MIX CHALLENGE - MC051 February 2019 - Winners announced

[OctopusOnFire]

Kudos for the client work Moa22, and thanks for selecting my entry for the next phase! I'll see if I can smooth & warm it up without screwing too much with the other aspects of the mix.

[Drumwizard]

WOW!..
MOA22, it's very impressive how you mixed our mixes!
Thank you!

[Nightmare]

Than you MOA22 for putting all this work into the feedback!

And congratulation to all round 2 participants

[Mork]

Yeah MOA22, thanks for all the work and especially the song! Still love it!
Unfortunately I am away until Friday evening and most kindly and humbly ask for one additional day (for all of us, of course). Otherwise I'll try and give it the good ol' last minute fix.

Cheers
Mork

[MOA22]

Even a small improvement will count ! I am ok for an extra day, but M Fox has to confirm it !

[OctopusOnFire]

WAV: https://soundcloud.com/user-86312367/mc ... av/s-SQUNm
MP3: https://soundcloud.com/user-86312367/mc ... v2/s-sqDOe

So, I addressed the tonal balance issues in the voice and in the 2buss, also a little adjustment in the bass.

When I compare it with v1 it sounds much less collapsed in the middle. The voice is a tad louder as you asked, but mostly because the nasally, congested character is gone and replaced with much more body. It sounds deeper too. This also made the guitars wider, less drawn to the middle by the voice, and more defined.

Here are the changes:


PurestSquish is a very subtle compressor that I used mostly for the Bass Bloom feature. It allows low freqs to pass in a very natural, smooth way and blends it with the compressed signal.
TDR dyn EQ: boosted (not much) around 120 and set a HPF around 50HZ. There's also a LPF around 30k and a little dyn notch around 10k for some rogue sibilants (not in the screenshot)
Fromtape: Increased a little bit the Softer and Weight parameters to make it less abrasive in the highs.

I also placed the de-esser before the EQ (after taking the ss)


And on the 2bus:



PurestSquish: idgaf how it looks, it sounds great.
Capacitor: A HPF around 20-30Hz.
Bite: Added a pinch of bite (the middle bar is 0, you can add or subtract)


TL;DR I tried to add subs in the smoothest way possible, addressing the voice firstly, giving it space and then addressing the whole mix. If you switch it to v1 the low end seems to go away, and the nasal, aggressive tone comes forward. Back to v2, everything comes forward, not louder but with more body and presence. Still, I think the changes are subtle enough to avoid messing up all the other aspects of the mix.



Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed mixing it. (A lot ofc)

[Mister Fox]

Even a small improvement will count ! I am ok for an extra day, but M Fox has to confirm it !

You know what - why not? I didn't see MOA22's evaluation post before I went to bed, so I was thinking about "rounding up" anyway. So here goes...



Mix Round 2 has been extended until Saturday, 09-MAR-2019 11:59pm GMT+1/CET

I'll announce that on social media on 12:10am

[Koki21]

I'd like to say thanks to all of you guys, to Mister Fox and especially to MOA22 who actually took the time to provide feedback to each of us.I couldn't even imagine ranking them, especially since there were a lot of really good mixes. To my colleagues that advanced to the second round I want to say good job and good luck! *mortal kombat theme song plays in the background*

Here are the files:

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/848n3rp6zwgvj ... 2.wav?dl=0

Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hpeeefdo3bg8 ... 2.mp3?dl=0

Here's what I did:
I've followed David's advice and backed off with the compressors on the snare and kick. Also, I've lowered the echo that was used for the vocals. After that I've turned my attention to guitars. I've added some mid range to both of the guitars (on the rhythm it was 700 hz and on the right guitar it was 1.5, I think), and decided to add some low end to them as well. I think this completely changed the feel of the song. In the first round I went for the classic AC/DC guitar sounds, with prominent high mid range, and now I've made them dirty and low end heavy, something more like Queens of the Stone Age. After that I felt like the snare lost the impact so I've added some bottom end to it, as well (couple of dB at 100 hz), and made it a bit louder. Also, I've decided to bring back a little bit of the Kick In back to the Kick mix, so it has a little more of the top end (Now Kick in is at -4, and kick out remained at 0 - check out my screenshots from R1). Also, I've panned the backing vocals all the way, to make the chorus a little bit wider. Oh, and I've added an SSL compressor on the main buss, just to glue things a little bit together. Ratio 2:1, slow attack, slow release, just barely compressing at all. I think that's it. The most drastic things I did was the EQ on the guitars that really changed the feel of the song, other than that it was mostly a matter of balance - I've lowered the vocals, increased the guitars and the snare. If you want to compare this one to my previous mix, keep in mind that this one is a little bit louder (I'd say by 2 dBs). Have a good day!

[Koki21]

Hey, Emil.

I was just listening to your entry and I noticed how good the drums are, I especially the kick and the hi-hat! Do you remember doing anything special on that hi-hat? Sounds really good!

Hello everyone,

I would like to congratulate all those who have applied for the competition, especially those who have gone to the second round.

In the second round I tried to hold the advice that you gave me.

I boosted the 160Hz on the snare by 1.7 dB , and I turned down the reverb a little bit. I also shortened the length of the reverb.

In order for the first solo to sit better in the mix I did a little bit more compression and added a little subtle delay.

For the verse vocals i chose to turn on the input gain so the 1176 do the job to put the vocal little bit in front.

It was really fun to mix this song.

Good luck and let the best win

Here is my mix: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CPyiU ... 3Jbe8Bzs65

best regards
Emil

[Mork]

Even a small improvement will count ! I am ok for an extra day, but M Fox has to confirm it !

You know what - why not? I didn't see MOA22's evaluation post before I went to bed, so I was thinking about "rounding up" anyway. So here goes...



Mix Round 2 has been extended until Saturday, 09-MAR-2019 11:59pm GMT+1/CET

I'll announce that on social media on 12:10am

YAAAAAY!
It will be a wonderful Saturday of mixing... and maybe some beering

Thanks a million!