MIX CHALLENGE - MC101 December 2024 - Mix Round 2 until 09-JAN-2025 23:59 UTC+1/CET

[Christoph_K]

Thanks to @Mellow Browne for giving me a chance to revisit my mix. Here’s what I changed:

I did work mostly on the 808. I refined my attempt to control the saturation and got rid of the rumble with an additional FabFilter Pro-MB. I also got rid to the nonlin reverb on the claps and lowered the autotune track a bit. I dialed back the „knocky“ sound of the kick andI pulled up the bells a few db. I also tamed some of the high end on the mixbus with the Weiss Deesser.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fmcvxyiv ... hwpvm&dl=0

[dstra]

Hi everyone,

Here is my submission for round 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MPKaHy ... sp=sharing

I would like to thank @Mellow Browne as well for the very helpful feedback.

Changes as requested by provider
- Verse: reverb amount reduced (early reflections cannot be reduced separately); high frequencies reduced
- Open Hat: compression removed; volume reduced (-1dB)
- Hi Hat: compression ratio lowered (upward compression); volume reduced (-1dB); annoying frequency at 7.9 kHz decreased
- Clap & Snare: reverb reduced
- 808: volume raised (+2dB); compression ratio reduced (upward compression) to tame the problematic low frequency during decay (~35 Hz)
- Piano: frequencies around 200 Hz reduced; brightend a little bit

Additional refinements
- Hook Bells: volume-controlled gate replaced by time-controlled gate to improve timing
- Low Lead: reduced fundamental frequency that stuck out to much

There is one thing I would like to mention that might be helpful to others: The song provider heared a slight rumbling of the 808 in my mix. By analyzing the problem, I found out that the problematic frequency (~35 Hz) lies close to a room mode of my mixing room, so I was not able to hear it properly while mixing. The question was then how to make the problematic frequency audible in a balanced way in this room. Changing the room acoustics was not an option. So instead I came up with the idea of (temporarily) transposing the song up a few semitones in order to move the problematic frequency away from the room mode, which was easily possible with the vari-speed functionality of the used DAW. This allowed me to hear and (hopefully) fix the rumbling mentioned by the song provider.

[Martial.Levesque]

Hi all,

Thank you, Mellow Browne, for your tremendous work in reviewing all the mixes. Impressive effort! It truly helps the community.

Here's what i did on my mix for Round 2:

- Tamed down the sibilance that was too harsh.
- Removed the chorus effect on the vocals, except for the verse auto-tune clean.
- Adjusted the clap to be more in line with the hi-hat level.
- Reduced the ad reverb to bring it more upfront.
- Removed the 808 glide I added. I couldn't find any interesting transition to add; I tried, but nothing made a significant improvement.
- Pushed all the instruments more into the mix to help bring the midrange back into the song and create a better balance with the rhythm section.
- Changed the hi-hat level to reduce the sizzling effect.
- Lowered the reverb on the bells.
- Modified the bus compressor to high-pass the low end. This helped to bring the midrange back to life.
- For the end transition, I added a tape echo (reverb + delay) on the lead track to create a ghostly FX.


https://ln5.sync.com/dl/970290590#6fmsq ... g-mcfa2kjc


Good luck to everyone!

[Strange]

. The question was then how to make the problematic frequency audible

try to hear it in good headphones!

[Michael_K]

Hello and thanks for advancing me to round 2.

Changes:
Added some ore processing to the kick to beef it up. Added around 3k and compressed.
Thinned out the low lids on the 808 and made it a little less overpowering.
Added some space to the add libs, short delay and short reverb.
Dialed back the effects on the main rap part.
Dialed back the expander in the vocals which I think was causing the unwanted harshness. I was going for more impact on the vocals but perhaps I overdid it the first time.
Brought down the level of the piano to make it blend better.

In general I have a hard time hth saturation plugins because the add a disproportionate amount of distortion in my opinion. Light to moderate analog saturation is much more discreet and I thing getting the effect with a fast compressor works better if you want to saturate but without distorting much ot taking the life out of the sound. I think the 808 in my mix sounds a bit more saturated than your mix but this kind of comparison is really hard because of differences in perception and the way we all try to put these concepts into words.

My R2 mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o94ZXB ... sp=sharing

Good luck to everyone!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your edit for Mix Round 2.


So far, we have 07 out of 15 entries, with about 20 hours left on the clock.

There will be no deadline extensions! Please get your edit submitted today. Please also pay attention to detail still.

[rchm.music]

Thank you @Mellow Browne for the extensive feedback,
here is my entry to Round 2:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bdj2v34b ... 7bjj2&dl=0

phpBB [media]

I changed the verb on the clap and the adlibs making it a shorter hall, made the adlibs have a little more body while changing some verb throw, the ringmodulator effect on the hook i made it a little bit lower on volume, added a bit of presence to the sub frequencies on the 808 and vocals also a bit on the synths, concentrated on transient points of hi hat and synths to make them pop out a bit more, turned up the mix up to -1.3 TP. hope you like the changes!


Levels:

-18.2 LUFS
4.1 LU
-1.3 TP