MIX CHALLENGE - MC103 April 2025 - Mix Round 2 until 12-MAY-2025 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

[TonyF!]

Hello,

I have a doubt, maybe I did not understand it well. If you can clarify it, I would appreciate it very much.

For the second round only the 15 mentioned participate?

Greetings

[Mister Fox]

Yes, that is correct, @TonyF!.

This is already more than other games go. If you didn't make it, please don't be discouraged. You all did a great job. Take this as a learning experience, and then try again with the next game.

[MartialFromentin]

Thanks @Strange to have chosen my mix for the round 2!
Just a question: what do you mean by « don't like the distorted vox » ?

[Strange]

Thanks @Strange to have chosen my mix for the round 2!
Just a question: what do you mean by « don't like the distorted vox » ?

Hi MartialFromentin,
the Voices in the chorus sounds distorted to me. I think it's the kind of compression and mostly too much deesser (compression in the high frequenz band). It don't sound like a "s" or "z" in German, more like a lispy spanish singer or a highband overdrive. It's mostly in the chorus, a little bit in the bridge and again in the outro. Try to hear the details in my MC-mix. Thank you for your interest.

Greetings
Peter

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
I am always very happy to be in round 2, so thanks to Strange and as I always repeat also thanks to Mister Fox for making the whole thing possible.

Here’s the link for my round 2 mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFW4H8 ... sp=sharing

General Notes
This one was quite unusual for me in that every time I tried to improve the mix I seemed to make it worse, it’s as if it was finely balanced the way it was. However I did make the changes that were asked: lose some sub bass and less hi-hat. I also thought that the vocals could come down a touch so I did that too. I found it quite hard to reference vs my round 1 mix as I had quite a few plugins active with oversampling on max. When I tried to do tweaks the computer couldn’t play it in oversampling, so I was comparing my old nicely oversampled mix with the un-oversampled tweaked version on which I can just hear aliasing. In the end I made the small tweaks I thought it needed and did an oversampled bounce and then compared that with the round 1 mix and I think this is a little better now thanks to the feedback. It is however extremely similar to the round 1 mix because as I said I failed to improve it on multiple attempts.

Mixbus Compression Note
I am using the API2500 and I put it in plugin doctor just to see what if any EQ it adds and there seems to be a big bump in the lows centred at about 8Hz, but extending up to 40Hz and still boosting the 30Hz area by 1dB ish which makes a whole lot of sense to me. I guess it’s fine if you mix into it, but when I line up and test different mixbus compressors with same attack/release/ratio etc you can hear how dramatically the API2500 boosts the low end vs the SSL and a Fabfilter C2 for example, which are both flat EQ-wise (excluding the effective EQ changes that may come due to the compression). What this means is, sadly if you mix into one of these and then want to swap in some different options at the end, you will get a nasty shock and ultimately if you want to swap out the API2500 you will need to re-mix it somewhat. Of course also in reverse, if you mix into an SSL and then want to try swapping in this API2500 at the end, you should be expecting the low end and especially the kick to thump a lot more and honestly I think although it’s only about 1dB at 30Hz I think the EQ of this unit is enough to ruin your mix if you just pretend it is a like for like swap.

Cheers all and good luck

[Miłosz]

Hi,

Here is my round 2 mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u8ne9tnd ... pjxpg&dl=0

Thank you, @Strange , for your feedback. @juhu’s opinion was helpful as well. I made all the suggested adjustments, and now listening to the song is even more enjoyable. Here’s what I did:


I cut some resonant frequencies in the low end of the bass guitar.
I boosted the midrange frequencies on the bass guitar to make it more audible.
I increased the volume of all the guitars and added a touch of high mids.
I automated the vocal levels in the bridge section and added more reverb in that part.
I made the tom fills stronger, using EQ and compression.
I exported the song with the correct sample rate. The dBFS is now definitely below -1 dB.

[MartialFromentin]

Thanks @Strange to have chosen my mix for the round 2!
Just a question: what do you mean by « don't like the distorted vox » ?

Hi MartialFromentin,
the Voices in the chorus sounds distorted to me. I think it's the kind of compression and mostly too much deesser (compression in the high frequenz band). It don't sound like a "s" or "z" in German, more like a lispy spanish singer or a highband overdrive. It's mostly in the chorus, a little bit in the bridge and again in the outro. Try to hear the details in my MC-mix. Thank you for your interest.

Greetings
Peter

Thanks @Strange, I see what you mean now!

Here is the link for the round 2 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MorRAi ... sp=sharing

- Drums: less dbx160 parallel comp (verses snare less snappy)
- Chorus snare & claps: EQ & balance adjusments (less fat), and thanks again to @juhu too because your feedback helped me
- A little bit of balance adjusments between e-piano, synth & funky crunch guitar
- Vox: de-essing adjustments (less spanish ) & parallel saturation (instead of 100% wet)
- High mids a little bit dynamically tamed (instruments bus)
- A little bit of vox & e-piano volume automations adjustments after the bridge
- Room reverb settings adjustments (smaller) & less send volume for the verses clean guitars

I hope this mix is better than the first one.

[Strange]

I found it quite hard to reference vs my round 1 mix as I had quite a few plugins active with oversampling on max. When I tried to do tweaks the computer couldn’t play it in oversampling, so I was comparing my old nicely oversampled mix with the un-oversampled tweaked version on which I can just hear aliasing. In the end I made the small tweaks I thought it needed and did an oversampled bounce and then compared that with the round 1 mix and I think this is a little better now thanks to the feedback. It is however extremely similar to the round 1 mix because as I said I failed to improve it on multiple attempts.

Hi scottfitz,
yes, I think "oversampling" is worth to experiment with, cause I often have the problem with the computer limits, too. I don't like aliasing, too, but how much oversampling do I need in which situation? I think it depends on the sounds, the volume and certainly on the amount of the effects I use. But I think I will do some test to get better decision-making criteria instead of rendering, hearing, rendering, hearing and so on... good input, thank you.

[Pentatonicdave]

Thank you for selecting me for round 2.
I didn't know samples are not allowed but rules are rules and it's my fault I didn't read them.

I'll do my best in second round!

[scottfitz]

I found it quite hard to reference vs my round 1 mix as I had quite a few plugins active with oversampling on max. When I tried to do tweaks the computer couldn’t play it in oversampling, so I was comparing my old nicely oversampled mix with the un-oversampled tweaked version on which I can just hear aliasing. In the end I made the small tweaks I thought it needed and did an oversampled bounce and then compared that with the round 1 mix and I think this is a little better now thanks to the feedback. It is however extremely similar to the round 1 mix because as I said I failed to improve it on multiple attempts.

Hi scottfitz,
yes, I think "oversampling" is worth to experiment with, cause I often have the problem with the computer limits, too. I don't like aliasing, too, but how much oversampling do I need in which situation? I think it depends on the sounds, the volume and certainly on the amount of the effects I use. But I think I will do some test to get better decision-making criteria instead of rendering, hearing, rendering, hearing and so on... good input, thank you.

Yes @Strange it will be specific to the project you are working on. I'm also in agreement that it is not workable to render/hear/render/hear, in the end I resorted to this as a final step with only one iteration. I will be experimenting with the oversampling in future. On this track I used 4x on every single instance and the computer definitely cannot handle that. However I think that it will very likely be fine to only use the 4x on saturation plugins and maybe go with 2x on most others and see if that works. Additionally I think anything on the Mixbus will need to be 4x oversampled and these will cause a lot of CPU impact. Compressors that are being used in parallel as a distorted channel for extra punch on the drums for example will probably need 4x, whereas compressors that are doing 1dB GR on a piano will probably need no oversampling. If you find out anything useful in your testing then let me know.
Cheers