MIX CHALLENGE - MC078 July 2021 - Winners announced

[ciaranchrisoshea]

Hey everyone!

Here's my submission

https://drive.google.com/file/d/134NU7p ... sp=sharing

First of all thanks to the song providers and to Mr Fox. Great track this month!!


A real challenge not only first time with hip hop but in a different language too. So found that i was kinda of guessing the delay throws were words.



I wanted to go for an AfroBeat type sound with a modern twist.... Thinking Fela Kuti with some modern hip hop techniques!


Drums... Bussed together then processed the individual tracks. Mostly used Pultecs and SSL for all the eq and compression. Kick boost at 60hz, and 2.5k. Snare around 230 with Rbass and boosted at 7k on SSL for snap. Bx Townhouse compressor on the Drum Bus for some punch and glue.

Bass... The bass DI used just for the low end, and the bass mic i split into 2. One for mid range articulation and one that was saturated with the Deacpitator. I blended these into a Bass Aux and that was treated with more EQ and the MV2 compresser to level things.

Guitar.... For the Rhythm guitar i used a Pultec boost at 1.5. Some mono verb added with a D-verb panned opposite for some width.

The lead guitar got a stereo delay around 1/8ths

Keys... Some M/S processing was used here to give the keys and organ some width and space left in the centre. Done this with the ProQ3. I also added a little delay to the keyborad notes.

Both the keys and the organ were treated with saturation from the Klanghelm IVC to try to blend them into the track more.

Brass... The brass were all EQd with Pultecs, boosting sympathetic frequencies and cutting others to compliment. I added some Mono verb opposite to the brass for width also

Main Rap & Ad-Libs.... Wanted the vocals to be main thing up front and keep them there. Rvox for compression, WAves sibilance for de-essing, some more compression with LA-2A to smooth out more and high end boost with a pultec.

I used some Delay plugs like echboy, Avid tape delay and others to do some vocal throws with the adlibs for more ear candy.

Chorus Vocals... Same as main vox really, RVox, Sibilance, High boost with pultec


Some light comp on the Mix bus for a little glue and a high shelf of about 2db for some air

Thats all!!!! Good luck guys!
Ciaran

[Mork]

Hey,

long time no see, but I couldn't let this one fly! Very cool song!

The challenge was to make it HipHop but still keep an organic "Band" vibe. Rap/Vocals in your face, Instruments shouldn't sound too "fake", and since it's HipHop there has to be some junk in the trunk.
Go to plugins on almost everything where BigFreq and Decapitator.

El Cabu
He got probably the most treatment since the recording was unfotunately a little hot and brittle. UA610 into Decapitator into BigFreq to loose some brittle edge, Arousor for general compression, Fairchild 670 to catch some more edge, bx SSL 4k E and FreshAir for some good edge and finally a Deesser.

Ayoub
Very nice recording. Just a little Saturation and 1176. And FX of course.

Drums
Kick got scooped with BigFreq, a little SSL gate to tighten the decay, bloating with RBass
Snare and OHs got eq and comp.
There is a drum parallel comp for snap and a crush (DevilLoc) for decay.

Horns
Man do I love these! I don't know why, they sound somehow vintage So I had to put Tape on there (J37), Decapitator for more saturation, PultecPro for tone shaping and lastly a some gentle compression from MagicDeathEye. Verb is Lex224 and also goes into all the aforementioned processing.

Intruments
Nothing special here - EQ, Saturation, compression and a little verb. Piano got a Haas Delay to spread it out.


Didn't know Polish was such a cool language to rap in!


WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iW_0qE ... sp=sharing

Cheers
Mork

[TheLordRudman]

Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CcBNGd ... sp=sharing

- Drum Kit: EQ+Parallel Comp
- Bass: EQ+Re-Amp DI/Mic
- Ryth Gtr: EQ+Re-Amp+Rotor
- Solo Gtr: Comp+EQ+Re-Amp+Dly
- Piano: EQ+Revb+Dly
- B3: EQ
- Brass: EQ+Dly
- Ayoub Vox: Comp+EQ+Sibilance+Dly
- El Cabu Vox: Comp+EQ+Sibilance+Dly

I do some DUB transitions + Radio FX on El Cabu Vox finalizing the mix in a master bus with Revb+Dly to glue everything.

[GUSWIS]

Hello
I tried to give a sense of vertigo and a bit of urban grime that was in crescendo with the lyrics, applying a filter with my movement on the synthesizer ,an octafuzz on the bass and saturation on some tracks.
Complicated mixing from an artist perspective, the original mix seemed very good to me, that's why I approach it from another place.
Regards.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2zb4nzrcavvzy ... S.wav?dl=0

[AskAndy]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GUcuJW ... sp=sharing
Having the lyrics with the translation was really helpful. Its a good , positive piece. I played with provided riser, using autosuite to kneed it into an intro and outro. I added it to the front ,because I felt the vocal at the top acts a count in, which for me was too abrupt and you kind of escape the meaning of the first line , so I added something to calmly bring your attention to piece, kind of taking away the count-in job of the first vocal line. The outro( intro reprise ) was just to release you from the song .
I am most happy with my approach to the rhythm guitar. Track is panned left, the send is panned 75 to the right, going to a stereo aux > Black Op dist, Aphex aural exciter, pitch II, EMO Q4. it put the guitar in a great space.
I used just three RVB spaces Front , mid , Back using RVerb.
Love the brass , but kept it at a distance, could have brought it closer but I felt it acts as support in its location.
really enjoyed mixing it , thank you

[rvalle]

Hello fellow mixers!

Retuning from a quite some time without take part in this challenge, this month I am offering my edit for this great tune.

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

Prints:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Here's a summary of what I did:

Drums:
Kick: Gate to control snare bleed; heavily compressed with dbx160 (waves); PSP MixTreble2 to improve high frequencies; RBass to boost the low end.
Snare: nothing special, just eq and a bit of compression
Overs: I ended up overdoing the process, compressing and equalizing too much; crashes were exaggerated. I used Balancer (focusrite/sonible) to improve the harshness caused by the overdone crashes.
Everything was grouped together on a bus, where more compression and EQ was applied. The signal was then printed on a separate channel, for CPU saving, in wich a little more compression was applied, now with the Lindell 354E Multiband.

Bass:
On one of the channels, I cut the bass and used Acon Multiply to spread the stereo; On the other channel, just EQ with Acon Equalize 2 for bass boost and treble control. The channels were grouped into a bus where I used Devil-Loc Deluxe for distortion.

Keys:
The piano has been equalized to control resonant frequencies (1.5khz and 2khz approximately). I also used the XFer OTT for some brightness.

GTRs:
Rhythm,\: light EQ for low-end cut and resonance control at 2.5khz; I inserted the PSP SpringBox in the channel for ambiance.
Solo: I did some volume automation, compressed it with UA 1176SE and also inserted SoundToys Echoboy on the channel for ambience.

Brass instruments:
On Sax, I used the Omega TWK for harmonic saturation;

Vocals:
I placed the chorus and verse voices in distinct groups, which were routed to a main bus.
In one of the chorus vox channels, it includes the Vocal Doubler (izotope) for stereo distribution.
On the chorus bus, EQ to clean the low end and a small gain around 4khz.
In the doubles of the verse vocals, I also applied the Vocal Doubler in one of them and the Little Alter Boy in another.
In AdLibs channel I used Izotope VocalSynth for a texture with the vocoder and delay insertion.
The two subgroups are on a main bus that I processed with Fresh Air (Slate Digital), UAD Oxide Tape and El Rey compressor (Acustica Audio).

In some transitions, I created a vinyl scratch effect with Traktor, on top of a drum bus bounced file. I recorded several effect moments and edited them to better fit the music, as if I were using real pickups. In the transition to the last chorus, I used Guitar Rig as an effect also in the drums channel.

As a general ambience, I used a room channel (MPX Reverb Lexicon), a long reverb channel (exponential Audio R4) and a Long Delay channel (UAD Precision Delay).

I printed the L/R file, which I inserted into a new Reaper session. I ended up using more processing than usual, as the problem with drum crashes still bothered me. Compressed the signal with SPL Iron and UAD SSL G Bus; equalized with UAD Pultec Legacy and Millenia NSEQ-2 (Plugin Alliance). In order to improve crashes, I finally had to use ozone Dynamics to compress only the high frequencies on the Side, where crashes appeared more.

Was a pleasure to mix such a nice song, with this unique vibe. Thanks Sun Followers and @Los_ady !

[Jerze]

Fun song to mix Thanks.

Wav-https://www.dropbox.com/s/625j8dfsejb6z ... E.wav?dl=0

44/24 Mixed in Reaper.

Riser -intro added crystallizer to blend a little different sound coming in.

Drums- tried to get a little drive to them added some saturation compession and a lot of eqing on the kic
Would of liked a little more bottom end tho

Guitars- used some side-chaining with the vocals just to get out of the way also used Echoboy with a bright double slap to get a little sound in the rt speaker.

Bass- added Saturn for some dirt blended the 2 tracks could have pushed the lows a little more

Vocals- lot of compression not sure it was the rt way to go because of the sibilance tried taming those

Thanks Jerze

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours of submitting your mix.

[D.Pinck]

Hello Everyone!
Here's my submission:

MC078_Sun_Followers_Droga_D.Pinck.wav

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lYOR65 ... sp=sharing

First I'd like to thank the song providers and to Mr. Fox for allowing me the opportunity to join in, make new friends and learn more about this craft I have such a deep passion to learn.

This mix challenge is extra special for me as this is my first mix for me to submit into your wonderful program and challenge. As this is my first mix to submit here and I am pretty new to mix challenges in general, I accept the challenge and am offering my mix as my best interpretation within the rules and guidelines.

Here are my mix notes:

Drums:
Kick: Comp+EQ+ Parallel Comp using BF-76 to Kick Sub
Snare top: Scheps Omni- heavy saturation+ Gate expender+ EQ+ Comp VCA Reverb-Medium Room
Snare bot: Scheps Omni- heavy saturation+ Gate expander+ EQ+ Comp FET Reverb-Medium Room
Snare Sub: EQ-7band
Overheads L&R: EQ-7band+ Scheps Omni- medium saturation+ EQ+ Comp VCA+ Gate Expander Reverb-Medium Room
Riser: EQ-7band+FX- I added a Flanger Delay to the Riser for a quick tease.
Drum Buss: EQ-7band+ Scheps Omni- Gate expander+ Comp VCA+ EQ+ Heavy Saturation
FX: I duplicated my mixed Drum Buss and added via mute automation a mild Flange to the Drum Buss breaks in the song.
I automated the Kick and Snare as needed to prevent clipping.

Bass: I used a blend of both the DI and the mic'd amp. :Scheps Omni- Light saturation+ Comp OPT+ EQ+ Gate Expender. This plugin was keyed off the Kick.
Bass Sub: EQ-7band

Guitars: I split the Acoustic and the Electric into L&R channels, I hard panned the Acoustic and panned the Electric at 45 each.
Acoustic: Scheps Omni- Light saturation+ EQ+ Comp FET+ Gate expander Reverb-Spring
Electric: Scheps Omni- Heavy saturation+ EQ+ Comp FET+ Gate expander Reverb-Spring
Guitar Sub: Light compression added

Horns:
Sax: I hard panned these, Scheps Omni- Medium saturation+ EQ+ Comp FET
Trumpets: I panned these 45, 45 and 20rt, Scheps Omni- Medium saturation+ EQ+ Comp FET
Horns Sub: EQ- 7band, and light compression on this Buss
I used a medium Room Reverb on all these horns.

Keys: I split the Organ and the Piano into each with L&R channels all panned 50/50
Organ: Scheps Omni- Light Saturation+ EQ+ Comp VCA
FX: for the ending, I duplicated my mixed Organ and via mute automation I added a Flange delay with the fade.
Piano: Scheps Omni- Light saturation+ Comp OPT+ EQ
All keys had Reverb medium Room Reverb
Keys Sub: EQ-7band+ light compression added to the Buss.

Vocals: I processed the vocals all the same but with slight differences in each. I processed all Vocals with Scheps Omni Channel- Heavy saturation+ EQ+ COMP FET, I also used D3 De-Ess tools for each track and as needed I used RX8De-Crackle, All Vocals had Medium Plate Reverb

I did not like any attempts I made processing on my 2-Mix Buss or my Master Buss so I left all processing as done on each track.
I only added automation to control peaks in the waveforms.

Bounced from ProTools 24bit/44.1kHz around 1-2dB headroom and -16.2 LUFS

Good Success Everyone!

[rvalle]

Hey @D.Pinck , please, to avoid be disqualified, properly name you file submission.

You can find the rules on the @Mister Fox very first post in this thread.
This is a comon mistake by the new contestants.