MIX CHALLENGE - MC050 December 2018 - Winners announced

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4y53emyh0mtu ... m.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pdxkq6of4p08n ... m.wav?dl=0

For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

I have not used Drum samples.

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[Leslie]

Hey everyone!

I'm new to this forum and love the idéa of mix challanges.
Good song, was fun working this. Altough the track as mentioned needed alot of edits (probably need more than I've done so far)

Hard to break down all the stuff I did but will absolutly dive deeper if your intrested. I probably worked 10hrs on this and feel it still need more tuning here and there from my side. First I went for a more dryer sound but as it progressed and the maniac in me took over spaces grew and it ended up more like an arena rock kinda vibe. (cant decide yet if that decision was good or bad xD)
Alot of tracks have tape simulations and I start every track with eq shaping and compression in stages. SSL channelstrip was kinda my go-to for this type of track. A mix of Lexicon, uad emt140 and valhalla for reverbs, H-delay mostly for delays. I have a short slap on the vocals. I belive I have that kinda thing going on the drums as well. Bass I first went for just DI but then I went what da hell lets go for some light distorion GTR rig in paralell. What else... Yea, some automation on vocals and gtrs. I tryed a more call and response thing in the chorus where the gtr in between lines went forward. No drum replacement. My chains are fairy long so hard for me to show everything. Let me know if you want more info!!

Here's my mix, hope you like!
Mp3

Wav

Best
Leslie

[_spafles_]

Hello everyone,

Here is my mix:

mp3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GAIvy6 ... sp=sharing
wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10W71RY ... sp=sharing

What i have done to the tracks:

Drums: all the regular things: EQ, compression and panning on about each track.
I also added the old Room tracks.
summed these together into a parallel compressor bus.

Bass: EQ, amp simulator, compressor and a sidechain compressor that follows the Kick.

Acc. guitars: eq to make them "similar" in tone. bus into compressor and a doubler.
El. Guitars: same as accoustic guitars but without the doubler.
Tremelo Guitar: eq, and compression.
Gain guitar: only eq. This guitar is barely audible in my mix.
Lead guitar: eq, compression and delay.

All the guitars are summed in a parallel compressor. This incudes the bass guitar.

Pad1: Ping pong delay
Pad 2: nothing, just volume adjusted

Lead vocal: i've split the track in 2 parts, a verse and chorus track.
The verse had a higher boost at 400Hz.
Both tracks have an eq, compressor and reverb.

Did not use the VOX DUP track.
The Dup1 and dup 2 are panned

Backing vocals are eq'd, compressed and reverbed.
The lead vocals are also parallel compressed.

The master bus has an eq, 2 compressors and a reverb.
None of them are doing much, but glue things together.

Thanks to everbody involved in this project. Once again i've enjoyed mixing this song!

[ManuC]

Hi Everyone

There is my entry:

Mp3 :https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9j54gro6aucg ... C.mp3?dl=0

Wav :https://www.dropbox.com/s/j50mcths23bc7 ... C.wav?dl=0


Some print screens with Plugins:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qed04gy2ajtxw ... 3.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mn92rgpcgor5k ... 40.png?dl=
0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/enokcmho358b1 ... 9.png?dl=0

All instruments have some Eq for color and/or placement

Some little of compression for renforcement of the position back/front

Some eq and dynamic for the master channel.

Thank for the challenge and this beautiful song.

Musical greetings

[Drumwizard]

Greetings to all!
Again, a great composition inspires to participate in the mix contest!
Despite the fact that this song is rather country-style, in my opinion, it reminds of some works by Pink Floyd and even late Tiamat.
Mixed in Digital Performer 8.07. Almost all tracks contain a MH ChannelStrip 3. Samples of kick and snare (brushes) were used to support the main tracks, as well as create drum space (sended to Room and Plate).
Drum Room L&R are aligned with Melda MAutoAlign. I used these tracks for intro, just filter them. Bass track duplicated and re-amped with SHB-1 Bass Amplifier and Live Room B. Acoustic guitars are aligned with MAutoAlign. On el.guitar 1 inserted L1. El.guitar 2 has nothing, it is sent to Little Micro Shift and P-Pong Delay. The lead vocal is sent in several auxes with the same input and is processed in parallel. One Aux with FET-76, another Aux with slap delay (opens in the choruses). Master Bus contains DCAM Free Comp (attack 1 ms, ratio 4) and Sie-Q. Exponential Audio R2 was used for Room and Plate.

mp3 https://drive.google.com/open?id=15Z4lR ... BLxOxoFrY1
wav https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fld-5 ... auFKOYCbn2

[davemcisaac]

I thought I was going to have to do a lot of editing to tighten things up, but the more I got into just giving this song a "sound", the more I felt it was best to leave it feeling a little loose like a live performance - a bit "organic". So I did no editing - just automation - and really like the feel.

All tracks bussed through NLS.

It took a lot of work getting the drum sound - mostly eq (A LOT!).

Kick got Maag EQ2 to help beef up the bottom / Burnley 73 for drive, more bottom, and some smack / SPL DrumXchanger (aprox 40% wet) to supplement the original / Tube Saturator 2 for a little more drive & tone shaping / ReaEQ for hi-pass & more sculpting / bx-limiter for final punch.

Snare got Scheps 73 for a lot of drive & eq / DeBleeder to clean it up / SPL DrumXchanger (aprox 45% wet) to supplement the original / Paradox for eq & parallel compression ? bx-limiter to keep it punchy. Sent to Drum FX (ReaEQ / Acon Digital Verberate).

Toms both got UltraChannel for eq & comp / Paradox for more sculpting & compression. Both Toms were bussed through Tuco for more controlled punch. No samples used. A bit of verb from the Drum FX send to add some sustain (the Room & OH's helped with the sustain, so them being cut off wasn't really a problem).

OH & Room both got bx-console G

Bass was copied to have one DI & one amped (Amplitube3) then bussed through NLH, MSpectralDynamics (side-chained to duck from Kick), ReaEQ for hipass, & MaxxBass for smaller speakers.

Ac Guits panned hard L/R then bussed through NLS, Doubler2 for slight chorus, Paradox for eq, Tuco for leveling, and MDynamicEq to control pick sounds.

EGT 1 & 2 panned 50% L/R and bussed through NLS, ReaEQ for low cut (resonant filter with boost around 160 for fullness) and hi shelf dip to cut brightness, Doubler2 for better separation, and Classic Chorus (Kjaerhus Audio).

EGT Gain - Paradox for eq & comp, and ReaEQ to clean a little honkiness out.

Trem Guit - ReaEQ for low cut, body, & slight upper mid dip.

EGT Lead - Paradox for eq & parallel comp, Tuco for leveling, bx_limiter to keep it up front, and MDynamicEq to level the tone.

Pads panned hard L/R & bussed through NLS, Crystalizer, & MDynamicEq to control problem frequencies.

All Guits & Pads bussed through MSpectralDynamics (side-chained to duck from lead vox - works great to just duck competing frequencies), A1StereoControl for mild widening, ReaComp (side-chained to duck slightly from snare), and HIKU for spacial enhancement.

Guit Sends - MTurboReverb (Concert Hall), EchoBoy

Lead Vox - NLS, MAutoVolume (vocal riding), Tuco (Vocal Leveler), ReaEQ (for low cut, low mid boost for body), & Sibilance (Waves) for de-essing.

Vox Dup - ReaEQ (lo & hi cuts), Sibilance.

BG Vox - ReaEQ & Sibilance

Vox Sends - Doubler4 (slight widening), EchoBoy, MTurboReverb (Silver Plate)

MP3 - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... 2VAS4nDUBX
Wav - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... VNiy2kfeSk

[guiZgui]

Hello back everyone !

So here is my MIX : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_GQByf ... sp=sharing

This one was quite a challenge to mix, but there was a good vibe to it and a good energy !
I tried to do a more mornern rock vision, but keeping in mind that psychedelic atmosphere.

I started with correcting a few notes on the lead and background vocals.
Then, bouncing tracks to get stéreo tracks to work on instead of double mono (for acoustic GT, drum room, Overhead, background vocals).

To continue with the drums, after checking that each element was playing (some toms were missing sometimes according to the overhead track so I replace some of them with the original toms track).
Then I added kick sub sample and kick room sample (using the original one as the attack).
I added a snare room sample (which I mixed pretty loud) to fil the space and used the original one for the attack as well.

Now I could move to mixing, starting with a quick balance of elements, checking phase on the drums (with samples addition too).
Starting to sculpt the sound of the drums with EQ and comp, adding the bass to get the foundation right.
I used a multiband compression on the bass to control the low end a bit more.
For the chorus part I had a bass parrallel track with more sub and a bit of distortion too.

For the acoustic I decided to make a stereo version, using the body mic for the mid and the neck for the sides (with a doubler effect).
And same idea for the distortion GT, I’ve duplicate it and put a doubler on it so I could mix them together.
For the rest I’ve pan GT 1 and 2 to the same spot on the right and put the GT Tremolo on the left side to answer them.
For additional depth for the GT I used a spring verb on the electric and a plate on the acoustic.

Finally moving to vocals :
On the lead vocal mostly compression, tiny EQ, and a bit of limiting to make it stand above the mix and limit the peaks.
For the effects I used the Manny M Reverb from waves, I believe it was a chamber, some stereo delays with no feedback and a touch of longer filter delay (for the psychedelic touch)
For the background vocals it was just the CLA vocal plugin and a plate reverb over it.

On the master bus I used the API 2500 compressor (around 2db of gain reduction), really help to put it together. Some EQ too with a Pulteq style, making a smilly curve and an emulation plugin of a tape machine.
After listening to it I added a stereo enhancer with an automation to open in the chorus section to make it sound bigger.
Going back with volumes on every track, and then starting with automation to make the mix alive, emphasis the chorus, make the drums quieter in verse etc..

Ending up with a nice mix I believe, lot of work on it so I hope you will like it ! ☺

[Surajjsingh]

Here is my Mix

MP3
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DnYrc ... i3Yt8WaZg4

WAV
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1REC97 ... Ppp1s3xEMC

[Olli H]

When I listend the song for the first time, it came immediatly to my mind to use Jerry Jeff Walker as my reference.

Also, when I listened the arrangement, I thought that there was a lot of nice small ideas, but to me the sound was too crowded. Some of the ideas were masking each other. So I decided to use mute button, to give room to those ideas. For example double guitar was not needed all the time, it was just masking the delicate tremolo sound. On the other hand tremolo added nothing to chorus, but double guitars did.

FIXING PHASE
I first tried to fix some timing issues in drum tracks. After that I checked other instruments against drums.

MIXING PHASE
In the mixing phase I made the vox sound almost first against my rough mix. I wanted to be quite dry and thickand natural. Like Jerry Jeff Walker. Then I started to adjust drums, bass and guitars. They were not allowed to compete with the vox, only to support the song. My main focus was to keep this song as a singer/songwriter stuff.

I didn’t add any samples. I wanted to preserve that softer ”hit with brushes” sound with snare, like in ”LA Freeway”. So also my kick sounds a bit softer.

Otherwise, no special tricks, just basic eq & compression & delays & reverbs.


Wav: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vLVV5 ... mDD4vwTV2I
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NvivF ... dutx_Ycby4

[kirurg]

Hello,

First time here.

Here are some notes:
Triggered kick and snare by Slate Trigger, there are still about 30% of original ones (barely) audible.
Room and OH are the originals, but converted the Room to stereo with UAD Ocean Way. And toms are also triggered.

Acoustic guitar goes to Ocean Way and to Waves doubler for wider image.
EGT's are panned and a little bit extended with Lexicon room.
Also tried to get rid of the harshness of electric and guitars - mostly with eq , but sometimes also
using bx_refinement (UAD version) plugin. There is Eventide Blackhole for ambience in guitar solo (EGT Lead)
Tremolo guitar has Waves Reel ADT during verses.

Drums, guitars and vocals routed to its own groups, compressed with Acustica Audio SandBus or El Rey.
Using Acustica Audio Purple or Sand EQ everywhere when need to enhance the sound. These Accustica Audio
ones are pretty demanding plugins.

The dude singing sounds cool. Reminds Mark Knopfler in some areas. Added a small amount of
short echo (EchoBoy) to the main vocal, also a small amount of plate reverb.

There is Slate virtual mix rack console plugin on every channel.

Few plugins inserted also to the master bus for widening and compression. This time was using
Acustica Audio El Rey compressor but I'm not sure yet how to use it perfectly.

Using Cubase 9 or 10.

Thanks for this competition.

Mix is available here:
Wav
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2gcq15imy5jbh ... g.wav?dl=0

MP3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5gf08dun4i3x ... g.mp3?dl=0