MIX CHALLENGE - MC067 July 2020 - Winners announced

[White Punk OD]

shoutout to Sam Pierpoint

please, would you like to talk with the band about the diversity in style and taste of the mixes, which elements of mixes might appear a bit old, or nicely fresh, or blunt, or sophisticated etc., and also, whether some different style might be interesting to follow for a remix or "other" version release, while not fitting the album etc..

(for instance, my experience is more on the live mixing side, and less in the studio, so my attempt is a bit on the organic and intimate side, to let listeners feel the personalities of singer and musicians.)

[Edu Cesar]

Edu Cesar
you have a lot of great stuff going on in the instruments, it already begins to overwhelm the vocals a bit.
so for a review, vocals might become a bit fuller, with a tad more low mids, voc strength in the finale is very good
good choice in section-wise changes of vocal effects
I like how bass and drums are one tight section, lots of punch
interesting effects on guitars
good flow, goood energy throughout
the strong signs of compression make it a little bit "vintage" which I guess serves the song well, but I wonder what the band thinks on that

Thank you for the review, you are spot on (both in what I tried to achieve and what I think it could be better listening to my mix again).
Ear fatigue and the psychological effects are definitely things to take in consideration while mixing. At least that’s what I learned from doing this.

Congratulations to everyone who participated and good luck!

[rvalle]

This is funny because my original mix file was extracted at 44.1 / 24. But, as I was about time to submit the mix and also very tired, I redid the rendering by changing the sample rate to 48khz. I did this because, instead of checking the rules, I looked at the file for the previous challenge, which was at 48k. Well, it is not a good feeling to have been disqualified by a detail, but we always have to look at things on the bright side, as there is always one. In this case, I learned that, when we raise the sample rate, it affects the bit depth, since my file has 23 bits. I didn't know that. Very interesting.

[john]

John
great balances
more reverb than me
love the full round vocal sound, the vocal processing rewards.
I didn't tune mine because organic personality
bass sounds a bit hard
around 2:06 there is a glitch in the vocals, like some signal drop out for a few millisecs
the effect in the stop at 2:51 is great
voc reverb in the finale sounds generally great but for me still a bit much
thanks for the documentation as it reveals some "cultural" thoughts i.e. why something was done or changed, for the sake of style and taste, and about what to prioritize

Hey man, thanks for this, it was a pleasant surprise to come across this - and you even read the documentation, greatly appreciated. I'm embarrassed that a glitch got past me, thanks for pointing that out, and for the kind words too. cheers!

[SergioITASCO]

I've been disqualified for 16 bits vs 24 bits.

I think that's fair enough, I accept that, in the sense i feel bad for the person who act like that. Imagine the damage for a potential band or customer if they will judge the work by that?

Here people pretending they are "Professional" while they are not.

Technically producing a mix at 16 bit means losing 2 or 3 db of Dynamic Range, it doesn't really matter. But if you are an ignorant that's fine to me.

There are a lot o pedant and idiot things going on and I would like to suggest a change.

There is no longer Mixing and Mastering stages, there is at least a process of production from a multitrack session so stop whit this stupid steps "mixingi/mastering/ lufs" and so on and let the artist decide without any limitation.

Anyway I gave 1 day of my life to produce the best audio as I can and the answer was 16 bit is the wrong format.

1 day of my life and that is what I get? 24 bits.

Your brain is at 2 bits... maybe 3 bits, no more.

[hjchjc]

idk why everyone is complaining - it's called the "mix *challenge*" for a reason! If there were no limits everyone would just slam their mixes and that can be really fatiguing. (I've wished I could use more stereo enhancement or more multiband compression at times, but I get why mix bus proccessing as a whole is only allowed in limited usage. So to speak.)

The one time I was annoyed with the rules was when my mix was disqualified for being at -0.99 TPdb instead of -1.00 (that was for MC062), but even so, I can imagine a mastering engineer sending back a file for that reason.

[javiramallo]

Hey guys, Stop Complaint.

[Mister Fox]

I'm stepping in before this getting any further out of hand. If you start to resort to personal insults or blows below the waist line, I will not hesitate to put you in the penalty box. Be respectful to each other - no insults, no pushy behavior, or you're out. I hope I made myself clear.


I was fully aware that my post will result in a huge uproar (yet again). But to be honest, I've had enough. The time I have to invest every single month with responding to PMs, mails and forum posts regarding rules and "rule breakers", turned into something that is stealing way too much of my energy and time I'd rather use for something different. Same in this case now (which took me another four hours).




Let me point out one (and probably the most) important thing:

By joining the Mix(ing) Challenge, you fully understood and agreed to the well established Rules and Guidelines for participants

Furthermore:

• these guidelines are always linked to from the first and the second post of each corresponding game (this has been the case since Mix Challenge 01 / June 2014)
• the guidelines have been linked to from the Navbar of the main homepage (since the existence of the homepage early 2017)
• as of 5th July 2020, we finally have a dedicated Rule Books section
• especially long-time forum users have always been informed of updates to the Rules and Guidelines. The last major update was on 30th May 2020, and it has been mentioned several times in the newsletter, at the beginning of each game thread, and also the green infobar at the top of the forum.
• The last mail explicitly mentioning "please check in with possible rule book changes", was sent out on 13th July.
• Since 13th July, there is also a pinned post in the dedicated Rule Books section, clearly listing the current update status
• The forum post explicitly mentioning the (new) dedicated "Rule Books" section was posted on 05th July 2020, and a newsletter followed suit the next night. In fact, this information is still pinned, yet it was read less than 100 times.
• Prior to that, there was an over 1-month long green infobar stating "please get re-acquainted with the Rules and Guidelines" (throughout of May 2020 and most of June 2020)
• The rules regarding submission specs, maximum loudness and dBTP didn't change since Summer 2019(!). They were only simplified and made more clear as of MC064 / April 2020.

Everything is written and explained there in minute detail. And as I have made clear several times in recent months, I am honestly done with the constant excuses and arguments.

I have been very, very lenient and more than fair in the past, gave people second chances. I've tried to be tactful with enforcing the rules. I overlooked that participants still did "their thing" in hope that the Song Provider can also handle rule breakers during the evaluation process, or in favor of a "more fun game". We can only be accommodating for so long until people go by "it is okay bend/break the rules". Offer one hand, get your torso ripped off in return.

So drawing a (deeper) line has been long overdue. And if this results in a loss of now suddenly frustrated participants, but ultimately results in a fair game for everyone, then I can live with that.



I would also like to comment on some previously made posts. However, to keep the thread more cleaned up, I've decided to move my response over to the Mix Challenge - General Gossip Thread. If you want to further talk about this topic, state your frustration, discontent, etc... please do so over there. (I will move/delete posts in the MC067 thread as I seem necessary)


Else I leave the thread open for feedback on the submitted mixes.

Thank you.

[SDB_12]

SDB_12
great balances, good flow
I like the snare sound
not too dry, not too wet, effects come and go in a nice way
good "wet" vocal effects in the rock part before the finale
ld vocal got a great "pop" sound, very clear
at 0:55 the chorus effect on vocals creates a little bit of that "bee swarm" sound

Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on some of the mixes Very cool of you. I appreciate the feedback! I had a lot of fun with this song, good luck to all the contestants!

[Paolo]

Congratulations to everybody for the work you have made!
It's incredible to me how every mix I've listened to sound so personal!

I really have a lot to learn from all of you!

Thank you!

And good luck!

P.S.

Just a little question, how do you know you are disqualified?
There's a topic about that?
It's my first time here and I couldn't find anything