Mix Challenge

Hi,

here's my take on it.

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11q_GAl ... sp=sharing

I kept it pretty simple with the goal not to overprocess and especially not to drown it in verb. I am leaning more towards underprocessing to not destroy the fragile nature, I think the arrangement is doing it's job pretty well. Cured the "edge" a bit with ProTools Heat and Aroma. Almost no compression. She got an UAD LA-2A, the violins a tiny bit of Leveler from Harrison 32c channel and there is Magic Death Eye on the Main Bus doing 1db max. EQ is also very minimal. Tone shaping with BigFreq and 32c, lead vocal got an API 560 and SSL channelstrip. There's also soothe2 on vocal and violins. Verbs are PCM Room, Seventh Heaven (Small Hall for Strings), Verberate2 (Cello Room), Transatlantic Plate. Piano was treated with Ocean Ways in re-mic mode to now be recorded at Studio A It's also spread out a little with S1. That's basically it.

Thank you to Matthew (@Square) for providing this month's challenge, and @Mister Fox for keeping it all together.

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

///

Violin 1: eq
Violin 2: eq
Cello: eq

Plate Verb

///

Cello Piz: eq > transient designer
Strings Piz: eq

Room Verb

///

Vocal: eq > compressor > deesser > Kush Omega > Imager

Plate for density
Long Verb for tail
Saturation for highs

///

Acoustic Gtr: amp > spring

///

Piano: amp > eq

///

Master Bus: Saturation > Pultec-type eq > Compressor > Tape

///

My take on the september challenge. Not a lot of tracks, but then there is no where to hide ... Very nice song, my submission in this link: MC080_Eavedrops_Alone_LowlandsWave.wav

Guitars:
Track clean up, and removed some resonant noise
Eq, compression, saturation
Single note guitar doubled with same same plugins but eq highpass at 850 to add some extra presence.
Strumming guitar doubled with different eq and panned hard left and right
Neoverb reverb on instrument reverb bus

Chello, violins:
Track clean up
Eq, compression, saturation
Neoverb reverb on instrument reverb bus

piano:
Track clean up
EQ, Compression, trying to tame the harsh transients, saturation
Neoverb reverb on instrument reverb bus

Vocal:
Some tuning with melodyne and vocal shaping with Nectar. Eq cut at about 1kHz
Doubled track with same settings and then higpassed it at 900hz to add some presence
Quiet part (voice and guitar strums) rolled of some low end to make it small
Added some "echoes from the past" tape delays
Neoverb reverb on vocal reverb bus

All Channels are routed to the MixBus

Mixbus:
Scheps Omnichannel for some saturation
SSL G channelstrip for overall eq and character
SSL G Masterbus compression for glue and character

Hi! I used Cubase 11 on this mix

First I made an stereo version of all of the tracks provided, to make it wide with some Fx that I will describe.

Vocals: For Vocals I used the BX Console N and a little touch of T-Racks 670 Compressor that goes to 3 Fx channels

1. Reverb: Sunset Sound From Ik Multimedia T-Racks
2.Delay: MturboDelay from Melda Production, using the Digital delay it has various type of delay there to tweak like all Melda Production Fx and used the Lo-Fi that sounds like really old machine it is ducking all the vocals and sometimes is present.
3.Doubling Fx: for this I used the MdoubleTracker by Melda Production, just a small amount.

Acoustic Guitars yes... guitars...: for this I used the BX Console N compressor and EQ then Kilohearts Haas to create an stereo Fx with the same guitar like if there were two. I used the Boz Digital Labs PanKnob to pan only a small percentage to the right, then used the Tape Pro by Caelum Audio, just to add some small taste of tape color and almost inaudible delay. and then it was send it to a channel called Master Reverb with MturboReverb by Melda Production.

Cello and Cello Pzzi: BX Console N, and Boz Digital Labs PanKnob it was send it to a channel called Master Reverb with MturboReverb by Melda Production.

Piano: I use it the Melda Production MsaturatorMB to add some air and color to the piano then the BX Console N, Boz Digital Labs PanKnob small amount to the left, and the T-Racks Space Delay just to add color then sent to the Master Reverb with MturboReverb by Melda Production.

Strings Pizzi: BX Console N, Waves Kings Microphone, those appear at the end and used that to add some drama to the end, and MAutoPanMB by Melda Production just to pan random the frequencies above 300 HZ and sent that to the Master Reverb with MturboReverb by Melda Production.

Violins 1 and 2: I used Melda Production MAutoAlign to align the files and to checj if they were out of phase, then again the BX Console N, Boz Digital Labs PanKnob, and it was send it to a channel called Master Reverb with MturboReverb by Melda Production. then controlled with a VCA fader.

For the Fx called Master Reverb where almost all the tracks live (they were sent with different volume to this one) I used MturboReverb By Melda Production it has one space called Hall and sounds like a real Hall, it almost makes you feel like you are in that place, works great on orchestral music that one was use it on the default state.

Then all goes to the master channel: first it has the T-Racks Tape 80, then Bx Townhouse compressor, a small amount of Melda Production Msaturator (the one that you can get for free) only 6% mixed to add color, and finally T-Racks One just to add a little 1.2 bass punch 1.0 wider and some analog color.

All volumes and stuff were checked with Waves VU meter and WLM Plus, Hornet VU meter, Izotope Insight 2
Sibilance was treated with Melodyne 5.

Those fx were used because I think that was the thing that was needed in this particular song, Console N to give some analog console sound and to make it sound a little wider with the TNT technology, Melda Production Fx has oversampling they can go to 512X (yes.... they can!) only used 8 or 16 on some fx. Why I use a lot of Melda Production fx? because they work almost as if they were fx from inside the DAW, doesn't consume too much cpu and also own the MCompleteBundle. Boz Digital Labs PanKnob let you pan only certain frequencies, so only frequencies selected are at the center and others panned not at 100% that let me feel secure that the song will sound good on mono.

My Mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F5QLi5 ... sp=sharing

Hello everyone, here is my mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F2Qdtu ... sp=sharing

It's a really beautiful song, thanks to the provider!

I organized the tracks in groups, considering the cello as a bass, putting the rest of the instrument tracks together in a melodic group.

I then kept the cello in mono, applied some soft optical compression to keep its dynamic intact.

I applied Nugen Audio stereoizer on the guitar and the piano, giving also a large room reverb to the guitar and a delay to the piano.

I made a sub group with the two violins track, to which I also applied the stereoizer, an optical compressor, and some mid dynamic EQ with TDR Nova sidechained from the voice around 800 Hz so that it wouldn't get in conflict with the singing track.

I kept the pizzicato tracks in mono, just panned them slightly on both sides (around 15%)

I then corrected the pitch of the voice for just a few notes, added some EQ, compression, saturation and a long plate reverb.

Cheers!

Hello everyone ! here is my proposition.
the mixing is done on Cubase pro10.5 and FocalsCMS40.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15A2INz ... sp=sharing

I wanted to keep the intimate side of the song. I tried not to distort the sound of the tracks. First, I set the gain of the tracks, corrective equalization, then pan the tracks, I grouped the violins in a stereo track. I decided to keep the singing mono.
Not much processing, for the vocals I performed a parallel compression using an 1176 followed by a La2A from Uad, I also used dual mono comps on the violins. There is also a lot of automation. I mainly used the Tsar from Softube for the reverb, sometimes directly as an insert on certain tracks. A Tubetech on each of the tracks to give a color.

good listening

Hi !
Mix : https://drive.google.com/file/d/10kWBxg ... sp=sharing

Guitars :
Vocals : little bit of tuning. 1176 compression + parallel compression when necessary. Plate Verb for "sparkling" space.
Violins : spread out of left and right. EQ and slight compression.
Cello arco : brought the lows up + filtering
Pizz : heavy filtering for the violins, less so for the cello. Slight compression.
Guitar : Added a stereo delay. Because it sounded cool. Parallel compression for in your face sound.

On everybody : short, medium and long verb for ambiance simulation.
Automation : tried to use the mouse.
Master Bus : Kotelnikov into ToTape into limiter

Hi,

Here is my mix: https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/m1yT2gtU

Preparation. First of all I eliminated unwanted frequencies from the guitar and piano track. This was done with a parametric EQ. After that I splitted the guitar track in a picking and a strumming part. Then I eliminated plobs and Esses from vocal track. This was done with splits.

Mixing. I put the guitar parts, picking and strumming, on 2 tracks, both panned left and right. Then I shifted the right channel for 9 milliseconds, to get a wide stereo image and get space for the vocals. The picking parts were setup with a VariMu compressor with a gain reduction from 7 to 12 db, to hold picking consistent in level.

Further Eqing and compressing of the tracks has nothings special. All Reverbs are timed to songtempo in length and predelay. The reverb times are quite short. I tried to get the vocals very intimate.

Hello everyone.

Mix file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZSDM4R ... sp=sharing

Documentation:

For this mix I mainly focus on the voice track, and from that track I add the rest of the racks and construct the mix.

Acoustic Guitar:
- I used a Bertom Denoiser for clean the background and ground noise on the track
- I make an post fader send to an auxiliar where I used Doubler2 with some delays and detune for make a wide and a rich sound that sum to the mono Guitar.
- The output of the track of the Ac. Guitar and the auxiliary with the doubler goes into an auxiliary where I used a Pro Q3 to cut low frequencies (areound 140Hz) and some dynamics EQing with an sidechain Signal (from the chello) in order to resalt the main frequencies of the chello without cut the low mid to the guitar and some boost reinforcement on 750Hz and 4K Hz.
- I also made some volume and panning automations in some parts of the entire track.
- And an extra send to the Reverb Auxiliary 1.

Chello:
- I used a Pro Q3 for made some sustractive & additive EQing, not something exaggerated (someting aroun +3 - 3 dB), on 142Hz (boost - mid-closed Q), 404Hz (cut, closed Q), 2.5KHz (cut - open Q).
- I used the Autopanner from Protools in order to give some movement that accompany the movement of the cello strings, it was a width of 13, sine LFO with a rate of 34.
- I also used a CLA2A to control and turn up the volume in some parts of the track.

Chello Pizz:
- I just made some volume and panning automations.

Piano:
- I used a CLA2A for reduce some peaks and turn up the volume in some parts of the track.
- I also made some volume automations.
- And an extra send to the Reverb Auxiliary 1.

Strings Piz:
- I just made some volume and panning automations.

Violin (1 + 2):
- I process the tracks of violins into an auxiliary track.
- I used A ProC2 for reduce some peaks and turn up the volume in some parts of the track, its important to say that I used a mid soft knee, fast attack and mid release and a little of hold, oversamplig x2.

Lead Vocal:
- I start with the Clip Gain tool for Protools, with some gain adjustments getting the context of all the rest of tracks, I reduce de ese's and some.
- I used a ProQ3 for made some normal and dynamic sustractive & additive EQing ir order to clean the some weird frecuencies, cut low frecuencies, control the nasal sound (around 1150Hz).
- I used a Pro-DS to finish the control of the ese's.
- I used a CLA2A for reduce some peaks and normalize the entire track.
- I used an extra ProQ3 with an bypass automation in order to clean some harsh sound that were hearble on some specific times in the track.
- I add some reverb and delay by send (I explain this on the FX Sends Section).

- And I also add 2 extra layers with a post fader send to 2 auxilaries:
* One with an Abbey Road Saturator to add some extra harmonics and power to the voice
* And another one with a Doubler2 doing more or less the same parameters and objective that in the guitar... more wideness and presence. -> This auxiliary has 2 sends, to Reverb1 and Reverb2 .

FX Send:
All the auxiliary effects had an EQ3-1Band with a low cut on 100Hz at the start of the process chain.

1. Reverb 1
- I used a Pro R with some Large Room setting cutting again the low frecuencies (1.06 s) .

2. Reverb 2
- I used a Pro R with some Chamber setting (1.45 s) .

3. Reverb 3
- I used a Pro R with some Plate setting cutting again the low frecuencies (2.03 s).
- And also I used a the D3 ExpGate from Protools to control the ending of the reverb.

4. Delay
- I used a ModDelay 3 from Protools with whites reps, sync to tempo, 30% of feedback.

Mix Bus:

- A Oz9VTape to get some tape harmonics in the entire mix.
- An dbx-160 to get some glue on the entire mix (only 2 or 3 dB of compression).
- An Schep Parallel Particles to add some warm on wide frequency ranges (mid high freq range).

Thanks,

Dave

Hi,

-I mixed it in-the-box using Cubase 11.
-Mixing consisted of balancing, minor EQ actions and adding a bit of saturation.
-Most of the work went in finding a combination of short + long reverbs /delays in order to create a natural space without the whole being
too ambient.
-No tuning on the vocal was applied to maintain the raw quality of the song.

Cheers!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgq2e67ija944 ... R.wav?dl=0