Mix Challenge

Hi guys
this is my mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ud1267ycf3qlk ... o.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cn0wzl4dkznz2 ... o.mp3?dl=0

Comment and suggestion are welcome!

Hello Dirk, hi everyone.

This is what I can do for now. Somewhere we have to draw a line, but I hope Mr. Dirk will take me into consideration and will request one or the other detail to improve.
Good luck to everyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19vef8O ... sp=sharing WAV
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZEE8Xi ... sp=sharing mp3


The basic idea is more on the cineastic side, it should sound "immersed" in the movie or home cinema room.
Therefor a lot of classic plate reverb on vocals, and some stereo delays to mimick a live stage.

Also, some more digital techniques were applied on the vocal, like an exciter track, and adding in a mult of up/down detuned tracks somewhere at 20 dB lower in level. TDR Nova plays a big role in making it sound more "american".
Reverbs are Little Plate (hipass 600Hz) and Subspace A.
Little Plate is being used in a number of independent instances, e.g. aux with a wide stereo delay after it.

Snare took a lot of effort, the game changer for me was the Waves Vintage Tube Saturator, and taking 3 mults for dedicated aspects: Treble, body, and punch. So I can automate also some dynamics to my taste.
For kick and snare, they have an extra bus with an experimental old Aries plugin, that creates a unique, very dense reverb sound that fits well to emulate a stage, but with an artificial, exaggerated attitude. Like, cinema should be bigger than reality.
The stereo drum room is inflated with the Thrillseeker LA comp, and strong analog saturation settings, it has a spectrum dial, set to 800 Hz center.
Overheads have a little treble boost in the side signal. Mono overhead has a transient enhancer.
For one bar, the room mic was automated down to make space for the tomtom hits, else they sound too boxy. They still do, but that's a mimicked live performance element.

Clean git has a vice-versa stereo mult with a trashy Glaceverb and an ignite Emissary (super lovely brilliance) both instances, panned opposite/opposite, and slightly different sound and volumes.

Solo git has a ton of stuff, essential enough to mention is Voxengo TubeAmp 2.5 (bias knob!!), Lagrange, and an automated wide reverb.
I invested some love to sweeten the performance, hope this is well taken.

Rhodes has a chorus, and a "theater" room reverb impulse.
Organ has GlaceVerb, Drive Knob, and EQ to take down some shrill harshness.
Strings use Roth-Air (a treble exciter) and Echomania.

EQ is everywhere, depending on purpose, I use TinyQ (very transparent, with great LP/HP), and BootEQ-mkII (a console strip emulator with valve feature, very colorful). MeldaEQ for notching down some ringing frequencies.

Please, enjoy!
(glad for any question)

Addendum, ah, forgot to turn down the master volume, but there are no overs, and there are no stereo bus effects, so a contemporary mastering engineer should not really have a problem.
I mean, I mixed very hot to get some intensity going on, the whole headroom thing nowadays is just to avoid clipping. Which does not happen here.
For the LUFS, at 24 bit we can turn down the fader anywhere without losing resolution.

The mentioned blind test tool is great, just I beg to consider that it is for cinema with very high dynamics, so the average volume will be a bit lower.
(Taking into account the soundtrack typical for the Blue Ray etc. etc. so it's better to keep a maximum of dynamics.)

--
I put this comment extra from the basic contest upload, so I can add to it.
Comparing with other work, I find myself again to get closer to some RnB sound, not so "jazz".
That's also because the attitude of the instrumental playing does not sound jazz to me.
In my feeling it is mainly pop (very well crafted) with some added funky attitude as it happens with a lot of RnB too.
But I didn't attemt to make the vocals more "black" e.g. like a Brandy Norwood track.
I went for a Christina Aguilera style, who practically reinvented a whole genre at her time. Just not that harsh (first album) and wild. Man that snare on Lady Marmalade is bright, no?
But I did do stuff that Pensado did also for her. And with the plate rev there is also some vintage patina that fits the location seen in the vid.
(Some "dolbyfying" to tame upper mids I leave to the video post production or mastering. Already the mp3 softens down the snare remarkably.)

dsadsa

creedchub wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 09, 2019 17:10 CEST

Mister Fox,
I uploaded new tracks, so i hope everything now is good.
I changed it but i write it again here:

Wav: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HQsD1 ... QN_deohB4E
Mp3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14394G ... j7RDiTq36d

404-error on google drive...

Gonna submit it now, I wish I had a little more time but life will be getting in the way over the next week I’m afraid. I thought I’d submit it in wave, mp3 and video form as you gave them this way :-)

Wave
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pTR9F ... gTZoEo4n8g

MP3
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_3p8p ... XG21lWTEiZ

Video
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qhWYv ... Udy9bx4RfK


The main challenge I thought here was making the instruments sound real, they all sounded too clean as they were software sounds (bar vocal and guitar). Also it sounded more like a pop ballad that happens to use some traditional Jazz instruments than actual Jazz to me.

Mixer screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R8cxF ... I5V0p4mGKY

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15ilgb ... 2pTebABp2H

*Pretty much every track goes through VCC. Rather than constantly say I’ll put it here, it generally uses a Neve group setting with EQ using a 73 EQ.*

Drums
Kick: Waves DBX160 into Apogee Pultec EQP1 and MEP5
Snare: Wave API500 to EQP1, Smack Attack and Soundtoy Decapitator.
Toms: bx SSL e console tom presets.
Overheads: Just VMR with a Vintage 1176
-Didn’t use hi-hat track.
Room: Destroyed in Softube FET compressor and EQ’d.
All Bussed into Softube Tape, FG-MU and DevilLocDeluxe in introduce some nastiness to contrast the original clean sound.

Bass
Heavily shelved into DBX160 and Waves bass rider, Soundtoys Radiator to try and introduce some noise back into the bass sound and a MEQ5.

Guitar
The rhythm guitar has Waves PRS (clean preset) into a LA3A and some TSAR reverb.
Lead has decapitator into a LA3A, a little H-Delay and reverb
Both bussed into J37 tape with slap back delay and Eiosis AirEQ

Synths (eg keys and strings)
Used some IK Tracks hall reverb, Radiator, SieQ, EQP1 and a lot of shelving.

Vocals
Kept verses and chorus as separate tracks, both use J37 tape, IK mic room (found the closest setting for the NT1a and chose a U87 as the reference), Deesser, vocal rider, compressed with a vintage 76 into a LA2A. Difference between the two is the chorus also uses decapitator.
FX send of H-Delay and Littleplate for both.
I tuned one note on the chorus in Cubase Variaudio (the bend didn’t quite reach the intended note and as it’s a copy/paste chorus it happened three times in the mix).


The master out has a bus compress (SSL G) doing about 1-2db reduction tops into a Neve saturator (Slate New York) and another Softube Tape (adding crosstalk into the channels).

Roughly -18 LUFS level, -1.9db headroom (there’s a snare hit somewhere in a chorus that gets -2.5db and something in the solo that hit -1.8db), if I had time I’d hunt and address them, otherwise the headroom would be well under -3db.

creedchub wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 09, 2019 17:10 CEST

Mister Fox,
I uploaded new tracks, so i hope everything now is good.
I changed it but i write it again here:

Technically I didn't write anything about "please resubmit with a corrected name - your entry is final.

If you've not changed the mix, you're fine. Else -> Rule Violation: resubmission, post-submission edits (your entry is final)).

dima510 wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 09, 2019 17:13 CEST

404-error on google drive...

Please check the OP post by creedchub, Dirk
viewtopic.php?p=5746#p5746

Hey All

When I listened to the track I'm thinking warm, analog, airy and very fluid and my mind goes to "Saving All My Love For You"


https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8hv2x8rjgr5v ... 2.wav?dl=0 (updated)



So here's what I did:

Slap a mild compressor and tape on the master buss

I like to start with adding a necessary EQ, Comp and saturations to each track to get rid of harshness and excessive amount of transients .
Mostly subtractive EQ and Dyn evenness till they sound solid then add tape saturation for warmth and roundness. This process also includes LP and HP when needed. Yes I'm adding color to all tracks in the beginning.

Creating sub-group for each instruments and again apply EQ and Compressor but this time aimed to create separations, layer and balance between instruments so they do not fight in the freq spectrum. Especially carving out more room for vocal to breath better. Also apply some SC ie. kick to bass, El piano to vocal etc. I then add more saturation as needed until they sound fluid and warm. The key is to carefully EQ this saturation so they don't overlap and sound muddy. Some parallel comp on drums and vocals.

I have a lot of small small delays and reverb here and there with automation to create depth and movements. And to give it a "live" feel I also add a convolution reverb to simulate Music room.

On the master: Mild VCA compression, Some EQ to scoop the bulk in the mids and low mids, 15% stereo spread and Tape emulation.

EQ : Melda TurboEQ, Melda Linear Phase EQ, Fab Q2
Comp : Melda Turbo Comp,Melda Spectral Dynamics, Millenia TCL, Hornet VCA and Sonnox Dyn
Saturation : Melda Saturator,character,Poly Saturator, Hornet Tape, Valve Exciter,
Delays : Melda delay, Echoboy, Eventide H3000
Reverb : Melda convolution, Turbo Reverb, Xeno Verb, Fab R
Stereo wide : Melda Stereo Spread, Eventide Phaser

Enjoy !

Hello Chris, nice to see you here,
I did the same, dubbed my mix onto the video, it's an exciting experience!
Too bad there is no visible band in the movie hahaha...
Not sure if I am allowed to share it in this form.
What about YouTube "unlisted"?

Hi Dirk, Mister Fox and all the community

Wow, what a challenge this month! Simply excellent ....

We can not imagine more choices and possibilities to achieve this mix.
The most important thing for me is to explain in which context the song is played :
it could be a garage, a club or a huge stadium. I opted for a jazz-club version French
(like St Germain des Près and therefore not American), which already gives by tradition
an idea of the sound that we had at that time.

Let's talk about this general sound : a small club, the whole orchestra in a relatively little space,
a modest sound level given the situation of the place.In our case, the orchestra accompanies the singer;
the voice must be intelligible and the instrumentalists must not cover it so a very soft orchestral sound and
absolutely not percussive. In addition there must be a kind of sound mixture in which all the instruments harmonize;
no one should be put forward.

Here, once we have set the table, it is now enough to serve ...

Regarding the technical part, I used Samplitude 3 Pro, WaweLab and the console Tascam DM 4800.
In the end, I used very few plugins.

- a work on the voice to balance the levels (WaveLab)
- a good balance to find on the drum kit which for me must have a very muffled and absolutely not aggressive sound
(it's jazz and not metal).
- the rest of the instrumentation is in the same "soft" register as much for the piano (corrected in the timbre),
the violins (corrected), the Hammond organ (to avoid the whirling stereo sound of the Leslie),
a bass whose play must be "glissendo".

So, it is served HERE : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5lh8z17i5jvdb ... v.wav?dl=0

Thank you Dirk and good luck to everyone

Cheers

Franz