MIX CHALLENGE - MC056 July 2019 - Winners announced

[dobebon]

Hi Bluestation,

It's alright to not participate if you don't have the time to address any issues with the recordings or simply don't like the song, that is your choice. It is at the end of the day just a competition and no-one is getting paid for the time they put into the mix.

However there are many other sites that will provide only well recorded tracks for mixing, although you pay for this privilege. This site is free and I think it provides a niche that presents real world challenges for a lot of us out there. Unfortunately not everyone can choose only songs that they like and are well recorded to mix if they are running a business. I believe that working with tracks that aren't perfectly recorded is a great way to learn and improve your mixing skills.

[White Punk OD]

This one won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I think the boldness and honesty of the "perpetrators" deserve a lot of support.
Art is emotion. I love the song, and perhaps I can do something about it. Hope I won't run out of time.

[Al B.]

This is a bad recording challenge. You can mix it. But bad recordings will never sound great.

[hjchjc]

Alright, here goes. My first post ever, and my first mix for the Mix Challenge.

This was initially drenched in reverb because Joy Division was a reference point, but I decided to drastically cut back on reverb/echoing effects until the end. Also meddled with timing without making it too precise, bc that's just insanely hard to do anyway. Looking forward to the feedback. It's a really cool song and I did my best to present it in a very clean, mostly no-frills way beyond the reverb and some processing on the mix bus. Enjoy my mix!

► Show Spoiler

WAV:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gc-at1 ... sp=sharing
MP3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o9tQVb ... sp=sharing

[warning=Mister Fox]Entry redacted, got a free pass on resubmitting. See this post[/warning]

[bluesation]

Hi,

I want to thank everybody for the response to my post. You are are right with the point of view that a bad mix is a challenge and one can improve skills. In general, this my position too. But, I have spent some years on musician collaboration platforms like kompoz. There i had to deal with such a lot of bad recordings, but quite often great songs. So I am a little bit experienced. My conclusion and like AL B. already said, you never get a good sound. Or I would say, you cannot polish shit. I dont need such challenges any more. I dont play music with rookies but with advanced players. Advanced the the base from where to go to become a pro.
Second fact, I dont get any connection to the song. I say this with every consideration to the musicians.

For the same reasons I did not mix MC052.
To much time needed for bad recordings was the reason I searched for another platform and came to the mix challenge. But after the second "bad" mix challenge, I wanted to point that out.

Thank you for your attention.

[jorgeaferroj]

I'm in... I think it's a great song with a medium quality recording and that's the best part... the interpretation gives the song the good stuff and still shows us that not everything has to be quantized and perfectly played on the studio. The human still gives the music the greatest part of it.

[Chriswilson83]

Hi bluesation,

I am the song provider for this months track. Thank you for your rather untoned comments but may I kindly ask that you withdraw from further comments if you are not participating in this challenge.

If you do decide to contribute please do and I would very much look forward to seeing what your experience has to offer in a mix.

[Mister Fox]

I'm honestly inclined to agree.

Even if you personally say "sorry, I'm not mixing your content" towards a client from your side of the data line, it is still a real-world scenario. Something that we simulate here with the Mix Challenge. Despite the quote-unquote "third class recordings" (which they clearly are not), you can still create something great out of it. Not "beat perfect", but definitely better than just mere "good".



Other than that, if you think that the quality of the Mix Challenge has faded, you can easily remedy that situation:
Become a client yourself, or get reliable people involved to become a client.

I can do nothing more but reach out - and I rather have a slightly "inferior" challenge running, something that is not considered "perfect", than having a downtime. I have the utmost respect to everyone that invests the time to reach out to me, and is setting up a project for everyone to enjoy. I'd ask you to please do the same.

Everything else does please go into the Gossip Thread.

[Chriswilson83]

Hi hjchjc

Thanks for the submission, but I'm unable to access the files! Can you change permission on the google drive files so it's public?

[Bombest Bomb]

Here is my submission for the challenge, 24-bit, 48kHz wav file.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cXd9eEjsAbBgPyGnMt1s5SB0_I4YUwi_

The overall loudness is around -14.7 LUFS-I, with a peak in the -3.6 or so dBfs. No major 2-buss processing and no limiting or maximizers used. My detailed track notes are below.

I hope you enjoy the mix!

TRACK NOTES
——————————————
- 2 Channel
bx_townhouse Buss compressor for "glue" the needle barely moves.
Dynamic EQ (tames a few frequencies that get overwhelming)
Dangerous BAX mastering EQ.
Waves J37 tape (for saturation)

- Guitars
Individually just a gain plugin set to -9 dB and panned left or right, then sent to the same bus
Guitar Bus has iZotope Neutron 3 as my channel strip for some EQ, a touch of compression (about 1 dB) and some saturation with the exciter. Then into a Process.audio sugar plugin, followed by the Vertigo VSM-3 for some mid-side saturation.
The guitars are then sent to a group “room” reverb and a Guitar FX parallel bus. The FX bus has a chorus plugin on it.

- Piano
Very simple here. The Neutron 3 channel strip for some shaping, eq, saturation, compression, and I used the transient shaper to both give it more attack, and let the sustain feel stronger.
The piano goes to the same “room” reverb that the guitars use.

- Bass
I added an amp simulator from BIAS Amp 2 to the DI signal and some compression to the supplied amped signal. They were bussed together with some slight compression and EQ on the bus.
The bass was also sent tot he "room" reverb.

- Drums
This is the most processing. All drums but the Overheads were sent to a single bus, and 2 FX busses.
The kick has one plugin, bx_boom. The snare, both top & bottom have SPL transient shaper on them.
The two FX busses are a “Drum Crush” and a Drum reverb bus.

- Drum Busses
The main drum bus has bx_consoleE (SSL 4000E) plugin for compression and EQ. Then iZotope Neutron for shaping, EQ, saturation, and a multibrand compression.
The Drum Crush has McDSP Ultimate channel strip. It’s doing parallel processing inside the plugin. One half has gentle compression, EQ and distortion, the other is heavy compression and some saturation.
The last bus is a reverb bus to give the drums some more space and sustain.

- Drum Overheads
Neutron 3 for some shaping, EQ, an exciter and multiband compression. It helped brighten the cymbals and make them feel more lively than they did before. It’s followed by the Sugar plugin.

- Tambourine
Very little done here. McDSP channel strip with some EQ and subtle compression followed by the Shine module to add some brightness. That was sent to a bus with very little, but some compression and the Maag EQ2 to add some air.

- Vocals
Some compression, then tube saturation, then a bit more compression and some EQ at the end. This was sent to 3 FX busses and one effect throw.
The first bus is a parallel FX bus, which has the Waves Reel ADT to thicken them up and then the iZotope vocal synth to add some distortion and chorus effect to add more thickness.
The second bus is a stereo delay to add some space.
The third bus is a 1-second plate reverb.
There’s also a bigger delay throw used at the ends of some of the lines.

- Backing vocals
I panned them left and right for some good stereo effect, then bussed them together. On the bus, I had 2 plugins.
First, I used the bx_panEQ to boost the mids on one side, and the upper mids on the other to help add some stereo depth. Then I used the Vocal Synth to add some chorus effect and a little bit of distortion.

- I route all instruments to a single bus, and all vocals to another so I can control the levels as a group, or add processing to instruments, that don’t affect vocals or the other way around. On the instrument bus I added the VSC-2 compressor as a “glue” compressor, the needle barely moves, then I added the Dangerous BAX eq to control the overall level and some minor EQ tweaks.