MIX CHALLENGE - MC104 June 2025 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[Mellow Browne]

Salut @Drannob,

merci 1000x for taking the time and giving me some feedback, I really appreciate it.

You're right about my mix, it is more on dry side of things because to me personally the song is produced too modern and a 80's vibe was absolutely not the sound I was looking for. To my ears, this is a pop song of the current era with a little retro touch. The song provider said he is curious about other interpretations, so I went for a modern pop sound. Imo a modern sound fits way better to the song, but of course, this is a matter of taste I guess.

And yes, with hip hop/R&B as my background I tend to mix the drums very dry most of the time. I'm not a fan of reverb tails on snares. I prefer the reverberation of a dedicated room mic instead because it sounds more natural to me.

It is interesting to see how different everybody interprets the song.

[Edling]

Great work to everyone attending this challenge. Here is some feedback on five randomly selected entries, I tried to make sure I didn't pick anything that had gotten feedback by anyone else Good luck everybody!!!

@cpsmusic

It was a really nice touch on the intro with the pluck delay fading in and the lead synth is really crisp and adds to the 80’s sound. The main snare reverb, which sounds like longer gated one, while giving an 80’s vibe, still gives me more of a Phil Colins feel as opposed to a synth wave feel though. The pluck drowns a bit behind the rest of the tracks as it’s either low, or has a darker eq on it. I like the idea of using the reverb/delay on the vocals as a tool to build movement between the verses and choruses, but personally I would’ve wanted the verses a little bit wetter to better align with the overall sound.

@floodo

Really tight kick sound and again a big gated reverb on the snare. I like that you’re punching in the vocal delay on the last phrase before chorus which adds excitement and anticipation for the chorus, however I would’ve liked a bigger dynamic lift when the chorus starts as it currently feels a bit even to the verse. Nice delay punch-ins on the second verse as well, but maybe adding some more overall vocal reverb would’ve added some more 80’s feel to it. The lead piano on the bridge is drowning a bit, but the raw sound is rather dark and needs a bit of EQ-ing to pop out.

@hjchjc

Solid overall balances and panning of all of the tracks, however none of the synths really pop out of the mix and they somewhat all blend together a bit. This could probably be improved with EQ:ing them a bit more, allowing them to each fill their own space in the sound. The lead piano on the bridge is beautifully processed with nice reverb and chorus (at least I think so) which really makes it cut through the rest of the tracks!

@LCM!

Solid drums sound, maybe the extra snares used for accents are a bit loud, but that might also be a matter of taste. Great vocal sound with that nice big 80’s reverb. It sounds that there’s quite a lot of compressions on the chorus synths which removes the initial ”swell” of the synth panned to the right in your mix. While making it more even, it removes some of that accentuated punch on the beats that I think was a nice touch from the original sound.

@Quince

Nice drum sound, but it sounds like there’s some kind of 16 or 32 note delay happening which somewhat interferes with the delay from the main pluck, also the toms feel very small and crushed. The vocals are very loud an up front in the mix, I assume this is intentional, but perhaps a couple of db’s less on the main Vox would’ve made it sit better in the mix. Nice creative use on punching in delays for different phrases during the song which adds excitement. Nice processing on the lead piano during the break and also a very cool touch to bring everything down with filters and reverbs during the break-down before the last chorus!

[Drannob]

Salut @Drannob,

merci 1000x for taking the time and giving me some feedback, I really appreciate it.

You're right about my mix, it is more on dry side of things because to me personally the song is produced too modern and a 80's vibe was absolutely not the sound I was looking for. To my ears, this is a pop song of the current era with a little retro touch. The song provider said he is curious about other interpretations, so I went for a modern pop sound. Imo a modern sound fits way better to the song, but of course, this is a matter of taste I guess.

And yes, with hip hop/R&B as my background I tend to mix the drums very dry most of the time. I'm not a fan of reverb tails on snares. I prefer the reverberation of a dedicated room mic instead because it sounds more natural to me.

It is interesting to see how different everybody interprets the song.

You're welcome and you're right, it's all a matter of tastes. For my part, I took Benji's mix for reference so I really left on the 80s side, a lot of Reverb. I also mix a lot of hip-hop and that's even what I do the most but I am still addicted to the reverbs lol. Besides, whatever the style, I tend to put a little too much and I often have to go back to the V2.
On this song, I had fun making a mixture of Reverb and Delays to give a slightly vaporous sauce but it may be a little too much, I will see what Benji thinks.

[Vanderdude]

Here's my 10 randomly selected feedback. Please remember that I'm trying to help if I can and also practising my own listening skills.

@Vanderdude
delayed synth sounds quite scratchy. It’s very interesting at first, I wouldn’t say I disliked the idea. However as the song progressed, I grew a little tired of the attack of those higher frequencies at me all the time. I would probably soften the attack and bring it down in the mix a little, try to get it to a point where the vocal is less intruded on. By the chorus, I’m starting to feel a bit fatigued by the high frequencies with little low end to balance it. I would be careful of your monitoring if this mix is sounding full to you, perhaps the Beyer DT770s are a bit too pronounced in the bass region?


Hi @scottfitz ,

Thank you kindly for this reply. I've been indeed trying to pique interest whilst searching for a comfortable listening experience so I may overdone it a bit for too long. Your feedback will definitely help me in rebalancing those frequencies again. When I'm checking in more detail, it happens that in my total mix there's a lot going on between 2-4kHZ so I should hone in on that and also try to get a listen on monitors in combination with a subwoofer to more carefully check for the lows.

Cheers,
Koen

[Vanderdude]

Thanks to @BenjiRage for submitting this amazing track, I’ve loved working on it, it’s such a great track. I’ve not spent enough time listening to this genre, I think I’m now a big fan! Thanks as usual to Mister Fox for all your hard work.

Here’s the link to my mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oFAVo1 ... sp=sharing

For this track I began working on the AKG 371 headphones, but then switched to the Audeze LCD-X as really I should be using the good ones and not the bad ones and I was really struggling on the AKG with judging the massive reverbs etc. With the Audeze cans I am using Reveal and spent the most time in the old Warren Huart studio which seemed to be a good fit to work on this track.

I thought @BenjiRage did a really nice mix so I used that extensively as a reference. My approach was generally to add effects to nearly everything and then try to balance it. I am concerned that my track sounds too Pop genre by the end, but I liked it and have run out of time sadly. My favourite part was trying to make the piano solo epic

Specific mix note on the Synth Bus
plugin chain:
—————————————
EQ hpf 50Hz

COMP DIODE-609
doing 1-2 dB
25ms attack
400ms recovery
ratio 2:1
dual mono

FabFilter C2
used to duck the synths sidechained to the kick

Studer A800 for some light saturation, GP9, 30 IPS
——————————————

WIth so many synths and such heavy effects, the settings on this synth bus were important and also on the FX bus which I used in the way the Brauer approach advocates.

Cheers all and have fun with this one!

Hi @scottfitz

Just checked out your mix as well. I really like the brightness and clarity throughout the whole song, you can hear each of the instruments.
When the chorus hits I do miss a bit of punch, it sounds a bit too smooth for me, so many that is the 'pop-feeling' you feel as well? I think the kick should have a little more attack here or a small EQ boost between frequency 750-1000 to just pop out? But definitely just my taste. The piano solo is interesting! Which techniques or FX did you use? Is it a modulator and/or delays on there?
I do like the general vibe and I think in all it's really well balanced.
Good luck!

Cheers
Koen

[scottfitz]

Thanks Koen, I think you are right about the chorus, similarly to what sthauge said, the flooding of the sound with the pad sucks a lot of life out of everything and it's probably something that hasn't been executed that well. Maybe I can solve it partially by as you say boosting some of the kick midrange? I will definitely be experimenting

On the piano, the main thing I wanted to mention is that I changed the volume of every note to try to phrase it how I would if I played it on the piano. Notice for instance that halfway through when the notes climb up, I put a crescendo there, so each note is louder than the last towards that held note which is the loudest. In terms of FX I can't remember 100% but I think I used a reverb on the Valahalla Delay unit which was called Mylar Bloom. I'm a bit in love with these kinds of reverb that 'bloom" in other words they have an envelope that rises before it decays. I was so pleased to find a track where I could use it. It ends up sustaining the piano which isn't all that exciting but it's one way to get it to command a bit more attention. think I also had some delay in there on a second FX channel but fairly low.
Thanks for your reply. I feel I'm saying too much on here now with the amount I've written in total so apologies if there are no more replies from me, just trying to respect the community.

[cpsmusic]

Thanks for the feedback @Edling! Some accurate observations in there!