Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 59 - October 2019


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'll get access to an (21st Century Modern) Synth-Pop/Electroclash production by the "Vivire en Marte", represented by forum resident Green-Dog. The song is called "Great World", and it's our biggest project to date. 66 Tracks, with additional "non FX" versions. Paying attention to detail is absolutely mandatory this month.

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, files need to be accessible/downloadable, try to work within suitable work levels (the focus of this game is "mixing", not mixing and finalizing), document your edits (ideally also with screenshots), name the files properly to distinguish your edit from all others.
  IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention (Contestant Name = Forum Username):
  • MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestantName.wav
  • MC000_ArtistName_TrackName_ContestantName_R2.wav for those that go into Mix Round 2
  • Example: MC059__Vivire_en_Marte__Great_World__<forum_username>.wav
• please only upload to cloud storage spaces (DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc), not SoundCloud. Please consult the official "Rules and Gudelines" regarding Upload and Submission Guidelines
• 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. Please follow our official campaign. Your only investment is time in turn for a free mix by our very talented participants. No new tracks mean no more challenges! Please reach out! Our Song Pool has dried up (to those that I've reached out to recently, please respond)
• 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 59: Winners announced

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Tuesday, 01st October 2019 to Monday, 21st October 2019 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-10-2019, 11:59pm CEST/GMT+2 (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: Vivre En Marte
Song Name and Length: Great World, 5:57 min
Song Information: 112 BPM / Signature: 4/4, Key of F# min (minor)
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Electroclash


Preview of the Song:




A word from the song provider:

Green-Dog wrote:This track was produced for the project Vivire en Marte (from Spanish - “I will live at Mars”). The main theme of the upcoming album is space and “Great World”, and it's planed to be the opening track of the debut release. The song was inspired by the idea of space travel
and thus, I would like to make the track sound voluminous and “spacey”. You can likely add some dreamy atmosphere to the track.

I have used different samples and two acoustic drum kits for the drums. One kit was used for the verse and another one for the chorus. These are called ACC DR 1 and ACC DR 2 accordingly. In the intro part, I have created some FX on the vocal. I put on the reverb on the reversed vocal track and after bouncing this track I have reversed it again. Of course, you can use it in the mix or create you own FX if you have a better idea! In the Mix Package some track has two versions, one with printed FX and another without. You have the choice to either use my FXs, or you are free to create your own using my FX track only for the inspiration and understanding my vision of the track.

I don’t really know any good example for the sound of this song. Nevertheless, I have a suggestion how to create an interesting development on the track. Please see the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jAyfGzSaz0 approximately 3:03.


Anyway, it is up to you to use this “emerging” effect or to find your own way.



(more technical details in the Mix Pack bundled TXTs)

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:There is really nothing much to add here.

THere are a handful of tracks without printed effects, so you can create your own sound effect ideas. You can use either / or. Not both. The guitars are already "printed" - built upon what has been given to you.

Since you have access to 66 tracks, and none of them can be omitted, the biggest challenge here is how to layer signals properly for the mix. Though do pay attention to the overall concept.

The production is a blend of (21st Century Modern) Synth-Pop and Electroclash. For genre specification, the song provider decided on "Electroclash" (I highly recommend to take a look at the first 30 video examples, linked down below). If you want to read up on the genre, as usual - the Internet is your friend. And so is Youtube.

Here are a couple of links:

Modern Synth-Pop: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... DhtIm4y_ZB
Electroclash (selection): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... tb7mTvQN-3

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synth-pop ... ry_revival
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroclash

Good luck with this project!

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: make the best out of the provided audio material (EQ, compression, transient tools, etc), no "drum sample triggering / replacement"! Failing to adhere to this rule will result in instant disqualification
• PRODUCTION RELATED: the vocals do not need to be pitch corrected
• 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!
• provide the material in the same or higher sampling rate and bitrate as originally provided. Do not convert/dither down
• 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 (1301,69 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)
Demo Mix only - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (99,32 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 5992,61 MB, packed 1301,69 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



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



IK Multimedia is kind enough give away one license of T-RackS ONE to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia: https://www.ikmultimedia.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/



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/



Tone2 is kind enough to donate a license of Ultraspace to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com



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,
We are Tuesday 1 October 2019 and it is 1:43 (Berlin time)
I have a problem certainly because of my ears and may be at my age:
when I listen to the title proposed this month (original mix), I hear only
crackling throughout the duration of the song.
Can anyone explain to me ? Thank you for enlightening me before I give up all.
I just downloaded the song (tracks and original mix).
There is sound in the tracks but still crackling in the original mix.
So, I have to consider what ???
Franz

I come back on the challenge of this month.
Finally, after a quick and comprehensive listening of the tracks,
I can already get an idea of the futur mix.
So we forget my previous post and we will keep with the agreement of
Mister FOX and Songprovider a mixing challenge WITHOUT hearing the original mix ....
This will make the competition super interesting ! No ???
Franz

Could you please reupload the Original Mix file?

Apologies for the delay.

A summary of the situation:

• I've checked the files, and there is indeed something wrong with the Demo Mix and the Soundcloud link. I'll try to reach out to the song provider.
• Thankfully, I found a preview that was sent prior to the mix package (Integrity Check). So as temporary solution, I converted this into a MP3 and uploaded this mix as preview.
• To those that downloaded the Mix Package prior to 3:00am GMT+2/CEST, I've added the demo-mix to download separately.
• Those that tried to download the Mix Package between 3:00am and 3:20am GMT+2/CEST, this was the time frame I re-uploaded the mix pack with a usable demo mix. Please do check in if the file-sizes match up and you can extract everything. If not, then you sadly have to re-download the package.

I apologize for the inconvenience.


If there is still something wrong with the files, please let me know.

Hi everyone,

a short update

• There is now a preview through SoundCloud again
• as of 11:00am GMT+2/CEST, the Mix Package has been updated and now bundles the has the updated "RAW Mix" included
• the individual demo-mix to download is now using the most recent "RAW Mix"
• Important: no other files changed in the Mix Pack. If you downloaded that one already, you do not need to re-download it again.

If there is still something wrong with the files, please let me know.

Hi everyone,

there is my entry.

mp3 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a0gxeo ... sp=sharing
Wave : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ACchoJ ... sp=sharing


Good luck to every participant and thanks to Mix Challenge team

Hi guys,

here my mix for this challenge :

Wav : https://www.dropbox.com/s/jhy40bvibwevb ... e.wav?dl=0
MP3 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/1al1ir22re0fs ... e.mp3?dl=0

Screenshots : https://www.dropbox.com/s/l452wiwvotlln ... s.rar?dl=0

For this mix, i used :

Eq : Avid eq, fabfilter Q3, Bx SSL E channel, BX Digital V3, Izotope vintage EQ, Sie EQ, Api 500
Comp : Slate VBC, Ozone 9 dynamics, Alpha compressor, Arousor, Acme opticon, cla 76, +10DB compressor, Ozone Vintage Limiter 8, DBX 160, RVOX, Fabilter C2, Fabfilter MB, CLA 3A, MV2
Harmonic: Devil loc, Slate VCC, Uhe Satin, Oxford inflator, Lofi
Reverb : Fabfilter R, trueverb, valhalla room, blackhole, little plate
Delay : Echoboy

Hi,