MIX CHALLENGE - MC061 December 2019 - Winners announced

[marc clement]

Hiya,

Thoroughly enjoyed this one.....I`m a fan of Laurie Johnson and I had that sound in my head.

I decided to go from the top down on this mix, grouped and panned instruments and aligned drum overheads by eye.

Nearly all the plugins used are from Acustica Audio.

Sax , Trumpet and Trombone groups each had Titanium (pultec style eq ) and Ultramarine , also pultec to fatten low end. All Brass then sent to Ebony channel strip and plate.

Kick and snare - Gold , Neve channel

Bass and guitar Ebony Eq and comp

Stereo bus Titanium Eq, Ultramarine comp ( Fairchild ) BX v3 for stereo widen, mono sub, Taupe (tape ) Isl limiter to catch true peaks.

Its the Ultramarine comp that is doing all the heavy work here as its the only comp in the mix. I mixed into it and err its getting hit hard -7db but there is no make up gain....

Thanks for the opportunity

Marc Clement

_MC061_JazzMUK-Two Seconds to Midnight_ marc clement

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

[Spinum]

Hi everyone,
This is my first submission to Mix Challenge and I enjoyed the choice of this month's song.

Files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gmzjq9cp7a90 ... zr2Ja?dl=0

I used Studio One 4.5 with the Neve console emulation engaged in CTC-1 Pro for all channels. Softube Tape MultiTrack emulation was selected for the sub-mixes and the mix buss.

On the horn & woodwind tracks, I used Waves MV2 with FF Pro-G to address varying levels of play and mic bleed.
Instrument sections were bussed where most of the audio processing took place.

Drum buss: L3Multimaximizer
Kick: Scheps 73, Submarine, FF Pro-Q
Kick Crush: PuigChild 660, PuigTec EQ
Snare: FF Pro-G, Scheps 73, MJUC
Snare Crush: Disto_64, Scheps 73
OH: FF Pro-Q, Track Control (only cymbals were used)

Bass: Bass Professor MkII, FF Pro-Q, CLA-76

Piano: Neutron 3 Sculptor, Soothe, FF Pro-Q, FF Pro-C, Neutron 3 Exciter, Ozone 9 Imager

Guitar: MV2, Soothe, Decapitator, FF Pro-Q, CLA-3A, CLA-3A, FF Pro-L

Woodwind buss: FF Pro-C
Clarinet: MV2
Sax buss: FF Pro-Q, FF Pro-L

Trombones had no buss processing

The above instruments were routed to sub-mix busses for CTC summing:
Drums&Perc: CTC-1/Neve, Transpire
Low End: CTC-1/Neve, PuigTec EQP1A
Band: CTC-1/Neve, Gullfoss, DrMS

Mix Buss: Tape MultiTrack, TDR Kotelnikov GE

ValhallaVintageVerb was the only effect used. Sends from Drum&Perc and Band to the reverb provided ambiance to simulate a single room.

[Photonic]

Hello,

Thank you very much for providing this track! Good to see some big band sound here. This was realy fun to mix. My aim was to give the brass sound some warmth and body and to remove some of the harsh frequencies. So they may sound closer than in other mixes I heard so far.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xsbq65s3fltu ... c.mp3?dl=0
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dbokq8lbsspbc ... c.wav?dl=0

Mixed in Reaper v5.51.

Drum-Bus: Presswerk (drum-compressor mode), TDR VOS SLickEQ
Kick, Snare: ReaEQ
OH: ReaEQ, TDR VOS SLickEQ
Room: new channel only for drum-room simulation, Transpire (to reduce transients before reverb), ReaEQ, Acon Digital Verberate
Bass: Bass Professor II
Piano: ReaEQ, Acon Digital Multiply (to widen the sound a bit)
Guitar: ReaEQ, S.LAX
Clarinet: ReaEQ, S.LAX
Brass-Bus: Presswerk (easy-compressor mode)
Sax-bus: S.LAX, TDR VOS SLickEQ
Sax1-5: ReaEQ, S.LAX
Trumpet-bus: S.LAX, TDR VOS SLickEQ
Trumpet1-4: ReaEQ
Trombone-bus: S.LAX, TDR VOS SLickEQ
Trombone1-4, Solo: ReaEQ

Mix-Bus: Presswerk (bus-compressor mode), MQ57
Reverb: con Digital Verberate

[gioele.cortese]

Hi everybody,
very interesting and challenging mix.
For this I used a little single channel tweaking and a little more Buss and Master operation.
For panning, as other user did, I put Piano, Guitar, Bass and Drums on the left and Brass on the right, following the "standard" Big Band disposition.

A quick overview

Drums:
Kick EQ and Comp by AA Amethist (nothing special),
Snare with transhape and little plate for an extra release, then AA Amethyst again
OHs with Reeq for cleaning up

AA Big Ceil on drum group, then a parallel dist/comp with Devil-Loc

On drum buss a little glue comp by Molot

Bass:

Parallel distortion with Goliath
Buss Eq and Comp with Amethyst

Guitar:

Eq and Comp with AA Honey

Piano:

Eq with SoundToys Sie-Q
Transient shaper on parallel channel

Clarinet + Sax, Trombones and Trumpets:
Eq and Comp by AA Honey
Soft Clipper to catch peaks

Solo Trombone:

Eq and Comp by AA Amethyst

I used two impulse reverbs, a short one a and a long one, to create ambience as the instruments were in same room playing together and to create depth between the rows.
An automated delay (Echoboy) was added to Solo Trombone and guitar for their lead part.

I created a first Mix Buss with parallel distortion with Decapitator and Sie-Q, then a dinamic Eq (TDR Nova) to control the mid frequencies.
Then I added Tape by Softube to glue the mix and adding some subtle drive, PSP E27 for some precise M/S eq, Molot for gentle compression, parallel Drawmer S73 by Softube to add some dirt and getting the final compression.

The final result is a quite heavy sound, with a lot of grit and dirt, but in my opinion a interesting version of a big band sound.
As requested, the final integrated LUFS is about -17 with a true peak of -5.5 dB

Enjoy!

https://fidbak.audio/gioelecortese/play ... b2e/6df1a0

[cpsmusic]

Hi Folks,

This is my second Mix Challenge attempt - just wondering if it's ok to ask a question about the raw files? If not, ignore the following please!

What's happening in sax4.wav? Appears to be some sax in there but it's being overwhelmed by spill?

Cheers,

Chris

[CeZar]

Hey folks,
Here's my submission for this month's challenge:

wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ee3m7x0w537cm ... r.wav?dl=0
mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/11h2xqm8vjfbv ... r.mp3?dl=0


In simple words, I first had to phase align the drums, then everything else wasn't hard to do.

I was listening a bit in the overheads to tried to pan the instruments as balanced as possible. The brass section was processed as 3 stacks, for each instrument type.
As far as fx I just added a plate and a hall verb to widen and liven up the mix.

Feedback is always greatly appreciated,

CeZar

[Snarowitz]

Hello Franz, thank you for the contribution for MC061. I enjoy working with jazz, love this tune and have mixed performances of it before, both live and in studio. My DAW is Pro Tools, and I use a TC Clarity for loudness monitoring during mix. The loudest peaks dance right around -16 LUFS, while the quieter regions fall as low as -34 LUFS creating an overall program loudness of ~ -20 LUFS and a dynamic range of ~12 LU.

First I developed the sound stage using pan controls. Then brought the faders down to start the mix process. The biggest challenge I found with this recording was the kick drum; trying to get it sounding full without becoming too boomy. And the snare; getting a good snap without having it become too thin. Using a combination of compression, EQ, and saturation I think I achieved a good deep punch on the kick and full sounding pop on the snare.

The bass and piano played very well together tonally, so I balanced them with the kick drum after getting the drum kit leveled off. I tend to feature the piano a little more than the original mix did, so you will find it present throughout. I loved the guitar tone as is, but I found it a little distracting in the original mix. So, I set it back a little further, until the solo where it moves more to the front.

Rather than addressing each of the 20 pieces individually, the woodwinds and brass were grouped respectively, and bused to an aux input (except the trombone solo which went directly to the mix bus). From there I was able to balance the performance in broader strokes with less processing (using subtle bits of compression and EQ on the bus rather than individual tracks) retaining the integrity of the performance by allowing certain musicians to shine through at different times and in different places amidst the sound stage as they intended live.

Taking my cues from the talent in this performance, I used clip gain and level automation to reinforce those intended dynamics in a few places. Only adjusted the timing of 1 note, and filtered out feedback in one spot. I also mixed in some parallel reverb (SoundToys Little Plate, Pro Tools Studio Reverb) via aux send, and applied some tape effect (Waves J37/Kramer Tape) to the mix bus for a more vintage vibe.

I use Fab Filter Pro Q2 for EQ, Dyn3 and various Waves compressors (UA, API, SSL, and Fairchild emulations) for dynamic control and subtle character as needed, and SoundToys Radiator for saturation.

As always, feedback is welcome from all.

Best,

SNarowitz

WAV. - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-9lrTo ... sp=sharing

MP3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R2bCwL ... sp=sharing

[Mister Fox]

What's happening in sax4.wav? Appears to be some sax in there but it's being overwhelmed by spill?

While doing the integrity check, I asked the same. I was told that this particular sax player was one of the newcomers in the band and didn't want to stand out with possible mistakes. It is a part of the arrangement, albeit a not as strong one.

[canese]

Hello , have a listen to this mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji650jky61baf ... e.wav?dl=0

Getting all tracks in the right phase and tempo was a challenge this month.

I started with drums, high pass the overheads and snare. I put a noise gate in the kick, EQ cuts and boosts, compressed it and distorted it. Then compressed, EQ everything in a bus with also parallel compression with a low pass filter.
The hardest part was mixing the brass and clarinet. Tried to cut and move to get everything sounding as a hole and in unison. I put some compression, chorus and distortion all in paralell.
The piano was panned to the left and with some delay and Low mid EQ.
I put the guitar trough a re amp but just to give it a little more reverb and a phaser.
Bass was compressed and distorted with some low pass filter.
Each track goes in parallel, in different amounts, to two different reverb buses.

Mix bus has compression, a tape filter and Eq to boost some mid frecuencies and cut from 16kHz to 30Hz. Also a very usefull declicker by Ozone that eliminates all the pops and clicks in the tracks.

Thanks for reading and listening!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your edit