I've started with the round 1 evaluation, I'm in the "narrowing down" phase. Now, before anything I'd like to talk about the way I've done this so that it's fair and square for everyone.
Before everything I'd like to let everyone know that I did not read the description on each contestant so that I don't get influenced in any way by DAWs I like, Plugins I like, Praises to songwriter or MrFox, Winners of previous mix challenges, People I might know from this forum, etc. I WANTED TO JUST USE MY EARS FOR THIS SO I CAN BE AS OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE. I will read the posts of the first 10 after I finish this Round1 Evaluation.
So this is how I've done it:
Phase 1: Downloading each wav file for every mix. 1 contestant was disqualified here for allowing access the file without permission(Private) + those of you who have submitted after the countdown.
Phase 2: I took out all the mixes that had incorrect name tagging(READ: They haven't even tried). There are rules and guidelines to these things.
Phase 3: There were 97 valid files, all of them imported into a new cubase session. I normalized everything at peak level -3db and started listening to Verse1+Chorus1 on each one of them . Here I've noted with Y or N each channel (READ:each mix).The criteria of elimination at this stage was ALL THE OBVIOUS MISTAKES, and I'll mention them here so that those of you who have done them will know better when submitting at future challenges:
Mistake 1 - wrong sample rate at mixdown export(I've asked cubase to automatically convert everything to 44.1khz if it needs to, some of them were down tempo, lower pitched, some more than others);
Mistake 2 - VERY bad instrument levels;
Mistake 3 - VERY bad equalisation(this includes, among others, BAD LOW END, EAR PIERCING HIGH END, NO INSTRUMENT SEPARATION);
Mistake 4 - WAAAY TOO MUCH REVERB or DELAY (if you have to mix in headphones ->be extra careful with this, you may have a great mix up until the efx stage, efx is never recommended with headphones unless you know exactly how it translates into speakers). A good few mixes sounded like everyone was playing in the bathroom;
Mistake 5 - Not enough compression or too much compression (A few files were mastered, others were even severely burnt, some of them had almost no compression), I've used Levels by Mastering the Mix to monitor everything here)
I'm evaluating everything in my studio with a setup of 2 x AdamA7x+ Adam Sub7, everything properly calibrated, RME Fireface 902, 44.1Khz Sample Rate, Cubase 10.5)
After this Phase1 I'm left with 13 tracks in the project. I'll post again in about an hour with feedback for the 10 mixes that I have chosen for ROUND2.
Note that I didnt mean to insult anyone with this post, I'm literally trying as much as possible not to be biassed in any way and I'm taking this evaluation job very seriously. This whole Mix-Challenge forum is about learning to be a PRO as much as possible, so I've pointed out here the things that WE ALL need to be careful about in this business.
