MIX CHALLENGE - MC059 October 2019 - Winners announced

[Samonov]

ManuC
The mix sounds too boomy (bad frequency balance), bad vocals balance, the vocal needs stronger de-essing and the vocal is too much in the front

JulienMeirone
The instruments sound separately very nice, but are not well balanced. Namely, the vocals and the drums are too loud and I don't like the double vocal panning. Have a look at the rearrangement- the guitars start earlier in your mix.
Excellent drum sound, although the outro center guitar could be louder.

GmfSongs
I don't like FX’s ( too many), the bass is a bit too loud, but overall good balance. The male double could be a little bit louder.

Paperthin
The vocal is too dry and too loud. It has too much of 10 kHz and I don't like the delay that you applied to thee vocal. If there were some delay sometimes, it might have been good. The double male vocal is too quiet. The snare is too loud and close in the intro.
Overall, the balance is good. The back vocals sound weird, some FX modulation on the male double vocal sound also weird to me. The vocal is too loud for me in the intro. The instrumental part of the mix sounds almost perfect 

Franz
I like how the vocal is set in the mix. I don't like the instrument balance except the intro. The clicking percussions are too loud and there is some unpleasant frequency in the female vocals. The Intro sounds very good. The drums and the mix do have generally enough punch. The sibilants in the vocal are absolutely out of control ( 10-12 kHz ).

Dwic
The double could be louder and the lead vocal has some hi frequency. Some synth is too loud in the second part.

EchoOread
The mix us over saturated and the vocal is too much in the front. There is not enough bottom end in the mix. Anyway, a good lead and double vocal balance!

gloukin
The intro vocal sounds strange, but good balance! The second bass (the answering one)can be more remarkable and the male double could be louder. There is too much of 11 kHz in the vocal and the drums/percussions. In the outro, the center guitar is to be more emphasized altheough some things too loud.

mixedbynicolas
The male double could be louder. The the lead vocal sounds too dry and is a bit too loud being place too much in the front. The vocal sibilance needs more control. The snare drum is too loud, while the bass in the bridge could sound more powerful and expressing. The guitar can be louder in the second verse. The central guitar could be louder in the outro, as well as the piano in the first chorus.

Wizzo
In general, the mix is a good balanced, although the pad sounds too wide (it is getting more quiet in mono). Little too much chorus on the guitar. There is a good balance between the bass and the drums. Still, it may seem that the bass is a little bit too loud. The vocal needs to be more controlled on the sibilants and the male double could be somewhat louder. The vocals sound a bit too dry and too loud.



KrissK
Good mono capability! The bass and guitar could be though louder, while the snare drum is too loud in the intro. I don’t like that much the balance of the vocals. The drums are too much emphasized.

UprightJoe
The snare drum is very good placed in the mix! I like the instrument balance in the bridges, guitars could be a little bit more quiet and the bass a bit louder.
Still, the vocals sibilants seem to need a better controlling. In general, there is something that is disturbing the vocal to sit good in the mix and the vocal FX in the intro does not really my vision of the sound.

maxovrdrive
Finally, I can hear the center guitar in the outro! Overall good instrument balance, but the guitar could be louder. Still, I don't really like the vocal sound ( too much high end, vocal FXs, voices balance).

Matik
Nice mix, but there are a few things to improve in the track! The bass has an unpleasant clanking sound and is a bit to loud. The guitar sound is too sharp ( a lot of 2-3 kHz )and the the vocal is too dry.

Kirurg
I really like the instrument balance. Nevertheless, to my opinion, there are still a few issues to be improved: the vocal does not sit good in the mix and the second guitar in the verse could be louder. The lead vocal sounds tiny and too dry, especially in the first part of the song. The male back vocal could be louder.

ICMix
What I like about the mix: the bridge is good balanced and a pretty good sound of the outro (a bit automation and it would be perfect!).
Issues to be improved: The intro pad FX sounds weird to me and it adds some artifacts at the low end. I can't hear the male double and don't like the hi frequency on the percussions and the vocal (needs a stronger de-esser). The transition FX’s is neither really my cup of tea.

Esvsound
Thanks a lot for your mix! Still, there are still a few issues to make somewhat different …The intro guitar has a lot of 4 kHz and the overall guitar sound is not really to my taste ( some resonance on 3,5 kHz! ). There is a lot of low end in the mix. The vocal is a bit moody and too dry. I think, it needs more presence and the overall mix could sound be wider.

hjchjc
I really like the guitar, vocal and drums balance!
Nevertheless, the bass sounds too tiny throughout the track and needs some changes especially in the intro. The vocal spaces are not quite to my taste and the male double sounds too quiet to me. The bass melody is not readable in the bridges and a lot of things happening in low end.

Guizgui
The balance is really good! Still, the details seem to disappear. About the vocal... well, the wide double vocal is not really my cup of tea and it seems to me that the sibilants need a better controlling.

WhitePunkOD
The intro sound is good balanced, although the synth delay is not really to my taste.
The bass (answering) could be a bit louder. There is a good balance of the vocals, but in general, the vocals sound really weird. This may be due to reverb and need for a better controlling of sibilants. Finally, the center guitar needs to be better emphasized in the outro.


Mork
A good balanced mix! Still, there are unpleasant bursts at high frequencies in the voice (needs stronger de-essing ). The vocals are pushed back a little bit more than it is necessary (perhaps, too much reverb). Maybe, it also needs some more automation in the outro.

Snarowitz
Thank you a lot for your efforts! There are still some issues to work on, to my mind. The high ones do not sound pleasant to me… The drums seem to sound small due to the cutoff of the fundamental frequency and the sandy top. The percussion reverb is not quite my cup of tea. Finally, the tempo of the song was changed and there are a lot of sub bass and too less of the low mids.

Slickster716
First of all, thanks a lot for your mix! Some issues could be a bit different though…
I would have changed the reverb on the snare drum in second bridge and verse - it's too big and the snare sounds too far! The tremolo FX on the bass is too obvious in the intro. The vocals could a bit quieter throughout the whole mix. Still, the male double could be a bit louder.
The center guitar could be louder in the outro and the overall guitar sound could have had less reverb.
Your mix needs a stronger de-essing on vocal and a more dynamic vocal control. The whole mix sounds a bit muddy and the intro soundscape automations is not my taste.

VasDim
The lead and back vocal have a good balance, though the vocal has so much hi end, to my mind. So, it sounds too dry and too loud.
Some snare drums don't have anymore the fundamental frequency and the guitars are too dark for me.

stu b
The soundscape is wide and the tone changes in mono. The vocals need a stronger de-essing and the overall mix sounds kind of muddy. There is a lot off sub bass in the mix and the most important thing-the mix is too hot and have clipping.

GB Real
I like the voices balance! Ebow guitar is too loud. The guitars have too much hi mids (about 4 kHz). The drums are oversaturated and the snare doesn’t have its initial frequency.

Marc Rapture
The mix has problems with the phase (the soundscape is too wide). The vocals need a stronger de-essing. The drums do not sound that straight (too much reverb) and so the punch is lacking. There’s no hierarchy of plans and it sounds as if everything were in one big room.

Arthur_Labus
The mix has problems with the phase (soundscapes). The balance of the mix is shifted too far towards the bass. The guitars are too quiet and the vocals sound is not my taste. To my mind, there is too much upper mids and some more de-essing is needed.

LewshwaOne
I would have done the balance different: the guitars sound too quiet and the bass is too loud. There is too much of 4-5 kHz in the vocal and the drums do not have punch, especially in the end of the mix.

loupi
The mix has too much emphasis on the bass. The sibilants of the vocals need more control. There are some clicks in the second verse (maybe vocals).

Jerze
The balance between the vocals is good, though overall sound of the vocals can be improved and the vocals could be sit a bit more to the front. To my mind, it needs more de-essing and you can play with frequencies.
There are some clicks in the second verse. Both your links are mp3

OAKDAVE
The mix balance is too experimental for me and the drums are too cut off the top.

spafles
In general, a well balanced mix! Really good balance between the lead and the back vocal. Still, the vocals need a bit more high/presence and a stronger de-essing.
The FX on the snare drum in the chorus and in the outro are not really to my taste. I would have changed the intro delay on the bass guitar. In the first verse, the E-bow guitar could be not that loud or requires more delay.

Samonov
The intro sounds almost perfect and in general, it is a well-balanced mix! The tone of the gui tars is not really my thing - 2 kHz is too much for me… In the bridge, the bass needs more readability, while the vocals need some more brilliance. To my taste, the drums are not punchy enough and the track clips!

ArneB
Thanks a lot for your efforts! There are still some issues I would have preferred to hear different…The mix sounds muddy the balance of the drums is not my thing. Some further issues could be somewhat different, to my taste: the percussion clicks sound a bit unpleasant and the vocals are pushed back too far (too many effects). I can’t hear the male double and the bass guitar cannot be read. The punch is missing in the drums.

FUS
Thank you very much for the mix. To my taste, I would have suggested some improvements to sound it perfect. The snare drum does not have body in the introduction. The bass guitar is poorly readable, and there is something not that pleasant in the frequency processing of the drums. The snare sounds too much high and the kick sounds muddy.

artdreamer272
Many thanks for the your mix! There are still a few issues that do not make me happy about the mix. To my mind, the voices balance could be somewhat improved: the backs are in the front, while the main vocals are pushed too far. The mix balance could be a bit better and the bass guitar could have been better readable.

Hey. Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I specifically made such a guitar. I thought that this is what she intended, and the clips are also originally on guitar tracks. I tried to go a low-pass filter a little to the left and the guitar lost its whole life, so I left these frequencies. I would rewrite the guitar if need a softer sound, at least that is my opinion

[Snarowitz]

Snarowitz
Thank you a lot for your efforts! There are still some issues to work on, to my mind. The high ones do not sound pleasant to me… The drums seem to sound small due to the cutoff of the fundamental frequency and the sandy top. The percussion reverb is not quite my cup of tea. Finally, the tempo of the song was changed and there are a lot of sub bass and too less of the low mids.

Thanks for the feedback Green Dog! I’m curious about what you mean when you say that the tempo was changed, and the fundamental frequency cut off? I didn’t change the tempo, nor did I do any gating or heavy EQing of the drums. Maybe I mis understand your criticism.

[Green-Dog]

Hey. Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I specifically made such a guitar. I thought that this is what she intended, and the clips are also originally on guitar tracks. I tried to go a low-pass filter a little to the left and the guitar lost its whole life, so I left these frequencies. I would rewrite the guitar if need a softer sound, at least that is my opinion

Hi! By clipping, I mean the mix level goes above 0 dbfs level. In this case, it is about the true peaks level. The overall mix level is very ''hot''. You can see that on screenshot:
Screenshot

About the guitar sound: it's a matter of taste. This is just my subjective opinion.

[Green-Dog]

Thanks for the feedback Green Dog! I’m curious about what you mean when you say that the tempo was changed, and the fundamental frequency cut off? I didn’t change the tempo, nor did I do any gating or heavy EQing of the drums. Maybe I mis understand your criticism.

Hi Snarowitz!
The track is about 6 minutes long. In your case, the length is 6:20. Everything sounds slowed down. Please, check your DAW settings.
I'm on the road and can’t double-check your mix. Perhaps, you have added too much top and bottom to the drum tracks and for this reason the drums sound like if they lost 100-200 Hz.

[kirurg]

@Snarowitz
Which DAW are you using?
I've noticed there was some kind of situation described in this contest documentation by the user Slickster716 :
"For some reason when bringing into protools the first few times the tracks had random sync points that
made it impossible to set up the song. The only way to get it to work was to load in from the
workspace and to remove elastic properties."

I had similar situation in Cubase - like there was some sync/warp/stretch(?) info included in the source tracks?

[Arthur Labus]

Some DAWs, at least Cubase, have problems with sample rate if different to the setting.
Especially Cubase.

[Mister Fox]

Cubase doesn't have issues with Samplerate Conversion. If you import 48kHz sample rate source material into a 44kHz project, Cubase asks you if you want to convert it or not. What can happen though, is that some hosts do interpret a by-the-host wrongly set BPM value. We've had this in previous games before. This is the very reason why the mix packages come with a demo mix, and a BPM value. Check if the tracks line up, check in the file pool if there is a BPM flag set (in case of Cubase, that's the BPM and Musical Mode).


I talk about Cubase specifically, since this is the main host I'm using and also do the Integrity Checks in. And quite honestly, I do not mention in the TXT documentation that you should look out for this tag.

You can not(!) expect a client to always provide material that loads in your DAW flawlessly. It is part of the challenge to check the material yourself.

[Snarowitz]

@Snarowitz
Which DAW are you using?
I've noticed there was some kind of situation described in this contest documentation by the user Slickster716 :
"For some reason when bringing into protools the first few times the tracks had random sync points that
made it impossible to set up the song. The only way to get it to work was to load in from the
workspace and to remove elastic properties."

I had similar situation in Cubase - like there was some sync/warp/stretch(?) info included in the source tracks?

I’m using PT, 12.7 I think. I do recall that some of the tracks were in elastic audio for some reason... I don’t remember the details, but I thought I cleared up the issue. I was in a bit of a rush, only had 3 days to work on this one. Definitely think I would have noticed sync point issues, but if I never heard the intended tempo I may not have realized the change in pace.

Thanks everyone.

SN

[kirurg]

Hi everyone!

Thank you Green-Dog for picking to Round2!

Here is my submission:

Wav
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qz2wqjzzntwj3 ... 2.wav?dl=0

Mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3742p5oq23epy ... 2.mp3?dl=0


Based on things pointed, increased the volume for couple tracks
and overall feeling and image of the vocals is made bigger by some
ambience adding.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder
We're in the last 24 hours to submit your edit for Mix Round 2