MIX CHALLENGE - MC103 April 2025 - Mix Round 3 in evaluation

[knob_Houdini]

Had a blast in this contest, even with such a busy month. Hope you all enjoyed mixing too! This time, I only tweaked a few things—well, actually, I redid most of the mix because my headphones weren’t calibrated right. Thanks to SoundRadix, I got them sorted and nailed the mix. Haven’t checked it on other systems yet, but it sounds good here. Hope you dig it!

please check the link here => [/highlight]Click here to Listen the MIX

[Mister Fox]

It's the 13th May 2025, 02:00 (UTC+2) - the 2nd Mix Round has officially ended.


STATISTICS

• Unfortunately, not everyone has sent in an edit (I count 12 out of 15), we therefore have 3 disqualifications (@Eastpark Sound, @Pentatonicdave and @Ronson79 didn't submit anything)
• We have 02 Wild Card uses to advance into the next round (03 were available this month)
• We have 01 participant that decided on not to advance through the use of a Wild Card (03 were available this month)
• We have 0 submissions after the deadline (and 01 bonus entry outside of the competition)
• We have 0 submissions that could not be downloaded by the time of this post and are therefore disqualified (re-checked 13-MAY-2025 2:00 UTC+2/CEST)

I will reach out to @Strange and forward all entries/statistics by sometime tomorrow (Wednesday, 14-MAY-2025). Please have an eye on this thread for more feedback and a possible Mix Round 3, or an announcement of the final results.



I'm now opening up the room (again) for Q&A's and giving each other feedback (which is highly encouraged)

Please check out all other games on the community. Most notably our Songwriting Competition - which is currently still in the submission and "work in progress" feedback period, with 12 days left on the clock.

Please also consider becoming a Song Provider. Our Song Pool is dry! We have no more content after May 2025! No more material means no more Mix(ing) Challenges. The genre is not important -- but it must be a finished production.


See you on the flipside.

[Strange]

Dear sound engineers of the second round,

thank you very much for your work. I have listened to each mix once so far and I can hear a clear “improvement” in all of them. This shows me once again: communication is everything. At first I thought I'd just listen to all the ideas without giving them much direction. However, I quickly realized that I wouldn't find the mix that I completely liked. In the second round, I only listen to mixes that I fundamentally like. Now it's more a question of small differences, small inaccuracies and ultimately my taste. I definitely want to take a close look at each individual work and try to justify my decision.
See you then
Greetings
Peter

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
I'll give feedback to the final 3 entries, not for any good reason, it's effectively selecting 3 at random.

@knob_Houdini
I find the delay on the verse vox a bit too crazy for my tastes, maybe just turn the feedback down. It's also a bit long lasting for the chorus, I find it hard to listen to other aspects of the music because I'm so distracted following all those delays That said, I think you have a very decent balance. On chorus 2 I think that electric guitar can come down a touch. On the middle section I think the vox is jumping out too much vs the volume of the track. I like what you've done and I think it could definitely work like this with some more tweaks.

@Mork
Solid work. Love the verse. Coming into the chorus, the lead vocal level seems to drop, it also sounds a bit too different to the vocal sound we have just been listening to. I'm not sure what is causing this, but I would guess that you've separated the verse vox to a separate track and processed it differently. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but check it is consistent. The middle section is fine. I think your last chorus is cool, it's the hardest section to do well and I think yours works.

@JeroenZuiderwijk
Sounds cool to me! I like your use of saturation. On the chorus, it's interesting how it becomes more airy a texture with a prominent synth. I like the way it is, but just careful that it doesn't sound like a step down when it hits the chorus. Middle section works well. Last section also fine.

Cheers all

[Strange]

Wow,
Round 2 was a clear sound win. I can only congratulate and thank everyone. The song really gained from your editing.
Since I'm the “client” this month, I have to be honest with myself and with you: I would ask every mix I receive here for improvements. These are not fundamental mixing decisions, but rather specific "small" adjustments that would be important to me.

MisterFox has suggested the possibility of a third round. And I think this is the best way to improve these final details in the mix. Seven mixes will be invited to round 3 and I am sure that each of these mixes can exceed my expectations.

I will ask these seven mixes for further adjustments in this round 3
(and please read the third line, too, you're really on the right track) :

► Show Spoiler

@VividPhase
- sounds cleaner, but a bit too hollow, maybe too much EQ?
- too much low end, especially in the 100-150Hz range
- BGV a bit too quiet compared to LV

@GeorgeCorg
- too much low end
- the mids sound a bit too hollow/empty
- 3.5 kHz range was reduced a little too much and too tightly

@JeroenZuiderwijk
- too much bass, approx. 180 Hz around 3 dB
- sub bass too much
- HH still a bit too harsh in the 4-5 kHz range
- Toms too quiet, too insignificant
@Drannob
- cut off at the beginning,
- LV 1dB too loud
- still a bit much HH and emphasis in the 4kHz range, approx. 1.5 dB
- funky Gtr too loud
- outro- gtr right and left a bit too loud
- Toms too undefined and a bit too quiet (especially from 2:27)

@scottfitz
- HH still a bit too harsh in the 4.5 kHz range
- Toms too quiet and undefined

@Mork
- why is the piano 2 so quiet?
- too much bass in the 80 Hz range
- LV too quiet compared to BGV, or BGV (“zu Dir”) too loud.
- auto pan funky Gtr is great
- Toms are very good, maybe LoTom a bit clearer

@titantraxx
- what happened to the input risers?
- overall very balanced and tidy
- Bass resonances at 45 and 150 Hz (narrow band about -5 to -7 dB )
- Low mids at 260 Hz should be a little less
- LV should be 1-2 dB quieter
- more air, around 3 dB from 5-7 kHz and above

@Mister Fox will tell you more about the round 3. It's not the usual way, but he approves this proceed.
I hope you will agree, too, and you're "happy" to present me your best mix for my unimportend taste. Thank you!


This is bonus information, if you want to continue editing I would like to ask for these customization requests for the other mixes in the second round:

► Show Spoiler

@Miłosz
- LowEnd too loud, pushes too hard into the bus compressor
- Bridge BGV too loud and muddy/boxy
- Outro Gtr right and left too loud
- the overall mix lacks clarity, becomes increasingly indistinct at the end

@LowlandsWave
- far too much low-mid around 200Hz
- about too much 3.5 kHz removed
- Toms too unclear/quiet

@MartialFromentin
- too much low end,
- a bit too much low-mids
- a bit empty, the mids of the various instruments/vocals could be worked out better (see 2kHz range).

@Mellow Browne
- almost 10dB too much low end below 100 Hz
- therefore everything is a bit uninhibited

@MadMav
- LV a bit quiet
- Resonances in the bass range (60 and 150 Hz range)
- overall a bit dull and midrange-heavy

Other participants who asked for feedback:

@Crazy Loco, this is definitely also a good mix, would also have fitted into the 2nd round. I noticed the following things:
- LV too loud
- Gtr too muffled, too quiet, not spatially integrated
- a little too much low end
- the end seems too contrived
- Mids a bit too weak, hollow
Thanks for the discussion about my song

@knob_Houdini, thank you for taking the trouble to adapt your mix outside of the competition. I like the result much better. I noticed the following things:
- Drums very hollow, without mids
- Vocals without treble, somewhat nasal/ mid-range and too loud (2dB or more)
- too much sub and bass

Greetings
Peter

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, @Strange.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us kick off Mix Round 3, which will end on Friday, 23-MAY-2024 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

As of this moment, that is 03 days (plus the hours since @Strange's update). All Mix Round 3 participants will be sent a reminder via mail shortly. This is the final round, there will be no more Mix Rounds after that.


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN available to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



The following 7 participants go into Round 3 (alphabetical order), no "wild-cards" pointed out.
(all Mix Round 3 participants should have been pinged, all participants will also get a reminder via the new newsletter engine)

@Drannob
@GeorgeCorg
@JeroenZuiderwijk
@Mork
@scottfitz
@titantraxx
@VividPhase



.

!	Bonus Info
	Please read more about the "Wild Card" game mechanic here Mix Challenge - Addendum: Statistic Sheet and Wild Card Mechanic Info: Wild Cards can not be used for Mix Round 3 Please use the following filename template: MC103__Strange__WegZuDir__ForumUsername_R3.wav

The feedback to the productions can be found here:
Please see post #165 for individual feedback.



If you are unsure what to do exactly with your mix, reach out to the song provider and engage in a conversation here on the forum.
And please keep the Rules and Guidelines (post #6) in mind regarding submitting your entry. Please do pay attention to detail.

[Mellow Browne]

Hi Peter,

thanks for the time and the effort. I really appreciate it.

Good luck to all for round 3.

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
Round 3!!! Thanks again to @Strange for all your work assessing these mixes and of course to Mister Fox.

Here's the link to my round 3 mix.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nNF51S ... sp=sharing

Listening back there's a few things I would have liked to improve but unfortunately I only had a few hours free in this time frame and that was today. So I have addressed the feedback and also picked up a phrase near the end that needed de-essing.

- I dipped the EQ for the hi hat and overheads by about 1.5dB around 4.5kHz area
- the toms I found had no processing whatsoever previously, so these were given EQ, spiff, transient master, compression and Decapitator. I had resolved to not use Decapitator any more as it has no oversampling, but nevertheless, I tried it here.
- used Weiss de-esser to treat the vocals near the end.
- made a 0.1dB adjustment to the mixbus EQ curve, taking down the small boost I had at 2.8kHz

Cheers all and good luck

[MadMav]

Thank you Strange for the feedback. Good luck to the mixers moving on to round 3.

[Strange]

Hi Peter,

thanks for the time and the effort. I really appreciate it.

Good luck to all for round 3.

Yeah, you did and you know how much time you spent. But it really enhances your hearing. I would recommend it to every Mixer!!!!