MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Winners announced

[bluesation]

Here the fiel: https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/YNcnqCrMB

The most interesting part here are the vocals. To get a good balance of all the tracks was the job. I hope I got the job done well.

Most of the instrumentals tracks I use a strip of a pultec type EQ and a tube compressor. this worked well for this more unplugged kind of music.
As always i splitt the vocals in the lead one tracks and the backing tracks. they are treated differently. The lead goes through some paralel compressor. the tracks first have some EQ on it ans a bit of da digital comp to cut peaks. here I used a plate reverb and a slap delay.
The backings tracks only have some processing on the group bus, just panning. Some EQ to make them silky, and a tube compressor, dual mono. This time I sent the backings into the lead vox reverb to get a common room feel.

On master bus sits a dual mono tube compressor and a dyn EQ to catch some peaks int low and high end. Limiter is not needed here.
Hope you like it.

[BenjiRage]

Hi all

It was truly lovely to work on the mix this month, the vocals are just beautiful - natural and full of emotion, which made the task all the more enjoyable.

I found myself using far less of my plugins and "tricks" for this one that I would ordinarily do for a mix, primarily because I found the recordings were a very good base to start from and, with the exception of the kick, only needed minor tweaking in terms of EQ. The nature of the arrangement also didn't call for any sort of heavy compression or limiting, which would have killed the dynamics, so I found the majority of the mix time was put into tweaking levels and adding subtle bits of automation here and there.

I did use quite a lot of reverb as the recordings were very dry and close, which made for quite a sterile mix without it. Anyway, here's a brief overview of my main efforts:

• Vocals grouped into stereo pairs with the leads panned 10L/10R, BV1 100L/100R and BV2 50L/50R to get a good spread through the stereo field without the lead going too wide on its own.
• PSP Vintage Warmer was the only plugin used on the individual vocals channels, providing some compression and nothing more (no vocal EQ at this stage)
• Valhalla Vintage Verb and AIR Multi-Delay were used for effects, with soothe2 on the vocal master buss to control the harsh frequencies
• I also used an additional instance of Vintage Verb on the vox master that automates the mix control up from zero as the song draws to a close so the vocals seems to blur and fade into a digital ether
• For the drums, I used Graillon 2 pitch shift to pitch the right crash cymbal up and the kick / snare tracks down by a few semitones, which sounded more like a natural drum kit to me
• A generous high end boost was added to the side-stick, snare and tom tracks, with mild compression also
• Kick drum quite heavily EQ'ed to roll off the high end click and remove some of the low-mid boom
• I used two Valhalla Room reverb sends for the drums, a shorter one with a decay time of just under 1s, which is my traditional "humanising" effect to make it sound much more like it's been played live in a studio, and a second instance with a decay of around 4s used on the crashes, stick and toms to give them a longer tail
• A little bit of drum buss compression courtesy of Kramer PIE and a slight high end boost from an SSL 4000-E plugin
• The piano actually sounded really lovely in it's own right but was just missing some low frequencies, which I added with Waves MaxxBass
• The acoustic guitar is primarily the DI track, slightly compressed and EQ'ed with Vintage Warmer, duplicated with instances of BX Stereomaker and Valhalla Room used to make it sound stereo then panned slightly over to the left in the mix
• I used an Ampeg SVT3 plugin on the bass DI track focussing largely on the low end, and duplicated the higher bass notes on a second track with some compression to make these notes cut through where needed. I was tempted to use a chorus plugin on the bass to make it wider but the desire to have the mix translate well to radio (and therefore be very mono-compatible) meant I decided against this
• Finally there's a little bit of Kramer Tape saturation and API-2500 buss compression on the master channel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H-z8bh ... sp=sharing

Best regards,

Benji

[RobertWalter]

Here you can find my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13J4Oix ... drive_link

My goal was to enhance the robot-like uncanny sound.
The performances are outstanding evenly balanced, in my opinion.

I arranged sub-buses that send to VOC Bus (Lead and Backgrondvoc), Drum Bus and Instrument Bus. All three send to the Mix Bus.

I did use several compressors:
On the mix bus FAST compressor 1:2, and Limiter No6 a few db's.
On background vocals Softube FET.
On Drumbus TR5 Black 76.
On Kick, on Stick, on Crash, on InstrumentBus: FAST compressor.
On Piano RoughRider2.

I EQ'd Kick with FAST (kick preset mostly), TomBus with Spectre (around 200Hz and at the high end), Bass with TDR NOVA (high and low pass)

I used some soundprocessing/distortion:
Leadvoc: Devil-Loc Deluxe, Leadvoc2 Decapitator
BackgroundVocBus: Noveltech Vocal Enhancer to give them some character
FemaleBGVBus and MaleBGVBus both Phasemistress

Some saturation{
On TomBus Tubesaturator Vintage
On GTR Bus Tube Amp Voxengo
On GTR orig Ignite and Saturation Knob
On GTR cosm Ignite

And finally som reverb:
On Vocal Bus and Crash Bus REV PLATE-140

This time no automation.

[grvirus]

Software used: Reaper

Drums: used compression, saturation and eq with some reverberation

Bass: eq
Piano:eq
AC Guitar: eq and delay
Vocals and background vocals: used the xvox pro plugin

on the output track used eq tweaks and more compression, saturation, and reverberation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15VHAlo ... sp=sharing

[BenjiRage]

Software used: Reaper

Drums: used compression, saturation and eq with some reverberation

Bass: eq
Piano:eq
AC Guitar: eq and delay
Vocals and background vocals: used the xvox pro plugin

on the output track used eq tweaks and more compression, saturation, and reverberation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15VHAlo ... sp=sharing

Hey, welcome to the forum! I just wanted to say I LOVE the delay you've got on the acoustic guitar very well chosen, it really reinforces the rhythm of the song, nicely done!

[grvirus]

Software used: Reaper

Drums: used compression, saturation and eq with some reverberation

Bass: eq
Piano:eq
AC Guitar: eq and delay
Vocals and background vocals: used the xvox pro plugin

on the output track used eq tweaks and more compression, saturation, and reverberation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15VHAlo ... sp=sharing

Hey, welcome to the forum! I just wanted to say I LOVE the delay you've got on the acoustic guitar very well chosen, it really reinforces the rhythm of the song, nicely done!

Thank you sir

[Christoph_K]

A big thank you @Arnwyn for providing the tracks for this challenge!

I tried to get some more movement and dynamics out of the tracks with lots of automation. I also use the FabFilter Pro MB with Multiband expansion on the piano, which sounded a bit too static to me. The vocals had some really nasty sibilance which I tamed with the awesome Weiss Deesser.

I used my mixing template with some parallel processors: snare punch, UAD 1073 for parallel distortion on vocals (which is very cool sometimes), parallel compression and Dimension D on the bass, some widening for the acoustic guitars.

On the mixbus is the new Behringer 369-KT (yes, that one), followed by Navy2 from Acustica Audio basically doing nothing, Chandler Comp, UAD Pultec. UADStuder 800, SPL PQ and the Softube Widener.

The Rest:

DRUMS
All tracks have SSL4K. The snare got enhanced with Drumforge X-Cite, the toms got Waves Rbass and a clipper, followed be Kramer PIE by Waves. The overheads got the UADFatso und I added the UAD Sound City for Room simulation. I added a bus with the UAD Raw for some grit. All drumtracks then go through a API2500 comp.

BASS
RX11 De-hum first, then smart comp followed by Royal Compressor and UADVOG. I added a „fingers, frets and noise“ channel with a copy of the DI (which just emphasizes the very high frequencies and gives the bass some definition) - I know, on a fretless bass it seems pointless, it worked though. Both tracks are routed to 2 channels with Softube SSL9k, one for the neck tones and one for the body and low-end with UAD Avalon VT-737 and BlackBox HG.

ACOUSTIC GTR
I time aligned both tracks and put them left and right. Then EQ Sitral and BlackboxHG into the SSL9k. Abbey Road Plates as FX.

PIANO
FabFIlter MB for expansion, UAD LA-2A, BX Focusrite with different settings for left and right, SSL9k. Widening and a Plate as FX.

BVs
Weiss De-esser
All summed to Magic Death Eye Comp
SSL4k
URSA Spacestation for size
AKG BX20 Spring Reverb
Throw Delays: H-Delay into AKG BX20

LEADVOCALS
UAD1073 (+ parallel Distortion)
Pro Q3 to remove rumble
Weiss Deesser
Tube-Tech CL 1b mk II
SSL4k
For Slapback I used the UAD DMX15 followed by the H3000s Dual 910s patch.
Symphony and Bricasti Room for space.



https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3j1gmcgggozc ... K.wav?dl=0

[DIVESPANNER]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0d8xy9g ... gr3nj&dl=0

Hi
Thanks again for a wonderful song to mix I really enjoyed this one

After reading our song providers notes I decided to try to make this as sad and angry song as I could so I've veered away from the demo somewhat but I hope our provider enjoys my version at the very least.

I decided to have a go at some effects so I've made up a Roboverb comprising of Presonus Limiter, eq pro, Grove Delay, Binaural panner, PA-BX, Vertigo VSM, Vertigo VSC, Townhouse compressor,bxDyna eqv2, and Klanghelm TENS reverb which I have heavily automated with all sorts of combinations of sends volum pans delay decay times metal and wosh basically if it could be automated it was I've tried to have them well blended so as not to defer from the song and hope its one of those things that aren't noticed until its not there

I have just added Desonic RealPhones to my system which I'm trying to get used to with my new headphones and the sound difference is quite drastic to the amount of low-end I'm adding which is quite disconcerting
I would appreciate any comments about my mix good bad or indifferent all comments are gratefully received especially if I'm translating to speakers well It sounds ok to me on the real phones test but it is nice to have a bit of clarification
many thanks to all and good luck.

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hi there,

First of all thanks to Arnwyn for providing this song. And my compliments for the song. It is a beautiful song with powerfull lyrics and message.
The vocalsound is amazing. You can actualy feel the emotion behind the lyrics. It has this rare quality where it can lift the song to a professional level. That is why I think the vocal should have a very prominent role in the mix.

Another prominent role in the mix is for the bass in my opinion. The riff is an important part of the structure of the song and so much more that only the fundament.

The drums I had some doubts about if I wanted to let them be in the background or maybe drive the song a bit more compared to the demo mix. I went for a bit more drive. I hope you like my decision. I can always turn the volume down.

Vocal:
De-esser + volume automation where the esses occur. There is also a high shelf filter to cut some high end from the vocal. That was extra important because the serial compression I used did emphasise the high freq a bit. The vocal goes to a reverb form Rob Pape verb with some High and low cut. There is also an outboard eq to bring back some warmth.
The backing vocals go through a compressor (pretty aggresive btw), some subtle waveshapnig distortiong and eq to shape the sound and cut unnecessary frequencies. They also go tot he Rob Pape verb.

Bass:
The bass has got a cab simulator (fender bassman amp), compression, eq and a bassenhancer to give it more body.

Drums:
Only eq and compression. I used parallel compression (high ratio setting) to bring forward some of the transients.

Guitars:
I created a stereo effect with guitar 1 with a short delay. The cosm guitar also has got some delay for space.

Piano:
Only some eq and a stereowidth plug in that comes with reaper. I checked in mono if it was still ok btw.

Here is my mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/63017h6n ... 0oyc3&dl=0

Cheers,
Jeroen

[zed999]

I have just added Desonic RealPhones to my system which I'm trying to get used to with my new headphones and the sound difference is quite drastic to the amount of low-end I'm adding which is quite disconcerting
I would appreciate any comments about my mix good bad or indifferent all comments are gratefully received especially if I'm translating to speakers well It sounds ok to me on the real phones test but it is nice to have a bit of clarification
many thanks to all and good luck.

As a long time Realphones user I only mix on the top two presets - I use Reference monitoring - Normal most of the time and the headphone one to check I haven't gone too far with stereo width for headphone users.
late on in the process I use all the other presets to check. If I find something needs altering I go back to Reference Monitoring - Normal to make any changes. The one I ignore is the top car one, if you can get the low end sounding good in there it's because there isn't any!

What I hear in your mix is that you mixed at too loud volume and lost perspective. A problem with headphones is that you can hear too well. Because you might be for example be focussing on the piano or guitar or the reverb, you're mixing loud in headphones, you hear it fine while your brain helps you filter out everything else. Those might be specific hints for you. I can't hear either of those instruments in your mix though I'd guess if I played it loud in headphones I would.

Loud in headphones is also very very bad for your hearing - because it's so difficult to judge how loud it is and louder sounds better, it's easy to gradually turn it up. it's an easy trap to fall into. You don't have the physical response from speakers shaking the room to guide you. I hate to say this, but in my experience the better your headphones are the better they sound at lower levels. If you need it loud to hear things clearly enough either your headphones aren't so good or your mix needs more work or both.

Suggestion:
Try a low volume mix staying in Reference monitoring - Normal. When i say low volume, you could easily chat without raising your voice if it were speakers. Check things quickly as you go along with the Vocal, Clarity, Groove, Sibilant, Deep, Boxy presets for extra guidance but always make changes back in Ref - Normal - that's your mixing room. Secondary to that, Ref Monitoring - Ambient, If it doesn't sound jumbled you're going well but I would not try and mix on that preset - Those fars are Mostly for for impressing the clients. Mixing is mostly about balancing volumes.

When you're happy with your mix having proceeded as above, do the car/phone/TV/Club type checks for translation.

It's widely recommended that before you use Realphones or any monitoring system/room/headphones that you spend as much time as possible listening to mixes you already love on that system. With Realphones you can make adjustments so these mixes sound like you remember them if that makes sense. When they all sound great stick to those basic settings and lock them off, or make Snapshots of your versions of the presets. I have headphones I like a lot, I like the Realphones correction for them too so I never change any settings. Maybe I should but then I'd just have something different because there is no right. The key is stability, you need to mix in the same circumstances every time or you will go around in circles.

Hope that helps from one amateur to another.