MIX CHALLENGE - MC065 May 2020 - Winners announced

[Pemberley]

Hi all,

Thanks for the opportunity to work on this track! Lots of fun, and a good opportunity to work on developing my skills. Here's a breakdown of what tools and methods I used:

Keys:
Soundtoys Radiator, followed by Native Instruments Replika XT. I'm happy with the extra rhythm provided by the delay.

Piano:
PSP PianoVerb for a little more space, and a bit of a scoop in the upper mids. Then, to reinforce the groove, and make some room on 2 and 4, I used a FET compressor (Black Rooster) with sidechain input from the snare. I think this really helped the mix lock in.

Sax:
Just a bit of compression, and rather heavy reverb send compared to other tracks.

Bass:
PSP InfiniStrip with their 80's pre, FETPressor, Opto limiter. Black Rooster FET with kick as sidechain input to make room, emphasize kick.

Vocals:
Eventide UltraChannel, high passed at ~200 with a bit of resonance, and a cut at 1.3k, followed by "micro pitch shift" for some depth. Also PhoenixVerb as an insert rather dry, and Saturn for some saturation of the ooooohs, panned to the side.

Gutiars:
Inserted Black Rooster TT-15 and Eventide spring on the DI tracks, which I blended with the cab mics. Great amp sim.

Drums:
Kick has PSP FETPressor, Little Radiator, Opticom XLA-8, MBassador. Snare has a touch of gated plate verb with PSP 2445. Overheads saturated with a bit of Saturn. Entire bus has a Foote P3S.

Reverb:
All instruments send in various amounts to ValhallaVintageVerb in Dirty Hall mode, 1.5s decay, 1970s mode. I'm a huge fan of this plugin, especially in its more retro and dirty settings.

Entire mix has Black Rooster Magnetite for a little saturation, and because I like what it does to the mids. Foote P3S for a bit of glue, just at a 1.5 ratio. Overall levels hover around -16 LUFS, true peak stays under -4 dB. Not mastering!

This has been my first mix since I acquired a Foote P3S, which is a FANTASTIC piece of gear and also my first proper outboard unit. Really pleased with its ability to handle just about anything productively.

Also mixed in an untreated room that I'm still getting used to, so feedback on overall tonal balance is welcome.

Here it is:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I4USl ... wHga6KnHtw

[delicate]

Here is my submission for this month:

| .WAV


I had Lindell 80 plugin on each track and used it for most of tonal EQing and sometimes levelling compression.
Piano and guitars had some overall volume automation.

Drums
— kick & snare gated
— muted the hihat track, thought it was making things too bright
— drum bus compressed in parallel with +10db compressor

Bass
— used only DI with heavy compression, saturation with REDDI and a little dynamic EQ
— notably I used a low shelf to cut 2.5 db down from ~200hz.

Keys
— piano heavily cleaned with a few EQs, compressed, and also sent to a separate plate reverb
— rhodes eqed to change the tone and sent to a reverb to push it far back. I also added panman to provide some movement.

Rhythm guitars
— eqed (I cut a lot in low mids and 2k3 to reduce harshness), only used the mic tracks, muted DIs

Lead instruments
— just eq, a good bit of opto compression, also blended in doublers.

Vocals
— some eq, serial compressiom, sent to doubler, a dual delay and a three reverbs blended.

Mixbus
— Lindell 100 EQ with high pass at 40, and a gentle high shelf from 2k5.
— Trackcomp using G-Bus
— IK Tape 24
— a little Gullfoss (7% tame)
— Limiter to add volume to reach the ballpark of required LUFS.

[canese]

Hello,
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4n8sp9hfc6ev2 ... e.wav?dl=0
Last moment as usual but hoping to get to next round for the 1st time.

Vocals:
Tuned slightly. Compression, EQ and parallel saturation/delay/reverb.
Drums:
Worked mostly with room and OH. Snare has a gated reverb and a transient shaper. Kick has little distortion in parallel. In bus I put EQ/compression and parallel reverb.
Guitars:
Used both, dry and wet.
Piano
Little EQ and compression. Has a flanger in parallel
Bass:
Used both wet signals mixed with compression and little distortion.

[GB Real]

Thanks for this challenge, still enjoying listening to the track. Mixed in Protools, not much to say other than I closely referenced Steely Dan—excited to hear your feedback.

mp3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WrXo5y ... sp=sharing
wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DRdNWA ... sp=sharing
capture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rNDnmN ... sp=sharing

GB Real

[marvinportello]

Hi thats my mix of this song , i used some slapback delay in the vocals ,some reverb on keyboards,the drums are compressed and eq ,but not too much,its a natural drum.i dont used the DI tracks ,only the original records ,the bass was very awsome.
Thats it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hask0f5rchknd ... o.wav?dl=0

[HarrySnider]

Hi all!

Thanks for the challenge and whoever makes it accessible. Very fun to mix the song! A good challenge during the lockdown!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/71wmywtmzywp1 ... r.wav?dl=0

Notes -
Mixed in Reaper
-16 LUFS
Vocal is tuned in Melodyne
I lined up rhy guitar against the drum.
I've used an Echoboy delay and Abbey road plate reverb fo all of the tracks
Vocal: H-EQ, CLA76, Soundtoy Radiator, Doubler2
Guitar: H-EQ, CLA3A
Drums: CLA76 and high pass filter.
Backing Vocal: Doubler2 and S1 imager
Mix bus: L3 limiter (not doing much limiting, just adding a bit volume), Pro-MB and WLM Meter

Thanks again!
Harry

[wferdinand]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LYVso ... oQT1fJpdJl

Mixed in Logic Pro X. I prefer in mix when drums are sounding throught with presence and don't like too harsh/loud cymbals. Bass is standing the mix, but not with dull low freqs, and for me presence is really important. I try to accent mellow and warm tone of keys. Also tried make guitar and sax solos to main but non overpresented. I used a little tube distortion to supress insecure feel in verses.
More important processings:
Snare - preamp saturation and EQ with Burnley 73, some transient design, gate for bleed supression, than compress/limit. Try to make in-face sounding
Hand percussions - Little Microshift for add width
Rhythm guitars - Band expander for dampening spring reverb
Piano - added some tape saturation and a little hall reverb
Keyboard - make wider with Little Microshift
Sax - added tape saturation
Lead Vocals - Chorus - tape saturation, UAD 1176, PSP 2445 reverb
Lead Vocals - Verse - Tube saturation, UAD 1176, Lexicon Vintage Plate reverb
Vocal doubles - Little Microshift for widening
Master bus - Kramer Tape, G Bus, UAD Pultec Pro

[Intergalactic_dust]

Hello everyone!
First time participant on this forum.
I really liked working on this song, although I wish I had more time to spent editing the timing of various parts. I really think that it would come together better and without distractions.
Mixed in Reaper, monitoring with JBL 305s in an untreated bedroom.

DRUMS
I gated the kick and snare and extremely hi-passed the rest, especially the shakers and tambo (above 1kHz)
I used TDR Slick EQ, AudioThing BlindfoldEQ, Fabfilter ProC and Klangelm MJUCjr on the Drum Bus.

BASS
I only used the DI track. EQed out some 330Hz, compressed with MJUCjr and added some distortion with CamelCrusher.

GTRS
Rythm Gtrs: SlickEQ: hi-pass to 200Hz, removed some 520 and 2kHz. Compressed with SLAX and MJUCjr
Solo Gtr: Hi-pass to 200, lo-pass at 8k, added some 3,8k. MJUCjr and IVGI for some drive.
Gtr Buss: a little compression and dynamically EQed out 335, 640 and 2.4k which had a tendency to jump out.

RHODES: SlickEQ: hi and lo-pass, removed some 425Hz, MJUCjr and added some TAL Chorus.
PIANO: hi-pass, removed 350 and 1.15kHz, compressed with MJUCjr.

SAX: hi-pass to 100Hz, added some top end with SlickEQ. Compression and tape emulation with ToTape5 by airwindows.

VOCALS:
I tuned them with melodyne and edited breaths, count-ins ect.
EQed with SlickEQ for hi-pass and some top end above 6k. Again i compressed with MJUCjr.
The background vocals were hi-pass to 260Hz and compressed with SLAX.
I kept the first verse single-tracked and in the center for some variation.

For the Reverb Bus I used Valhalla Room and the delays were ValhallaFreqEcho and ReaDelay with 1/16th, 1/8th and 4/4 settings.
Some automation was done to the fx busses.

So here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hRgdNm ... sp=sharing

I hope you like it! Good luck everyone!

[NFiresheets]

First time participating in this, but it seems pretty cool. I mix entirely in Reason (currently still using version 7.1). Pretty much everything I used here was stuff that was included, though I do occasionally use some other rack effects. I like the simplicity of the SSL console layout and not having to rely on gajillions of dollars of fancy plugins to do everything.

Anyways, here's my mix. Hope you enjoy!

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

Mix Notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x7LWWd ... sp=sharing

Thanks!

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !

Cool song ! Stayed in the 70's and had Gilbert O'Sullivan in mind

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

DRUMS:
Variety Of Sound Thrillseeker VBL on bus
Kick: Waves CLA Drums for "classic" kick / Pultech EQ
Snare, Overheads, Room: Waves CLA Drums
Tambo: Eq taking down most below 1K, adding some between 3,5 and 5 K, Stereo Touch by Voxengo
Shakers - just volume adjustements

BASS - DI track
TDR Nova with dynamic notch at 3,3KHz (fret noises)
FA3 amp simulation
GEM EQ550 (for some presence)
Scheps 73
Bass Professor Mark II (tone shaping)
TB Sibilance / Spitfish de-essers (still fret noises)

Vocals
Corrections with Zplane Vielklang
Waves CLA Vocals (male rock setting as starter, backings more low oriented)

KEYS : Scheps Omni Channel
PIANO: TG12345 console

Rhythm Guitars: DI Tracks
bx:Rockrack player (Strat clean picking)
EQ - low cut 250Hz / high cut 15KHz
Send to Waves TrueVerb (plate)

Solo guitar: DI track
Vandal amp sim

SAX
EQ: significant bell at 350 Hz
Waves Puigchild 660 compressor
Send to Eventide Stereo Room 2016

Lot of volume automation

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=1eDsRs ... 8QPXIANipZ

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

Good succes everybody !