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MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

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O'MIX
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#51

Post by O'MIX »

Hello,

Thank you for this new mixing opportunity, thank you to the supplier of the song and the musicians who performed it and to Mix challenge.

The proposed work is therefore to favor good dynamics and to play on the contrasts between the parts, quite a few effects were used and with great attention to detail, particular attention to the voices (which sounded very harsh) a lot of treatment was needed for this.

In summary, an analog mix with a lot of 3D where each instrument finds its place, all slightly dark with the addition of vocoder and degradation effects reminiscent of a robotic sound at certain moments, I am particularly satisfied with the end of the song proposed with these effects...

The technical part:

Careful listening to the separate tracks was carried out and EQ corrections were made using the PA KIRCHHOFF EQ in linear phase mode and using the dynamic functions to remove resonances and adjust a little if necessary and a few preamps were been applied to give grain to the tracks.

We can connect the sound of this mix to the sound of Neve analog consoles but not only...
All groups go through ACUSTICA AUDIO (AA) SALT ULTRA GOLD, API, SAND preamps chosen according to the source, mainly GOLD, SAND (Neve + SSL sound).

Volume automation was necessary, to make each part stand out, compression also paralleled WAVESFACTORY TRACK SPACER.

BATTERY: GETGOOD DRUMS SMASH AND GRAB 2 on different elements, RELAB ROOM, FABFILTER TIMELESS 3 (delay effect), DEVIOUS MACHINES MULTIBAND COMP, AA SUNGLOW.

BASS: AA GRAPHITE (amp simulation) + AA EL REY2 (comp)

ACC GT: AA AMBER 4 (comp+Eq)

PIANO: PA KIRCHHOFF EQ + PA CENOZIX COMP

CHOIRS: AA LAVA (NEUMANN micro silulation), AA DOVE (de-harsh), AA WINE EQ (for color), PA CENOZIX COMP, SOFTUBE WEISS (deess sibilances), FABFILTER TIMELESS 3 (delay effect), VOCODER (effects) SLATE DIGITAL MURDA, D16 and others...

VOCAL LEAD: AA LAVA (SONY mic silulation), AA DOVE (de-hard), AA SUNGLOW PRE MIC (for color), SOFTUBE WEISS (deess silulations), AA EL REY2 COMP, RELAB VSR S24 (reverb), FABFILTER TIMELESS 3 (other delay effect)

BUS: PA CENOZIX COMP

MASTER BUS: AA WINE (eq curve), AA JAM (saturation), AA LAVE (slight peak limit)

Good listening to all,
Patrick from Brussels

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BA8GwM ... sp=sharing

The file is in 16Bits / 44.1 khz
LUFS -18
TPL -5.6
DR 10.37
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MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#52

Post by Mister Fox »

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


So far, we have 29 entries (compared to 125 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 do pay attention to details (see Mix Pack bundled "TL;DR Rules.txt" and post #003).
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#53

Post by yoruhitp »

Please download the audio from below.
https://tinyurl.com/22qdcsmh


- Processing before mixing:
Noise was removed from the sound source.

- About equalization of each track:
I didn't want to lower the quality of the sound source as much as possible, so I didn't do low cut except for the cymbals.
However, there are several bus tracks that I intentionally cut low and high to add a sense of distance to the sound image.

- Processing of drum sound source:
Each track was used to average the peaks and equalize using SSL Native Channel Strip.
For the kick, I input the base into the side chain of the equalizer to cut the low frequencies below 100Hz.
For the drum bus, I used iZotope Ozone11 Spectral Shaper to process the low range.
I added a little short reverb like a recording booth to the entire drum. In addition, I added a separate hall reverb to the rim shot.

- Processing of bass sound source:
I split the signal into two using Studio One's splitter, blended one of them through an amp simulator, and then slightly widened the sound image with the imager.

- Processing of guitar sound source:
I first EQed the two tracks using SSL Native Channel Strip.
12 For git1-orig, I used Waves CLA Unplugged.
13 For git1cosm, I used Waves CLA Guitar.
The two tracks were combined into a bus channel, and Base was input to the side chain of the equalizer to cut the bass below 100Hz.

-Piano sound source processing:
The sound quality was adjusted using the effect chain of SSL Native Channel Strip and Waves VITAMIN. Next, a chorus effect was added with Arturia DIMENSION-D. Finally, to process the bass, Base was input to the side chain of the equalizer to cut the bass below 100Hz.

-Guitar and piano bus channels:
I used VoosteQ Material COMP to adjust the texture of the sound.

-Choruses:
I carefully adjusted the timing of each track.
For each track, I used SSL Native Channel Strip to average the peaks and equalize.
Each track was combined into a bus track, and low and high cuts were performed to add a sense of distance.
I added long reverb using Waves CLA Echo-Sphere.

-Vocals:
I carefully adjusted the timing of the doubling and vocals.
I used SSL Native Channel Strip to average out the peaks and equalize.
For compression, I used Waves MaxxVolume and Waves Silk-Vocal.
For echo processing, I ran a Waves SuperTap delay through a plate reverb.
I accept any mixing opportunities.
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#54

Post by O'MIX »

:gotidea: I just saw that it was necessary to deliver in 24/44.1, not as usual in the input file format, I am certainly out?
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#55

Post by alavault »

Mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UUPiWj ... drive_link
  • Drums:
    • Kick: EQ, Comp, Saturation.
    • Snare: EQ, Comp, Saturation.
    • Toms: EQ, Comp, Saturation.
    • Cymbals: inserted reverb, EQ, Comp, Saturation.
    • "Room": since the drums are samples, having a "room" to tie everything together will be a nice addition. For that, the idea was to use a short reverb which is then treated as a room: EQ, compression, saturation! The effect should be noticeable, not as feathered as "regular" reverb.
    • // Comp: for added low-level details, parallel compression is used here. And the "room" goes into it for added cohesion.
  • Bass:
    • DI: EQ, comp, saturation, EQ. Fretless basses tend to be honky
      Amp: A good bass needs an amp to complement! For that, a SansAmp will do the trick and bring the harmonics nicely.
      // Comp: grabby compressor (1176 style)
    Piano:
    • Denoising beforehand.
    • EQ, Comp, Saturation.
    • Sent to a parallel comp, a room verb and a longer hall
    GTR:
    • Used an impulse response since the main track sounded like a piezo
    • EQ, Comp, Saturation
    • Parallel saturation to give some push
    Vocals:
    • All single tracks have the same processing, to warm things up and reduce harshness
    • The BGVs are wetter to try to send them to the back
    • parallel comp on the main vocals
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#56

Post by Dodgingrain »

My mix is here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrlvNYaF2 ... g?e=Te041n

Drums:
Tried to do a few things to create a room beyond just reverb with some hard panned delays and I added an exciter to try and give the drums a bit more grit and energy.

Guitars:
These are hard panned with some eq and some delays to create space.

Piano:
Not to much here other than some slight broad band eq boosts.

Bass:
Run through a Reddi to create more low end to the bass and through a sans amp emulation to add a little more low end and grit.

Vocals:
Really not a ton here other than some eq cuts and boosts, standard compression and a little bit of soothe to take out some of the harshness that pops up around the 2-3K range.

Beyond that there is some volume automation to try and create more feel between the sections, etc.
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#57

Post by AuderMarr »

Mix link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/199D4A3 ... drive_link

Hello, everyone.
My name is AuderMarr and I'm new here. I came to know Mix Challenge from the awesome KVR Forum and since I finally wanted to have fun with some constructive musical activities during my free time I decided to give it a go. I'm still learning about mixing, so every possible tip, critique or observation in order to do better is very welcome to me!

So, first of all, with my mix I aimed to enhance the melancholic/angry side of the track, and also do its robot references justice.
I made the piano the main instrumental focus of the first part: I gave it a vintage, consumed, shaky, but somehow warm feeling by applying some grit and discreet pitch drifting with Chowdhury DSP's Chow Tape Model. This creates a contrast with the hollow, chorus-like feel of the vocals: their main part was slightly panned in the central part of the mix, while the backing vocals were panned more drastically to the sides and supported, other than with a reverb bus hosting a TSAR-1 Reverb, with a bus track hosting kHs' Flanger and TranceGate (for a stuttering effect) and an instance of Glitchmachines' Fracture which creates some subtle digital robotic sounds during the bridge in the background.

In the second part, beginning exactly with the bridge, the piano takes the backseat in favour of acoustic guitars, which I just generally EQ'ed and compressed a little in order to make them clearer and less boxy, panning them at the sides; I also sent them to a bus in order to sprinkle them with an instance of Sanford Reverb. The second bulk of choirs singing during the song's ending were given a good deal of movement by automating the phase rotation and panning parametres in Reaper's Stereo Field Manipulator hosted on the reverb bus (with another instance of TSAR-1 Reverb). The final glitchy noises were created with another single instance of Fracture.

I tried to make drums more aggressive and present by making them a lot brighter and snappier with EQ, various compressors (for example the Kilohearts one and the 1175 emulator in Reaper) for kick, snare and toms (which I grouped in a sub-mix to treat them together and I sent it to the main Drums one), and Sonic Anomaly's Transpire. The main Drums bus ties it all together thanks to that little beast of Audio Damage's RoughRider3 compressor and Sonic Anomaly's Unlimited. In order to give them spatial weight, I also opened a bus with one of Reaper's Plate Reverbs.

Bass was just amped up with IK's MixBox built-in Distortion and Amp Pedal and EQ'ed to give it more low body.

On the master track, I used 2nd Sense's 2EQ, Stige T.'s Quadracom multiband compressor, Dead Duck Compressor to tie it all (50% mix and 3:0 ratio) and MSED Voxengo.
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#58

Post by mikeka »

Cool tune and love the singer's voice.

My mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6biPi ... qptqs/view

L VOX – Joe Chicarrelli Vocal Strip – used to de-ess, de-harsh, warm and compress. Bit of delay added to all BG and L vox. Other than a couple of key phrases no verb.

ALL BGV - Joe Chicarrelli Vocal Strip. No verb. Muted b vox in first verse to add to the sense of loneliness and allow the song to build.

END BGV – Flanged.

DRUMS – Lindell 50 on most drum tracks. Bit of compression and EQ. Verb is a Valhalla small room with a longer verb (7th Heaven) in spots.

BASS – Lindell 80 for EQ and compression. Valhalla Room as insert for bass ambience.

PIANO – Lindell 50 for EQ and compression. No verb.

12 STRING – Lindell 50 for EQ and compression. Flanged one to add dimension to the two gtr tracks.
7th Heaven verb.
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#59

Post by floodo »

Thanks for sharing with us, I really enjoyed working on this particular mix.

My mix -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l7ak1r ... sp=sharing

Drum Bus: compression, saturation, limiter to control a few peaks

Kick: Eq, compression
The rest of the drums are left untouched except for some low pass filters that I consider necessary.
To all this, I applied parallel compression and as I had no rooms I built a fake room with reverb and distortion.

Bass Bus: I reduced approximately 250 to give space to the lower part of the guitars and the piano.
In the bass track I thought it was too fixed and I added some sub with submarine, eq compression, and parallel distortion, also, when I was finishing the mix I heard that the bass in some parts was coming in a little early, so I decided to quantize it.

Guitar bus: Eq, compression and saturation, then in the tracks I did corrective eq.

Piano Bus: compression, saturation and a little EQ on the piano track just a little corrective eq.

BG vocal bus: additive eq, compression and just a little stereo image widening, within the tracks corrective eq

Lead Vox bus: additive Eq, compression inside the track subtractive eq Also has parallel processing like compression and parallel EQ

Mix Bus: glue compressor and nothing else and a fadeout at the end in order to eliminate a small hiss that the guitars had if I remember correctly, I opted for the fadeout so as not to degrade the original audio with a suppressor.
Automations: although I have automations in practically all the tracks, they are very subtle,
My intention in this mix was to preserve as much as possible the original audios, trying to gain depth giving each instrument its own space.

“a few days after the above, I listened to the mix again and added a couple more processes to the mix bus to round out the sound and give it some more cohesion and a somewhat more analog sound”

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Submissions until 21-JUN-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#60

Post by PistolPete »

Title;Statistics - "MC098__Arnwyn__Robot_Baby__Pistolpete"
Date;Saturday, June 15, 2024
Loudness_Value;-17.2 LUFS
Max_Momentary_Loudness;-14.5 LUFS
Max_Short_Term_Loudness;-15.3 LUFS
Sample Rate;44.100 kHz
Average RMS (AES-17) Left;-17.46 dB
Average RMS (AES-17) Right;-17.75 dB
Max. RMS;-14.84 dB
True Peak Left;-1.12 dB
True Peak Right;-3.16 dB
Bit Depth Left;24 bit
Bit Depth Right;24 bit

My submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ILHZz ... sp=sharing


Thank you to Mister Fox for putting together another great monthly contest. Also, thank you to the song provider for brining a great song and challenge this month.

Started off with general session setup/maintenance. Importing tracks, coloring tracks, brining levels to a good nominal mix level to start.

I listened to the original mix and it sounded really good. I decided to first pan/level match the original mix as a ref track, so that it gave me a great starting place. I then decided I was going to focus on opening it up, making it more dynamic as well as creating movement in the instruments.

I tried to stay with a similar vibe and sound as the original mix, but I did deviate in the ways mentioned above as well as added a heavy double tap to the high hats and sticks to give a slightlyh different vibe and also toned up the snare and hit sticks to have a lot of snap and click to them.The very end chorus I blended differently than the original but I liked it so I stuck with it. Hopefully the songprovider likes it.

As far as my mix setup:
I focued on using channel strips> lots of parallel FX processing.
Channel strips used include:
  • Lindel 50,
    Lindel 69,
    BX SSL E,
    BX AMEK 200
    Waves Scheps Omnichannel.
Some channels also got Waves S-1 which is a stereo imager.

Vocal tracks were a mix between channel strips and Waves Silk Vocals which is an amazing vocal tool. Kind of a channel strip but geared for vocals.

Most of the mix and blends were done with FX sends.

I set up the following global FX sends that were used on many of the tracks in different levels and blends
  • FX Drum Comp: DBX 160
    FX Bass Comp: Sheps Omnichannel used for ducking/sidechane feature to duck the kick, Bass Rider,
    FX Piano Comp: PuigChild
    FX Guitar Comp: BX Console SSL E, Exchoboy
    FX Vocal Comp: BX console AMEX 200
    FX Global Distortion: Decaptiator
    FX Global Tube: Black Box
    FX Global Reverb: Morph Verb, Waves REQ 4, BPA GATE
    FX Global Saturation: Abbey Road Waves Saturation
On the Mixbus:
BX Glue, Basslane, BX enhancer,

And on the Main Ou
t
Waves L1 set to -.2 thresh, -1.4 output just to catch any peak overs.

Part of what I wanted to focus on was using a ton of automation.
Almost every instrument track I "rode the mouse" (I don't have a fader or control surface) but I wanted to give more movement and realism to the mix. I really see the need for getting a control surface fader in the near future as I think I would be able to encode the automation more musically and less technical.

Well I hope the song provider like what I did. I think it sounds good in my headphones and in a few other music devices around my house. Thank you and good luck to all. Hope my mix sounds ok.
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