Mix Challenge

Hey,

thank you so much, I love the song and the recordings are top notch! Here's my take on it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f654ne ... sp=sharing

Apart from the original mix I didn't really use other references and let the song decide what to do. Because of the great production, there's plenty of vibe built in, which I tried not to mess with. I guess the biggest challenge was to tie everything together dynamic-wise. So in essence my goal has been to just make "one louder" what's already there with a little modern polish.

Didn't mess with any timings, because I like the charme in this one. Didn't use the polarizer thingy, but panned the rear mics of the backings to the opposite side for a little spaciousness.

What can I tell you? There's nothing out of the ordinary. Eq-ing was almost exclusively done with UAD API Vision for a little more rock opera vibe.

Main reverb is Hitsville Chambers. There's also a little 224 on Lead Vocal and 2016 on Drums.

Compression is done with the usual suspects - LA-2A on Lead Vocal, TLA-100 on BGV, LA-3A on Guitars and the new Capitol Mastering Comp on Piano. They're mostly used subtle, just to massage things and add some nice color. Oh, and there's some parallel G-Bus on the Drum Bus (via Mix slider in TrackComp) which I normally don't do. Just for a little bit more poke.

The Leslie has some Radiator on it to heat it up.

A couple of tracks have zero processing on them, like FX and synths. I explicitly wanted to keep the low end of the synths, because I felt it adds to the vintage vibe.

Thanks again!

Greetings @Mister Fox should I repost a new link to my mix here on the forum or privately?

Hello everyone ,
What a great song , Amazing performance
Pleasure mixing this song, I mostly used plugins all ATB .

Drums :
Kick : EQ Cubase Channel -Wave Smack attack - Fabfilter Pro Q3
Kick Parallel :Plugin Alliance - NEOLD BIG AL
Snare : API EQ - Dbx160
Toms : Fabfilter Pro Q3
Drums Parallel : AR-1

Perc:
Tambourine : Fabfilter Pro Q3

Bass: Fabfilter Pro Q3 - TAL-100A

Piano : Fabfilter Pro Q3 - Fabfilter Compressor

Organ : Tape Mello - Dimension-D Reverbverb (Send)

A_Guitars: LA3A - Reverb (Send)

E-Guitars: Pitch Shift - Delay

Synth : Pro C-2

FX : GrainSpace - Pro Q3

BGV : Fabfilter Fabfilter DS - Pro Q3 -Rcomp- MC77

Lead Vocal :PuigTec - SH Comp - Harmonic Saturation - Fabfilter DS -( Reverb Send with different dealy time )
My submission.
MC093 Rocketgoldstar Born Taurus Man

Cheers !
Waleed Morris

Three days ago I found this site on the internet and decided to participate in this challenge. The mix was made in just two days because I see that there is no more time, I hope that we will all come out of this event more experienced and smarter, I wish all the competitors good luck.
I experienced this song as a classic from the 70s and 80s, and I decided to have a spartan production without any modern elements, most of these plugins are emulations of the devices that existed in those years, a few compressors, Reverbs, EQ and very little delay .
I think that this kind of mix is the good base or the first step in creating the final mix, especially if we don't know the wishes of the band and Whose song is this
The mix was made in just two days because I see that there is no more time, I hope that we will all come out of this event more experienced and smarter, I wish all the competitors good luck.

Goranotti

Plugins
Waves, Fab filter..
Vocal LA2a,Fab eq, Fab Reverb
Piano LA3am
Drum bus Waves Fairchild
Reaper, evaluation licence

Screenshot
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kgl2Sr ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WvvvKK ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_tOfBC ... sp=sharing

mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19C6NQc ... sp=sharing

@Mister Fox here is a new link Sir .

Greetings Everyone, I wish every participant good luck on this mixing challenge. I really enjoyed mixing this song and it was my first time mixing a progressive rock song. it was indeed challenging as the song was dynamic. Here's my mix:

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/2da74d ... 639/c8fb1f

Before I start mixing I listen to the song intensively and try to get the emotion of the song till I understand it. Then before any processing, I tried to find a reference song that is similar to this song.

- I started by fixing my level before and processing.
- Grouped every instrument into its category e.g. Drum group, Bass group, Harmonics group, vocals group lastly efx group.
- Inserted every channel with an SSl channel strip plug: SSL 4000 E on drums only and SSl 9000 on other channels.
- Once I'm happy with my levels while referencing then I start with eqing and compressing my drums.
- The same applies to other instruments and efx.
- I then go to my busses and do more treatment on groups specifically compression so I make sure nothing jumps out and creates unnecessary peaks.
- While I do my processing I make sure I reference every time using a MetricAB plugin by "Plugin Alliance".
- There's also a send for parallel compression on my kick, snare, and vocals.
- There's also a send for reverb and delays but I used the suttle.
- My two buss have a glue compressor so I tighten up the song.

Good luck Everyone.

Hi there, here is my approach to mix,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZiWzBm ... drive_link

Hi there,

Here is my mix. I mixed it to the taste; I have tried to emphasise some elements, like Vocal, piano, drums, and bass, which seems to me like the foundation of this mix.
It started as usual with drums, then piano, and bass. Then, I tried to match the Vocal to the rest of the mix.
Drums, make sure they have some solidity and character, correct phase issues, then pan and EQ.
Bass is next, with a volume tone and a shortened sustain bit; long notes were pumping too much.
Accu GTR, Eq, a little compression and harmonizer.
Vocal, a little NY style compression, EQ, just the touch of the limiter to keep it steady, de-ess and sent to FX channel.
Elec. GTR EQ, re-amped, a little compression and finally, Eventide H910.
Remaining elements I've tried to match to the mix. In other words, keep them in balance.
I am accommodating some HW units; after summing, SSL The Bus+ is next with a 2:1 ratio, 4K option engaged, it adds some nice harmonics. The last is RND MBC with 50% silk blue. It also adds some nice low-end tone and harmonics; that is it. Regards.

Hi Everyone,

Here's my entry for Mix Challenge 093.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AAr8yN ... sp=sharing

Thanks to the song provider and to the challenge organisers.

In terms of mix style I tried to create a 70s-style sound with a few modern touches. In terms of musical style I used Queen's Killer Queen as the main reference as it contains an upfront piano and layered harmony vocals.

Over the last few months I've been trying to simplify my mixing workflow. I'm mainly interested in how engineers used to work with hardware consoles and how that limited the options that were available at mixdown. So I've tried removing any buses other than the mixbus from my routing setup. Parallels are allowed but every channel feeds directly into the mixbus. So no "top-down" for me!

In order to create the "70s flavour" I decided to prerender all tracks with a console and tape plug-in. For this I used Acustica's Cola channel strip and IK's Tape Machine 24.

I also wanted to limit the number of plug-ins used on each channel and keep to emulations that would have been used in the 70s. Here's what I used:

1. A console-tone emulator - Studio One's CTC-1 Custom Console
2. One EQ and one compressor - Softube's Trident A-Range and IK's Black 76 (1176)
3. An additional "insert", i.e. another EQ/compressor that could be used instead of or in addition to the A-Range/1176. This additional insert varied and included - 254E, VLA-2A, VLA-3A, VEQ-1P, VCL-515
4. A fourth utility effect - this varied and included saturation, distortion, limiting, clipping, etc. These varied according the channel and included Devil-Loc, VPRE-376 (saturation).
5. The vocal channels also used the Lindell 902 De-esser.

I decided to use the Polarizer versions of the lead vocals and after having a listen to them went with the following:

Frank 1,2 - Cardioid
Sion 1,2 - Omni
Sion 3,4 - Rev Cardioid, 8
LV - Omni

In each case I tried to find the pattern with the least amount of room tone and proximity effect.

With respect to spatial effects I used three of my hardware units for reverb, and plug-ins for the delays.
A TC M300 was used to create an ambience for the instruments so that they sounded like they were all in the same space at the same time.
An SPX990 was used for a drum room. For this I used the "Stone Room" preset.
The SRV-330 was used for a vocal plate (Stereo 140 Plate preset).

During the mix I found that I wanted an additional larger space and as I'd used all my hardware reverbs I opted for Eventide's Blackhole which was used to create a larger rear space so that the impression of greater front-to-back depth could be created.

A mono slap was used for the lead vocal while a stereo 1/4 note delay was used to create some additional ambience. IK's Tape Delay was used for both of these.

For the mixbus I used the following combination of hardware and software: Neold Big Al (gentle saturation), Aphex 320A Compellor (about 2dB of gain reduction, SPL Vitalizer Jack (some brightness and stereo width), Technics SH-8020 Graphic EQ (gentle smiley face curve adding about 3dB to the top and bottom), then Oxford Inflator, and finally Newfangled Equivocate. I also made a few tonal balance adjustments with SlickEQ M and used IK's Tape Machine 24 for some tonal smoothing.

I didn't do much in the way of tuning or timing correction other than some touch-ups for the backing vocals using Melodyne.

Specs:

24-bit/48kHz
-17.0 LUFS (int.)
-1.0 dBTP

Good luck to all contestants and once again thanks to everyone involved in the challenge.

Cheers!

Hi all,

new to this community.
Enjoyed the song, thanks.

Tracks are masterfully recorded.
I’ve spent most time on vocals because I like their precious body and I wanted to save it, at least in the less busy parts. Some volume trimming to treat particular words. A fet comp and an optical comp on each track. The fet’s been trimmed gentle in the verses and a bit harder in the loud parts.
Compression on 3-4k when too smeary.

Drum bus passed through preamp to let it bite a bit. Snare is not easy: it seems parts have been recorded and/or played in different ways, some of them already shine, other parts are a bit mudded. I’ve shared them in different tracks. Squeezed the OH with a fet comp.

Electric Guitar: I wanted it to be a punch in your face. Already gorgeous tone, I’ve played with a ping-pong pan.

Gentle passive eq on main busses to treat hi-end.

In terms of “surgical” interventions not much to do. Just attenuation of plosives on main vox and attenuation on some piano creaks (a sort of things I easily fall in love with, actually).
No processing on synths, just hand on the level fader along the track.

I would have had more time to spend on this but I’ve joined the party just 19 Aug just because of the lovely song without intention to post a mix. Decided to work on it just once I read about the time extension.
It would have been great to have some more time to drill some holes in the general eq to see if acoustic guitar can come through. Time to post has come and I left it buried, sorry acoustic guitar.

Reaper
FET: 1176 by UA
Optical: LA-2A by UA and CLA by Waves
General leveler: Fairchild by UA
Preamp: 610 by UA
Param Eq: Equilibrium and Kirchoff.
Passive EQ: Pultec by UA
Plate reverbs by Valhalla.
Close ambient by UA
No tape.
Nothing passing thru hardware modules this time.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t3p7u8be ... 9k15l&dl=0

p.s. great performance guys!
1970studio

Hello,

Thank you for this great opportunity to mix a project artistically very interesting and very well interpreted by good musicians with a beautiful sound quality of recording also, a real pleasure to work with.

You will have to be really up to it and offer a mix of quality equivalent to the interpretation...

For this I used an Acustica and Memphis Magnetic Recording Co "STRAW" console emulation and in addition, on some tracks and buses, a vintage "AA N4 AlexB American Visionary Console Ultimate" console (API console emulation).

For information, all microphones were used (at different levels). The drum ambience is original (no reverb added, except occasional snare effects)

What I mainly did:

Corrected the phase of all sockets for maximum impact "Melda production MAutoAlign"
All Tracks: Acustica audio Straw PRE
All buses: Acustica audio Straw PRE custom or AA AlexB AVC
Drums Bus: Devious Machine Multiband X6 (linear punch mode) Acustica Cherry EQ
Drums: GGD smash fetches all separate tracks, Fabfilter Pro G
Bass: Composition AA Olive, Soundway Low Leveler
Lead Voice: AA Magic flow, AA El Rey2, Softube Weiss Deess
Other voices: AA Magic flow, Softube Weiss Deess
Acoustic GT: AA Tiger Comp., AA Cherry EQ
Electric GT: Kuassa Amp, Melda Turboberb
Piano: Devious Machine Multiband X6 (Linear Mode)
Organ: AA Frost, MeldaTurboberb
Reverb: EW Spaces II (flat), MeldaTurboberb
Effect: Fabfilter timeless3, Presonus analog delay
Miscellaneous: Wavefactory trackspacer, Melda Mbandpass, TDR Nova, Maat Lin Pro

Mix Bus:
SSL Fusion Stereo Imaging, Tones Projects Basslane Pro, AA Jam, Devious Machine Multiband X6, Tones Projects Unisum, AA Cherry EQ, AA Ash, Plugin Alliance BX True Peak Limiter

This was mixed in Sudio One 6 at 48k/64bit and finalized the bus in Wavelab 11 for the final bus and downmixed at 24bit/48kHz.

Integrated Loudness: -18.05
True Peak Level: -3.86
DR: 11.06

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LTf10 ... sp=sharing

Good listening to all and thanks again to Gaz Williams for this great mixing opportunity.
From Brussels,
O’MIX

THIS SONG WAS like stepping back into the 70's...
wonderful opportunity. I respected the dynamics of the musicians a lot. many good ones by the way


*basic fundamentals of tonal balance compressor equalizers and harmonic distortion

Cubase 6.5

DRUM SESSION :

PRO Q3
SSL CHANNEL STRIP NATIVE
LIMITER (CUBASE )
DRUM BUSS ;
SMOOTHE OPERATOR
OXFORD INFLATOR

BASS SESSION;
PRO Q3
PURPLE AUDIO 1176

KEYS SESSIONS (PIANO ORGAN SYHNT)

PRO Q3
DATUBE (NATIVE DISTOTION CUBASE)

ACUSTIC GTR ;
PRO Q3
VBC SLATE

E. GUITAR
PRO Q3
VBC SLATE

LEAD VOCAL
PRO Q3
DATUBE (NATIVE DISTOTION CUBASE)

BGV;
PRO Q3

MASTER BUS ITB ;
TRUE IRON
PRO Q3
KAZROG AVALON PLUGUIN

OUTBOAD PRINT : SSL FUSION /ROSETTA AD


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

THANKS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY. DOUGLAS COSTA / BRAZIL