Mix Challenge

hey guys,

I updated the audio file of the reference track to this challenge. Now there is the final mix I did, so, not for reference because I want to see all mixes with the "touch" of each one, but I think it's important inform that the main mix is updated.



Alexnadre Lack
"alelachowski"

I see the point, it is an example about how to make the musical ideas behind the many instrumental tracks shine a bit better. This is probably one of the main tasks, to bring life into a sound library.
Vocals may be a little bit harsh in certain moments, but I know it's being tolerated very often, listening into top 40...
So, for the purpose of learning something here, it is good and precious. For the sake of the plain game, it might be moving goalposts.

Hello Alex, Fox and everybody.

Here is my mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5c2j7a5cz45ni ... n.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4f9ta7nvxo8z1 ... n.mp3?dl=0

My process:

I tried to enhance the (first) rough mix with more clarity and acoustic sonics, while keeping groove and energy, and added a few propositions (fx) to my client. He may like it or hate it, but I think it's part of the job.

I have a bus for the bass, drums and vocals, and another one for the rest of the acoustic instruments.
Both are going into the master bus with nothing but a peak limiter.

Overheads: reduced sustain and compression/saturation.
Toms: Eq and reverb send
Bottom Snare: gate and eq
Snare: gate, compression, eq, exciter, attack and sustain, reverb send
Bassdrum: eq and sustain reduction
Orchestral perc: eq

All above is going into a Drums bus: compression saturation transient design and bass synthesis

Bass: eq and compression

Acc guitar: eq and noise reduction, delay and reverb sends

Piano: eq, kick sidechaining, intro delay fx

Orchestral instruments: eq and reverb

Female Vocal: gate deesser eq compression delay

Male vocal: compression delay

That's it, and heavy use of automation.

Hi everyone,

Here is my submission:

Wav
Mp3
Screenshots

A little bit about how I mixed: in my vision of the song in foreground in this track must be vocal, drums and guitar. So I started with drums and made their sound clean and punchy. Then added bass. I doublikated bass track and added saturation use neve 1077. After that I has worked with vocal (tuning, EQ-ing, compressing, saturating). Тhen I added one by one all leftover tracks. On every track I used EQ, Comp and often tape saturation. One month ago I bought tape saturation plugin from Acustica Audio, so I was tested it a lot. Also often for this reason i used track freeze (my computer is too weak). That's why you can't see all of used plugins on screenshots. On my master track only tape saturation and bus comp.

I will be glad to answer any questions.

Good luck to everyone!

Cheers!

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=1C-k89 ... AfeUJDBc2K

Hi, I found this site today and thought i would throw my hat into the ring

Here is my mix.

WAV:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Yc2iq ... wqt74LLKO7

MP3:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xE2YC ... 3eANIt5m__

It's pretty basic, I just used some stock ableton plugins on most of the tracks (eq eight, glue compressor, saturator) and Native Instruments Solid range (eq, dynamics, compressor)
The biggest issue was the snare so I spent some time stopping that making the mix sound muddy as hell.
The orchestral/timpani part was pretty awkward to start with as well but after some serious eqing and panning i feel i got it in a good place.
Tal reverb and Native Instruments R24 were used on the sends.

Would love to hear feedback

Bison

Hello everyone,

Here is my submission: WAV
Screenshot


MP3 is optional so I am not providing one.

First of all beautiful voice and lyrics. The song actually motivated me to enter the contest. Another reason is to test some plugins that I purchased recently.

Host: Reaper

Started with gain staging the tracks and making sure all are aligned properly. Followed the PDF for panning. Used Utility plugin by Venn Audio for gain staging.

Drums:
Kick: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Snare: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Bottom Snare: Pro-Q3
Tom 1 - Tom 2: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Floor Toms: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Hi Hat: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Overhead Left: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Overhead Right: Pro-Q3, T-Racks British Channel
Orchestral Percussion: I wanted to use my own reverb bus hence used SPL De-Verb Plus to reduce the reverb, Pro-Q3

Drum bus: Pro-Q3, T-Racks One, T-Racks Dyna-Mu, T-Racks Tape Machine 99, T-Racks Classic Multiband Limiter

Bass: Pro-Q3, T-Racks VC-670, T-Racks One

Guitar:
I used the 01 line, 02 line and virtual line tracks. Line 01 and 02 are panned left and right.

Acoustic Guitar 01 Line: Pro-Q3, T-Racks Opto Compressor
Acoustic Guitar 02 Line: Pro-Q3, T-Racks Opto Compressor, Used Unfinished Audio Instant Delay at the beginning solo
Acoustic Guitar Solo: Removed the reverb by SPL De-Verb plus, Pro-Q3, T-Racks EQ81, Unfinished Audio Instant Delay, T-Racks Dyna-Mu
Acoustic Guiar Virtual Instrument Stereo: Pro-Q3

Guitar Bus: T-Racks EQual, T-Racks One, T-Racks Tape Machine 99, LoudMax

Lead Vocal: Pro-Q3, T-Racks EQ81
Male backing vocals: Izotope Nectar Elements, Quadravoxx

Vocal Bus: T-Racks VC-670, T-Racks Tape Machine 99

Piano: Pro-Q3, T-Racks EQual and Dyna-Mu

Cello: Pro-Q3, Dyna-Mu
Violas: Pro-Q3
Violin: Pro-Q3, Dyna-Mu
Strings Bus: T-Racks Tape Machine 99 and Dyna-Mu

Reverb Long Send: Eventide UltraReverb, Pro-Q3
Reverb Plate Send: T-Racks CSR Plate

Master Track: Pro-Q3, LoudMax Youlean Loudness Meter

I used a lot of volume and pan automation. Used the Dynamic Eq features of Pro-Q3 mostly.

EDIT: Added screenshot.

Hey lads, I came kind of late to the party, but a new version of my daw came in and I had to purchase and test it, although I got like 10 crashes and that's what killed me the most today.(steinberg has a way of keeping customers happy)

So, here's the link to my mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5syznkxki8ns ... r.wav?dl=0

Equipment used:
-PC: Hackintosh High Sierra, cpu Intel 8700, 16gb RAM
-DAW: Cubase 10.5;
-Audio Interface: RME Fireface 802
-Studio Monitors: Adam A7x + Adam Sub7

Now, the files are recorded in bad quality, we all kind of know that. If it were up to me, I'd be correcting and quantizing a few things there, but it defeats the purpose of this challenge and would take me too much.
So I've imported everything into Cubase, panned everything the way they should be, applied basic processing to the individual drum tracks, bass, voices, strings and piano, did a stack processing on the acoustic guitars and did the solo one individually. Those acoustic guitars hissed like hell, so I've put a de-noiser on them.
After that I did some buss processing on the stems, carved them a bit, widened the mix and applied a console emulation, a tape machine and a buss compressor on the mix buss.
A tiny bit of automation and that's it. If I do qualify to round 2, I'll take my time and do an extensive automation, but I didn't see the point at this stage and it's a time consuming process.

Plugins used: Slate, Softube, SPL, Fabfilter and a few other small ones that I can't recall at the moment. I did a bit of saturation to simulate an analog feeling. I'll probably do some outboard analog summing if I get picked for Round 2, but I couldn't be bothered today after daw crashes and stuff.

So folks, hope you like it, feedback will always be deeply appreciated

Yours Trully,
CeZar

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your edit.

It's great to see old cats back on the forum and joining the game. Welcome back!




I've also been contacted regarding concerns with the overhauled mix that alelachowski provided last Wednesday. And in fact, there was some mishap happening that can not(!) be fixed anymore, as we only have 7 days left for the Mix Challenge.

!

Bonus Info

It is important to point out the following: The song was already released through various digital distributors earlier in 2019 the Mix Challenge can therefore be seen as a "special mix session", kindly provided to the community by Alexandre this might still lead to a possible future collaboration between the winners and the song provider the provided demo mixes are just a "guideline", not a clear rule to recreate the mix 1:1. Work at your own discretion, in your own style the Mix Package actually lacks the Pizzicato Strings at the end of the song (as can be heard in both the SoundCloud demo mix and the demo mix bundled with the ZIP package). I've triple checked this, something got definitely lost in translation. It is my fault as CTO/host that I didn't pay attention during the Integrity Check. Sadly there is no going back anymore. Apologies for the inconvenience. Please work with the material you've been given, there is no need to "remodel" this though other means.

Here's my entry.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UArbL ... K13k_rn3Fi

I tried a different strategy with this track. That's one of the things I like about this contest, you can try new things and develop a style. Some ideas crash and burn, some don't

The strategy was to not listen to the demo first, but to get an idea of how to mix the song purely from the song's rough tracks.
I then tried to do some super-quick balancing to come up with a really rough mix in 30 min. Took another 90 min. to clean up the rough to have a two hour mix.

Hated it. Ditched my mix completely and started over, a bit of a luxury.

I quickly realized that while this song would be a lot of work, it would be worth it. It's a cool little tune, very catchy, and the performances are beautiful.

So I started with the female vocal. Taming the sibilance was tough, especially considering the language. Brazilian Portuguese loves its hard and soft "s"es. Beautiful voice. Took a lot of attention but we were warned Got it to sit nicely with the male vocal. Decided on my sends to give the vocals some space.

I then put the vocals away and worked on the remaining mix starting with the piano. Got a sound for that, worked it with the vocals. Then guitars, strings, drums, bass, and finally the orchestral track. Must admit the guitar intro kinda threw me for a while. Tried a bunch of stuff, all kinds of automation throws and crazy crap - restarted a bunch of times. I await the results.