MIX CHALLENGE - MC071 November 2020 - Winners announced

[Jerze]

Hello ALL,

I did not use a reference track so hopeful I am not too far off. This was a fun song to nix, but very tough trying to figure out all the tracks.

Wav https://www.dropbox.com/s/1i08byb7ee0zs ... e.wav?dl=0
44/24 mix


The biggest things I tried to do was carve thing out so each part had a spot .I used some side -chaining to control the kic and bass and accent bass. The guitar some delay and compression the compression used just to tighten the part up. Synths Well, did a lot of eqing along with some verb. the vocals not happy with, but it is what it is I tried everything just could not get them to set right in the mix.

Any Question’s or thoughts let me know!


Be safe
Thanks Jerze

[Vongluck]

Hello,

I'm a French Giy, And this is my first Mix Contest with your Community, i'm so happy to participate, here my link :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s4bxh_ ... sp=sharing

It was not easy, because there are a lot of synthesizers and the volume of the voice is very irregular, but it was a good exercise.

I thank you.
Vongluck.

[flat_hat]

Hello,

Thank you for this platform. t\This is my first mixing competition.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/422qhj66fe95f ... t.wav?dl=0


I did not use the reference tracks as I wanted to give my take. This far out of my style of music so it was a challenge. I wanted the sounds to have a lot on movement (ear candy) and ground it with solid drums and base.

thanks
Flat_Hat

[Matik]

Hi everyone,

here is my entry for this month: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fw49ppsjdm1z3 ... k.wav?dl=0

Interesting arrangment, a lot of tracks to experiment. I hope that I didnt overlooked something important in the mix and also not overcompressed mix like month ago (although that I didn't use any comp on bus this month and month ago).

This time I started wit vocals. Pretty well balanced form the start, just some de-essing, fet compression, subtractive eq and another light compressor in the end. Everything rather subtle. 1,4 sec vintverb on aux for a full duration of track and some additional deley on bridge.

For bass stabs I used Sausage Fattenener and eq for clarity. For bass hold sidechain with kick and subtractive eq to take out the mudd.

On drums I throw some compression for fattnes and bit of saturation to make everything more proununced.

Nothing more than eq on guitar.

Most of my time I spend on synths. There is a lot of small movements. Few times I used Valhalla Supermassive here and it is a big part of that sound. Lot of eqing and automating pan.

Hf&gl

[odistdan]

I started off with gain staging and rough mixing.
There's basic eq on drums mostly LP and HP.
Saturation on kick 2 and drum parallel compression to get that dirt and make them feel glued together.



Mixed on DT 770 so i could only hear the bass stabs. I used SPAN to get an idea of the sub bass level. 


I removed the guitars out of the way of bass used a little M/S processing to make them stand out but still blend.



Used most M/S processing and eq on pads and gentle compression.



It took me some time to blend synth and arpeggiated parts with mostly different eq and some compression to get the tone and M/S to accentuate and fill the space with them. I used gated reverb throw technique which I could hear in original.
I did not use “synth movement wet” track.



On vocals I used volume automation, Rvox, 4 eqs, one compression and doubler 



For FX I use Rev Plate 140, H Reverb, 1/2 delay. 1/4 delay, Valhalla supermassive, Gated Reverb and a Room ambience. 

On mix bus I've used a gentle saturator to blend them together.



I started it 2 days ago so that’s all i could do before deadline.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17UQ0_x ... sp=sharing

[jeffssoloband]

Dear Patrick Lord and the Mix Challenge community,

Please find my submission for MC071 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjbf2ogwpynyu ... d.wav?dl=0

This one was challenging af. I had to keep reminding myself that I am the mix engineer--not the producer--and, it is not my place to edit parts out. I really struggled with the low end. It was rather muddy down there, and difficult to find balance. Anyway, here's my notes. Everything was done ITB in Logic Pro X. "Track 16 Rob Papen RG DRY" & "Track 18 Synth motion DRY" were not used.

Drums- kept it simple, and drum-machine sounding. All tracks are EQ's and compressed a bit. Everything is straight down the middle except for the hi-hat which has an auto-panner bouncing it back and forth between the left and the right speaker. The drum buss has an instance of Abbey Road Vinyl (Waves) which was used to square it off. Probably the first time I used zero reverb on any drum parts.

Bass- The "Bass hold" was used as intended to provide the sub. The "Bass stabs" were highpassed at 100Hz to stay out of the way. The two were bussed and compressed together.

Guitar- I highpassed at 259Hz, and mixed in (15%) a bit of a phaser.

Vocals- The track was EQ'd, compressed, and hit a bit of chamber reverb.

Other stuff- Everything else was EQ'd/saturated/filtered/reverbed to various degrees in an attempt to let every part be heard.

Master buss- There's a vintage-style compressor with a 1.5:1 ratio set with a 20ms attack and a 50ms release to hold it all together.

That's about it. Thank you for your consideration, and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,
Jeff (jeffssoloband)

[rvalle]

Hello!

Here's my entry for MC071

ITB mixing process only, on Reaper.

Musics I used for reference:
Jane Weaver - I Need a Connection
Junior Jack - Da Hype
La Roux - Let Me Down Gently

Procedures:

Drums:
- The kicks have been equalized to make them softer. In the references, drums was discreet, so to speak. So, I kept my approach in that direction.
- Snare: No special process in snares, just equalization for better cohesion between them. In snare 2, I created a light stereo with bx_stereomaker.
In the "intersnare" loop, in addition to the eq, I used a reverb just to smooth out the cuts.
- Hats: Everything that contains high frequencies in was directed to a bus, in which I used EQ to clean bass and medium-low; I used Izotope Neutron Sculptor to control harshness. I also applied a very subtle chamber reverb to improve the ambience. In the "Hats" channel, I automated volume and pan to get a movement.
- In Drumbuss I applied only the bx_console N for EQ and light compression, in addition to the character.
- With the limited processing power of my computer, I had to print the signal from the drum buss on a new channel, in which I applied FATSO Jr for compression and saturation, in addition to TDR Molot for parallel compression.

Bass:
- In "bass hold", EQ to clear some higher frequencies; LFOTool to get a movement, modulating volume and a subtle highpass; I also used Trackspacer to decrease the conflict with "bass stabs".
- On the bass bus, compression with Brainworx's ACME.

Synths:
- In most stems, just equalization to get harmony between the timbres;
- In "synth motion", I used parts of the three versions to go, little by little, adding elements to the timbre;
- In the "sparkle", I used Crystalizer by Soudntoys and Black Hole by Eventide to achieve a more ethereal tone;
- In the "serum lead" I inserted the effects rack by Soundtoys, with the preset ramp down 16ths, which brought a rhythm and ambience to the original sound.
- Synthbus received the BlackBox from Brainworx for a slight saturation, in addition to the bx_console N and Trackspacer, triggered by the main vocal for a duck in the region of frequencies between 400hz and 4khz.
- Some automation lines to work on the mood of the various moments of the music.

"Acoustics":
- I separated the guitar and violins in a group;
- I used "Rob Papen RG DRY", in which I applied the UAD Cooper Time Cube delay, very evident, and compression with Purple Audio MC77;
- In violins, in addition to EQ for cleaning, I used Sculptor for a character in the high frequencies;
- On the bus, I also used BlackBox.

Vocal:
- In the original channel, I started with volume automation to improve the dynamics. I passed it in Melodyne for minor corrections.
- I printed on a new channel, where I inserted the console N, a deesser, Decapitator for saturation, the Cooper Time Cube for a short delay and AIR LoFi for an effect that consisted of the addition of noise at the moment when the letter says " there is only static ".
- Several automations that can be seen in the attached prints.

Ambience:
- Several processors were inserted in channels that received certain elements. They are: long delay, reverb and effect delay, voice reverb and room simulator.

2bus:
- Everything was directed to a bus master channel, in which bx_townhouse (bus compressor) and Oxide Tape were inserted.

The sum was printed on an L / R signal which was processed separately. Here, I applied the Lindell 354E for multiband compression, Dangerous Bax EQ and SPL Passeq (this in M ​​/ S), UAD 610-B, again the townhouse for a glue, and the Ozone Equalizer for cuts in the low and high end.

Thanks Patrick for the beautiful tune!

Screen Prints:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Music:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Znlxw ... sp=sharing

[Oba Ozai]

If I could re submit it be like this

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

I introduced some big errors on my first mix (which I withdrew earlier), I tried to correct them here

hope most dont mind me sharing

[ArneB]

Hello everyone,

thanks Patrick for this interesting song! This was really a pleasure to mix. Started quite early to mix this song this month, but let it rest for 2 two weeks until I realized today that submission deadline this night... so here is my attempt:

WAV

I mixed this in the box in ProTools. I used the wet tracks where supplied and sorted out the according dry ones. Again I went for FabFilters EQ and Compressor, ended up using it on most of the channels. Biggest issue for me was some really low tones in the sub bass and some keys, which were either unbearable or caused some headaches. So I went for Decapitator in boost mode and after that put a high pass on it.

Drums: Basic EQing, highpass on Snare and Hihat, bit of decapitator on Kick and snare.

Synths: Some cuts on the low ends to remove bit of muddiness in the overall sound. Put a bit of decapitator on some of them.

For the voice I spend a while trying to put a decent delay on it. Additionally, I chose a big room in Fabfilters ProR.
Put a compressor on the instruments bus, to duck it a bit when the vocal comes in.

Good luck to everyone!

Cheers,
Arne

[GB Real]

Here is my mix:

Wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K31M7Z ... sp=sharing
mp3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13K_rTy ... sp=sharing
capture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wqtsba ... sp=sharing

Enjoyed working on the mix, interesting track. I focused on thickening the vocal, adding doubles, parallel saturation, and parallel compression so that the vocals could sit more prominently. I also duplicated the bass a few times to add some more harmonic via distortion. Added some massive, spacious reverbs, automated the level a lot. I referenced Daft Punk The Game of Love when EQing and compressing toward the end. Good luck to all

GB Real