MIX CHALLENGE - MC097 April 2024 - Winners announced

[filipandrei]

Hello,

Here's my mix for this challenge:
MC097__Bellener_and_Friends__Get_A_Grip_filipandrei

Challenging song to mix, but had a lot of fun.
I wanted to showcase the voice for this song, but I've also tried to give the song a strong foundation for groove and harmony

MIX BUS - Capitol Mastering Compressor, aiming for no more than 1 - 2db of gain reduction

DRUMS / PERCUSSION - UAD Distressor with 6:1 ratio, squeezing about 4-7db compression with a reasonably slow attack and a fast release, followed by an Avalon VT-737 with a bit of top end and small boost on 60Hz.

BASS Spliting it in highs and lows. Choosing a strong compression ratio for the low-lows, just to keep this under control ( Avalon VT-737 )

GUITARS BUS - Mild compression with an LA-3A and, followed by SSL 9000J console for a narrow 360hz boost and a bit of 10KHz

KEYBOARDS (Electric Piano) SSL 9000j console with no EQ, just THD cranked for some harmonics

VOCAL BUS - Started with some DeEsser / SSL 9000J for a bit of air and 10KHz clarity / LA-2A for some compression and finishing with a 902 De-Esser plugin.
I also have some effect sends to a Slap Delay (Valhalla Delay 90ms) / UAD Lexicon 224 on Plate Setting with no Bass and very low Mid reverb time and 20ms pre-delay and Convology XT with some IRs from PastToFutureReverbs (CLA 480 Vocal Plate 5 IR).

I also have some parallel compression for drums with a Neve 33609 and another one with a FATSO for some punch and Tape emulation

Good luck, everyone

[DMG]

Hi all, here is my mix - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SP1ONK ... sp=sharing

Technical choices:
frequency cleaning, gain staging, panning etc...

Drums:
- kick: compression, Eq,
- snare: Eq, reverb
- toms: Eq, reverb
- hihat: Eq, reverb
- drums bus: saturation, transient shaper, clipper, air, reverb

Bass:
- Bass: Eq, compression, a plugin to keep the low end in mono

Instruments:
- Eqs, compression, delay(Trumpet), reverb and saturation on some tracks
- stereo widening for some tracks
-instruments bus: saturation

Vox:
- cleaning and de-essing manually, Eq, compression, saturation, reverb

Mix bus:
- Eq, compression, saturation

[siniq]

Greetings and thank you for these awesome tracks to work with.

I am a novice at this and only started working with a DAW and mixing in the past couple of months so pardon me if some of the terminology seems off.

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12vsSLk ... sp=sharing

Some things that interested me in this are:

1) I detected what felt like to my ear phasing beats (interference) in the processed guitar solo and mitigated that with a sample delay of 8ms but only in the first couple measures of the solo
2) There was a special call out for the kicks to use both tracks. To blend these I high passed the kick-alternative track at 1040 Hz and doubled it with a sample delay of 15ms throwing the high pass info to the sides while keeping the kick track in the middle
3) Did a lot of EQ work and some pitch correcting(logic) on the choir parts. Used the logic exciter and magma BB tubes beauty setting to get the choir parts to stick together

Otherwise I did not get too involved and mostly used EQ passing to get the instruments and vocals to play with each other.

I did use the clean wurlitzer track and added my own saturation with Magma BB tubes using the beauty knob.

I also used clean Electric Guitar(effects used OneKnob Driver, a GTR amp set to sweet setting, and LoAir Plugin) - except for the guitar solo where I cut over to the all FX track and back out once the solo is over this was done to keep that guitar solo feeling as the FX tracks played well with each other and lent to a bigger feeling in the bridge/solo.

Dynamic handling:
For the vocal (besides cleaning artifacts some artifacts were addressed by hand and other using the RX10 Declick) I hand edited the dynamics to accentuate more difficult to hear phonemes.
Used Logics Compressor on main vocal, the EG solo track, and Bass (no side chains as the EQ passing seemed to work)
Used Vcomp on Choir parts stacked together

L2/L1 limiters were used lightly on most tracks to give 1 to 2 dbs head room for later mastering.

Reverbs used on Acoustic Guitar stack, EG DI, Toms, Trumpets, Wurlitzer, Choir, and Vocal stack:
Short reverb was True Verb set to Studio B
Long Reverb was Abbey Road Plate (plate B) with the damper at 3

Mix Bus:
Just EQ

[LCM!]

@DMG

Your link doesn't work: it's not open. You will be out of the challenge if don't fix it.

[hjchjc]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khszB8 ... sp=sharing

This was a challenge to mix but I ultimately decided to treat it like it's a 70s easy listening track; so lots of reverbs, slap delays, wide panning, distortion. I thought of Melanie's "People in the Front Row" or her "Ruby Tuesday" cover; going even further back, I thought of 60s songs like Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody". As a result, I used way more analog emulations than I usually do, and mixed the drums lower than I otherwise would (particularly the kick!) It's not called a mix challenge for nothing!

Acoustic Guitars: processed together with a dip at 4k and 1.5k, compressed with the Xtressor, with some slap delay courtesy of ToneBooster's Ferox.
The chorus guitar has a Pultec EQ adding air at 16khz and another Xtressor.
The bus is sent to the UAD Pure Plate Reverb.

Bass: a Pultec MEQ-5 boosting at 500hz and taking away at 200hz with heavy LA-2A compression.

Electric guitar: PuigChild and GEM EQ550, made it a little farther back in the mix than I could have but it worked better as a texture so things didn't get too harsh.

Solo: I tried using the track with all the effects but it clashed with the tone I was going for, so I used the GuitarML Proteus amp, which I sent into the EQ550, a HornetMolla for some reverb, a delay, and a low cut at 250hz. It's a much more laid-back sound.

Cellos: stock EQ boosting at 1khz and the Waves RS124 compressor.

Strings are Waves Scheps 73, UAD Pultec HLF-3C taking off at 500hz and 12k, then a Kramer Tape for distortion and a FabFilter Micro with a low pass at 5khz

Drums: All have United Plugins' FrontDaw and that's pretty much it other than the snare, which goes through the Ferox for some slap delay and is sent to another Pure Plate Reverb and the toms, which also has a ferox as well as the Voxengo OldSkoolVerb.

All of that is bussed to one Track Stack with the Gem EQ550 to brighten things up.

Trumpet: Xtressor, Rev Plate-140, and HorNet TreBande to bring up the mid range

Wurly: I processed the two tracks on one bus, with the STA Preamp, Gem EQ550, FabFilter Micro low pass at 10k, and of course the Ferox.

VOCALS: The main challenge was making it sound smooth, then roughening it back up to sound like a 70s recording. Bertom Denoiser Classic, Mouth De-Clicker, Pro-Q 3 cuts at 2.5khz and 8.5khz, some dynamic EQ processing in Scheps Omni Channel, LA-2A, the TDR Kotelnikov, and a Kramer Tape for distortion and slap echo.

That monstrosity of a vocal chain is sent to the Voxengo OldSkoolVerb and the UADX Galaxy Tape Echo; on the latter I invert the polarity for stereo width purposes and put a FabFilter micro high pass at 200hz.

I also send the vocals to an ADT plugin for the choruses, barely noticeable but imo it helps.

BV track: standard Logic Sample Delay and a Logic high cut at 4k.

Ad-libs track: Pultec, RS124, Pro-Q notching out at 1.5, the UAD Pure Plate Reverb.


I experimented with mix bus compression, but I found that I couldn't fit within the specifications if I took off even 2db. I did end up using a Pultec to brighten up the mix, but that's it

[Duguy]

Hello everyone,

here my mix : https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cj4bbkwp ... tfjlr&dl=0

MIX BUS - Unisum, maag eq 4, pulsar massive, dangerous eq, kirchoff eq, the god particle and inflator

DRUMS / PERCUSSION : Tdr molot, bx ssl 4 E, neutron transient shaper, pulsar 1178, pro Q3, L2, black box, vmr, nls buss, lindell SBC, gaffel, spl transient designer, uad fatso, heat

BASS : Gaffel, pro C2, saturation knob, blue cat patchwork, cla bass, vmr, nls buss, blackbox, soothe 2, pro Q3, c6

GUITARS : ssl channel, korneff AIP, pro Q3, pro MB, decapitator, neutron, fresh air, nls buss

SYNTHS (this is a generic term for me) : PRO Q3, S1, pro MB, saturn 2, decapitator, J37, noveltech vocal enhancer, nls buss

VOCALS : izotope rx, uad 1176 and LA2A, pro q3, pro ds, pro MB, cla vocals, mc 404, decapitator, bx ssl 9J, fresh air, s1, valhalla vintage verb, rvox, waves doubler, waves de-esser, vertigo, soothe 2, kazrog avalon, vmr

FX : echoboy, h-delay, valhalla vintage verb, valhalla room, micro shit, s1, super plate, seven heaven, waves doubler 4, ssl channel 2, cla effect, rverb, enigma, d-verb, effectrack, uad studio chorus...

PARRALEL COMPRESSIONS : dc83, uad distressor, dbx 160, adc1, cla 76, magic death eye, uad fairchild...

OTHER STUFF : true iron, pulsar 8200, spectre, standard clip

METERS : perception AB, metric AB, tonal balance control 2, dynameter...


That's pretty much it.

Good luck, everyone. I really enjoyed working on this song. Great vocal performance.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your mix.


So far, we have 25 entries (compared to 151 Mix Pack downloads).
If you have been sitting on the fence so far, please get your mixes sorted out in the coming days.
There will be no deadline extension!

To the late adopters, please take note of the "TL;DR Rules.txt" file as part of the Mix Pack. And please do pay attention to detail (especially the Filename Template).

[Farlakesch]

Hello and greetings from the Netherlands,

I've really enjoyed this challenge. Thanks so very much to the provider for this nice song.

When I heard the song (and espescially the vocals) I was reminded of a group called ' the Carpenters' so i drew some inspiration from that.
For me it was the balancing of the tracks that was key, so sculpting with EQ to try and fit everything together was Ithink the most importent part of the job. I was a bit lucky to stumble upon Brit Console and the crosstalk that it provides for the main bus. It made the mix open up in general and for the electric guitar in particular.
The guitar solo that was provided was a bit to wet to my taste so I took the liberty of using the dry signal and proces that with Ampire (some overdrive, delay and reverb). The Wurlitzer is mainly clean but on some parts it has a mild overdrive.

So, thanks again for providing and I hope you can enjoy my version of it, here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/imacolaf/mc097-b ... al_sharing

Olaf

[LowlandsWave]

Hello Everyone, yet another mix challenge! Thanx to mister Fox and the song provider for keeping the mix challenge alive.
Quite a challenge this month .... tracks are good quality, but it feels like some vibe is missing. Challenging to try and get that vibe in ... hope I got close. Here is my mix:
I checked all the settings and it should be accessible to everyone without logging in ...

LowlandsWave Mix

Drums got quite some saturation and a very crushed "fake room" sound mixed in parallel. Kick took quite some shaping to tame the "point". DRUM bus has a little capitol Chambers reverb on it
Bass guitar I ran through a line6 HELIX to get a full round bass sound
Acoustic guitars, SSL's module8 to add some movement and Soothe to tame some harsh frequencies
Electric guitar, DI tracks go through HELIX and blended to taste with the wet guitar tracks

Organ, added some rotary speaker effect to get some more movement
Vocals: UAD 1073, LA2A, Nectar4 DeEsser and quite some reverb, delay and a vocal doubler using vocal synth in parallel

Drums and bass go to a bus with a distressor on it, and guitars go to a bus with a Fairchild on it
Reverbs and ambient material go to a bus with a widener on it these busses are send to the mixbus

Mix bus has a glueing compressor on it, SSL native bus compressor, Manley massive passive eq

All tracks have true iron plugin at the start of the chain

[Green-Dog]

Hi everyone! Here's my mix: MIX

Vocals: a touch of vari-mu compression, EQ, and de-essing. For space, I used a chamber to give it a vintage sound.

Guitars: a bit of compression, EQ. For space, I used Lexicon 224's room.

Bass: Besides compression and EQ, I used tube saturation and sent the bass to the same room as the guitars.

Drums: I used an SSL compressor on the drum bus, as well as Seventh Heaven's ambient space. On individual tracks, it's pretty standard - EQ and compression.

Piano: For space, I used Arturia's plate reverb. Plus a little EQ.

Master bus: For glue, I used the MagicDeathEye.

Good luck to everyone!