Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 47 - September 2018


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the evaluation process and the first post for re-submissions for Mix Round 2.



This month, we see another return of client fajebru and get a chance to work on a second German Pop Rock production by the band/project "Rahel". The song is called "Siehst du mich" (Do you see me), which is a part of an EP release called "Zitrone".

The EP has been recorded at the ArtEZ Conservatorium in Enschede, Netherlands. Lyric translations have been provided. There are no huge twists this months, so please let your creativity run wild. However - the rules on drum sample triggering still stand: Please work with the material you have at your disposal first - a lot of detail was put into great recordings to boot.

Read more about the production below, and in the bundled TXTs.




Please take note of the following

• IMPORTANT: It is mandatory to provide WAV files (FLAC bar minimum on low internet bandwidth), files need to be accessible/downloadable, try to work within suitable work levels, document your edits (as simple or as detailed as you like)
  IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention: MC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName_-_ContestanttName.wav/mp3 and MC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName_-_ContestanttName_R2.wav/mp3 for Mix Round 2. The order of the tags might change in upcoming challenges - though this is up for debate
• It is highly encouraged to give feedback to each other, to share tips and tricks. Ideally, this should happen after Mix Round 1 has ended, to not influence each other during the main competition round

Also please take note of the following

• We're desperately looking for new source material for future competitions (currently mainly the Mix Challenge). Please follow our official campaign. No new tracks mean no more challenges! Please reach out!
• Social Media accounts can be found via the handles @MixChallenge (Twitter) and MixChallenge (Facebook). Please spread the word!
• if you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months, please consider supporting us.

This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:


Submission Period: General Information, Source Files, Sponsors
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Results of the Mix Challenge 47: Winners announced

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Saturday, 01st September 2018 to Friday, 21st September 2018 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-09-2018, 11:59pm CET/GMT+1 (Germany) - until further notice.

Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please consult the following options:
The Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. You can also consult the World Clock at the top of the forum or alternatively the following tool - in this case please select "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2: Time and Date - World Clock Meeting Planner. We do post reminders via our Twitter account and Facebook page.



Song Provider: Rahel (via Baker Productions)
Song Name and Length: Siehst du mich, 3:12min
Song Information: 90 BPM / Signature: 4/4, C min / G min
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Pop Rock (German)


Preview of the Song:




A word from the song provider:

fajebru wrote:This track is the last track of an EP called "Zitrone" by an artist called "Rahel" and also the second track from this EP to be appearing in the Mix Challenge.

Same goes as for the first song regarding some things:
First thing I want to mention are the room mics of the drums. I am not sure if all of you are familiar with the stereo mic setup called "M/S". But it is a stereo system that has to be decoded in order to be used. For more information, check various forums in the internet.


Regarding this challenge:

Out of experience I am gonna mention some things first now. I’m not a professional and even if I was, I am not able to and I won’t judge your mixes with the ears of a mixing engineer, but more with the ears of a customer and a hypothetical band member. So please bear with me and never think your mix is bad, just because I didn’t choose it to be part of Mix Round 2 or the winning 3.


Regarding the song and my wishes:

I’m a fan of a good drum sound and a well fitting bass guitar. Reamp everything you want if you feel the need to do so. I’d like this song to have a grungy feel to it mixing wise, so don’t hesitate to experiment, but settle the balance first and than be creative. Duty first

I’m curious about the results! Have fun!

(more technical details in the Mix Pack bundled TXTs)

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:I highly advise you to read the translation of the vocals, if you're not familiar with the German language. This will give you an idea of what the song is about, and how to shape your sound.

As "guide tracks", I can once more recommend to listen to German Pop Rock by bands like "Juli" (esp. their album's "Ein neuer Tag", 2006 and "In Love", 2010), "Wir sind Helden" and "Silbermond" (esp. their debut album "Verschwende deine Zeit", 2004 and their follow up album "Laut gedacht", 2006).

If you listen to these tracks and the provided demo mix, there is a certain focus on a more up-front drum mix, along with very well on top sitting vocals. The guitars act more as "supplement" in this case, but they're far from being tame. Modern day pop-rock mixes are known to be (slightly) over processed, which should give you a hint how to edit this production.


Regarding the drum editing:

There have been a lot of requests to offer "drum sample triggering". Previous Mix Challenges setup a restraint on sample usage. But some such enhancements still sneak in regardless.

It is still recommended to use regular drum editing with known and time tested techniques first (gate, EQ, compression, parallel compression, etc), before reaching out to sub-harmonic signal generators or using samples as supplement. Yes, some consider this to be a "modern standard", but it's not a one-stop solution. Just because you have these tools at your disposal and can use them, doesn't mean you have to go that route. (it's also not good practice for learning, IMO).

The provided drums were so well recorded, let the material tell it's story. Even a sub kick is provided this time around. So please do try this approach first, before thinking about artificial enhancements.

Regarding the Mid/Side Drum Room signals, please consult this post:
viewtopic.php?p=2779#p2779


Have fun, and good luck to all participants.

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: try to restrain drum sample triggering, make the best out of the provided audio material
• 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) - read: NO MASTERING

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Source Files:

Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (337,69 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 843,22 MB, packed 337,69 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/



MuTools is kind enough give away one license of MUX Modular 7 of winner's choice (until End of 2018)
License will turn into NFR
More info on MuTools: http://www.mutools.com/



NOS Audio is kind enough give away one license of NOS Roomer to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on NOS Audio: http://www.nosaudio.com/



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 Spring of 2018)
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.

If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on mix plugins, bundles and the likes), please get in touch with the Mix Challenge staff.

Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated Twitter Account or Facebook Page

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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

Hi all,
First and foremost thanks for the song, Rahel. Very solid.

I wanted to make this mix wide, but still punchy.
I didn’t use any samples on this, however I did use two of the DI guitars with amp sim for the heavy parts.

MP3 version
WAV version

Starting with the drums:
Nothing special was needed here. Most of the kit sounded very good.
I had to tighten up the kick drum a bit, and I also added a bit of eq to the snare to make it cut through.
I took out some of the boxyness from the toms. I think they ended up really nice.
Decoded the room tracks.
Sent rooms, overheads and snare to a room reverb to get more ambiance from it.
I did send all the drums to a quite heavy parallell compression. It made the kit quite «in your face».

Next to over to the bass:
I used both tracks, DI and amp.
Tiny bit of saturation on both tracks, while EQ’ing them a bit differently to get a warm and welcoming sound.
I didn’t want too much higher frequencies here since so much of the song already is in the upper spectrum.

Guitars:
I used all guitar amp tracks, however 3-6 are quite low in the mix.
DI 3 and 4 worked out well for amp sim, which I felt suited the mix perfectly - not too overly distorted,
got tons of the guitar characteristics out of it. The original overdriven tracks are still there, beefing everything up.

I sprinkled some reverb on git amp 1 and 2 - they sound beautiful.

Vocals:
I split the vocals, and made this weird sounding, super saturated thing with tons of reverb and delay which I placed
on every chorus and the outro. Blended it carefully so its super subtle, but still there.
Nothing fancy on the main vocal. EQ and 1176. Great singer, didn’t need much.
For effects on the main vocal I put on a little reverb, and some slap.
Also occasional delay on certain parts.

Animations:
For animations I only did some volum corrections here and there, plus a bit to tame the vocal effects.

Thanks for the opportunity!

Stephan B Valois

Hello guys,



This is my mix of the song:

Wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k71lwq0z2p3oz ... o.wav?dl=0
Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/owdiecal2kj5o ... o.mp3?dl=0


I re-amped the chorus guitars (Amplitube) and added them to the original sound for some more body. Difficult part of the mix was to blend the vocal into the mix. I worked with some parr compression and distortion to make it work. For drums and bass there are no exotic tricks I used. Thanks for sharing this tracks for us to mix!




Cheers,
Rogro

Oh, this time it's a real challenge! 'Cause Baker Productions mix of the song is too good!

So here we are, another month and another challenge. Hi everybody!!

At first I want to say that I can't even remember when I lastly worked with such polished tracks. Everything is just in right place.

Here are the tracks:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pr56fr51vvfvp ... i.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ouu5cwt70eukx ... i.wav?dl=0

Couple words about my mix:
-drums: standard treatment (at least for me ), 1176 on kick and snare, little saturation from decapitor, this two parallel with devil-loc. 1176 on toms, boring stuff
-bass: dbx120x2 and some equing....
-guitars: here I have much more fun, VTM, 670, and tremolo with shifted phase, for each pair of the guitars (of course not for all length of the track)
-vocal: cla2a, 1176, pararell distortion, and some nice reverb from valhalla. Additionally I used some ghost reverb technique at the bridge and final chorus

And that basically it. I hope you enjoy.

Hi there, here is my mix:

MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1D_Xky ... lOpDIALlU0
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ealwa ... IJeen5lXZi

Great song!

The main challenges were to get the vocals sounding nice and organize the tracks and what I wanted to use, as well as having it hold up next to the provided mix, which is pretty stellar. My mix is a bit more dark and wet, but still warm and smooth.

For the drums, I started by zooming in on the snare hits to align them up, and shifted the phase against the overheads. I did a high pass on the hihat, pitch-shifted down a copy of the bottom snare (low in the mix), and added a couple soft reverbs; a short one on the bottom snare, and a longer one on the top.

For the bass, I just added some compression and a harmonic maximizer for the low end. I only used the DI.

For the guitars, I used Amp 1 (with some soft reverb and a multi-band compressor for the high mids) & 2, 3 & 4, and DI 3 & 4 run through guitar rig for a little extra color, low in the mix. It sounds a lot better than without. I stumbled upon a crazy sounding preset in guitar rig and added that in at the end of the second chorus for a bit of an effect. I also did a thing to the solo guitar track halfway through, but I forget what happened there. It added a nice atmosphere and fits the mood.

As for the vocals, I used a multi-band compressor for some control over the mids and highs, and found that a bit of oilcan echo was fitting too, of which I cut the tail off of the very end. There was a bit of noise right before the last part, where it's quiet for a measure. This simple approach all after spending a day or two trying all kinds of exciters and EQ settings (the only EQ used was a couple resonant freqs I took away)

Hope you like!

-Mike

Hiya,
This was fun to mix and excellent tracking!

Drums- SSl G channel, Drum master, TG12345...No samples
Bass- SSl G channel, MV2
Clean Guitars- Nothing really, SSl G channel
just to run through the comp

Heavy Guitars--TG12345 gain to fatten the distortion

Vocals- DBX 160, SSL G Channel, dynamic eq, H910 dual harmonizer, Eventide Blackhole (automated)
and a chamber reverb.


I used the "Rear Bus " technique.

I Recently bought an Audient Id14 and wanted to try mixing at 96k. I loaded in the audio
and switched between 44.1 and 96k and was surprised at the difference on playback, even though the audio supplied
is at 44.1k there was a marked difference . I mixed at 96k and so have supplied both WAVs , for those who are curious.


Thanks for uploading the tracks ,I really enjoyed the song.


Marc Clement

MP3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z6Xsp2 ... sp=sharing

WAV 44.1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-a54th ... sp=sharing

WAV 96K https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vxp8Zb ... sp=sharing

Thanks for the recording it was a fun project.
Description:
I "reamped" the distorted guitars in the Chorus with amplitube. The rest of the guitars stayed the same. Drums are without any Sample replaycements. I added a bit more room and Distortions on the Drumroom. I dessed the vocals and jused a low cut. I made the vocals a bit boxy in the bridge to make it big again in the end. The sounds are dryer in the Verse and wetter in the Chorus.

Here are the tracks have fun.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7sq0e7pje5lx9 ... l.wav?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k78rfigkyzs5l ... l.mp3?dl=0

Hello,

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r3gf5y48c91i ... o.wav?dl=0

About the mix:

I think it's important to note that I chose not to listen to the demo mix, as I didn't want to get "steered" to a certain direction and preferred to have a "clean" interpretation of the track. In general, I ended up doing a lot of automation to create more interest for the chorus and the final part (specially). That included volume adjustments, like increasing it for my "drums room bus" and turning off the bypass for certain effects to show up only on these moments, like a stereo widener for the guitars master bus, as well as the adding of a secondary reverb.

Drums:

EQ, Compression... nothing fancy. All the room and overheads channels were summed up in a compressed and saturated "room bus" that overall brought high end and "shimmer" to the drum sound. Was made louder during chorus and final part.

Bass:

Reserved the D.I channel for the low end and the amp channel for the attack/definition. Used cuts (EQ) to leave only the intended frequencies for each and EQed the Bass Bus (both channels) for general stetic/working with the bass drum changes. Flaged both channels with a reverse volume control for changes between "less low end/more attack" throught the mix. During the chorus, balance was shifted towards more attack to cut through the distorted guitars. Compressed the bus.

Guitars:

Only used the D.I for one of the pairs (amp simulation + impulse + EQ). Used EQ and Panning to separate the three pairs, as well as some automation and transient shaping.

Vocal:

Used Warren Huart's vocal thickening trick, volume automation, EQ, De-Essing, Compression and a couple of delays with volume automations, one of them only for the chorus.

Reverbs:

Sent all the instruments (different values) to a "room" for the hole song and to a "plate" only for the chorus and the final part. Voice was sent to a third, longer one.


That's it!
Thank you for the opportunity,

Andre.