MIX CHALLENGE - MC098 June 2024 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[Hoek]

Hi Y'all!
Nice one this, here's my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAgbjA ... sp=sharing

Despite the rather cold subject matter I aimed for a slightly warmer mix than the original.

it's a 100% in the box mix, Using Reaper.

The drums sounded a little too programmed to me so I altered the volume on induvidual hits ( Kick and Stick) and reduced the attack of the kick using Transient designer. I also created a fake drum room track using UAD ocean way. The whole drum package got treated with Tape saturation and some compression, both as an insert and in paralell. Plate reverb on snare and toms.

Bass got some ampsim blended with the di (Ampeg SVTVR) 1176 style compression and some 60hz, 1k and 1.5K boost. cut some 300 and 600. Tape saturation here too.

Guitars were warmed up some using UAD woodworks plugin (Left track) and Soundtoys radiator (Right track) gtrs are panned 80% Cut low mid and boosted high mids and high. (big cut at 740 hz, also 1391hz) Slightly compressed.

piano was high passed at 107 hz and boosted at 200 and 1.4k. sent to a room reverb. probably took out some 500 hz.

Vocals, Tape saturation, cuts at 667 hz, 3161 hz and 9500 hz. Further taming using soothe 2, then reintroduced some precense at 4700 hz and a high shelf at 16 k using uad Massive passive. Compressed with La2a/ 1176 combo. deessing. An Echoboy provides a subtle stereo delay, 180 ms and 220 ms respectively. And then off to the same 2s plate as snare and toms.

Bg vocals are all panned and sent to a group, compressed using UAD Neve 33609 and eqd and a similar stereo delay as the lead vox, only more. Plate also.

Master bus is treated with Tape saturation and compression (uad Ampex and Neve 33609) a db 100 hz from uad pultec and a tiny 1.5 db dip at 205 hz with the pro Q. Theres no Limiter on the master.

There was a load of automation throughout on just about all tracks and groups.

Very Intresting song, hope someone nails the mix! Best of wishes to everyone here!

/H

[DIVESPANNER]

Thank You very much for taking the time to listen and for some very detailed feedback it is very much appreciated and I'll
try out your suggestions

[BenjiRage]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0d8xy9g ... gr3nj&dl=0
I would appreciate any comments about my mix good bad or indifferent all comments are gratefully received especially if I'm translating to speakers well It sounds ok to me on the real phones test but it is nice to have a bit of clarification
many thanks to all and good luck.

Hey dude,

I can't really comment on the ins and outs of RealPhones as it's not a tool I've used before, although as zed999 pointed out, mixing on headphones especially when too loud can mean you lose perspective on the balance of things - I also think that the guitar and piano are very quiet in your mix. The crashes on the other hand are waaaaay too loud.

The most important element of the mix though, the vocals, are actually pretty good; you've got a nice stereo spread, they're nice and clear and the harshness is well tamed but not overly so (like others have done by de-essing too much), so nice job here

All the best

Benji

[DIVESPANNER]

Thanks for taking the time to listen I'll try and see what's going on with my crashes it's not the first time I've been told they're too loud so thanks for that I seem to have a problem hearing them so must be turning up to compensate.
Thanks for the comments on the vocals had comments about boxyness in the past so glad I'm improving on that.
All the best and good luck.

[DSBotez]

Hello Everyone,
Here is the link to my submission:Submission

Thanks to the artist and admin for creating this engaging oppertunity


Much of what I focused on was the vocals; getting it to sound bright but not too sibilant.
I ended up using some dynamic EQ and cuts followed by exciters.

Piano was also tricking, and while I always like to cut out a lot of the low end, it was quite crucial to making it sound full.

I also used a mic emulator to place a ribbon mice with close proximity to the kick drum while adding some live/room sound to the drums.
I also had some work done smoothing out the tom hits. (always feel like I can do better with their panning)

[scottfitz]

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0d8xy9g ... gr3nj&dl=0

Hi
Thanks again for a wonderful song to mix I really enjoyed this one

After reading our song providers notes I decided to try to make this as sad and angry song as I could so I've veered away from the demo somewhat but I hope our provider enjoys my version at the very least.

I decided to have a go at some effects so I've made up a Roboverb comprising of Presonus Limiter, eq pro, Grove Delay, Binaural panner, PA-BX, Vertigo VSM, Vertigo VSC, Townhouse compressor,bxDyna eqv2, and Klanghelm TENS reverb which I have heavily automated with all sorts of combinations of sends volum pans delay decay times metal and wosh basically if it could be automated it was I've tried to have them well blended so as not to defer from the song and hope its one of those things that aren't noticed until its not there

I have just added Desonic RealPhones to my system which I'm trying to get used to with my new headphones and the sound difference is quite drastic to the amount of low-end I'm adding which is quite disconcerting
I would appreciate any comments about my mix good bad or indifferent all comments are gratefully received especially if I'm translating to speakers well It sounds ok to me on the real phones test but it is nice to have a bit of clarification
many thanks to all and good luck.

Hi Divespanner,
You've already been given some great feedback, but add to this the following. Sometimes it's not the equipment which is the main problem. What you can do to bypass a lot of equipment problems is referencing. By this I don't mean just listen to some similar music from time to time in between mixing and compare. I mean like ruthless referencing, making switches back and forth all the time between your mix and other mixes. Often the demo mix on Mix Challenge is adequate as a starting point, or Christoph_K's mix is one I often use, sadly his came in late this time The idea is you take a decent mix of what you're working on and just keep switching loads, do it so much that you're almost hearing other mixes the same amount as you're hearing your own. To do this you need to gain match them and I highly recommend the plugin ADPTR AUDIO Metric AB, from Plugin Alliance. Lots of us waste a ridiculous amount of money on plugins, but this one is the one you need if you are struggling with some of the basic things like balance. Not that I think it can solve everything of course, but if you don't have this or if you don't work like this, then you'll find that it raises your game massively.
I hope that helps.
Cheers

[WrightAudio]

Hello fellow mixers,

Here's my mix https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwnIDg ... drive_link

I really enjoyed working on this song, love it! The song is fantastic, arranged and performed really well. To me it does a great job of conveying the intended emotion The fretless bass is superb! It sounds like a Sire V5 to me.

I feel that mostly focusing on the technical aspects of the mix process is of fairly limited use, as we all like to use different tools. When mixing I try to channel the energy/feel of the song and let the arrangement/performance direct my mix decisions, to cause and emotional/physical reaction.

I used fader rides/automation throughout.

The technical aspects are as follows

Kick: Gentle compression, EQ
Snare: EQ
T1: Bit of Rbass
T2: 1176 + Rbass
T3: 1176
Drum Bus: API2500 Gentle compression for 'glue'

Bass: De-Noise, 1176, LA2A, EQ

Piano/bus: Time aligned, Fairchild, Pultec EQ

Guitar Bus: LA3A, EQ

Vox Bus: De-Esser, 1176, LA2A, EQ.

BV Bus: LA2A, De-Esser,

Effects
Kick/Snare: mild distortion,
Drum Bus: Room Reverb (Altiverb)
Bass: mild distortion, Chorus
Piano: Room Reverb, Delay
Guitar: Room Reverb
Vox: mild distortion, Plate verb, Short delay, Small 'bathroom' reverb, Longer reverb in the 'lullaby' section.
BV: Delay

[Michael_K]

Hello everyone!
Great track and a pleasure to mix.
KIck, Snare, Rim, toms -> light to moderate saturation, eq, dbx style compression medium timing
Cymbals just eq and sidechain form the kick to smooth out the attack a little bit.
Bass: Parallel compression with an 1176-, eq, opto compression.
Guitars: EQ , light opto compression, light la3a.
Piano: eq. dbx style compression
Lead vocals: Fabfilter MB used as a de-esser and for some control in the low mids, parallel 1176 and opto style compression mixed about 50/50, eq.
Backing vocals de-essed individually, grouped and same setup as the leading vocals with a little heavier compression setting.
Mix bus: SSL Bus Compressor, a touch of inflator.

Here is the mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I_xC73 ... drive_link

Good luck to everyone!

[leoenne]

Hey everyone,

here's my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HkDlmg ... sp=sharing

I liked the vibe of the piano, while did not really feel that the acoustic guitar added much, so I went for an intimate, all in one room piano and vocals track. I mixed the drums to be complementary to that and the softened the bass accordingly, all while the acoustic guitar stays in the background.
There is a fair amount of fader riding, especially on Vox and Piano.

Technically there is nothing special, it is all ITB in Reaper with well-known plugins:

DRUMS: bx_SSL console 9000 is my go-to EQ on drums to control peaks, with Saturn Warm Tape for character. BASS: Used Rbass and a TR5 2A opto comp for a softer, under-control sound.

PIANO: Combo of Soothe and EQ (All my parametric EQ are ProQ-3) to get the piano sounding more even and under control, a lowered the side channel to get it more in focus. A little tube saturation with Saturn at the end.

AGT: Soothe and high pass filter.

VOX: SSL 9000 and PuigChild on main vox, subtractive eq on mids before and after comp. second double goes through stereomaker and the mid channel is muted, to prevent clashing with main vox.

BVOX: Soothe, lot of subtractive eq and Magma Lil Tube on the bus.

EFFECTS: Almost all tracks have 3 FX Sends, Room (RVerb, mainly on drums, for a good slap), Club (Birdland Jazz Club IR, for the intimate vibe glue), Hall (mannyM Reverb, Large Hall, which is the classic lexicon 480 IIRC) for a lush tail.

MIXBUS: MS Parametric EQ, Soothe for low mid control, TDR Kotelnikov for Glue and StandardClip only for the sound of the soft clip saturator that I love so very much.

Looking forward to your feedback!
Leo

[gioele.cortese]

Hi there, great submission to work with, congratulation to @Arnwyn

I worked in a very unusual way for my standard, I placed a clipper on each track to tame some spikes and the shaped the tone of each section with small EQs and compression.
On the drum there's an instance of Little Plate of Soundtoys on each track to give'em lot of breath and then a general drum buss reverb and compression, with a touch of flanger in parallel to create some movement.
On bass, just a parallel distortion with Decapitator and tone shaping with Nova Dynamic Eq to remove some resonances.
On guitar, a touch of phaser and echo, and then a narrow eq and FET compressor.
On piano, a little bit of delay, dynamic eq and a parallel high frequency distortion.
The main voice is tripled, a central dry track, one an octave below and one with Little Alter Boy fixed on Ab, to create some weird robotic feeling. On the buss then Hall reverb, Honey channel strip and a final de esser.
On the back voices, a lot of high pass, plate reverb, compression and a de esser.
The mixbus is very full tape saturation, a studio reverb, eq, compression, an SSL style channel strip, Multiband limiting and a final clipper.
I made a little bit of automation to put emphasis on the chorus and added a parallel distortion track with all the elements that increase during the whole song.

Hope you like it!

Gioele

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Iwfbj ... drive_link