MIX CHALLENGE - MC100 October 2024 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[Peter Savad]

Hi all! New here. Enjoyed the challenge!

YouTube video reviewing my mix:

https://youtu.be/_sXyFyZFxLk

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cf4mf4dn ... re5qj&dl=0

wow this sound awesome in my headphones
Great mix

Thank you my friend! It was definitely a call back to when I worked with rock bands in the 90s out of my limited studio with 2 Adats. I wasn't very experienced, so it was cool to sort of go back and see what I could do with it now. Your mix sounds to me more like a band performing live, which is cool! I may have over polished things a bit but that's what I went for. Best of luck!

[Cadence Soundlabs]

Good Evening Everybody,

Here is my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zexk7o ... sp=sharing

For my mix, I decided to put the plugin alliance black box on every track and adjust accordingly. Most tracks had a SSL 4000 E channel strip placed on it. Some got a little compression, the guitars had a large EQ boost with a wide bell across all bands just to drive the sound (this is actually a Joe Carrell trick I recently learned). Some tracks, I went from the black box to an 1176 compressor. That's about it for individual tracks. I did add some delay to the guitar solo and a little bit of a slappy style delay and reverb on the vocals. I didn't want too much in regards to effects because that didn't seem like the style of this particular song.

All of the individual tracks were bussed to one of three busses (drums, instruments or vocals). Each of these had a black box and a buss compressor (except the vocals which didn't have a black box). The drum buss and instrument buss also bussed to the music buss which had a compressor which was sidechained to the vocals buss so the music would let up during vocals passages.

The master buss had (insert drum roll...) a black box and a compressor. I printed the file. Then I brought the file into Luna where I ran it through a tape emulation and the API summing mixer.

I used a lot of saturation across this mix to help shape the tone and control dynamics of this song. I thought it was kind of a fun route to take on this mix because it gives it kind of an aggressive and raw sound which is also the vibe that the song was putting off as well.

Thank you for the opportunity to work on this song. Have a great week!

[George Near]

Hello everyone!;)) I'm new to this forum!

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OcrsjP ... sp=sharing

1. First of all, I tried to build a balance of instruments.

2. Next, using eq and rx (from izotope), I tried to clean up the tracks, especially the overheads.

3. There were also problems with kick. He lacked power. Using eq and sturators, I tried to give it everything it needed.

4. After that, I began to mix reverb and delay, using send channels.

5. Also added automation so that there is track movement (mainly on overheads).

p.s. Song is great! Thank Jeroen Zuiderwijk

[Ike H-mope]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xtv55guh ... 9c96p&dl=0

First time submitting. Randomly found the site yesterday, and I was looking for some rock mixing to mix to keep my ears busy.

Fun song to listen to and mix.

Felt the late 60s / early 70s vibe and kept that as a model in my head.

I mixed fully in the box, but I treated it like an analog project where automation wasn't an option.

Other than some gates on the guitars to keep things clean, I only had a couple of fader moves. I relied on the dynamics of the parts and arrangement.

I mixed into two drum and two guitar buss compressors, and I mixed into the 2mix compressor. Hopefully that added a sense of dynamics from the ebb and flow of sounds.

Generally used FabFilter Saturn, Pro-Q, Pro-G and Pro-L, Overloud GEM compressors and EQP, Lindell 245, and the DMG TrackCompressor, and a couple of other plugins. Used Valhalla for a single "glue" reverb for the mix.

Fixed the kick sound with the SPL Transient Shaper, Waves R-Bass, and some EQ. Bass was a chain of 6 EQs and compressors, each doing a little bit to tighten it.

Tip - I learned that FabFilter's Saturn with its Phat Tape Compression preset and the eq adjusted can sound a lot like the Oxford Inflator on the right material.

[LCM!]

Hi Jeroen. It's great to mix a song from your band - by the way, you all look cool in the photo!
My bet is to get a garage-rock type sound, cavernous and hard.
Some points I consider worth mentioning:
Drums, bass and vocals have parallel compression. Drums only for kick, snare and toms.
Master. Saturation. There is more saturation or distortion on many other tracks.
Snare is reinforced with two sends. One with a boost at 182 Hz, the other with an autosampling of the original track. I used a transient controller on each of theme so that to tame the clicky feel.
Bass. Fuzz distortion and re-amping (Fender Deluxe: Marshall Stock 70), several instances of JS Transient Controller and slow attack compression to get a more consistent sound. Doubled (low-high) and blended.
Guitars. Not too much. Low cuts and further distortion.
Vocals. Slapback delay on verses. Slightly telephone-like sound.
Many thanks and good luck to everyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lo02eN ... sp=sharing

[cpsmusic]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my entry for Mix Challenge 100.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13qHF0U ... sp=sharing

Thanks to the song provider and a special thanks to the challenge organisers on their 100th challenge - amazing effort and thanks for your hard work keeping the challenge running.

For this mix, and after a bit of thought, I chose the Foo Fighters' Monkey Wrench as the primary reference track because the arrangement, instrumentation and general style seem pretty close to the song provided. I did actually think about using something earlier (i.e. 80s rock/punk) but upon listening to some potential references realised that anything earlier than the 90s lacks low end and sounds a bit "lightweight" in comparison.

As with my previous Mix Challenge notes I thought that rather than describe channel-by-channel the plug-ins I used (if anyone would like to know just ask), it would be more interesting to mention some general aspects of the mix that others might find useful.

Firstly, as I mentioned above, since the 90s (at least) rock has had more low end in comparison with earlier eras. The bass in the song provided seemed a bit lacking so to give it a bit more "beef" I treated it as follows. The bass is comprised of five channels. The first channel forms the foundation of the sound and uses the bx Gallien Kruger amp sim, an 1176 and RBass. The second channel is a sub and uses Waves Submarine. The third channel is what I call the "thickener" and uses a linear phase low pass filter to remove everything above the fundamental bass pitch and is followed by an 1176. The fourth channel adds high content for small speakers and uses a linear phase high pass filter, Claro, Burier and finally (yet another 1176). These four channels combine in various amounts to create the bass tone. Not much of the sub was used as this tended to clash with the kick. The fifth channel uses the "Andy Wallace Symphonic Trick" and basically adds chorus to the bass' upper frequencies. I used the bx ADA Flanger for this. This gives the bass a little bit of width and movement.

A useful tip that I picked up recently from a Brian Lucey video is that you need to be careful with the M/S mix balance and in particular don't have too much low end in the side signal. The main culprit for this that many people seem to forget about is wide panned toms (e..g. the floor tom) which can have a lot of low end. I implemented this using MSED and a linear phase EQ. Interestingly I found that this tends to focus the low end better so it's worth trying.

Mixbus was as follows:

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A - 1.0dB GR, Discrete section only
TB EQ 4 - some overall EQ correction
Mixhead - CB Mix Bus Fixer (sorry Serban!)
A1 StereoControl - 120% Width

Specs:

24-bit/44.1 kHz
-16.1 LUFS (int.)
-3.0 dBTP

Good luck to all contestants and once again thanks to everyone involved in the challenge, and happy 100th birthday Mix Challenge! May we have at least 100 more!

Cheers!

[Eastpark Sound]

Hello,

this is my mix:

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0f9i ... tparkSound


First of all thanks to the provider and Mr. Fox. It is a very fun and great learning platform. Your work is much appreciated.


My mix notes ( Try to stay to the most important things):

First of all the song is great and the performances very good. But, as the provider stated, the recordings have their challenges.
For me it was the kick and snare. Understanding the thought process behind the guitar arrangement was interesting, too.

Like the provider said in the information the song is all about energy and vibe. I tried to approach the mix with that in mind so
I made a very serious effort not to be too technical while mixing.

Drums:
- first I got a balance and treated the drummers performance as a whole by EQing and compressing the entire drum kit.
- second I created a fake ambience around the drums by sending some close mics too a room track.
- then I processed kick and snare with some EQ, distortion and gating.

Bass:
- Saturation with sans amp, lofi, Pro Q3 EQ and 1176 compression

Guitars:
- once I got a balance and panning system going I treated the guitars with just a little EQ and heavy compression to pull the most energy out them as possible.

Vocals:
- because there was already some processing and reverb on them (I don´t have RX or some other de-reverb) I treated them as given and
tried to warm them up with 3 different compressors (like 1176, La2a and La3a) and some midrange EQ.
- added some slapback and widening

Stereobus:
-Tape saturation (Studer and Heat)
- smiley face EQ
- Tube compression

That´s it. Really simple once I knew where I wanted to go with it.

[Protton]

What a nice song to mix. Really enjoyed it!

Cheers to the authors and MC people to let us play with this!

Drums:
In the mix bus I used Decaptator to give it a little saturation and enhance harmonics followed by SSl bus compressor 2 to improve the punch.
Added some more saturation with Virtual Tape Machine (Slate Digital) and tamed some anoying frequencies with Soothe.
At the end of the chain I used Ozone 11 Limiter in IRC 4 Transient Mode to hold the peaks and the overall punch.

Bass:
On bass I started with a Pro MB to control the low frequencies below 200hz followed by a UADx LA2A to give some distortion and character coupled with Double Tap glueing everything together. The chain ends with a PRO L2 and Trackspace sidechained to the kick.

Guitars:
The guitars were very processed with Amplified Instument Processor (Korneff) folowed by Pro MB expanding the mids and controlling lows and highs.
UAD Pultec gives it some character with some more distortion using Sie-Q (Sound Toys) and Soothe 2 grab some undesirable highs.
I dared to use the Trackspace sidechained to the snare once the song becomes busier in some parts.

Vox:
The Vox Bus starts with Decaptator followed with CLA Vocals and Gullfoss taming mid-lows.
The mais compressor used in each track voice was the amazing Unfairchild (Undertone Audio) to project them forward in the mix.

Mix Bus:
The mix started with a chain that I use Chandler Curve Bender EQ in Mid-Side mode cutting lows from the side and boosting 2,5k in the mids.
Drawmer 1973 multiband compressor was used to control the mix dynamics mainly in the lows.
Gullfoss brings the mids up a bit and The God Particle does its magic in the end at 125% of processing and coloration without limiting or the use of EQ.

FInal Mix Is attached bellow:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LyMld6 ... sp=sharing

Best,

[AskAndy]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al0k-deoMtpH6BkIU_T ... 1?e=Trod92
AHH Ilove this music. so i added some harmonics to various tracks, OH, room, a few guitars and bass. I use automation to , for instance, on the bass and drums to bring the harmonics up for the chorus sections. also hit the limiter on the kick a bit harder for the big sections and the punk rock ending. used soothe often ( maybe too often) I.E to de harsh the guitars and OH.

[Zep]

My participation; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKD9IR ... drive_link

For this piece, which I loved working on, I first attacked the drums and this snare drum for which I tried to refine another gate so that it was cleaner without the bounce behind it.
Then, as for all the drum elements, a SSl channel to clean and color then compress the room with a varimoon to give the drums even more depth then a plate for the snare all in a well saturated and measured parallel bus to thicken the whole.
For the bass, a cleaning at the bottom around 300Hz and a good dose of saturation/distortion in a parallel bus.
Positioning work in the stereo of the guitars, cleaning the low and low mids, special RGB for the GTR 03 and 05 to deepen the wall of 6 strings! A phaser on the solo to give it a little something different and a parallel comp for the entire guitar bus.
Not much for the vocals, a small eq with barely any compression and all in the main RGB which is an average room common to all the instrumentals to try to give the illusion of a common space.
For synths just one RGB to fill the sound space
And finally to finish a VCA comp to unite everything

Thank you again for sharing this piece, it’s really very generous!!