MIX CHALLENGE - MC078 July 2021 - Winners announced

[TomasRebelo]

Hello hello,


First of all, really nice song!

Below is the link for my mix version of the song Droga by Sun Followers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gpyv1I ... sp=sharing

The overall idea was do have a punchy mix on the low end and a snare that hits but stays just behind the vocals giving depth to the stereo image since the theme of the song is somewhat serious and the energy of the lead vocal is hitting hard, so it made sense for the vocal to be the one upfront slapping the listener on the face and leading the song.

A series of volume and filter automations were done to accompany the flow of the instrumental and vocals to enhance certain parts when it made sense, but everything was processed with the attempt of being as less noticeable and altered as possible, so no samples used, no tracks doubled.

I like to leave as much headroom and dynamics as it makes sense for the next stage, so the song is hitting around -23LuFS, always a good opportunity to test the “loud is better” theory.


Hybrid mix.


If you feel like having a more details don’t hesitate to ask!

Hope you like it and looking forward for some constructive feedback.



All the best for everyone and good luck

Tomás
www.deerhipsterstudios.com

[fuelrecordsjungle]

here's my submission:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pfyszvcez0obs ... e.wav?dl=0

so much fun for doing this mix,

basically I just want to keep grooving.


tech part:

mix in Pro Tools,
Scheps Omni Channel on almost all individual track,
lots parallel processing on DRUM & BASS,
Guitar Rig on guitar solo for character,
Pultec EQ and little bit clipper on mix bus.

thanks again for the forum,

regards,

J

[D.Pinck]

Thank you

[phmix]

Hi everybody.

I like this track very much. It has a good beat and variety of elements to work.
For this mix, i used 1970's groove sound as reference, featuring voices/bass/drums, basic elements of hip hop.

MIX: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VL9sUD ... sp=sharing

DRUMS: Some compression and EQ tweaking om kick/snare. Litlle boost of hi frequencies on overheads.

BASS: Compression, ressonance cut and blend of DI+non-DI sounds.

SOLO GUITAR: Little bit compression, moderate overdrive and delay.

KEYS/ORGAN: Cut lower mids and balanced both to blend.

BRASS: Pan one sax+one trumpet to right; another sax+trumpet left. Some plate reverb.

VOCALS: Freq excited above 10K. Reverb: Hall.

MASTER BUS: API 2500 + Aphex Exciter.

Thank you guys!
Paulo Heitor (PHMix)

[LughSenderson]

Hi everyone, really cool music.

I approached the mix in a more simplistic way, I was wanting to try the ssl channel strip v2 and the compressor bus V2, so all my EQ and compression was done with them.

All channel compression was fast attack and release and pre-eq, seeking 6-12dB of gain reduction. No bus out attack 1ms automatic release, sometimes reaching 8dB of reduction.

With the exception of the kick drum, where I subtract about 10db around 200hz, the equalization was additive in all instruments. I greatly increased the treble and mid-highs, reaching +15db around 10khz on vocals.

On the kick and snare, I used a bit of the channel strip expander.

On vocals I used eiosis e2deesser.

I used many effects, being 5 Relab LX480 reverbs, “room” (drums), a plate for guitars, a hall for keys, another plate with 100ms pre delay for vocals and one last, a personal setup for horns. There was also a personal delay setting on the lx480, cla echosphere, and two eventide h3000 factory, dual 949 and longleading presets. I sent the lead guitar to all these of them, plus the plate reverbs for the guitars and the hall.

I drew on the transition effects of the original mix, but with a personal approach.

I abused the automations on vocals and bass.

Hope you like it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ic0ybc ... sp=sharing

[Vanilla Puff]

Hi guys.
I found out about this community couple days ago, and got to say, this is amazing.
Anyway, about the mix. When I listened to the original soundtrack, immediately knew what I'm going to do with it.
First of all, I wanted to make everything more upfront, right in my face, more open and a bit more low end. Fell in love with chorus vocals, so I decided to make it similar to original, but more of the "throaty" sound there.
Started with Kick drum. Wanted smashing, pronounced, detailed and consistent. For this I used a gate, to remove background noise, Low cut with high dB/oct to resonate the low frequencies and make them more sustained. Saturated, increased attack with transient shaper and gated again, some eq to make it hit "in the back of the throat". Glued with very light parallel compression with snare hits and Overs.
For Bass guitar some compression, eq and sidechain to duck the kick about 6db.
Same for guitars, but more saturation. and 6db sidechain from kick as well.
For piano ott, organ just a slight eq to gentle out the 2nd harmonic.
Now was the fun part, because I wanted sax and trumpets hit right in my face and cut through the mix. So I panned them, cut low dirt and some high cut. Lots of saturation, compression, rebalancing eq and then some more saturation at about 3k. They duck the kick as well.
Vocals. I know Polish is c,z,s heavy so obviously de essing at the beginning. Although I have to say, the recording material was amazing. Next was some eq to cut some low dirt and the highest frequencies. Gentle compression to mix them and make it consistent with the add lib vocals. Used manual flange to use as a riser before the choruses.
I found that the original recording had too much reverb for my taste, so mine is slightly more in the back and duck the material that is being sent.
Took final listen on other devices that I know will translate well across the board and compared to the original. Was happy that my sound was more open and right in the face, because that was my original aim. Got to say that after listening to maybe a half of entrants here, they did a great job on the mixes. I hope to see you all in the future.

And please do criticize my work, I'm eager to hear what you think!

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KXpqTy ... sp=sharing
TP max -5.6 dB
-17.8 LUFS Integrated
24bit/44khz

Edit: forgot to mention it was mixed with CTZ technique for cleaner loudness for later mastering stage.

[Ozgen Sabuncu]

Lindell 50 channel strip for all chanells

drums paralled with distressor.

rap vocals doubled. And processed with izotope nectar.

lots of automation.

horns saturated and reverberated with room and spring reverbs. for vintage vibe.

I didnt fade out song. I leave it to mastering process.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18UCeG6 ... sp=sharing

[Mister Fox]

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.

And something I have to address, because now this is technically a re-upload (not the first in this thread either) and doesn't offer a chance to use a Wild Card anymore.

See:
Mix Challenge - Addendum: Wild Card Mechanic (Test Run until AUG-2021)


So please... especially to our new participants:
Please read the Rules and Guidelines for Participants of the Mix(ing) Challenge before posting your mix. Thank you

[jeffssoloband]

Dear @Los_ady, Sun Followers, and the MC community,

Please find my entry for MC078 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8km657oddbmc ... d.wav?dl=0

Here we go again, indeed. Not gonna lie, this style is out of my wheelhouse, but here it is my mix anyway.

I tried to keep the vocals on top of the mix with the background hits giving little bumps.

The individual drums are just EQ'd to carve out their spaces, and compressed. And the drum buss has a pumping parallel compressor blended in. I ran the whole thing through a telephone effect at 1:57 for a couple of bars for drama.

I hit the bass with kind of a lot of saturation to beef it up a bit.

Guitars, piano, and organ are all fairly liberally high-passed, and each are hit with an aural exciter.

Horns are run alongside a tape delay to fill them out a bit.

Thats about it. Thank you for listening, and for your consideration.

Best regards,
Jeff (jeffssoloband)

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !
Very thankful for the oppurtunity and here is what i've done:

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

DRUMS acoustic:
Drum Bus - Thrillseeker VBL (light compression + trafo processing), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)
D16 Decimort 2 (1st drum break) / Audio Damage Dubstation (2nd drum break)

Kick - Waves CLA Drums with hard gate, Black Rooster Audio VEQ-1P with PulTech kick trick at 30Hz
Snare - Waves CLA Drums, adding some compression, EQ in highs and lot of hall
Overheads - Waves CLA Drums

BASS:
Bus: Overloud Gem EQ550, Waves Scheps 73 (clean bass), Focusrite Red 3 kompressor,GVST GMonoBass for mono frequencies below 150Hz
D16 Syntorus (chorus) in choruses and horn parts

Bass amped: Plugin Alliance Ampeg SVTR (funky rock)
Bass DI: Plugin Alliance Ampeg SVTR (just bass)

RHYTHM GUITAR
Black Rooster Audio Cypress TT-15 clean, Soundtoys Microshift,Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing), Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 500Hz/10kHz

SOLO GUITAR
Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 250Hz/15kHz
SEND -> Plugin Alliance bx_yellowdrive
Bus - Variety Of Sound Slick HDR multicomp (bright), Black Rooster Audio BlueAsh SC-5 comp, Kuassa basiQ EQ (smile), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)

KEYS
Organ: Nomad Bus Driver for more crunch
Keys: Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 150Hz/15kHz, Plugin Alliance brainworks bx_console N

BRASS
all tracks panned differently and with Klevgrand DAW Casette for some Lower Fi feel
BUS: Waves TG12345 console, Thrillseeker VBL, Overloud GEM Dopamine exciter, Eventide Stereo Room 2016,Acustica Audio Celestial console for saturation

FX
Riser - endorphine compressor
Riser (made, 2nd break) - keys chord inverted, Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 150Hz/15kHz, Plugin Alliance brainworks bx_console N, u-he Protoverb (wide room)

VOCALS
Arab vocals - panned -16 / 0 / +16 with track no.1 in the middle, Waves CLA Vocals
Main vocals - Waves CLA Vocals
Ad Libs -
BUS: endorphine compressor, Luftikus EQ ading some 20k air
track 1 - Waves RVox, Voxengo Stereo Touch
track 2 - Waves MannyM Tone Shaper, Waves Brauer Motion
track 3 - Voxengo Stereo Touch, WA Vocal Splitter

Overall a lot of volume automation

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

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

WAV 24bit/44kHz, round 2,5 dB headroom / loudness -16,3 LUFS

Good succes everybody !