MIX CHALLENGE - MC081 October 2021 - Winners announced

[odistdan]

This track is so nice to hear and i am grateful to have mixed this.

-1.1 Peak level, no Limiter

Here’s how I approached the mix.


I recently Subscribed to Slate Virtual Mix Rack so I went with it on this mix. I am not happy with the Noise VBC Rack compressors induce I might fight alternates.



Mix Bus:
Pro Q 3 with low shelf boost by 1 db with dynamic compression of -2 db to give the mix glue and bounce.

Drums Bus:
 Pro Q 3: Dynamic boost at 35Hz and high shelve boost of 1.5 db with dynamic cut of 3 dB.
I like how my eq bounces also it gives drums glue compression while expanding kick.

Virtual Mix Rack: Transformer, and FG stress with 3:1 compression.
Native Instrument super changer compressor for punch blended only 40%

Kick:
Pro Q: cut at 200 hz by 8 dB and boost at 6k by 2.3 db.

Soundtoys SieQ high knob set to -12 to reduce drum leaks.

pro Q: boost at 78 by 3 db, cut at 470 by 3 db, dynamic upward compression at 6k.

Bitter sweet Transient Designer for extra click.

TDR Kotelnikov subtle limiting by 1 to 2 db. It has this sort of packed effect which blends all previous processing.

Snare Bus:


Snare bottom is phase flipped and there is no other processing on individual tracks. 

Snare bus however, has high cut at 118 hz.

Virtual Mix Rack: FG-S EQ 3 db cute at 6 hz, 2 db cut at 330 hz, 235hz 5 db boost, 2 db boost at 10 k, VCC channel, FG-N EQ -5db at 551, 2 db boost at 2.5k, FG-S narrow cut at 7k bu 1.6 db, FG Stress subtle compressor of 2:1, Revival shimmer boost by 6.80, -1.25 db overall trim.

Saturn: only above 660hz warm transformer 60% wet.

Hi hat: 
Pro Q 3 and RoughRider Comp to tame harsh peaks.

Toms:
Toms were really fun to mix, 
ProQ, LowCut at 30hz and 4db dip at 372, 

SieQ: 700 hz 2 db cut, Low boost by 7db,

Virtual Mix Rack: Brit N Transformer.
Pro Q 3 480hz cut by 7 db.

ShapeShifter by aberrent dsp to bring out more punch in toms and reduce boxiness then transient shaper. 

Same processing on 2nd tom with reagate but different EQ cuts and no transient shaper as I am using Revival.

Overheads Bus: FG-Neve and Revival with VBC Compressor, Only eq on single channels.

Drum Room: VBC compressor on Drum Room no Eq.



Bass: Saturn warn saturation style 0% Drive 100% mix oversampling enabled.
Saturn Clean Tape Style 27% drive, 100% Mix.

MJUCjr compressor with slow setting.
Virtual mix Rack FG 401 compressor, Revival, FG Neve, Custom EQ, 1176 compressor, 

Pro Q 3 Dip a 200.

Waves Bass Rider.


Guitar Bus:
Saturn: smooth amp 20%
Saturn Clean Tupe 50%
Saturn Warm tube 38%

Virtual mix rack: Brik 4k Transformer, FG- S 240 boost by 1 db, FG stress 4:1 compressionby 2 to 3 db, Thickness by revival Idea is to fill low mids where bass isnt prominent.

ProQ 3 side chain dynamic eq against vocals.

NI solid bus compressor by 3:1, 50% active slow attack fast release and Voxengo sample delay by 0.2 db for depth.

Sable Guitar 02: Saturn Clean tube style 10%, 
 Pro q 3 Gentle cuts,
FG-N 400 cut by 0.5 db, boost at 3.4k by 1 db, FG stress 2:1 subtle fast compression, and revival thickness and shimmer.
Pro q 3 18kz high cut with 96 db seting.
Saturn smooth amp 20%

Sable Guitar 03: Pro Q to cuts in low mids.
Same Virtual mix rack setting
Pro Q brick wall highcut at 10khz,
Saturn Smooth Amp 20%
Saturn: British rock amp automated for Distorted part.

Vocals:

DC1A compressor on default setting.
Pro Q Weird EQ please refer the image.
VMR VCC channel transformer and Custom OPTO
Saturn: Clean tube 26%
Saturn: Clean tape 20%
Elosis de esser

FX:


Guitar reverb: Seventh Heaven: Rooms studio B
Snare Plate: Arturia REV plate 140 long decay 100% Drive.
Vocal Plate Seventh heaven
Chamber Reverb: Seventh heaven
Echoboy jr: with 343 ms custom setting on vocals

Snare Gated Reverb: ReaVerberate 50 room size and dampened.



Please find the images attached.

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

Please find song attached.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19PqZmZ ... sp=sharing









[TobbeLeffler]

Mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7glfs4zr86xz1 ... r.wav?dl=0

I've been following this forum for some time. But I've never been able to send in a mix even if I made one. However....

This is the first time I've turned something in.

I have some sort of Andrew Scheps template I've been working on for 2-3 years. Everything go through this.

Drums:On the general channels it's compression and EQ- Parallel channels are some compression and some saturation. I copied the bass drum and put it on a Sansamp channel. Most of the brightness of the snare come from parallel channels. There might be too much snare bottom to my taste

Bass:Copied it to a distorted channel. Compressed together.

Guitars: I spit it up into original, distorted, dreamy part yo be able to process it differently. Dreamy part has some movement.

Rear bus: On this track all tracks but the drums go to the rear bus. The rear bus is just a 1176 ducking the worst of the vocals.

Vocalsa: Some compression and some eq. This goes out to reverb, delay, spread. There's also a parallel LA2 super compressing the midrange, I'm super happy about the vocal.

This is a static mix. No automation anywhere. I'm quite happy with it. I like the drums to be organic and not so larger than life.I love the vocal even in the dreamy part where there are some automation in terms of FX.

Please tell me of the file can't be downloaded.

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !
Not yet another usual genre to mix Great challenge !

Specs:
Tracks set to 0 VU. Izotope Neutrino and NLS Channel (Neve) on every instrument bus.

DRUMS
Overloud GEM EQ550, Thrhillseeker VBL vintage comp, TB Sibilance de-esser
Kick: Waves CLA Drums, Pultec Kick trick
Snare: bx_console N
HiHat: bx_console N
Toms: Waves CLA Drums, SPL De-Verb Plus
OH, Room: Waves CLA Drums, TB Sibilance

BASS
Audio Assault Bass Grinder, in parts with Kjaerhus Classic Chorus, Pultec bass trick, Overloud GEM EQ550 (for clarity), Waves Scheps 73 EQ, Focusrite Red 3 comp

VOCAL:
smartEQ2 (sonible), TB Sibilance, Waves CLA Vocals, Waves Brauer Motion (one part), Waves VLA-3A comp
SEND to u-he Protoverb for extra reverb in places

GUITARS:
Cindy clean - bx_bluechorus, SEND to epicVerb (Stage) panned opposite
David clean - bx_rockrack ENGL clen, SEND to epicVerb (Stage) panned opposite
David riff - bx_rockrack US crunch, DJ Swivel Spread, ReaEQ (hi-pass)
David lead/solo - bx_rockrack UK crunch
Phazor on clean guitars in "double time pace" part

Drum, vocal and guitars groups are also send to "fake room" track with Acustica Silver (adjusted Chiesa di San Camillo room)

Master Bus:
NLS Bus (Neve) analog summing, Acustica CoralEQ (pulling down 350 Hz a bit),Waves TG12345 console with subtle EQ, Density MkII compressor (summing), Toneboosters ReelBus tape sim, Toneboosters Sibilance, Charly Limited analog gain

Metering: Toneboosters TB_Barricade, Youlean Loudness Meter

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QPhvD3 ... sp=sharing

WAV 24bit/48kHz, round 3,6 dB headroom / loudness -16,4 LUFS

Good succes everybody !

[mattaroni_and_cheese]

Hi everyone,

Another case of working just blowing up again and now I think I'm late by a few minutes (I'm several time zones away). If so no problem I will accept my rejection but at least wanted to share the output of all my work and hopefully get some peer feedback on it. So for the next competition I will tell myself I only have 7 days for it

I really enjoy the music we get here, it's an honor to work with it. For this song really the biggest challenge was the printed effects on David's track, so every section got moved to a new track where I could treat it a bit differently. He and Cindy also got brand new amps, and David got some cool new fx pedals tool.

Next biggest challenge was levels, really 90% of the work spent getting everything more even without crushing it with comp - in fact little comp was used in the total project. Lots of normalizing tricks, clip gain, automating, muting mic bumps etc. As an example, very sweet bass run in the beginning got bumped up a bit. Other than this honestly no magic to the processing I did. I did struggle to get the kick through, but while this is technically Math it also has a great Latin Jazz vibe to it also, so I didn't want the drums to be too prominent and like "in your face" rock style.

Work was split about 75/25 Reaper/Logic (needed those AMP au's). I was originally going to try to be cheeky and do things like set comp ratio's to 3.14192 just so I could write it up, but in the end I'm really bad at Maths : )

Hope you enjoy it, look forward to the feedback and hearing everyone else's mixes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fx9J0k ... sp=sharing

[mattaroni_and_cheese]

link works fine - and tight mix !!

Mix: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7glfs4zr86xz1 ... r.wav?dl=0

Please tell me of the file can't be downloaded.

[Mister Fox]

It is the 22nd October 2021, 00:55 UTC+2/CEST - the first Mix Round has officially ended

Another very warm welcome to all new participants. As usual, a huge thank you to everyone that is spreading the word about the Mix Challenge. Please help get the Songwriting Competition as popular (less than 3 days left).


STATISTICS:

• If I didn't miscount, we have 44 submissions this month (44 prior to the deadline, 46 after the deadline)
• We have 1 submissions after the deadline (as of 23-OCT-2021 10:15 UTC+2/CEST)
• We have 0 submissions that could not be downloaded by the time of this post and is therefore disqualified (but a warning to @Michael_K -- you've used WeTransfer, which only stores files for 7 days)
• We have 0 submissions not submitted in public, but via PM (see Rule Book, post #6, Upload and Submission Guidelines)
• We have 0 submissions that have been withdrawn (but counts as entry within the deadline)
• Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters? (PDF - updated: 23-OCT-2021, full sheet)
• Overview of Submissions (disqualifications only) (PDF - updated: 23-OCT-2021)

INFORMATION:
Statistic sheets have been updated (on 23-OCT-2021 10:15 UTC+2/CEST)
Statistic sheets are not available yet, please wait for the official announcement post -- sheets will arrive by mid 25-OCT-2021 latest
.


INFORMATION:

Please take note of the announcement of (officially) implementing both the Wild Card Mechanic and the Statistic Sheet.

You can find that post in the "News and Announcements" section:
Mix Challenge - changes to main game (September 2021)

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	Important Update: As of MC081, and in consultation with our Song Provider, I am implementing the following for the Evaluation Process. As of MC081 / October, the Song Provider will... either - give feedback to 15 participants (Top 15). These entries will also go into Mix Round 2. There will be no more tiers, as in: 10, 12, 15 or even up to 20 participants for the next mixing round. or - give feedback to every participant, no matter the participation amount (no matter if 30, 50, or more than 100 contestants) Song Providers can now decide from the start, or once the Statistics Sheet has been provided, which route to go. However, there will be no in-between handling anymore. Our Song Provider for this month, @salvadorcassis, decided on going the "Top 15" route. On the topic of "feedback by the Song Provider is not guaranteed": please be aware that the Mix Challenge is already handling the game way different compared to other competitions out there. It is therefore highly encouraged to interact, give some words of encouragement to each other, and/or engage in a conversation how sound ABC was achieved. For more information on this, please check in with the Ruled and Guidelines (post #6), especially the paragraph on "Giving feedback to each other". The Mix Challenge - changes to main game (September 2021) thread will be properly updated over the weekend (22-OCT-2021 to 25-OCT-2021). The Rule Book on the "Mix Challenge" will be updated within October 2021, with Addendum threads will follow during Q4 2021.

.


I now open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however.


Please watch this spot for the statistics sheet, client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.

Good luck to all participants.





The Songwriting Competition 50 (SWC50) is still in full swing.
The deadline is 24th October 2021, 23:59 UTC+2/CEST. The genre is "Free to select" (with a fairly upbeat general theme). So far we have 4 entries.

Please spread the word!

[Ronson79]

Oh shit...I´m too late, right?
We have the Friday the 22th of October here in Germany. I thought that this day is included to provide a mix. Guess I´m wrong...

If there´s an exception or wild card or anything ....here´s my mix.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RP49w7 ... sp=sharing

thx

[Mister Fox]

Yes, you're sadly way past the deadline, @Ronson79 -- but I'm in the middle of preparing the Statistics Sheet. I can at least add you there.

Else, please revert to my last post on the topic of feedback.
And for the future: the Global Countdown Timer (synced to Central Europe)

[Mister Fox]

The "Overview of Submissions" PDFs have been uploaded.
You can check them through the upper post (post #101).



As officially announced here earlier this month (September 2021), this data sheet is used to give an overview of all entries, and whether or not they are within given parameters (loudness, sampling rate, bitrate). This is adding to the overall learning process of the "Mix(ing) Challenge", and there will be a dedicated "Mix Challenge Addendum thread" explaining the mechanic in even more detail in the foreseeable future (I need some time for that). Please take note that creating this sheet is not a fully automated process. I am using Wavelab 10's "Batch Analysis" tool (EBU R-128 specs / equivalent to ITU-R BS.1770-4), but the overall layout and highlighting issues/mishaps, is time consuming. If you do not find yourself on this list, please let me know.


We have a disqualification rate of 15,90% for October 2021 (44 entries, 7 disqualifications, 2 "Out of Competition" submissions).

In comparison to previous months (detailed in spoiler tags):

► Show Spoiler

• September 2021 (24,00%, 75 entries, 18 disqualifications)
• August 2021 (20,45%, 44 entries, 9 disqualifications)
• July 2021 (20,34%, 59 entries, 12 disqualifications)
• June 2021 (26,08%, 46 entries, 12 disqualifications)
• May 2021 (22,73%, 66 entries, 15 disqualifications)
• April 2021 (24,59%, 61 entries, 14 disqualifications)
• March 2021 (25,64%, 39 entries, 10 disqualifications)
• February 2021 (35,05%, 77 entries, 27 disqualifications)
• December 2020 (22,67%, 75 entries, 17 disqualifications)
• November 2020 (31,15%, 61 entries, 19 disqualifications)
• October 2020 (33,70%, 92 entries, 31 disqualifications)
• September 2020 (32,60%, 46 entries, 15 disqualifications)
• August 2020 (28,57%, 35 entries, 10 disqualifications)
• July 2020 (40,37%, 109 entries, 44 disqualifications)

On average (15 months), we currently have a disqualification rate of 26,92% (compared to last month's 27,71% avg), the rate is on a decline.

Please keep in mind, your mix being tagged "disqualified", does not automatically mean "you're out of the game" (see Wild Card Mechanic, read more about that below).




A commentary on this month's entries:

Once more welcome to all new participants that joined this October. I hope you enjoy your stay and you will learn something from this experience.

It also makes me really happy, that we have no non-working downloads this time around (although submitting through WeTransfer is not good!), and we only have 7 entries with slight mishaps. By that I mean, 2 entries that are not within loudness specs, 2 with have no written documentation, two entries that were in 32bit instead of 24bit (wrong bitrate), and one which was in 44,1kHz (wrong sampling rate). That is a huge improvement!

I would still love to read more about what you enjoyed with each particular challenge, what you took a closer loo at, focus on one specific sound you're proud creating/modeling. The documentation part is not only to learn "total recall" methods, but for the overall community experience, the learning aspect, sharing knowledge. I would love to see this improve in the future. In fact, I will address this a bit more clearly in a new FAQ point in the Rule Book. The update will arrive the next days.
.


Important to point out (for all new participants): :

Unless your file couldn't be downloaded, or it has been re-uploaded/re-posted during the course of the main submission round, having your entry being tagged as "disqualified" does not mean that you're completely out of the game (yet). Should you be selected for Mix Round 2 by this month's "client" (Song Provider), you have the option to advance through the use of the Wild Card Mechanic.

Please don't be frustrated but rather learn from the experience, find out what went wrong, and use your possible chance to fix this in a follow-up round. This is why the concept of the "Statistics Sheet" and "Wild Card mechanic" exists. It offers you an additional learning factor. Something you usually do not have the chance to outside of this community's monthly competition.
.




I now (re-)open the field for everyone to give each other feedback (highly encouraged). This will be independent to the client feedback however. Though please note - criticism on the rule set and angry posts will be moved to the General Gossip Thread without further notice.


Please watch this spot for the client feedback and Mix Round 2 participant announcement.
This will happen sometime within the next 14 days (starting tomorrow).

[Ronson79]

Yes, you're sadly way past the deadline, @Ronson79 -- but I'm in the middle of preparing the Statistics Sheet. I can at least add you there.

Else, please revert to my last post on the topic of feedback.
And for the future: the Global Countdown Timer (synced to Central Europe)

So it seems it´s possible to get back in via Wild Card if the song provider picks my mix, right?

In your description of the Wild Card Mechanics it says "has been submitted after the deadline of Mix Round 1 "