Mix Challenge

Hi everyone,

first of all thanks to Mr Fox and Arnwyn! Beautiful song to work on.
I really enjoyed this kinda "less is more" challenge, with guitar, piano and bass being the only instruments.

LINK:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hpg4wdls ... edav6&dl=0


My approach was to support the personal, intimate feeling of the song - meaning no (audible) big reverbs, long delays or huge sounding drums.

Additionally I did a lot of volume automation to support the songs implied development in dynamics and energy (or at least the way I heard that development) - restoring the dynamics Arnwyn felt a lack of in their own mix.
(e.g. in my mix the lullaby/humming part is really quite before all instruments kick back in with full energy)

I also adressed the artificial/non-human feeling in the lines of "motherless life" and "permission to birth" by adding a sublte robot-like voice (using ERA VoiceChanger) as well as a flanging, stuttering voice layer (Flanger, Tremolo and AutoPan).

Another learning I want to share regarding the vocals: MAN it is so easy to get lost going down the rabbit hole of hunting harsh frequencys.
The vocals do have quite some harshness and weird ringings, so I grabbed soothe thinking "hell yeah that's gonna do the job" BUT after listening the next day the vocals were just DEAD. I killed all the brightness and squeezed the life out of the performance for the sake of reducing harshness.

So, long story short, I went back to zero, bye soothe, and got the job done with a regular dynamic EQ. Resetting your ears can be so important.

Anyway :) another case of less being more.

Have a great challenge everyone, looking forward to the evaluation!

tipa wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 06, 2024 14:20 CEST

zed999 wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 06, 2024 12:00 CEST

Your "light processing" got you to -0.5dB peak, -9.4 LUFS.
Just a warning to anyone new to this game as Mr Fox is tired of repeating this himself.

Oups sorry, reup.
Thank you for the warning !

No need to apologise, it doesn't matter to me.

Unfortunately for you, you just broke another rule - no re-uploading.

I did the same first time on this site, I'm more careful now.

Someone further back used some drum replacement - also against the rules.

I should leave it there or people will think I'm a policeman, but Mr Fox WILL see all these things without me pointing them out. I'm just trying to warn anyone who has not yet uploaded and might be new to the competition to be careful. There are other rules too - please read them, it's such a shame when all the hard work is for nothing.

Enough backseat rule handling, please. Else I will straight up remove these "reminders" without any further commentary.

The Multi-Track Mix Package bundled content and the first three posts of the thread are descriptive enough.

PauPeu wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 03, 2024 22:32 CEST

Yooo Paupeu, I LOVE the sound of your bass you got going, it just fits so well

cpsmusic wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2024 07:25 CEST

Hi,

Just having a listen to the source files - have the vocals been processed in any way?

Cheers!

Hi,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
No, the vocals haven't been processed at all. They are just raw .wav files with no processing.
Hope that helps!

Arnwyn wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 07, 2024 16:44 CEST

cpsmusic wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2024 07:25 CEST

Hi,

Just having a listen to the source files - have the vocals been processed in any way?

Cheers!

Hi,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
No, the vocals haven't been processed at all. They are just raw .wav files with no processing.
Hope that helps!

Thanks, the singer's doubles are super-tight in terms of pitch. I was thinking they might have been pitch-corrected!

Cheers!

On the matter of recordings getting processed,
there is a lot that engineers have to be aware of, though not many artists are interested in the details, they want results.
The recording device itself does a lot of processing inherently, especially when it has digital output.
(To get from the natural flaws of anything tech to something that resembles the original event as good as possible,)
Then also, many mic preamps have knobs for some compression and hipassing or even a full EQ.
Moreso if there is a multichannel recording station.
Some of these details might be nice to know, but eventually it is experience that lets us hear what was probably going on with a recording.

Hello !

Good morning,

Here is my participation in this month's challenge:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I made a video presentation of my mix available by following this link (subtitles are available):

https://youtu.be/1kZA0G3IO2A

see you soon

cpsmusic wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 07, 2024 16:48 CEST

Arnwyn wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 07, 2024 16:44 CEST

cpsmusic wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2024 07:25 CEST

Hi,

Just having a listen to the source files - have the vocals been processed in any way?

Cheers!

Hi,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
No, the vocals haven't been processed at all. They are just raw .wav files with no processing.
Hope that helps!

Thanks, the singer's doubles are super-tight in terms of pitch. I was thinking they might have been pitch-corrected!

Cheers!

That's very kind of you to say, thanks.