MIX CHALLENGE - MC072 December 2020 - Winners announced

[Manii]

Hello everyone, first time I join a mix challenge here, I hope my submission followed the rules. I had a great time mixing this song although it was quite difficult for me to have everything fit together. I chose to keep all tracks but I used volume automations to bring different tracks into focus at different times. I tried to keep a good dynamic range and like how the first chorus pops. Here is the mix :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rmni5t937pqw4 ... i.wav?dl=0

I mix in the box using Studio One and plugin-alliance and some waves plugins. What I did:

1. Used a SSL 9000J channel plugin on each track to EQ, compress and balance the mix
2. Drum bus into a BlackBox
3. Bass to a parallel saturation with AbbeyRoad Saturator from Waves
4. Guitars and background vocals to Waves Kaleidoscope for width effects
5. Lead Vox separated to 3 tracks for verse1/verse 2 and chorus. The same chain is on but with various intensity. Some de-essing and additional compressing is made compared to other tracks. I also used the Vocal Enhancer plugin from Noveltech to bring more focus to it.
6. Reverb and Delays on vocals and guitars
7. Room delay on drums + extra plate delay on the snare
8. Some final M/S EQ on the mixbus (using AMEK200 plugin)

I hope you will like it, good luck to all participants !

Manii

[Emiliano Brescacin]

Hi everybody, here is my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/531pvgssrmgo6 ... n.wav?dl=0

I was very happy to mix this song, it has some indie kind of vibe on it, I just let the song inspire me and I ended up with a very different sound from the original mix, less scooped and polished and more dirty with roomy drums.

As far as processing my main eq is the tone boosters equalizer 4, and Stillwell vibe eq. For compression I used klanghelm dc1a3 on kick and bass, cla76 on snare ohs, trash drum and vocals and waves api 2500 gently on the mix bus.

I use quite a lot of tape saturation to get the sound I had in mind and for that purpose I've used the tone boosters Reelbus 4.

My main reverb in the Phoenix Verb.

I treated the ld vocal in different ways for verses and choruses, where in the choruses I saturated more to give it a bit more vibe.

Good luck to everybody.

[Jerze]

Hello and I hope all is well with everyone,

Well I bought Saturn from Fab filter so I put that shit on everything more than likely to much but what do you do :hyper . Thanks for the chance to mix your song I do not speak the language so I did what I could do.

48/24
Wav - https://www.dropbox.com/s/bg83cvmy1wmjt ... e.wav?dl=0

NOTES-I went for a little more aggressive sound Also automation done on some things pre and post FX

Drums -Gated snare and kic.I routed all snares ran to a buss that has devil lock sie and R-bass to give a little weight. The Kic I added scheps73 with some compression to hold it down all the other tracks had light EQ and sent to a drum bus where everything got some more compression and EQ to tighten them up.

Bass-Some EQing, compression and devil loc dub that track and hi passed to push some nids wit divil locThen sent those two tracks to a buss that had nova on it it to tighten the lows

GT- EQ Saturn again to drive the sound also used Scheps omni channel for some color an compression.

Keys- EQing the lows out some adding Saturn to drive the sound some

Vocals- Light EQing then in to little radiator some compression more push from Kramer tape with some slpap then to a opto compressor
Intro I brought some Eqing in along with yep Saturn might be over kill a bit.

BG-Eqing compression miroshit 2a compressor and Saturn to get some drive

I did do a few other things ask if you have a question.

If you have, any questions or thoughts let me know!
Happy Holidays, Jerze

[skym]

Here's my mix of this wonderful tune. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a0utjN ... sp=sharing
My main goals with the mix were to keep it smooth and moving forward to encompass the feeling of the lyrics -- moving forward, let everything pass.
The forward motion to me was in the bass guitar during the chorus so I tried to keep that consistent and clear.
I tried to keep everything working together with compression and kept the vocal (hopefully) clear with the help of sidechaining, parallel compression and trackspacer. I'm not sure if which plugins I used on what is too interesting. I am practicing to capture the feel of the song rather than play with all the toys I can throw on the track.

[pabloAT]

Dear all,
Please find below my mix for MC072. Many thanks the song provider and Mr. Fox for this nice track.
Wishing you happy holidays, and a smashing new year.
Pablo

DAW = Cubase 10.0.60
Integrated LUFS = -17.1
True Peak = -5.4 dB
WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

[Dropbox link to MC072]

For this track, I’ve used a mixing technique called “Brauerizing”. Lots of details can be found in the excellent links below, with lots of useful and easy-to-follow details -> https://brauerizing.wordpress.com/page/3/
https://youtu.be/NowlUutz_sE

In a nutshell, with the Brauerizing’s mixing technique signals from instruments are send to 4 different busses (A-B-C-D), each one with its own compression characteristics:

Buss A – The Almighty Top: It receives mostly high frequency’s instruments. A VCA styled compressor is suggested here (in my case, I’ve used an API-2500) => I’ve routed here the acoustic guitars, piano and organ.
Buss B – The Bottom: It’s fed mainly by low frequency/percussive instruments. This buss benefits from FET based compression (in my case, I’ve used a FET-76 compressor in combination with a saturator) => I’ve routed here drums and bass.
Buss C – The Centre: Here is where that centre focus frequency instruments should be routed to. Tube emulation/Vari-Mu compression for the harmonic impact is suggested (in my case, I’ve used a VC-670 compressor) => I’ve routed here the electric guitars.
Buss D – The Dimension: The spatial/ambiance information of the track is mainly processed here. I’ve also used a VC-670 compressor, in combination with a stereo enhancer => I’ve routed here the backing vocals and reverb/delays from different sends.
Following Brauer’s suggestion, lead vocals are not routed to the A-B-C-D busses. Here, LV were processed using the ‘standard’ mixing way.

Standard track processing (even with compression!) were used for each instrument before (post-fader) sending to the different ABCD and LV auxiliary busses :
Preliminary raw balance: cleaning-up, balancing, panning/stereo spreading, check/invert phase, HPF on most of the tracks, LPF on some tracks. Quite a lot of automation during the final steps of the mix.
Drums group
Create sub-groups for Kick, Snare, OH, Toms and percussion (included HH, egg and triangle)
Gates on sub-groups “Kick” and “Snare”
Dbx-160 to keep under control the OH
Parallel tape saturation
Combined Delay and Reverb with CLA-Epic
Bass
Added A1StereoControl to the group to set frequencies < 150 Hz to mono
Add RBass and tape saturation as sends.
Rhythm guitars group: I've used both line and mic
LA3A-type compression to control the transients.
Electric guitars group
Preamp Arturia V76
Added TrackSpacer in solo guitar to leave space with vocals. Decapitator on the second part of the guitar solo.
Piano
RC-20 retro color for vintage vibe.
Organ
Dbx-160 to keep the dynamics under control
LV: I've used both LEAD VOX AND LEAD VOX (second option)
De-esser and preamp (Arturia) Pre 1973, H-compressor and a bit of Soundtoys microshift
Combined Delay and Reverb with CLA-Epic
A longer (Rev Intensity by Arturia) reverb for a nicer space
BV group
Combined Delay and Reverb with CLA-Epic
Master Buss
Preamp V76, gentle SSL-G master compressor for gluing the mix together and subtle tape saturation.

In addition, a stereo auxiliary parallel channel containing a 1176-based compression was set up, as a final glue in the mix.

As a final note, I honestly don’t know if this approach would result in a better mix, but it was a lot of fun to work on and I’ve learned a lot doing this mix :-) !

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eunap5okghvxc ... m.wav?dl=0

For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[MattRocket]

Hi everyone!

my mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qzcluouk83y8e ... t.wav?dl=0

-kick: EnvelopeShaper (boost the attack, reduce resonnance), PrimeEQ (+1.6db at 36Hz), Reverance (reverb)
-snare: PrimeEQ ( boost at 220Hz and 550Hz, cut at 357Hz and 894Hz), Gate, TDR Nova (compression at 200Hz and 4kHz to make the snare more steady), Reverance (reverb)
-snare up: Prime EQ (-9db at 1kHz)
-overhards: PrimeEQ (lowcut at 140Hz, -3db at 410Hz)
-drums bus: PrimeEQ (boost high and low), VLA-FET (parallel compression 1176 style)
-voice: SlickEQ (bid highshelf boost at 10kHz), VLA-FET (compression), Deesser, EchoboxD7 (delay), AmbientReverb (Highpass filter at 3kHz, spring reverb), RevPLATE-140
-bajo: MJUC (compression), MBassador (add lows), Quadrfuzz (saturation), VallhallaSpaceModulator (chorus to widen the bass)
-piano, guitars: just EQ and reverb
-organ: PrimeEQ (Highpass at 350Hz), SDRR2 (saturation)
master bus: MJUC (gentle compression), QRange (wide boost around 2kHz)

Matt

[_spafles_]

Here is my mix:

Wav: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gbi5sG ... sp=sharing

Drums: Eq and compressionon each channel. Bussed into compressor, EQ and saturator.
Bass: just an EQ (boost high and low) and a compressor.
Piano, organ: Also just EQ (boost high) and a compressor.
Triangle, Egg: Eq for boosting high frequencies.
Guitars: EQ, compessor and saturation.
Slide guitar. boost +5kHz and a little bit delay.
Accoustic guitar: doubled the tracks + boosted +5kHz.
Lead vocal: Eq, 2 compressors, saturator and reverb.
Backings: Eq + compression.

Master bus: 2 compressor + 2 equalisers + reverb + metering (TT-DR and Youlean).

All tracks: volume and panning according to my taste.

Grtz

[eusonic_studio]

Hi to all!

That's my mix for the mix challenge of Vanagloria - Grita. Here's the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L1QISt ... sp=sharing

SESSION
All track previously filtered and tuned in a separate session
Every drum track has been cleaned and quantized
Every vocal track has been cleaned and tuned with melodyne

MIX SESSION
Every track bussed in a relative subgroup containing summed signals

Drums: Eq and compressionon each channel; all bussed in a drum bus, bussed to a parallel compressor 1176 and parallel room Altiverb
Kick: splitted in 2, crossover freq: 150 Hz. Low Part: Compression and EQ ; Upper part: compression, Tape simulator, EQ
HH: dyn eq and filtering out low and low-mid freq
OHS: Used for strat drum sound: eq and no compression.
Bass: passed into an Amplitube Bass Amp simulator to virtually reamp it; filtered, compressed and EQued in insert
Piano, organ: Also just EQ (boost high)
Triangle, Egg: Eq for boosting high frequencies, filtering bass frequencies, din EQ to contain High dynamic, reverb
Guitars: EQ, compessor and saturation. parallel delay to add mud
Slide guitar. boosted High and bass and mid cut
Accoustic guitar: doubled the tracks , phased inverted and used DI for CTR signal; EQUED and parallel REVERB
Lead vocal: filter, EQ, soft compressor to add harmonics, Equed for mid range, limiting mid range, finally de essed and boosted 5 kHz
Backings: Eq + compression, filtered and EQued

Master bus: Fab Filter Pro MB, SSL Bus Compressor, PUltec EQ and SSL EQ.

All tracks: volume and panning according to my taste.

Bye

Eusonic Studio

[JulienMeirone]

Hello guys,

here my mix :

On this mix, i used : https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca6yth81h6x1q ... e.wav?dl=0

Mostly plug alliance plugins, fabfilter, izotope, soundtoys, valhalla... You can see most of the plugins on the screenshot.

Screenshot : https://www.dropbox.com/s/qu3nupbxkqivv ... e.PNG?dl=0

Merry christmas to all of you.