MIX CHALLENGE - MC045 July 2018 - Winners announced

[yoruhitp]

Hello. Submit my mix.

wav: https://colabo-share.s3-ap-northeast-1. ... icht04.wav
mp3:https://colabo-share.s3-ap-northeast-1. ... icht04.mp3

• About the entire mix
  Because the mastering process is not done according to the rule of MIX Challenge, the volume may be small.
  Mixed down with -18 dBFS = 0 VU as the reference level.

• About drum mix
  The atmosphere of this song changes from POP-Rock in the first half and progressive atmosphere centered around the chorus from the
  second chorus to the final stage little by little.
  To emphasize this atmosphere, the intro adds a relaxing time by applying deep reverb to the entire sound of the drum.
  As the vocal starts, it changes at the same time and the sound of the drum changes to dry, I think that it has become a POP atmosphere.
  From the second chorus, we added a short, tight gate reverb to the snare so that the snare sounds more tight, so that the variegated
  chorus is more compelling.
  
  • Kick
    Kick Out.wav is used only for attack sound. I cut it from the vicinity of 100 Hz with the HPF and processed it into a tone emphasizing attack sound with Compressor and transient shaper.
    Sub Kick.wav is used only for bass. Although it cuts down from near 50 Hz by HPF and suppresses boomy, it emphasizes bass with Sub Kick Mic simulator plug-in.
  • Snare drum
    Snare Top.wav occupies most of the sound of the snare. The expander emphasizes the sound of the snare. Furthermore, Compressor and transient shaper emphasized the attack sound.
    Snare Bot.wav blends into the sound of the top microphone with an equalizing emphasizing the snappy sound in the orthodox.
  • Toms
    We cut about 50 Hz to around 70 Hz with HPF, boost approximately 5 db with equalizer near 300 Hz to 1.2 KHz and around 4 KHz from the top according to the size of toms.
  • Hi hat and overhead
    We cut it from 200 Hz down by HPF and boost about 1.5 db near 2 KHz. I make equal equal so that the sense of the hi-hat's positioning is not compromised.
  • Room microphone
    After adjusting the dynamics with Compressor which can process M/S, it returns to stereo with M/S decoder and boosts from 5 KHz up to 5 db above with equalizer.
    It is blending about 60% short reverb of 500 ms.
    The room microphone blends into the drum from the beginning to the end of the song.

• About the base
  Two of the sound of the amp and the sound of the line were recorded, so I made a bass range with the sound of the amp in the orthodox, made an attack sound with the line sound,
  and blended relatively so that the attack sound was conspicuous.
  Compressor is used only for the sound of the line.

• About guitars
  • Guitar 1
    The sound of the line emphasizes the distortion sound further by the amp simulator and blends with the sound of the amplifier through the exciter.
    For the blended sound, the delay and reverberation are added by the Space Echo plug-in.
    In the middle of the song, I change the pan position alternately on the left and right by the auto pan.
  • Guitar 2
    The sound of the line is a light overdrive sound with an amp simulator, it passes through the flanger further, and it blends with the sound of the amplifier which passed through the exciter.
    The amp simulator uses a different amp simulator from Guitar 1.
  • Guitar 3
    The sound of the amp boosted the middle range by about 3 db. In addition, I used a plug-in which performs sub harmonic processing, and increased the scale feeling of low frequency range.
    The sound of the line is blended to such an extent that attack sound can be discriminated.
    For the blended sound, the delay and reverberation are added by the Space Echo plug-in.
  • Guitar 4
    The sound of the line emphasizes the distortion sound further by the amp simulator, and it blends with the sound of the amplifier.
    The amp simulator uses a different amp simulator from Guitar 1.
  • Guitar 5
    Most of the sound is not processed. The sound of the amplifier cuts about 2 db around 120 Hz and boosts about 2 db near 1 KHz.
    The sound of the line boosts about 1.5 db each around 160 Hz and 500 Hz. I am blending a lot of the sound of the line.
  • Guitar 6
    The sound of the amp boosted the middle range by about 3 db. In addition, I used a plug-in which performs sub harmonic processing, and increased the scale feeling of low frequency range.
    The sound of the line passes through the Compressor to the overdriven sound and emphasizes the attack sound. The sound of the line and the sound of the amplifier are blended to the same extent.

• About choruses
  Vintage channel strip plug-in and exciter added harmonic overtone. The volume balance is adjusted, and it is combined in one bus channel and the chorus effect is added with Dimension-D.
  Furthermore, the volume is adjusted with fader automation.

• About vocals
  Vintage channel strip plug-in and exciter added harmonic overtone. Outside the lead vocal track, the volume balance is adjusted and it is put together into one bus channel. Furthermore, the volume is adjusted with fader automation.
  A delay of 3 to 4 times with a tempo of 1/4T is attached, and a reverb of about 3 seconds is attached only to the delay sound.

• About effectors
  Outboard effectors are not used. It is all plug-in.

[Photonic]

Hi all,

This was real fun to mix. A good song with a good vocal performance and gea backing vocals. I like the idea of using whispering! My focus was a good intelligibility of the vocals. Not too much abient to the voice, especialy in the verse. A bit more room in bridge and chorus. I saw a problem with the whispering tracks, because they are not in time, not in lip-sync with the other vocals. Here I used time streching to correct this very effective whispering.
No DI tracks used for bass and guitars.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5n3gq8qw43wbs ... c.mp3?dl=1
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1wgdzcgapo2mz ... c.wav?dl=1

Mixed in Reaper v5.51.

Drum bus: Presswerk (drum compressor mode), Transpire for more attack, ThrillseekerVBL for a bit of satturation
For all single drum tracks: ReaEQ and ReaComp
Bass: Split for intro and whispering part. This parts got Bass Professor II and Classic Chorus. The normal bass got Bass Professor II and ThrillseekerVBL
Guitars: ReaEQ and ReaComp
Vox bus: TDR Nova for de-essing, ReaEQ
Lead Vox: ReaEQ, Transpire (to reduce some hard transients), Presswerk (vocal compressor mode), ReaDelay for tap delay
Lead Vox dub: ReaEQ, ReaComp, GreenEugene for satturation, ReaDelay for tap delay
BVox: ReaEQ, ReaComp

Reverbs: Uhbik-A

[Coiled_Ear]

This is a great track and perfomance especially!

MP3 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/8g3w44c85f8um ... r.mp3?dl=0
WAV - https://www.dropbox.com/s/le9k7e5b6yx9w ... r.wav?dl=0

Sound has been heavily tuned...many transient shapers on drums. I would like an radio sound for this type of tracks. Big automations on backs and lead vocals. Bass also has been heavilly EQed.

[shoma]

Hi @all,

finally found some free time to take part in this mix challenge after a long break. Wow...great song, performance and recording. I had a lot of fun putting this together. I decided not getting too crazy with effects and went for a more "lively" and natural type of mix



All drums first processed slightly using VST-Dynamics (Comp), Wilkinson Debleeder (Snare), DevilLoc Deluxe (Overhead Center), Klanghelm VUMT (Mono Maker on Stereo Overheads @~250Hz) and then routed into separate group channelss and then processed using Slate Virtula Mix Rack, DevilLoc Deluxe,
Soundtoys SieQ, Black Rooster VEQ-1P, elysia nvelope, Kush REDDI, Waves F6, Sonible SmartEQ+, Kush Clariphonic (DrumBus) and a touch of Brickwall Limiting to catch some peaks and some Waves TrueVerb for some liveness feel, mostly Early Reflections (kick, snare and toms)

DI channnel of the bass was LP @170Hz and heavily compressed using Fuse Audio Labs VCL-4, amped bass has a HP @170Hz, then processed with Bass Professor MK2 and compressed with VCL-4 and then routed into a group using Kush REDDI, Slate Virtual MixRack, CraveEQ, Tritik Echorus and Leapwing DynOne

I did not use the DI guitars and routed the guitars depending on their role in the arrangement (clean, add. guitars and chorus guitars) and used REDDI, SmartEQ+, Slate FG-Grey (SSL-Buscomp), Echorus, Waves F6, TrueVerb to get them into shape

On the LeadVoc I used BlackRooster Audio VLA-2A (needlekissing), Kush Electra,Omega N,CraveEQ and Oeksound Soothe and then routed into a group channel again with some VLA-2A,Sonnox VoxD Widen, Waves F6, Leapwing DynOne ans finally 112dB Mikron Reverb

All backing vocs were directly routed into separate group channels,(2nd Harmony, Whisper, etc.) using a similar plugin chain like the leadvoc with the addition of some binaural treatments (Ozone Imager, Sennheiser AMBEO) and Sondtoys LittlePlate for some reverb

No plugins on the stereobus, except for metering (Voxengo SPAN, Klanghelm VUMT)

DAW: Cubase 9.5 Pro

If you need more information: just ask me






Here is my contribution:

wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/56frwtev9vxie ... a.wav?dl=0

mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uj6wu519emtk1 ... a.mp3?dl=0

[bjputnam]

Here's my mix.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3kuq610shj4b ... hgg_a?dl=0

[Sam Doy]

Hi all!

Please find my mix for the competition:
WAV:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xUxOqq ... sp=sharing

(mp3 added for reference based on updated recommendations : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bjA6F ... 4lorn8UtSe)

Couple of notes regarding mixing process:
-Regarding drums, I guess my main target was to optimize the dynamics and frequency range while trying to keep all the nuances and sound of the source tracks. Sounds simple, but this was the hardest part of the mixing process though and I had to learn some new techniques to get the overall sound right and right balance between OH, room, kick, snare, toms etc.... I applied eq and compressor to some of the closed miked tracks (kick and snare especially) and tried to get the best out of the room mics to shape the final sound.
-Original vocal tracks were very good so the target was to optimize the dynamics (volume automation and compressors) and eq overall sound to complement instrumental part of the song. I also applied some slap delay and good reverb to vocal tracks, but the key was to find optimum settings and apply the effects with an optimum amount. Background vocals were somehow challenging to select and mix (important role in the song), so I mainly used trial and error method to find optimum settings.
-Only minor changes were done to bass and guitar overall sound, but I tried to mix them in an interesting way (there was something magical how bass and guitar complemented each other in first verse).
-Mainly standard mixing tools (Reaper DAW, eq, compressors etc..) and mixing methods were applied during the mixing process but I can say that it took couple of iterations before the mix was in a good shape. I trialed a lot of new vst effects (saturators, various compressors, eq's, intelligent multiband compressors etc..) especially to drums and some of the other instruments, but in most cases, I did not use them in the final mix as they did not take the mix to a direction that would have improved the overall song
-I did not apply any effects to mix bus due to the clear rules of the competition. However, I had separate groups for vocals, bg vocals, drums, guitars and bass (:-)) and this helped in a mixing process a lot.
-I think that the main challenge was to find a perfect balance for the mix (between individual tracks and instruments); I hope that the final mix is something that the band would also approve

I very much appreciate the fact that the provided tracks were recorded very professionally and individual tracks were labeled clearly. Also the overall performance of the band was more than excellent so it was easy get focused to the mixing.

Kind Regards,
Sami

[thomasberg]

Hi!

Nice song to work on!
And really nice to test myself without the help of samples


MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bt9v1ug3rnqb4 ... g.mp3?dl=0

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p6x5edxxg2i6d ... g.wav?dl=0


Thanks!

-Thomas

[RichardClarke]

Here are my mixes and brief summary.

Mp3 - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BiGrG ... 2RW5jk4Msr
Wav - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZZsCb ... JMsrmWmsVf

Drums….
Routed both kicks to group, gated, Eq'd, compressed
Routed both snare to group, gated, Eq'd, compressed
Routed Overheads and MS tracks to a group, EQ'd and compressed
Routed these to a drum buss as well as the toms
Sent this group to parallel compression

Bass….
Sent both to bass group, compressed, used wave bass rider, used F6 dynamic eq side chained to kick to tie them together

Guitars….
Made clean guitar group for beginning part, high passed them and added Abbey Road J37 Tape saturation
Distorted guitars were sent to a group, high passed, and EQ'd
I did re amp the DI of some of the distorted guitars and blended it in for more harmonic content.
All were sent to a final guitar group, this group had F6 dynamic eq side chained to kick and snare just set for the middle of the mix to help kick and snare come through. Also added J37 again just as Tape saturation for smoothing.

Vocals…..
Made backing vocal group and high passed them
Made Main vocal group and routed all main vocals and backing vocal group there. DeEssed, compressed, used stereo spreader, used tape saturation

Reverb….
Made Snare reverb channel and sent snare to that with shorter timing settings
Made Vocal reverb channel and sent all vocals to that with longer timing settings.

Master Buss….
Just used J37 as tape saturation only for slight smoothing effect. No compression, etc.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your edit


To all new participants: according to the "Rules and Guidelines" it is mandatory to provide minimal documentation to your production.
Please edit your posts if necessary.

[JonasLasse]

Hey there.

Vocals
REq, Vocal Rider, Cla2a , Virtual Mix Rack Compression, -> H-Delay, Valhalla Vintage Verb, for ER TrueVerb

Backings
Lowcut&Hicut, Cla2A

Drums
REq, the Glue, SonEQ,
Kick on a bus with Bass
Scheps 73 and VMR Compression on Snare -> LittlePlate

Bass
RComp, Scheps 73,

Guitar
J37 , Slate VMR for eq and compression, RComp for Sidechaining vocals (2db), ->TrueVerb for ER

I surely forgot something..

wav
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xq4m1w32xfvr ... e.wav?dl=0

mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xb3gwkkn9uso3 ... e.mp3?dl=0