MIX CHALLENGE - MC102 February 2025 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[Ohbeejuan]

Hey everyone. Here's my mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17BXWpD ... sp=sharing

This song was interesting. I've entered things here before, and the consensus I got was that my mix sounded good through the walls. With that in mind, it suggests that whoever is doing the judging likes more compression that I used previously. So I tried something different on this song and used a lot more than I usually would.

I didn't really go nuts with this thing, I read something in the notes that they were looking for the "wall of sound" feel, so I used some basic tricks with stereo delays to widen things out, and a chorus on things like the bass or a ping pong delay on some of the vocals to give the song movement. I did some basic EQ on things, but honestly not much. The last thing I did was run it though a summing mixer which helped a ton with the overall clarity.

Overall the feel of the song is interesting. There's an interesting dynamic between the instrumentation and the delivery of the lyrics. The instruments provide a sense of overwhelming emotion, while the delivery of the vocals feels rather apathetic. Almost as if a person is calm on the surface, but underneath is rather turbulent. To keep this feeling intact, I used various things like stereo delays, ping pong delays and choruses the make the instruments dance, while leaving the vocals alone.

Anyways. Fun song. I enjoyed it.

[Mister Fox]

Just a short update.

Time is 23:38 London UK.

I'm sorry - you probably spent a lot of time on mixing and fine tuning things.

However, the deadline is based upon UTC+1/CET - German timezone. As mentioned in post #002. The Global Countdown is also tuned to that timezone (the server is in Germany).

I think i always sent files with that space in my username because it is actually how my username is written.
I still have the file i linked for the MC98 in my drive and the space between "Tony" and "Black" was there but i'm sure you didn't report it as wrong.

In all fairness... I will check previous Mix Challenges and think of a fair handling.

For the future, looks like I need to make clear that "white-spaces" should be prevented, as this could result in access issues (OS hiccups, server access, etc).

Can someone help me understand the proper way to submit my mix? Other than just posting it here, is there a specific process I should follow? I tried reaching out to the staff, but the contact option seems to be disabled. Any guidance would be appreciated—thanks!

First and foremost - patience, please. I can't be around 24/7. Neither via mail, not forum PC or Discord.

Not only that, it seems you tried to submit your mix at the very last minute. You signed up for an account at 0:02 UTC+1/CET, your entry was posted on 00:29 UTC+1/CET -- you understood how posting works. On 00:45 UTC+1/CET, you started to panic - claimed the staff (or the admin, rather) couldn't be reached. On 00:49 UTC+1/CET, you reached out via PM (which I answered on 01:51 UTC+1/CET -- again, can't be around 24/7). I did not get any message beforehand (contact form on the homepage, Discord, forum PM), I also checked spam folders. And even then, always consider certain turnaround times.

I cleaned up the thread a bit (removal of double posts).
Please, for the future... plan more time for possible questions, and submit your mix within the given time frame.





To those who didn't make it in time but still want their mixes to be heard:

Post your entry regardless, ask for possible feedback from the community. I will add all additional entries that are posted today still (Saturday) to the Statistic Sheet as well. Feedback from "the client" (our Song Provider) might not be guaranteed however.

[Nbwltn2]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvjNJ1U2OKsFh7t5qRG ... A?e=4sODAO

I always enjoy the opportunity to work on these challenges. Various genres and instruments; its always a learning experience.

This song is dark. I kept comparing it to Mr. Brightside. The beat/tempo is completely different, but I was looking for a more modern take on that vibe. I felt the moods of the song were similar. Despair, regret, loneliness, feeling of abandonment or isolation. I really worked to tame the highs and influence the lows and low mids, as I thought that conveyed the darker tone of the song, but not ignoring the highs. The synths and guitars kept pushing the eq up on the higher end, but I did what I thought best to tame that and push the darker tone through.

The lyrics are powerful. I always mix the music first and then work in the vocals. I think that was essential here, to set the tone (figuratively and literally) with the music and then blend the vocals to match the music. This sounds backwards, but I wanted to make sure that the lyrics didn't overpower the instruments, as the instruments convey as much of the feeling of the song as does the lyrics.

Another thing that I tried to work on was space. I tried to make sure that each element of the instruments and vocals had its place and didn't get lost Again, I felt the instruments did as much for the song as the vocals. But, I also wanted to fill the stereo field especially with the drums and the clean "Fender Strat" sounding guitar. Using delay and reverb to try to fill that space, as well as panning to spread everything out.

Now, my room is where I lack attention. My room is not treated. I'm a hobbyist and my "studio" is also my family room. So room treatment isn't in the cards, or ideal placement of speakers. I have the Presonus Eris 3.5 and Yamaha HS4 monitors. I use DT 990 headphones for mixing as well. I bounce around between all 3 to get a different perspective on the mix. I sometimes use Waves NX to help with the headphones. I particularly like the Nx Ocean Way plugin for mixing.

My DAW is Cubase. I used to be a Reaper guy, but Cubase is more musical. I like the platform, the workflow, and the stock plugins. I did use the SSL G channel strip to try to capture that early 2000s vibe (Mr. Brightside was 2013).

Thanks for doing this challenge and keeping this going for as long as you have!

[elements]

Am I tripping out or are the Left Right ambience mics opposite to what the OH left right mics are? I was just having a play again with the mix and I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention to them originally, but now I’m absolutely positive that the hi hat is on the opposite side of the stereo image when listening to the Ambient LR compared to the OH LR. Maybe that was already noted somewhere? Anyway, to me the drum mix suddenly became a lot more improved when I flipped the Ambient channels over. Should have looked at that more closely earlier on I guess.

Anyway, I know the date has been and gone, but I thought I’d do a rebalance of the track. Didn’t change any EQ or anything like that. Just added a bit more ambience to the drum kit and played with the vocal FX a little. I much prefer this mix I think.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tieqckrl ... 5p9jx&dl=0

[BenjiRage]

Am I tripping out or are the Left Right ambience mics opposite to what the OH left right mics are? I was just having a play again with the mix and I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention to them originally, but now I’m absolutely positive that the hi hat is on the opposite side of the stereo image when listening to the Ambient LR compared to the OH LR. Maybe that was already noted somewhere? Anyway, to me the drum mix suddenly became a lot more improved when I flipped the Ambient channels over. Should have looked at that more closely earlier on I guess.

Anyway, I know the date has been and gone, but I thought I’d do a rebalance of the track. Didn’t change any EQ or anything like that. Just added a bit more ambience to the drum kit and played with the vocal FX a little. I much prefer this mix I think.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tieqckrl ... 5p9jx&dl=0

Assuming they're panned the same to start with, I do think you're right that the hi-hats sound over the right in the ambient channels and slightly over to the left in the OHs. However, the snare is on the left side in both so reversing the panning of one like you've done in this rebalanced version I think has actually made the drum sound worse in that the snare, which to me is more of a key element, now seems off centre.

[White Punk OD]

Am I tripping out or are the Left Right ambience mics opposite to what the OH left right mics are?

You have to find YOUR concept for the song, often with trial and error.
Part of the game is that you can have an echo from the OTHER side of the room and work with it or dismiss it.
I found that the ambience mics come some milliseconds later (naturally and in the simulation), so they should not be very loud and bright or we have double hits all the time which is a special 80ies effect used in some underground/alternative songs.
But if there is an early reflection from the other side of the original drum or brass hit, it may contribute to the 3D image.

You can hear a lot of these thoughts in my mix, but you have to throw a 2-band brickwall limiter/clipper on it and crank the heck out of it, target like -7.2 LUFs. Then it will reveal what it is worth...
(The vocal is hanging out a bit because I was out of time to tune some "trackspacing" to hammer it into the instrumentals. So it becomes very old-school but I love it anyway. I should also do some fader rides with the string sounds.)

In general, many mixes sound a bit harsh and brittle, when the song is super sad and should sound very warm and soft. The guitars are crying, not shouting.
Technically, some great work here, and beautiful detail work, one would be Benji.

@elements, I looked into it, good instrumental work, sounds and balances are good, but you have a treble boost around 9k that doesn't quite support the mood of the song to me, and the vocal is a bit boomy, I did run into the same issues, either it becomes too thin, or too bassy, like "proximity" effect, but I think I'm succeeding in that I could get the vocals really loud without revealing technical or vocal issues - but practically this is a very perfect vocal recording of a great singer indeed. You might experiment with the type of hipassing. In many cases, Bessel is good for making the roll-off softer, or use elliptic to just cut as if never anything was there in that range. I used the Focusrite channel strip, it is very powerful to shape that type of vocal, and the TubeSaturatorVintage that has bass/mid/treble/fat setting, and it is free and one of the best algorithms, that could not even be meaningfully run on older computers, when they gave away that plugin.