MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Winners announced

[Christoph_K]

Thanks @Arnwyn for voting my mix into round two! These are the changes I did to my mix:

I dialed back the rimshot, made the guitar more audible, dialed back the deessers and trimmed the top end of the vocals with EQ. I also used the Vitalizer MK3 hardware on my mixbus a little bit. That was it, I hope you’ll like the results.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ju9yfpm7eguyj ... 2.wav?dl=0

[MFTWC]

Thank you for picking my mix for round 2.

Here's what I did:

Bass guitar got some more high-mids and 1 dB more low-end.

Acoustic guitar got some more low-mids.

Drums got low-passed a bit, reduced some clickiness on the kickdrum and stick, reduced some harshness on the cymbals then the kit got compressed to fit the mix better.

Got rid of the delay on the stick and the vocal during the lullaby section.

Hope you like the changes.


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

[filipandrei]

I'm delighted you guys also pick my mix

I've managed to:
- Add some more reverb to the drums
- Bring some clarity to the bass
- Guitars a bit audible ( I hope )
- Easing the Desser a bit for vocals

Thanks a lot

MC098__Arnwyn__Robot_Baby__filipandrei_R2

[MilkMonster]

Thanks for picking my mixes to round 2

Here's my Round 2 mix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hbbyci ... drive_link

-I use hardware de-esser and remove all the plugin de-esser
-put some more reverb and delay on vocals and drum
-pull the snare sidestick back, so that not interupting the vocal performance

Good luck everyone

[Arnwyn]

First, @Arnwyn Thank you for the opportunity to mix these tracks and for the huge effort that is done to listen to all the mixes.

Congratulations to all that make it into the next round.

@Arnwyn Interesting to read you comments in the post you were announcing the 15. It was one statement I disagree on though, "The piano was, and always is, recorded in stereo and so there is never any need to pan it.". To me, the use of the word "never" can be terrible wrong, "often" would be a better word. If you eg. have a guitar and a piano that have some sort of dialogue, I would move them opposite of each other if that suits the song. Since the piano is a stereo track, depending on how it's recorded, ordennary panning can reduce the quality of the sound of the instrument. I therefore use the term "move" and a technique to place it left or right so I preserve the quality and balance of the stereo sound.

So, I'm looking forward to your comments on all mixes. Very nice of you to do that. To me these competitions are about practising and learning and making each other better. The "winners" mostly have some experience and get a lot of feedback and critique during the competition. Giving feedback to those who didn't make it into the top 15 is all about giving those who maybe need it most a lift. After listening to most of the 15 going to the next round, I must also say that some are good ones, but there's also some that I do not understand why was chosen. Therefore it will be interesting to see how this evolve and reading the upcoming comments.

@cpsmusic and @kombainera I'll try to listen to your songs over the weekend to see if I have anything to comment on.

@BenjiRage Congratulations, now you got your opertunity to do it over again. Looking forward to listening. Keep up the good work.

Steinar

Hi,
Just to clarify, I was referring mainly to our own music. However, I would say that if I was going to be recording a piano (which is not the central instrument) along with a lot of other instruments all playing at the same time, I would probably record it in mono so it could be placed in a different setting without losing anything. Also, if I were mixing the piano on this particular track and thought it needed to be other than in the middle of the mix I would ask the writer/artist if it's ok to move it. In terms of dialogue with guitar or similar instrument, there are some mixes here that have achieved that without obviously moving the piano. Whilst it's true that you can rotate the stereo to compensate for having to pan it, with the right treatment of all the instruments it shouldn't be necessary for any panning. Of course I realise that this is all very subjective and so I'm coming from the angle of what I will be doing with my own mix of this track, given that it is essentially a singer/songwriter playing a piano and everything else is supporting that.

In terms of which tracks we picked, as I have already said, some people "got it" and some didn't. But, in all honesty, I think it is a little unfair and quite a challenge to ask someone to mix a track without the producer in the room with the engineer, whether that producer happens to be just a producer or the band themselves. It's a bit like giving someone a pair of scissors and a sewing machine and asking them to make you a suit whilst you're in another country, without first allowing them to measure you. This challenge is all about learning and it's a bit of fun but with a serious attempt at allowing novices to get experience in both mixing and reading various signs from the artist through their music and their description of the same.

After having listened to our own song over two hundred times with all sorts of different mixes, our ears had just about given up and so we approached our final choices based on whether we thought we could have worked in the same room with that particular engineer, given the feel and direction of the particular mix and whether it could be easily tweaked to end up with a mix we were happy with. I hope that helps to put it into some kind of perspective.

Dave.

[WrightAudio]

Hello Arnwyn and fellow mixers,

I'm really pleased my mix made it through to round 2. I was also happy to hear that my first mix had a 'great feel'. To me that's a great compliment and it means a lot! Feel is a massive one for me, probably above everything else. If an arrangement, performance or mix doesn't move you or create a physical or emotional reaction in some way, then it's not doing its job. Music is all about emotion, and feel to me.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback. I've taken it all on board and here's the revised version

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11qjx88 ... sp=sharing

All the best

Paul

[PauPeu]

Hi! Thanks for picking my mix.

I made some adjustments as suggested by the author:

Turned up the cymbals and added compression to tame them a little.
Turned up the acoustic guitar and added a bit of stereo expansion.
Turned down the stick.
EQ'd down the low end of the kick.
Caught some annoying frequencies on the vocals around 3k.
Compressed the piano a little more (there was more competition with the guitar).
Finally, I adjusted the high frequencies on the mix bus and added a little exciter. I also used leveler compression (with a long release) for more steadiness in the overall song. Additionally, I used a bit of multiband compression on the low end and super highs.


Here's the mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1IJtT ... sp=sharing

I hope you like it. Good luck!

[Michael_K]

Hello, and thank you for advancing me to round 2!

Changes:
I tried to soften the attack of the side stick so it doesn't stick out too much, while still being heard.
I removed the de-esser for the vocals and tried to handle it through eq and broadband compression.
I added some low-mids and widened the stereo placement a bit in the backing vocals.

Personally I am not a big fan of de-essers either and don't mind some "s" in the vocals. But these days I am guessing the heavily de-essed vocal sound is so prevalent in a lot of music that many people have gotten so used to it that they miss it when it is not there! After getting so many requests from clients for more de-essing I admit that sometimes I use it by default!

Here is the R2 mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Ok9Yu ... 37LIN/view

Thanks again and good luck to everyone!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your edit for Mix Round 2.


So far, we have 7 out of 15 entries, with a bit more than 22 hours left on the clock.

There will be no deadline extensions! Please get your edit submitted today. Please also pay attention to detail still.

[JanLefr]

Hi everyone,

first of all a huge THANK YOU to Rebecca and Dave for giving such detailed feedback and insight in your decision criteria!
Secondly I'm pleased to find myself in your round 2 selection :)

You were right about the lack of definition and separation in my mix. I also agree that the automations to bring some dynamics into the song sections were a bit obvious - it was helpful to listen again with somewhat fresh ears.

Corrections I did for round 2:
- reworked the guitar for better presence and audability
- replaced the de-esser on the main vocals for a more natural sound
- EQ adjustments on the bass to take away some nasality and boominess
- more reverb and panning adjustments for the drumset - sounds more natural now
- turned background vocals up
- reworked automations for a more subtle dynamic development of the song

I hope the changes have done the mix some good - as you said mixing remotely always is a bit of a blind aim :) looking forward to your evaluation.

Jan

Round 2 Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mh21z6ab ... 8ugwa&dl=0