Mix Challenge

Here is my submission for the mix challenge:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12uLIb7 ... sp=sharing


A few notes:
I tried going for a confessional kind of feel in the mix especailly how I treated the vocals. I was thinking of editing their timings but did not as the recordings gave that vibe of confession that I was looking for.

I did add a tiny bit of distance distortion to the word grave as I wanted to make that feel like the voice was breaking up a bit there. It was a tough balance as too much made it sound like mixing mistake and too little didn't really do anything.

This confession also feels like it is just inside the persons head. So this mix starts in an old radio feel sound and ends in it like that in order to give the listener the ability to plug into the persons thoughts.

I had some fun with the guiar solo automating some eq moves on it as well running it through a rotary cabinet to get the sound to bounce around inside the head of the person.

Most of the rest of the mix was volume balance and panning choices that left room for the vocal to confess.

Greetings everyone, this is my second time submitting a mix on this forum, the last time my entry was rejected due to a small mistake I made lol. I hope I got it right this time.

Firstly, its my second time mixing a rock song in my entire life. I have to say I love the song and connected with it the more I delved into it. I use Ableton 12 and Audio Technica ATH50X headphones coupled with SoundID Headphone correction software and GHz Canopener.

My process :

I always level the individual instruments to taste before I do any eq'ing and compression.

DRUMS:

- I started eq'ing the kick drum by doing a low cut up to 70Hz to tighten up the kick and added a transient shaper to put more emphasis on the thump of the kick.
- The snare drum followed, and I noticed an irritating ringing around 280Hz to 480Hz so I dealt with it first before any processing.
- Other drums was just basic eq'ing and panned my toms to the left and right.
- I then sent all the drums to a drum buss. I then add the following plugins in this order: NLS channel, Tube Tech PE 1C, Kush Novation, Pro L2 to grab minor peaks, Sugar, and lastly Shadow Hills mastering compressor.

HARMONICS

this is a section where all the Guiters, pads, synths, and strings are.

- I started by doing minor eq processing on the strings,pads and synths
- Guitars followed with minor eq processing and compression.

VOCALS

- All vocals start with a basic eq'ing and applying Sooth 2 plugin to tame down unwanted resonances. then apply a waves vocal rider to make sure the lead vocal is consistent throughout. I then applied Rvox fro a 2db compression. Uad 1176 compressor followed for character with a 5db compression. i then added Uad La 2A with no compression but for the tone. added another sooth 2 plugin to tame unwanted resonance lifted up by compression. i ended it with a Fabfilter Desser.

- All my vocals were sent to a vocal bus so that I can do an overall eq'ing on the vocals combined.

RETURN TRACKS

- I added a reverb for my vocals and used an eq to remove muddiness.
- then I added a delay for my lead vocal.
- I then added reverb and delay for my harmonics section.

2 BUSS

This is a section where I send all my busses and return tracks.

- My 2 buss starts with a SSL Native Buss Compressor with a 1db compression.
- then God particle follows.
- I then end it with Gullfoss Plugin.

Hope yall enjoy my mix. Here is the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mF2gAf ... sp=sharing

I must say, this song is one of the top 10 songs I’ve listened to in the last five years. Congratulations!

While mixing the song, my goal was to have the vocal float above the other instruments. I aimed to blend the instruments together and create a cohesive sound. To enhance this atmosphere, I used a deep vocal delay effect.

For each channel, I applied basic EQ and compression using the SSL Channel Strip, then fine-tuned everything with Kirchhoff EQ.

I automated the parallel drum compressor channel in key sections to lift the track when needed.

I used an 1176 compressor and Valhalla Delay on the vocal.

On the master bus, I used an SSL Bus Compressor and Standard Clip to glue everything together and add the final polish.

The final mix settled around -16.5 LUFS.

I actually had no intention of joining the competition. But after receiving the standart information email from here, I got curious and listened to the song—and I absolutely fell in love with it.

When I downloaded the stems, I only had my laptop with me, so I started tweaking the mix using its built-in speakers. In fact, I ended up mixing about 90% of the song this way.

When I finally switched to my NS10 monitors, I was happy with the result. After a few final tweaks, I rendered the track.


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

Hi, here's the link to my submission to this month's challenge.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sdljk78u ... i5rlz&dl=0

Firstly I neglected to thank @Mellow Browne for his hard work and commitment on the critique of my mix. It is very much appreciated so thank you very much.

Thank you to Mr Fox and the song provider for another excellent song to mix.

My setup - Apple Macbook Pro 2015 DAW Studio One Pro 7 Headphones Audio-Technica ATH-M40X. Correction Desonic Realphones.

I've tried to go for a feeling of sorrow and hope vibe with this song I've used the original as a reference but more of a guide rather than try to copy it I also had Alice Copper Poison but I wasn't getting close to that so I've mostly mixed it to my own personal taste.

I've done a lot of dynamic eq to try to get some separation between the instruments and also a lot of parallel compression. Saturation has come from various tape plugins and Sat2rate2.
A lot of automation was used everywhere one main one was an HP-LP filter on the main vocal which was released on the choures and at the end of the song.

All comments and critiques, suggestions are gratefully received good luck everybody and good luck.

Divespanner

Hi! Heres the link to my submission to this month's challenge.
Finally my first time uploading a submission!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FOGnYm ... sp=sharing
Notes on the mix:
- My main goal was to have a balanced mix in which the vocals could come out to the front while also staying as an instrument within the arrangement, so I listened to Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight as a reference.
- First it was to have a rough mix, using only the fader level and panning to achieve a good balance, after that start EQ'ing to get a good tonal balance mainly so that the bass, the drums and the vocals had the main space within the song.
- After that was made, it was achieving the tonal balance of the guitars within themselves, with the keys and finally with the song, mostly by EQ'ing.
- Compression was mostly used as a aesthetical choice, mainly on the guitars, using an UAD LA2A, so that the it could bring some more colour to the guitars, same goes with the voice (but using a 1176).
- As for the experimental side, I used Wave's kaleidoscope to make some mono channels stereo to make them fill better the image, mainly the acoustic guitar, the trem guitar, and the dub vocals, this way we could add to the intention via using the stereo image.
- To achieve a better total tonal balance, I did some frequency juggling on the sub mixes of the bass, guitars and keys so that they interact well with each other.
- Finally, for the "glue", some distortion to the main bus.
And that's mostly it.

About the equipment I use:
- MacBook Pro 2020 (M1)
- ADAM AUDIO T5V
- Studio One Pro 6 (haven't upgraded lol)

Hope you enjoy my mix!

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


So far, we have 82 entries (compared to 188 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 file accessibility). Do not put your entry at risk of being disqualified.

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...

MC102__TheLastHours__ThePersonThatYouSee__useruser

Thank you for giving us a fun track to play with, I hope i uploaded it right. Normally i'd check a live cut to get an idea of the bands vibe but this felt pretty guitar focused to me. Apologies if i made the keys player stand in the corner. if anyone cares for the process you can keep reading but it was pretty by the numbers. The mix provided gave a pretty good indication of what they wanted from the song so i was mostly going with that. the song felt pretty intimate so i resisted doing the pop style things to the vocal and just gave it room to be what it was, a good performance. I liked the panned reverb that was on the verse guitar so i just went with that, some times the wheel is round enough you know? i usually go fairly heavy on the bussing and groups but i didn't do that too much this time. i mostly just recreate a traditional chain in the box and when you get the emulated amps and the dryer drum samples things can fall into place a little better. things were mostly preamp>eq>comp or comp>eq into tape. some things like the bass and string parts would get some light eq on the channel and comp on a bus but i already forgot how much of that happened. i wish i had something more interesting to mention but that's the beauty of rock n roll, once you plug in and turn up you're mostly there. i might try and play with some of those transient shapers in the future since folks here seem to like them but i never really got the results i was hoping for with them. we'll chock that up to user error. maybe next time i'll have more to ramble about but the song did all the work here. thanks again for letting me play

jw_ wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2025 18:02 CET

Mister Fox wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2025 15:07 CET

LCM! wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2025 07:36 CET

It's not a big thing: duplicate a track, one for each section (verse/chorus) and delete the part you don't need in each duplicated track.

I still don't fully understand. But I guess you're using something similar to a "bass trick" (parallel track, band-passed, distorted) for more flavor in certain spots.

Pretty sure they just mean something like this (Git_Dist_L/R being the important parts), just split a track into several sections so you don't have to automate the !@#$ out of everything because they serve different functions in each of those sections.

Sorry for the straight-from-the-2000's image compression, couldn't figure out a way to upload something here on the forum itself quickly enough.

I wouldn't say better.
I wasn't able indeed.

Hi everyone.

Here’s the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dy29ijjx ... hqgkd&dl=0


This has been an interesting process. During the last few weeks people’s mental issues have really been on display to me. I’m not sure I really enjoyed this or not. It’s taken me on a bit of a journey.

Anyway, thank you to @Edling for providing the journey this round. I respect the mixing work you’ve displayed here in past challenges and in the mix you presented for us as a guide. I don’t know if you do much, but you really should get your voice out there in stuff - it’s worth listening to.
Thank you to @Mister Fox for your, as ever, excellent hosting of this challenge and the work that you do to maintain it.

When listening to the demo the main thing that struck me was that the vocals were too far back IMHO. It is a story that the listener needs to hear and I think the vocal delivery actually tells the story really well. It would probably work really well as an acoustic track (and probably has done in the past). So my main aim was to get the vocal into the mix a little more while keeping the size of the instrument up there. I think I managed to keep a certain clarity to things and maybe in the end I didn’t quite get the drums up enough, but this is what it is for now.

I mixed the track in Auria Pro on an iPad Pro M2. Mostly just EQ and compression with a little reverb and delay for atmosphere.
I used all of the tracks, including all three bass tracks.
My busses were:
Bass with an instance of a Nambrini PSRjnr1000 inserted on there for a little bit of extra vibe and presence.
Drums(Kick Snare,Hats,HiHats and Ambience) with Kick and Snare sent to an instance of Saturn for a little parallel saturation.
Drums(Overheads, Tambourine, Shaker) A FabFilter Pro R inserted for vibe and space.
Drums(Toms) ProR inserted
Guitars
Keys - Pro Q3 and Pro R inserted
Vox - main and verse backing
Vox - 4 chorus backing tracks.

I obviously did a little eq and compression where needed on individual channels.
The distorted up front guitar pair i put through an instance of Saturn on a mild tape simulation to aid them in mix placement.

Really not a lot of special sauce. No SSL plugins, no God Particles, No soothe.

I discovered some interesting things along the way….

The FabFilter L2 limiter does actually not weird miscellaneous peaks out of the way even if it doesn’t show anything on the meters. Which is kind of cool. I first started mixing this without any compression on the master and put an L2 on there just to help keep the peaks under control if I pushed anything. I found this worked, but it was really difficult to get the guitars to sit out front while still sounding like they were part of the same mix.

So, I went and put a DDMF Magic Death Eye on the master. This kind of worked, but I found that I had lost the transients while trying to get something that felt right.

in the end I just put an instance of FabFilter C2 on there and set it up kind of like an SSL compressor and that seemed to do the trick.

I have to say this about using mono to listen to the mix with…to me it’s not about making a mix compatible for mono devices, it’s about hearing where things aren’t right and to provide a good reference space to balance in. In headphone land it is very, very helpful.

Thanks again for providing a place to play and the material to experiment with. It’s good we have these time frames to get things finished in. I am actually finishing this in the last hours of round 1. It’s been that kind of round.

Hi Im here again, hope youre having a great day

Tanks to thee song provider and to the Mix Challenge team

kick model n gold clip track

snare spit eq

vpre73
model n
mwaveshaper
Kilohearts transient Shaper

Pure Plate Reverb

model N on toms and VLA-3A

OH Model N
Gold Clip Soothe

Drum AMB MturboComp

Drum master VLA2A
Drawner73
Newfangledaudio Saturate

Drum Shaker BX console N
Royal compress
MAutoPan

Bass: BassMinr

Bass Fuzz: MBitfun Mdynamics

Acoustic, Hornet HarmonEQ
QuieckAC, Vpre73
Vla2a Gold Clip
mstereo Expander

Dist GTR
HarmonEQ
VPRE-73
SmartQ4
RO-SPR a

GTsolo: Smart EQ, Firecharger, Vpre-73 Mautovolume
Ripple delay

GTR tremolo. VLA2A Amautopan
Ripple Delay

Gtr wha. Cypress tt15
RO-SPR

Keys Firecharger

Vocals;
Smart eq4 Vpre/Squasher Acon DigitalMultiband

Stereo bus Smart E4, Gold clip

Mixed with Nuendo 13


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GFTW5G ... drive_link