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MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Winners announced

Join the Mix Challenge - recurrence: February, April, June, August, October, December
Erich

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#191

Post by Erich »

Oba Ozai wrote:
Thu Oct 29, 2020 21:31 CET
Maybe I should consider another hobby :)
Nah. Mixing is hard. Sometimes what you think is great in the moment sounds horrible later.
Oba Ozai wrote:
Thu Oct 29, 2020 21:43 CET
I never looked at a mix this way and im intrigued to what it means
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UxHVOn ... sp=sharing
Correlometer compares left vs. right for phase correlation across the spectrum. Frequencies are along the bottom axis.
+1 means in phase.
-1 means 180 degrees out of phase.
The low-end should be closer to +1.

I made this widget in Desmos a while ago. Imagine red and blue are sine waves in the left and right channels. As they are moved out of phase, you'll see the effect on the correlation and width meters. When correlation=-1 the left+right sum is zero.

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/6xwmy3cwba
Image
Oba Ozai wrote:
Thu Oct 29, 2020 21:43 CET
As for some of the tracks being stuck on +1, does that is a mystery to me. The overol mix is not.
A mono track will always be +1.
Oba Ozai

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#192

Post by Oba Ozai »

@Erich

"A mono track will always be +1". Ahhhh !!! I been battling windmills :)

That Voxengo Spam is something I never used, and it does add a very different perspective. Thanks to you and @Dodgingrain for the suggestion.
Oba Ozai

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#193

Post by Oba Ozai »

Does the bass and kick need to look like this, centered ? Because if not I been sabotaging myself trying to do something else

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J8L-Ny ... sp=sharing
Oba Ozai

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#194

Post by Oba Ozai »

Darn, now I figure that I been screwing things badly for me with what im doing, is why things are sounding out of phase to @Dodgingrain !!! I been moving the wrong buttons :( I truly appreciate the help you all been giving. And I promise I will stick to standard panning :)
CantusPro

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#195

Post by CantusPro »

The low end of kick and bass are generally non directional. If you try to spread them, they're either less loud or less efficient. You CAN spread them and be artistic, but you're usually just making a track that is less loud or less efficient.
Oba Ozai

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#196

Post by Oba Ozai »

I just discovered the panning laws with this mix. Now I see why a small change in panning affects so much the mix overall. I been doing this wrong and im glad I came here, even do it hurts my ego a bit :) In fact I been doing a few other things wrong that somehow only the good folks here seem to notice.

If you want to be accepted by the audio masters, stick to standard panning. if you want to create waves of distortion and be noticed, start screwing with panning standards :)

Thanks !
m_tree
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2020 01:11 CEST
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#197

Post by m_tree »

@Oba Ozai
I already mentioned all of this to you, over 4 days ago :grin:
Including the Voxengo SAN suggestion and so on ... just for the record. ;)
m_tree wrote:
Mon Oct 26, 2020 04:07 CET
@Oba Ozai
I've heard your mix. For detailed analytics I took the first instrumental refrain and compared it with my mix - after loudness-normalization and with an analyzer ...

Average frequency spectrum (first refrain):
Your mix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/utcogwr5m7q9s ... n.jpg?dl=0

My mix - https://www.dropbox.com/s/wd62vreyftmax ... n.jpg?dl=0

My mix for comparison:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/etdnmrnplg1f4 ... e.wav?dl=0

Voxengo SPAN is a free VST-plugin, by the way:
https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

The main problem, especially with the low-end, is the negative correlation of your left and right channel (Correlation meter of the analyzer). Negative values means the side-signal is louder than the mid-signal and vice versa. The mid-signal is the mono-content in the center and exactly the same on both speakers. The side-signal is the difference of the channels and disappears in mono.
But this doesn't only affect the mono-compatibility. The bass-frequencies contain the most energy of the spectrum ... thus they're mostly panned in the center, to spread the bass-energy evenly on both speakers.
The 'industry standard' for panning is since a few decades: kick, snare, bass and lead-vocal in the center - 0% panning.

Usually the correlation of the channels should be between +0.5 and +1 and certainly not in the negative area. You rarely find professional mixes with lower values than +0.5.
Your mix has only negative values, my mix only values over +0.5.

Another important point are the balances - and this often is underestimated by novice. Your mix is very unbalanced. The lead-guitar in this part is too quiet and the rhythm section is too dominant. You can also see this in the frequency spectrum of the analyzer.

The Kickdrum is 'ducking' or 'pumping' your whole mix, by the way. But this isn't an EDM track. Even ducking the bass by the kick via sidechain-compression is an artistic thing only, in my opinion. I want the kickdrum and bass to play simultaneously. But this is also a matter of taste.
And yeah, kick and bass 'dead center' seems boring. But you can still decorate them with stereo reverb, delays and so on. E.g. my kick has a little bit stereo reverb (as a send effect) and my bass is sent to two slap-delays, panned 100% L/R - one of them is a haas delay. But I drastically EQed the delays with a bandpass filter and blended them in quiet, just to create a very subtle feel of space.
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Dodgingrain
Posts: 161
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 03:16 CEST
Location: United States
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#198

Post by Dodgingrain »

Another trick is kick goes 100% mono down the center. Bass is 100% mono below around 150hz and add stereo width above that to taste.

@Oba Ozari - Skip the meters for now, I think they are hurting you more than helping. Mixing is 90% creativity and 10% analytics.
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Oba Ozai

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#199

Post by Oba Ozai »

Greetings, sorry for the late replay. I appreciate all the feedback I have received. See you all next Mix. Thanks

There are always things to be improved but I share what I have done here so the ones that have kindly helped me can see that im truly trying to improve and without the help you all been giving me that would have not been possible.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YiBtuU ... sp=sharing
Last edited by Oba Ozai on Sat Oct 31, 2020 23:29 CET, edited 5 times in total.
DennisBastioni

Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#200

Post by DennisBastioni »

Hi everyone, well, unfortunately i'm disqualified. I see in the "statistics" that my file wasn't accessible so i try to download it with my pc and it works.
So i would know how it is possible so i can avoid this error next time cause i really take care of this competitions. So thank you in advance.


DennisBastioni
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