Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 62 - February 2020


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.



Happy (late) new year, everyone! I hope you could enjoy the annual 1-month vacation.

Let us start off 2020 with a track by recurring Mix Challenge song provider Gary Regnier. This month we have the chance to work on a Soundtrack production. The song is called "Counting on a hero".

The twist of this month's challenge is to handle already "printed" material, threat it "as is" and build upon it as well as you can while not loosing sight of the overall concept.

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: MC062__Gary_Regnier__Counting_on_a_hero__<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

• Our Song Pool has dried up! We're 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!
• 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 (additional feedback for non-disqualified entries can be found here)
Results of the Mix Challenge: Winners announced

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Saturday, 01st February 2020 to Friday, 21st February 2020 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-02-2020, 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: Gary Regnier
Song Name and Length: Counting on a hero, 5:43 min
Song Information: 96 BPM / Signature: 4/4, Key of C maj
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Soundtrack


Preview of the Song:



A word from the song provider:

Gary Regnier wrote:This track started out from exploring the Arturia CS 80 and finding the Vangelis type of sound. A couple of tracks got added and it just grew from there. I was thinking film sound track, the scene being after the battle or disaster and a drone fly through of the devastation with cuts to the hero who survives for the sequel. Yes I know, I should get out more!

As the track names show the sounds come from a variety of libraries and synths and my intention was to vary the textures a bit as things could have got very bland very fast. Everything is in stereo and levels should be around -12 dBFS. Where tracks already have delays or verbs it is because I committed to that when recording.

I would like to hear the mix having depth and where appropriate good separation of the elements. I'm thinking narrowing and placement and possibly using some imaging plugins maybe? It may well benefit from the use of some time sync'd effects and perhaps some judicious gating to clean up here and there.

I hope you have fun with it and any questions then please ask away.

Gary



(more technical details in the Mix Pack bundled TXTs)

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:This month, you're given so called "printed tracks", meaning no split tracks or DI/non FX version ones. You have to work with them "as is".

The challenge is to built upon these sound sources. Clean them up as good as you can and then place them into their own spaces in the final mix (either as sound cluster, or as individual parts).

As already hinted at, the use of Gates or LFO tools to control reverb and delay tails, might be one possible solution for cleanup work. Another might be the use of "De-Reverb" tools. There are also tools on the market at this point, where you can take loops and split them into their own sections, to go a bit more in-depth on editing. Some of these solutions, should you go for them, might not be perfect though. Please go by your gut instinct while mixing.

In the end, the production should have a certain depth to it, it should not feel washed out or elements drowning unnecessary.

Have fun editing and 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.

Rule Summary / 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 for this production)
• make the best out of the provided audio material (EQ, compression, transient tools, etc), no "drum sample triggering / replacement"!
• 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 - the focus of this game is "mixing" - NO MASTERING
• provide the material in the same or higher sampling rate and bitrate as originally provided. Do not convert/dither down
• ADD-ON RULES - PRODUCTION RELATED: <no special rules declared>

Please consult the official Rules and Guidelines for a more detailed set of rules. Failing to adhere to the rules will result in instant disqualification


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Source Files:

Main Mix Package - Mirror on the Mix Challenge Homepage (410,30 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)
IMPORTANT NOTE: file unavailable after 21-FEB-2020


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 1952,96 MB, packed 410,30 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 Gary,

Wow, is this realy the first reply?

I wonder, because this is a realy great track! Thank you so much for bringing it to the mixing contest!
I like this Vangelis like CS80 sound a lot. This sound influences also my music, which sometimes goes in a similar direction than this track too. Therefore it was a great pleasure for me to mix it.

On some tracks I removed or reduced the reverb and delays, which have been recorded, and I put new delay and reverb to those tracks.
I tried to make the CS80 lead and the btw very beautifull voice realy shine and stand out of the mix.
With a lot of volume automation, especially for CS80 lead, voice, war dums and field snares, I tried to bring mor dynamic and dramatic to the mix.

MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4ost8xytbl8l ... c.mp3?dl=0
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5ab3qsuxj6x6 ... c.wav?dl=0

Mixed in Reaper v5.51

Drum-Bus: Presswerk (Drum Compressor Mode), ThrillseekerXTC
Ambiloop, Damage and OnmiLoop, Shaker: ReaEQ
Damage Snare: ReaEQ, ThrillseekerXTC, Ultraspace
Stylus Crash: ReaEQ, Ultraspace
War Drums: ReaEQ, Transpire (to get more transients), Maxwell Smart
Fiels Snare: ReaEQ, Transpire (to get more transients)
Shortnoise Bass: Acon Digital DeVerberate + ReaGate to reduce reverb, ReaEQ, GStereo (to mono low end), ThrillseekerXTC, ReaComp (for sidechain)
OmniBass: ReaEQ, Transpire for mor transients, NastyDLA
CS 80 3: ReaEQ
Retro 2: ReaEQ, GStereo, ReaGate, Transpire
Music Box: ReaEQ
Retro 1: ReaEQ, ReaGate to remove Delay, NastyDLA
Vocalise Intro: ReaEQ, MidSideMangler, Ultraspace, ReaDelay
CS 80 2, Stringrun, Strings and Symphonic: ReaEQ
CS 80 1: ReaEQ, TDR VOS SlickEQ
Wavestation: ReaEQ
Vocalise C pad and harmony: ReaGate, ReaEQ, ReaDelay
Ethera: ReaEQ, ThrillseekerXTC, ReaDelay
DoPahs: ReaEQ, S.LAX
Wind and Riser: ReaEQ, Ultraspace
Bell: ReaEQ

Reverbs: Ultraspace, Acon Verberate, TAL III

Mis Bus: MQ57, Presswerk (Bus Compressor Mode), SPAN

cheers,
Manfred
https://soundcloud.com/photonic-1

Hi everyone,

A sacred beautiful composition! Indeed the spirit of Vangelis is somewhat perceptible in this
musical writing which is somewhat complex and quite difficult to mix because it can go in
different artistic directions. So a choice is necessary and it is never easy.

Technical side: mixed in Samplitude Pro X3 with plug-ins from Eventide, Melda, Wawes, LiquidSonics,
Izotope, Newfangled Audio, Impulse Record among the most important. Personally, I am not a big fanatic
of these effects but in the case of this mix, they proved to be absolutely necessary both for the
equalization and for the reverberations.

My idea is to obtain an orchestral progression with a real rise in power from the beginning to the end
of the title. Not obvious with percussion that starts strong. The voices (main female song and choir effects)
were complicated to integrate the mix well: the goal is to hear them well while not dominating the rest of
the orchestration. A lot of work also to remove the reverb effects, necessary if you orient the mix in a
direction other than the original mix.

It was a fascinating work especially since I really like this musical genre.

I hope you enjoy the result.

It starts here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5vb1lr51hl3j ... v.wav?dl=0

Cheers

Franz

Hi. Thanks again Mr Fox, and thanks Gary for the tracks, really enjoyed mixing them and nice to have the opportunity to have the space to experiment a bit. Good stuff.
Didn't mind the printed effects, narrowed a few things and gated the first bass but that's about it. Main thing I did was stem the Azure drum loop into its various parts to give me more options. Duplicated the kick and snare tracks and detuned them an octave and went from there. Any other time I'd supplement them with samples. Sidechained some synths to each other with Trackspacer to make some room. Little Alterboy on the main voc. RBass and C4 on kick and basses, used Transify to get more attack out of the gated bass track. All tracks have the same chain, ProQ2, Slate preamp and tape, Kramer Helios. Also Soothe, Deviloc, Echoboy and MV2 on most tracks. H-Verb on a send, went to most tracks. Drum buss has Slate Stress and KClip. Instrument buss has MJUC. Master buss has Stress, Air EQ and KClip. Plenty of volume and effects automation.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b3bst2q88i2mi ... v.wav?dl=0

My name is Joey L. Robinson (Papa Joe), no relation. I am a Detroit based Producer/Engineer, Mix/Mastering Technition with a few independent projects under my belt and many years of recording/mixing experience, Former A&R, Voice Actor, Former fm radio dj, current online station owner and brand promoter. I loved this opportunity. It Was a challenge and a victory. I never mixed that many tracks before not to mention stereo. I think I did a good job idk, you all let me know. I user Presonus Studio One v.4
I used Lewitt plugin i got free when I entered their last mix contest and some on board Presonus virtualizer plugs to simulate mono and mic positioning on some of the instruments besides using eq and compression on just about everything to clean up the sonic mud and let the personality of each track to the front. the track hits about -3.5 on the main stereo vu but it has crazy energy. I tried to give every track it's own space in the mix with a good level and pan as needed..A good transparent mastering with a touch of analog and this mix will GLOW!!! Love the chance to tweek my skills just that much more. I have been doing alot of free work lately and would LOVE to work on a soundtrack and confirm my chosen career. Thank you in advance.
Track are here in google folder with console screenshots:
Looking forward to comments.
Gary Regnier - Counting On A Hero

I think a reminder of the Rules and Guidelines is in order

stu b wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2020 09:30 CET

Main thing I did was stem the Azure drum loop into its various parts to give me more options. Duplicated the kick and snare tracks and detuned them an octave and went from there. Any other time I'd supplement them with samples.

Please let me quote the Rules for participants of the Mix Challenge (important parts marked in red)

Rules and Guidelines, last changed mid 2019 wrote: Rule set for mix participants

• The contestants have artistic freedom in terms of mixing (no limits on used modules/effects, neither hardware nor software) - within given boundaries (see add-on rules of the corresponding challenge thread)
• Drum Sample Triggering is not allowed (as of MC051)
• ...
• The participants are limited to the provided source material
• the provided arrangement must remain the same (take note of a given audio demo). Do not change the song key, do not add an additional beat or instruments (e.g. replay a guitar), move parts around and therefore change the arrangement. Unless otherwise stated (i.e. radio mix, loops being allowed for reordering, creative audio effects like glitching, etc)
• it is allowed to edit and to a certain extend even mangle the source material to improve the production (e.g. pitch correction within given boundaries, timing/phase correction within given boundaries, re-amping of bass/guitars if DI track were present, vocal comping, noise gating/strip silence, etc), as long as this does not result in drastic sound design and a complete new sound (e.g. morphing one sound into another one - example: flute into trumpet) - unless otherwise stated
• ...
• SPECIAL RULES MAY APPLY PER CHALLENGE, these will be highlighted and mentioned separately directly under the "Words by the Song Provider" paragraph of the current mix challenge thread

Just to make things clear - detuning "by an octave" is not "pitch correction within given boundaries" (example: micro-pitching for vocals). You've therefore changed the arrangement by changing key elements of the song (the song provider even stated he "committed" to a certain sound).



I have made it clear several times that I'll be strict with upholding rules.
And as written in the second post of this thread:

Mister Fox wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 25, 2020 08:28 CET

Please consult the official Rules and Guidelines for a more detailed set of rules. Failing to adhere to the rules will result in instant disqualification

I am sorry, but see you in Mix Challenge 063.

Hi everyone,

Submission link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cyc3ccenwg6jh ... k.wav?dl=0

Really fun song to work with. For me sounds more like some indie-game soundtrack than film, but that can be only my imagination.

My goal in this particular mix was to get really spacey and dreamy sound, but still clear and selective.
There is a lot of deleys on a stems, so I don't want to fight with them (most of the time), but to use them in a mix. I use A1Triggergate to control some of delays or to give a small accent on particular hits in a stems for example for snare hit in Azure loop. From a "rhythm plugins" I use also Arturia Minifilter to get some bite/drive on Shortnoise bass and Omnisphere loop.

To get movement in the mix I use autopan plugin on some stems or I set pan automation by myself. I also use Movement (Output) on Wind and Vocalise intro. Really great plugin to add space and movement. A1StereoControl to get low freq in mid and add side signal sometimes.

Rest of a mix is pretty standard - lot of small eq's, not too much compressors needed here, some volume automations to make whole song more dynamic and reverbs to set everytnig in some space (for example I was trying to set Ethera far from listner and in big space).

If you have some specific question write boldly, I'm open to discussion

This was a great project to work on. Biggest challenge was making everything visible, especially the War Drums. I wanted to make some element stand out in each segment of the music and tend to like things in high contrast. Adding to the stereo size and doing a lot of positioning were key in my strategy.

I set up a reverb track and sent some portions to it in varying degrees. I used REAPER 6.03 and a large variety of plugins to taste.

The verb used in a send was Abbey Road Plates (Waves). It also used FrontDAW (Soundevice Digital) and MEqualizer (MeldaProduction) to adjust the results.

I also sent a copy of most things to a Plain, La Petite Excite high and La Petite low copy and sent these all to the mix additively.

For the Azure drums I used C1 Comp (Waves) and STA Enhancer (Audiffex) followed by AMBEO Orbit (Sennheiser) for placement. This was followed by another C1 Comp and Brauer Motion (Waves), which added movement to keep it a bit less repetitive on the spacial side. La Petite Excite (FineCutBodies) was added. I used NewFangled EQuivocate (NewfangledAudio) to cut out overlapping frequencies with a side chain from the War Drums. Wrapped that up with SPL Passeq (Plugin Alliance) to get the emphases needed to cut through.

War Drums used C1 Comp, Puig Tec EQP1A (Waves), La Petite Excite, and SPL Passeq to get as much out of it as I could.

The Bell used AMBEO Orbit, SPL Passeq, and Density (Airwindows)

CS 80 1 & Damage Snare & Field Snare used AMBEO Orbit and Density.

CS 80 2, Retro 1 & Retro 2 used AMBEO Orbit.

CS 80 3 used AMBEO Orbit, Density, and Brauer Motion (Waves).

The variation between CS 80 tracks helped make them separate.

Damage Industrial Hats used Proximity (TDR Labs) and Brauer Motion to keep it moving around.

Ethera used Density, AMBEO Orbit, Chorus (JS), ChorusEnsemble (airwindows), proximityEQ (sonible), and SPL Passeq.

Music Box used AMBEO Orbit and Drive (Airwindows).

octave DoPahTet used AMBEO Orbit for general positioning and GRM Delays (Ina-GRM) for movement and Density.

Omnisphere Bass used FathomFive (airwindows) and BassKit (airwindows) to get the frequency emphasis needed.

Omnisphere loop used Density, SPL PassEQ and Ping Pong Pan (JS) to keep it moving.

rootDoPahTet used Ambient Reverb (Stone Voices) and Density

Shortnose bass & String run used Density

Strings and sopranos and Symphonic strings and Vocalise C pad and Vocalise harmony and Vocalise Intro and Wind used AMBEO Orbit and Density.

Stylus crash & Stylus riser used Proximity (TDR Labs)

Stylus Shaker used Doppler (waves) to keep it moving around and Density.

third DoPahTet used Ambient Reverb (Stone Voices) and Density

Wavestation used OriRiver (Denis Tihanov) for reverb abd Density and AMBEO Orbit


Enjoy:
WAV file: MC062_GaryRegnier_mix62v11_ltjost https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TPjWS ... bRekGiC3Z

Hi guy,

This is the link of my submission
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UJ3RD ... XMPvdti8Mu