MIX CHALLENGE - MC048 October 2018 - Winners announced

[fese]

I've used all of the records which were mentioned in OP as reference for my mix, and additionally this one:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds/Kylie Minogue - Where The Wild Roses Grow

Damn, it's been years that I've listened to this one... what an insanely well written song that is! Good catch there as a reference, I really like the drum sound (really tasteful playing there, too) and the bass. The whole production is of course massively over the top, but it works. To be honest, I would love to hear my song professionally produced like this and not with my amateurish playing and

[Tapwater]

Here's my entry:

Light eq and compression on the Drums. Heavy filtering on the room mic.

Medium Compression on the bass with a touch of MaxxBass.

Just hall reverb to the piano and music box.

Added some low mids to the accordion.

Light tonal shaping and compression to the acoustic guitar.

Little presence boost to the guitar solo.

A smidge of saturation and compression to the vocals as well as some hall.

Mp3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lp3JQ ... dkq7P_7aFO
Wav: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1da24w ... XAluWi_4ru

[fese]

I wanted to have the limitations of an 8-track, as many did "back in the day," so I did the following (everything ITB on LPX/ no additional sounds or samples):

I had a 4-track portastudio back in the nineties when I made my first tentative steps into recording. I was really shit back then, but it wasn't the fault of the portastudio, which was usable when you learned to work around the limitations. To this day even in the DAW i stay within the limits od a 24track tape machine (which I admittedly never used).
I always wonder why songs nowadays use several dozen tracks - I wouldn't know what to do with all that. Yeah, I'm getting old...

[Ben on the Board]

Hi all! This is my first time participating in a mix challenge. First off, I had a ton of fun working on this track! Really love the vibe and feel of this track. The mix was a bit of a challenge as it is a genre I do not have much experience in. Overall, it was definitely an exciting experience! Let's get right to my submission:

I started by time aligning the female vocals to the male lead just to tightening everything up a bit using ReVoice Pro 3. Then I set my levels and began EQ'ing all the tracks in mono. Next came compression and then panning. Next, automation time (how fun!!). Reverbs, delays and any other effects came at the end just to add some atmosphere, depth, and flair. I will list the plugins I used on each track below (keep in mind it may seem like a lot on some tracks, but each plugin I threw on usually is tweaking a small component of that given track). Here is my submission:

MP3 Final Mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1lhuzm08av1u3 ... 2.mp3?dl=0

WAV Final Mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/44t4gx8es7wn0 ... 2.wav?dl=0

Session Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1q8qdkav7x0u3 ... t.png?dl=0



(All EQ'ing was done for the most part using FabFilter ProQ 2, such a great EQ!)

DRUMS:
Hi hat- EQ, SSL Compressor
Kick - EQ, CLA-76
Overheads - EQ
Room - CLA-76, PS22 Spread(10)
Tambourine - EQ, CLA-76

GUITARS:
AGuitar Solo - EQ, CLA-76, C6-sidechain, Izotope Ozone Imager
AGuitar Mic - EQ, PuigChild 660, C6-sidechain
EGuitar - EQ, CLA-76
EGuitar Finale - EQ, CLA-76, PS22-Spread(10)
EGuitar Finale DI - EQ, CLA-76, PS22-Spread(10), Doubler2, Rotor, OneKnob Driver, C6-Sidechain
Bass - EQ, CLA-2A, C6-sidechain

OTHER INSTRUMENTS:
Akkordeon - EQ, CLA-2A, C6-sidechain
Music Box - EQ, SSL Comp
Phosphor Hi Pad - EQ, API-2500, Rotor
Bell Piano - EQ, CLA-76, C6-sidechain

VOCALS:
Lead Male Vocals - EQ, DeEsser, RCompressor, C6-sidechain, Vitamin, Izotope Ozone Imager
Lead Female Vocals - EQ, DeEsser, RCompressor, Izotope Ozone Imager, C6-sidechain
Female Harmony 1 - EQ, DeEsser, RCompressor, Doubler2, Izotope Ozone Imager
Female Harmony 2 - EQ, DeEsser, RCompressor, C6-sidechain

BUSSES:
Drum Bus: EQ, API-2500
Instrument Bus: API-2500, C6-Sidechain, Izotope Ozone Imager
Vocal Bus: C6, API-2500, MannyM Triple D, C6-sidechain
Reverb 1: EQ, RVerb, Izotope Ozone Imager
Reverb 2: TrueVerb
Reverb 3: EQ, MannyM Reverb
Slap Delay: EQ, H-Delay, TrueVerb
Mix Bus: NLS Buss, Izotope Ozone Imager, PuigTec EQ, C4, C6, PAZ Analyzer


Thank you for this fun track to mix! Any feedback is much appreciated.

[noogard]

Hello. Decided to continue participating but... ) few but's there
So anyway here is the mix.
I'll start with things I don't like about other mixes, so thats why my mix as is. Ive read about music the song provider likes, and I havent heard anything like that at least I randomly downloaded 5-6 tracks from above. Lots of compression on drums, so clean sound, so close vocals... I decided to do all things opposite. Super soft and round drums and bass guitar, lot of hi cuts on everything, lot of tape.
Problem that I got, and pretty sure everyone did as well: female vocal. I decided to use it as backing vocals, just a bit time aligned it because as for me it was out of the guy's singing.

So what I have:

MP3
WAV

[Mister Fox]

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[jetwolf]

Felix,

Here is my entry. Very charming tune. Thank you for sharing!

I found the acoustic guitar tones to be particularly stellar, so I chose to push those parts slightly forward to make sure they were highlighted. Bell-like with wood behind the notes. Very nice, indeed.

I did find the biggest challenge of the song to find the right panning and balance for the vocals. I started with them more narrow, but, after listening, I added more separation with the male vocal to the right with a chamber echo panned generally left and the female vocal panned more left than I originally had it, with a different reverb mix.

Vocals had a Fairchild-type compressor added.

During the chorus crescendos, I spread the sound of the background vocals to fill out the soundscape to help the buildup.

Please let me know if you have any questions on any individual plugins used in the mix, but it was all pretty straightforward eq, comp done lightly in stages.

Room, Plate, and Chamber reverb sends were used for depth.

Here is a screenshot of my mix in Pro Tools:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12J1iH4 ... sp=sharing

WAV FILE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PUosd5 ... sp=sharing

MP3 FILE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D_-M24 ... sp=sharing

-15.01 LUFS

Cheers

Kevin White

[Siyabonga]

Hello Everyone

Here is my Mix

WAv @44.1kHz 24 bit
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kljfzj1xepial ... a.wav?dl=0

MP3 320kbps
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vqns7qr5pfj6o ... a.mp3?dl=0

S/O to Formfisch for this wonderful Song. Beautiful

This is my first time taking part in Mix Ch allege and I must say, It was a challenge indeed! a new and totally different genre for me to mix... But then again if it was to be easy, it would've defeated the purpose of a challenge in this mix.

Please feel free to ask anything regarding my mix, comment and share your thoughts and critics, I would highly appreciate it, as I could learn a lot from you guys.

Thanks

[Jiankastereo]

This is my mix

mp3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B8Pgsz ... sp=sharing
wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LEglId ... sp=sharing

Drums: eq, compression, reverb and delay
Bass: eq, compression, and delay
Guitars: eq, compression, reverb and delay, and some automation
Keys: eq compression, reverb and delay and automation
vocals: lead vox izotope nectar 2 and automation
female vocals eq, compression, reverand and delay

hope you like it

[Olli H]

This great song reminded me of early records of Leonard Cohen. For that reason my main reference was his ”Live at the Isle of Wight”. (That DVD is one of my favorites) I also had some early Neil Young available to refresh my ears.

During mixing my focus was to keep main vox natural and full. Eveything else in my mix was to support the main vox. So in my mind and in my mix the professional band is sitting on chairs behind the singer who is standing, just like in a fore mentioned DVD’s cover image.

Some esses were difficult. I had to use two instance dynamic eq. Also esses from the female singer were a bit disturbing. I fixed them manually.

Drums were difficult. I wanted them to be natural, cleary audible but still only supportive to the acoustic sound of the band. So, in my mind drums were not have a strong role.

First I didn’t find any suitable role for electric guitar. Finally I added a tremolo to it, and it solved the problem to me. Hopfully I didin’t overdo it.

The arrangement has a nice growth built in it. I tried to preserve and enhance it with automations.

MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1djgCl ... zWpYr9nY2e
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1h9o3o ... CYD7yqRFHJ