MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Winners announced

[Ronson79]

Here´s my take: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RCQf4k ... sp=sharing

Drums:
eq, comp, parallel comp, saturation, harmonics on individual tracks
Overheads - Saturn expansion mode to get rid of some mud, panning 56 L and 68 R
Room mic mono - nothing - just blended in

Drum bus: nothing

Bass:
BX_SSL 4000 G comp + eq, additional eq with AA ThePun

Guitars:
All guitars have BX_ SSL and Fousrite consoles on them for basic (serial) compression and eq
All amp sims are taken from FF Saturn2
Pro-Q3 for detailed eq cuts
Lead guitar has Softube Fix Flanger and Doubler + EchoBoy JR + RC-20 for stereo movement

Organ:
just Pro-Q3 for some cuts

Instrument bus: AA ThePun, Pro-Q3, Gullfoss, Soothe2 for ducking

Vocals:
Lead Vox: Pro-Q3 for tonal control, Leapwing UltraVox for compression, a touch of Exoverb Micro because it´s new and blends well,
parallel comp with Pro-C2, FF Pro-DS
Double: same chain + Leapwing StageOne to separate it from the lead
Breakdown vox: same chain + Leapwing Al Schmidt compression, eq and reverb, delay throw with Softube Tape Echoes

Vocal bus: Pro-L2

Mix bus: Tone Projects Kelvin for some saturation, AA Diamond Transient Dyn-F + LP3X, Wavesfactory Spectre, no Limiter, no single band comp

[pabloAT]

Dear All,
Many thanks for the song provider for such a nice track to mix, and to Mr. Fox for taking care of this game.
Below you can find my mix and some details of the mix procedure.
All the best for the participants!
Cheers,
Pablo

[Dropbox link to MC091]

Drums: used instances of EQ (mainly for cleaning very low frequencies, unwanted resonances, etc.) and saturation on most of the kits. I’ve tightened the whole drum sound with alignment and phase checking. Gluing the drum stem with just a tape machine. Added a bit of reverb and parallel compression.
Bass: splitted into a “low” bass and a “distorted” bass. Both channels grouped in a track compression and tamed with a limiter. Added a tape machine into the bass stem.
Rhythm Guitars: Preamped Guitars 02 and 07 rhythm track DI with TH-U and used Guitar 01 rhythm track with ampsim (no clean track available) as it. Applied instances of EQ for a LOT of cleaning, polishing, etc. and LA-2A compression. Sends to EchoBoy and VintageVerb. Stem with tape and extra (subtle) saturation.
Lead Guitars : Preamped Guitars 03 lead track DI and Guitar 06 lead track octaver (no clean track available) with TH-U. Grouped Guitars 11 & 12 lead track DI intro / outro and mid/side treated to leave space to others guitars (subtle in mono).
Key: Leave space for other instruments with EQ, reinforced with extra mid/side treatment. Stem with saturation.
Vocals: Added instances of the excellent Pie compressor and instances of delay and reverb. A bit of LittleAlterBoy for FXs in the middle section. Vocal steam with saturation and tape machine.
Mixbuss: Pultec-like EQ to reinforce the lows/highs; gentle bus compression (RED & GRAY), saturation, and a tape machine at the bottom of the chain.

[Farlakesch]

Hi Farlakesch,

I just listened to your mix on my office computer which is a PC with a 22 inch screen which incorporates 2 small
speakers which reproduce the sound in stereo. And there, from the first second of listening, unpleasant sound surprise:
certain elements of the drum kit, the snare and the kick are found on the left, completely out of phase with the rest.
Further listening on studio monitors and headphones confirms the situation.

So simply apart from a dubious choice, the problem is that when you listen to your mix in mono (even in 2023 the mixes
are likely to be stereo compatible = mono), quite simply the snare and the kick disappear. ..Experience it...

Moreover, if I can give myself a piece of advice (which is in the DNA of Mix-Challenge), when you mix, for example the
drum kit, leave all the tracks in mono at the start (and that's the that we see immediately if there are problems) and only after
using the pans. In your comment, you describe very well the error you just made: "some channels needed a phase shift".
Absolutely not...

Having said that, I really like your guitars, which have a totally mind-blowing energy !

Cheers

Franz

Hi Franz,

Thank you for not only taking the time to listen to my mix but also provide some feedback, I take a valuable lessen from it.
After reading your post I returned to Studio one, put in in mono and now I can say: I have experienced it.... You are absolutely right.
During mixing the kick and snare on their own sounded better with fase shift (imo). I was happy with it at that time and did not look back.
I have not checked my mix in mono which is I believe the biggest lesson for today (probably this week ). I will take some time to fix my mistake but that will not be for this competition I guess.

Thanks again for your feedback (also on the guitars )

Olaf (Farlakesch)

[Dirtymcduff]

I'm gonna put this out there as a new member to the group. Part of playing a game is the rules, they dictate what is fair and good for the enjoyment of all in the game. We have rules here as well, but after further metering on my end I'm seeing some fairly high LUFS measurements on a few mixes. Let's all make a group effort to play the game fairly with each other. Best of luck to all and happy mixing.

[Franz]

Hi Dirtymcduff,

I don't really understand the meaning of your last post.

Obviously all participants must respect the rules. As a reminder, one of the most important elements is
the maximum level in dBLUFS not to be exceeded and which has been fixed (for a long time) at -16 dBLUFS.

At the moment, and until your post, there are 10 participants who have posted theirs, including yours.

NONE of the participants broke the rules, no one exceeded -16 dBLUFS.

It turns out that the level of your mix is -20.5 dBLUFS (which in my opinion is still a little "light") and that the
maximum was reached by Farlakesch which peaks at -16 dBLUFS. So we have a difference of 4.5 dB, which is quite substantial.

The proof, you have (wrongly technically speaking) the impression that the other mixes, which have a much higher level than
yours, seem not to respect the general conditions of the contest is simply a personal feeling, which I can understand, but not
a non-respect of the rules.

But nevertheless congratulations for your interest in this contest...

Cheers

Franz

[Mister Fox]

There is now a "TL;DR Rules.txt" bundled in the Mix Pack, giving you the bare essentials (incl. the filename template, min/max loudness (LUFS), max signal strength (in dBTP), sampling rate and bitrate). Else, the Rules and Guidelines are well established and as clear as it can get.

No need to call anybody out.

Your submission is final, your task is to pay attention to detail. If you don't adhere to the given parameters, I (as host) will make this clear with the Statistics Sheet after this month's game has ended.

Thank you.

[alavault]

Hello !
Mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CXWBvQ ... sp=sharing
***
Rhythm GTR: Reamped all the DIs and ditched their amped counterparts. Separated into clean and dirty groups, with the same chain of events: saturation, EQ, Comp. Going into a short verb and stereo delay for the clean.
Lead GTR: tuned the main hook and reamped the DI. Kept the doubles clean and raw. The same chain of events as the rhythm GTR. Going into plate verb and stereo delay
GTRs overall: parallel compression + EQ + widener for more in-your-face-ness.
Bass: duplicated into standard, distortion, and subs. Going into EQ and limiter. Grouped into parallel comp with the drums.
Organ: flanger for stereo-ness and saturation for organ-ness (i.e., B3-ness).
Drums :
Kick + Snare: duplicated the tracks and gated the second ones. Lots of dynamics compression and multiband gating to create "samples."
Toms: edited and cleaned out extensively (multiband gating). Saturation-EQ-Limiter (see Nolly tom trick)
OH: Compressed into oblivion. EQ-ed.
Rooms: comped into mono and stereo-ized room (with a bricasti IR).
Drum FX: parallel comp and short verb for everybody. The medium verb for Rooms. Gated verb on the snare for size.
Vox : Tuned and aligned (somewhat). Harmonies with widener. Chain of events: saturation-EQ-Comp-Limiter. Into plate and parallel saturation.

[FlyingKnuckle]

Hi.

Here is my submission.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DRq0lL ... share_link

[doobop]

Hi!
I did a rough mix first to get to know the song better and understand the parts.
For get the distorted sound of the DI guitars I didn’t use guitar amps but tube Compressors which I cranked them
I used a lot of compressors for the other tracks and compress a lot, also a lot of EQing but minimal Reverbs and FX.
Not so many automation.
That’s all!

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dz38sramwwy4t ... p.wav?dl=0

Cheers,
Doobop

[MFTWC]

Hello there !!

The song was mixed in Cubase Pro 12, no timing or pitch correction applied.

Drums:

I began to clean any low-end rumble on all the tracks, the kick track got a big boost at 7.5 K to bring out the click sound, I also used a transient enhancer on the kick and the two snare tracks.
On the snare I used some spring reverb.

The rommic mono track I used the elysia cascade plugin for colouring. The oh left & right tracks
I panned left & right added a compressor and then some high-end boost.
The toms got side-chain compressed with a dynamic eq at the resonant peak of the snare track.
All the drum tracks where sent to a bus track where it was compressed by the vertigo vsc-2 plugin.

Organ:

Hipass cut, added a rotary fx and did some automation thru the track, compressed with the vc-2a plugin.

Bass:

Did some hipass cutting and some narrow cutting at the resonant peaks of the kick and snare tracks, some boost at 1.76 K, got side-chained compressed to the kick track.

Guitars:

Guitar 09 & guitar 10 got panned left & right and I added a amp plugin (Freidman DS40).
On guitar 01 I added the bx stereomaker plugin for some stereo. Guitar 02 & 03 got panned left & right, compressed and gated. All other tracks got some hicut and compression, then every track got sent to a bus. The bus got side-chained compressed by the vocals at 1.76 K with a dynamic eq. Added a waveshaper plugin to control it more.

Vocals:

Voc 01 & 02 got panned at left 25 & right 25, all three vocal tracks where compressed individually
by the vc-2a plugin, it was then sent to a bus track where it got compressed again with the bx opto plugin. I used some deesser and then some limiter at the end to catch some peaks. Added a little spring reverb.

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