MIX CHALLENGE - MC099 August 2024 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

However, how would you know I didn't put a 1 bar tape delay on the hihat and let it "ring out"?

This is where I trust in your honesty with documentation, and what the client has to say about the "addition".


I will post no more rule reminders.
There are still slightly more than 4 days left for mixing.

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Thank you Isa for providing this song. I am happy that there is another mix-challenge.

This is a very catchy melody and interesting arrangement. Here are some insights in my mix project.
I started with balancing the instruments just with volume to get a feel of what was needed and get a rough mix. After that I started with finetuning the drums.

There is some heavy compression on the snaretrack and on the parallelcompression drumtrack. But the faders are really low so not to overpower the drumsound. On the drumgroup there is a warm audio compressor giving it some bite and glue. Also an EQ with a low-mid scoop because I liked the sound of that. There is also a tapesimulator on the drumbuss.
The drums are sent to a short roomverb with lots of early reflections. This helped to make it sound more alive.

The bass has surprisingly little going on. Only a high pass filter and a boost at around 1KHz .

The Chuage shakers are panned hard left – hard right with a HPF at 2,7KHz

Guitar was duplicated and hard panned left / right with a 38 ms delay to give it some stereo width.
There is compression, a tapesimulator and a transient controller. It is going to a PCM90 room verb.

Marimba almost the same treatment as the guitar.

Guiro track: I realised too late that this track is not in my mix!. I accidentely had the volume down when rendering the mix. This was not on purpose. If I get the change to go to round 2, I'll make sure to fix that. The idea was to pan it to one side to keep it offcentre in the mix....

Piano: tapesimulator, 1073 style eq for some High boost. Also a plug in called ‘timemachine’ (Jeroen Breebaart).

Trumpet: saturation and subtle distortion before going to a Rob Papeverb (room).

Vocal: three types of compression, tapesimulator, tubesimulator, pitchcorrection, some subtle overdrive mixed in, going to a pitch / delay stereo effect and a roomverb. Also a 164ms delay.

Here is the link to my mix. I hope you like the direction
.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/y4l4mq0x ... y9z1e&dl=0

Cheers,
Jeroen

[PonySho]

It looks like my mix is disqualified. Thanks anyway. It was fun.

[PonySho]

Thank you Isa for providing this song. I am happy that there is another mix-challenge.

This is a very catchy melody and interesting arrangement. Here are some insights in my mix project....

I like your mix...nicely balanced. My fave so far.

[VividPhase]

This will be my first Mix Challenge, so hopefully I've dotted my I's and crossed my T's with the rules. Thanks to the song provider, this was a fun one to mix. Speaking generally, I tried to keep it clean and warm with some various volume/panning and vocal control automations to enhance the emotionality...more details under Spoiler section below.

Song: MC099__LosTimpanis__Falling__VividPhase.wav

► Show Spoiler

-Drum tracks: A little filter/volume automation at the start and end to blend better. Smart Comp2 and Stock EQ on the kick to shape a bit. SmartGate and SmartComp2 on the snare tracks. SmartComp2, Stock EQ and pan automation on portions of the HiHat track. Panning on the Guiro.
-Drum Bus: Boost plugin for compression/saturation/details with upward compression

-Bass: Stock compressor side chained to kick, BlackBox saturation/mild distortion

-Vocals: SmartComp2, SmartDeess, Softube Tape saturation, Autotune, Stageone mono spread, SmartReverb. I set the Autotune fairly controlled at the start and then automated opening up the parameters as the song went on to let it get more natural and emotional through to the end.

-Marimbas: SmartComp2, Neoverb, Stageone spread and width

-Trumpets: Stock Compressor, Stock EQ, some mild auto panning

-Piano: Softube Tape saturation, mild auto panning, Neoverb

-Guitar: Softube Tape saturation

-Misc track notes: All the main track elements have a SmartEQ on them -not for sound shaping as much as the Group placement function to add some depth (The Vocal and Piano in front, Guitar and Marimbas and Trumpets in middle, and Drums and Bass in back). The Piano and Guitar tracks also have Blackhole reverb only in the last phrase to add long tails to the fade out at end of song.

-Master Bus: TDR Infrasonic (for safety), Softube Tape for a bit of glue and crosstalk, Smartlimit (not pushing into it, just ensuring True Peak isn’t violated), and TDR Ultrasonic (for safety)

[elements]

Hi everyone,

I hope this post finds everyone well.

Here is my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uxogc877 ... kkb6z&dl=0


First of all a big thank you for Mix Challenge 99! We hope to see 100.

I must say I understand why Isaac might have spent a long time mixing this. Just when you think it kind of sounds balanced something would start to sound a bit weird. Anyway, I think I’ve found a balance with it in the end.

For this challenge I ended up going for a fairly simple mix direction. I didn’t alter anything tonally except to eq for balance. I went through the show notes a number of times and listened to the demo a couple of times as I was first working through the track. I hope I have respected the original intent. I know there was mention a few times about being happy with the sounds that were in the demo and I didn’t want to change any of that too much.

My main focus was really to get the vocals to sit in a way which worked with the music. I didn’t go and retune anything as I basically assumed that Isaac was happy with the take the way he gave it to us. I put a few things on the vocal and created a slightly different sound for the change bit to add some contrast.

I set up the vocal chain with a little bit of high and low filtering followed by a bit of tape saturation.
I then inserted a FabFilter C2 instance to basically work as a gate keeper to keep the peaks happy. I then used an instance of IK Multimedia’s MixBox with a british EQ, an LA2A variation and the phonograph saturation plugin as a chain of sorts. This just gave me some colour and a bit more level stabilisation. I followed this with a FabFilter EQ3 doing a little dynamic work in the midrange and just fine tuning the EQ balance. I then inserted an Eventide MangledVerb used in doubler mode to give a little more thickness. After that I added an Eventide Spring Reverb for a little depth and then a DDMF dimension D for subtle colour and width.
You’d think that would be it, wouldn’t you? Well, then for the sends I used a ToneBoosters Reverb with a large room reverb, a Pro R Reverb, a stereo delay in 1/4 note mode and an instance of FabFilter Timeless doing mid side duties.
I used an instance of FAC Chorus as an enhancer highlighter which I automated for some of the vocal lines especially in the Chorus section. In the chorus I also used an instance of Magneto (tape delay) to add the emphasis echos.
The change part was slightly simpler with a stereo delay, an instance of Yacuza (a crazy sequnce filtering thingy) and a bit of eq work using FabFilter Volcano.
It was funny, i was sitting there wondering what I was going to do with that part and in the YouTube feed I was watching Fun Boy Three’s version of Our Lips Are Sealed popped up and that gave me the inspiration for the delay effect. There is a section where he gets soloed out on the dancefloor and I thought to myself it could work for this song. Actually I thought that section was kind of reminiscent of something Fun Boy Three might have done.

I discovered the fun of using Timeless in mid side mode for the vocal, the Marimbas and the brass. I wanted to create space without using reverb on everything which left me room to put all the reverb on the vocals.
For the brass bit I wanted to keep them sharp while hearing them in a space.

Oh, the only other bit I wanted to mention was that for the end I decided to go with the finish it all on the note approach and used the reverb send on the bass as a kind of fade of sorts.

I hope this track translates OK.

Thank you for the opportunity and good luck to all.

[Mellow Browne]

Hi,

Thanks to the song provider and Mister Fox for this opportunity!

First thing I did was to fix the phase issues, several elements caused some problems.
Then I adjusted everything volume wise for a proper gain staging and a solid starting point.
After that I fixed tuning and timing issues of the singer and I decided not to use autotune, so I adjusted quite a few notes manually via Logic Flex Pitch.

Finally, I just mixed what I felt was right for the song by starting to chose delay and reverb fx for the different sections.
Once the sound stage is together it is easier for me to dial in compressor and eq settings and it becomes more obvious how the song breathes and what is needed or what is too much already.

I used Echoboy (not midi synced) as Delay FX for the Vocals, and RedVerb 2 as a small Vocal Hall. The Hook has an extra NI Raum reverb for a little more depth.
The last Pre Verse section has an extra Deelay.

I splitted the vocal take into different sections like MainVOX, Pre Verse, Bridge, HookMain etc.
All of them have the 1176 AE version on the channel, except for the Hook Main channel which has an extra Rev E version before the AE Version.
The Vox tele fx was made with Fix Flanger and Logic Phat FX.
The Pre Verse section has Efx REFRACT on the channel in harmonizer mode, but is barely noticeable. I just wanted a little more texture for this part.
The Hook Main section has Fix Doubler, the aforementioned compressors and T-De-Esser + TDR Nova to tame the sibilance @ 10 kHz.

Kick: Neve 1073>1176 LN Rev E>PSP E27
Snare Bus: 1176 LN Rev E
Hi Hat: 1176 LN Rev E>Studer A800>T-De-Esser>EQ
Drum Overhead: StandardClip>1176 LN Rev E
Drums Room: StandardClip>1176 LN Rev E>EQ
Drum Bus: SSL G Buss>TDR Nova (as dynamic EQ to tame the snare @ 190 Hz)

Shaker Bus: EQ
Guiro: TENSjr Spring Reverb

Bass was splitted in DI, Amp channel (Logic Amp Designer for that twangy guitar sound) and reverb channel (TAL Reverb) and sum stacked to a buss with A1StereoControl to adjust the stereo width a bit better, TDR Kotelnikov and a Linear Phase EQ to tame the 200 Hz region.

Acoustic Guitar: UAD Marshall Plexi Classic (for more bite)>1176 AE> Fix Phaser>Ozone 11 Equalizer (I only tamed the transient part @ 200 Hz)>Linear Phase EQ

Trumpets: API 2500>Linear Phase EQ

Piano: Tape MELLO-FI + Logic Phat FX (for the telephone fx)>Pancake 2>UAD Precision Reflection Engine>Linear Phase EQ

Marimba Bus: StandardClip>TDR Kotelnikov>EQ

I routed all instruments to a bus and used API 2500 to gel everything a bit better. I also routed all vocals to a bus but they didn’t need any further adjustments, so I just raised the fader by 0.5 dB.

Here is the link:

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

[Eastpark Sound]

Thanks for making all this possible, the organization and the song provider.

It is a great song, well produced and the tracks sound very good. I had fun mixing it.

This is the link to my mix: (NOW WORKING LINK!!!)

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/05d6 ... tparkSound

A few words documenting my mixing process on this song.

Since I do not mix pop style music very often, I wanted to take a different approach on this.
After balancing the tracks I worked backwards. First I spent a very long time tuning in the sound I was going for on the Stereo Bus.
I maxed out the plugin list in Pro Tools. I used 2 Saturation plugins, two compressors and two eq´s to get it to a certain point.

Then I treated the drum buss heavily with saturation, eq and compression.

Only then I worked on individual tracks starting with the vocal. The singing is great so I did not much on the individual track, just some high passing, LA2A Compression and some High end boost with a pultec.

For effects I used a delay into a hall reverb, mostly stock plugins on the choruses and some slap in the verses.

To give the instruments different spaces and dimension I used different reverbs for them. Spring, plate and chamber where used there.

This was basically it. I hope you like it.

Hendrik

[Swiv_In_Da_Mix]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum hopefully I uploaded my track lol not sure how this works, none the less this was mixed in Protools.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xaxcyi ... drive_link

phpBB [media]

Vocals
Light compression with SSl E channel by Waves and a little 8K boost and a little 250 HZ removal at 1DB but I feel I could take some more of that low mids out the voice.

Instrumental was sent to a subgroup and Widen a bit and a little hall reverb send.

Bass
Bass was spread a little with UAD studio D and Avid Flanger/Chorus and a little saturation from decapitator with some low end roll off.

Percussion
Nothing special, I routed a few to a sub-group and messed with the transient and automated some snare throws in the chorus section.

[Gunnar]

Hey everyone,

thanks @Isa for the multitracks.

Here is my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hyvf0q4t ... z6d1w&dl=0

...and this is how I got there:

DRUMS
Bus: Shadow Hills (Discrete)
EQ
Limiter
Parallel:1176
DevilLoc

Kick: Saturation
SSL 4000 E
Reverb

Snare: SSL 4000 E
Reverb

HiHat: EQ
Compression

OH: SSL 4000 E

Guiro: Compression
EQ
Saturation
Room Reverb
Ping Pong Delay into Reverb

BASS:
1176
SSL 4000 E
Sidechain Comp. (Kick)
dyn. EQ
Saturation
MB Compressor to tame the mids

DRUMS+BASS BUS
Tape Sim
MB Compression (low end)
Saturation

GUITAR
EQ
dyn. EQ
SSL 4000 E
Tape Sim
Slap Delay into Reverb

KEYS
EQ
Saturation
SSL 4000 E
Reverb

MARIMBA
Saturation
EQ
SSL 4000 E
Reverb

TRUMPETS
SSL 4000 E
Sidechain Compression (Vocals)
Reverb

VOCALS
Melodyne
EQ
LA2A
Saturation
SSL 4000 E
1176
Luftikus (free Maag EQ) for some Air
De-Esser
Limiter
De-Esser
Hi+Lo Pass at the Intro
Slap Delay into Reverb
Throw Delay into Reverb

MASTER-BUS:
Saturation
Buster (=SSL Bus Comp.)
Elysia Alpha Compressor
Coralbaxter (hi+lo shelf)
Limiter

Automation
Volume, EQ, Reverb, Delay, Compression

Cheers and good luck to everyone

Gunnar