MIX CHALLENGE - MC060 November 2019 - Winners announced

[shawnfinney]

Mc60 Entry

This mix challenge was a lot of fun to mix. Love the song. Great hybrid sound.

Drums individual treatment bussed to 33609

Other treatment. Slate vmr on everytrack. universal audio plugins on several select tracks. master bus red compressor bomber for 3d tone fg-x to control levels.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UwAbX ... 73hJYIHBMK

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15zJEK ... 6cEU2cDuBz

Thank you so much

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your edit

[paperthin]

Hey everyone!

Interesting song with some unique challenges. As always, here are the highlights of my mixing process.

Drums: Really well written, that guy from Italy really knows what he's doing. I absolutely loved the fills and all the little embellishments! Not so happy with the some of the tones and the logistics. You simply don't get a good (middle) tom tone if it's EQ'ed as a 10-inch in one channel and as a floor tom in the other, so I had to separate them, as I think most would. The part is great though, and it's all that counts.

Bass: Again, loving the part! I had to saturate the high mids heavily to make it cut. The rest of the treatment was nothing special – an LA2A, an EQ, a limiter.

Piano: Another perfect performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. I added an R-Bass for the lower overtones (or thuds) you get from a real grand piano, but only in places with no bass guitar playing. Maybe this trick exists, but I honestly invented it for myself also, a bit of top end saturation for brilliance.

Strings: Staccato violin was pitched up an octave and blended underneath the main signal for air. A big hall reverb was used on all the strings. I find that the parts could be denser or more elaborate, I think a bigger orchestral component would've helped the song, but it's a taste thing.

Vocals: Despite being heavily tuned, the vocals presented no problem. I used Metric Halo's Character plugin on the female vocal and it gave it more definition and - well - character. In all honesty, those analog emulators and saturators are witchcraft to me, I just tried a preset and it gave me an effect that I liked. The rest is rationalization. Nonetheless, I like the performances of the singers, I believe them so to speak, and even the Melodyne artifacts conveniently hide in this fairly dense mix.

Guitar solo: Whoever recorded this part, please be aware of the proximity effect. If the mic had been any closer to the guitar it would cause problems. The solo itself is cool, I like it (and that's coming from a guitar player). I used a bit of Waves' Doubler for richness after EQing it. Using a compressor on a part like this is not really productive because lower notes have a lot more energy without appearing louder, so I just automated the part by hand.

Percussion: I made it more prominent in the intro and outro, but softer in the middle. With such a great drum performance I don't think those timpani hits help anything. Maybe I'm wrong of course.

A bit of corrective EQ and compression on the mix buss, and that's it. Please hear the result here:

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2c6j24weut0sk ... n.wav?dl=0

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpuo3uanndh9d ... n.mp3?dl=0

That concludes my little lecture about this mix. If anybody's interested in details or in something I didn't mention, let's discuss. Cheers!

[nicores]

Hi! This is my mix and the process i did to it!

Overheads:

inserts: ssl chanel strip for filtering low end, ReCenter to be more phase coherent, fab filter pro q3, and a Waves C6 sidechain for sidechaining the top end of the vocal to not clash the cymbals.
Sends: Ssl Channel strip

Hi Hat: Fab Filter pro q 3

Bass Drum:

Insterts:Waves Scheps 73, and Waves Smack attack for less sustain
Sends: bx_yellowdrive, Waves dbx 160, Side chain to c1 in the vocal.


Snare top:

Insterts: Waves Scheps 73, Fab filter pro q 3
Sends: bx_yellowdrive, Waves dbx 160, Side chain to c1 in the vocal.

Drum Buss:

Inserts: Nls Channel, Ssl Comp, Reelight tape, Waves Tg12345
Sends: Empty250 Reverb, Waves Api 2500.

Percussion:

Inserts: Fab filter pro q3, Waves Smack attack, Waves Cla 1176, Fab Filter pro MB
Sends: Empty250 Reverb, Waves H-delay, Waves BrauerMotion, Cla-1176

Bass:

Inserts: Waves ClaBass, Waves Nls Channel, Waves MaxxBass, Fab Filter pro q3
Sends: Waves MaxxVolume, H-Delay

Guitars:

Inserts: Waves Nls Channel, Fab filter pro q3, Waves C4
Sends: Empty250 Reverb, Tal-Chorus
Piano: Fab Filter Pro q3, Waves Puigchild 670, Waves Smack Attack, Waves C4

Strings:

Inserts: Fab Filter pro q 3, Waves Kramer hls, Waves Nls Channell, Waves C1 comp with side chain.
Sends: Waves H delay, Waves MaxxVolume, Waves BrauerMotion

Lead Vocal Intro:

Inserts: Waves RDeEsser, Studio one Gate, Waves Cla 2A, Fab Filter Pro q3, Voxenego Varisaturator.
Sends: Waves H-delay, Waves BrauerMotion, Echoboy, Soundtoys Microshift

Lead Vocal:

Inserts:Waves RDeEsser, Studio one Gate, Waves Cla 2A, soundtoys Devil lock deluxe, Waves Nls channel, Fab filter pro q 3, C1 comp with sidechain.
Sends: Waves H-delay, Soundtoys Microshift, echo boy, Slate Virtual Mix
Backgound Vocals:

Inserts: Nls Channel, Fab filter pro q3
Sends: Soundtoys Microshift.
Master Track: Waves Ssl Comp, Waves Rs56, Bx V3, TDRVOSS EQ, Waves Linmb


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jba-Z ... nSps5-FeDX

[LughSenderson]

Hello everyone

I haven't been participating in the contests for a while, but I decided to participate in this one because it is a Brazilian song (I'm Brazilian too).

I did everything quickly, didn't have much time available. As always, all equalization and compression was done using SSL Native Channel Strip, I used four reverbs and a dual delay Lexicon PCM Native, and the Evetide H3000 Factory dual 910 preset to help with male vocals.

I performed a lot of automation to enhance the energy of the music.

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nXl5dX ... sp=sharing

MP3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EI9Hct ... sp=sharing

[White Punk OD]

this is about referencing,
and explains why I can't probably contribute this time.
I hope it is also an inspiration to the young singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNzb0kuj9EI
in my strongest opinion, for such type of music you need the real thing.
and it even can be minimalistic then.
I believe she is underway and can make it.
blessings and all the best!

[delicate]

Greetings!

Here is my mix.
Both .mp3 and .wav files are there. I've also uploaded a few screenshots.

I did the mix twice as I was not happy with the first attempt.
On the second one I spent much more time on the initial balance — and I also utilized Structure plugin to level the volume of each individual track before balancing.
\
Most difficult thing for me was the lead vocal. It had 8 plugins on it (as you can see on one of the screenshot), including Soothe (up to -3db resonance taming) and Gullfoss (very minor tonal changes, up to +-0.8db in the midrange).

The mixbus had Alpha compressor in mid/side mode with up to 2db compression, Ozone's dynamic EQ to slightly attenuate lowmid resonances, Lindell TE-100 for overall tonal shaping and a tape emulation with a very conservative input.

[Marko53]

My first time posting, hope I got it correct :0)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tm4dhs671tlh2 ... 1.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ejukdq2fn4zje ... 1.wav?dl=0

[arindam123]

Hi,
I am new to this forum, this is my 1st experience of mix contest. I am just a beginner and I think I am not so good at mix but this masterpiece song made me so inspired and I have got so many fun and experiences with this mix, I could not resist myself to post my mix. I did use my only cubase 5 default plugins and tried to maintain the original feel of this beautiful song. I have also left enough roomhead for mastering. Thank you so much. You guys' mix were incredible.

This is my mix-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14W9vUv ... sp=sharing

[copyc4t]

Hello all, here's my entry:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/apbpkfxsnbrem ... t.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ov6jp8vyxyy93 ... t.mp3?dl=0

Screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/da102xj1qadbw ... 1.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/umfj2xww32bd9 ... 2.png?dl=0

I wanted to let the mix breathe and sound natural, using drastic control only where really needed.

The mix is done on Ardour, with plugins mostly from the Calf Studio Gear suite, plus Luftikus EQ by lkjb, Dragonfly Reverb by Michael Willis and Rob vd Berg, GStereo by Graham Yeadon, DeHiss by Chris Johnson, various meters by Robin Gareus, K-Meter by Martin Zuther, LUFS Meter by Klangfreund.

As for the track processing:
- All drums just have basic EQ, while the drum bus has parallel compression and air band boost.

- The bass has EQ, bass enhancing, and sidechain compression driven by the orchestral percussion.

- The guitars have EQ mostly for high passing, and they're hard panned, with a little automation in the intro to make it like the original mix; the hiss on the tracks is reduced by an automated drastic dip in the intro one, and then controlled by DeHiss; the solo has compression, EQ with some air, and gentle delay, and its strong pick sounds are tamed by a de-esser; the guitar bus has some reverb and air band boost.

- The strings have EQ mostly for high passing, violas are spatialized a little by Haas and have an EQ dip in the cello range, and their bus (also hosting the orchestral percussion and piano) has some reverb, 3-band spatialization to tighten the low end, and air band boost.

- The lead vocal has parallel compression, EQ with high-pass and a dip in the boxy area, tape simulation for some saturation, de-essing. I liked the original dynamics, even though they vary a lot more than the standard, so I didn't squash them completely with compression, but did some gain riding via automation on the verse endings.

- The background vocal has parallel compression, EQ with high-pass, a dip in the boxy area and a high-shelf cut, de-essing; it's set at a level that makes it support the lead vocal while hiding its autotuned character.

The vocal bus has subtle delay, some reverb, and air band boost.

Finally, the sum bus only has a safety pass low filter on EQ; the metering is on the master bus, where I could use it also on the original mix.

The peaks are at -1dB, the integrated LUFS stays below -16.7, the dynamic range stays around 12.