MIX CHALLENGE - MC070 October 2020 - Winners announced

[Los_ady]

Soooo this was a long meeting as we had so many strong mixes and re-listen to many of them many times

Thank you all so much for this high engagement and the kind words

The Band was impressed but so many strong and creative mixes in different styles, so it was really - really hard

So here we go with our top 3 winner!

#3 @MattRocket Congratulations, we really loved the overall balance, wideness and feel of the track

We had a little bit issues with the vocal doubling effect, so it didn't made it to the number 1 but be proud on that one man!

#2 @TomImmon Fantastic unique mix, amazing style, completely different from all the others, the Band really loved it

I told them I take the part on my back: There are some vocal glitches and noises, like min 00:53, but in a real situation, the Band would prefer your Mix and that you fix it instead of picking another one because of the vibe and especially the wideness and creativity in it, great job!

#1 @letsmix

LetsMix - What a fantastic, clear, top balanced and dynamic mix

You really nailed the vocals and surprised the Band with the dry vocal approach - they usually LOVE reverb and were amazed that it's still working without a cloud of reverb and delays, and me honestly, too!

You nailed also the trickiest part that is not so obvious: To balance the energy of the mix from the beginning to the end

Your Mix is building up from the Intro, goes smoother in the Verse with a lot of space, goes louder and wider in the bridge, back to smoothness in the 2nd Verse and then get's bigger, wider, more intense and dramatic

This is really a big thing to leave a lot of space until min 3:40 where the distorted guitars kick in and give this extra punch and wideness while maintaining excitement through the whole Song, congratulations.

We would love to post all 3 mixes from the Winner on Cheap Flights and my social Media, so please upload those tracks on Soundcloud and send me the link in a Private Message incl. any social media / webpage from you

And the Winner @letsmix get's invited to the next round of Mix Off Mondays, congrats!

I will send feedback for the rest 8 mixes in the next post, either today or by tomorrow!

This was a lot of fun, thank you again for this high engagement and high quality of mixes, you all Rock!!!

[dnlptn]

Congrats to all the winners!

Thanks again Ady, I enjoy your enthusiasm, and your feedback has been really valuable. This is only my second mix challenge, but it feels lucky to have someone like you here.

[Los_ady]

You are too kind my friend @dnlptn thx for participating! You were in the Vocalists top 3 at the first listening round ! It was really hard to decide!

I will send off course the last feedback for the top 11 by tomorrow

[letsmix]

OMG, this is amazing! Thanks so much for the kind words on my mix. It was really well recorded and performed so it was fun to dig into it and keep polishing the mix until I was happy. There is still a good amount of effects on the vocal but I know exactly what you mean. I wanted to get the vocal to float in front so I kept removing vocal effects little by little until I had what I wanted front to back. I'm glad you (sorta) liked it!

I learned that my favorite vocal comp, the Waves CLA76 blue, can be a little harsh. I never noticed it before, but switching from blue to black was magic near the end of the mix to smooth the vocal.

Big thanks to Ady, the band, Mr. Fox and the other contestants. Hopefully I didn't miss anyone. This is such an honor to win something in an area I love doing. I'd love a copy of the Metric Halo TransientControl.

[White Punk OD]

Big congrats to the winners, I agree because they were among my favorites too.
Sorry I did not do my best, so I failed the podium.
Ady & Pjotr, I was so glad you liked my style, so I believe I owe you a voluntary update after the fact, and I would like to encourage the band to try this direction also.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qq8LP2 ... sp=sharing

I listened thru the hit-the-road portfolio, I love the rock styles, also liked the afrobeat song a lot!
Waterfall sounds a bit different, I can see how it was interesting to try some different approaches.


Interesting issues, in case our contestant engineers like to discuss:
- how far do we go in correcting glitches, clicks and breath noises etc., when the production is a bit more on the underground and emotional side.
- vocals were recorded a bit hot, which were the most popular approaches to mix them?
- hihat bleed was massive, drums also needed gating. I used de-essers.
- snare has some kind of "plouf" sound, I tried to make it more like usual, is this ok at all?
- some guitars may sound a bit metallic. I combined the sources in a way I hope it sounds a bit wider and softer.
- what did others do with the DI tracks? I picked 2 and created additional clean guitar tracks from these, with totally different effects

letsmix, great work, very tight, well-focused on the mid-range, still I thought a bit more of lower bass-sounds might be enjoyable.

in general, many mixes were somewhat soft on low end, while I thought, if we have a little touch of underground here, let's do it the other way, more dreamy with very full sounding bass and kick patterns. This leaves room in the mid-range for the vocals to sound a bit softer and more "fluffy".

thanks everyone, this was an exciting experience!

[letsmix]

Interesting issues, in case our contestant engineers like to discuss:
- how far do we go in correcting glitches, clicks and breath noises etc., when the production is a bit more on the underground and emotional side.
- vocals were recorded a bit hot, which were the most popular approaches to mix them?
- hihat bleed was massive, drums also needed gating. I used de-essers.
- snare has some kind of "plouf" sound, I tried to make it more like usual, is this ok at all?
- some guitars may sound a bit metallic. I combined the sources in a way I hope it sounds a bit wider and softer.
- what did others do with the DI tracks? I picked 2 and created additional clean guitar tracks from these, with totally different effects

letsmix, great work, very tight, well-focused on the mid-range, still I thought a bit more of lower bass-sounds might be enjoyable.

Thanks White Punk OD! It was a db or two lighter in the sub region than I usually do. I'm not sure why I went that direction other than I was on a mission to make it as clean, clear and wide as I could and that's where I ended up. In the past I've really struggled with things building up / masking /
fighting in the low region and now I'm on a mission to clear that stuff out I guess.

Regarding glitches and clicks: I chose to pull most of them out and leave in breaths since they have drama.

Regarding the vocals I found a smoother compressor, notched 2 or 3 frequencies that were bugging me, and did some multiband to pull out some harsh frequencies when they happened.

I hate hi hat bleed. I ended up using a gate on the snare and pulling some harsh frequencies out of the overheads and rooms.

The room mics really interacted with the snare sound. Little changes to the room mic levels dramatically changed the snare sound to my ears.

I remember a few harsh mics on the guitars. I quickly found those and put them under the others and then pulled them up until they poked and snarled in a way I thought helped but didn't detract. When I built up the ending I leaned on some of those mics to bring the heat.

I realized later I did nothing with the DI tracks. The mic'ed up amps got me where I wanted to go so I didn't do anything with the DI tracks. In retrospect I could have done some cool swirly things on the guitar!

[TomImmon]

Oh what a nice surprise. thanks Ady, Piotr and the unknown rest of the band. I really enjoyed mixing your great song. In the mid-80s, I was pretty active drumming in a dark wave band. Your song reminded me of this music, hence the 80s vibes ;-).

Best congrats to @letsmix and @MattRocket !

Ady,I'll get in touch when I have the song on Soundcloud. It's great that you came up with a few extra benefits for the winners.

@Mr. Fox: Thanks for hosting this great contest! I then choose the Acon Digital DeFilter, please!

Best regards from Berlin
Tom

[Mister Fox]

First and foremost, congratulations to the winners!
Apologies for the late response, I was out of the house for the majority of Monday.

The Winners Podium is
1) @letsmix
2) @TomImmon
3) @MattRocket


We perform with the usual - please select one license out of the pool (in order of the winners podium) and mention it in this thread, then (important) get in touch with me via PM with your full name, email address and your plugin selection. If one company has been selected, it's not available for the rest of the podium anymore.

I'll update the "winners podium" thread shortly.

Thanks again for your participation. You can leave the thread alive if you want to exchange tips/tricks, edits, etc.



Please don't forget the Songwriting Competition - which needs as much love as the Mix(ing) Challenge. See you on the flipside.

[Piki]

Hey!

This is Piotr, guitarist from Cheap Flights.
Thanks to all who participated in this challenge. It was amazing to hear our song mixed in so many different ways, it was not easy at all to select those that made the second round and then to select winners. Thanks to all of you, it is crazy that so many people spent so much time working on it.

Congrats to all who made it to second round and of course a round of applause for the winners.

LetsMix as Ady said your mix is so spacious, clear, balanced and powerfull at the same time - there was not a single thing I would ask you to change there. And the way you approached the vocals - I dont know what you did there man but definitely did a hell of a job!

TomImmon Your mix was really standing out in terms of style. Amazing sound, you really made it sounding different than the others, different than our original mix and different than we would normally expect - it was really refreshing to hear this different version of ourselves.

MattRocket Amazing detailed mix. Spacious, airy, powerfull ! As Ady said we were not fully convinced by the way main vocal sounded, it is simply our preference, I dont think there was anything wrong with it, it is a matter of taste. Intrumental mix was top notch.



White Punk OD I'll listen to your new submission later today and will let you know what I think about it. Thanks for being so active on this Mix Challenge thread, I did enjoy reading your feedback on other mixes and the song!

Mister Fox Thanks for organizing this, you are doing a great job here, it was a pleasure to be part of it.

and of course Ady thanks bro for bringing us here !!! That was fun

All the best !!!!

Piotr and rest of Cheap Flights.

[MattRocket]

Thanks to Cheap Flights and Ady!

I am very happy to be on the podium.

Thanks Mister Fox!
(I choose the Hornet Tape)