible Mix Round 3, or an announcement of the final results.



I'm now opening up the room (again) for Q&A's and giving each other feedback (which is highly encouraged)

Please check out all other games on the community. Most notably Songwriting Competition 079 (our yearly recurring Special Sound Design Challenge, genre: free to select).

Please also consider becoming a Song Provider. Our Song Pool is in trouble! No more material means no more Mix(ing) Challenges. The genre is not important.


See you on the flipside.