MIX CHALLENGE - MC054 May 2019 - Winners announced

[delicate]

You've joined 4 games at this point, you should be aware of the rule set. Please re-educate yourself.

I'm giving you one final pass on this. As of MC055 - no more exceptions.

Got it!

[JulienMeirone]

Hello,

here my mix for this challenge and thanks you for your feedback.

WAV : https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2x9s2gx0pnd5 ... t.wav?dl=0

MP3 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/h921vyj0vu5i4 ... t.mp3?dl=0

For this mix, i did mainly :

Drums :

DBX 160 compressor on kick and snare, arousor on the kit with some fabfilter q3

Bass :

PSA distorion, and fabfilter C2 for the comp

Keys :

Filtering, cla 3a, fabfilter saturn

Sax & Trumpet :

Smart eq, cla 2a and a bit of L2

Vocals :

fabfilter DS, Q3 , MB and C2 with maag eq 2

Mixbus :

VMR, psp oldtimer, bX digital V3 and satin

[bluesation]

Hi,

I love that song, one of best here in the challenge.

There were no special activities necessary. For Drums i used some 160 Compressor for kick and snare. I dropped out the room track and added some room reverb. All the drum tracks were gated cause of the noise of other parts of the drumset.
For base some basic EQing, and some dirt. Alle other track got some EQ to make space for other instruments and vocals and some normal compression. All got some reverb, horns and vocals also got a bit of delay. At masterbus, there is only a buscompressor to glue.


wav: Sorry Anyway
mp3: Sorry Anyway

[fogle622]

Hello all,

I'm new to audio production and mixing. They are my hobby and not my business. So I am much more a lurker versus a contributor. Although I haven't contributed a mix I'm enjoying listening to the contest song and mixes so much I'd like to comment on the mixes submitted to date in Mix Challenge 054.

First, what a great song. The song, arrangement and particularly Chris's vocal performance are easy to listen to. My ears haven't become tired even after repeated listening to each mix.

Delicate's submission was first out of the gate. As noted by others the volume level is hotter than the other submissions. I did have to lower my listening level to accommodate the mix. That's unfortunate but no need to harp on it since everyone else has.

I appreciate Delicate's detailed post. I don't know if that's because he processed more or just provided more depth than others but the post helps inform me.

Delicate's mix seems "bright" to me when compared to the sample and other mixes. I can hear the high hat, cymbal, cymbal bell l and horns more clear than I can in the other mixes. It also seems to highlight the guitar better. However, the horns seem almost too bright to almost harsh. I like how Delicate tried to place the keyboard more in the background. That's a decision I agree with but I think it has faded a little too far into the background. Although the electric bass fits well in the mix, the kick drum has almost disappeared. A little bit of pop would go a long way toward elevating Delicate's mix.

I think the vocal is the most important track in this song and I like how the vocal sounds in Delicate's mix.

All in all a really good sounding mix.

Next up was francobhalla. My immediate impression was the overall sound was a little muddy. The high hat, cymbals and horns are present but they do not sound crisp. On the other hand the snare sounds great and during the chorus the kick drum has the pop I want to hear. Sometimes the horn instrumentation seems to overpower the lead vocal. The keyboard sound is good and doesn't overpower the vocal. The mix needs more high end content to maintain the fun and excitement throughout the mix. I appreciate reading what DAW, monitors and interface were used but I wish more information was available about the decisions, steps and software tools used to create the mix.

Then there is JulienMeirone. The high end is there but there is never any harshness. I can clearly hear every high hat hit. The tom tom hits have their moment. The horns are more in the background. I don't like the decision to put delay on the background vocals but it works on the second tom tom roll. It seems the longer the song the more the lead vocal gets moved into the background. The bass and keyboard are more in the background when compared to the other mixes. The background vocals are too prominent for my taste. The doubling detracts from the power of the lead vocal. I like the kick bass on this mix but still wish it was a little more to the forefront and had a little more pop to it. In my mind, JulienMeirone submitted the most commercial sounding mix so far.

Finally there is bluesation. Unlike the other mixes, his cloud provider does not include a player so the file must be downloaded. That takes away the ability to compare like for like because I assume my player may color the sound and default to a different volume level than the online players, but maybe not. It's just another difference for me to keep in mind.

I believe this is the cleanest sounding mix. I HATE the delay on the vocal, especially during the chorus. It's a decision that just doesn't work and detracts from the song. Maybe if the delay volume level was lowered so it was more into the background, almost where it was subliminal. Presently, it's just an effect hook that doesn't work (for me) and doesn't match this type of song. The bass sounds good but, other than the high hat hits in the beginning, the drums are WAY too far into the background. I do like how the focus remains on the vocal throughout the song.

So, there's my thoughts after multiple listens to each mix. There's a lot to like in each mix. It's strange (to me) how each mix places the focus on different instrumentation to maintain a balance. If I was the client, I'd want a little bit of magic from each mix combined into one, powerful mix. The client has some difficult decisions to make.

I hope everyone will receive my comments in the spirit they were given. You've all created a much better mix than I can. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to listen and learn.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I listened to the WAV files, not the MP3 files. My goal was to listen to the mixes as close to the source material as possible. I consider compressing the mixed file as a task performed while preparing an audio file for distribution. In that sense compressing is more of a mastering task than mixing task. I did not want a mastering task coloring my mix listening .

JulienMeirone, thanks for your comment. I realize you can't resubmit your mix to the contest but will you post a link so interested parties can listen to the changes?

[isaac yom]

wav
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3udh4q82ctvj ... m.wav?dl=0

mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wvay834dui2th ... m.mp3?dl=0

it was fun to mix this song, so, thank you for the song.
i always find brasses to be hard thing to deal with but i figured that just an eq and a compressor was all i needed basically,
then the eventide h910 helped me to sort of fatten it up.
uad's echoplex feeding into the reverb was another thing that i tried on this mix which was fun.

[JulienMeirone]

Nice fogle622 and tx for the feedback, fun fact i had a doubt about the delay on the backin vocals too ^^. Just updated my mix .

Hello all,

I'm new to audio production and mixing. They are my hobby and not my business. So I am much more a lurker versus a contributor. Although I haven't contributed a mix I'm enjoying listening to the contest song and mixes so much I'd like to comment on the mixes submitted to date in Mix Challenge 054.

First, what a great song. The song, arrangement and particularly Chris's vocal performance are easy to listen to. My ears haven't become tired even after repeated listening to each mix.

Delicate's submission was first out of the gate. As noted by others the volume level is hotter than the other submissions. I did have to lower my listening level to accommodate the mix. That's unfortunate but no need to harp on it since everyone else has.

I appreciate Delicate's detailed post. I don't know if that's because he processed more or just provided more depth than others but the post helps inform me.

Delicate's mix seems "bright" to me when compared to the sample and other mixes. I can hear the high hat, cymbal, cymbal bell l and horns more clear than I can in the other mixes. It also seems to highlight the guitar better. However, the horns seem almost too bright to almost harsh. I like how Delicate tried to place the keyboard more in the background. That's a decision I agree with but I think it has faded a little too far into the background. Although the electric bass fits well in the mix, the kick drum has almost disappeared. A little bit of pop would go a long way toward elevating Delicate's mix.

I think the vocal is the most important track in this song and I like how the vocal sounds in Delicate's mix.

All in all a really good sounding mix.

Next up was francobhalla. My immediate impression was the overall sound was a little muddy. The high hat, cymbals and horns are present but they do not sound crisp. On the other hand the snare sounds great and during the chorus the kick drum has the pop I want to hear. Sometimes the horn instrumentation seems to overpower the lead vocal. The keyboard sound is good and doesn't overpower the vocal. The mix needs more high end content to maintain the fun and excitement throughout the mix. I appreciate reading what DAW, monitors and interface were used but I wish more information was available about the decisions, steps and software tools used to create the mix.

Then there is JulienMeirone. The high end is there but there is never any harshness. I can clearly hear every high hat hit. The tom tom hits have their moment. The horns are more in the background. I don't like the decision to put delay on the background vocals but it works on the second tom tom roll. It seems the longer the song the more the lead vocal gets moved into the background. The bass and keyboard are more in the background when compared to the other mixes. The background vocals are too prominent for my taste. The doubling detracts from the power of the lead vocal. I like the kick bass on this mix but still wish it was a little more to the forefront and had a little more pop to it. In my mind, JulienMeirone submitted the most commercial sounding mix so far.

Finally there is bluesation. Unlike the other mixes, his cloud provider does not include a player so the file must be downloaded. That takes away the ability to compare like for like because I assume my player may color the sound and default to a different volume level than the online players, but maybe not. It's just another difference for me to keep in mind.

I believe this is the cleanest sounding mix. I HATE the delay on the vocal, especially during the chorus. It's a decision that just doesn't work and detracts from the song. Maybe if the delay volume level was lowered so it was more into the background, almost where it was subliminal. Presently, it's just an effect hook that doesn't work (for me) and doesn't match this type of song. The bass sounds good but, other than the high hat hits in the beginning, the drums are WAY too far into the background. I do like how the focus remains on the vocal throughout the song.

So, there's my thoughts after multiple listens to each mix. There's a lot to like in each mix. It's strange (to me) how each mix places the focus on different instrumentation to maintain a balance. If I was the client, I'd want a little bit of magic from each mix combined into one, powerful mix. The client has some difficult decisions to make.

I hope everyone will receive my comments in the spirit they were given. You've all created a much better mix than I can. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to listen and learn.

[stu b]

Thanks for the tracks UprightJoe, had fun with this.
The way I mix makes it difficult for me to give many details, I jump all over the place making minor adjustments then print as I go, ending up with a ton of 'save as' sessions, ditto screenshots, would be a million of 'em. Anyway, here's what I used
All tracks have FF Pro, Slate VCC, Tape and Decapitator. I think everything except bass and keys went through Devil Loc Deluxe. Plus the following.
Drum buss - Kramer Pie, and Slate Stress in parallel.
Kick - Slate CS Lift and Sie-Q for high end. RBass and MV2. JST Tominator for a gate.
Snare - CS Lift, MV2, RBass for some lows. Would've slipped a low tuned sample in too, but...
Toms - Tweaked Slate VMR presets and GClip.
Hats - Nova TDR for eq and controlling the highs.
Overheads - Slate FG 401 for compression, TDR for eq and controlling the highs.
Room -Tweaked VMR preset. Crushed with lots of subtractive eq.
Bass - MV2, Slate Bomber, Slate Stress, STA Level.
Guitar - Slate FG 116 comp, Slate Neve eq, Sie-Q. Echoboy.
Keys - Sidechained to snare. FG 116 comp, MV2. Echoboy.
Sax and Trumpet - Sidechained to lead voc. FG 116 comp, Slate Neve eq, bussed to an MJUC for comp, TDR for the upper mids control, Echoboy.
Solo trumpet - TDR to control the upper mids, Slate Stress, Echoboy.
Vocals - Lots of volume automation then Elosis de-esser, MV2, Slate Stress and Bomber, Echoboy x 2.
Mix Buss - Slate Bomber, VCC, Neve eq, CS Lift, FG-MU comp, Stress, Tape, KClip.
Waves H-Verb on a send to most things.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zv5atdixt4or ... v.wav?dl=0

[Mister Fox]

Just updated my mix .

Please re-educate yourself on the Rules and Guidelines:
[moderate="Mister Fox - quote from Rules for participants of the Mix Challenge"]
We do recommend to not send in your mix within the first 24 hours of the Challenge. Take a day off, give your ears time to relax, take another listen the next day. Your entry is final - no re-submissions with changes allowed unless you're selected for Mix Round 2[/moderate]



One more time - and I (sadly) have to draw a line with this one:
Every violation of the known and very detailed rule set, especially to longtime participants, will result in an instant disqualification.

[Mister Fox]

Mix Buss - Slate Bomber, VCC, Neve eq, CS Lift, FG-MU comp, Stress, Tape, KClip.

Excuse me asking but... is this a pseudo mastering chain?

See:
Mix Challenge - Rules and Guidelines Addendum: Summing Bus Treatment

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your edit.