MIX CHALLENGE - MC072 December 2020 - Winners announced

[PrzemekM.]

Hello everyone !!!

This is my first post on mix challenge :-) and my mix.

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

ok,

Drums : I used all tracks. Kick and snare- ssl channel and eq. Compression on the whole group - The GLue and sends to different revrebs.

Bass: SSL Channel, La2a, eq

VOX - LA2A , saturation , eq. Reverbs and delays.

I tuned a choir a little and sometimes I equaled.

piano and organ : ssl channel, automation, revreb and rotary only organs.

ELectric guitars : SSl Channel, eq, delay.

Acoustic guitar :eq end revreb.


Happy listening.

PrzemekM.

Now it is shared. Sorry :-)

[m_tree]

So..
First thing I do is a rough mix. That rough me gets me to know the song better, to understand the parts, and to give a feeling of how the elements of the song should sound to my ears. I maybe do one or two or three rough mixes till I’m satisfied. So I believe this is the most crucial part and I maybe spent very much time on this.

I've a similar approach:

At first I insert all the tracks in an empty project and save it as the rough-mix project for the song. Then I sight the tracks, maybe sort them and some of them out, get to know them and the song and make a rough-mix.
I figure out how to mix the song (maybe with some FX-Tests) and how to prepare my mix-template.
Then I insert the tracks in my prepared mix-template and mix the song.
For example: for this mix I already found out while working in the rough-mix project, that I'll mix the intro-guitars apart from the other guitars, how I'll mix the melody-instruments in relation to the vocals and that I'll try a fade-out of the whole mix at the end.

If I master my mixes by myself, I make a third project for the mastering. So I will always have three separate steps - rough-mix, mix and mastering. But the mix will take by far the most of the time.

...

Good luck to all participants!
And merry christmas and a happy new year

[Dwic]

A great song to mix, a really good performance and well recorded. Thanks for the opportunity.

Here's my submission:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/120PEed ... sp=sharing

I wanted to give the song a ensemble feel, like a group performing in a nightclub. So that meant minimal effects, mostly a single reverb.

I started with the overheads, really liked the setup - nice, wide, vivid stereo. Grouped the three oh mics, bit of eq and comp. Checked the rest of the drum mics for phase against the overheads. Gates on the kick and snare mics, some bx_subfilter on the D112, and some sat on the kick. A touch of Abbey Road Chambers on the snare up, some sat, eq and Sonic Anomaly Transpire (free transient designer). Some eq on the highhat.

With the brush snare the first pair I decreased the width about 30% and panned it over to the left. Eq and Transpire on both.

Both perc left dry (except for sends) with the triangle a bit left and egg on the right.

Most of the guitars got some eq and comp.

The bass got some sat, eq, and comp.

The guitars, bass, and keys (piano and organ) got bussed to a compressor sidechained to the lead vox to sit the lead better.

The vox got cleaned up - evened out, tuned, debreathed, and de-essed. The lead got a Scheps Omni channel for saturation and polish. A dbx-160 on the vox bg.

Six sends: a short rev (Abbey Road Chambers), a long rev (ReaVerb IIR), a short delay (that CLA EchoSphere they gave out on black friday), a long delay (EchoSphere), an exciter (Aphex Vintage), and a widener (a ReaPitch with two taps 4 cents off panned l/r going into a chorus then a stereo widener)

[EchoOread]

Thank you for the music. I really like your song. Great production.

I did all I could using whatever at hand and head to shape the mix. Hope you like it. Thanks. Good luck to all!

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


*I paralleled+saturation every single track and blended them back for thickening purposes.

OH: EQ, HP to ~150Hz/ LP to~10Khz. Comp ~ 3dBs GR. To try to pull the cymbal ringing back and leave room for the kick.
Kick: EQ, LP to ~ 45Hz. Comp ~ 3dBs GR. Paralleled to bring the meat up
Bass: EQ, HP to ~ 55Hz, LP ~ 4.5Khz. Comp ~ 5-6dBs GR. Paralleled. Try to keep it steady.
Snare: EQ, HP ~ 90Hz, cut 1.2Khz, 3.5Khz, 375Hz. Comp ~ 4dBs GR. A bit woody.
All Guitars: EQ: HP ~82Hz, cut 165Hz, 365Hz, 3.5Khz. LP 10Khz. Comp ~ 3dBs GR
Piano: EQ: HP ~ 80Hz, shelved ~ 3Khz. Comp ~ 4dBs. Panned slight left
Vocal: EQ: HP ~82 Hz, cut 110Hz, cut 488+572Hz, cut 254Hz, LP ~10Khz. Comp ~ 3dBs. Distortion.
Egg: EQ HP ~ 1Khz, cut 3.2Khz, cut 2.4 Khz, cut 1.6Khz
Triangle: EQ HP ~ 1Khz, cut 3.2Khz, cut 2.4 Khz, cut 1.6Khz
Reverb: EQ HP 500Hz LP 9Khz, cut 3Khz, 2Khz. Comp ~ 6dBs
Delay: 58/117 same process as reverb.
Mix-bus: M/S EQ, HP side to ~80Hz, hi-shelf from 2.5Khz, cut 527 Hz low Q

[samuwuori]

Hi all,

I enjoyed mixing ‘Grita’, always nice to mix well recorded material. I liked especially the drums. Cool sounding kit, played by a groovy drummer.

My goal was fat, punchy mix with clarity. I also wanted to preserve the latin mood as much as possible.

Before any eq or compress, I tried to get best balance using only clip gain, all faders at zero.

After that I started the basic prosessing - compress & equalize to taste, and grouped everything to busses. I used mainly Arturia FET-76, Pre 1973, Pre Trid A, IKmultimedia TR5 British channel , Bus Compressor, Sonnox Inflator, PT stock 7-band EQ. Few other plugins too.

I used overall about five different reverbs and delays, plus few modulation fx. All returning to dedicated FX bus.

Masterbus processing: slight EQ, couple of +-1dB cuts and boosts, going to TR5 Bus Compressor.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lqt39gcfjb7qa ... i.wav?dl=0

This was fun to mix, even though didn’t understand a word

Happy holidays!

[PenguinJon]

After a few submissions using Logic, Im now back in my happy place, pro tools, though it wont help the mixing, it has helped the workflow..

Didn't feel i needed to do too much with this, the references were clean and punchy, so that's the route i took, trying to blend everything smoothly. I did comp in a couple of phrases from the alternative vocal take to spruce up the lead vocal line, everything else was just eq, balance and add a bit of where needed.

Plugin Alliance Focusrite Channel did most of the eq and dynamics, and is used as a starting point to the mix if needed, used sound toys little plate for most of the verbs, is clean, fits in really nicely and so few knobs to get the right noise.

Did side chain the bass drum into the bass guitar via a waves c1, to get the bass drum to come through without turning it up.

Lead vocals, used the plugin alliance acme comp in the role you'd normally use a waves cla-2a, a sound toys little plate for verb, and the maag eq to make it crisp. BVs, i used a really subtle amount of Sound Toys microshift, mainly to spread the bvs without turning them up , then the sound toys little plate again to push them back a bit.

Track:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8aks4mliy7tsm ... n.wav?dl=0

Screen Grabs:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8hqxa0rmwxhy1 ... p.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmdwqkk1o0x7o ... e.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e91pl8g1nm52t ... D.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mwbhvvon6hzgg ... s.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddbtrwuxy6b36 ... b.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4j9hxoem18bom ... n.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsuexff3vzaeu ... s.png?dl=0

[jordibakes]

Hello everybody,

Just registered into this community.
First time doing the Mix Challenge and looking forward to do many more.
Thanks for the opportunity.

Here's my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o6dpbw ... sp=sharing

Mixed in Cubase 5.
Quick summary of my process:

Drums:
Gate on Kicks and Snares.
EQ and Comp in all tracks.
Hard Pan brushes and OH. 30% Triangle.
50% Pan HH to the L and Shaker to the R.
EQ and Saturation on Drum bus.

Bass:
EQ and Comp.
Added a little bit of distortion.

Piano & Organ:
Panned them slightly (30%) L and R respectively.
EQ and Light Comp.

Acoustic Guitars:
The 2 tracks sent to bus. Panned One hard R the other hard L.
EQ and Comp on the bus.
Automation on EQ and Volume.

Normal Guitars:
Sent to bus. EQ and Comp.
50% panning.

Distored Guitars:
Sent to bus. EQ and Comp.
Automation on Volume to highlight one part on Normal Guitars.

Solo:
EQ and Comp.
Little Volume Automation in the beginning.

Slide Guitar:
EQ. 25% Panning.

Extra Guitars:
EQ, Comp and Panning.

Back Vocals:
Panned 25 to 50%.
Sent to bus. EQ and Comp.
Quite reduced 1-2KHz range to push them back.
Volume Automation.

Vocals:
Little Tone Correction on some parts.
EQ, Comp, Saturation and De-essing.
Volume Automation.
A bit of Delay on some parts.
Hard Comp on the second lead vox.
Only used on some parts to suport the main lead.

Mix Bus:
EQ and Light Comp.
Multiband Comp.
Reverb. Very little, just to glue it all together.
Maximizer.
Volume Automation.

Thank you all, and hope you like it.
Cheers!

[Flik]

Hi,

I am a Newcomer for a few days an I hope this is the right way for submission. I made Mix Edit for MIX CHALLENGE - MC072, wich is avaliable on this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vs2qjje4fr5pa ... k.wav?dl=0

It is an 48/24 WAV file. The Mix was puted thru BUS LImiter just to hear, how will potentionaly mastering affect it.

Thanks for listening and some Review/Feedback.

Best Regards,

Robert

[marcbalsa]

Hi,
This is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HRrOil ... sp=sharing

Thanks for your time.
Marc Balsa

[Oba Ozai]

Saludos,

Thanks for another chance to participate. This is a basic mix where I mostly focused on trying to make most of the tracks audible because of the richness of the sounds. Maybe a bit too tick and wide for some. It was what I could do with the time and effort I put into it. Im not here to compete or try to pretend I am a master of this artful science, im here because of great tracks like this one. 39 tracks can be a mouth full. I mostly used UAD plugins like the Fairchild, SSL Channel Strip, SSL Compresor, Ozone for EQ guidance on some tracks. Nothing fancy or near Grammy level mixing. Just done with love and for fun. Great song. A bit hard for me to work with. The mix bus has the UAD Channel Strip, the UAD Limiter and the SSL G Buss Compressor. Thats about it.

Here is the file link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFiXF1 ... sp=sharing