March 18, 2020
Greetings to Mr. Fox, CeZar and all Mix Challenge participants!
. . . . I'd like to thank Mix Challenge and especially Cezar Stefan Habeanu for allowing me/us the opportunity to Mix this quite wonderful Song.
I found Mix Challenge online and downloaded the Tracks March 13. That's right... Friday the 13th. Turned out to be my lucky day!
I spent about two hours loading up the Tracks and getting to know the song the same day, and spent four and a half hours Mixing the next day.
This Mix fell together so nicely. Everything was recorded wonderfully. The Main Acoustic Guitar blend was perfect, and the Electric Guitar
tracks sounded great, so I didn't bother using the Clean or D.I. Tracks. I only found one "Easter Egg". The Click Track at the end of the Main Acoustic. Oddly, I didn't hear that on the individual Tracks of the Main Acoustic Guitar...
I found it very handy to have the existing Mix to use as a guide. Initially when I loaded the tracks, I "heard" a gentler Kick. So hearing CeZar's mix gave me a bit of Artistic intent direction. I did what I usually do for D.I. Bass, and was pleasantly surprised to find I didn't need to tweak it much.
I ran the Electrics through a cabinet simulator. That took a bit of the "edge" off the overdrive and put them all "together in the room".
This mix has more of the Synths and Backing Vocals. The Backing Vocals all sounded really good, especially all together. No Autotuning anywhere... All the vocals sound in tune and really didn't need it. Also, my feeling generally is, that pure should stay pure.
A little EQ, a little Compression, a touch of Reverb here and there, and some widening to help give it a 'live" performance feeling.
Then just a few Automated Delay throws on the Electric Guitar Buss to give it an ethereal feeling. Pretty subtle, so listen closely.
Done. I'm feeling it!
Mixed with Fruity Studio 9, using Bose QC25 Headphones only. So it may be a bit wonky on good Studio Monitors. It sounded pretty good in the car. But I'd reduce some reverb, and boost the Kick and Toms a bit. Unfortunately as a latecomer, I wouldn't get a chance to do that until it's past the deadline, so it is what it is.
If you listen to this mix on headphones using Sonarworks Reference 4 and Meier Crossfeed set to 20, you'll hear exactly what I heard.
Not having Studio Monitors bites. I hope you get a chance to hear it in some cans.
CeZar... If you like what I did and ever need any Mixing done, please feel free to contact me.
cgarthwaite@sc.rr.com I'm loving what you've done!
Anyone else should also feel free to contact me for Mixing as well.
What would I have added had the challenge allowed it...? A very short pause at 2:16, then a quick reverse cymbal as a "riser".
My entire folder on DropBox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dikc4y5tjwuh ... wPIsa?dl=0
The individual files in the folder and their links:
A text file (basically what I've written here):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y46o22mcmf2c9 ... x.txt?dl=0
A PDF of my screen shots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/323606f0k08mr ... s.pdf?dl=0
My Mix (WAV 44.1kHz 24bit):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikewwiih0270x ... e.wav?dl=0
Good luck to all of the entrants!
Best regards,
Carl Garthwaite