MIX CHALLENGE - MC104 June 2025 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your mix.

A very warm welcome to all new users. Especially those coming from Recording.de and Sonic State.


So far, we have 65 entries (compared to 147 Mix Pack downloads).

If you've been sitting on your mix, now is the time to get everything sorted out, post both your link and documentation. Please pay attention to detail (including filename template and file accessibility). Do not put your entry at risk of being disqualified.

To those that are new to the community, or that haven't participated in a while:
If you already posted, please update your posts with documenting at least one sound you enjoyed sculpting. This is part of the rule set and is adding to the learning aspect of our community. Please also keep in mind - no re-uploads of your entries, your initial submission is final. So if you're about to post, make sure you use the filename template correctly and do not leave any white spaces.

Also try to prevent to post at the very last minute to not run into server issues (see Global Countdown).

There will be no deadline extension!



Let the submission's "final rush" commence...

[Tony Black]

Hello!!!

This is my mix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krNG5a ... drive_link

How i did it

SSL Channel on al my channels. I only used the eq.
For compression i used 1176 on vocals and other few instruments.
Vertigo compressor on the mixbus. 3/4 dBs of compression.
Very long reverbs especially on the vocals. Gated reverb on the snare.

I automated faders in some sections (especially the one before the last chorus).

Thank you, hope you like it

[LughSenderson]

Hello everyone.

I tried to give this song a slightly ethereal feel, so I used some long reverbs combined with delays. All from Relab Lx480.

I used BX SSL 9000j for EQ and compression of the individual tracks, always taking care to add plenty of highs and lows. On the bus out I used Vertigo VSC 2.

Mixed in an untreated room using Yamaha HS80

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QshBc0 ... sp=sharing

[pabloAT]

Dear all,

I’m excited to share my latest mix with you—please find the Dropbox link below:
[Dropbox link to MC104]

It was a real pleasure working on such a great track. Based on the words from the song provider, I aimed for a more modern sound: clean, polished, and slightly on the dry side. I used reverbs and delays sparingly to maintain clarity, while enhancing presence through subtle distortion (primarily via tape machine emulators) and compression, especially on the piano tracks. Overall, the mix was built around balance, with minimal EQ applied. Aside from high-pass and low-pass filtering on all tracks, very little EQing was needed thanks to the excellent recording and pre-treatment of the stems.

The mix was done in an untreated room using ADAM T7V monitors, calibrated with Sonarworks SoundID Reference. I also referenced the mix using Steven Slate Audio VSX 5.0.1 headphones and software (nrg recording studios room).

I’d really appreciate any feedback from the song provider and fellow participants—your insights are always valuable!

Cheers,
Pablo

[PistolPete]

My Monthly Submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f61aRZ ... sp=sharing

I lost track of time, so I mixed it all tonight did the best I could. Hope it sounds good to the song provider.

I focused on clarity and position with a little movement. I tried not to stray too far from the songs intent.

The tracks all sounded really good so I didn't have much processing on the individual tracks at all other than waves s-1 for widening/placement and the Maag EQ on a few key channels to help fit everything in the mix and clean up clashes in frequencies. I did high/low cut on almost every track.

All tracks were run to 5 Group Channels, similar to a brauerize setup. Light compression for each group was added and I mixed through them. (vox, Drums/bass, guitar, keys, FX/Vbx)

I sent all tracks outputs to a "dummy" track which went nowhere and routed the full signal through the group compression busses and a few FX channels

FX channels: tube saturation, Global plate reverb, Global vox saturation, global delay

On my mix bus I used AMEK mastering comp, trinity multiband transient, the oven for some saturation/color, and Louderthanflifaoff silver MKII for some more sauce.

Master buss was a new limiter i picked up, HUM Audio LAAL.

Hope I made the deadline and it sounds ok.

oops I forgot to add my setup:
Cubase 14 pro
mixed ITB
RME interface, soundID headphone calibratoin, sennheiser HD600s

[Schwefelhard]

Hello,

Here is my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tsdmn8dk ... 6rw19&dl=0

Monitoring: Semi treated room, Neumann KH310 and NDH30
Mixing: In the box

Cheers,
Schwefelhard

[Crazy Loco]

Thank you @BenjiRage for the opportunity to be part of your creation.
It was a lot of fun to mix that one, I hope you will enjoy it too.

Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QXgzau ... drive_link

Monitors: Neumann KH 310 A
Headphones: Sennheiser HD650
An instrument I enjoyed sculpting: definitely the Diva synth.
Hybrid mixing.
Treated room.

I wish you all the best!

[Zsolt]

Hi
Here is my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1ve0lcr2 ... 3fjiv&dl=0

I mixed the song in Pro Tools
Monitoring: Edifier, TC Electronic interface, untreated room.

Drums: Kick - I used SSL e-channel, compressor dbx-160
Snare - SSL e channel, compressor dbx-160
Snare bus - API-550A for eq
Toms - PuigTecEqP1A, compressor Kramer PIE
Overheads -Oxygen, Eoisis E2De-esser
Drums Aux - Compressor Chandler Limited, PuigChild670
Drum Bus - SSL e-channel, Phoenix II
Bass: Bass - SSL 9000J, Low Control
Bass Bus - Kramer HLS, SSL e-channel, Pulsar 1178
Guitars: SSL e-channel, Compressor CLA-3A, Phoenix II
Main Vocal: SSLEV2 channel, Phoenix II, CLA-76, Reverb: LX480 short reverb, Transatlantic Plate Reverb for long reverb, Slap BBD delay
Backing Vocals: Q3, Phoenix II, CLA-76, Reverb: LX480 short reverb, Transatlantic Plate Reverb for long reverb, Slap BBD delay, Spread - H910
Keys: Focusrite SC, Transatlantic Plate Reverb
Mix Bus: SSL comp, PuigTecEq, Virtual Tape Machine

Cheers,
Zsolt.

[Ferenc]

Hi everyone,

Although at first I thought that this music was mixed so perfectly, that there was nothing to change, I finally decided to give it a try. The individual tracks were so well prepared that I didn't really use any effects on the tracks, except for the Tom and the Kick tracks, which got a parallel compressor.

I organized the tracks into three groups, vox, synths and drums, which got separate bus effects.
The vocal tracks got Valhalla delay, and Valhalla Vintage Reverb and a common parallel compression. Some of the synth tracks got UVI Relayer Delay, and Valhalla Shimmer.
The drum bus track got parallel compression, and three drum tracks got Valhalla Vintage Reverb.
The master bus got a parallel compressor, and a FabFilter Limiter for checking the overall signal level.

The mixing was done in my home studio, attenuated with self-made bass traps. Mixed in Cakewalk, using Behringer TRUTH B2031 monitors and a Magnat SUB 302A subwoofer which receives the signal through a dbx DriveRackPA2 for equalising the room acoustics.

Ferenc

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Mfm_G ... p=drive_fs

[elements]

As the final day arrives I have got my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rv11xcg5 ... 239np&dl=0

I made this in Logic Pro in a couple of hours of fooling around.
My monitoring is a pair of Sennheiser HD300 Pro headphones and TB Morphit on the mixbus. I check my mixes on my iphone ( via the speaker and earbuds) and in the car.

The space is a table in the dining room.

The device is an iPad Pro M2 with Logic Pro for iPad installed with a bunch of various third party plugins.

I was aiming for something reasonably clear and influenced by the electronic side of the 80’s. (I like synths and stuff like that)

I completed this mix in a couple of hours of concentrated effort.

I mixed this without anything on the mixbus - no limiter, no compressor - completely clean. I think I might follow this path a bit more in future I was able to keep things more open. I used compression on some individual tracks that benefited from a little extra control or for artistic manipulation. i aimed not to mess with the original source too much.

My favourite part was playing around in creating a gated reverb for the snare. i think I’ll use gates more often for fx in future. It’s a lot of fun to create and a great way to keep the audio space cleaner. For the snare reverb I used an instance of Audio Damage EOS2 and Fabilter’s Pro G. Unfortunately, Apple messed up Logic in the last update and removed the sidechain capability so I have had to use the internal trigger instead of the direct external trigger from the snare channel. I was able to get it to work with a bit of fiddling around with the hold, knee, release and threshold settings. I then put a little eq on the end to shape it to the sound I wanted.

Thanks for keeping this challenge going.

One thought I had when doing this was how much of the emotional content of the song is from the elements of the recording itself and how much is from our own participation in placing our own emotions on the song. I’m not sure I’m completely convinced that a synthesized voice has the emotional expression, but something clicks somewhere within us and for me I know it’s memories that connect me to the song concept I’m listening to.

On a lighter side: did anyone else get the connection between a computer generated voice and being in the cloud?

Virtual mixing in a virtual environment on virtual music….in the 80’s we were actually talking about how moving from computer sequencing to including computer recording would be really handy. Now everything is disappearing into the cloud….

Happy solstice everyone and good luck to all.