MIX CHALLENGE - MC076 May 2021 - Winners announced

[Green-Dog]

Hi everyone,

Thank you to the song provider for the beautiful song. The song is perfectly produced. The main " fight" I had with the vocals. This was my first experience with this genre.

I decided to make a stereo clap, and I'll tell you how I did it. To do this, I used the "Haas effect".
First, I duplicated the tracks with the clap and spread them out on the panorama. Then, on one of these tracks, I applied a 10-millisecond delay, lowered the pitch by 19 cents, and slightly saturated it with the Little Radiator. After that, I combined both tracks into a group on which I used a compressor and added some ambient music.

The MIX

Good luck to everyone!

[canese]

Good morning
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cDdguM ... sp=sharing
I love this track. Great lyrics and vocal production. I almost didn't touch the vocals. Only added little reverb and compression, also some automated delay.

The hardest part was the kick. Not a fan of the low end of this particular kick. Was difficult to mix it with the bass. Solve it with eq and sidechain to the kick.

I decided to give the piano priority instead of the guitars, because they were more danceable.

All the instruments (apart from the drums and vocals) are sidechained a little bit with the kick. This is to create more pump in the track and
let the kick and snare stand out in the mix. (I obtained this technique watching a video from San Holo, the trick is that you put all the instruments in a bus and then you put a compresor with sidechain in it with the kick and snare feeding the signal to proc the sidechain)

Good luck everyone.

[MattP]

Fun Song to mix!

BD - UAD Neve 88RS channel for midrange and compression, MaxxBass and RBass for lows, and SIE-Q for top

SD - UAD Neve 88RS for midrange and compression

TOMS - Neve 88RS for lows and highs, cut mids and compression

HATS - Waves Kramer Master Tape to soften

ALL DRUMS - ran through Waves SSL Comp and IK Clipper

BASS - SansAmp, RBass, RCompressor, Sidechained with kick

LV - Devil-Loc, UAD Pultec, Waves DeEsser, Waves C4

BGV - Pultec, D-Verb

AD LIBS - Devil-Loc, Waves GTR Stomp

REVERSE AAH - GTR Stomp

https://www.dropbox.com/s/418yazpmjr4tr ... P.wav?dl=0

[KrissK]

Hello, here is my entry to this challenge.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cv1ZY ... sp=sharing

I went for a smooth approach, with a main focus on big soundstage, and the depth in the song. I tried to preserve the dynamics, by using a lot of automation etc.

For all tracks I've used basic compression and EQ, to make space for the different elements.

Thanks to Christoph_K and Suspicious Flashlight, for providing the song. It was really fun working on it.

[Marv]

Hello everyone,


this is my mix of the song:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/misnfhbzc441k ... a.wav?dl=0

I tried to give it a little more 'natural' sound with focus on the lead vocals. It's mixed with Ableton and plenty Plugins by UAD, Waves, NI etc.

I hope u like it. Feel free to give me feedback because I am certainly new to mixing and want to improve.


Cheers,
Marvin

[odistdan]

Thanks For Sharing this track with me I had a great challenging time while mixing it.

The tracks that came were pretty much gain staged.
I checked each track with peaks and VU meters and it it never crossed that threshold.
Since there was not a lot of references provided I hunted my own and found few famous common songs to be helpful like Home Tonight Anoraak Remix, M83, MGMT. I didn’t hunt for the tone of individual instrument but the sonic texture and space of whole song.

My Approach for every track was making sub groups and making a mix bus before final master fader.

Eq is my first plugin in all channel except Guitar lead as I used saturn as my first plugin because sounded weak and didn’t cut through I wanted it be a little brighter but not with eq boost.

FX channels:
I am working with slap, 1/16th, 1/8th ,1/4th Delays,
One instance of Kick Reverb.
A hall reverb and Large reverb

Drums:
Mostly Eq. 
Little bit of compression on Kick, Snare, Conga and claps 2
No buss treatment.

Bass: 
Eq, Bass Rider, Eq, Rcompressor (To give bass a little Pump) and another eq.

Arp 
is eq and Saturation to bring it out mostly like guitar but less processed. Also, I am sending it to a pan automation bus ( I don’t know if its against the rules or not).

Guitar:
On lead guitar I used Saturn, Pro Comp ( Protools stock), Eq, another Saturn. I prefer using gentle multiple plugins than one heavy.

On guitar 2 i used eq and relay to increase stereo width send to llarge reverb

Keys: Piano Rhodes and solo synth has eq and they are in same bus which has SSL compressor. 

Pads:
Dream Pad has S1 Imager, Pro Comp, MSED
Glass Pad has eq and S1 imager.
Just eq on strings

Vocals:
Bridge vox has Eq, Rvox, Sie Q for brightness, MJUC jr, pinch of little radiator, another eq, Rdesser, Procomp and another eq.
Its a bit of overkill i know.

all vocal tracks has pretty much same with plug in on and off automation.
With Bridge Vocal B, I made a bus and loaded Slap delay with Inversion. I was able to clean some of it.

Mix Bus has Instances of subtle instances os saturn just to glue the mix.

My master has ozone elements with -2 true peak limiter, VU meter with span, Imager and Relay which i use for Mono switch. Lastly LUFS meter.

I don’t use plugins

I don’t have a specific channel strip setting for anything. I just go by my ears.

I did feel a little challenged here and there to keep all the channels below -18db and i have pulled them down because not everything has gain compensation and trim plugin slows me down and changed the tone desired.

Thank You all. Feedbacks are warmly welcome.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N-Y73_ ... sp=sharing

[Vongluck]

Hello All,

I join the link for my personal Mix :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1utelNz ... sp=sharing

It was very interesting to work with so many electronic sounds, but it was difficult for the chorus with the piano, the Rhodes and the strings in the same time.
I use the DAW Protools, with plugins Waves, SoundToys, Relab...

I thank you for this great challenge.
Vongluck, a French Mixer.

[Edu Cesar]

Hello!

Thank you for the opportunity to mix the song!
It's very well recorded and fun to mix, the singer is very talented and I liked the overall feel of the song.

Here's some info on the mix:

Drums:
- Some EQ and saturation on the kick and a slight RBass to push the lows upfront a little. Same with snare on equivalent frequencies.
- Widening of some elements (claps and HH) and boost on high frequencies.
- Panning of the toms and percussive elements to create some movement and get them a little out of the center.
- Some heavy parallel compression on the drum loop with saturation to give it a more "lo-fi" vibe.
- Reverb on snare, claps and other mid-high frequency instruments

Bass:
I split the track in 2 (Sub-Low and Mid-Highs) to have more control. I also applied some noise reduction, saturation and a slight RBass at 80hz to push it upfront on smaller speakers

Guitars:
- Ozone Imager to spread them across the stereo and some pan automation to make it fit better at the various parts. Some reverb and very small amount ducking with Trackspacer with the vocals on the side chain.

Synths:
- EQ on every track to make them all fit together and bring some high end to the Pads. On the arp track I applied some saturation and tried to pan the tracks so they don't distract too much.
- Trackspacer with the Kick on the side chain to give the synths a more electronic vibe and make the kick jump

Keys :
- EQ to boost the mid-highs on the pianos, some compression on the acoustic one and panning them according to the guitar on the choruses.

Lead Vocals:
- EQ to correct some muddiness and give them some air. Slight de-esser on all of them and some slight compression followed by a more heavy parallel compressor. A little bit of saturation to give them more warmth
- I sent all tracks (with different amounts depending on the part) to 3 sends: a vocal doubler, a slapback delay with ambience reverb and a plate reverb.

Backing Vocals/Adlibs:
- Widening of Aahs and Ad libs, compression to have them leveled and a good amount of a hall reverb.

Mixbus:
- Side cut at low frequencies to clean up for the bass and kick, Farbfilter pro C2 with very little compression to glue it all and some minor EQ adjustments (+- 1,5db) on specific frequencies to round it up and give little bit of a tape feel.

Heres the link to my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14WkXvj ... sp=sharing

Thank you!

[Samonov]

Hello everyone
About of Sound:
I liked using the delay to create a stereo effect and a free center in the mix. Here also I am using a compressor with different L / R parameters for the same purpose.Acon Digital for frequency correction. The phase on some tracks is inverted - I tried to achieve good interaction of the tracks with each other.General compressor for glue (Dyna-mu). On some tracks, acoustica audio Navy2Eq, because I like how the LP filter works there. On vocals Waves Abbey Road Plates and hall Acon Digital Reverberate2 in diferent parts of song diferent volume each reverb.

I'm not fluent englisher ( used online translator little bit)

Below effects on BD for example:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4q2rls4hvwp7a ... m.jpg?dl=0

Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/44aev7vfqg5hl ... v.wav?dl=0

[gonzacarmele]

Hi, hope your doing well!

I submit my mix, hope you like it.
I think is a really great song, love the lyrics, singing, and arrangement.

I've tried to take the spirit of the production and give it a deep solid ground with the kick and bass, and go with the flow with electro vibe as much as I could.

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

I use manny process, like:

bass in parallel with low enhacement (scheps73), slight compression, and chorus

the voices gain a lot of presence with compression (t-racks white 2A and 1176)

some delay and reverb going on

I've use some channel strips (SSL Native, nice!)

Some API 2500 on busses

Shadow hills mastering compresion on vocals and drum buss

De-essers on HH, tambourine. A lot of sidechain going on between drums and the loops, also between the pads, strings, rhodes, piano and guitar.

I've used 2 mix busses (saw Greg Wells doing this) one for the whole instruments, and the other just for the vocals. This way I used a sidechain with FabFilter MB in some frequencies to open space for the vocals.

Didn't use a master buss compressor, but I did add just a little highs and lows with Acoustica Coral Baxter as a mixer decision.

Hope you like it!