MIX CHALLENGE - MC051 February 2019 - Winners announced

[delicate]

Greetings!

Here is my mix:
.WAV yadi.sk/d/la_t-aAw18B88A
.MP3 yadi.sk/d/WrWuIsIpw05AeQ

Overall
I used bx_console N on each channel for gain staging and a wee bit of saturation and drift. In some cases I also used its EQ section for general tone shaping (for GTRs and background vocals) and its compressor (for GTRs).
Throughout the track I've also used some volumes automation (for master fader and for drum bus fader)

Drums
Individual drums did not get anything fancy. I tried to get rid of unwanted frequencies with some boosting here and there. OH and HH have been treated to reduce harshness with a dynamic EQ. The blended kick drum was heavily cut in the 140-500 range.

The Drums Bus was treated with parallel compression (bx_townhouse) and sent to plate verb.

Bass
I treated it with REDDI by Kush, cut a little bit below 90hz, and compressed with ACME at fast setting for additional grit.

GTRs
I decided to use all of guitar tracks. They were EQed to be cleaner and a bit more present. I did not use any re-amping.
I also used Nova EQ dynamically to slightly reduce a couple of harsh spots when they were too loud.
All guitars had delay and reverb.

Vocals
Main vocal was treated with light EQ and heavily compressed in two stages (with ACME and an LA-2A emulation in limited mode).
Background vocals were treated pretty much similarly. I did not want them to be too prominent.
All were sent to the same plate verb at different gain settings.

Master
I had quite a few plugins on my master bus, each doing just a little bit.
most notable are: bx_digital for clean up, stereo widening, and a Pultec style low-end boost; bx_townhouse comp for glue; multiband compressions for additional depth; Softube Tape for some coloration.

Thank you!

[Emil Biscan]

Hi Here is my mix

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BOD-C ... gGcxavhApE

I used Softube Console 1 SSL4000E on every track, on some track I used waves CLA-76 and Soundtoys Decapitator for saturation. Waves C4 mostly for Bass track. SSL G buss comp on CRUSH group (Drumms and Bass). Master buss: waves SSL G buss comp 1-2 GR, waves PuigTec EQP1A and Slate Digital Virtual tape Machine

Good Luck to everyone
Emil

[dobebon]

Here is my submission for this round

WAV https://www.dropbox.com/s/7567u8xo12q9l ... n.wav?dl=0
MP3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gnvpsrykyo7sq ... n.mp3?dl=0

No sample replacements used and no processing on the 2 Buss.

BX SSL console and Slate VTM used on a lot of the tracks.

Drums
Kick - EQ boost at 80Hz and 4KHz
Snare - EQ small boost at 200Hz and a larger boost at 5KHz. FET compressor and a small amount of reverb
Room - Reasonable mix of Soundtoys Devil-loc blend with Echoboy and some reverb.
General EQ, filtering and compression where needed on the other drum tracks.
Drum Buss - Some gentle EQ shaping and parallel compression and reverb.

Bass - Reamp the bass. I used Decapitator, SPL Vitalizer and RC20 with a BA-6A compressor to achieve the sound I was after.

Guitars
Reamped the three DI tracks. Not much use of compression, EQ mainly around the mid-highs.
I struggled a bit with the solo, I ended up cutting around 3KHz and using an optical compressor with a mix of plate and inverse reverb.

Vox
Lead vox - Slight boost at 200Hz and cut at 800Hz and another small boost around 2KHz. Slight amount of Microsoft blended in.
High Pitch chorus - Used inverse reverb.

I also used automation, mainly volume but some FX were automated on and off as well.

Good luck everyone!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours. As of this moment, 12 hours left for submitting your edit.

[nikolaus.boell]

Here is my submission of the challenge.

You can listen to it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ahhh0xn6ky7u ... RjEHa?dl=0

I wanted to achive a bit of an oldschool sound (with a lot of OH), with that typical slapback delay on the vocal in the Chorus.

This is what I did:

Kick: Only used Kick in. Compressed limmited it, and boosted 60Hz, Cut out 400Hz

Snare: Only used Top. Compressed it with DBX 160 to get more punch. But Some Reverb on it. Cut out the resonance a little bit.

OH: Compression: Low Cut, High Shelfe Boost, Compression with 1176 Plugin, Stereo widening.

Room: Low Cut, High Shelfe -8dB, Hard Compression with 1176 Plugin

Bass: Distortion True Iron, Compression TDR Kotellnikow, Low cut, Bell 60HZ boost, 500 Hz Bell Cut.

Git: I paned the Gits left and right in de Chorus. The Rth Git in the Center in der Verses. The other Guitar a bit left in the Verses.
I only Eqed the Rht Git Twin and boosted a bit the mids and higher mids. Compression with DBX 160

Lead Voc: Compression: LA 2A, Low Cut, Boost 100 Hz, thin Cut 700HZ, Wide boost 10kHz, Slapback Delay with Logic Tape Delay

Backing High Pitch: I doubled the High Pitch Backings, And shifted the Formant on one side with Little Alter Boy.


All the Images are on Dropbox.

[Koki21]

First of all, I wanna say hi to everyone! I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but I’ve just found out about this and I think it’s amazing. I’ve gone through the rules kinda quickly, so I’m not 100% sure if I’m doing everything correctly. So if I should be doing something differently, please do let me know.
Also let me say something about myself, I have a degree in Audio Production and I’ve started doing sound engineering professionally (mostly small stuff, like editing/mixing audiobooks, podcasts and that sort of thing), however I am aspiring to become a mixer, which is why I thought this would be an amazing opportunity to get better ( i do need to get a lot better!), since I don’t like mixing music all by myself, without any purpose.
For monitoring, I use Alesis 520 M1Active (pretty bad if i may say) in an untreated room and a pair of AKG k72 headphones, which I use for referencing. But I prefer working on monitors and my setup is far from ideal.

Here's my submission:

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tku6tp6ad2gvx ... 1.wav?dl=0

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxybcvf4i0xel ... 1.mp3?dl=0

Okay, here’s what i did, I won’t go into too much detail, if you’re interested in something don’t hesitate to reach out:

The Drums:
Pretty standard stuff, I ended up sending the top snare mic to the Aphex Vintage Exciter to get a little bit of that crispy top end. I added some plate reverb on there as well. I sent OH’s to the flanger to make them a little bit more interesting, and then I used BF-76 to parallel compress the drums (everything except the cymbals, i think).

The Bass Guitar:
I duplicated the DI track and added SansAmp, I think I settled on a preset "hollow bass", before readjusting it a tad bit. Then I mixed the two together. After that I sent the mix of the two to the compressor (MV2) and that’s all.

The Guitars:
Didn’t do much here. Some basic eq, a little bit of compression, and a lot of parallel compression. I really like parallel compression on rock guitars. Also, I added some echo to the Solo Guitar.

Lead Vocals:
Again, standard eq, compression. Then I took some eq and made a bandpass filter, without any lows or highs. I added some Manny M distortion to it, since I felt like they needed something and added two Valhalla echos, one synced to 1/16 and the other to ¼.
Backing vocals:
I left pretty much the same chain, except for the bandpass filter, which I removed. And I added some reverb on the Falsetto one. Since I found about this forum yesterday, I didn’t have too much time to mix this song, so there’s not almost any automation done, but I think automation is important, especially on vocals.

I think that’s it. Please feel free to check out my mix and let me know how you feel about it. I think I’m gonna join you guys and become a regular here. Have a good day!

[OctopusOnFire]

First of all, I wanna say hi to everyone! ...

Hi Koki, quick question: Could you elaborate a little bit on why and how did you use the MV2 on the kick and snare? Thanks.

[Koki21]

First of all, I wanna say hi to everyone! ...

Hi Koki, quick question: Could you elaborate a little bit on why and how did you use the MV2 on the kick and snare? Thanks.

Hi Octopus, pleasure to meet you! Sure thing. Let me just say I love the MV2 plug-in, especially on kicks, snares and bass guitars. I've found that it's really good for making something tight and punchy, and that was the idea behind putting it on those tracks. For example on Kick In, I used it to sharpen the high end and the tighten the body and the low end. Same would be for Kick Out, except I used it to tighten the low end (especially the sub frequencies) and to make them punchier and more controlled. As for the Snare Top, I again used it to sharpen the high end and to make it more punchier and able to cut through, while rounding down the body and making it more controlled. As for the Snare Bot, I just used it to get the overall dynamic range tighter and more compact. My secondary objective, as with any compressor, was to control the dyn range and bring out the small nuances and overtones that weren't necessarily coming out. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Studio7]

Hello there,

Here is our Mix for the competition.

Mixed Song:

WAV (48/24):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rz5P0 ... Yi17dFXNkp

MP3 (48/24):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xI65O ... 9M6H80Ia_

Documentation for the MIX:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YAIJT ... RZ50fn-a1K

Mixer SnapShot:



Thanks for listening. May the best Mix win !!!

Thanks,
Nadeem-Rajesh (Studio7)

[EchoOread]

Echooread mix

Thank you for letting us play with your tracks. I really love the song. Hope it shows.

Here is my take on the instruments:

The first thing I do was to take a look at the OH. Not much to do since I liked the way it sounded. I HP up to 180Hz-ish to leave room for the kick/bass and LP to around 6kHz to tame down the sibilance a little. I gave it gentle compression only to catch the peaks and keep it steady. I made a dup of the OH and compressed it hard (parallel) to bring up the dirt under, steady the beat, and squashed the top end even more. I have all I need from the un-compressed one, especially the ride and the cymbals. In the earlier mixes I did, I couldn't hear the ride properly. It took me a couple days just to figured out how to get them back and let it…ride! I can't imagine mixing from 2:17-2:29 w/o it, a rock song is just not the same without the bell/ride driving it forward in some parts, imo. I later ducked the OH out of the way each time the snare (closed mic) hits via side-chain. It seemed to help strengthen the snare somewhat. I'd like it a little thicker, but alas "you can't always get what you want."-(RS)

Next is the kick and the bass (my source of unending sonic misery).

Kicks:
balanced the in and out of the kick and sent them to an aux for processing:

EQ: a boost (1.5dBs) in the 60Hz to get the sub-kick sound, a cut, same amount, at 120Hz, HP to 40Hz to get rid of rumble, LP around 6K (not much useful info up there in a kick to use anyway) to leave room for the hi hat, cymbal, etc, all the while praying at the same time.

Compressor: slow attack and medium release (to get the tail end out of the way and to leave room for the bass), coming down hard at 5:1, 7dBs GR. I paralleled it but hp pass all the way to, sweet Jesus, 1.8kHz. I just wanted the snap. I wanted the kick to sound like the kick from One (Metallica) but a little less bite and attack. This song needs a darker kick. I used the kick in side-chain to control the bass and the tail end of the guitars. It helped show a little muscle behind the beater and clear out the mud-range from the guitars for it, and the bass, to reign supreme down there . The guitars have no business hanging out chilling down there in the lower mid-range region, not when the kick and the bass are in full swing anyway.

Bass:

EQ: HP to 61Hz (the kick is boosting at 60Hz) to get out of the kick's way. A little cut at 500Hz and an octave below it, a little boost at 120Hz to add some meat to it. I almost never boost the bass, only cuts. This time it's an exception, and not without prayers, mind you. In fact, this time I pray quite loudly with some vulgarity thrown purposely in between just to keep the gods' attention.

Compressor: Just want to keep it steady so I did it gently, fast attack/release to catch the peaks, 3:1 keeping it down with only a couple dBs of GR. But I did paralleled it with another one hard and strapped a distortion to it to add some grits, blended to taste. I wanted it to be almost aggressive as the kick. I listened to it in the mix a few times but always felt that the bottom end of my bass somehow sounded flat and lifeless, no matter what I did. The pros's sounds are so good! Why can't I duplicate that…that juiciness that seems to oozing out from the pros' mixes, endlessly, readily, and abundantly. Sigh…Am I in over my head? What can I do beside dipping the bass in unicorn's tears and drying it using a dragon's breath of fire after wiping it with Athena's hairs to make it growl?

As I dragged the flat, lifeless, half dead bass with a long rope behind me around the seven seas seeking a cure for it and hope to learn a few tricks from "men of old and men of renown" (aka dudes from the internet), I remembered someone, in earlier searches, said something about how Andy Wallace always put a chorus on his bass. I tried it, and holy sweet Mary, mother of god, whose kindness upon vulgarity is infinite (hopefully), I could swear on the tits of all the whores on 5th Avenue that it made the bass that much richer, wider, and fatter, and most of all, livelier! (at least to my ears it is anyway). Either that or my ears are complete waste of effort and materials from my Maker. I automated the volume down a little (couple dBs) from 2:29, the transition part, I wanted it to hear the tom instead. This part is where the money is, in my opinion. It sets up the chaos that is to come right after and brings the song to a climax. Worth the attention and time spent on, imo. I am happy with where it sits in the mix right now. But tomorrow is another day, ain't it?

Snare:

lo-shelf just below (180Hz) its fundamental (guessing at 150Hz) to leave room for the kick and bass and a little boost (2dBs) at 150Hz (for meat) and 3dBs at 4.3kHz (for snap) to help it cut thru the mix all the while reminding myself to be mindful of the lo-mid region where I didn't want it to interfere with the higher region of the kick/bass/guitars. I cut a few dBs (100-200Hz) on the kick+bass+guitars where I boosted the snare to compensate. Soft compression, fast attack and medium-long release just to keep it steady and only 2-3dBs of GR. The bulk of the work is passed on to the parallel where I came down on it hard to bring up the sustain and the meat hiding under it. I used it as a controller (in side-chain) to duck the hats/cymbal from the OH down whenever it hits to steal some top end for it to shine. I used a reverb on it with short decay timed with tempo (approx 500ms). I also used it as a controller to duck the guitars out of the way whenever it hit via side-chain.

Toms:

Strapped an R-bass to it to get the lo-end and using it to clam down the kick+bass (paralleled) from 2:30-2:44 via side-chain

Guitars:

I almost always go for the lead guitar first, for it is my salvation in most times. If I had a good lead guitar I am half way there, and it always worked out well for me, even if the rhythm gtrs are not well recorded. Saying this at the risk of earning myself unwanted attention, but, after only one listen, I immediately called my girlfriend and asked her for the possibility of taking a shower tomorrow instead because there would be no actions to be had, at least not from me and not tonight anyhow. I offered her another night with a worthy-of-winning-an-emmy performance to make it up. Desperately in addition, I told her I'd take the whole jar of Viagra just to please her if it comes to that. But sadly, she declined my sincered, not to mention practical, offer and proceeded to giving me the finger instead. She said no. But anyway, after a couple hours wrestling with it to make it sit (I tried that once with a cat. It didn't turn out well) , I ended HP it all the way to, lord have mercy! 750Hz and LP to 7k to make it work for me. And yeah, still no "appointment" for the next actions session from the girlfriend. The calendar is completely emptied for the whole month. Rough month ahead, I tell you, my friends. Now it's just me and the bong. We used to do threesome... but I digress.
I did some gentle compression on the clean gtrs, fast attack and fast release, especially the parts where there's only steady single string picking. I tried to strap an amp after it but I liked it better clean. And they don't diminish the power of the song in anyway, so I kept it "as is." The only thing I did was to HP them to appropriate levels and panned them according to my ears and some…logic. I'd like it to sound like stuffs from AC/DC. I did use some delay on some of the guitars to add some space/ambiance.

Hi hat:

A healthy boost in the 10+kHz region on the hats to get the sizzling of the top end. HP it all the way to 925Hz. A little compression to keep it steady, fast attack, fast release, 3 dBs GR.

The room: medium compression, fast attack, long release. HP all the way to 500Hz and LP down to 8k.

The vocal: Very little processing. HP to 130Hz and compress 2:1, fairly high threshold, fast attack and medium release, with only 2-3dBs of GR, add delays at various parts of the song to emphasize and draw attention. Parallel the vocal with a flanger and fuzz-wah and a long delay (½ note) panned to the left to counter the guitar part on the right in the transition part just before the end part to add more to the chaos that is inherent within the song. I used the vocal in side-chain to control the guitars.

I mixed this song with AC/DC (guitars) and Metallica (drums) in mind and fully loaded. Hope you like it. Thanks.

MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PWBRh ... vGRPBA490P
Wave: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kOZ3E ... P5_3lpRaAK