MIX CHALLENGE - MC097 April 2024 - Winners announced

[Clueless]

Here you can find my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LPFnoB ... sp=sharing

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[Eastpark Sound]

Here is my Mix: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag-Dp5ghVL9Xvy1K0uG ... g?e=4LwLdU

What a great song, instant Steely Dan Vibes.

Cheers from germany,
Hendrik, Eastpark Sound Studio.

Edit: Link should now work!

[Clueless]

Here is my Mix: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ag-Dp5ghVL9Xvy1K0uG ... g?e=SQFanV

What a great song, instant Steely Dan Vibes.

Cheers from germany,
Hendrik, Eastpark Sound Studio.

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[PistolPete]

Title;Statistics - "MC097__Bellener_and_Friends__Get_A_Grip__Pistolpete"
Date;Friday, April 19, 2024
Loudness_Value;-16.06 LUFS
Sample Rate;48.000 kHz
Average RMS (AES-17) Left;-15.55 dB
Average RMS (AES-17) Right;-16.10 dB
Max. RMS;-12.43 dB
True Peak Left;-1.93 dB
True Peak Right;-2.49 dB
Bit Depth Left;24 bit
Bit Depth Right;24 bit

My submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XyrOPl ... sp=sharing

Started with general session maintenance, volume leveling and got to a rough mix. I didn't initially listen to the original mix as I wanted to get a feel for what the data files sounded like and I had to do without influence. After I had gotten to a rough mix I gave the original mix a listen and read the artist/song submitter's notes and got to work.

Most of the provide tracks sounded good so there wasn’t a lot of heavy eq tweaking or major changes made to the tracks needed. My goal really was to focus on the vocals, the emotion, fitting all the instruments nicely into the mix together and making it sound like a commercial ready song.

Very little direct/insert FX were used on the individual tracks:

• Each track just some low cuts, a bump here and there, nothing extreme.
  Each track got a channel strip (Amek 200 channel, Linndel 50s, SSLG channel, and Schepps Omnichannel were used. . Very little eq, a bit of compression on most channels, just to help fit everything in the mix cleanly.

All tracks were sent to the mixbus I did a light automation no the mixbus volume for the intro of the song to bring it in softer and ramp it up towards when all the instruments kick in.

I created a few FX channel sends with single plugins. Most Tracks had some blend of sends to compression and reverb, with a few tracks like vocal which were sent to multiple channels.

FX Vocal Compressor:
FX Drum Saturation: Abbey Road Saturation
FX Reverb Global: little plate
FX Guitar Compression: PuigChild
FX Bass Compression: PuigChild
FX Brass and Synth: PuigChild

Most of my time was spent on keeping a good balance of the instruments, and really paying attention to the feel the song gave me. I tried to keep the delays and reverbs in the vocals to a minimal.

Vocals. I mixed most of the song before I listened to the original mix. I didn’t prefer the heavier echo/delays on the original and went for a more subtle reverb delay on the vox so I hope the song submitter doesn’t hate the change. I liked the purity of the natural vocal, emotion and tone and just wanted to accent it with slight hints of plate reveb and hints of automated space echo.. Echoboy was used directly on the main vocal and the send automated with precision edits to bump certain words, sounds in the vox with a delay.

Vox backups: I spent a little more time here crafting the sound of these to my liking. The vocal effects/pitch shifter on the original I thought went a bit too much with the tuned sound . I spent time bringing out more of the natural voice in the backs and smoothing the transitions in pitch with some heavier reverb and EQ’s. I used to FX compressor sends and the plate verb.

I used Waves S-1 imager on some tracks to push each instrument and track into its place in the mix. Bass, kick and snare were pretty much panned hard center. Some panning automation and Soundtoys Panman was used to create motion in the stereo field.

On the mixbus I used AMEK mastering compressor for a bit of glue and on the master bus just a waves L1 limiter set to catch overs with no crunch.

Good luck everyone and thank you to the song provider and Mister Fox for give us a platform to learn and create.

[Gunnar]

Hey,

a great song and so much fun to mix it! I love the volcals and the bg vocals and choir.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/i6gxlsyp ... gthkr&dl=0

My aim was to create the original 70s feel by using emulations gear of this time. ok, to be true on almost every track I have my beloved 4000 G channel, so not really 70s And I had to use some dynamic EQ.

Hope you like my mix

Cheers
Gunnar

[gonzacarmele]

Hi all!
Hope everyone is doing excellent. Here's my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/183eZA3 ... sp=sharing

I've really enjoyed mixing this song, loved the references too as I'm actually listening a lot of music from that era.

What I've done here is mix in groups and processed each thru a tape emulation plugin (Studer A800 from UAD). Then some eqing, mostly gentle. Tried to clean up the lower mid register. I've also reamped the electric guitars.
I tried to go easy on the delays and efx since I'm not a fan of that particular sound, but I use some in order to create a stereo effect specially for the vocals. For the reverb, Valhalla vintage verb is there, and some chamber for the strings and trumpets. Stereo widener for the male choir.
For the drums, I've blended the two kicks but aligned them and phase check. The snare has several processing: parallel compression, reverb, eqing and a transient designer. For the toms there's some plate reverb going on as well.
All my compression processing is mostly in parallel, trying to blend the controlled signal to the original one in order to maintain the dynamics, but keeping them under control.

The mixbus has a Fairchild style comp, and an eq with smooth curves.

Hope you like my mix, it's a lovely song! Great mixing everyone!

[bitpart]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6qiozd7g ... 3s0h9&dl=0

Hi everyone, overview of the system :
Ableton live, stock plugins, Fabfilter Pack, Valhalla, BritBundle and iZotope Ozone.
I used the youlean loudness meter and came in around -17 lufs

Drums were the biggest challenge for me, especially the snare which, i'm still not 100%. That dame snare !!!
The other challenge was the placement of the parts within the mix and ended up panning instruments differently that i would.

Whilst doing the general cleaning up process of mixing, i separated the electric verse part into 2 tracks to control the sound and also the strings but just for volume and fades. I found near the end the vocal being quiet harsh and not sure if i would have liked it sweeter but there was a lot of dynamics to control. I did edit the clip volumes on the lead vocal track and hope its not too noticeable.

Most of the instrument fx were inserted on the audio tracks (Live is a bit weird to mix in)

Eventually, i grouped the mix down to 4 tracks : Drums and Bass / All Vocals / Guitars & Acoustic / All other parts
plus the aux returns of live were 4 returns for the vocals and 1 as a Drum reverb.
Each group had a Compressor or Multi-Band Compressor and the Mix Bus had the Britpressor.

I found the track harder to mix that i would have liked and took longer than expected.

See you all in the chat and thanks all of you involved for the Challenge.

[mahzinho]

Using Mixbus v10 I did this mix, basically fadering levels, paning, eq, compression, midside eq on the master bus for calibrate some levels and a nice final compressor to make things glued.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1deK5TC ... sp=sharing

[pabloAT]

Hi all,
Many thanks to the song provider and to Mr. Fox for such a nice song to mix.
I’ve spent most of the time of the mix (about 80%) trying to get a nice balance, looking for separation and clarity of different tracks (very well recorded by the way) using only the fader, panning and a lot of automation. Equalization was used mainly as HPF/LPF and to provide some air where needed. In most of the tracks, I’ve used subtle compression and tape saturation. To expand the stereo image on some specific parts of the song (ex. chorus), I’ve tested the interesting WoW by Korneff Audio, with satisfactory results (IMHO). In particular for vocals, I’ve used different types of reverbs and delays, activated/deactivated according to the vibe of the song.
I hope you like my mix (see below the Dropbox's link).
Best wishes,
Pablo

[Dropbox's link to MC097]

[DSBotez]

My aim was to create the original 70s feel by using emulations gear of this time. ok, to be true on almost every track I have my beloved 4000 G channel, so not really 70s And I had to use some dynamic EQ.

Hope you like my mix

Cheers
Gunnar

Wow, really like the vintage feel