MIX CHALLENGE - MC069 September 2020 - Winners announced

[hjchjc]

Hi all! Love the variety of approaches I'm hearing and I'm so glad people like the song. IRL I'm a music writer and I'm on deadline for a couple of things but I'll try to get feedback for everyone by the end of the week <3

[E.C.Miraldo]

Hey Mr.Fox!

I was attempting to open the data sheets for the submissions and i get a 403 forbidden error, not sure if anyone else is getting that tho

[Mister Fox]

I was attempting to open the data sheets for the submissions and i get a 403 forbidden error, ...

This was happening due to the fact, that there was no prepared PDF available yet. Next month, I'll completely remove the link until everything is up and ready, so that there will be no misunderstanding.



Which brings me to the main topic:

The "Overview of Submissions" PDFs have been uploaded. You can check them through the upper post.

We sadly have a lot of careless mistakes from our regulars yet again. For every other entry that has been disqualified, I point to the well established Rules and Guidelines for the Mix(ing) Challenge. Please keep in mind, the focus in on mixing and keeping levels in check. This is not a mixing and mastering competition.

We have a disqualification rate of 32,60% for September 2020 (46 entries, 15 disqualifications).
In comparison: August 2020 (28,57%, 35 entries, 10 disqualifications) and July 2020 (40,37%, 109 entries, 44 disqualifications).




I now open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however.


Please watch this spot for the client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.

[JohnK]

Sorry - My mistake, didn't read through the rules about LUFS. My track is not mastered though, just gainstaging. Anyway, thanks for a great and interesting song to mix.

[GenBassman]

I actually find this kind of production weird. All the references been written in main post include real instruments recorded in such a nice rooms, all the atmosphere comes from well planned session. Here we have a lot of midi stuff with no rights to rearrange, but it's ok. The main problem I see is the melody - I simply can not differ a verse, chorus, pre-chorus, interlude, etc. I understand that this whole thing is about my personal taste but anyway I see some serious issues with songwriting here. The only things I really enjoyed - vocal intonations and harmonies.

Pardon me for this kind of feedback.

[Mister Fox]

The focus of the Mix(ing) Challenge is not to "fix" a production. The concept of the game has always been a simulation of a real world scenario. And with this, you usually can't choose what you get access to, you can't "fix" like you would do it.

One day, it's a 90-track super clean recording session, the other it's an independent production recorded in a broom closet. You only have access to the material that has been given to you, and the request to "build upon it". The real challenge is - what you make out of that within given parameters. And the bonus is, what you learn during that process.

[GenBassman]

This is why I chose to do zero edits to instrumental tracks. Maybe person likes it that way - I don't know. Yes, I made some decisions on voxes because I've got a ton of tracks and my opinion is to make vocal perfomance better and make this song sound audible and easier to listen. I'm surprised that a lot of entries made this song more agressive, more compressed even the vocals are soft and lyrics are not that edgy. Like some mumble rap songs nowadays.

[E.C.Miraldo]

I mean it's not an easy track to mix by all means.

But yeah imho tempo edits on the drumms and some cuts on the vocals were a must.


Otherwise i guess the mix was about finding the balance between musical cohesion and vocal emotion. Yes.. in some mixes the vocals sound better than in others, some people know a couple of tricks other don't but the main thing was the balance, as it is in every mix. Unfortunately in this version of the context i heard a lot of mixes with little to no low-end which compromised a lot on the musical cohesion part of it

[Mister Fox]

There were no "tempo edits" in this Mix(ing) Challenge

[Oba Ozai]

Greetings,

I checked my mix again and seems like a bit rate or sample rate reduction will affect the loudness, could anyone verify that (im a student). Initially I uploaded a 48KHz mix (got confused) but that one I checked was at +/- 18 LUFS. When I noticed almos everyone else was at 41.5KHz i uploaded a new file and used the same link but I did not checked LUFS (I did not think a sample bit rate would affect that, but yes now reads -14 LUFS). I will be more careful next time.

I did made a few edits a week before it "contest" ended [Last edited by Oba Ozai on Tue Sep 15, 2020 20:40 CEST, edited 4 times in total.] most where for spelling issues. Seems the rules does not allow any kinds of edits even if the deadline for the "contest" has not been reached; is this correct ?