MIX CHALLENGE - MC055 June 2019 - Winners announced

[EzekielTiran]

Hello everyone!
I would first like to say thank you to the organizers making this contest possible!
Here is my submission

HQ WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XKJDHg ... sp=sharing

Isolated repair in the first verse vocal: Izotope De-reverb
Re-amped and blended Guitar DI's with my own amp plugins.
Other mix element processing was Fabfilter Pro Q3 and Izotope neutron.
Added vocal automation for vocal reverb and slap delay in chorus.

[TomImmon]

Hello,
this is my first participation here. I hope I have followed all the rules. Since I'm from Berlin, it was a great pleasure for me to mix this great German song. For reference songs I have used songs from "Juli", "Silbermond" and "Wir sind Helden".

WAV, 44.1khz, 32bit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18A1rZl ... sp=sharing

MP3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RECfi9 ... sp=sharing


Mixing: All the rooms on the recordings had strong resonances, which I have worked on with Sonible Proximity EQ. In particular, that was necessary in the vocal tracks.

I mixed on Presonus Studio One 4.5. Monitors: nEar 05 from ESI and Visaton NF400. (Near field monitors, which existed anno 1995 ;-))

Drums:
All tracks were gated. Waves Q10 and Sonible SmartEQ were used as subtractive EQs. Additive EQs were made using SSL E Channel (Waves). All drum tracks were pretreated with Softube Tape (for the Analog Touch).

Kick was compressed with C6 Waves. Snare also, but it was also used the Kramer PIE.

On the snare i also worked with additional saturation using XCTR Audio Assault.

Toms: Nothing special. Dermatologically subtle eq.

OH: This was processed with Scheps Omini Channel. Slight compression and some saturation + de-essing against harsh frequencies.

HH: Lots of tape saturation.

Room: Smash compressor with Lindell 354E

Drumbus: Here I have misappropriated the Abbey Road TG (waves). Since it offers tape saturation, very good sounding filters and a music-rich compressoor / limiter, it‘s fits very well. In addition, I made the drum kit a bit wider with a gentle M / S with bx_solo.

The drums were additionally processed via a parallel compression with Kramer PIE

Bass: I used theprovided amp sound and compressed it with bx_opto. In addition, SPL VItalizer for a bit sub bass.

Guitars: I used the original amps. The steroid sides each work a bit differently. Compression was done with bx_opto and AcmeOptical.

Vocals: All tracks worked similarly: Proximity EQ against room nodes. Tape, limiter ande with Abbey Road TG. By means of bx_stereomaker the main vocals were made a bit wider. Discreet use of the vitalizer for the "air"

Reverbs: Drum room with Abbey Road Chamber. Main room with 480L medium hall simulation. Snare also got ER program from REV7 simulation. Guitars and vocals have just gotten a tiny portion of the main hall. Complex delays on vocals.

Master bus: According to the rules, I have only used a basic setup. Lightweight compression for the glue with SSL bus compressor (Waves). Some tape satuaration for silky heights, concentration of bass in the middle by EQ in MS (both with the Abbey Road TG).

Edit 06/21/2019: I used no drum samples and mixed to -18 LUFS

Greetings from Berlin
Tom

[finnishcharm]

Hello everyone! I just found about this forum a couple weeks ago and I have to say – as someone who hopes to get into the world of mixing someday – it’s a fantastic opportunity for development, kudos to all the people who keep this thing floating So here’s my take on “Kann schon sein” (I did my best to follow all the rules):

MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BRJxR ... Ue2y2sQcR2
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P6maz ... rfTtQ8HVOb

A few notes:
- I was determined not to overcompress anything and actually kept backing off all the ratios and thresholds as I moved along in the process. For drums, I normally like to use two compressors in series plus a touch of parallel compression
- The swing in the drums is really neat and it instantly made me think of Stewart Copeland’s work with The Police (anyone else got this “Walking on the moon” vibe? ), which is why I tried to incorporate a bit of a reggae-ish sound in the beginning of the second verse with reverbs and delays
- Initially I had some difficulties in taming the hi-hat and came up with an idea of sidechaining the overheads with a cloned hi-hat signal (set to pre-fade and turned to zero). I also doubled the snare, with the first track having a more natural sound and the other one quite heavily gated and compressed to provide snap, bottom end and air
- I didn’t reamp any of the guitars or the bass as I found them to be quite fitting – when it comes to the guitars, I merely did some EQ, compression and gave them more bite with a saturation plugin. With the bass, I used both miced and DI signal with a touch of chorus to widen it a little bit and a SansAmp simulator (TSE BOD) to give it more grit and blend it with the guitars.
- When it comes to vocals, it was just simple compression, notching out all undesired frequencies and slapback delay+reverb
- Not much done on the sum really, again a tiny bit of compression and plugin magic (Nasty VCS!) to glue everything together (the meter barely moved ), and also a trace amount of reverb

Sooo that's all, I think. Had a blast mixing it!

[Dodgingrain]

Here are mine:
wav: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrjYxp9dRPkGTT7olf8w
mp3: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrjYxoPb499Mm--Ovhbg

As far as the mix there is a lot of eq work to try and get stuff to fit without masking other elements. The bass has eq work to let the kick come through, the guitars have low end dropped off so the bass comes through. The vocals have some of the low end taken out so they don't sound muddy. The backing vocals have some of their high end taken out so that they reinforce the vocals without distracting from them. The lead vocals also have some eq and volume automation to try and make the parts fit together better and feel more like one take. The lead vocals also have some slap delay and another very short delay to give them more depth. The guitars have doubles panned to the other side with some eq work to widen them out. The vocals duck the guitars in the center to make sure there is enough space. The kick also ducks the bass just a little bit so it hits through the busy parts of the songs. The kick also has a parallel compression track to try and make it hit harder.
Hope it sounds ok.

[Jesco]

Hello All,

This is my first mix off! Thanks to Mr. Fox for running this amazing opportunity.

Mp3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M9hvt ... Onk_Xb2MaU
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xx821 ... s200iQzx7d

I used the Scheps Omni Channel on almost all the tracks. I got this recently and like to convenience of it. I used a CLA76 for instances of parallel compression on vox, drums, bass. I used a tiny amount of Abbey Road Plate on the BV and snare. I used a 16th note delay on the lead vox. The lead vox and bass got a bit of volume automation. I used the original guitar tracks (I'm pretty sure those are not DI guitar tracks, so I'm interested to hear the results of people re-amping them). I put a CLA76 on the rear buss and ran everything except the drums through it. On the mix buss I have a Waves API2 2500 taking almost nothing off, maybe 1 db. Then I have a Puigchild taking another 1-2 dbs. Thats it.

This was an interesting experience. I completed a mix fairly quickly that I was happy with, then I pulled in some of the submitted tracks and I heard one that had more guitar, and I thought, "Oh, I need more guitar" and that set off a can off worms and I feel like I never got back to the place where I was happy with it. I should have used new alternatives in Logic, but I thought I was making minor adjustments. In the end, I feel like my mix is over compressed. I don't really record or mix hard rock music, so this was a fun learning experience.

Jesco

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8gp10hga0cev ... m.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/16jbfcghgs6tc ... m.wav?dl=0

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

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[Christian Lay]

Hello,
here's my mix.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iIo_W ... 0f3gbd9xRM

I have only taken the existing tracks and nothing re-amped.
I worked on every channel with the SSL-E-Channel from brainworks. I love this plugin and use it almost exclusively.
Bass drum and snare also went through a Waves CLA-76.
On BassDrum and Bass I added the Waves C6 to control the bass frequencies.

Christian

[tiptoe3]

hi,
did a mix and tried RX on the vocal part. Nice stuff you could do with that. Nothing special on the rest. Waves E channel on everything, reamped two guitars, sansamp on bass and a real SSL GFX o the bus. That´s it.

https://c.gmx.net/@317237882228053658/9 ... 6s2VT7ARCA

cheers, tippy

[maxovrdrive]

Hello everyone... here's my mix for this month's challenge.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gl6eO ... VGk9_f5CtL

/////
Kick
- eq then combined in an aux channel; compression into eq
- parallel channel for kick out; compression into eq
Snare
- no processing on individual tracks; combined to an aux channel
- snare aux channel; eq / transcient adjusted / compression into eq
- snare aux channel sent to parallel channel (compression into eq)
Toms
- eq on all individual channels then combined to an aux channel
- toms aux channel; eq into compression, then transients adjusted
Cymbals
- hi pass on individual channels then combined into aux channel
- cymbals aux channel; de-esser into eq
Room
- no processing on individual channels then combined into aux channel
- room aux channel has compression into de-esser then into dynamic eq
Drums
- all drums into this aux channel for compression, eq, saturation
Bass
- DI channel has a overdrive plugin; parallel fatener used
- amp has no processing
- combined into aux channel; eq into compression into eq
All Git Amps used
- only Git 5 Amp has EQ
- Git 3 & 4 DI used with guitar amp plugins; recombined with original Amp channels
- all guitar channels into an aux channel; dynamic eq
All BVox
- no processing on individual channels; sent to aux channel
- BVos aux channel; thickening into EQ; into vitalizer
LVox combined into aux channel
- no individual processing
- LVox channel de-esser into eq into compression into exciter
/////

[Jonssin Musiikki]

This is my mix
Wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n3FmPY ... p=drivesdk
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nGkbJ ... nzMF0NCFy-

Drums
all close mic's are gated
Kick, toms and snare are sended to paraller compression that's automated mute / solo through out song
all drums have some sort of EQ:ing going on and compression
Snare and toms are send to drums reverb

Bass:
First eq cutting lows -> Devil-loc for compression and another eq to bring lows back
send paraller aux with distortion (again with mute automation)

Guitars:
All have some added saturation from Scheps omni channel, and eq
Amp3&4 some multiband compression on mids, added some flanger to low mid's.

Amp5 have some added tempo synced pinpong delay and plate reverb.

BG vocs
no processing in invidual channels
on bus:
De-essing -> Scheps with saturation and eq -> touch of microshifting -> cla-76 pretty much killing all the dynamics -> Reverb -> and equing against lead vox

Lead:
First SOC only touch of saturation -> RChannel with touch of compression and eq to some nasty freqs and high passing
Cla-76 doing 5-6db gr de-essing and some VComp for tone after that sent to various auxes:
EQ: adding some air at certain parts
Reverb: reverb with touch of compression thats sidechained
Delay: Autotune feeding delay (16th notes)
Distortion: De-esser killing all sibilance -> trash 2 bandpassed through 5-11k -> Cla76
and paraller comp with cla-76 pumping
all send are automated volume wise
and all these are sended to lead vocal bus that have touch of microshift and light compression
and vocal rider sidechained on AllVox out (LeadVoc and BGVoc) to instrumental and some hand drawed automation
on masterbus
SSL compression for glue-> eq->Waves NLS -> Tape saturation and Waves vitamin to add some 6k

And loudness
-4.5 Truepeak
21 LUFS