MIX CHALLENGE - MC071 November 2020 - Winners announced

[rvalle]

Guys, this is so cool!! Reaching the podium for the first time here at MC is a great joy for me.

After participating in six challenges, in five of them I got to round 2 (in one I was disqualified cause I made a mistake in the file definitions ). I was already quite happy with that. The songs are so different, the styles so varied, that maintaining this regularity means the work has been doing well. Now, pinching a spot on the podium shows that the curve is ascending.

I thank you @patrlord for the opportunity to mix your music, in which I tried to get out of the comfort zone a little, risking a little more on the artistic side of mixing. It was a great learning experience. I imagine how difficult it can be to choose between so many competent mixes, examining every detail. And you did it excellently, providing us with great reviews.

I congratulate all the participants, those chosen for the second round and especially @kirurg and @canese for their beautiful work. I also thank father @Mister Fox for the indefectible organization of this space.

If I could get Acon Digital Equalize 2 it would be great.

Thanks!

[TonnoBass]

Hi to everyone. It was my first mix contest, never done one before this. I'm so glad I have come this far, I wouldn't imagine this.

Thanks Patrick Patlord for the special mention of the lead's sound. It wasn't easy for me to get this particular drivey, spacey and forward sound at the same time, I really enjoyed working on it as well.

I am very happy that the winner is one of my favourite mixes, once I opened the Logic's project for listening to the songs.
Congratulations to Kirurg, and to all those who made it to the second round!
Really loved the way Kirurg treated the Bass hold, it sounds so growly and sits in the right place, not going into the very low end.
By the way, I really loved the snare made from Alavault!!!
And really noticed that part with the auto filter from Canese, wonderful choice.

If it will be possible to You, Patrick, I'd love to have detailed feedback about my mix for Round2. I'd really like to know what You liked best from it, and what do You think I would have done better.

Special thanks to Mister Fox for doing this so well, I can't wait to start mixing for the December's contest, already started.

Cheers!

TonnoBass

[Mark Andrews]

May I ask what playback system you are using to listen to the mixes.

Hi Mark, I generally listen on three devices. Firstly and most importantly, for detailed mixing decisions, my Behringer headphones calibrated individually with Sonarworks Reference 4 ... this software basically counterbalances the imperfect frequency response curve of the headphones to give a flatter response across all frequencies. I also listen a lot on my iphone with earbud headphones. Finally, I've got a home hifi setup to see how it sounds with its coloured response (which usually means more bass).

I'll listen to your track and add my feedback to the spreadsheet!

Hi! I know you have been busy with judging round 2 entries. Now that's finished could you find the time to listen to my mix, please?
Thanks Patrick.
Original mix submission https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_T0rLG ... sp=sharing
A version I mastered with much more control and definition https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dM7PRh ... sp=sharing

[patrlord]

Hi Mark,
I already added my feedback on your mix to the Google Sheets file a week ago, I should have posted a reply to let you know !
Here's the link again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... PcnZvNrjeL
It's the last entry (row) in the list. I also listened to your mastered version just now, which of course 'bakes-in' and improves definition of the mix, and therefore my feedback on your mix applies equally to the mastered version. I felt that some of the elements could be balanced differently e.g. vocals more present with less long-tail reverb, pads and violins pushed back mostly except in some crescendo parts. But overall nice work!

Thanks so much for participating and I hope you got as much out of it as I did.

[Mark Andrews]

Hi Mark,
I already added my feedback on your mix to the Google Sheets file a week ago, I should have posted a reply to let you know !
Here's the link again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... PcnZvNrjeL
It's the last entry (row) in the list. I also listened to your mastered version just now, which of course 'bakes-in' and improves definition of the mix, and therefore my feedback on your mix applies equally to the mastered version. I felt that some of the elements could be balanced differently e.g. vocals more present with less long-tail reverb, pads and violins pushed back mostly except in some crescendo parts. But overall nice work!

Thanks so much for participating and I hope you got as much out of it as I did.

Thanks Patrick. I had looked but alphabetically! All the criticisms are intentional. Any clipping or delay that changes the timing was, for me, to aid to story telling/emotion in the song.

It's interesting for me, as people ask me to mix because they know I'll do it a certain way. Here it is to order/preferences. It's like a service.

I have a certain style and people will like it or not. Of course, I can always improve the execution of it!

When I heard your original mix of the song, I knew how 'I' heard it in my head and made it that way. I must admit I didn't take any notice of anything else.

I did use 3 references though, if you're interested:
https://youtu.be/1GK1W0yQOSo No-man (Steven Wilson & Tim Bowness) Where the string feel came from and longing vibe.
https://youtu.be/LZyybvVx-js Billie Elliesh Reference to push the sub bass and the distortion/clipping
https://youtu.be/A4tGfvKChSM Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn (previously of Japan) for the overall balance minus strings.

[Mister Fox]

First and foremost, congratulations to the winners!
Apologies for the late response, my weekends are currently really busy.

The Winners Podium is
1) @kirurg
2) @canese
3) @rvalle


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. And we still have a sample collection thread for SWC041/January running until the end of 21st December.

See you on the flipside.

[kirurg]

Hi everyone,

Really great news here.
Thank you Patrick, you have done huge work here listening and giving the feedbacks during the challenge.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated.
According to the rules I decided to pick no license this time, so
@canese and @rvalle please make your choice.

Greetings from Estonia

[patrlord]

https://youtu.be/1GK1W0yQOSo No-man (Steven Wilson & Tim Bowness) Where the string feel came from and longing vibe.

Wow that one's a real gem, thanks for sharing it !! There are so many different shades and balances between the instruments, and structural changes like a story with different chapters.

[canese]

OMG I'm speechless

The quality of the feedback made me learn in so many ways I can't be thankful enough. And getting to the podium for the 1st time, encourages me a lot to keep investing time and effort in this craft to make it better. This next year I hope I can treat my room acousticly and get some better mixing tools (I've been mixing with some old home theater speakers and in-ear headphones in my parents garage).

Thanks @Mr.Fox and @patrlord for this great and unique contest.

For the prize, I'll take the Metric Halo Channel Strip 3.

Ciao!

[patrlord]

@TonnoBass

I've put together some more detailed feedback as you asked.
Basically all the R2 submissions were so good we’re getting into small details, and a number of them come down to my personal taste.

* Great start, sounds warm, builds up well
* For me the vocals, although they are more upfront now, still have a fair amount of reverb, making the song feel quite reverby overall compared to the other mixes. However simply it’s a question of my taste to have less very vocals in general. The singer’s voice is so nice, I like to hear it more dry :-)
* The instruments are all nicely balanced
* 41 - drums are nice and punchy
* 57 - I like the arpegg here, creates restless feeling
* 73 - chorus 1 - this is where the voice could be more impactful if it were more dry. So one option might be to keep a bit of reverb on vocals in the verses and build-up, then cut the reverb to the absolute minimum for the chorus to make it stand out.
* 113 - builds up nicely, the strings sing out, to build up to chorus 2
* 129 - chorus 2 is now more full and sounds really nice, violins are sitting back in a supporting role, which is great
* 145 - you really gave the lead more character
* Overall the FX risers crashes and transitions work really well too

So there you go, as you can see it was a great mix overall, and it was a close one to choose the top 3 …

Thanks so much for your contribution and it was a real pleasure to listen to !