MIX CHALLENGE - MC048 October 2018 - Winners announced

[davemcisaac]

I'll post my mixing process soon. Just want to make sure I get entered before the deadline.

mp3 - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... vyFfCA92y0
wav - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... r1QLdPiatX

I used NLS Buss on all busses (Spike with no added drive), so that won't be mentioned again.

I started with aiming for a 6/8 marching band snare to build around. I used Scheps 73 for drive & slight shaping followed with smartEQ2 and HorNetTrackShaper (got it on sale yesterday) for final shaping. I got the snare sound I wanted to build around. FX send was ReaEQ hi & low pass going into Acon Digital Verberate.

Kick got smartEQ2 & Sheps 73 to get rid of a lot of "tubbiness" and add a bit of definition.

Tambourine & HiHat got bx_console G, Ride got ReaEQ, and OH and Room were left as is.

Bass got Bass Professor II for some dirt, Disto-S for a bit more distortion, then smartEQ2 for some tone shaping.

AGuitars both got Wave's Doubler2 to fatten them up a bit, TuCo for leveling, and bx_console G for eq. AGuitar Solo also got smartEQ2 for additional tone shaping.

EGuitar just got a little eq and EGuitar DI was amped with AmpliTube3 then went thru TuCo & Hofa SYS Chorus.

Akkordeon got bx_console G & Double2 for fattening, Zebra Bell and Phosphor just got ReaEQ for low cut, and MusicBox was left as is.

I split the Lead Vox into 3 parts - V, C, & Tag on last V for separate processing. V got smartEQ2, C got smartEQ2 with Doubler2, and Tag got smartEQ2 with Doubler2 & Space Strip (from AudioThing). They were bussed through TuCo, MAutoVolume, & MSpectralDynamics (for de-harshing).

Susan's Vocals were bussed through smartEQ2, TuCo, and MDynamicEq (for de-essing).

Master Buss had PSP VintageWarmer for glue and TB Equalizer v4 as a tilt eq for warmth.

Ahhh ... the last day, everyone is jostling. I would never understand why but that is not important...

I was very busy and wasn't planning on entering this challenge, but got a break yesterday and decided to see what I could do with this lovely song. I liked where it was going and managed to hurry up a mix to enter.

[Bouroki]

Hi !

Ahhh ... the last day, everyone is jostling. I would never understand why but that is not important.
Hard day for "FESE" tomorrow morning and congratulations: 52 entries except error !
But the last minute is not the right one: "loupi" sending his mix under the name "Veroonbalsa": why ?
It's really messy and “Mister Fox” did a nice reminder of the contest rules.
Worse still, in the rush, "DimitrisPalantzas" sends the mix of "Margarita" ..............................
That's what it is, the last seconds.....
good luck to everyone !

Cheers

Franz

I for one only signed up and begun Friday night. In the future it will be different

[Mister Fox]

It is the 22nd October 2018, 6:20am GMT+2/CEST - the first Mix Round has officially ended

A very warm welcome to all new participants. And a huge thank you to everyone that is spreading the word about the Mix Challenge. Please keep doing so, we need more participants for the Songwriting Competition(s), and more audio content.


Statistics will be edited in later (thanks for Franz for informing me that we seem to have 51 entries, less than last month). However, we have two submissions after the deadline (DimitrisPalantzas and loupi). And if I trust previews comments by both the client and regulars, a lot of tracks that are not named properly.

Keep in mind, this can and will result in a disqualification.



Please check all if your links again, make them downloadable(!, especially SoundCloud links). Those that uploaded MP3s only, please take note: providing a FLAC (on low bandwidth)/WAV (on DSL and higher) file is mandatory. Those of you that only uploaded a WAV, a MP3 version would be nice. Please also update your posts with documentation for others to learn from (see Rules & Guidelines).


I now open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however.


Please watch this spot for the client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.

Good luck to all participants.






The Songwriting Competition 14 (SWC14) is still in full swing.
The deadline is 24th October 2018, 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST - so far there have been 2 entries - let's really try to exceed 10.

[Mister Fox]

In the future it will be different

If the Mix Challenge will have a future, that is.

Because the Song Pool is dry. We have no more material for future Mix(ing) Challenges (this game ends by the end of October).
Please reach out! Else we have nothing to go forward.


(FAQ on the Song Pool Campaign page)

[Mork]

Hi !

Interesting thoughts from Mork but I do not really understand:
“Mork”:
-Do you consider the woman's voice to be a duet with the man's voice or not?
in your mix I have the impression to hear each voice as if they were in two different rooms ....
( after the end of the submissions (in a few hours), "FESE" will tell us how he considers these voices in the title structure )
- when at the "three waltz time" what do you want to say exactly ? What did you do ??

Cheers

Franz

Hey Franz,

unfortunately the room sound is in the recording of her vocal, that‘s why she is less intimate. But at least they are somehow singing together. Maybe imagine they are both standing on the window, staring into the sky and singing to each other or something cheesy like that

Regarding the waltz, I am talking about the rythm. It’s like one - two- three, one - two - three (Uff-Ta-Ta is a german thing i guess). I found that groove to be lost in the original mix, mainly because the Keyboard was all „washed out“ (chorus, delay, ?), but besides the HiHat it really moves that groove forward. So instead of washing it out I wanted to emphasize that groove by some subtle slowish attack compression and even more subtle delay. The processing hast to be very subtle so the part doesn‘t attract attention and stays in the background.

Hope that clarifies things
Cheers
Mork

[Franz]

Hey Mork,

Thank you for your clarification. First your mix I like (it is also close enough to mine) a few execptions: the voices.
The balance between the two is ok but the corrections made on them are excessive: the "sibilants" are much too pronounced
and "the thinning" of the woman's voice makes her voice rather unpleasant. Question of taste ...
Regarding the three times of the waltz, you're right: it is necessary that this particular rhythm is maintained throughout the title
and thus effectively the hi-hat is VERY important (it is carelessly neglected by most candidates).
Listen to my mix and I dare to say that "everything" is there.
once again, good luck

Cheers

Franz

[westcoast2]

Mork wrote: Regarding the waltz, I am talking about the rhythm. It’s like one - two- three, one - two - three (Uff-Ta-Ta is a german thing i guess). I found that groove to be lost in the original mix, mainly because the Keyboard was all „washed out“ (chorus, delay, ?), but besides the HiHat it really moves that groove forward.

At the beginning it is in 3/4 , counted 1 2 3 (Waltz time) with the emphasis (E) on the 1 e,g E 2 3 E 2 3

When the drums start this changes to 6/8 counted 1 2 3 4 5 6. The emphasis is on the 1 with a lesser emphasis on the 4.
E 2 3 e 5 6 E 2 3 e 5 6. Maybe Uff-Ta-Ta uf-Ta-Ta.

On drums for 3/4 you might have Kick 2 3 and for 6/8 kick 2 3 snare 5 6 as in this song.

This may appear to be a subtle change, but has profound implications when dancing or playing. To me 3/4 time feels very rigid compared to a flowing, almost swing like, 6/8. The 'groove' changes as a result.

The keyboard seemed to play a bass note on the 1 & 4 without any particular emphasis therefore, as Franz noted, the hihat also plays a role. Sometimes just before the 1 it does a ta-ta-tat with just taps before the 4.

west

[jeffssoloband]

[quote
I had a 4-track portastudio back in the nineties when I made my first tentative steps into recording.

I still have my portastudio lol. I still use it as a 2-channel mixing board. One of these days I should go through and see what is on all of those tapes I still have.

[RichardClarke]

[quote
I had a 4-track portastudio back in the nineties when I made my first tentative steps into recording.

I still have my portastudio lol. I still use it as a 2-channel mixing board. One of these days I should go through and see what is on all of those tapes I still have.

I still have mine too (Tascam portastudio 414). I bought it when i was 18, sold it to a friend when i was 22 or so, he sold it to another friend, then he gave it me back as a surprise birthday present about 15 years later! I was so happy! I haven't got a power supply though I really need to sort that out

[fese]

Hi all,
first, thanks to all of you for taking part and for the nice words about my song!
I've counted 52 files, which is a sh*load and frankly it's bit overwhelming. In the past mix challenges I provided a song for I tried to comment on every entry, but I cannot see me doing this for 50+ tracks. How long do I have time?

That being said, I have one file that is just called "MC048_v2.wav". I don't know whose one it is and I am going to ignore it.
Regarding the late entries: I wouldn't say anything they were a couple minutes late, but 12 hours I think is too much. I know this is supposed to be a fun competition for learning, but a minimum set of rules (especially correctly named files and the deadline) is necessary to make it work.
I'll try to listen to your entries and give some feedback after I am through with the other entries.