Mix Challenge

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 24 hours left to submit your edit for Mix Round 2

Here's my revision. Thanks for the feedback and for the music. Hope this one does the trick.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Uqd1Y ... QsjFGtoiBo

Thanks Jorge for the out-of-the contest feedback

Appreciate

My mp3
https://mega.nz/#!0yYXCZzC!SdsByjY03aeP ... odhXgALf3A

It's the 4th June 2018, 1:30am - the 2nd Mix Round has officially ended.

Sadly, not all participants have sent in their edits. (missing entry from: Davidpaulpaige)
Please check your upload links again, and have an eye on this thread for the final results.



I'm now opening up the room (again) for Q&A's and giving each other feedback (which is highly encouraged)
Both the Mix Challenge 44 and Songwriting Competition 10 are in full swing. Also don't forget to check out the Remix Challenge 02

See you on the flipside.

Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I'm working on it, it's just that I'm not having much time and I cannot be tired to listen to your work or otherwise I won't judge correctly and fairly. I will finish with it this week and we will have the results in a few days.

Hi,

So, finally the wait is over! I'm sorry about the delay but I couldn't really work on this until now (just finished a final exam). Here are the final reviews:


Marc clement: It’s a pity because the pianos and melodies sound great, but there seems to be more than one plane to the depth of the song, I will try to explain: In the trance part, the clap sounds out of the space in which the rest of the elements are. I think it’s a mix of volume and lack of reverb/compression, but I’m not sure about it. The tempo transition is much better, I like it a lot now, I can’t really figure out where it is

Dwic: Nice balance with everything, like in your first iteration of the mix, it’s pretty good. Fine tuning, I’d say the claps (especially in the trance part) are a bit loud but not much. You got the transition better than the first time, but I think you messed up a bit the tempo transition, the 128 BPM is in the trance section and the 130 in the house one, and it should be the other way around. It’s just a matter of energy, trance structures get a bit more “trance feeling” if they are a bit sped up, while house tends to be more relaxed, specially with the piano arrangement and everything.

MOA22: Maybe the kick is a bit loud, I can’t turn up the volume enough to hear the rest of the elements without getting too much of it. Maybe it’s because it has a pretty loud click, too. The delay and reverb play, along with their automations, is pretty nice and I love it. The drums in the house part are also too low in volume, and I cannot crank it up either because the M1 organ bass is also very present.

Mork: Cool overall sound, the pumping is much better now, controlled and pretty natural. I don’t really have anything too big to say. Maybe I would have made the open hi hat more obvious in some parts but it would have been just a little nudge in the volume fader, really. Have you used a compressor/limiter on the mix buss? It does sound tight in some parts (not good nor bad, just curious).

Nonlinear: Not much to say, either. The mix sounds very balanced in volumes and in the stereo. The filter automation in the transition is a nice custom touch, I like it. Still, the whole mix sounds a bit squashed - did you use a compressor in the master buss? I normalized all the tracks to 0 LU (automatically by Reaper SWS) and the peak volume is lower than in the rest of the submissions. It’s a pity because it loses a bit of punchiness and dynamics.

Olli H: Possibly the most powerful kick and bass of all, the trance part is pretty nicely done. You made the transition much better but the house part still lacks energy and groove, even if it gets better when the rest of the percussion and open hi hats enter. I really enjoy the mix of the drums though, especially the clap which is, in my opinion, really nailed.

VasDim: I don’t know about you but I think the melodic parts are too far away (probably just a problem of volume) in the trance section, although the kick and the bass pumping is good. There is also not a lot of pumping in the rest of instruments, and that makes the mix lose a bit of groove. Still the trance part is nice, unfortunately the house part is still lacking a bit of energy from the pryda snare transition.

SRMix (Out of contest): Much better than your first mix! Now I can hear the rest of the elements of the mix. Even if the overall balance is still a bit off it’s a good improvement over the first one, and a step in the good direction. There are two things I would like to remark, though: Check the volumes and effects in the kick because it’s clipping somewhere. Maybe it’s an intentional effect but it could also be caused by a compressor, saturator or the mix limiter. Also, The piano in the house part is heavily filtered (with a high resonance, I mean), it did sound nice in the transition but afterwards (in the house part) maybe it would have sounded better if the filter was a bit more open.


I tried to review as much as I could but this time the competitors were closer in sound and there is really not much to say apart from "I like how this sounds" or "I don't like it" without trying to dissect the mix (not knowing how it was done).


The final podium is:

1st - Mork
2nd - Marc clement
3rd - Nonlinear

Congratulations to Nonlinear, Marc clement and Mork for the win; VasDim, MOA22, Dwic and Nonlinear for the finals, and thanks a lot SRMix, Dodgingrain, Giri IS, Kevin Gobin, KevinWhite, Piranha, Saras, Wizzo and Davidpaulpaige for participating! See you around soon

Jorgeelalto wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 15, 2018 20:43 CEST

Congrats to the winners. Mork's mix is indeed awesome.

Thank you @Jorgeelalto for the precious feedbacks and the very cool song.
I have a question please. What headphones model did you use to check the mixes (apart from others media, I mean)
I am around for one pair and would like to know which one you used. (I mix with speakers, anyway)

Thanks!

SRMix wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 16, 2018 00:33 CEST

Jorgeelalto wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 15, 2018 20:43 CEST

Congrats to the winners. Mork's mix is indeed awesome.

Thank you @Jorgeelalto for the precious feedbacks and the very cool song.
I have a question please. What headphones model did you use to check the mixes (apart from others media, I mean)
I am around for one pair and would like to know which one you used. (I mix with speakers, anyway)

Thanks!

I mainly work with a pair of Alesis Elevate 3 (speakers) connected to a JBL subwoofer, not the best situation to mix and hear stuff but it works, specially after having hear so many references (music you know has been mixed and sounds professional). The pair of headphones I use are a Fostex TH-5W, although I don't use them a lot (mostly to check final mixes and bass levels). To be honest they are not the most impressive pair of headphones but they are comfortable and the sound is nice enough for 60$, not too much highs although the bass is really present (at least for electronic music).

Yaay, I'm stoked and really didn't expect that!

Jorgeelalto wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 15, 2018 20:43 CEST

Mork: Cool overall sound, the pumping is much better now, controlled and pretty natural. I don’t really have anything too big to say. Maybe I would have made the open hi hat more obvious in some parts but it would have been just a little nudge in the volume fader, really. Have you used a compressor/limiter on the mix buss? It does sound tight in some parts (not good nor bad, just curious).

Pumping is done by the awesome mpressor, tuned to be groovin' (slightly different settings for each part). I've simply backed off a few dbs for round 2.
I know what you mean with the HiHat. I played around with that, volume- and eq-wise, but in the end really liked it back there and not ruin the "bigness".
Regarding the tightness: I am one of those "mix through the Buss Comp" guys and I have an Alpha Comp in M/S and FF mode and a C4 (only for 1.6k and up) on the MixBuss, but they are only doing 2db max each and are definitely not responsible for any thightness. It's more of an EQ thing. I've just opened the session to look for the MixBuss processing an had a listen again,then I listened to the first best PsyTrance playlist on Spotify... and there is the tightness That's where it's coming from. You can easily go overboard in the sub register with this kind of music and it still feels good, but I know for a fact that Club PAs and big Sound Reinforcement Systems do the heavy lifting for you. But after getting some distance I think you're right and a little extra thump wouldn't hurt.

I didn't have the time to listen to a lot of other mixes, but I have to say that (man, how do I do this @someone thing, I'm too old) wizzos clap reverb blew me away! I've been afraid and jealous at the same time and then shocked and relieved, that he didn't make it to round 2
So wizzo: how you did it is easy, but how did you come up with that? My guess would be by accident, but I am really curious and have to admit: I really wanted to steal it!

Cheers
Mork

Edit: Ok, 1) I listended to a bunch of other mixes and 2) I forgot my pick.
I think I've won because I STILL almost hit my head on the desk while listening through the transition to the House Drop and I know the dancefloor would be whistling. That is, of course, because I am german and we all are Kraftwerk But the "magic" behind it is really quite simple: It's a buss, where everything runs through except the snare roll and maybe the noises (but the main, squeeky riser does). The buss is filtered by a moogy filter (suggested to me by a user here, dave or dodgingrain I think) followed by an H-Delay on 1/8D to give it some depth. That's it. Give the drop the volume that's needed and you're there. All in all this production needed not a lot of processing on it.

My pick would be the Black Rooster stuff.

Cheers again
Mork again

First and foremost, congratulations to the winners!

The Winners Podium is
1) Mork
2) Marc clement
3) Nonlinear


We perform with the usual - please select one license out of the pool (in order of the winners podium) and mention it in this thread, then (important) get in touch with me via PM with your full name and mail address.

I'll update the "winners podium" thread shortly.

Thanks again for your participation. You can leave the thread alive if you want to exchange tips/tricks, edits, etc.
MC44 is in full swing - see you over there!



To the songwriters among us, the Songwriting Competition 10 is also up and running. You can find it here:
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11

And let's not forget the Remix Challenge 02 - deadline is in less than 48 hours
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10