MIX CHALLENGE - MC102 February 2025 - Winners announced

[fercobm]

Submitions sheet links dont work

[MemphisB]

Hey all! This is my first Mix Challenge, and I'm excited to be a part of this! Here is my submission: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16C2uZu ... sp=sharing

I mixed this on a pair of VSX Slate modeling headphones (in the NRG room if anyone else uses this software) and used Pro Tools as my DAW. I tried to keep this one simple, especially since everything had been recorded well and the tones were already there.

I used the Slate Virtual Mix Rack on most of the tracks that I did processing on. Generally, I do bus processing on the instrument groups but I did directly process the kick, snare, acoustic guitar, and lead vocals.

Drums - I was trying to get the drums and rhythm guitars to match the energy of the lyrics and convey the anguish that the singer is conveying. For the drum bus, I used Slate's FG-Grey compressor, as well as the Decapitator from SoundToys to give it an extra smack.

Bass - I loved the tone of the bass given and just wanted to cut a little bit out of the low end to make room for the kick.

Acoustic Guitar - Nothing more than some light EQ and compression.

Electric Guitars - I bussed the rhythm guitars and the FX guitars separately, with the rhythm guitars getting slightly more shaping. Again, just some compression and EQ.

Synths - These I actually left unprocessed and did more panning and leveling to get them to sit and blend in the mix.

Vocals - All of the background and harmony vocals got a variation on the Lead Vox processing, with slightly more compression. I also have them sending to a delay/reverb combo and have those send levels automated up in the choruses.

Master Bus - I have the mix running through a Slate FG-MU (Fairchild emulator) and have the Ozone 11 Exciter after to give slight tape saturation to the whole thing.

Overall, I had a great time mixing this song and I appreciate the band for letting us use it!

Great sounding Mix here on my phones , very clean
MB

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hi everyone and big thanks to everyone who submitted their version of "The person that you see". My goal is to give feedback to each and everyone that submitted a mix, and given the amount of submissions I hope to be done middle/end of next week. It was also very interesting and fun to read everyone's comments, thoughts and different approaches to the material, especially since it was recorded 20 years ago

I'll also try to keep my feedback as objective as possible, even though mixing is highly subjective!

Thanks Edling, that would be amazing with 114 mixes. I know what a work that can be. No rush, I know from experience that it could take more time then you think. Cheers, Jeroen

[Mister Fox]

Submitions sheet links dont work

Statistic Sheets are not available yet. Creating these is not an automated process.

These sheets will hopefully be available by the end of 26th February (this Wednesday).

[Paramnesia]

Anyone interested in trading feedback for feedback? Or even just tossing some advice my way still have a lot of learning to do and quite a few people here really know there stuff!

[BenjiRage]

Anyone interested in trading feedback for feedback? Or even just tossing some advice my way still have a lot of learning to do and quite a few people here really know there stuff!

Hey Paramnesia

I had a good listen to your mix this morning, I think you've done a pretty darn good job with it. You've certainly captured the emotion and the sorrow of the song and I love the creative effects you've used throughout. Here are some of the main points I noted:

• I really like the effects you've used on the noise track at the start but the guitars that come in over it are a bit dry in contrast
• The snare drum sounds a bit too smashed and slightly too dominating and the overheads are too quiet so I'm struggling to hear the cymbals
• Kick is nicely placed though and toms are lovely and punchy
• Love the vocal effect in the verses and how it adds to the energy increase in the chorus when they come back in at full tone, wide and beautiful
• The effect does make some of the verse lyrics a little harder to discern though
• Chorus guitars are great with lovely top end clarity, which many other mixes have missed
• Cool delay on the solo guitar, this works really well
• The acoustic guitar in the break is too loud and kinda ruins the intimate mood
• Bass guitar is really well placed throughout and fills the low end space nicely

To say you primarily mixed on headphones, it doesn't sound like it so I think you've done a stellar job with your mix in this regard!

Best regards,

Benji

[scottfitz]

Anyone interested in trading feedback for feedback? Or even just tossing some advice my way still have a lot of learning to do and quite a few people here really know there stuff!

I am always game for this as it helps massively for me to understand what's going wrong. I personally always end up viewing my mix as not bright enough, not 'modern sounding' enough. The main reason is I think I just don't like that sound. I try to force myself to like it more, each mix I do I try to edge it up a little more. However I am making tiny changes which I think are going somewhere at the time but that on reflection are leaving things largely as they were. There are only a few sounds which even contribute to the brightness. The vocals, which I'm routinely brightening quite a bit, an acoustic guitars which I will boost to crisp up that top end and then overheads which rarely seem like they can take very much before they are wrecking the mix. I'm always toying with these parameters and maybe a 1-2 dB boost on the mixbus if it still seems dark. In spite of my efforts I think it still doesn't get close to the goal. It's possible that I just have the bass too high and solely that element will guarantee the whole thing sounds dark. So I will try notching it down ever so slightly and then as soon as the mix sounds bright I'm unhappy because it definitely now sounds really weak and devoid of bass. I wonder if the darkness is caused by over compressing things and not making enough post EQ compensation for the way compression acts on the sounds? Again it's something I play around with but I inevitably dislike the artificial nature of how things sound when I apply this agenda of making things brighter. I think I dislike when you have a bright mix but strange dynamics. I prefer the dynamics of the sounds to be super together and natural sounding and unfortunately I am not sure that can be preserved with a super bright modern mix. Anyone else have this problem? Will listen to your mix shortly and give feedback

[scottfitz]

Anyone interested in trading feedback for feedback? Or even just tossing some advice my way still have a lot of learning to do and quite a few people here really know there stuff!

Hi Paramnesia,
I like your mix, I think this thinning out of the vocals on the verse can make them sound more fragile and adds interest to the overall balance. The dynamics on the verse are also decent by which I mean the song moves along in a reasonably natural way, the settings you've used on compressors are not fighting the natural flow of the groove.
On the chorus I can hear some problems in the very lowest frequencies, which I actually heard on a lot of mixes of this track. It's particularly on the tom hits, I am suspecting that they have not been sufficiently high pass filtered and there's a load of 20-30 Hz energy that suddenly rears it's head. Can you hear this on your monitoring? My guess is that in fact all of the low end has not been sufficiently high pass filtered? this results in a more muddy sound than you likely wanted? What I would try as a quick test is just put a 12dB/octave HPF on the start of the mixbus at 30Hz and see whether you find this to be an overall improvement? If you do like that better then remove it again, but surgically go through all of the lows for every track to address where you can make the HPFs better for the track.

I am guessing that the bass end is overall too high on the chorus also this could mean that you have put the bass up too high or more likely in my mind is that the bottom end of the noisy electric guitars coming in there are building up with the bass in that 'muddy' 200-300 Hz area. To remedy this I would suggest making some EQ cuts to the bass in that area, perhaps solo just the guitars and the bass to verify if there is some build up. Possibly also make more cuts to the bottom of the guitars?

Lastly make sure you do the sidechain compression on the bass to allow the bass to duck the kick nicely if you have not done that. If you have done that, how many dBs is it currently ducking?

Overall, I think you've done loads right and it's a decent take on the music and it should not take too much to solve these issues that I had with it.

I hope this is helpful and never ever take things personally in learning mixing, I'm basically telling you exactly what I think to try to help you the maximum amount.

Cheers

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

I am always game for this as it helps massively for me to understand what's going wrong. I personally always end up viewing my mix as not bright enough, not 'modern sounding' enough. The main reason is I think I just don't like that sound. I try to force myself to like it more, each mix I do I try to edge it up a little more. However I am making tiny changes which I think are going somewhere at the time but that on reflection are leaving things largely as they were. There are only a few sounds which even contribute to the brightness. The vocals, which I'm routinely brightening quite a bit, an acoustic guitars which I will boost to crisp up that top end and then overheads which rarely seem like they can take very much before they are wrecking the mix. I'm always toying with these parameters and maybe a 1-2 dB boost on the mixbus if it still seems dark. In spite of my efforts I think it still doesn't get close to the goal. It's possible that I just have the bass too high and solely that element will guarantee the whole thing sounds dark. So I will try notching it down ever so slightly and then as soon as the mix sounds bright I'm unhappy because it definitely now sounds really weak and devoid of bass. I wonder if the darkness is caused by over compressing things and not making enough post EQ compensation for the way compression acts on the sounds? Again it's something I play around with but I inevitably dislike the artificial nature of how things sound when I apply this agenda of making things brighter. I think I dislike when you have a bright mix but strange dynamics. I prefer the dynamics of the sounds to be super together and natural sounding and unfortunately I am not sure that can be preserved with a super bright modern mix. Anyone else have this problem? Will listen to your mix shortly and give feedback

Yes, i totally understand what you are saying. I don't like a lot of the mixes i hear on the radio...the vocal is to sharp sounding and the overall mix is too hyped in the upper freq range. it hurts my ears. I like a more natural sound overall.. But as a mixer we need to do our best to follow our clients wishes and those are sometimes to make it sound brighter then we personally like. For me, having the bass balance right is a big part of making things brighter. I like mixes with lots of bass....but without muddying the mix. That is a challenge. It doesn't mean you need to lower the overall volume down of the bass...just try to avoid the frequencies that makes the mix sound dull and lifeless. Aiming for a cut at around 200 - 300 Hz can help a lot of times. Personally I think the most important thing is to get a great balance....doesn't matter if it is bright or not. If the balance works, you can feel the energy of the song. Bright or not is then an artistic choice. If the balance is right to start with, you can alter that choice (bright or not) just by adding a little(don't overdo it!) extra high freq on the masterbus without destroying the balance of the mix.
Cheers,
Jeroen

[Pitta]

Just seen in some commentary, that on the third post, was a request from the song provider. Sorry that I overlooked those "hidden" messages. Didn't know if I should edit my submission post with these text or what but, here and now, maybe it will give more chance of discussion. Also, after reading some of your thoughts and listening to some of your mixes, puts my thoughts and choices in new perspectives.
I think I've fairly adressed the reasons behind my mix choices on mix submit post but, heres some more. I think I wanted a bit more of the anger too, not just the sadness, as I think, inspite the darkness of thoughts and choices, there's also a strong drive to the character.
I don't remember who's comment was, and wasn't as simple as I will put it, but was about dark or bright mixes, according and respectively, to sad or happy songs. Personally I don't feel that. In this song, I feel that much of the feel comes from the airyness in his voice (great performance by the way), that I've tried to enhance and then, everything around it has somehow to be taylored around it. For me, the interest and challenge was the contrast of softness and hardness that is contained in the arrangement in all sections. Meaning, I feel there's contrast not just between sections , but within each and in the character.

Also as requested: Mixed in the box, on Reaper DAW, RME Firaface 802 audio interface, mainly on headphones, Hifiman Sundara and 7hz inears, with some crossfeed, equalized targeting Harman curve, amped by Sabaj A20, with some help of my vertically stacked Auratones, with an Auratone amplifier. Also the help of home stereo as "car check", that conveniently is listened to, at the sofa that is less then half meter behind the mixing listening spot, as it all happens in my living room. I also have, and didn't even turned them on for my last 3 mixes, a pair of Genelec 8040, with two SWS subs, corrected with Sonarworks. Fairly treated living room.

Give my mix a listen if you please. I'll try to do the feedback for feedback thing. Maybe that's not the most pretty request but, not having much time, I'll sometimes in a bit, in a very random way, read a comment here, listen to a mix there, return to my doings and ending up not writting about nothing.

Cheers!