MIX CHALLENGE - MC093 August 2023 - Winners announced

[Slickster716]

Hello,

I greatly enjoyed mixing this song - would love to have an opportunity to make it to the second round and apply your feedback to improve.
This was another great opportunity to further my skills and experience - thank you so much for making this possible.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GPdX6J ... drive_link

Here is my notes from the mix:

I did some light editing and listened to the parts, created a rough volume and pan balance, and then mixed through the instrumental and vocals over a considerable amount of time. I tried to make it sound lively without too many effects, and use automation to accentuate the changes in the songs. for my processing i used the below:

OH: EQ3, pro-ds, pro-13, soothe2, pro-mb - sent to Dverb
Kicks: pro-q3,pro-g,Avid ProComp,RCompressor, Smackattack, BX_Boom
Snare: Pro-g Eq3,spiff, proq3-, sent to AIR REverb
toms: pro-q3,rcompressor, maag eq2,
Tamborine: UAD 1176A, MV2,
Drum Buss, VahallaVintageVerb,UADFairchild,Pro-L2,

Bass: DI tracks multed together: Pro13, uad 1176ae, mv2,Rbass - sent to uad studio D

Acoustic: Pro-q3,dbx 160, maag eq3, stereowidth,valhallavintageverb.

EGuitar: Pro-q3,bxconsoleN bx_yellowdrive, echoboy,

Leslie: Proq3, Soothe2,Spiff,Vitamin,Stereowidth -dehummed and removed a fair amount of low end.
Piano &Prophet:proq3,sslchannel,vitamin,stereowidth,proq3,vocalrider
RadioFX - filterfrek2
fx voc- izotope trash
vocals:nectar 3 elements, sslcahnalle, proq3, pro-ds,sent to valallah vintage verb and the echoboy. - uses Parelle compression with a dbx160

BVs: proq3,pro-mb-pro-ds,ozoneimgaer - on the additional mix elements i used echoboy jr sent to Pureplate reverb

Mixbus - proq3,pro-mb, capitol master compressor,thegodparticle, pro-l2 for safety

I have parellel processing chains for the drums using the brainwork SPL Attacker, and another with Renesaince AXX

[monjeco]

Hi everyone, it s to be back once again.

first of all thanks to the song provider for enabling us to keep this going, Also a big shout for Mrfox.

Its just great to be able to have fun doing this.

here s the link to my mix.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oui8jn ... sp=sharing


well, i did a lot carving with the proQ3 a lot of dynamic processing for those resonances that kinda out of control and generally i tried to keep that 70 s style approach. used a lot of tape color (studer and j37) on the vocals, bass and drums.
I try to keep it down on fx but this time i used tails on my vocals.
Used and echoplex for the guitar solo and some plates every now and then in little amount.
Used very little compression in general. I try to respect transient material.
on the mix bus just a ProL2 for color not even reduction.

Good luck to everyone. I d love some feedback from you guys.

Cheers.

[AnalogDomain]

Thanks for the opportunity to have a try at this track. I enjoyed mixing it very much.

I tried to use free or Reaper fxs with a few exceptions. Mainly used EQ- melda, Comp- TDR Molotok, Saturation- Neural Amp modeler (NAM) with custom models, Reverb- melda convolution and subspace.

Bass: Low passed the with a bit of compression, Amped was hi passed and saturated

Piano: tried to make more vintage sounding with some compression and mostly saturation, far mics were allowed to pass clean.

Elec Guitar: Comp and a bit of tape delay

Vocal: Dessed with sybilla, compressed TDR, Saturation NAM.

BGV: same as main, but with a heavier comp, and less top and bottom.

Drums: kick and snare saturation-clipping, OVH hi passed.

Master: Molotok comp with dry pass thru at 20%, less than 2dB reduction, eq with Luftikus master eq.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14VKLLf ... drive_link

[gonzacarmele]

Hi all!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10aWoT8 ... sp=sharing

I've just made it to the deadline

This is a great song, sounds amazing and excellent musicians!

As for the workflow, I've focused on technical stuff at first:

• gain structure
  PHASE checking! I remember guitar had issues, and also bass and drums improved a lot
  decided what I was going to use and what I was not going to use (as for example the pattern possibilities with the Lewitt)
  cleaned up and filtered a bit
  prepared the session

Then I focused on the bass, drums, vocals and everything else. Tried not to fix what didn't need to be fixed
The one thing that I've did a massive timbrical change was the snare, I've would like to have up and bottom, it was a bit dark yet the intonation was high (as it was the kick drum)
I used a lot of parallel stuff going on, playing with levels between dry signals and processed signals, mostly compression and tried to perform eqing that way.
For the mix bus, as it was clearly a vintage sounding song to me, I used a Fairchild 670 and tried to push it a bit. No tape emulation, but I've used the Phoenix by Crane Song (kinda tape emulator) which I love and a little bit of Oxford inflator to make harmonics spark.

As for reverbs, I used 2. And also tried a method that I've just learn that is to put on just the early reflections (no reverb) with the Rverb by Waves and blend it to the dry signal in order to create ambience, it worked nice for me. Oh and a shimmer for the screams parts, gated and carefully carved.

Hope you like it! I've listened to a couple of the mixes here and they are really good!

Best! Thanks to the band and to Mr Fox!

[RuiFerreira]

Hi everyone!

Here's my mix: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgQFjF5KRehPghoh-Mr ... Q?e=4apOF9

Mixed this song on StudioOne 6 totally in the box.

Eq's:
UAD 1073 emulation on vocals, keyboards and guitar.
Drums - Hitsville eq
Backvocals Brainworx SSL 9000 J

Compression:
Mostly UAD vintage emulations (1176, 2A, 3A, Fairchild).

Reverb:
Room sound - Seventh Heaven from LiquidSonics
Long Reverb - EMT 250

Delays:
Echo boy

Thank you for listening

Good luck to all!

[SDB_12]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u0b92cxn ... 2lgen&dl=0

Hi!

First off, AWESOME song! I had a lot of fun with this one!

My goal was to keep true to the dynamics and performance, but also give it a bit more of a modern sound, at least in my own mind as to whatever that means.

I'm in a bit of a time crunch, but here goes a few details:

For the drums, I wanted to stay dry with just a bit of room/space around them...so the snare has a tiny bit of AMS non lin and some revibe ii on it. Drums have a Drum Crush and a Drum DRT in parallel, both chains I've put together to help give more punch and bigness. The Drum Crush is on through the whole song, and the Drum DRT comes in on a few of the bigger sections. A lot of API 550A and B (Waves) eq's used on drums, as well as the Neve channel strips (Kit BB105). All the drums then go to a Drum Bus which I have a few more things on for more saturation, tone, compression.

Didn't do much to the Tambo, just some spread and lofi...then a touch of chamber verb.

Bass has a Sansamp on it and some API EQ as well as CLA 76. I bussed all the bass tracks to one track for processing after blending.

The Acoustics all got bussed to a stereo channel and processed, I went with SSL (waves) and some compression, spread and saturation from a few other plugs.

The guitar was really fun. I wanted this to be roomy, to contrast with the more dry sound of most of the rest of the track. So I put it in a room, gave it spread and had some fun with the tone. There's also some Little Alterboy on there jacking things up subtly as well

The Pianos I treated with Acustica Gold, and Waves API. I also put it in a room with some reverb...I just wanted a little more space around it. It has a touch of Chamber on it as well.

Leslie is getting some crunch with the Culture Vulture (UAD). Then into a KitBB105 Neve channel strip.

The Prophets get some spread and Soothe...I did some automation on EQ in different sections as it got a little bright here and there.

All the little effects and things I just blended and used some Soundtoys PanMan and Filter freak to keep things moving and interesting. I also manually panned some things around.

All BV's are bussed to a group for most of the processing, but a few individual processing went on the tracks as well. There is some Saturation, EQ, compression, etc. going on. I wanted them to blend but also pop out here and there and still sound dynamic.

Lead vocals got a lot of little things here and there. Soothe2 really helped me out, as well as a few color pieces like El Rey, Gold5, Some Waves plugins, etc. The vocals have different effects floating around throughout, but trying to stay mostly dry, with a few tails ramping up here and there. I made sure to give a more radio effect in the middle 8 as requested by the artist.

Overall, the mix focuses around the vocal and piano, with lot's of things stepping into the light throughout. I did a lot of rides and panning to keep things moving. I also have a bussing system set up that does some side chaining of different things throughout the mix that keeps everything coming through.

The mixbus was an Alan Smart hardware compressor, into CAPI BT50 EQ's (hardware API 550 clones), into my Neve 542 modules. Then back in Pro Tools it goes through Gold 5 Pre.

Again, lots of fun! I hope you like my mix

[asiohead]

Hi everyone,

first of all, thank you Mix Challenge & Rocketgoldstar for the opportunity to mix this truly amazing song !

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qy0i9G ... sp=sharing

I mixed the song in Studio One.

After listening to the song a couple of times I felt it had three major parts. So I setup a mix bus with some level automation in relation to these parts.
- grouping all similar instruments/vocals together to bus channels
- gain staging and panning
- removing some unwanted sounds/noises on the tracks as I was working on them, leaving others in if they added some character

drums
Pro EQ, Auburn Couture, Fat Channel comp on the snare, Ozone EQ & Imager on the overheads,
and PSP VintageWarmer on the bus

bass
PSP VintageWarmer

acoustic guitar
some EQ, Ozone Imager

electric guitar
PSP VintageWarmer

piano
EQ, Fat Channel, tiny bit of TAL Reverb 4

Leslie
EQ

Prophet
EQ, Other Desert Cities delay

vocals
Fat Channel, tiny bit of reverb, widening the backing vocals, and PanCake panning and OuterSpace delay on the yelps

radio
Eventide Blackhole


thanks !

[PeterGomes]

Hi all,

First, I like to thank Gaz for allowing us to mix this song, and also, I would like to emphasise the quality of the production witch for most of us I guess is a treat to work on.

Here is my take on it.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqOBOoU-WAHagrkoPof ... w?e=78J4C4


Kick drum –PRO Q, RComp, PRO MB ssl channel.
SN – PRO Q,ssl channel eq and comp.
Toms –Rbass, Kramer PIE, ssl shannel
OH – VMR, Soothe
Drum Bus – NLS, SSL COMP,
BASS – cla 76, PRO Q on the DI, on the Bass condenser I used PRO Q, cla2a, cla76 on the other two as well.
BASS BUS – Omnipressor, Pro Q, soothe doing sidechain with the kick
Ac GTR´S – PRO Q, CLA3A
GTR – CLA76, SSL channel
Guitar bus - Pulsar MU, NLS
Piano – cl1b, Pro Q
Organ – J37,S1
SYNTHS- I used nothing
All keys and fx´s where bussed together
Keys Bus – EQP1A, TR5 Precision limiter
BV´s- CLA2A, ProDS
BV BUS- MagicDeath Eye, Pro Q, NLS
LV – Soothe, CL1B, Pro Q
LV BUS – True Dynamics
Mix bus – API550, Shadowhills, Gold clip.

I hope I made justice to the song and good luck to everyone.
Peter

[45Garage]

Ha! Listening to the Sonic Talk Podcast (ep. 768) and Gaz is on talking about the mix challenge. Nice!

[jetwolf]

Here is my entry for the contest.

Wow, what a masterpiece this was!

Mixed on Pro Tools with limited time and was hitting my cpu limit. I had to freeze quite a few tracks. Hopefully can get to next round to keep improving it.

Used Softube G-Channel on all tracks.

Vocals also had RS124 and Fairchild added.

Electric guitars got API EQ and a slapback effect.

Added old school chorus/doubling effect on the background vocals.

Only used the DI bass.

Thanks for the wonderful tracks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s2o8P2 ... sp=sharing

NOTE: Link has been updated with name with double underscores in the appropriate places. Thanks, Mr. Fox! I had to look several times to catch the double underscores....