MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Winners announced

[Los_ady]

Thank you all for all the submissions, it's fascinating how much the Song change from Mix to Mix, you all Rock !!!

[paglia]

Hi

I have not listen the reference mix and other suggestions. Just opened the project and mixed.

KICK-SNARE: Brainworx bx_console SSL 4000 E
TOM: SansAmp + Uad Neve 88RS
OH: Uad Neve 88RS
ROOM: SOME DISTORTION AND REVERB PLUGIN
DRUM REVERB: TC VSS3
DRUM BUS: MH TRANSIENT CONTROL + UAD Studer A800 + Kush Omega N + Flux PCv3
BASS: Softube Saturation Knob + Uad LA-2A
VOCAL: Uad STUDER A800 + Sound Toys Decapitator + Uad LA2A + Uad 1176 + Reel Tape Deay + Eventide h910 + Soothe + Vocal Rider
DOUBLE VOCAL: Eventide H910
REVERB VOCAL: Eventide Backhole
HARMONY: Eventide Omipressor + Uad Massenburg eq + Waves MDMX Screamer + Eventide Tverb + Eventide Backhole
GUITARS: No plugs on guitars except some widening on gt1

WAV:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2qke6knb42z8t ... a.wav?dl=0

MP3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xsz9x7dbpgjc ... a.mp3?dl=0

PRO TOOLS EDIT WINDOW:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bar2mxcfoxctw ... 0.mov?dl=0

[s&f]

Hi. thank u for the chance of mixing the song.

mixing process:

-there were a lot of files, and I was very interested in reamping them. but, I thought the guitars sounded pretty good (I used most sm57 files) and the bass I used the Sansamp plugin. while checking how would it sound if I reamped, I put the vocals through my amp and delay, so the vocals u hear is a reamped vocal mixed with the comp vocals.

-my main used plugins were logic's stock plugin, waves j37, apogee pultec plugin, eventide 2016 plugin

-guitars - I put them really loud, and didn't care much about phase or mono compatibility. while I was editing I tried to reverse the audio randomly and I think it worked well. bass guitars and backing vocals are very low compared to the guitars

-BV - I drenched them in reverb, and before the reverb I put the waves mondo plugin to give some movement.

there were lots of automation. any doubts let me know.

screenshots:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3iqk5vev56ecv ... M.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t54gqy22lk42k ... M.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpurfmvtgwd0m ... M.png?dl=0

Wav version:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7lmwb1exsgziq ... F.wav?dl=0

Mp3 version:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qarsqcar3dkfm ... F.mp3?dl=0

this challenge took me a lot longer than I expected. hehe. hope u enjoy my mix :]

thanks

[soorous]

Cool Track!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmwqp5thqrjdt ... s.wav?dl=0

Using Logic Pro X ITB. with HD600

Drums: Some alignment of the close mic timed to OHs. Lots of SP2016 Verb. Distortion of Boom mics with Kush Omega. Lots of parallel compression and distortion with Deflector.

Bass: Alignment of all three tracks. Chorus applied to DI, mono @120hz. Distortion with Vertigo VSM-3. MaxxBass

Guitar: Treated with Softube Tape. And abit of room reverb. Only 2 track is using Dizel VH-4 & PRS Dallas. The Rest are using recorded tracks. With Lots of Room mic.

Vocal: using SmartEQlive + soothe to help with the unevenness of the main vocal. Parallel compression and distortion with Devil-Loc. Lots of ambi reverb with EW Space and XenoVerb.

Main bus: Some more distortion and exciter HG-2, True Iron. Compression from El Rey. Limiter to help with the peaks

[Mister Fox]

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

[Green-Dog]

Hi everyone,

Cool song! I like that kind of music. With my mixing I try to achieve glued band sound, to make it sound like it was played live. From drum rooms I used only one, and from guitars tracks I used two mics blended together, and in some I keep room mic. You can find everything else in the screenshots of my project.

Screenshots
Mix

Good luck to everyone!
Andrejs

[Berenger]

Hello everyone,

This is my first participation to a MC here, and I want to thanks the Mix-challenge team and the artists who provide the materials. This song really was moving me and it was a pleasure to mix it. I'm french so sorry for my english.

CHOSEN DIRECTION
As a mix engineer, I value the "emotion first" approach.
I listened to both the commercial release of this song and the references provided. As "being creative" and "we want to hear where this song could have gone" were part of the brief, I took a different direction than the commercial release, without (I hope) betraying the original emotion of the song.
And I feel the song as being a deep dive into love despair, angriness and resentment. I feel the climax around bar 130 and I wanted to emphasis the feeling of "falling" into this emotions (Like... well... waterfalls... genius Berenger. )

I have this strong feelings when I listen to post rock / post hardcore band like Caspian, Russian Circles or This Will Destroy You, and they share common sound similarities with your provided references :

• Roomy yet Powerfull and deep drums
• Use of large reverbs
• Careful treatment of distortion on guitars

For the deep dive feeling, I couldn't get Again by Archive out of my head as a reference.

So the direction was this : Giving the song a strong, deep and roomy rhythmic sound and driving the "fall into darkness" with extensive use of delays and filters on vocals. Hope it will please you.

PROCESSING
Drum
Phase correction and track selection.
I start mixing from the room mic. The room feel to small and bright to me so I build an additional room track with an IR1 and mix it with the actual room mics. It result in a bigger and darker room sound.
BTW, your MS is incredibly good, well placed, well balanced.

I also decided to make the kick roomy and deep

I also use a NewYork Bus which is injected with different tracks depending on the part of the song : deeper and more present kick and snare on verse for clarity, more room and cymbals on chorus and high energy parts.

Bass Sound
I really liked the idea of a chorus on bass but I also wanted a strong distortion on high energy parts. The provided tracks lack some mid range to achieve this sound so i choose to :
- reamp the di track into my SVT Classic Amp to get a clean track with strong mids
- create a chorus track from it that I open during verses
- create a distortion track that i open on chorus and high energy parts.

Chorus bass appear on verse and distortion on chorus and High energy parts.

Guitar Processing
I realize that for some reason all the "MEJ" track was phase inverted which deeply affect the guitar tones. I corrected phase. I choose not to use Room mics. Layering of gtr was achieved by mixing each mic in a different way from a darker sound for rhythmic gtr to brighter and more present sound for arpeggio and melodic guitars.
I only reamped the chorus melodic guitar because I wanted it to pop out of the mix and needed a both bright and clear crunch without to much highs.

Vocal Processing
Well vocals were quite a challenge here : I wanted it and the melodic guitars to alternate in the front of the mix, but I also wanted to keep the etheral feelings of the references.
Usual process for vocal : some EQ, some comp, some 1073, some 1176, some infinite delay, with distortions and filters and automation... Well I can't describe all the things I've done, here it was more about feelings.

Hope you will enjoy this mix. Hope I didn't went to far from what was expected. Hope that hope is enough.

Here is a link to the mix : http://bit.ly/mc070waterfall

I see lots of people showing screenshot so I assume it was necessary, here are some screen of the session :
Vocal automations :


Vocal Chain :


Bass Processing (after reamping) :


Drum proc (too much here to show so i just didn't open any plug, if you want detail feel free to ask) :


Aller ! Bisous !
Bérenger.

[raleighrecords]

Hi All, my first time in the mix challenge, here's my offering:

WAV (48K 24bit)

I liked the shoegaze / radiohead nature to this track. I wasn't a fan of the snare in the original, I spent some time trying to add depth and more ethereal-ness to the kit. The guitars were cool, so many, I tried to stick with blending a close mic with a room mic on each guitar part. I went back and forth on a more compressed vocal and one with a little more air with less processing. I tried to get the vocal to be up front and present, and wanted to treat the BG vox more as pads. This was a fun challenge, looking forward to participating in more of them.

[EchoOread]

Thank you for the music. Awesome song. Hope you like my mix. Thanks for the listen.

Arriving pretty much the same conclusion as my fellow mixers here about the song, I try to keep the emotional aspect as closely to the performances as possible. Plenty of room, dynamically, to play so I employ the strategy of 'divide and conquer.'

The key, imo, is to keep instruments from getting into each other's way (no lack of that here). So I spend the bulk of the time 'unmasking'. I choose only the tracks that I think really contribute to the parts and highlight them while making the rest playing the supporting role. First, I separate all the guitars into smaller groups, a pair of ears battle against 40+ guitars is a bit lopsided, imo. That seems to work with an EQ+ sat+ compression. Add different amount of delay to position them on the depth axis and trim (EQ) some of the top end off to leave room for the vocal and the kick+ snare. Group the bass and process with EQ (LP)+distortion+ compression and side-chain it to the kick. Separate the drums into 2 groups, one for the kit and the other for the rooms. Treat them with EQ+parallel+compression+delay. Same with vocal, parallel+delay+automation.




https://drive.google.com/file/d/18VEdnu ... sp=sharing

[Mikael]

Helo All!

I enjoyed mixing this song. 70's vibes, melancholic vocal, REAL DRUMS!
Vocal track has clicks and clipping sometimes (I hope my attemt to fix these artefacts will not cause penalties)

Here is my submission:

MC070_Cheap Flights_Waterfall_Mikael.wav

With best regards,
Mikael