Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC103 April 2025 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2025 17:16 CEST
by juhu
Hi, fellow mix engineers / friendly competitors!
1) Foreword to my feedback:
Due to large number of entries, I chose to provide my feedback to those select competing mixes that I liked the most. For the most part this means that I could pin-point just a few potential Round 2 improvements to consider in each mix, should it get selected for Round 2 by the Song Provider, whereas for a few mixes I couldn’t even pin-point anything specific to improve upon so for those I simply described my impressions. Please don’t take this harshly if your mix doesn’t appear in my feedback, or if it does and you disagree with my comments!
2) Click on "SHOW" to expand my feedback:
-
@Mork
Good tonal balance in Choruses and in the Bridge! As for Verses, I would like to hear “git-fills” louder than “git-verse” because I believe “git-fills” is supposed to form a query-response kind of dialogue against the Lead Vocals. Easy to fix for Round 2. That one detail aside - a well-balanced and clear-sounding mix that propels the song forward really well!
-
@Miłosz
Clarity is very good indeed. Regarding ambience, the one thing that bothers me is that the Verses are too dry compared to the Choruses, and the good clarity of the mix in fact exaggerates this dryness - a good example of how achieving a good aspect can reveal a jarring aspect. In terms of balancing, the Choruses are balanced the best, while in the Bridge I feel that “git-bridge” combined with the huge Synths gets too powerful and “jumps out” and buries the Lead Vocals a bit too much. The Tom fills sound slightly anemic compared to Kick and Snare. Finally, in the Verses, my ear kinda “wants” the “git-fills” even louder, I’d say as loud as the Lead Vocals, since the two feel like they are supposed to form an alternating dialogue! Should the mix get selected for Round 2, then consider fixing those issues in addition to the technical issues mentioned in the stats sheet, and the mix will get even better I think!
-
@Eastpark Sound
Tonal balance is great, but what jumps out for me is the different ambiences across instruments making some of them feel like they’re playing in different rooms. Further, the Verses feel much drier ambience-wise than the Choruses or the Bridge. I can hear heavy compression on some instruments, which makes chord tails occasionally slightly bleed into clashing harmonies of the next chord - this could have been cleaned up with automation perhaps, might be something to consider for Round 2. Peaks have been handled expertly in the sense that the Kick and Snare are not peaking out and yet are still audible, propelling the song forward at all times while still being nicely tucked-in-the-mix.
-
@Alex Van mixland
Excellent tonal balance, whereas heavy compression has become glaringly obvious - especially the frequent breath noises on the Vocals. Heavy compression can be a stylistic choice, for sure, but the breath noises in this case have become loud and frequent enough to be distracting IMO. Nothing that a few hours of manual gain automation couldn’t fix for Round 2, of course. The breath noises aside, everything else in this mix kinda works, despite tons of compression.
-
@scottfitz
I’m unable to find anything to complain about in the Verses and Choruses preceding the Bridge! Then as the Bridge arrives, some distinction across instruments gets lost along with specificity of notes played, as everything suddenly blends together too well, forming a sea of sound that is somewhat indistinct. The same issue persists in the final Chorus re-cap that follows the Bridge - this time around there’s so much reverb that any distinction the instruments had drowns into it. Such a thing could be a useful creative choice if this was a soundtrack to a movie where some dramatic change of events in the screenwriting would demand such a change in the audio, but since this is not a movie soundtrack I cannot really justify this dramatic change of sonic signature to myself in my mind. The final Chorus still sounds good per se, it’s just that the change in ambience is so unexpected that it throws me out of the song.
-
@vitamin
Interestingly, while in my reviews of other mixes I have complained about the Verses sounding drier compared to other sections; in this particular mix the choice to have Verses drier kinda works, and I can’t even pin-point the reason why it works in this mix and not in others! The timbres have been heavily, yet tastefully processed here, in a way that works with the song, not against it. Again, in my other reviews I have pointed out when things sound overprocessed to me, and yet in this mix, everything has been sort-of overprocessed but has somehow worked out regardless, and I’m clueless as to the exact reasons why heavy processing works in this mix and not in others! All I can say is that this mix sounds solid and coherent to my ears despite all the obvious processing. I wish I knew to pin-point what the exact reasons are, but I simply don’t know.
-
@MartialFromentin
This mix is for the most part excellent, the only fault worth mentioning is that the Snare in the Choruses sounds a bit too jarringly different from the Snare in the Verses - almost like a tiny explosion, which on small radio speakers distracted me out of the song as soon as the first Chorus hit. Funnily, I didn’t notice that as an issue on bigger 8” monitors at all, so it definitely pays to double-check mixes on small speakers. Fix the Snare in Choruses for Round 2 and the mix becomes even better IMO!
-
@GeorgeCorg
The mix is clear and balanced in Choruses and in the Bridge, so the only places that would benefit from further balancing are the Verse sections where the Bass Guitar sounds slightly overpowering to me. I wouldn’t touch anything in terms of balance in the other sections, so I guess automation is the most obvious way to go about this for Round 2, should the mix get selected.
-
@titantraxx
Good clarity and mostly balanced, my only gripe balance-wise is how “git-verse” stabs too loudly in the Verses. Ambience is interesting and works with the song. Basically, tame the “git-verse” stabs for Round 2 and that’ll already improve the mix, on top of whatever adjustments the Song Provider might request!
-
1) Foreword to my feedback:
Due to large number of entries, I chose to provide my feedback to those select competing mixes that I liked the most. For the most part this means that I could pin-point just a few potential Round 2 improvements to consider in each mix, should it get selected for Round 2 by the Song Provider, whereas for a few mixes I couldn’t even pin-point anything specific to improve upon so for those I simply described my impressions. Please don’t take this harshly if your mix doesn’t appear in my feedback, or if it does and you disagree with my comments!
2) Click on "SHOW" to expand my feedback:
► Show Spoiler
-
@Mork
Good tonal balance in Choruses and in the Bridge! As for Verses, I would like to hear “git-fills” louder than “git-verse” because I believe “git-fills” is supposed to form a query-response kind of dialogue against the Lead Vocals. Easy to fix for Round 2. That one detail aside - a well-balanced and clear-sounding mix that propels the song forward really well!
-
@Miłosz
Clarity is very good indeed. Regarding ambience, the one thing that bothers me is that the Verses are too dry compared to the Choruses, and the good clarity of the mix in fact exaggerates this dryness - a good example of how achieving a good aspect can reveal a jarring aspect. In terms of balancing, the Choruses are balanced the best, while in the Bridge I feel that “git-bridge” combined with the huge Synths gets too powerful and “jumps out” and buries the Lead Vocals a bit too much. The Tom fills sound slightly anemic compared to Kick and Snare. Finally, in the Verses, my ear kinda “wants” the “git-fills” even louder, I’d say as loud as the Lead Vocals, since the two feel like they are supposed to form an alternating dialogue! Should the mix get selected for Round 2, then consider fixing those issues in addition to the technical issues mentioned in the stats sheet, and the mix will get even better I think!
-
@Eastpark Sound
Tonal balance is great, but what jumps out for me is the different ambiences across instruments making some of them feel like they’re playing in different rooms. Further, the Verses feel much drier ambience-wise than the Choruses or the Bridge. I can hear heavy compression on some instruments, which makes chord tails occasionally slightly bleed into clashing harmonies of the next chord - this could have been cleaned up with automation perhaps, might be something to consider for Round 2. Peaks have been handled expertly in the sense that the Kick and Snare are not peaking out and yet are still audible, propelling the song forward at all times while still being nicely tucked-in-the-mix.
-
@Alex Van mixland
Excellent tonal balance, whereas heavy compression has become glaringly obvious - especially the frequent breath noises on the Vocals. Heavy compression can be a stylistic choice, for sure, but the breath noises in this case have become loud and frequent enough to be distracting IMO. Nothing that a few hours of manual gain automation couldn’t fix for Round 2, of course. The breath noises aside, everything else in this mix kinda works, despite tons of compression.
-
@scottfitz
I’m unable to find anything to complain about in the Verses and Choruses preceding the Bridge! Then as the Bridge arrives, some distinction across instruments gets lost along with specificity of notes played, as everything suddenly blends together too well, forming a sea of sound that is somewhat indistinct. The same issue persists in the final Chorus re-cap that follows the Bridge - this time around there’s so much reverb that any distinction the instruments had drowns into it. Such a thing could be a useful creative choice if this was a soundtrack to a movie where some dramatic change of events in the screenwriting would demand such a change in the audio, but since this is not a movie soundtrack I cannot really justify this dramatic change of sonic signature to myself in my mind. The final Chorus still sounds good per se, it’s just that the change in ambience is so unexpected that it throws me out of the song.
-
@vitamin
Interestingly, while in my reviews of other mixes I have complained about the Verses sounding drier compared to other sections; in this particular mix the choice to have Verses drier kinda works, and I can’t even pin-point the reason why it works in this mix and not in others! The timbres have been heavily, yet tastefully processed here, in a way that works with the song, not against it. Again, in my other reviews I have pointed out when things sound overprocessed to me, and yet in this mix, everything has been sort-of overprocessed but has somehow worked out regardless, and I’m clueless as to the exact reasons why heavy processing works in this mix and not in others! All I can say is that this mix sounds solid and coherent to my ears despite all the obvious processing. I wish I knew to pin-point what the exact reasons are, but I simply don’t know.
-
@MartialFromentin
This mix is for the most part excellent, the only fault worth mentioning is that the Snare in the Choruses sounds a bit too jarringly different from the Snare in the Verses - almost like a tiny explosion, which on small radio speakers distracted me out of the song as soon as the first Chorus hit. Funnily, I didn’t notice that as an issue on bigger 8” monitors at all, so it definitely pays to double-check mixes on small speakers. Fix the Snare in Choruses for Round 2 and the mix becomes even better IMO!
-
@GeorgeCorg
The mix is clear and balanced in Choruses and in the Bridge, so the only places that would benefit from further balancing are the Verse sections where the Bass Guitar sounds slightly overpowering to me. I wouldn’t touch anything in terms of balance in the other sections, so I guess automation is the most obvious way to go about this for Round 2, should the mix get selected.
-
@titantraxx
Good clarity and mostly balanced, my only gripe balance-wise is how “git-verse” stabs too loudly in the Verses. Ambience is interesting and works with the song. Basically, tame the “git-verse” stabs for Round 2 and that’ll already improve the mix, on top of whatever adjustments the Song Provider might request!
-