CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION
Time Frame: Friday, 01st December 2017 to Thursday, 21st December 2017 (21 days)
Challenge submission will end on 21-12-2017, 11:59pm CET/GMT+1 (Germany) - until further notice.
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IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
The evaluation period might shift a couple of days due to the Christmas holidays. So please be patient after the first Mix Round has ended.
Song Provider: Alan Craig (written by Quincy Roan)
Song Name and Length: The Night When Christ Was Born, 5:02min
Song Information: 67 or 134 BPM / Signature: 4/4, E flat
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit
GENRE: Gospel, Choral, Orchestral, Christian Contemporary Music
Preview of the Song:
A word from the song provider:
Alan Craig wrote:This song was written by Quincy Roan, who was a good friend of mine. Quincy and I worked together musically for around 10 years. In early 2014, Quincy asked me to help him with a project containing a number of songs he had written. After working through the logistics, Quincy and I planned to start recording around the first of August. Unfortunately, Quincy was diagnosed with cancer in late July and he passed away around 6 months later. This project is being done in Quincy's honor / memory, with any proceeds going to support Quincy's family.
All instrumental parts were played by Quincy on the keyboard. Quincy also recorded the lead vocal from home. Other vocal parts were recorded after Quincy's passing. I needed a way to record BGVs at home in a manner that still sounded professional. So I constructed a vocal booth from PVC pipe and moving blankets. It was large enough to fit 3 adults side by side. I stacked each vocal part to give the sound of a larger group or choir.
The "hallelujah" section was interesting. I wanted a high soprano sound, but wasn't really sure where to start. While attending our daughters' middle school choir concert, I realized this was the sound I was looking for. So I emailed the choral directors, just praying that at least one of them would respond favorably. Thankfully, one of them was willing to help.
We ended up recording a total of 6 students and 2 adult women for this section. This was done in one of the middle school practice room, which was far less than ideal. There was some kind of AC/heater hum that I had to use Audacity to clean up. But I was happy with how it turned out.
Composing the BGV parts was another interesting challenge. While I am able to come up with ideas pretty well by ear, I don't have any formal training. However, my wife was chorally trained. I basically wrote out what I was hearing and had her edit all of the parts. This worked very well.
As far as a good reference track, "Son Of God" from Michael W. Smith would be a good starting point. I do realize that there is a lot going on in the "hallelujah" section. Some things might have to be attenuated in order for other things to have enough space. As much as possible, I would like to be able to hear the backing vocals clearly and with a sense of "space". I hope this all helps.
A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:
Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:Placing the genre of this production is a bit hard. It's a blend of Pop, Contemporary Christian Music, Gospel but also "Carol Singers". So I sadly can't give many (or definite) recommendations in terms of reference tracks other than the already mentioned one. There is just so much. Maybe take a dive at modern Gospel (and to a certain extend even RnB and Soul music from late 90ies/early 2000s), but there is also a lot of so called "Worship Music" (generic term) on known streaming services (search phrases: "Gospel 6 HOURS OF WORSHIP").
A start for mix inspirations might be William McDowell, Hillsong United, Kim walker Smith, Shekinah Glory Ministry, amongst others.
Let's talk about the mix for a moment:
Do not(!) let the choir section fool you to be an easy task to handle. It will not be simple to blend the choir with the already very dense music production, while getting some great and lush lead vocals on top of that (which is the absolute center of this production).
Careful automation is absolute key, while not cutting anything away. Placing the material with proper panning (sometimes even narrowing), EQ and reverb is just as important.
Another thing to look out, are possible noises in the recording. As mentioned before, the child's choir was not recorded in an ideal way. There are some hidden "noises" for you to find. In other choir sections, you can clearly hear feet tapping. You might not(!) have a chance to remove the click from certain parts in the the vocals though. At least not easily.
The vocals parts are mostly pitch corrected already. Personally, I'd not touch this area - but depending on your workflow, you might.
Other than that - I can't give any more hints/recommendations. Find your personal groove with this production. It won't be easy (having the chance to work with a choir is a rare treat!), but I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun in the process.
Good luck!
Please also consult the TXT files that are bundled in the source files package below. There you can find more information about the individual files and changes to the time signature.
Special Add-On Rules:
- try to create a mix that complements this production (in your own style)
- Clean / Alternative versions can be used if you need more flexibility over a certain sound (if present in this production)
- No rearrangement or pitch shifting of the song structure, with the exception of the following add-on rules
- PRODUCTION RELATED: nothing to comment
- summing bus processing is allowed, as long as the dynamic range (average signal strength to maximum signal strength) doesn't suffer - use of this method is artistically!
- try to not(!) pre-master the track (please no overuse of mix bus treatment, no loudness adjustments / limiting)
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Source Files:
Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (599,73 MB, LZMA compressed, 7z)
Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (657,60 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)
The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 2458,42 MB, packed 599,73 MB (ZIP, LZMA)
In order to extract the files, we can recommend these programs:
Macintosh:
The Unarchiver -
get it here
Keka (open source) -
get it here
Windows:
7zip -
Installation /
Portable
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Please
take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Mix Challenge - Official Rules and Guidelines
Please address any OT question in the official Gossip thread:
Mix Challenge - Gossip and Discussion
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SPONSORS (Prizes):
Prizes for Mix Challenge participants:
Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.
Acon Digital is kind enough give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
License will turn into NFR
More info on Acon Digital:
http://acondigital.com
Black Rooster Audio is kind enough to give away one bundle of all currently available plugins to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Black Rooster Audio:
http://blackroosteraudio.com/
Hornet Plugins is kind enough give away one license from the depicted tools (see image) to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins:
http://www.hornetplugins.com
Metric Halo is kind enough to give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
License will turn into NFR
More info about Metric Halo:
http://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/
Nyrv Systems offers AGENT incl. all currently available NyrvDevices and free update to at least v1.5 of winner's choice (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info about Nyrv Systems:
http://www.nyrvsystems.com/
Tone2 is kind enough to donate either a bundle consisting of
AkustiX Enhancer and WarmVerb, or a license of
Ultraspace to the winner (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2:
https://tone2.com
Two Notes Audio Engineering is kind enough to donate one license of
Torpedo Wall of Sound III to the winner, loaded with 57 cabinets (equivalent to "Torpedo WoS II") (donation until End of 2017)
License will not turn into NFR
More info on Two Notes:
http://www.two-notes.com/en/
THANKS FOR THE LICENSE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.
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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!
I am happy to announce the following new sponsor for the Mix Challenge:
