MIX CHALLENGE - MC054 May 2019 - Winners announced

[harry Kuuchi]

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[/media][/media]/Users/drakesimmons/Desktop/MC054_thejilters_sorryanyway_drake.wav




your mixed version with the dry tracks mixed by pink noise for a balance, created "smiley face" with the dry tracks w/uad api 2500.
combined with your mixed track. waves l2 on main for cohesion, that's it :/

[harry Kuuchi]

phpBB [media]

ake.wav/media]

your mixed version alongside the dry tracks-dry tracks on uad api 2500 [ns-10 smiley face]//waves L2 on main for cohesion that's it:/

[UprightJoe]

I just finished my first pass through all of the mixes. Man, that was quite an endeavor. Great job everybody - y'all didn't make it easy for me. It's a great learning experience going through an evaluation like this. It's a ton of work but if you have suitable material available, I highly recommend submitting a song. Comparing 70+ mixes of the same song against each other will break your brain (in a good way... ...mostly).

I've selected 8 finalists from my initial run through. However, I flagged another 10 as being worth a second listen. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to listen to these 18 with fresh ears. I expect one or two will be swapped around as a result. Hopefully I'll be at a final decision by Wednesday and it will just be a matter of typing up feedback for the next round. Stay tuned!

[UprightJoe]

General Notes:

As I said before, everybody did a great job.  Here are some things I heard in common across multiple mixes that I thought were noteworthy:

The backing vocals on the chorus are pitched higher than the lead vocals.  To me, they really want to steal the melody away from the lead singer if they get too loud.  In my opinion, mixes that kept the backing vocals lower were generally more successful.

There were tons of technical issues in the tracking of the final verse (“So I think it’s going well…”).  It was punched the day following the original tracking and it was done somewhat carelessly.  Some mixes handled the level shifts and problems well.  In others, the vocals really jumped in volume in the final verse in a way that felt inappropriate given that it’s a bit of a breakdown section.

Several people did delays on the guitar hook synced to the tempo of the song.  Cool idea - I think it worked best when they were low in the mix.  On a couple of mixes, I felt they were too loud and obscured the melody.

There weren’t too many mixes that pushed the envelope loudness-wise but there were some.  In general, I don’t think it benefitted most of the ones that did.  Once I turned them down to level match everything else, they tended to sound kind of lifeless and in at least one case very distorted.

A lot of people chose to distort the bass on the final verse.  I really like this idea - some didn’t quite get the effect dialed in and over the finish line though in my opinion.  

Finalists:

Without further ado - the finalists are as follows.  After reviewing the mixes that I had marked as needing a second listen, I decided to shuffle things around a bit so there are actually 9 finalists.

Note, these are all really excellent mixes in my opinion so unless otherwise noted, the tweaks that I’m recommending should be small.

MichaelLucas
I like the bass sound and how it’s working with the kick.  Nice sense of space on the lead vocals. Nice sense of space overall really.  It definitely has an Aja vibe. Perfect placement of the backing vocals. There are a few places where I think I’d like to hear the horns nudged up very slightly. The biggest place would be during the outro of the song but also maybe in a few places where they sit in between lyrics.  Guitar may be a pinch too loud between 1:49-2:30

KrissK
Kick and bass are working well together but the mix sounds a bit bottom heavy. On the final verse “So I think it’s going well…” I think the vocals could come down a pinch.  Interesting approach to the vocals on the chorus.  Really cool - I don’t mind the backing vocals being a bit loud in this mix for some reason.  I also love the what you did with “So I guess that didn’t work” at the end .  Pushing it back like that was a great idea.

maxovrdrive
Nice crisp and airy mix.  Sounds a bit light in the low end to me.  I also think the backing vocals could probably stand to be pulled down a pinch in the chorus. I love the idea of distortion on the bass in the final verse but I think a meatier, throatier, buzzier, distortion would work better.  The tone just isn’t quite working for me.

francobhalla
The click at the beginning can be edited out.  Really nice, smooth and warm mix.  I love the tonality of it. Vocals jump out way too hot in the final verse.  They could also probably stand to come up a pinch during the choruses.  In the outro, I would like the main lick (the one doubled between trumpet and guitar) to be a bit louder and the counterpoint line played by the other horns to be a bit quieter.

Michael Schneider
Nice mix.  In many ways this reminds me of the original mix but without most of the little things that bother me in the original.  I like the effect on the bass in the final verse.  I like where you put the backing vocals. I don’t really hear anything that sounds noticeably off to me.  Perhaps the lead vocals could come up about 1dB in the final verse.

anto
Very warm - feels like it could use a bit more high end to open it up a bit.  Right now it’s just a pinch too closed off and dark for my tastes. Otherwise, I think it’s solid all around.

Optoslam
Nice warm mix. It could maybe use a pinch more air but it’s pretty much right there. Everything sounds great. I think the vocals might be a pinch too loud in the verses and I think the little bass figure in the last verse is too quiet.

Elver
Could use a bit more high end. In the last verse, tame the vocals a bit. They jump out. I think maybe the dynamics on the vocals could use a bit more tweaking. It seems like some syllables are jumping out at me here and there.

Analog Domain
This is a cool mix. The snare verb isn’t working for me though. I find it distracting. I think the decay time is about right but I don’t like the general character of it. Also this mix could use more high end in my opinion. It feels slightly muffled. Maybe pull back the vocals a pinch on the last chorus. Finally, I might be wrong, but I think I can hear your bus limiter or compressor getting triggered hard by drums in places, affecting the other instruments. Take a peak and see how much GR you’re getting during drum fills and such. Make sure there’s nothing that snuck past you there…

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, UprightJoe - even if it took us a while.

Let us kick off Mix Round 2, which will end on Thursday, 20-JUN-2019 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN available to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



The following 9 participants go into Round 2 (alphabetical order)

anto
Analog Domain
Elver
francobhalla
KrissK
maxovrdrive
MichaelLucas
Michael Schneider
Optoslam


The feedback to the productions can be found here:
viewtopic.php?p=5139#p5139

If you area unsure what to do exactly, reach out to the song provider and engage in a conversation here on the forum.



A thank you to everyone, and good luck for Round 2

[Al B.]

General Notes:

As I said before, everybody did a great job.  Here are some things I heard in common across multiple mixes that I thought were noteworthy:

The backing vocals on the chorus are pitched higher than the lead vocals.  To me, they really want to steal the melody away from the lead singer if they get too loud.  In my opinion, mixes that kept the backing vocals lower were generally more successful.

There were tons of technical issues in the tracking of the final verse (“So I think it’s going well…”).  It was punched the day following the original tracking and it was done somewhat carelessly.  Some mixes handled the level shifts and problems well.  In others, the vocals really jumped in volume in the final verse in a way that felt inappropriate given that it’s a bit of a breakdown section.

Several people did delays on the guitar hook synced to the tempo of the song.  Cool idea - I think it worked best when they were low in the mix.  On a couple of mixes, I felt they were too loud and obscured the melody.

There weren’t too many mixes that pushed the envelope loudness-wise but there were some.  In general, I don’t think it benefitted most of the ones that did.  Once I turned them down to level match everything else, they tended to sound kind of lifeless and in at least one case very distorted.

A lot of people chose to distort the bass on the final verse.  I really like this idea - some didn’t quite get the effect dialed in and over the finish line though in my opinion.  

Finalists:

Without further ado - the finalists are as follows.  After reviewing the mixes that I had marked as needing a second listen, I decided to shuffle things around a bit so there are actually 9 finalists.

Note, these are all really excellent mixes in my opinion so unless otherwise noted, the tweaks that I’m recommending should be small.

MichaelLucas
I like the bass sound and how it’s working with the kick.  Nice sense of space on the lead vocals. Nice sense of space overall really.  It definitely has an Aja vibe. Perfect placement of the backing vocals. There are a few places where I think I’d like to hear the horns nudged up very slightly. The biggest place would be during the outro of the song but also maybe in a few places where they sit in between lyrics.  Guitar may be a pinch too loud between 1:49-2:30

KrissK
Kick and bass are working well together but the mix sounds a bit bottom heavy. On the final verse “So I think it’s going well…” I think the vocals could come down a pinch.  Interesting approach to the vocals on the chorus.  Really cool - I don’t mind the backing vocals being a bit loud in this mix for some reason.  I also love the what you did with “So I guess that didn’t work” at the end .  Pushing it back like that was a great idea.

maxovrdrive
Nice crisp and airy mix.  Sounds a bit light in the low end to me.  I also think the backing vocals could probably stand to be pulled down a pinch in the chorus. I love the idea of distortion on the bass in the final verse but I think a meatier, throatier, buzzier, distortion would work better.  The tone just isn’t quite working for me.

francobhalla
The click at the beginning can be edited out.  Really nice, smooth and warm mix.  I love the tonality of it. Vocals jump out way too hot in the final verse.  They could also probably stand to come up a pinch during the choruses.  In the outro, I would like the main lick (the one doubled between trumpet and guitar) to be a bit louder and the counterpoint line played by the other horns to be a bit quieter.

Michael Schneider
Nice mix.  In many ways this reminds me of the original mix but without most of the little things that bother me in the original.  I like the effect on the bass in the final verse.  I like where you put the backing vocals. I don’t really hear anything that sounds noticeably off to me.  Perhaps the lead vocals could come up about 1dB in the final verse.

anto
Very warm - feels like it could use a bit more high end to open it up a bit.  Right now it’s just a pinch too closed off and dark for my tastes. Otherwise, I think it’s solid all around.

Optoslam
Nice warm mix. It could maybe use a pinch more air but it’s pretty much right there. Everything sounds great. I think the vocals might be a pinch too loud in the verses and I think the little bass figure in the last verse is too quiet.

Elver
Could use a bit more high end. In the last verse, tame the vocals a bit. They jump out. I think maybe the dynamics on the vocals could use a bit more tweaking. It seems like some syllables are jumping out at me here and there.

Analog Domain
This is a cool mix. The snare verb isn’t working for me though. I find it distracting. I think the decay time is about right but I don’t like the general character of it. Also this mix could use more high end in my opinion. It feels slightly muffled. Maybe pull back the vocals a pinch on the last chorus. Finally, I might be wrong, but I think I can hear your bus limiter or compressor getting triggered hard by drums in places, affecting the other instruments. Take a peak and see how much GR you’re getting during drum fills and such. Make sure there’s nothing that snuck past you there…

Congratulations to those who made it one lap further. It would be very useful if you could give feedback on the other mixes as well. Or if you or Mr. Fox could link the mixes that are one round ahead again to get a better idea of the feedback and taste of the song provider.

[Michael Schneider]

OMG

Its the first time I reached the second round! I`m verry happy that you like my mix and want to thank all of the mix challange stuff and the song provider for this opportunity.

As I read the good news I was motivated to work in the changes but when I opened the project no vocals where to hear! For the first round I tried a new plugin, the spl twin tube, which was very useful for the vocals but the 14-days trail reached. I had to rebuild the sound, but how? I decided to use cubase onboard datube and the elysia museq and match the level. It was a lot of A/B listening and I hope you like it.

Tomorrow I'm on vacation with my kids for the next week so I had to mix it tonight.

MP3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zod5wp67dz39n ... 2.mp3?dl=0
WAV
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gcb0grfg2a68c ... 2.wav?dl=0

Good luck to the other finalists.

[UprightJoe]

Congratulations to those who made it one lap further. It would be very useful if you could give feedback on the other mixes as well.

I would love to give feedback to everybody but there were 72 mixes so it's challenging to write up meaningful feedback for each track given the time constraints. That being said, I DID take notes on every mix. They're just not necessarily useful in their current form. They might reference a recording that I did in the past or they might just say something like "balance issues". If you would like feedback directly from me, please send me a PM and I'll do my best to answer everybody who reaches out. It might not be fast (I'll want to refamiliarize myself with the mix while cleaning up my notes) but I am willing to commit to responding to everybody who reaches out to me eventually.

Also, I hope nobody feels hurt for not making the second round. There were some really good mixes that didn't make it but I had to draw the line somewhere and these were the mixes that resonated with me the most. There were some tough calls.

[stu b]

Hey Upright Joe, thank a lot for providing the tracks an doing all that work deciding the winners. I don't envy that I must say. Cheers, Stu.

[anto]

Hi All,
I'm very happy to have made it through to Round 2!
Thanks so much to Upright Joe for providing the track, judging a huge number of mixes and providing such great feedback.

I'm not sure how many times I've listened to the track now but I still haven't tired of it so that's a great sign!

Here is my Round 2 submission:
WAV
MP3

Rather than adjusting the balances of individual tracks, in order to address Upright Joe's feedback and make the mix a bit brighter and more open, I adjusted the roll-off filters on the reverbs that I've used (Ambience, Plate and Size) to boost more of the top end, slightly adjusted the levels of the reverbs and adjusted the send levels from various tracks where there seemed to be too much ambience "glue" applied.

I've also added a high-shelf filter (+2.5 dB @ 3 kHz) to the master bus and although some might view this as stretching the limits of what is considered "mixing" into "mastering", it was a pragmatic move done in the interests of saving time and reducing the risk of destroying the balances of the existing mix.

I hope you like my mix and best of luck to all the other finalists!
Cheers,
Anto