MIX CHALLENGE - MC052 March 2019 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder on the Rules and Guidelines:

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	Please take note of the following IMPORTANT: It is mandatory to provide WAV files, files need to be accessible/downloadable, try to work within suitable work levels (the focus of this game is "mixing", not mixing and finalizing), document your edits (ideally with screenshots), name the files properly to distinguish your edit from all others. IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention: MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestanttName.wav MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestanttName_R2.wav for those that go into Mix Round 2 please only upload to cloud storage spaces from now on (DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc). Please consult the official "Rules and Gudelines" regarding Upload and Submission Guidelines It is highly encouraged to give feedback to each other, to share tips and tricks. Ideally, this should happen after Mix Round 1 has ended, to not influence each other during the main competition round

To all participants, especially the new ones:
For the Mix(ing) Challenge, please do not upload to SoundCloud anymore. Not only does SoundCloud affect the sound quality of the material you upload, most of the time it also lacks proper credits and implies that you created the production instead of the song provider. This has no affect on the Songwriting Competition, as the rule set is different.

Please get acquainted with the Rules and Guidelines again.

[kirurg]

Hello,

Thank you, Olly Audio.
This is my version.


Added some spatial/ambience to the pads (UAD K-Stereo). On fx tracks tried a freeware Sennheiser's
spatial processing plugin. Bass track has harmonic distortion added (brings out midrange a bit), also compressed and
sidechain compressed vs kick. To the couple tracks added Eventide Blackhole. And other stuff is compression and eq (almost every track),
using Acustica Audio's Purple, EL Rey, SAND. Also DMG eq for more precise cutting.

Downloadable here:
Wav
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xzppe2i220tcu ... g.wav?dl=0

Mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/txalu0cemyeko ... g.mp3?dl=0

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your mix.

[Mojo21]

https://soundcloud.com/user-655705644/o ... sand-world

[maxovrdrive]

Hi everyone... this is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I shall try.

My mix:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qOV9Q ... F0f-mWGgP2

MIX NOTES:
808
- eq into transcient plugin into compression

SNARE AUX (compression into eq)
- snare 1: eq into compression
- snare 2: eq

PERC 1
- eq into filter plugin for character
PERC 2
- eq into compression
- character plugin into imaging
- air eq

GUITAR EMU DRY
- eq
LEAD GUITAR DIST
- eq into filter
- reverb
FLUTE
- eq

Lead EFX Sidechain
- eq into plate
Pad Synth Comby
- eq into imager then plate
Athmo Texture
- eq into imager
Synth Drive control dry
- eq into imager
SFX
- both dry, no plugins

BASS
- on parallel maxbass for small speakers; blended in
BASS DRY
- eq
METALLIC BASS DRY
- eq
- on parallel saturation
BASS BUSS
- eq into compression

DRUM BUSS
- compression into eq
- saturation into eq
- feeding a parallel channel; distortion into eq

MASTER BUSS
- up to 1.5dB compression @ 2:1 with dry mix at -12dB
- phase correction (mono low frequencies)
- air added

[Mojo21]

My mix

Waves SSL Channel strip on every track and ssl buss compressor + limiter on my master buss

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1u1EqQ ... -LyLGRI8rs

[Koki21]

Hey guys,

Thanks Olly for this amazing composition. It really is unique in every way.

Here's my submission:

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9nn7u8x2xo84 ... 1.wav?dl=0

Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0q91c7dmk308l ... 1.mp3?dl=0

I had no idea what to expect of this track, I usually avoid listening to the preview and the original mix, so when I first pressed play I was a little bit surprised. I realized that there's a lot of clashing of frequencies, especially in the high mid range. So I decided to take an unusual approach: I started with the pink noise mixing technique (if someone's not aware of it, you can google it), I used it just to set up the starting levels and to make the track less chaotic. This was a great starting point, however I did change a lot of levels later.

Then I started "producing" the track. I mean most of the decisions I made were creative e.g. placement in the mix, reverbs, echos, effects. etc. I did only a small bit of actual mixing, which was comprised of low cuts, compressing where needed and a few EQ moves here and there. So, the most of the "mixing" was done to achieve a certain sound instead of the usual tonal balancing.

I first started by created a SANS Amp duplicate of the bass track with a lot of distortion, which I ended up not having in the final mix, but sending to the "Bass Reverb" buss, which had D-Verb Hall reverb on it. I ended up using both of the flute tracks, with a lot of EQuing to remove nasally mid frequencies that were poking out. I also put some Kramer Tape to smooth out the frequency response and some distortion with a flanger on one that was pitch shifted.

I spend the most of my time on the two snares. I introduced a sans amp distortion on the one in the verse, and used the two tracks in stereo. The snare in the chorus was mono, which I EQed to be as agressive as possible and added a hall reverb to make it sound huge. As I've said the rest of the instruments had only a little of EQ and compression. I took a lot of time automating reverb and delay sends, also volume riding to make the track more interesting. That is what I dedicated most of my time to. I've included screenshots that I've uploaded to dropbox.

Screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wlxkxm14ohc2 ... Cixha?dl=0

On the master bus, I had only an Izotope Ozone plug in with Mid/Side EQ switched in ( I posted a topic on the forum to see if that was okay, and Mister Fox suggested some workarounds, which I didn't find as efficient- or I was just too lazy). The only thing this was doing is cutting everything below 80hz on the sides, as I felt like there was some phase issues/muddiness problems with the lower register. This resulted in the bass frequencies being mono only.

For the end, I decided to run the mix through my own custom made passive summing buss, as I wanted to smooth out the high-mid frequencies which were caused by digital synthesis of some instruments. The sound of this summing buss is most similar to the Soundcraft Ghost, so it was nice to have some natural, analog "roll-off" and introduce some color.

[copyc4t]

Hi all, here's my mix:

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bt9apv9e7d6en ... t.wav?dl=0

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c6d1vlvjrjnff ... t.mp3?dl=0

Screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0816mvsg3jjd ... 1.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jm8322darz2yt ... 2.png?dl=0

As the screenshots show, most of the extra treatment is on drums, basses, and guitars; the kick drives the typical sidechain compression. The kick and synth snare have also been slightly retuned. A pulsator drives the panning on the distorted guitar.

The drum bus has gentle compression and a little reverb for glue.

EQ is quite drastic on all tracks, with filters, shelves, bumps (and notches to lessen the tuned part of kick and snare), all focused on tone shaping.

The mix bus only has a further EQ for tone shaping, and the meters.

The mix is done on Ardour, with plugins mostly from the Calf Studio Gear and Guitarix suites, plus Rubber Band Stereo Pitch Shifter by Breakfast Quay, GStereo by GVST, DR14 meter by Robin Gareus, LUFS Meter by Klangfreund.

[3ee]

Cool song for this month, started work on my mix today.

"No rearrangement or pitch shifting of the song structure, with the exception of the following add-on rules"

I need to re-pitch the kick drum about 1 semi-tone, is that permitted? Reason being it really sounds bad when saturation/dist is added cause it's not in tune with the song..

[FeedTheStudios]

Thanks to Mix Challenge for the opportunity and Olly Audio for providing this interesting and challenging piece!
Here's my submission:

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1behpfg ... sp=sharing
MP3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HorPbb ... sp=sharing

808 is two channels, the original pulled down in level and a copy with the tail shortened and transients augmented to control the heavy bass going on.
Eq's are to attenuate the extreme bass found in the original. The original is compressed in sidechain with the attack-heavy version to allow for control.


both percussions are compressed for consistent mid-freqs response. The first percussion is sidechained to the attack-heavy kick so to reduce rumble of both kicks going on at the same time. Both have high-pass filters to avoid rumble with main bassdrum.


Snare marshe is EQ'd to remove resonances, gated to mitigate said resonances, engineers filter to remove completely low frequencies and transient shaping. A saturated version is added behind the original for a bit of support. Snare synthetic TR was left as is.



Hihats were de-essed for harsh highs

Bass was heavily processed for unstable frequency response, to achieve a more consistent and centered low end. Also, bass was divided in sub and high frequencies for sidechaining with kick to reduce rumble without affecting presence. Low freqs were rolled off from 70hz to accommodate kick.


Synth drive, metal bass, guitar emu dune, lead guitar, athmo texture were slightly sidechained to make room for 808's click. Guitars were processed for removal of resonances and consisten mid-lows response. Metal bass was bass-centered.


Both flute tracks were used. High pithced flute was reduced in volume just for presence behind low pitched flute. Low pitched flute was heavily processed to reduce harsh resonances and consistent response through the full spectrum. Lead EFX sidechain was compressed to even out loud portions (audiotrack used only for gain automation before fader)


Three busses were used for Main reverb, delay, and snare ambiance


Master bus: Eq only for +3dB at 13kHz, C4 for peak control and tonal balance, Emo-F2 only for predrop effect, VU Metering, PAZ Freq analyzer, YOulean loudness for metering and sonarworks for frequency response on monitoring (was left bypassed on export). Built-in tape drive used