First of all, I want to congratulate all of you for participating on this edition. I know it is quite challenging for some as it goes out of the usual material in the Mix Challenge, but I guess this is what it is about. I hope it was interesting and you could learn a few things here and there.
On to the podium:
- 1. @SimaGT
- 2. @rvalle
- 3. @MFTWC
I want to do a special mention to @Pitta, I was considering you for the podium too but in the end I found your mix went too far away creatively and I felt it was unfair for the rest of the participants. I liked your mix a lot, but realistically I wouldn't have chosen it if we were client and pro, as it derived too much from my "vision". But still, I enjoyed it and I think it deserves this.
Now, the feedback for this second round, in alphabetical order:
- @cpsmusic: Hi hats are so much better! They sound really clear and crisp, the texture in the high end is great, including the ride, however it is not too close to the right mod sound I was looking for. It still works pretty well in the mix, and combined with the punchy kick it works quite well. I find the mix is still a bit “muffled” though. It has enough lows and mids but some synth elements are still a bit low and makes the track lose a bit of presence. At 3:30 for example, there is so much going on in terms of synths in the arrangement but they are barely audible. I find I have to turn your mix up so I can appreciate all there’s going on with it. When I do though, it sounds good, so there is potential to get a really good mix from there.
- @Davias: Still missing some pumping (sidechain)! Mix is solid, sounds quite compressed already. I find like it used to breath better, now the bass is not dynamic enough. That, joined with the fact that it is still not groovy enough (no pumping, top end doesn’t accompany the kick rhythm) makes it sound quite static. The kick is very punchy though, and the bass fills the mix a lot, too. With the volume up, it sounds like a brick wall, very powerful and energetic. The snare roll now cuts through the mix and gives the track the uplifting energy it needs.
- @juhu: I see your comment on whether you improved in round 2 vs round 1. Unfortunately I think you stepped backwards. The difference is very subtle, I had to A/B both closely but I am guessing your muffledness fix was related to removing low mid frequency content and/or boosting high and low end? Sounds a bit like that. The new mix might have a bit more bass, but also sounds more muffled in the high end at times and a tiny bit less mid/low-mid frequency content. I struggle with muffledness too quite a bit on my on mixes and I usually find I am overdoing the bass, highs and compression effects. Might be your case? Try to A/B with the demo mix.
- @MartialFromentin: Kick drum is now definitely better balanced and very punchy, I think the drums sound quite good. Bass is decent but when the sequenced bass sounds play, they cut through the mix too much, I guess they are too mid-rangey and they take too much space in the mix, then the rest of the synths/accents/leads are left in the back of the mix, they sound thin and far away, so in the end the only focus of the track is the kick drum and the bass, which kinda makes sense but the other synths are what make it interesting and varied. Kick and bass groove is very good though, that makes the lack of the other synths a bit less of a problem.
- @Mellow Browne: It suffers a tiny bit from the same problem as many others, which is lack of emphasis on the synths. There is a lot of kick, pads and sound effects but some synths are a bit low. This results in a few sound effects (sweeps) being perceived as a bit loud. Kick and bass work well together but, again, the perceived volume is higher than I’d like, especially taking into account the hi hats are a bit low too. Now on the good, the kick is really punchy and the transient sounds great. You definitely controlled the low end much better than before. The groove is well done on the bass elements but I still miss some sidechain on other elements to get the whole track pumping with it.
- @MFTWC: Really solid mix. It still has a bit of the gritty character that you gave it on the first round but the ride is now clearer and doesn’t mess with the groove. Not much to say here. Really good drum groove, I like it a lot, you got everything the arrangement could provide.
- @Michael_K: Your mix got better! Not quite there yet though. I really liked a thing you did with the arrangement at the end of the uplifting part, just when the outro starts — a sequenced synth leaks into the first beat of the outro. The element balance is really good now, your mix sounds really clean, but I still feel you can extract more groove from it. It sounds a bit like if the kick and the rest of the mix are two different sonic entities.
- @PauPeu: Still a great mix. The removal of the reverb in the kick made it much better, honestly I don’t have a lot of new stuff to say about it. I like the character you gave to it, with one or two changes it could work for me. If I had to nitpick on something, I would say it sounds a tiny bit “closed”, as if the elements lacked a bit of space to breathe in the high end, and also might be an slight excess of reverb in general. But sounds solid for sure.
- @Pitta: Definitely better balanced in the frequency spectrum, the accent synths are more upfront and you fixed the glitch effect. Really cool mix! Taking into account how much it deviates from the original arrangement at times, I think it is good enough. You added many details, I’m not going to list them here, but it is interesting to listen to.
- @Ronson79: Still a solid mix but there are still synth sounds that are too low… I am afraid I might have miscommunicated what the “accent” synths are? Unfortunately my comments from round 1 still apply this time.
- @rvalle: Not much to say, really good mix. Some accent sounds are still a bit timid but the improvement is noticeable. Density and groove of the hi hat section is better too, now it works better with the kick and the rest of the mix.
- @scottfitz: You fixed your issues with the mix and went beyond that. It sounds really solid right now. Making the kick work with the bass sequencers, as you said, did it perfectly, as they complement each other in a pleasant way. There is a big problem that you didn’t have in round 1 though, and I am thinking if it has to do with compression or what. There are some kicks that have their transient missing, I am not sure why it could be happening. Check out 2.41.818 and 3.54.545 for example. Quite unfortunate… I am curious as to why it happened.
- @SimaGT: Solid, great sounding mix. Again it shows that you know how to work with these genres, I really like the delays that mix the synths together and work the transitions. I have no doubts this is better than my own mix. For these reasons I cannot give more feedback.
Thanks a lot for participating and see you around! 
The winners podium consists of:
