MIX CHALLENGE - MC063 March 2020 - Winners announced

[Snarowitz]

Here is my submission for MC0063, using PT12.xx formatted to 44kHz, 24bit. According to my TC Clarity we have a program loudness of -22.4 LUFS and a loudness range of 13.9 LU.

I didn’t have time to download the files till this morning… So it was a good days work. This is a very passionate performance, and I thought it paramount to retain, and even highlight the emotion this song displays.

Due to time constraints I took a very methodical approach. After bringing up the faders to a good rough mix, I first grouped the tracks into buses that made sense, and applied a bit of compression and EQ to taste, allowing the individual tracks to breath. Then I addressed any issues within the individual tracks that still showed through the broad stroke bus attention using automation, saturation, gate, or more pin point EQ and compression. Lastly, I mixed in some reverb on a parallel bus, added some dynamic EQ to the mix bus and printed it through an SSL bus comp.

Great job recording this out of a bunch of different home studios CeZar, well done!!

SNarowitz

WAV. - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TzYZ4x ... sp=sharing

MP3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wrlJA6 ... sp=sharing

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !

Specs:
Tracks set to 0 VU. Izotope Neutrino and NLS Channel (Neve) on every instrument bus.

DRUMS:
Variety Of Sound Thrillseeker VBL on bus
All istrumenst done with Waves CLA Drums, except Hihat : RM-2 console channel

BASS
Smasher FET compressor
Bass Grinder
PuigTec Eq
GEM EQ550
Scheps 73
Wavesfactory Trackspacer with sidechain from kick

VOCAL
Spitfish de-esser
Waves CLA Vocals
Toneboosters Sibilance de-esser

Background vocals
panned through panorama
Spitfish de-esser
Waves CLA Vocals
Toneboosters Sibilance de-esser

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
Main: sonible smart EQ2, CA-2A compressor, ReaEQ, Toneboosters Dibilance, Eventide 2016 Stereo Room
Neumann/Rode: ReaEQ

RHYTHM GUITARS
Wavesfactory Trackspacer with Sidechain from main vocal
BlackRooster Audio VHL-3C high/Low pass filter
Chorus Licks: DI Track reamped with AcmeBarGig Shred 1.06
Drive Guitars: DI Tracks reamped with PA bx_rockrack V3 player, panned with Boz Digital Pan Knob

LEAD GUITARS
Licks verse/chorus: DI Tracks reamped with Voxengo Boogex, Variety Of Sound NastyDLAmkII delay
Licks ending: DI Track reamped with VANDAL

KEYS
ReaEQ

Master Bus:
NLS Bus (Neve) analog summing, Density MkII compressor (glueing), Toneboosters ReelBus tape sim, Toneboosters Sibilance, Charly Limited analog gain, Barricade Limiter (just for sure), Youlean loudness Meter

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Zq9ay ... pHXtLPVog0

WAV 24bit/44.KHz round 3,5 dB headroom -18 LUFS

Good succes everybody !

[fabrucker]

Hi, this is my mix.

I hope you enjoy,
thanks for any feedback.

Have a good one and stay safe!

Mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxbplj3e2rlde ... r.wav?dl=0

Screenshots:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s7pods9hwha6 ... AcXa?dl=0v

[UprightJoe]

I'm super excited to get back in this month. I've been building a home studio for over a year now while going to school and working full-time. I hit a big milestone this week by getting my absorption panels in place and buying new monitors (I've had my previous monitors for 20 years and they were bargain basement models). This is my first mix in the new space!

I only had a few hours to work and I'm right up against the countdown so I'm going to post the files now. I promise I'll come back with more information regarding the mix tomorrow!

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ecu9l3n7mey1 ... e.wav?dl=0
MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9teq5i951njgd ... e.mp3?dl=0

----
Edit, details as promised:

AC Main:
For the main acoustic guitar, I wanted to tamp down some of the overtones but I was afraid if I started notching them out with EQ, I would destroy the tone of the guitar so I used Soothe instead (though there was one resonance that I still notched out at 658Hz). I also put it through a UAD Studer tape emulation. Lastly, I added a compressor and side chained it to the vocals so that I could keep the level high without losing intelligibility.

Other Acoustics:
Bussed together and EQ'd a bit with Fabfilter

Lead Vox:
I used a pretty typical chain for me UAD 1176->LA 2A->Massive Passive->Waves DeEsser. I also did a bit of parallel compression with a UAD distressed. For the backing vocals, I just bussed them together and compressed them hard with an LA-2A

Electric Guitars:
I used an LA3A on licks A-C. I did a bit of EQ'ing on the Drive and Riff guitars. I also side chained the Drive and Riff guitars from the vocals.

Bass:
UAD Eden->Fabfilter->LA-2A

Drums:
API Vision Channel Strip for gating and EQ on kick and snares. H-Comp on the snare and toms. UAD API2500 on the drum bus. I was running out of time and the drums weren't quite punchy enough (Probably needed the compression settings reworked) so I used a the UAD SPL transient designer to kick them up a bit.

Reverb:
Normally, I'd probably have 2-4 reverb busses on a mix like this but the UAD Pure Plate sounded ok on the snare, guitar, and Vox so I just rolled with it in the interest of time. This is a place that could definitely use further refinement.

Mix Bus:
I used the UAD ATR-102 and Manley Variable Mu to glue the mix together a bit.

[soundspace73]

Hello everyone!

in addition to eq, compressors and gates the steps were the following
on the kick I used some parallel distortion on the medium-high frequencies to give more attack then I used a low frequency generator to give lower on the 65Hz.
on the snare I put a large controlled reverb on the tail with a gate.
on the toms I checked the sustain to dry them slightly.
I overhead them or filtered them with a low pass up to 1200Hz and it took me a bit of reverb.
on the bass I put a bass generator to give more presence on 90, 150Hz.
on acoustic guitars I gave presence on 1200Hz and a little on 7000Hz and put a big reverb on track 18.
as for the electric guitar on tracks GTRAmpLicks A and B I put the same reverb as track 18.
on the GTRAmpRiff tracks I put a high pass to make them darker.
on synth 2 I put an automation on the panning to give movement.
a little saturation and reverb on the voice.

below the link of the audio track good listening
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F85PJK ... sp=sharing

[jeffssoloband]

Dear CeZar and the Mix Challenge community,

Please find my entry for MC0063: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mlkzs2vfbblna ... d.wav?dl=0

Nothing crazy here. Just EQ to carve out spaces, compression to smooth, reverb for space, and tape saturation for warmth. Did a lot of riding on the main vox to get them sitting right. Feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions.

Thanks for listening,
Jeff (jeffssoloband)

[Piranha]

Hi all.
First of all I tried to take all the time needed to work with this song untill I was pretty much satisfied with the result.
The whole project is ITB with last version of Reaper. All tracks eq done with Melda MEqualizer. I wanted to experiment with RoughRider 3, so it's the all tracks compressor.
I started mixing with a hybrid top-down/traditional approach, working on busses and tracks based on problems I eard and had to fix.
MASTER: saturation from MSaturator with hi-oversampling, IK Multimedia Fairchild with low GR mainly for color and Acustica Big Ceil for a bit of loudness shaped eq.

DRUMS: Townhouse compressor to make drums hit hard, Unfiltered Audio Dent for tape saturation, Coral Baxter to boost lows-highs, and a 4-500hz dip in the mids.
Kick has transient shaper to lower enhance attack e lower the sustain and help the gate to clean the spills. A bit of saturation with IVGI2, eq to boost around 1khz and cut 155hz. Exciter to enhance hi-lows.
Snare has snare top's polarity inverted, a dip @330hz and Nova to clean lows and boost highs, while taming then when snare is not playing, to clean cymbals spill. Compressed with IK 1176, transien enhancer and a bit of clipping.
Toms have just a bit of gating and low frequencies cleaning.
All drums go to a New York bus for compression.
Cymbals are hi-passed @450hz and have cuts @450hz and around 4.6khz.
Room is squashed with Pulsar Smasher in parallel and has hi-end roll off.

BASS: saturated via Analob Obsession Konsol and then a bit of Pulsar Smasher.
Distorted in parallel with an amp simulator (bx_rockrack).

GUITARS: eq shaping on the bus via IK 1073 simulationo boost mids and hi-pass all.
Left and right acoustics has some multiband compression to control them a bit.
AcMain has a bit of eq shaping, with cuts around 200hz for boominess and boosts around 2khz and hi-shelf @7.7khz.
Power chords guitar has some mid shaping and boosting, and some resonances cleaning.

KEYS: just cleaning/shaping with eq, to occupy less space and fit better in the mix.

BACKING VOCALS: a dip on the bus @417hz and a bit of hi-shelf, then compressed with 3 compressor in series: BusDriver, Yala and IK QuadCompressor.

LEAD VOCALS: the main tracks have different tipes of saturation to smoth lead A and Lead B in different ways. Then a large amounth of compression in series with RoughRider 3 and Nectar 3 element. A couple of de-essers and a bit of IK QuadCompressor on the bus.

AMBIENCE: 3 reverbs where used. Acon Verberate room for general ambience (drums, bk vocals, guitars and keys. Acon Verberate Hall for lead/backing vocals and Soundtoys Little Plate for snare and toms.
Replica Delay is used for guitar amp lick and on certain parts of the vocals.

WAV:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xynjgxpa3jdz9 ... a.wav?dl=0
MP3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubhxfywthi30v ... a.mp3?dl=0

[3ee]

Hi everyone, here's my mix!

https://app.box.com/s/e3dp6m44xk2v2yma0cfkgwkweubp4ejl

Around -16 LUFSi, peak -3dB, tried to get density/image as well as clarity with well defined transients.

Always had troubles with the vocal high-mid resonances and Sss sounds, I guess it was recorded with a mic prone to resonances and up close + processed prior to mixing.

First project where I tried the newly purchased Lindell 80 Series channel strip and bus summing, awesome sounding Neve 1073/1084 eq/sat!
Not sure what to say... mixed it like I usually work.. if someone's particularly interested in something, I can detail!

imgs:
https://app.box.com/s/ls2dc9fvupkg476jwk4sqrtn0utjgijk
https://app.box.com/s/bqwhgsxwvmwyg0bqajvf12iouok03u2a
https://app.box.com/s/9bp3c8u5d7k3mll8he7rn8xnw7fp2956

[xavieryxie]

Great time mixing this song! Really bring out the pop emo kid inside of me. Just discovered this forum a week ago and had been really enjoying it so far even though I was quarantined in a hotel here in China and only have a pair of Sennheiser HD650 with me. So this mix is completely finished in the cans. Hope you all enjoy and please stay healthy wherever you are in the world!

Mix: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fzayh ... O62NQrd5ga

My DAW is Pro Tools 12 and following is my mix screenshot
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EzNWC ... KMSJU2iPvg
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YYJGz ... upI_-g2spM
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PQUlN ... 83KFhpAj_i
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DdfTQ ... 2ISASUitES
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1utO-Y ... MlCvBwe229

As far as processing goes, the plugins in my arsenal are mainly Waves, Soundtoys, Slate Digital, UAD, and Izotope.

Drum-Since there're only 1 kick drum track, I duplicated it and processed them in different ways. For one kick track I mainly focused on the beefiness and low end of the kick as for the other I focused on bringing the attack of the kick. Same processing mindset was applied to snare as well. I duplicated the Snare top, and processed them differently for them to focus on the fatness and attack of the snare. I also added gated sine wave tone to the kick in 41hz, since the song is in the key of E. Besides that, regular eq and compressors on each tracks of the drum, gated reverb for the snare, general plate reverb for the drum, and a bus compressor at the end.

Bass-EQ (cut the mid and controlled the low mid with dynamic compressor), compressor, and soundtoys decapititator to make it fat

Acoustic Guitar- Regular eq and compressor on the acoustics. Low cut to 150hz for the strumming guitar just to keep the strumming texture during the chorus. Main acoustic guitar low cut 70hz and additional low-mid dynamic eq for the part where bass and drum come in. Also when the bass and drum come in, I applied waves spread plugin for the guitar to stay out of the way in the middle.

Electric Guitar-Amp lick 1 and 2 sent them to reverb prefader and made them bit "dreamy" and ambiency. Then used wave spread plugins to get them even more on the side and panned them hard left and right. Sent them thru delay as well and pan the delay the opposite side. For rhythm strumming guitar besides eq and compressors, I reamped the guitar amp riff track to make the strumming EGTR sounds even fuller. I also reamped the solo guitar and added in delay and reverb on the solo guitar. Regular chamber reverb for the other EGTR. Also my amp sims S-Gear's license had just been expired, so I had to use Waves GTR Stomp for my reamp choice.

Synth-I realized synth 1 and 2 are basically playing the same thing but stacks on top of each other and I processed them differently and eqed them with specific purpose. Synth is the fullness and body of the synth and synth 2 I especially loved the saw synth texture at the top, so I drew extra attention on that sound texture. Then used wave spread plugin to make them wide.

Vocals-my vocal chain was EQ-UAD 1176 compressor- RVox- UAD PultecPro - Neutron/DeEsser. For the chorus and bridge vocal I added in the extra Devil-Loc plugin from soundtoys to add in just a bit of distortion into the vocal. Plate reverb and delay thru out and extra hall reverb during the chorus and bridge. Backing vocal is EQ-RVox-DeEsser

Please feel free to critique, comment and asking questions! Really happy being part of this great mixer community!

[Rogro]

Hello,


Thanks for the opportunity to mix this great track! I started a little late, so for now just the link to my uploaded mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2zst41t199gt2 ... o.wav?dl=0




Cheers!
Rogro