MIX CHALLENGE - MC059 October 2019 - Winners announced

[paperthin]

Hi everyone!

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ph21hmguvqmkf ... n.wav?dl=0
MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zrm38mci8459b ... n.mp3?dl=0

Wow, what a beast of a track! Sounds like a love child of 65daysofstatic and Halou. I’m a fan of both so I had a pretty clear sense of direction for this song right away. We’ll see if I was correct. As always, I will present my mixing strategies as I feel they are more important that the actual plugins used (feel free to ask for details, of course).

First of all, the track is really busy. So I spent a lot of time regrouping and renaming the tracks, selecting more important ones in each section, and automating. Otherwise the song could just become too overwhelming.

Drums: I took the acoustic kits as the basis and made them slightly crunchy (with FF Saturn). The rest of the drums played the supporting role and were automated in and out throughout the song.

Bass: The main bass was the Music Man that played from the beginning till the end. The pulse synth bass was used for sub frequencies. When they played at the same time, the main bass had a low cut engaged (up to 150Hz). The other basses were easier to fit into the mix.

Guitars: Not much going on here. Some stock EQ for clarity (highpass, lowpass, high mid notch), and volume automation.

Vocals: Arguably the main element of the song. My idea was to make them sound close and intimate. What took the most time was automation and de-essing. Several phrases were tuned, in the male part mostly. I also added some delay throws to make the mix stand out a bit.

The pads, strings, and the rest were placed around the vocals and mixed in to taste. I only used 2 tracks from the dry folder (bell and percussion loop), the rest sounded pretty good to me. As usual, an SSL comp on the master buss, some tape, and a limiter, all working subtly.

Big thanks to the song provider for this track, I love this genre and I really enjoyed mixing it. Good luck to everyone!

[Franz]

Hi all !

Finally a title very interesting in all points of view (musical, artistic, technical, etc ...) which
will allow everyone to express themselves in a really personal way: the purpose of the competition
is not to imitate the original mix but to bring his own personal conception hoping to be in the vision
of the Song Provider. I understand why Green-Dog did not point us to other musical references and
the examples cited by Mister Fox to enter the world of "electroclash" did not convince me at all.

Back to our title, we have something to do ... Indeed the treatment of 76 tracks (normal + no FX)
requires a rather special approach to work: I did a pre-mix for the different sound categories:
a pre-mix for the rhythm section, a pre-mix for the voices, etc. This allowed me to end up with "only"
26 tracks for the final mix. The difficulty is not only musical: it is a matter of determining in which
sound universe are going to happen things and Green-Dog proposes us a precise direction to know
a universe "space" and to have an imposing and spacey sound.

Made in Reaper and Samplitude X3 with large amount of reverb / delay, some equalizations but I still kept
the original sound of some tracks without retouching because the sound was excellent simply (Yes, it can happen ! )

A lot of fun and a lot of time to make my mix.I dare to imagine the difficulty of Green Dog to make his choice
but for the first time, in addition to the particularity of this title, I will accept a brief answer like "I don’t like it"
without technical explanations (which was not always the case with some Song Provider who is content with two
short sentences pithy when they could give more detailed explanations .. .).

And don't forget: no mastering, no replacement and no samples and all tracks ...

This is listened to here:

wav : https://www.dropbox.com/s/t9sgyn6cpn7qd ... v.wav?dl=0
mp3 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/zvv90b7nsgk8e ... 3.mp3?dl=0

Cheers

Franz

[White Punk OD]

just saying, I'll be bäck soon, this MC59 is all awesome, now at 99 tracks including busses, everything live and barely hitting 35% CPU capacity. gaming notebook recommended..
for CPU optimization reasons, switching to a couple of commercial plugins the first time in this experiment. free stuff is absolutely great but uses up more cycles.
plz keep it coming everyone!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your edit

[creedchub]

edwas

[Franz]

Hello creedchub,

Explain me one thing: you just post a second mix when you had already posted
a first mix on Monday, October 7: I recorded it (it exists well) and you have erased your post
(how do you did ?). Listening to your two mixes, there are indeed some notable differences.
Me, it does not bother me but it is the principle that is not respected.
That said, if this is allowed and I address Mister Fox, I would also like
to send a second mix by removing the first.
Franz

[creedchub]

Hello everyone,

Hey, yes i changed mix. After some time i realized,that i didn't like the mix i did before, so i changed completely.(before end of submisions)
I've read rule: We do recommend to not send in your mix within the first 24 hours of the Challenge. Take a day off, give your ears time to relax, take another listen the next day. Your entry is final - no re-submissions with changes allowed unless you're selected for Mix Round 2.

So i think, that i I will be disqualified.

In reality i can do another account and add another mix(so this rule sucks as other rules too(e.g about replacing kick and snare, about lufs, submission file name and so on,).

Mister fox - as another guy said "The rules are too much it kills the fun of the competition" so i delete my posts(expect this) and quit.
Good luck

[White Punk OD]

hopefully ontopic,

ManuC please can you add comment and/or screenshots of the mix structure, esp. I would be interested to learn if you notched out any ringing frequencies in the vocals, or a "boxy" sound.

paperthin, very appreciated, but the waveform looks like you locked down your transients with a limiter at -1 dB. this may or may not be seen als close to "mastering" techniques. just saying, with this genre it would be interesting to debate, what mastering engineers are expecting, because many mixes would not really workr or translate, when they haven't been closely developed towards the end product already.

[Mister Fox]

That said, if this is allowed and I address Mister Fox, I would also like
to send a second mix by removing the first.

I'm sorry - but I've made pretty clear with MC056 months ago, that I'll heavily enforce the known rules now.
Your entry is final.

So i think, that i I will be disqualified.

You did indeed disqualify yourself again.

In reality i can do another account and add another mix(so this rule sucks as other rules too(e.g about replacing kick and snare, about lufs, submission file name and so on,).

If you do that, as in evading the rule set and mocking the participants on top, and I'm getting wind of that...
I will not take this lightly: I'll permanently ban both(!) of your accounts.

Mister fox - as another guy said "The rules are too much it kills the fun of the competition" so i delete my posts(expect this) and quit.
Good luck

I think you reference to the FAQ. I'm not arguing about the Rules & Guidelines anymore, as this is taking up too much of my time as of late. If you have an issue with the established rule set, and you constantly seem to have a need in trying to bend/break the rules, maybe the Mix Challenge is not the right game for you.





Any further off-game discussion goes into this thread, please:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8

[ManuC]

[quote="White Punk OD" post_id=6267 time=1570815577 user_id=412]
hopefully ontopic,

ManuC please can you add comment and/or screenshots of the mix structure, esp. I would be interested to learn if you notched out any ringing frequencies in the vocals, or a "boxy" sound.

Hi white Punk od, sorry for my minimal entry. I have just take 1h30 to mix this track before i go on holiday in england.

If you will i can post some pics/ details when i comeback, the 15 October.

I haven't notched voices, in my Memory i hâve juste eq to ad some presence and Bottom, before 76 like compression, and some deesser to correct some unplaisant sibillance due to ( i think) eq or compression while tracking.

Have a nice day.

Manu