MIX CHALLENGE - MC100 October 2024 - Mix Round 2 until 26-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

[kieran515s]

Here is my entry for the October mix challenge ,really enjoyed mixing this and it is a great song . https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0of6q57k ... hpbct&dl=0

[siniq]

Here is a brief summary of the moves made on this:

Bass - pretty much used it as is, with small eq move

Drums - gated the kick and enhanced low and high freq with SSL Drum Strip; used SSL sourcerer on the snare along with SLL strum strip using all elements of that plugin. Gated reverb on both the snare and kick in a parallel

Guitars - A lot of EQ moves, panning and placement of each part

Vocals - used clip gain work to bring out some of the lower vocals, used RX de-reverb to cleanup the tracks for use; used the SSL vocal strip on the vocal yo compress and EQ

Synth - Just a small eq move

Here is the wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jFZtKJ ... sp=sharing

[joesorren06]

Greetings everyone! Hope you all doing well. It is my first time joining this challenge and I am so excited.
First off all, I beg your pardon for my English if it get's messy because it is not my main language. Hope you all understand my point.

I would like to thank @Mister Fox and @JeroenZuiderwijk for making this possible.
For me, having to work with not so "dry" source is always a fun learning experience. The goal in mind is to compromise and keep moving on.

Here is my submission for MC100:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GTcWkf ... sp=sharing

Actually I only want to write some general information about my mix (cause who cares right? lol), but yeah I lost track of it. To save up all the clutter so to speak, I will write my approach in the spoiler section below:

► Show Spoiler

General Directions for Mixing:
"It is all about the energy not about the cleanest
polished mix. ... I not only want to hear,
but also feel the driving energy of the song."
My approach is all about the driving energy of a live performance. I am imagining myself listening in the crowd, banging my head and jumping all around while this song is played on a live gig. And after it ends, I get the chance to work with the recorded track and try to relive it. I hope that I managed to fulfill this direction.

Possible References:

1. Soundgarden "Rusty Cage" (song provider)
2. Alice in Chains "Them Bones" (staff)

This is my main reference as mentioned by the song provider and staff. I am always cross-referencing my work before and after I finished my session. I am taking notes on what each song's approach to a particular instrument and sound.
Therefore, I am making this decision:

1. Kick needs to cut through just enough, and not "annoyingly" having too much sub frequencies.
2. Guitars are the widest instrument on the mix, "comfortably" sitting on the sides.
3. Vocals having it's "harsh and raw" energy.

Mixing details:

• Drums:
  • Volume Balance
  1. Kick: I duplicated the signal for different treatment. Each is for Low and High frequency information (simulating Kick In and Kick Out track) to help it cut through the mix.
  • Kick Low: (Channel Strip) Preamp + High Cut Filter + Expander + EQ + Compressor + ReactivEQ + Saturator + Brickwall Limiter
  • Kick High: Compressor + Low Cut EQ + Saturation + Fresh Air
  2. Snare: I sent the signal to a bus for different treatment (simulating Snare Top and Snare Bottom track).
  • Snare Top: EQ shaping boosting the snare "body" freq, and cutting some "ring" freq.
  • Snare Bot: (Channel Strip) Preamp + Low cut and mid scoop Filter + Expander + Compressor + EQ + ReactivEQ + DeEsser + Saturation
  3. Room: Fair amount of Cut around Kick frequency to avoid any filtering, and small amount of cut around crashes frequency.
  4. Drum_Split: A bus for different treatment. Channel strip plugin.
  • Preamp + Mid scoop Filter + Compressor + EQ + Compressor + Saturator + Limiter (acting as clipper).
  5. Main Bus: Drum Strip + Clipper + Bus Compressor
  • Drum strip setting: Lo and Hi freq enhancer + small amount of transient shaper + parallel compression.
  • Around 1dB of clipping.
  • Bus Comp setting: slow attack / slow release, 2:1 ratio, with key filter engaged at around 800 Hz.
• Bass:
  1. Bass_Split: A bus for different treatment. Channel strip plugin.
  • Preamp + Low cut and mid scoop Filter + Compressor + EQ + Saturator + VCA Limiter.
  • This is to further emphasize the higher fundamentals of the bass and help it cut through the mix better.
  2. Main Bus: EQ (M/S) and Saturation.
  • Stereo Low Shelf to save up energy, and .5 dB boost of the Mid channel around the base freq.
  • Gentle saturation.
• Guitars:
  • Panning and Automation
  • Volume Balance
  1. Main Bus:
  • M/S EQ. Low cut + mid Scoop on the mid channel, and small amount of mid scoop and high boost on the side channel.
  • Preamp + Low cut and mid scoop Filter + Compressor + EQ + Saturator + VCA Limiter.
  • Bus Compressor with 1.5:1 ratio and 100 ms release.
  2. Solo:
  • Panning and Automation
  • 1/2 delay ping pong style
  • Reverb
• Synths:
  • M/S EQ. Low cut + high boost on the side channel, and mid scoop on the mid channel.
  • Fast attack/release compressor.
• Vocals:
  • Panning and Automation
  • Vocal Strip. EQ + Compressor + DeEsser
  • Inflator
  1. Vocal_Split: A bus for different treatment. Channel strip plugin.
  • Slap Delay.
  • Low cut and mid scoop Filter + Preamp + EQ + Compressor + DeEsser + Saturator.
• Effects:
  1. Instrument Short Reverb
  • Every instruments except drums.
  • Close source in a small room.
  • small amount of pre-delay and a very short tail.
  2. Instrument Long Reverb
  • Every instruments except drums.
  • Distant source in a hall/arena (typical music festival venue).
  • Fair amount of pre-delay and a very long tail.
  3. Instrument Delay
  • Every instruments except drums.
  • 1/8 triplet and 1/4 triplet Ping pong style delay.
  • High amount of Low and Hi Cut
  4. Vocal Delay
  • Distorted and highly saturated.
  • 1/2 Ping pong style delay.
  • Extreme amount of Low and Hi Cut so it will get "buried" in the mix
  5. Snare Plate
  • Snare and small amount of Kick.
  • Around 1 second of Tail.
  • Fair amount Hi Cut, with a mid scoop
  6. Drum Reverb
  • Drum Bus send to give drum some sort of "space" in the mix.
  • Around 1 second of Tail.
  • Fair amount of Low and Hi Cut, with a mid scoop (especially on the snare fundamentals freq)
  7. Automation

With that being said, I hope this will become an enjoyable result.

Thank you and cheers to this great community!

[Mister Fox]

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


So far, we have 37 entries (compared to 174 Mix Pack downloads -- 42x LZMA compressed ZIP, 132x regular ZIP).
Please continue to pay attention to detail (see bundled TL;DR Rules.txt and/or post #003)

[John Rowley]

Re Mix Challenge
Found this challenge recently so decided I would give it a try as never done one before!
My link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jchiE9 ... drive_link
For mix was SSL EV2 channel strips on kick snare rack floor bass synth. Pultec EQ with boost cut trick at 60hz into bx subfilter with slight boost above 60hx then SSl eve2 and dbx 160. Snare was debleed then ssl ev2. Oh and room were treated on the buss SSl ev2 and Uad tape oxide with convXT reverb and plate Tal reverb. Drum boss Uad tape oxide. Guitars only treated on the 4 busses rhythm clean crunch lead with ssl ev2 and uad tape oxide. They were panned 100%/70%/50% L R on the crunch clean with lead at 30% L R for wide spread. Bass buss dbx 160 and UAd Tape oxide, Synth buss UadTape Oxide. Vox 1/2 Panned 20% L R with Vox 3 mid. All Ozone 11 Eq into CLA76 Sibilance CLA3A with short reverb TR5 Space and long delay baby comeback 1/4 note wide. Vox bus SSL ev2 Sibilance Kramer HLS Uad TapeOxide. Snare short reverb Sunset sound, long reverb UAD Hitsville Reverb chambers. Bass end was rolled off on on most tracks to save headroom. A good tip is to normalise all tracks to -10db before starting to mix (gain staging and is 90% of the mix). Bring kick up to 0 and mix match from there with snare toms then bass vox. Always pan guitars out wide leave room for vocals, I see a lot of people getting lufs up to -10 ready for mastering as current streaming services seem to be -6. This was a challenge for me to pull everything back to just under -16 lufs. Used presets on SSl oxide CLA DBX then a slight tweak after. Look forward to the feedback! Mixed using Slate VSX headphones and Archon virtual Studio Midfield Room in it Cheers John Rowley

[PonySho]

Here is my entry for the October mix challenge ,really enjoyed mixing this and it is a great song . https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0of6q57k ... hpbct&dl=0

Hey Kieran515s...interesting snare treatment in your mix. Did you use sample replacement?

[jw_]

Happy 100th MC thanks to @JeroenZuiderwijk and @Mister Fox!

Here's my mix this time around: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19wNf3k ... drive_link

And some thoughts (I hope my brevity is forgiven, not that much time today):
Pretty straight ahead Rock Song, I was not trying to force things too much. Big guitars, make sure the chorus pops, that sort of thing. The biggest challenge for me were the drum sounds, the snare sample is a bit much for my taste and I felt the kit needed a bit more aggression in certain parts without losing too much articulation. This is certainly the kind of song where I would normally use my own samples mixed in for kick and snare for consistency, makes for an interesting challenge without them. I would have loved to have dry vocal tracks as well but I finally decided not to go down the de-verb route. This was the vocal sound you were going for after all, no point in me messing up things too much.

Stuff that I did:
Got rid of some clicks (bad edits?), mostly in Vox and Drums.

Vox:
EQ, Compression, Distortion of varying degrees, some Slap here and there. Filtering and additional fx on some parts (most notably the "Alrights" and in the bridge)

BV:
EQ and a tiny bit of spread with a chorus.

Drums:
Pretty basic stuff across the individual channels. A couple of different parallel compressors (with and without distortion), automated for different sections. Some dynamic EQ so the cymbals don't get too harsh. Some different reverbs for the whole kit and on individual elements.

Bass:
Sansamp, EQ, Compression, bunch of extra parallel compression/distortion

Guitars:
NeuralDsp Nolly on the DI, EQ and some distortion on some stuff, delays for width/size and to push things back a bit. Flanging/Phasing for the solo.

Synth:
EQ, bit of widening to get out of the way, some additional reverb

Mix Bus:
Just some clean compression on the direct band stuff, MakeBelieve Mixhead on the whole thing to tie things a bit more together. (Very) light limiting on Kick/Snare in the choruses.

[Miłosz]

Hi,

Here is link to download my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wjxl5frm ... cpzb7&dl=0

First sorry for my basic English.

I read the rules and suggestions from the Artist and forum moderator. I decided to stick to it.

I started with listening to the original mix and drums, mainly snare issue.
Then I used HPF and LPF on almost all tracks. I paned guitars. 100% L R on chorus. Verse 60%. I matched sound of guitars using EQ to make balanced stereo image. I automated volume of the guitars. I added separeted reverbs on rhythm guitars, vintage sound, narrow, slappy, short decay. It made guitars bigger and alive.

Next step was cranking up low end on the bass guitar to feel it. I added lows and low mids to make the bass notes audible. I used 1176 type compression to control the huge frequency boost. 4:1, slow attack, fast release up to 8 db gain reduction.
I used some dimenssion effects on Bass guitar, inspired by Andy Wallace. There is short vintage verb through the whole song on bass. ( HPF on reverb). There is stereo chorus on bass only on chorus part. The bass guitar is louder on chorus part.

Drums have two different sounds. Verse have snap on the snare. Chorus have roomy compressed snare. The room track is boosted on chorus. It has low midrange boost and 1176 commpresion fast attack, fast release.
I saturated overheads. I added long verb on overheads to make longer sustain. I tried to add some high frequencies but not extremly high.
Kick drum is eq boost 60 hz and attack huge boost. Its not loud in the mix.

I tried to make chorus sound big by lowering the volume of the drums and changing snare sound. I pitched down snare in the chorus just a little bit.
Normally I would use sample enhancement but I didn't!
i used a lot of compression on toms. Fast attack to make them bigger and less punchy. There is a long dark verb on toms and a very short verb to add high attack.

There is no limiter nor clipper on master bus.
There is ssl type compression 4:1 10ms attack, auto relese, 2db gain reduction.
Stereo enhancer both lows and highs
Saturation knob to taste
and some graphic eq cutting 300hz 400hz and 3 khz.

Hope you like it!

[Antoine BPA]

Hey everyone,

Here's my submission https://1drv.ms/u/s!AssfyDov1-wsiMdmo70 ... Q?e=GYFHYZ

The challenge for me was to tame the aggressive guitar tones (I ended turning the fizzy distorted ones way down) and getting a solid drum sound without samples (the snare in particular didn't have the body I wanted).

Hope you like it,
Antoine.

[yanukadeneth99]

Hi, I'm Yashura, and this is my first time here. Glad to be a part of the community

My Submission: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kpwOkY ... sp=sharing

My thoughts, and some breakdown:

► Show Spoiler

Track
Loved the track, and the vibe of old-school hard rock. The genre made me enter the competition!

Mix Bus
Punched in a SSL Bus Compressor before doing anything else. Attack slow and the release was relatively fast since I thought this track needed that punch.

Drums
- Drum Bus: Slight Compressor with Slow attack and fast release
- Kick: Basic EQ, slight compression
- Snare: Not gonna lie, a weird EQ - took out the aggression using multiple EQs, and then I tried a compressor, but ended up removing it because it added more punch than what was necessary.
- Rack Toms: Basic EQ and some compression.
- Floor Tom: Basic EQ and some compression.
- OH (Grouped into a Stereo pair): Basic EQ - boosted the highs, no compression.
- Room: Basic EQ, a bit of a squash compression but not too much.

I've also added in two more buses - Parallel compression, and distortion
The parallel compression compresses heavily the drums and then I add a bit of it into the overall mix.
The distortion channel takes in kick, snare, and toms, then distorts them. This is more of a color choice; although it's not something you hear well in the overall mix.

Bass
For the bass, I've amped it, EQ it, added Bass Rider to keep the volumes stable and serial compressed it using a 76 and 3A.

Guitars
Guitars were a bit of a trouble for me because I've run into an issue of how to group them. Usually, I'm used to a lot of double guitars L R pan, but it was somehow quite difficult to do that in this track, BUT, I've managed to find a combination that let me pan the guitars full L and full R.
I didn't process individual tracks but rather grouped them any way I could and then processed them. Almost all the guitars except the solo, have the same plugins with very similar treatments.
All of them have two EQs and a 76 compressor.

Something that I found interesting was, that I blended in the clean signal because I liked how the strum sounded, so I made sure to extremely High Pass the clean signal so that only the "chuck" sound got through, and compressed it.

Keys
Synth was just EQ and Compression. The synth felt like it was a fill, so I did not process it too much.

Vocals
The first thing I noticed was that Vocal 2 and 3 acted as main vocals while Vocal 1 was more like backing vocals, so I rearranged them, and processed them thinking so.
Apart from that, I've also added in two new buses of ADT (which delays dynamically to create a fake stereo), and a flanger, then blended those in with the main vocals.

Main Vocals
Auto Tune, Vocal Rider to balance the volume, Butch Vig Vocals saturation to bring that radio-ish voice, EQ, a small de-esser, rvox compression, and 2A. The serial compression brought out the reverbs alot, and to counter that, instead of reducing the processing I've actually made sure to kind of match that reverb for the other instruments (ex: Guitars, Snare, etc)

Backing Vocals
Similar treatment, however, I stereo-spread that to make it sound more open.

Automations
A few of the noticeable places I've automated were before the chorus, I've reduced the volume of all busses individually then increased them so that the chorus sounds more like a chorus instead of the verses and chorus being the same volume. Apart from those, it was some vocals, lead guitar, revert automation specially in the bridge (I loved that part).

Closing Thoughts
Reading the rules and going through the tracks, I noticed the tracks were processed, which was quite difficult to mix. If I were to mix this track officially, I would do two things:
- Request clean tracks (if they were present)
- 100% add drum samples

The samples were not added to this mix cause of the rules.

Good luck to all the participants, let's gooo