MIX CHALLENGE - MC103 April 2025 - Submissions until 21-APR-2025 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

[gassianto]

Hello, this is my first time participating in a mix competition.
I'm using Studio One 5. I did most of the mix using AKG K612 Pro headphones with Sonarworks, and then checked the stereo width on my studio monitors.
I mainly used parallel compression throughout the mix.
I hope you like it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vW68Ff ... sp=sharing

[DIVESPANNER]

Hi, thanks to Mr Fox and Strange, the song provider for this month's challenge, it's very much appreciated.

Link to my submission for this month's challenge.

challenge.https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3rkjaru3 ... a8q8r&dl=0

Equipment: 2015 MacBook pro, DAW Studio one 7 pro, Headphones ATH40X, Correction Desonic Realphones.

This month, I've tried to produce a light, bright, bouncy version of the song. The main aim was to have something similar to the old movies, where people would just burst into song for no apparent reason

It was mostly mixed with the BX Lindell channel strip. I then had several buses for an FX, Hi Ins, Low Ins, and Vox.

My biggest challenges I found were the main vocal, which I did a bit of clip gain DeEssing and DeBreath manually, followed by plugins EQ and sidchain saturation. I also had a lot of (fun) trying to get the claps to sound the way I liked with a lot of trial and error and some extreme EQ and compression moves, I got to a sound I liked.

I am very grateful for any and all critiques, comments, questions, and thanks for listening.
I wish everybody good luck.

[MadMav]

Hello everyone,

My approach to this song was to keep the dynamic rang intact. I felt that soul of the song was in the rhythm and bounce of the track. I started with vocals, next the bass, then the drums. These three elements were important to me to have that rhythmic balance. Then I started bring all the other elements in, to fit into that pulse of the song.

I used the Audeze MM-500 headphones to mix this track.

Track Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l_8996 ... share_link

Thank you @Strange for the opportunity to mix this song.

[VividPhase]

Thanks to the song provider, this was a fun one to mix! I felt the song already had a carefree bouncy production and arrangement, so my intention in my mixing was to honor that and enhance it as I could in small areas with some panning automations, reverb swells, compression and saturation …more details under Spoiler section below.

Song: MC103__Strange__WegZuDir__VividPhase

► Show Spoiler

-Drum tracks: EQ, saturation, and compression on the shells, a little panning swing on the congas, a slower pan movement on the claps
-Drum Bus: A bit of EQ to clean the muddiness and then Distressor to glue the kit together

-Bass: Cut some low-end, and used a little mono>stereo widener

-Vocals: 1176 compression, Nectar de-essing, Aurora verbs

-Piano/Synth: Just a little EQ and some Aurora verb (I did use ozone imager to narrow the width on the bridge-synth a bit)

-Guitars: a little EQ

-Busses: I use the Fuser plugin to do a little frequency ducking of different busses when clashing occurs

-Master Bus: TDR filters, ATR-102 for saturation, Ozone doing a little more saturation > Dynamics compression > Safety limiter with Maximizer

*Monitoring is a mix of: Dirac corrected Kali IN8 and Amphion One 15 monitors, with either a sub or butt-kicker on the chair, Realphones corrected NDH 30 and DCA Noire headphones

[Ojo]

Hi, guys.

This is my mix. Please check it!
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jjg7g44a ... xfdqw&dl=0


The kick sound was hard for me because the kick's fundamental tone is good. But I want more attack sound. So I added a saturation.

Also, I always use Metric A/B from ADPTR AUDIO. If you don't have it, you should get it.

I use my go-to saturation in always situations.
So saturation has many types. Distortion, comp, EQ, Clipping, and more.
I choose on a case by case.


Thank you and enjoy!

[tobinth]

Hi everybody,
here's my mix. I mixed on AKG K702 with Sound ID Reference on and with 6-way In-Ears, no speakers in this case which I usually don't do that often.

I like to hear the song as a very personal message, so I wanted to keep that directness alive while still going for enough room & ambience which I think is needed for the arrangement to work. I tried to set a contrast in the bridge with the drum bus und vocal saturation which adds weight to the message - i'd be happy to adapt to the producers wishes. I started out with drums, bass, guitars and vocals came in late when I had the overall balance.
I took all the guitars as they are, but I added a second amp setting in the bridge, adding width. There's also PanMan doin' some rhythmic stuff. In the verses I tried to keep the guitarfills a little further away and not at the exact same level and brightness as the main guitar.
I added alterboy with the robot settings in a bus to glue the call/response thing between lead- and backingvocals together and automated it.
I'd say most of the drumsound is done on the bus with an Devil-Loc, Decapitator and Clearmountains Phase's. I had to add some weight to the snare underlining the strength of the message and dancey feeling. I took the drum room as it is, only high- and lowcutting it and adding additional reverbs.
For the driving rhythm in the chorus i tried to focus on drums, bass and Rhodes - everything else are add-ons in my ears and so i.e. the crunchy guitar is on the left side, not conflicting the hats and the warmer rhodes is more on the right side. I had to compress the vocals in several instances and edit it a little bit to make shure everything is understandable. Then I made a vocal bus with dynamic eq to get low mids and high end under controll.

If anybody has questions I'm glad to answer and looking forward to listen to the other mixes as well.

https://1drv.ms/u/c/9D268414961FA329/EZ ... w?e=8oYnvR

All the best,
t

[Piotr]

Hello everyone, I'm sending my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10OjCWM ... drive_link

When I listened to it for the first time, I thought it was a combination of Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas with the atmosphere of Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks. And this thought accompanied me while working.

A few details, from the perspective of the big picture:
- Bridge - I suggested stronger everything here - the snare is more massive and with a long tail, the vocals are diffused with delay and the compression of the whole thing works harder. In contrast to the original, there is more guitar in the front than synth. This is because the synth has a very strong rotary effect, but for me it was uncomfortable when listening on headphones, so I tamed it by setting it quieter and compressing it through the side chain to the drums.
- On the choruses, I emphasized the perfectly recorded conga, a little compression and reverb was enough and it thickens the rhythm nicely.
- At the end, I added some movement, changing the proportions of the instruments that appear smoothly over time.

A few words about the processing itself:
- On the vocals, kick and bass I used gradual compression, mainly based on the 1176 and LA2A, I also processed the snares dynamically, combining all into one track.
- FX bus to Plate and Lexicon 480 to which I sent elements as needed. Although a few instruments have additional reverb directly on the track.
- Mix bus to SSL BUS Comp and Tape simulation Ampex ATR-2

My monitoring is: Audeze MM-100 headphones and JBL LSR305 near-field monitors with Sonarworks correction, in an unadapted room. And small Bluetooth in-ear headphones

Thank you!