Mix Challenge

I would like to say thank you to the artist, @BenjiRage for the great song and opportunity to mix with his music.

This is my first post in this forum and I have to say I really enjoyed mixing this song. I listened to 80's retro synth musics for reference (which I don't normally listen to) and gosh, I kind of fell in love with that era now. I tried to replicate big gated snare reverb, spacious feel, close toms and creative use of delay of 80's reference.



My monitoring system is Focal Shape monitors and Sennheiser HD600 with Dangerous music D-BOX DAC, without any room treatment or room correction software (unfortunately )
-16.1dB LUFS
-1.7dB TP

My mix -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TSZPJm ... sp=sharing

Thanks to the people who makes this happen, MisterFox and this month song provider, BenjiRage. This is my approach:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D1TBxB ... sp=sharing

I went for a sort of heavy sound, a contrast between the mood of the lyrics, the voice and the energy of the drums, hammers underscoring the drama and the expresiveness of this unsettlingly vivid artificial voice (sounds great). For adding movement I used a simple Reaper stock ping pong pluging, mainly on background elements. The use of reverbs has been focused on some elements (voice or claps, for example) so that to avoid a dense feeling of overwhelming layers.
My setup is quite simple: a laptop, fostex headphones and a lot o testing (car, speakers...).

Good luck, mates.

Hi everyone,

Here is my mix for download:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gi6iuozm ... rr5uh&dl=0

First of all – really nice song! I truly enjoyed listening to it.
My Approach

I started by listening to the original master. It sounds powerful and modern – very well done. So, based on the information provided by the song’s creator, I decided to take the mix in a different direction. Instead of trying to replicate the original (which already sounds great), I aimed for an '80s-style sound.

Compared to the original mix, my '80s-style has:

Less high end and low end

Less aggressive drums

More vintage-style effects (especially reverb and delay)

Key Mix Choices

Reverbs: I used a lot of old-school reverbs. The drums have a short reverb with fast early reflections blended with a longer reverb to add depth.

Vocals:

Verse vocals: No compression – just dynamic EQ on some harsh frequencies and a bit of room reverb.

Chorus vocals: Compressed. The center vocal is sent to a delay panned hard left, and that delay is sent to a reverb panned almost hard right. This creates a nice, wide space that feels different from just using reverb.

The delay is not perfectly synchronized on purpose – for a more natural, vintage vibe.

Keyboards: I used dual pan mode to reduce their stereo spread and make the stereo image more focused.

Bass: I narrowed the stereo width to center it better in the mix.

Automation: I added volume automation on the snare and keyboards during the bridge to create more movement and interest.

Master Bus

Light SSL-style compression (~1 dB gain reduction)

Subtle stereo enhancement

Gentle EQ and saturation to add some color and warmth

I hope you like my mix and enjoy listening to this version of the song.
Looking forward to your feedback and hearing the other entries!

Very nice @Miłosz

Once again, thanks for the ppl responsible for this challenge to keep things going. It's been a ton of fun for me this time round.

Here's my Mix!

I went with the classic "more is more" approach. Whole bunch of delays (into delays into modulation into verb), quite aggressive eq moves to keep things from piling up too much. I tried to keep reasonably close to the demo in terms of space, but opted for less verb in most cases.

Vox:
When I read that these were synthesized I was very ready to hate them. But I don't, which I hate even more. In all seriousness tho, these are really well made and must have taken a ton of time to get them as polished as they are. Didn't need much - basic comp, eq, various different spaces for each section. There is stuff in the very very top end (~17khz and above) that felt like aliasing to me, I got rid of some of that.

Drums:
The initial sounds and balance was pretty spot on, don't think I did too much. Some more Shimmer verb here and there, some parallel compression on the whole "kit", some early reflections to push things a little more back into the mix. The "80s cop movie"-toms were an obvious favorite of mine, and hence are probably much too loud in the mix. Made an additional gated reverb for them, to make them extra-ridiculous sounding.

Basses:
Some additional grit, some eq automation for the chorus when the sub comes in.

Guitars:
Pretty much nothing on the chords, some space on the feedback.

Keys:
Delays into verb, verb into delay. Trying my best to keep them distinct and focussed on their role within the song. I felt the bridge piano solo was pretty challenging to get to feel right, because it needs to be able to compete with all the stuff from the chorus before. Probably where I consulted the demo mix the most.

Mix Bus:
(parallel) compression, smiley face eq. Some slight limiting, especially because I felt like some stuff, like toms and risers and such, needed to feel "too loud" across the whole mix - and for that, baby jesus invented limiting.

Hope you like it!

edit: forgot the monitoring stuff - relatively large room with some treatment, Adam S1 monitors, some cheapish headphones for checking bass and general phone-weirdness (HD650s and DT770s)

Hello,

Here is my entry for the contest.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a3wLRl ... sp=sharing

I am French, and this is translated with Gemini.
I am participating to challenge my skills.
I work fully "in the box" using Studio One 7 Pro.
Plugins: mainly SSL, Slate Digital, UAD, Waves, Fabfilter.
I'm monitoring on Genelec 8040s and BD DT770 Pro 80ohm headphones.

Regarding the mix:

Volume balance with faders and binaural panning.
Frequency cleaning with Pro-Q 4.
Sending tracks to processing buses.
4kb channel strip on the drums + a transient designer and a 1176 compressor.
Harmonic processing of synth and instrument tracks with Vertigo VSM-3 on the instrument bus.
The vocals are treated with Slate Digital's Fresh Air + a DeEsser + Pro-Q4 in spectral mode + Waves MV2 + VoxDucker, then sent to the dynamic processing buses using the Brauer method. I also added a saturation bus with Xtrack Sat + 1176AE + Waves Abbey Road Saturator + Pro-Q 4 to tame the bass and treble after processing.

In terms of spatial effects, there is 1 room reverb, 1 convolution reverb, 1 digital reverb, 1 plate reverb, 1 spring reverb (subtle), 1 short stereo delay, a Tape Echo 201, 1 H-Delay, and finally, a Dimension Chorus that subtly affects almost all tracks.

I hope you like my mix, keeping in mind that I did it this morning, not having had time before. It took about 3 hours of work.

Thank you for listening.

Musically,

Hi,

Its not my genre, i usually mix Rock and Metal stuff for friends, but i had to give this a chance, even if its just for practise.

Here´s what i´ve done:

Mix organization is the key, so all track have been arranged in that manner by routing stacks of instruments to subgroups and single track treated if there is need for it. All of these subgroups are fed into a mixbus, where i have the chance to make adjustments before it hits my main main chain, this mixbus contains eq correction, waves vitamin for saturation and stereo field correction, WA Production Detroubler and an SSL HF Comp. My main chain usually consists of an ssl channel simulation, a britisch channel strip 33609 with slight compression, a slate red compressor that actually only added some saturation via its drive knob, and a tape emulation. there is compression going on, but usually not more than 2-4 db (depending on the genre) all together.

Drums: the snare proved to be quite difficult as its tail was too long for my taste - changed with an envelope follower. As it was supposed to be mixed with the intent of a 80s mix in mind, i left all the rest as much as i could as they came, removing too much lowend from the bassdrum and treated the sum with an ssl channel, fed this into a small room reverb and a clipper in the end. the snare is also being routed to a gated plate send.

Bass: nothing special, at times it created resonsances in my system that needed to be addressed as it had too much sub energy for my taste... i used a dynamic eq to take care of it. after another eq that added a little more mids and a lowcut its sent through a LA2A and Trackspacer to give it a chance besides the bassdrum. i also added a very soft chorus with a lowcut at 200 Hz to let it a little more shine.

Keys/Guitars: nothing special, removed a little lowend and adjusted the mids for this subgroup

Vocals: the usual low-cut and send through an eq, followed by an 1176, LA2A and a 902 Deesser, send inparts to the plate i mentioned before and the delay with the settings that were provided via the screenshot.

All tracks get their share but only minimum amounts of a Room IR Reverb file (which i cant remember i got from, its a comfy studio room that Rupert Neve designed if i remember correctly), to them in a little space and glue things together. All sends are also routed to the mixbus.

I usually mix with headphones, Hifiman Ananda, its a planar magnetic, sent through a profile correction eq and the Hears Plugin, which basically compensates for my age induced hearing loss but i also take breaks from time to time to listen to the stuff i´m doing via Tannoy PBM Monitors.

Hope this description is detailed enough. If not, feel free to ask. But formost, enjoy mixing and thanks for this opportunity!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bjebz3dv ... psxn5&dl=0

Thanks @BenjiRage for providing this song for Mix Challenge.

Here is my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16rg0rf ... sp=sharing

I mixed in Luna DAW, with SSL channelstrips in all channels for eq and compression. Reference using KRK Rokit 5 2nd generation, in a no treated room.

In the mix bus there is API summing, ATR tape, SSL Fusion EQ, SSL Bus compressor, Ozone 10 for EQ and keeping the levels within MixChallenge limits.

There is plate reverb, parallel saturation and UAD Galaxy Tape in main vocals, for ambience and some vibe.

The guitars and synths were panned and treated with some delay, reverb and saturation.

Backing vocals were panned and sent to plate reverb and vocal parallel saturation.

AMS reverb in snare, and Clearmountain’s Space for a spacey drum room.

Hello,

my submission for this mix challenge is
https://mega.nz/file/K6J2jKhI#lpOkraN3X ... 8nRJy7SK50

Regarding my studio setup:
- main monitoring is done on Adam 3X speakers with frequency correction by IK Multimedia ARC Studio (HW box directly between D/A and speakers)
- and on headphones (not corrected) Sennheiser HD660
- for additional check a single Auratone 5C is used
- for cross-checking with non-studio equipment I run a pre-mastered mix through Teufel Stereo M2 and Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones.
My room is acoustically not treated (living room without so much space to get bass trap fitted in).
All work is done with Cubase.

Regarding the mix:
- kick: EQ with slightly added low mid around 150Hz (mainly to get it more recognisable on the Auratone speaker), very little compression
- snare: EQ with on VSDSX snare with slightly reduced 1kHz
- hi-hats: Delay to get them little bit more in the back
- toms: kept as they are

- bass: EQ to pronounce mids a little bit, delay added and a little compression with side band from kick a small portion of dynamics in it

- vocals: compression, 'background' vocals (e.g. L/R tracks) with EQ to reduce high end to get centered main vocal more pronounced; additional delay added for the last chorus

- key gated pad: delay.
- key piano: EQ for more high end, a little bit compression on the Keys Piano K2000; delay of one bar for the bridge

- Reverb: Chamber reverb

- Master bus: Tape emulation for a some warm glue-compression.

br Alex

Hey!

Thanks to the Artist for the opportunity and also Mix Challenge for the fun times.
Loved working on this mix. I really like the song and the artist did a great job with it.

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

Mix-wise. I wanted to create an airy/spacey feel. I kept the drums and baselines front and center to give it a good backbone while I played with the synths in the background. I treated the chorus and verse vocals differently to add contrast (with some extra automation on the drums & bass). For vocal placement, I wanted upfront to understand lyrics but also feeling pushed back into the audio space.

I hope I did the Artist proud!

Mixed in a treated home studio with Tannoy Gold 8’s on Logic Pro X

List of plugins used:

- Waves
- Valhalla DSP
- Izotope
- Logic Stock
- Fabfilter
- BlueCat Audio
- Soundtoys
- XLN Audio
- IK Multimedia
- UAD