MIX CHALLENGE - MC067 July 2020 - Winners announced

[Necaster]

Hello, colleagues.

Here’s my workflow description:

DAW used – Cakewalk by BandLab.

Though the song itself just asks for joyful mixing, there are couple of caveats here and there.
No. 1 headache was (sorry) vocal, both tonality and dynamics. I devoted lotta time aligning vocal tracks in Melodyne (bundled software for Cakewalk).
For the lead vocal I used a doubler then added light ambience and Timeless by FabFilter delay with mix amount automated. No special treatment for background vocals rather than extra ‘breath, by BREVERB 2 (bundled software). EQ and compressing per taste with stock plugins. More reverb on ‘Ahs’.
As for low overdriven man’s voice, I left it as is and only let it swirling around (pan automation) for the time I found sufficient.

Kicks: stock EQ and compressor presets plus Softube Saturation knob (also stock for Cakewalk) to make them stand out a bit.
Snare: tracks EQed differently with slight 200Hz (body) emphasis for snare top and sizzle cutting for snare bottom. Short reverb (BREVERB 2, again).
Toms sent to the separate stereo bus, each track EQed and panned differently, then treated by multiband compressor in the bus.
Overheads: just EQ (hi-pass) and parallel send to ambience bus (BREVERB 2).

Bass: three tracks used – central with a slight 5 KHz hump and L/R hard panned tracks EQed with a light low-pass filter. Central track is side-chain compressed by kick to give a latter more room when needed.

No special FX for guitars, just EQ, some reverb for Verse Guitar, level and pan automation. Same for the synths and Rhodes.

For the Master channel I used a stock EQ, CA2A Levelling Amplifier and Youlean Loudness meter (free pluging) to control the output.

Here’s wav file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iTy39m ... sp=sharing

Some illustrations for above: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Thanks everybody for reading and listening.

[Alex Van mixland]

Hello,
Here is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MPj5Gb ... sp=sharing

Vocal - I automate all fx, because i think it needed another vibe on another section. I add high end to vocal.
Kick - I scooped out 500hz and add a little bit low end
Snare - I add around 7.2 k
Bass - I try to ontrol picks so i ad compressor and i eq a rumble.
Guitars - most of the time i add 8k

Cheers!

[PenguinJon]

This months mix..

DAW is Logic Pro X

Mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6q6f0xrw9vpz ... n.wav?dl=0

Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqsqt3jjrkpr8 ... n.jpg?dl=0

On the whole used the PA BX Console N as a utility EQ/Dynamaincs.

Drums:
Kick, SPL Transient Designer to try and get bit more nose, and in phase to bring it together to try and stop it being quite so flabby
Snare, just eq’d a bit of snap in, and gated the top pretty tightly, no gate on the bottom, leaving the snare to breath a bit.

Hats, high passed.

Toms, gated hard, and used the BSS DPR comp to get them to settle, this also cleaned them up a treat and didn’t feel the need to eq
OH, s high pass, and timed to the snare

Room, high passed again, not as aggressively as the overheads, and timed to the snare. I felt the snare was the key to linking the tune together so wanted it to be forward..

Drums crush, trued a few options, but needed up removing everything apart from the high pass, and some compression in the BX console.

Overdubbded toms, tricky blighters, so much click noise coming in the overheads was hard to get them to site at the right level.. copied over the same plugins from the main toms and then tweaked to try and get as close as poss

Bass, looks like ive done a lot, but.. max bass, to try and clean it up, more low but less wobble, seemed to work.. eq’d in Kramer has, tiny notch to let the bass drum fit with the AMEK 2098 pa thing, and then Kramer Pie to level it off a touch,,.

Guitrs, not much at all, played with widening up the double mice cabs, was running out of space in the middle for clarity, with 2098 eq for the main rhythm part, just pulling the strum forward and moving the resonance back. Devil lock, to add some texture so it worked better with the crunch channels…

Which I did nothing to really, just a tickle of tilt eq, and a spot eq on the crunch 2 channels to pull them forward without turning them up.

Keys

Lead and Rhodes, tried to get to wrap around each other, bit of harmonics to the lead keys, Rhodes, took some of the bite out, pad, high pass, swell, added a bit of width with micro shift and a short plate, and the build, well, thought it needed a bit of love, so threw a delay on it, so could hear it more often, but not as loud

Vocals,

Most of the work..

EQ’d in the schleps, as I wanted to eq, and dynamic eq in the same place, so f6 on an insert into the schleps, not a lot little low cut, high pass and f6 taking a little hardness out.

Crunch vocal sat under the main vocal, seemed to like to push itself forward when needed..

Loop low vocal.. not sure what the intention was, spent a fair time chin scratching over this.. bx console to eq the tone, little alter boy to pitch it a little so it sat “right” for my ears, then decapitator to give it some drive and get ti to sit with the crunch vocal..

[Eduardo Dinis]

Hi everyone!

Good track that was fun to mix!

The processing I did.

DAW: Pro Tools

DRUMS:
Kick In - EQ (with a HPF at 54 with 18dB/oct, a dip of 4.8dBs at 645Hz and a boost of 2dBs at 4kHz)
Kick Out - EQ (With a HPF at 40Hz with 24dB/oct, a LPF at 580Hz with 6dB/oct, a cut of 2dBs at 385Hz and a boost (low shelf) of 4dBs at 90Hz)
Kick Buss - Comp (1176 with a 3dBs of GR) and a bit of saturation

Snare Top - EQ (with HPF at 220 with 12dB/oct, two narrow dips of around 4 dB at 570Hz and 1kHz and a high shelf boost of 4 dB at 8k)
Snare Bot - EQ (with a HPF at 250 Hz with 24db/oct, w wide dip at 1kHz of 3.5 dBs and a wide boost at 8kHz of 2.5dBs)
Snare Buss - Comp (SSL Comp with 4 dBs of GR (30 ms attack and 0.3s release) and a limiter just to even out the snare transients in very few snare hits (max 1 dB reduction). a little bit of distortion. As an time based effect the snare has a short plate of 25 ms of pre delay and 300 ms of release.
HH - EQ (with a HPF at 520Hz with 6dB/Oct and a tiny boost at 6.20kHz of 1.7dBs.

Tom 1 - EQ (HPF at 110Hz with 24dB/oct, a boost of 5dB at 145Hz, a cut of 6dB at 425Hz, a boost of 4dB at 4.25kHz an a high shelf boost of 5 dB at 8kHz) and Comp (1176 with 5 dBs of GR)
Tom 2 - EQ (HPF at 70Hz with 24dB/oct, a boost of 5dBs at 110Hz, a dip of 7 dBs at 770Hz, a Boost of 7dBs at 5.6kHz and a high shelf boost at 10kHz of 8 dBs) and Comp (1176 with average of 4/5 dBs of GR)
Tom Buss - Comp (LA-2A with 1/2 dBs of GR) and a bit of saturation

Drum Buss - Comp (supercharger with 4 dBs of GR with punch and dirt turned on) and a limiter with the same function in the snare to help clean any excessive peaks from other drum parts just in certain parts with 2 dB of GR. Also with a touch of saturation. Also with automated insert there is a phaser in the drums to help give movement to the beat.

Tom 1 Dub - EQ (with HPF at 124Hz with 24db/oct, a boost of 5 dB at 157Hz, a boost of 8dB at 8kHz and a high shelf boost of 6 dB at 13 Hz)
Tom 2 Dub - EQ (with HPF at 100 Hz with 24db/oct, a boost at 124Hz of 5 dB, a dip of 10dB at 572Hz, a boost of 3 dB at 5kHz and a high shelf boost of 4 dB at 10kHz)
Tom 3 Dub - EQ (with a HPF at 65Hz with 24db/oct, a boost of 7dB at 80 Hz, a dip of 6 dB at 300 Hz, a boost of 4.5 db at 3.85 kHz and a high shelf boost of 4 db at 8kHz)
Tom Dub Buss - CLA-3A (with 7 db of GR at the highest peaks) and a bit of saturation

Tom Dub OH - EQ (HPF at 950Hz with 6db/oct)

OH L - EQ ( HPF at 1kHz with 12db/oct, and a high shelf boost of 3 db at 6.45kHz) and Comp (1176 with 1/2 db of GR)

Crush Room - no processing

BASS: EQ (HPF at 50Hz with 12db/oct, a dip at 68Hz of 3 dB, a boost of 4 db at 100Hz and a boost of 2 db at 1.6kHz) and Comp (LA-2A with 2/3 dbs of GR)

GUITARS:

Funky Cab - EQ (HPF at 480Hz with 12db/oct, small dip at 1.15kHz of 2.5dBs and cut 2 dbs high shelf at 3.70kHz) and Comp (CLA-3A with 5/6 dBs of GR) and a church reverb with 25ms and 500 ms of decay

Chrs Cab 1 and 2 - sent to a buss where it was applied EQ (HPF at 385Hz with 6db/oct, a dip of 4 db at 680Hz and a high shelf boost of 2.5 dBs at 9kHz) and Comp (CLA-3A with 1/2 dbs of GR)

Lead Cab - Only EQ (HPF at 328Hz with 12 db/oct, wide dip of 2 db at 620Hz, a narrow dip of 7 dbs at 2kHz and a high shelf boost of 3 db at 7.4kHz)

Crunch 1 and 2 - were sent to a buss with EQ (HPF at 157Hz with 12 db/oct, 2 db boost at 460Hz and two narrow cuts of 2.3 and 3.4 dBs at 2kHz and 4.42kHz) and light Saturation

Crunch 3 and 4 - Similar with crunch 1 and 2 but with a high shelf boost of 3 dbs at 7kHz, no saturation.

P Chrs Cab - EQ (HPF at 280Hz with 12 db/oct, 5dbs dipped at 400Hz, 3.35kHz dipped 6dBs and 4.51kHz dipped 4 dbs) and Comp (CLA-3A with 3dbs of GR)

Vrse Cab 1 and 2 - sent to a buss with only a compressor (CLA-3A with 2/3 dBs of GR) and a delay (valhallafreq echo with 1/8 of delay sync and 0.28ms with feedback set low at 1.6%)

KEYS:

Lead Keys - EQ (HPF at 1kHz with 6dbs/oct, a cut of 9 dBs at 2.9kHz and a high shlef cut of 3 dbs at 8.9kHz)

Rhodes - EQ (with HPF at 60Hz with 6dBs/oct and a low shlef cut of 3.5dbs at 500 Hz)

Swell - EQ (similar to Lead keys but with a high shelf boost instead of cut at 5.6kHz)

Pad - EQ (HPF at 340Hz with 12db/oct, and 3 db cut at 2.15kHz)

VOCALS:

Ahh 1 to 6 - all sent to a buss where EQ (HPF at 330Hz with 12dbs/oct, a 5 db dip at 550 Hz, 4 dbs dipped at 1.75kHz and a high shelf cut of 3.5dbs at 5.40kHz) and Comp (1176 with 5/6 dBs of GR with fast attack and release) as applied. In addition a reverb was sent to the group to bring these vocals a bit to the back (17ms of pre delay and 1s of decay for a medium room setting)

BGV 1 and 2 - Similar EQ to Ahh buss EQ but only with HPF and High shelf controls. followed by a LA-2A with 10/15dBs of GR and a little bit of AIR Ensemble to bring a different texture. The reverb applied in Ahh Buss was the same in the BGV buss.

Low LV - Comp (1176 with 10 dBs of GR) and EQ (low shelf cut of 1.5dbs at 500Hz and a 2 db dip at 4.5kHz). The delay set for the lead vocal and the reverb set for the BGV was applied in these track.

Soft LV 1 and 2 - (EQ similar to BGV plus a dip in 540Hz of 5dbs) and Comp LA-2A ( with 7 dBs of GR and at the peaks 10 dbs of GR)

Crunch LV - EQ (cut of 5 dbs at 726Hz and a boost of 1.7dbs at 5.6kHz)

Lead Vocal - Comp (LA-2A with 10/15dbs of GR, 1176 with 3dbs of GR and occasianally 5 dbs of GR), a limiter (set to have between 5 and 8 dbs of GR), an EQ boost at 310Hz of 3 dBs and AIR Flanger to add some little extra texture to the vocal. For the effects there was a stereo delay set to 50 ms with 7%feedback on the left and some modulation and 75ms with 7%feedback and slighly different modulation on the right. And another delay (valhallafreqecho) set 1/16 delay sync and 10% feedback and 0.33ms of delay, shitfed 0.13Hz and filtered.

MIX BUSS: SSL COMP with 1/2 dbs of GR, not working all the time just in certain peaks

A lot of automation was made


Probably described too much but feel free to discuss it! I will appreciate it

LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iysq5qrinhbiz ... s.wav?dl=0

All the luck! Thanks!

Ed

[JulienMeirone]

Hi guys,

It was a lot of fun mixing this song.

On this mix, i used, fabfilter Q3, MB, Pro R, Cla 3A, Bx SSL E, Blackbox, lo-fi, trackspacer, cla 2A, cla 76, maag eq4, lindell 80 bus, NLS buss, vertigo comp, J37, gullfos, bx digital V3, ozone 9 dynamics, shadow hills compressor A, seventh heaven, lustrous plate, valhalla reverbs and delayx, H910, decapitator.

My screenshots : https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4kyvo509inld ... M.rar?dl=0
My wav : https://www.dropbox.com/s/11bj6qzprg3kt ... v.wav?dl=0

Faithfully guys

[Mister Fox]

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

[kirurg]

Hello everyone,

Thank you Paint Me In Colour for the contest.

Here is my version.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tsiklcbxhnwt3 ... g.wav?dl=0

In my opinion the included tracks sounded pretty
raw and aggressive. Generally every track has compression and eq.
The most important things I've made are:
Vocals:
For first thing I reversed all the vocal tracks ,then compressed
(offline, for bounce) moderately by Cubase's stock comp. After re-reverse
used usual chain - EQ, TubeTech CL1B. Main vocal has multiband eq as well.
For that Low voice LV I decided to raise formants (got slightly more pleasant, but
that's only my opinion). Main vocal has a little slap echo and variable amount of
plate verb (UVI Plate) , depending the part of the song. Also tried to tune
the main vocal in couple places.
Bass:
Initially sounded great, but on certain point, when trying to match the
kick I found there was attack thump on almost every note in sub-low frequencies.
So in addition to the usual compression the I did use multiband comp for sub lower area.
And UAD Culture Vulture.
Drums:
For the kick itself did not use any compression, but EQ and transient designer (Fission)
For the snare used mostly narrow band eq to cut some low-mids. Did not especially
emphasize the toms collection. All the drums bus has
SSL style comp (Nebula TimP libs), De-Esser, Multiband compression and limiter.
Guitars:
Most aggressive ones (Vrse Cab and Crunch) got pretty much EQ to cut around 2-5Khz areas.
There is Fazortan VST for Funky Cab guitar fx.
Synths:
Much less processing added. Decapitator to Rhodes for some crunch.
There are Eventide Blackhole long tails audible in Rhodes and Lead Keys.
There are grouping buses for Vocals, Drums, Guitars and Synths having Acustica Audio
PINK pre-amp.
Mix bus having things for saturation: Slate's Virtual Console, SSL comp (Nebula),
Acustica Audio Celestial and RoundTone tape.

Thanks and good luck to everyone.

[MiniTooth]

Hello everybody! This was a great challenge for me, I’ve never worked with a session this big, my main goal was to work properly on the vocals and on the stereo placement of everything without making sound the mix messy, everything was mixed in the box.
I used Logic Pro X as DAW.

I kept all the vocal tracks to keep the depth of the track and keep the focus on the main vocals and reduced a bit of the volume on the sub track

I used iZotope’s Neutron 2 and some stock Logic’s EQ to play with frequencies and compression.

Finally I blended everything together with iZotope’s Ozone 8, since the session is pretty large, all trying to give it some glue without having too much of a “master” feel.

Here’s the mix and some screenshots: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[Miha]

Hi everyone !

Here is my submission : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1prb8Qk ... sp=sharing

I've mixed Me Without You in Reaper with Softube Console 1 (API 550 EQ and API 2500 emulation) on every track, TSAR 1 reverb and Soundtoys Echoboy Jr and Little Plate on send channels.

My main goal was : keep the vocals steady while the great arrangement provides most of the variations. My three mixing axes : funky butt shake + edgy guitars + let the arrangement and natural dynamic talk

I used four busses to organise the tracks :
- first one for the leads instruments : main vocal and its doubles, the low vocal, P Chrs Cab, lead cab and lead keys
- second one for the chord instruments : all the guitar cabs plus the build
- third one for drum
- fourth one for swell, pads, rhodes, backround vocals and ahhs
On every bus, I used Tonelux Tilt to build a sence of depth.

I first focused on vocals and spent a bit of a time finding the right balance for them. I used the crunch lead vocal as a support on choruses and pre-choruses. I used the soft LV panned 35% right and left to widen the lead in the choruses. I automated the low LV to complement the lead vocal without taking too mush place. I used a limiter, followed by a compressor and a de-esser on the main vocal. I heavilly EQed the Low LV (substractive EQ at 200Hz, 700Hz and 3KHz) in order it doesn't compete with the bass, guitars and the lead vocal.

About the drum : phase alignment, gates and balancing for the main part. Equing was not a big issue as everything is very well recorded. Just some frequencies juggling in order for each instrument to find its space. I used a buss to group kick, bass and snare in order to enhance the groove with the same SSL compressor. I put a Mid-side processor on the drum bus in order to keep basses frequencies (below 125Hz) centered.

Nothing special about the guitars and keys, mostly panning and EQing work .

I tended to use longer reverbs than usual for this tune. I found it gives it depth and richness. For the lead vocal, a 2s plate, for the guitars, a 22s room ambiance, for drums a large room with a 1.5s decay, a 2.2s time hall reverb for pads, swell and rhodes and a blend of the plate and the short room for the background vocals and ahhs. I only used a slap delay on the crunch riff to thicken it up.

I mostly used volume automation on vocals and leads as the great arrangement offers a lot of dynanic and contrast. I added a slow ping pong effect on the crunch riff.

On master bus, I put a TubeTech EQ to boost highs, a tape saturator to thame harshness and add glue, a Drawmer S73 compressor with a very gentle ratio and again a tilt EQ to balance the low/high relationship of the overall mix.

Awesome tune and challenge, thank you !
Good luck everyone !
--
Miha

[gaurav.talreja]

Hello Mr Fox,
Glad to hear about the latest mix challenge.I have done my bit and hope you have a good time listening to my mix.I have used Logic as the DAW.

The processing on my guitars included widening, dynamic processing and using the inbuilt logic amps with some good ambience

Drums consisted of binaural panning,and Sum processing using waves plugins,used fab-q3 for eq, used manny-M reverb for snare high hat and toms, room i used fab-R

Bass, also used bass amps,mono processing to get the tonal quality @260 hz

Lead vocals used izotope necktar and C6 by waves for dynamic processing

Harmonies panned and used super chorus along with pancake and lot of ambience

Please Find the link below.Love from INDIA !!

WAV

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