MIX CHALLENGE - MC33 June 2017 - Winners announced

[scarango]

My submission for My way is the highway

Tried to keep it modern clean and clear but used some retro plugins mainly Waves Abbey road.


wav
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4YvY ... jlHamQ3UTA

mp3
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4YvY ... 0xESFpLQTQ


Great song to mix with great production!

Good luck to all who have entered!

[Mork]

Late as always (due to work as always)

This one was a lot of fun and a lot of work at the same time. I think the real challenge was to clean up the mess while maintain (and create) a style. This one I saw more "effected" and wet so I went for it. May the Princes of the Universe be pleased!

MP3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9f_r5 ... sp=sharing
WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9f_r5 ... sp=sharing

Cheers
Mork

[HerbFelho]

Damn, can you beliebe the upload to Google Drive took nearly an hour!?
Shitty internet connection here where I live...

Anyway, here´s my last minute mix!

Comments later...

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0phm ... DJWRXA0dEk
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0phm ... jdjMFRlc2c

[HerbFelho]

Thanks Gary and Nick, enjoyed that a lot, really good production, great guitars!
Reminded me of Beach Boys (paired with Queen and arranged by Danny Elfman)

It´s been quite tricky to make everything be heard in the mix, a lot going on there, hope that worked out half decent.
I tried to put the focus mainly on the vocals, tried to make them broad and kind of ADT here and there.
I also tried to tighten up the groove by editing the tambourine´s timing, it felt a bit off to me...
The strings seemed to drag behind a bit so I moved them ahead by 20 ms (if I remember correctly) which also helped in this regard.

Getting late now, hope you like it,

Cheers,
Herb

[Mister Fox]

It is the 22nd June 2017, 2:37am GMT+1/CEST - the first Mix Round has officially ended
We have 16 participants (if I didn't miscount - one submission less compared to last month), no submissions after the deadline

Please check all if your links again, make them downloadable. Those that uploaded MP3s only, please take note: providing a FLAC (on low bandwidth)/WAV (on DSL and higher) file is mandatory now. Also please update your posts with minimal documentation if possible.


Good luck to all participants

!

Bonus Info

Chances are the Mix Challenge server will be down ever so often in the next 4 nights, and therefore the forum will be unreachable. Please don't panic, this is due to a server update by the webspace provider. I was told that the outages won't last longer than 30min to 1 hour. On top of that, I (the admin) will install an anti-spam bot script for this forum to reduce the bot attacks. So chances are the board is in maintenance mode for about 1-2 extra hours max on top of the possible outages. Depending how well the implementation works. I'm sorry for the inconvenience

[GaryRegnier]

I was very impressed with the overall quality of the mixes entered and really enjoyed hearing other peoples interpretations of the song as provided. I listened to the MP3 versions where offered so I had the same as anyone listening on the net although I played them back through KRK VXT6's with a KRK 10s MK2 sub. My aim was to first judge whether the mix would not be out of place in a radio play list in terms of spectral balance and dynamics, I then listened for what I liked and any improvements I thought could be made. Because this is a competition most of the feedback is going to be critical but please understand that these are criticisms of already good work and I have enjoyed all of the entries and feel that despite some problems everyone has done brilliantly. Trying to choose 7 to go through to the next round has been hard. When I listened through I gave each a percentage mark and ended up with 11 mixes I rated between 80 and 90% !

Here are my notes on each mix

Dave McIsaac
Great mix. Really impressed with full frequency range and width. Old section, a little less slap as it seems inconsistent with the old style effects to me but I really like repeat of 'Go' so let that repeat a few times more please. Check timing on Tambourine as well as in parts I was hearing it slightly off.

SmallOcean
Crazy amount of compression and pumping a lot. I would suggest using a high pass on compression input as the bottom end seems to be causing the pumping effect and try a slower release with lower threshold. For me the track is a little bright overall but passable although the vocals could be fattened up more.

Jonssin Musiikki
Sounds very 60's Nice stereo spread effects. Explosion is impressive but needs to fade out a bit earlier. Overall you certainly achieved that vintage sound, cool.

Cosmodos
Guitar fills in verse need taming. Good vocal and harmonies. Old section too quiet but otherwise good work.

CameronSeebach
There is a big boost between 1 and 3K and a dip in the lower mids but when I put an EQ on I think I could hear what you did when mixing which then sounded cool. I would reduce the verse guitar fills a little and try something else in place of the slap on the harmonies. As a side note I had major issues with my room here when I set up to mix in it. Sonarworks came to the rescue for me and I would recommend the free trial just to see if your monitors are giving you a true sound.

OctopusOnFire
Rather loud Sub bass rumble on strings intro. Good balance and tight mix but low mids could do with pushing as it sounds a bit small and the bass guitar gets lost here and there in that area.

VasDim
Nice strings sound to start. Guitars a little quiet, and the 1st fill missing or was that intentional? The Tambourine appears slightly out of time to me, maybe a delay or verb treatment? Overall good sounding mix which emphasises the strings and brass more than others have chosen to do.

Photonic
Nice balance, snare a bit rattly and vocals perhaps a little too far forward and harmonies a bit quiet. I like the 'old' section although not sure about the verb on 'Here I go'. Final reprise should be louder or at least equal to ending of last chorus.

FixInTheMix
Intro snare needs to come up. Good balance, nice vocal sound and harmonies. Nice tight overall sound. Old section need to reduce a few dB around 725Hz to get rid of a couple resonant frequency peaks. Fade could start a bit earlier but no big deal.

SvenHildebrandt
Good tight sound. Feels a bit short in low mids on the verse maybe due to rhythm guitars being low in mix. I like the vocal sound and harmony balance. Good old section, creative use of stereo. I like the punchy bass and would suggest trying to add a little bit of 40-60Hz on the kick drum, just a tiny bit. The fade out didn't happen on the version I heard so maybe that was an error in uploading an unfinished file?

Plavakuca
Too much compression and pumping a lot. Nice smack on the snare but I cannot hear the attack (click) of the kick. Good old section. Vocals sound good and balanced. Struggling to hear the bass at times due to over compression. Listening through the compression everything sounds good.

Arthur Labus
Well you certainly made that your own!!! Very cool, I like it. Just me perhaps but the snare is too prominent and to my taste boxy. I know this is a preference but I often wonder these days why very few mixes have a snare sounding like a snare actually sounds as so many have this over compressed dead fish hitting a cardboard box sound, not yours of course but you know what I mean. There does seem to be a lot of build up in the 400-425Hz area and that is accentuating the snare. The old section to me really gets that 60's psychedelic era although I feel that the chorus could hit a lot harder when it comes back in. Very creative and good arrangement of tracks provided.

Zsolt
Very radio ready mix. Maybe a touch too compressed/limited and I would like to hear it without being squashed. Creative choices in using the harmonies work well. Nice subtle old section and link to last chorus is good.

scarango
Nice tight sounding mix and I like what you did with the organ. Maybe a little light on the harmonies in the chorus especially although I think I see your plan to build the vocals more at the end. Good old section and link to end chorus.

Mork
Good sounding tight mix, nice use of stereo on guitars. Good lift in chorus. 'Here I go' needs to come up in level. Now and then I am hearing a slight phasing sound, mainly on the left channel, could be stereo widening on guitars? Good ending.

HerbFelho
Strong start, great guitar edits/arrangement. Nice vocal balance and good overall sound, drives along really well. Creative old section, I like it. Final tag lines seem to dip a bit after the last chorus and needs pushing up.


Going through to the next round are,
Dave McIsaac
FixInTheMix
Arthur Labus
Zsolt
scarango
Mork
HerbFelho

Good luck and thank you again to everyone who joined in.
Gary

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, Gary (that was quick).

Let us kick off Mix Round 2, which will end on Tuesday, 27-JUN-2017 11:59pm GMT+1/CEST (check Berlin / DE on the forum world clock)



The following 8 participants go into Round 2 (alphabetical order)

Arthur Labus
Dave McIsaac
FixInTheMix
HerbFelho
Mork
scarango
Zsolt


A thank you to everyone, and good luck for Round 2

[Small Ocean]

Thanks for your feedback Gary, regarding this: "Crazy amount of compression and pumping a lot." Could you clarify? Is the pumping from the kick drum? Because the compressor on the bass guitar has a kick drum sidechained to it, so that it ducks a bit when the kick is playing (i.e. makes room for both tracks, making the mix less muddy) - so if you're referring to the bass guitar ducking for the kick that's a deliberate effect.

But if you're referring to the *whole track* being pumped, then at best all I can hear is very subtle compression from the SSL bus compressor which to me is very musically pleasing - it'd be very disconcerting to me if this is considered a "crazy amount of compression" - if that's the case I'm worried that my ears are broken and I should seek a new career, as I absolutely don't hear it.

[GaryRegnier]

Hiya, don't panic! If you listen at 27 seconds in where the vocals start ... 'Here I come and I go again ...' Now listen to the music, backing and then you should hear where it gets crushed when the vocals start? Try a slow attack, medium release, ratio 1.5:1 to 4:1 and set the threshold to shave off one or two dB reduction and then compensate for that with the make up gain. It is definitely the vocals that are triggering the compression that I am hearing as too much. Alternatively you could try lowering the level of the vocals on the faders so they don't hit the compressor as hard. I hope that helps
Gary

[Small Ocean]

Hiya, don't panic! If you listen at 27 seconds in where the vocals start ... 'Here I come and I go again ...' Now listen to the music, backing and then you should hear where it gets crushed when the vocals start? Try a slow attack, medium release, ratio 1.5:1 to 4:1 and set the threshold to shave off one or two dB reduction and then compensate for that with the make up gain. It is definitely the vocals that are triggering the compression that I am hearing as too much. Alternatively you could try lowering the level of the vocals on the faders so they don't hit the compressor as hard. I hope that helps
Gary

Okay I suppose I can hear what you mean, but to me it sounds pretty good when it does that in my personal opinion - I guess it's a lot more common in modern pop music than in classic rock though, to each their own I suppose. Would have been very easy to fix though..