Mix Challenge

Hi all,

A big thanks tot his months songprovider Gaz Williams! What a great song to mix. The recordings sounded very good that helps a lot.
The style reminded me a bit of a band called Polyphonic Spree. So that was an inspiration for me as a reference.
The tracks didn’t need much fixing and it was mostly a case of letting shine what was already there.

This is the link to my mix:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ahp8xH6KRIfbglGt4B0 ... J?e=dc2RxV

First I cleaned the tracks of unnessecary plops, ticks and other distracting sounds. I checked the phase and automated the vocal (volume) for a more consistent level. I set up a couple of sent fx (reverb / delay) and automated the sentvolume for ducking the ‘t’ and ‘s’ sounds so they didn’t enter the reverb and delay.

Lead vocal
-de-esser
-optocompressor
-tubesimulater
-added harmonix + saturation
-high shelf 1073EQ
-I cut lots of low / low mid,
-sent to stereo pitch / delay effect + delay + PCM90 Roomverb
Backing vocals
-Highpass filter at 255Hz
-exciter
-saturation
-(tiny bit of) distortion
-limiter
-sent to same fx chain as leadvocal
Prophet
-Highpass at 500hz
-boost at 3.5 K
-compression
-saturation
Piano
-compressor
-EQ with cut at 600Hz and 1.5K
-highshelf at 4.1K
-chorus
-reverb (Acon Digital)
Leslie
-distortion (Atomsplitter Audio)
Electric Guitar
-SansAmp
-Flanger (Kjaerhus)
-Classic Masterlimiter (Kjaerhus)
-delay
Accoustic Guitar
-Exciter
-Highshelf (1073 EQ)
-Compression
-SansAmp with more drive during the climax of the song
Bass
-Combination of all tracks
-bassexciter
-saturation
-eq
-compression
-with Sansamp drive from the first chorus to give it more ‘bite’ and ‘rock’ feel
Drum
-eq
-compression
-parallel compression (smashing it)
-bass exciter on the kick and toms
-kck eq boost on 80Hz, cut at 260Hz boost at 1.3Khz
-saturation
-Roomverb

Hello Everybody, happy to meet the forum : )

I've never worked with 'stems' before, so this was a great opportunity
to learn from and work with these sort of files.

Big thanks to Gaz and Mister Fox for organizing this terrific challenge!

Really enjoyed this song, so many quiet and loud parts, tempo changes,
wonderful and catchy lyrics and melody, and so well recorded!

Ok.. being new here, probably do things a bit different, so below is
a fairly verbose list of 'most' of what went into the mix, there were
additional volume automations here and there as well.

This mix was done in my Tracker; if anyone is curious i'd be happy to
provide the Renoise project file; no VST's were used so none are required
to play the file.

****Misc notes/tweaks******************

• 0:20 - piano near - fade in
  1:30 - still - de ess
  2:27 - vocal - de ess
  4:42 - vocal - de ess
  4:45 - vocal - de puh
  4:50 - vocal - de tuh
  +15 - LUFS Range
  -16 - LUFS Long Term
  -1.10 - Db True Peak

****DRUM BUS **************************

Overhead Drums

• Cut < 60Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  EQ

Kick

• Cut < 30Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Cut > 200Hz (Butterworth 4n)

Kick Click

• BP 1Khz (Butterworth 8n Q-25%)
  +1 Db

Low Tom

• Cut < 30Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Fade > 4Khz (Biquad)

High Tom

• Cut < 30Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Fade > 5.5Khz (Biquad)

Snare

• Fade < 200Hz (Biquad)
  Cut > 6.4Khz (Butterworth 8n)

Tambourine

• Fade < 4.2Khz (Biquad)
  EQ

Cymbal Fx

• Cut < 150Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Reverb (Long Wide Late, No Color, 40% Wet 100% Dry)

Drum Bus

• -1.5 Db
  Send to M/S Bus

****Strings BUS ***********************

Acoustic DT

• n/a

Acoustic

• n/a

Bass Guitars Group

• Condenser
  • -6 Db
  DI
  • +1.5 Db
  Dynamic
  • BP 350Hz (Biquad Q-70%)
  Sub Octave
  • Fade < 80Hz (Biquad 25% Res)
    Fade > 500Hz (Biquad)
    Mono Signal
  Bass Guitars Group
  • Cut < 30Hz (Butterworth 8n)
    Fade > 4Khz (Biquad)
    Send to String Bus

Electric Guitars Group

• Blue
  • Pan (Full Right)
  Red
  • Pan (Full Right)
  Electric Guitars Group
  • Cut < 150Hz (Butterworth 4n)
    Long Late Expanded Reverb, 40% wet 100% Dry, Automated
    Send to String Bus

Strings Bus

• Cut < 50Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Fade > 12Khz (Biquad)
  Send to M/S Bus

****Keys BUS **************************

Leslie Group

• Btm Cond
  • BP 1Khz (Biquad Q-75%)
    +6 Db
    Panning, Automated
  Btm Dyn
  • BP 200Hz (Biquad Q-75%)
    +3 Db
  Dbl Trk
  • Panning 50% Right
  Top
  • Add Stereo - Expand +50 Surround +35%
    -2 Db
  Leslie Group
  • Fade < 150Hz (Biquad)
    Cut < 60Hz (Butterworth 8n)
    Send to Keys Bus

Piano Group

• Far Od
  • BP 1Khz (Biquad Q-75%)
  Far
  • n/a
  Near Od
  • BP 1Khz (Biquad Q-75%)
  Near
  • n/a
  Piano Group
  • Fade < 100Hz (Biquad)
    Cut < 60Hz (Butterworth 8n)
    Reduce Stereo - Expand -50 Surround 0%
    Send to Keys Bus

Prophet 1

• Cut < 100Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Long Early Reverb, No Color, Automated

Prophet 2

• Cut < 50Hz (Butterworth 8n), Automated

Keys Bus

• Send to M/S Bus

****Vocals BUS ************************

Lead Vox Group

• Lead Vox
  • Fade < 250Hz (Biquad)
    Slap Back Delay, Automated
    Multitap Delay, Automated
  Lead Vox Rear
  • Cut < 300Hz (Butterworth 4n)
  Lead Vox Group
  • Add Stereo - Expand +50 Surround +35%
    -1 Db
    Send to Vocals Bus

Vox Fx

• Fade < 100Hz (Biquad)
  Send to Vocals Bus

Radio Fx

• Cut < 150Hz (Butterworth 4n)
  Panning - Automated
  Send to Vocals Bus

Frank BV Group

• FBV1, FBV1 Rear, FBV2, FBV2 Rear
  • n/a
  Frank BV Group
  • Fade < 150Hz (Biquad)
    Fade > 8Khz (Biquad)
    -.5 Db
    Panning - 50% right
    Send to Vocals Bus

Sion BV Group

• SBV1, SBV1 Rear
  • n/a
  Sion BV Group 2
  • SBV2, SBV3, SBV3 Rear
    • n/a
    SBV2 Rear
    • Fade < 700Hz (Biquad)
    Sion BV Group 2
    • Fade < 600Hz (Biquad, Soft Knee)
      EQ
      Send to Sion BV Group
  SBV 4
  • n/a
  SBV 4 Rear
  • +9 Db
    Multitap Delay
  Sion Mid Sec
  • Long Wet Wide 800Hz Color 20% Wet 50% Dry
  Sion BV Group
  • Fade < 300Hz (Biquad, bit softer knee)
    Fade > 8Khz (Biquad)
    -7 Db
    Panning 50% Left
    Send to Vocals Bus

Vox FX

• Add Stereo - +100 Expanded
  -1.5 Db
  Send to Vocals Bus

Vocals Bus

• -1 Db
  Send to M/S Bus

****Mid / Side BUS ********************

• Send All to Side Bus, Keep Source
  Sum to Mono
  Send All to Middle Bus, Keep Source
  Invert All
  Send inverted signal to Side Bus, Mute Source

****Middle BUS ************************

• Cut < 20Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Multiband Send to Low,Mid,Hi for eq tweeks
  Send to Pre-Master Bus

****Side BUS **************************

• Cut < 80Hz (Butterworth 8n)
  Multiband Send to Low,Mid,Hi for eq tweeks
  Send to Pre-Master Bus

****Pre-Master BUS ********************

• Exciter
  Send to Master Bus

****Master BUS ************************

• EQ (+2.5 Db, Crystalizer)
  +1 Db
  Limiter (-.25 Db Thresh, Peak 1ms, Slow 60ms, -1 Db Ceil)

* Link to download the .wav file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10JTJCy ... drive_link

Cheers,
Jek

Hello Hello

It was a lot of fun mixing this song. As usual, all my EQ and compression on the channels were done using the BX SSL 9000J plugin, but this time instead of describing all my EQ and compression moves here, I decided to take a screenshot and send a file with the 9 elements that I consider most important in this mix.

For effects I used personal IR's, being a room for the drums, a second room for the guitar and guitars, hall for the piano and organ and plate for the vocals. Also I used 2 delays, one very short, one medium and one long, all in stereo.

For the bus out I used the Vertigo VSC-2 plugin for compression, fast attack and automatic release.

My mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fZoXLa ... sp=sharing

Image with the equalization and compression movements: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ixXFOW ... sp=sharing

ok here is my take
acoustics - nothing!
additonal elements - same
all bass tracks grouped and then fx were applied - pro-mb, soothe, bassline, kelvin, spectre
electric guitar - only pro-mb
back vocal - soundtoys microshift
gaz vox - spectre, pro-mb, soothe. also xtressor on the main track
drums got u-he satin
kick was heavily eqd and saturated
overheads got increasing at top end
leslie - nothing!
piano groupd - shapeshifter, pro-mb, spectre
transient master
aux busses - tr5 sunsent reverb and valhallvaVV
master - pultec eq, drms, pro-mb, proq3, kclip (celling -1 db only)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yZGzj_ ... sp=sharing

Thanks to the people who make this possible, Mister Fox and the song provider, Gaz.
I used Reaper stock plugins for mixing this song.

Some details worth mentioning.
Drums. Parallel compresion.
Bass. A compressor recieving the signal from the kick (sidechain).
Piano. Saturation and Stereo effect for the far sound tracks.
Acoustic Guitars. Hard panning L/R, and a slight pitch tweak on the latter, so that to get widness.
Elecctric Guitars. To the left, slight pingpong effect and distortion. The phase of the red one has been inverted. I thought it gave body to its tone.
Leslie. To the right. Same pitch tweak as acoustic guits. Some distortion for the bottom tracks.
FXs. Not too much but panning automation.
Voices. Parallel compression for the lead voice. It is centered. Slightly tuned. Radio effect where asked. The phase of each rear-track have been inverted, for the same reason as electric guitar track was.
Generous use of reverb.

Not sure if my mix sounds modern (I don't think so) but I did as I felt it fits the song best.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zhg5Bj ... sp=sharing

Statistics - "MC093__Rocketgoldstar__Born_Taurus_Man__Pistolpete"
Loudness_Value;-17.17 LUFS
Loudness_Range;9.46 LU
Max_True_Peak_Level;-1.05 dBTP
Max_Momentary_Loudness;-12.50 LUFS
Max_Short_Term_Loudness;-14.02 LUFS
Sample Rate;48.000 kHz
Average RMS (AES-17) Left;-17.58 dB
Average RMS (AES-17) Right;-17.45 dB
Max. RMS Left;-13.96 dB
Max. RMS Right;-13.76 dB
True Peak Left;-1.05 dB
True Peak Right;-1.28 dB
Bit Depth Left;24 bit
Bit Depth Right;24 bit


My Mix Entry:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16HB6CY ... sp=sharing

I have to say I really really enjoyed mixing this song. I got deep into the lyrics and really admire how the songwriter and singer put a lot of character into the vocal performance. What a fun song to mix! Last weekend I mixed it 90%, burned it down and listened to it while at work in my headphones during the week and took notes on what to fix. Today after work I sat down and addressed what I though needed improvement and I am pretty happy with the results. Hopefully the song provider enjoys my mix.

I tried to keep the song in the element and accent what I felt the artists were trying to portray. The story, the elements of radio and FX and the changes in energy. I used a lot of blends of FX sends to create the mix I wanted (to help keep dynamics but also keep my CPU from overheating)**which towards the end the crashes were a struggle to bounce down..LOL. I need a new computer..LOL. This was honestly a very pleasing song to mix. I hope I did it well for the song provider.

As always started with session cleanup and basics, cutting out dead “air” in tracks, track labeling/coloring and grouping with VCA faders, leveling and stereo placement to get a good rough mix going to get a feel for the song.

I added a few FX sends/aux tracks to Vox Compression, Drum Saturation, Global Reverb, Tape and Delay and set up my mix bus and monitoring/inspection plugins (analyzer, VU and LUFS meters). I listened to the youtube video provided which sounded really good so I hope I did it justice…

All of the provided tracks were used (except polarizer vocals). And those with 2 Mics I treated separately to give fullness and the desired effect (pan, doubling, verb, eq..etc)

When using plugins I tried to stayed on the side of more vintage modeled plugs so waves abbey roads were frequently used (saturation, Verb, Compression) and J37 tape. Also used the plugin alliance AMEK 9009 on a lot of single channels. I tried to keep the "sound" the same as what the artists originally had so no amping of guitars or bass and minimal direct processing was used.

FX channels:

• VOX COMP – Waves Abbey road RCS
  DELAY- Echoboy
  Global Verb: Waves Abbey Road Plates
  Global Tape: Waves J37
  Panner: Panman
  Drum Saturation: Waves Abbey Road Saturation
  Drums FX – CLA drums (EQ, compression, Delay, Verb)
  BASS- CLA Bass (eq, harmonics, comprssion, delay, verb)

GAZ mic tracks -
I treated the rear like “backup” vocals and went a little nuts with distortion, chorus delay and reverb to give it a nice blended reflection to his mains using CLA vocals. Used a combination of FX sends to create the “backup” type blend with these.

Main vocals
I used waves vocal rider, added a pultec eq and added a CLA comp to help lift the vocals up in the mix a bit. A combination of FX sends were used on this track as well.
The drums I auto aligned to the overheads. Almost all drum tracks are dry with added processing from a combination of FX sends were used to create the “room” and tone as well as add punch. The overheads have a channel strip on them, and waves bus SSL compressor.

Bass
is completely dry signal with no direct processing. I used all 4 tracks and each has a different combination of FX sends used to create the tone.

Sion vocals
dry with no processing except for 2 of the tracks used a Lindel PEX 500 eq to create desired tone. Each track is a combination of FX sends to create the effect I was looking for. I panned Sion mostly to the right side and only selected a few tracks to pan left to create that stereo chorus sound.
Franks Vocals are almost all panned to the left and the vocal tracks are dry with no direct processing and only a combination of FX sends used.

The Piano
to me seemed like one of the big elements that drove the emotion and impact of the song so I really tried to focus on its placement and having it up front in the mix as a main instrument. 2 of the piano tracks use the Brainworks SSL 4000E channel. The other 2 are dry. All 4 piano tracks have a combination of FX send that create the blend.

The Leslie tracks
are all dry with no direct processing and a combination of FX sends, with the exception of 1 track in which I added a Kramer EQ to tune the piano to liking to bring out some sharpness to add some impact.

Prophet Prophet 2 and Radio
only use a single Acorn Reverb and a series of volume automation and FX send to create the effect.

In terms of processing plugins I used very minimal. Most of the “processing” was done through the combo of FX sends.

The Mix Bus I wanted to use 2 new plugins I purchased so I used the AMEK mastering compressor which I’m still trying to figure out and the AMEK mastering EQ.

On the stereo Bus is just a waves L2 to prevent overs (-.3) thresh, (-1.6 output).

Hello everyone !

What an amazing song ! I really enjoyed mixing it !

Here is my entry :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k1zgAY ... sp=sharing

Drums
I wanted the drums to sound punchy and dry to have a more modern sound for the song. Nothing really special here. I used EQ, comp, exciter on every tracks. I just added some transient shaper for the kick and the snare to add more punch. Then I sent for the drum room and an snare plate.

Bass
I feel it is always difficult to have a nice consistent bass when there are a lot of tracks like here. So I decided to use :

• Bass DI : Highs

• Bass condenser : Lows

• Bass dynamic red and Bass sub oct : Subs

Then, EQ and comp and blended together. And some bass enhancement for the lows and subs.

Guitars
For the acoustics, I wanted them to be really airy and hard panned. So I boosted the Highs a lot and used a stereo enhancer.
For the solo, nothing special. EQ, comp, exciter and a large room reverb.

Piano
I decided to just use the "piano near" track to leave more place for the others instruments. Then just some EQ, comp and the Aphex Vintage (this thing is killer !!). And a large room reverb.

Prophet and Leslie
Just added some air and some automations

Radio and cymbal scrapes
Nothing

Vocals
I used the "regular" tracks and not the polarized one. And I didn't use the "mic rear" tracks neither.
Then I used a lot of plugins : Autotune, gate, Breathcontrol, EQ, Comp, Comp, De-esser, Saturation, Fresh air, Transient shaper and limiter.
Finally, I sent for a room reverb and a hall reverb.

Master
Buss compression and pultec EQ

I hope you will like my mix.

Good luck everyone !
Havol

First of all, many thanks to the song provider Gaz and also Mr Fox for providing us with this great song to mix. It was a great pleasure to be able to work with these highly dynamic and very musical tracks.

Here is my mix: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tbp6p4j5 ... h7jzp&dl=0

First, as usual, I grouped the tracks and created busses for the instrument groups. After an initial listen-through, a cleanup of the tracks was made. Here and there I reduced a few noises with the RX7. On the piano, however, that squeaky pedal couldn't be reduced without significantly affecting the sound, and I didn't want that. Mabe a new try if I come to round 2 …

When it came to shaping the sound of the tracks, the piano and lead vocals took up the bulk of the work. To me, they represented the basis of the song. It would ultimately work without the rest of the instruments. So I made them the focus of the mix. I also chose the main reverb to best match the piano. I finally decided on the Briscati Music Room, which I reworked with Eq like all the reverb FX.
I experimented with the adjustable Polar Patterns on the vocals, as well as the front and rear tracks. For a piano/vocal only version I probably would have used them, but for the current mix I liked the control with individual reverbs better.

I usually work with a combination of different EQs, one very neutral to reduce e.g. resonances, and others that I choose for their coloring of the sound. For the first task, Neutron is mostly used. If I also need a neutral compressor, I activate that in Neutron as well. For further sound processing I then choose depending on the instrument: For drums I use an SSL 4000 G, for vocals the Tube version of the Millennia NS-EQ2 because of the warmth and silky highs.

The drums presented me with a few challenges due to the lack of room and snare bottom. The condenser mic on the bass drum had a lot of bleed on it. I therefore created a gate track for the kick from a clone of the kick track (extreme EQ, transient designer) to trigger the actual gate. Several different short NonLin reverbs in combination with a Briscati drum room reverb gave the desired result. Various saturation plugins were also used, including HG2, the MDMX series from Waves and the Abbey Road Saturation. For snare and kick, the Softtube Transient Shaper was used to optimize the attack/sustain ratio.

For the lead vocals I worked with 2 stacked compressors (CLA 76 and Rvox), a little Abbey Road Saturation and some Magma Tube in the light version were added.

The backings were pre-treated with Neutron Elements and made "bigger" with Voice Doubler and Microshift.

For the bass, I tried the CLA Bass plugin on the DI track and stuck with it.

On the master, as always, was the Townhill for the glue (1-2db compression), a touch of Free Air and a light limiter to remove a few extreme peaks. I also tweaked the sound minimally with an EQ.

I automated very, very much. Plugins dynamically switched, aux sends changed, panings switched and of course on almost every track the volume fader was automated. Some tracks (e.g. Fx and some BG) I duplicated to make different settings.

Expose reading:
Integrated LUFS: -16.1 LUFS
Short Term LUFS: -13.0 LUFS
True Peak: -3.53 dBTP
Peak: -3.58 dB
Dynamic Range: 9.4 DR
Loudness Range: 9.0 LU


Greetings from Berlin
Tom

Hi all!

Glad to be back to the community!

I’ve had a pleasure to listen to most of the entries and must admit that even such a daunting task was practically within everyone's grasp. Professional job and personal approach from the whole bunch of the guys.

Here’s my entry: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w0mozqgt ... ak6n5&dl=0

Everything mixed in the box. Cakewalk is my DAW. Most of the plugins are stock.

Drums – nothing special, EQ and compression here and there, parallel reverb (via sends). Kick - added some low end with drum replacer (extra kick track). Some saturation for this track, too.

Bass – again not too much to talk about. EQ, compression, some track volume automation. Side-chain compression on bass bus from kick track.

Guitars, piano, synths – just EQ, compression, track volume automation, reverb via sends (parallel). Rotary FX added for one of organ tracks.

Back vocal, FX vocal – just EQ, compression, ambience and reverb on backs bus.

Lead vocal – cutting some slight imperfections by hand. VX-64 Vocal strip, finetuning with Cakewalk ProChannel EQ. Some air added wit ambience plugin. Lot of automation for ambience and delay.

PC2A Leveller (Cakewalk’ LA-2A) and EQ on master channel.

Hey all!

And thanks to Rocketgoldstar and Mister Fox for a really fun challenge. Loved working with these sounds and the brilliant vocal-performance.

Here´s my take on this song:
https://mega.nz/file/IRh1iRBL#FhiFwD9s_ ... Di0XUjTo7E

Firstly I want to say that if this was a real client I would say this:
"I like that this song feels alive and human. There are places that I could tighten some stuff, remove some noises or polish if you want me to, but I´m all for the humanity of it if you are".
My philosophy is that "perfection isn´t perfect", so I haven´t done any of that here. It wasn´t needed in my opinion.

I won´t list every little dB of change I´ve done, I don´t think that´s very interesting, but here are some things I did:

Drums
-I love the LittleLabs IBP for phase correction, it´s very powerful. I always check all drums with that.
-I liked how the snare sounded in the overheads, but I didn´t want the cymbals to steal the show, so I did something I haven´t done before: used an MS-plugin to lift the center of the stereo-track, and it brought out the snare and left the cymbals on the sides. Loved it!
-Also used a compressor-plugin with a release tied to bpm so I could bring out some room whil getting some groove in there.
-In parallell I send all drums (no cymbals) to a Scheps Omni-channel, with some gain, eq and comp. that fattens it up nicely.
-On reverb I have some creative stuff. I don´t want the transient to make the reverbs go "tsssshhhhhh", so I use a transient shaper to tame the transients on the send to the reverb. And I roll of som highs and lows. For this song I wanted the reverb to be kind of invisible. I went for Pro Tools Reverb One for early reflections, and Ocean Way for the room. And a slightly mixed in mono plate in addition on the snare. Also put Valhalla on the toms two places for some more boom.

Bass
-Love the LA-2 plugin for bass.
-A bit of decapitator on the DI to make the notes stand out more.
-Used a multiband to tame the lows, so that the lows are boosted slightly when the bass goes up high.
-Also useed Trackspacer (a favourite) to duck to lows slightly when the bassdrum kicks.

Guitar
-nothing to see here people, please move along.

Keys
-Love the LA-2 on piano as well.
-Mannys Triple-D is so good to clean up lo-mids.
-Trackspacer to give the vocal some room. Just a few dBs of mids.

Vocals
-Gaz would not like how many plugins I used on the vocals, but each does so little. Soothe2 for resonating frequencies, Mono TSAR-1 on 2% wet to "un-studio" the vocal slightly, LA-2 here as well, and Maag EQ4 for the Air band. The Lewitt-thing is fun, but I didn´t like it for vocals.
I used a delay throw for some depth a few places, and UAD Capitol sounded amazing on Gaz, but I automated it so you don´t notice it much. It is lovely though.
-backing vocals are treated together (with a few exceptions and a lot of automation). Triple-D, API-2500 for comp (link set to 50), Massy De-esser and a touch of Little Microshift. I didn´t want reverb, and the Microshift can replace it to a certain extent.

Master
-Several things here, but tiny tiny things. Shadow hills for some comp. Slate VTM for magic (love it, on my desert island shortlist), Black Box for fatness and analog vibe, and Pultec for some shine and more analogness.

That´s it for me, I´m more than happy to elaborate or answer questions if anybody listens and have thoughts!

Thumbs up from the woods of Norway!