MIX CHALLENGE - MC051 February 2019 - Winners announced

[FixInTheMix]

Yes it is, just because I did some creative stuff with the duplicated one !!! Don't really remember exactly what I did but I use to do that. You are allowed not to use it !
MOA22

Cool, thanks for clearing that out!

[Photonic]

Hi all,

Nice song, serious theme! Thank you for providing it for the challenge.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hjjemk2fgqyaz ... c.mp3?dl=1
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jl6c8yjn1y4xv ... c.wav?dl=1

Mixed in Reaper v5.51.

Drum-Bus: Presswerk (in Drum-Compressor mode), FerricTDS to add some satturation
All drum single tracks: only ReaEQ
Drums Bleed and Mono Room: ReaEQ, Thrillseeker VBL to add re-amping and compression
Room: an additional track to add stereo ambient with Acon Digital Verberate
Drum Dirt track: a kind of additional parallel compression with heavy use of Thrillseeker VBL, ReaEQ

Bass: ReaEQ, Bass Professor II (by Sonic Anomaly)

Rtm Guits: ReaEQ, TDR VOS SlickEQ
Broken Guit: ReaEQ, NastyDLA

Lead Voc: The voice was too rough for me at some places. So I added DeClip and DeClick from the Acon Digital Restauration Suite to make it smoother. Other FX: ReaEQ, Presswerk (in Vocal mode), TDR NOva as de-esser, RealDelay for a slight slap delay
Chorus AdVoc1: ReaEQ, S.LAX, Acon Digital Multiply to make this track stereo
Hi pitch: I doubled this track and pitched and delayed the right side a bit to make it stereo, ReaEQ, S.LAX
Ad Voc: I doubled this track and pitched and delayed the right side a bit to make it stereo, ReaEQ, S.LAX, Thrillseeker VBL

Master: EQ57, Presswerk (in Bus mode), SPAN
All Reverbs: Acon Digital Verberate

[marvinbastos]

hi ,this is my first time mixing for a challenge.
Here is my mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aqrwy32txmn6j ... s.wav?dl=0

[copyc4t]

Hello all, here's my first ever entry:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jadzf1icoaupx ... t.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qrr360l7s7qkc ... t.mp3?dl=0

Screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/051neth9d705p ... 1.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2en0gs49373w ... 2.png?dl=0

I've gone for a live stage kind of feeling, adding more dirt than what was removed (plosives intentionally kept, for instance). In this "under-produced" spirit, just for kicks I've also done without a few things: no side-chaining, no reverb, no automation, not even gain staging.

The mix is done on Qtractor, with plugins mostly from the Calf Studio Gear and Guitarix suites, plus BassUp from the EQ10Q suite, Declipper by Steve Harris, Luftikus EQ by lkjb, DR14 meter by Robin Gareus.

As for the track processing, all drums have parallel compression (Calf), and kick, snare, and toms also have some transient shaping (Calf); other than that, in detail:

- Kick (in and out): lowpassed around 7kHz, boosted around 100Hz both by Equalizer 8 Band and by Bass Enhancer (Calf)
- Snare (top and bottom): high-passed around 180Hz, boosted around 3.8kHz
- Hi Hat: high-passed around 660Hz, high-shelved up around 5kHz
- Overheads: high-passed around 660Hz, high-shelved up around 2.4kHz, a further bump up around 5kHz
- Toms: each with high-pass and a boost according to their content

The bass EQ has a lowpass, a dip that mirrors the kick's boost, and a boost around 135Hz; then compression, BassUp, GxCabinet (Guitarix), Bass Enhancer and Saturator (Calf) both focused around 135Hz.

The printed Rhythm guitars are simply high-passed and high-shelved, with panning similar to the reference mix. The "broken" one also has 4:1 compression (Calf) and GxMetalAmp (Guitarix).

The vocal tracks share some common treatment with slightly different settings: Declipper, EQ high-pass, parallel compression, and Exciter (Calf); other than that, in detail:

- Lead: Vintage Delay (Calf), "air" band boost by Luftikus, Deesser (Calf)
- Chorus 1 (panned left): GxMetalAmp, Tape Simulator (Calf), Deesser
- Chorus 2 (panned right): Multi Chorus (Calf), GxMetalAmp, Deesser
- Hi pitch chorus: "air" band boost by Luftikus
- Ad-lib: GxMetalAmp, "air" band boost by Luftikus, Deesser

Finally, the master buss only has safety pass filters on EQ, the Tape Simulator set on parallel, for its saturation rather than compression, and the meter.

The peaks are safely below -1dB, but the integrated LUFS is slightly higher than recommended in the guidelines, almost -15. The dynamic range however never falls below 12, so it should still be quite mastering-friendly.

[piumazzopunk]

Hello everyone, here the music:

wav 24bit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LppoQt ... sp=sharing

mp3 320kB: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J08iyt ... sp=sharing


I used a lot of plugin because I have several templates for mix sessions, I usually load a mix template and tweak what I need. I've used also a lot of parallel processing. For example I have 3 snare bus, because every bus has his own different processing, for example "turbo" snare has a extreme processing to mix with the other.

DAW: ProTools 11 on MAC

Main plugin:
Novtron (compressor), SSL E serial legacy (UAD), SSL G bus (UAD), DF-Q, Fairchild 670 (UAD), VMR (just the Revival), Vari Mu (UAD), Soundtoys, McPdsp, Phoenix (tape simulator), 1176 LN (UAD), EMT140 (UAD), Hofa reverb, Pultec Eq1a (UAD) and stock Pro tools eq/compressor.

I’ve used a special processing, playing a Pink noise only when the snare play. And send this pink noise to a gated riverb also. It is a 80’s trick to add a sort of fake bottom snare.

I have a sort of analog summing system. 4 stereo subgroup go out from my 8 apollo channels output and than go back into 2 apollo UNISON preamp. So I can have a total recall because gain and other parameters are controlled by apollo software interface. (there is a picture of the master “virtual” Neve apollo UNISON preamp in attachment).

I get my inspiration from the band "Turbonegro", expecially the "Party Aniamals" album.

Here the screenshots:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Enjoy

[davidpaulpaige]

Had a real good time with this material.
I didn't do anything special with this mix. However, there are massive amounts of parallel compression on drums and guitars and main vocals along with saturation to get things to lay well with each other.
Screen shots:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cwqywdfmavap ... 5JXEa?dl=0

wav:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6f2xoli7ac72y ... 4.wav?dl=0

mp3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i6636m3k0m0xt ... 4.mp3?dl=0

Smiles

[philk]

Hey!

Here is my mix

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rllpvts7flbqn ... k.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d274zw301bcqc ... k.wav?dl=0

I tried to get this to sound very pumpy, roomy and have a lot of vibe. I used tons of saturation, distortion, compression and reverb on all elements. The Main tools for drums were a Neve Channelstrip, Fatso and Devilloc. Used a transient designer and distortion on the bass. guitars are reamped, distorted and glued with compression and reverb. the vocals have much 1176 and tape machine saturation and compression. I used a slap delay and reverb to achieve the vibe I was going for!

Hope you like it, this was fun to mix for me, because this was more about getting creative than technical.

Cheers,
Phil

[MixMad]

Nice to see so many taking part. When I heard this track I instantly liked it so made time to join in the fun. Been so long since I joined in that I had to register again!

I replaced the toms but everything else is as it was. Did a fair bit of editing on the bass to clean it up and smooth things out a bit. Used a bunch of plugins I have had for some time and never got around to trying, notably the CLA drums which was surprisingly good for fast results. All standard stuff though really after that, a bit of low level compression to make things bounce a bit and add some depth along with H Delay helping to make some space. The Maag Magnum comp took care of the vocals along with a bit of Baxandall EQ from Blue Tubes. Mix bus a little tape saturation, BX control on width duties and VSC compressor adding a little glue.
Gary

Track - https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjc97nnn8moyl ... V.wav?dl=0

PIC - https://www.dropbox.com/s/82p9u3zppnnd9 ... c.jpg?dl=0

[Dwic]

Here's my submission:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OyWk3 ... CKhVni2-Zt

Really good song, great vibe. Guitars were sweet.
So my mix bus - very simple, just a touch of comp and a limiter.
Thought I'd start at lead voc1, it was gonna be the focus for most of the song.
Got it into starting shape. Decided on how I wanted it to sit in the song - set up my main verb and delays.
Got kick and snare started - especially with in and outs/top and bottom mics I checked phase: in/out top/bottom, also against OH and toms. Got everything moving together. Tried drm mix - bit of buss comp - in the vox verb, didn't like it. Got it's own - Waves ARChambers on Snare Room Dark (and adjustments). Got it for Christmas - thanks Ma.
Bass through Bass Professor Mk2 - good for sculpting a DI. Put another ARChambers on it (mainly to see the load on CPU) but liked the sound I found. Put it up against drums, kick, checked phase. Worked, nice pocket.
Back to vox, did the bgs and got it to sit with the lead, up against bass and drums - adjusted some vox ending delays. Decided to side chain the lead to the lead delay, to calm it during vox.
Guitars - I didn't use DIs (after much trial and error). Tried several sounds for all three, ended up muting them all. Bit of comp on Marshall and some Sausage on the Twin, nice recordings. Didnt need much. Strong comp on the hi gain, again - cool sounds to start with. Solo - wild solo - pretty harsh low and high pass. Some comp, Phasis, and some Imager to make it stand out.
Still didnt stand out. Put all the guitars but the solo into a buss and did an auto run under the solo. then sidechained the solo to the rythm guitars buss to duck it under the solo a bit more.
Brought everthing up (except the guitar DIs, oh and the HH and the Bleeding Drums - didnt use them either). Tweak, tweak, tweak. Thought this song could use some of my new gear - vocal rider - so I put everything but the vox into a buss and used it to sidechain the vox buss with vocal rider giving me a nice even vocal. Bypassed it for the outro to let the vocal fx settle down.
Needed more grit - I've got a plugin that's great for adding attack to guitars, which is actually pretty rare. Most are great on drums and such but you really have to trial and error with guitars and transient designers. But this one works, guitars stand up.
Tweak, tweak, tweak. Wrote most of my automation. Tweak, tweak. Comped to other songs - decided to cut about 2dB at about 4.8k, but thats it for "mastering".

Devin Wickens

[Mister Fox]

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