Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Mix Challenge 68 - August 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.



This month we have the chance to work on an Electronic production by "Digital Sound Labs". The song is tentatively called "Over the Rainbow".

We are running a full blown "creativity challenge". With having access to both the Wet and Dry tracks, you have the option to either build upon what has been given to you. Or you can get really creative with drastically enhancing the original sounds, and turn it into something "larger than life" (not just "recreate" the used Chorus/Flanger/Delay/Reverb). As long as you don't change the arrangement.

Please read about the details and special requirements for handling this mix further down below.



Short information:
Due to personal reasons, the Song Provider will not be fully available until the 10th August. I try to answer as many technical questions as possible in that time. Should there be a very specific question though, please be aware that you might have to wait a couple of days for an answer (which will be in short paragraphs). Apologies for the inconvenience.

!

Bonus Info

Please get re-acquainted with the official "Rules and Guidelines" of the Mix(ing) Challenge. This particular Rule Book has been updated on 2020-JUL-31 WARNING: If your entry hasn't been documented, the uploaded file properly named and/or can not be downloaded by the time the deadline has been reached (21-08-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST), your entry will be disqualified. Do not post a link and then mention "documentation will be added later" (as in - after the deadline). You have 21 days for a submission - plenty of time to prepare your post accordingly. Please take note of the implementation of a "Rule Compliance Data Sheet" mechanic for the rest of the year 2020.

Please take note of the following

• Please consult the official "Rules and Guidelines" for the Mix Challenge regarding principles of the game, recommendations and upload/submission guidelines
• IMPORTANT: please only 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.
• 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: MC068__Digital_Sound_Labs__Over_the_Rainbow__ForumUsername.wav
• please only upload to cloud storage spaces (DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc), not SoundCloud.
• 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!

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 1 Statistics/Data Sheet: Overview of Submissions - is your entry within given parameters?
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Results of the Mix Challenge: Winners announced

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

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

Challenge submission will end on 21-08-2020, 23:59 UTC+2/CEST (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: Digital Sound Labs (Samuel Dirska)
Song Name and Length: Over the Rainbow, 5:24 min
Song Information: 160 BPM / Signature: 4/4
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Electronic


Preview of the Song:



A word from the song provider:

Digital Sound Labs (Samuel Dirska) wrote:This is a song, which I started to get into Logic, thus some stock plugins are used like Alchemy. Originally the intention was to make something Dubstep-like, but then it turned into another direction, to be honest, I cannot say which style it is now, maybe just "Breaks".


Some "lane markers" (road markings):

Use your skills and creativity as much as you want. Although this is no remix contest, you can use FX heavily to alter the original tracks, as long as the arrangement is untouched. But don't forget. It should sound dope afterwards.

Since I like some audiophile stuff, I appreciate a very well stereo mix. Having sounds on defined positions, hearing a well defined stage and some decent spatial stereo FX will give you plus points in the rating.

This is no mastering challenge. Nevertheless, the mix should be well balanced in a way, that it sounds extraordinary amazing on all devices. I am going to test your deliveries with a "minimal" mastering chain, just consisting of a "warming FX" and a limiter. Thus take care, that your mix is well balanced for all listening situations. The audio devices to evaluate my top 15 candidates will be: my car hifi; speakers in the living room; my "reference" monitor boxes at my PC; good price/value studio headphones; ridiculous expensive studio headphones. I won't name any of my "mastering" or monitoring devices, to give nobody an advantage to others in optimizing to that

Some sound references, although the style is "little" bit different:
- Crazy Astronaut - Funky Shit (especially the dubstep like parts) e.g. https://youtu.be/geje_0_-f24
- Lightbringer - Far too loud e.g. https://youtu.be/vF6cgjoz24U


Some last words:

View the lane markers as lane markers, not as law. See the reference tracks as my approach, how I would make it to sound. If you think, you can do it better in another way and the result will blow me away - give it a try.

Use your full creativity and ability and use your best FX to make it phat, dope and wicked.



(more technical details in the Mix Pack bundled TXTs)

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:Since you have very small limitations as what tools you can use this month (the Rules and Guidelines still apply!), your creativity can roam around freely. But keep in mind - this is no remix competition. No rearranging of the given source material (as in - slice it up, then
move things around to create something new) - only "enhancing" it (as in building upon).

Two very important recommendations:
1) add one bar (one 4/4 beat) of silence in front and the end of your edit. You should always do that regardless, because of possible unwanted side-effects of your processing tools

2) take a closer look at the initial transients of all signals.


Other than that... I can really not give you any further hints. This time, we don't have a "pop" production where certain time-tested methods can apply. Although, maybe one tip: don't linger too much on a certain effect and/or perfection. "Experimentation is good" - you never know what happens if you seemingly did something "wrong".

The sky is basically the limit. Although - please do keep the LUFS maximum in mind.

Have fun!

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 - artistic use only!
• the focus of this game is "mixing" - NO MASTERING
• render the edited material in the same sampling rate and bitrate as originally provided
• ADD-ON RULES - PRODUCTION RELATED:
  • create a suitable ending (8-bars maximum)

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 (596,70 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)
IMPORTANT NOTE: file unavailable after 21-AUG-2020


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 2986,17 MB, packed 596,70 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

If you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months:
Please consider supporting us

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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!

Hello !

What enjoyful and awesome is to compete again and learn a lot with you!

First of all thank you for this new competition, and also thank you to the song provider for sharing us this possibility to work with such an wobbly and cool music, I tried my best in this mix it because this was so challenging! I wish some day to learn to do wobble effects like these ones.

Here is my mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lciBpy ... p=sharing

And here is my own mix tesis and description:

Screenshot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z-1QrS ... sp=sharing

First of all I loaded every element on the mix and I heard first if I would liked to work better with Dry stems or with the FX ones,

so I took all the dry elemenst and thought that was cool to start mixing from that base point.

Beat dry:
It has it's own EQ cutting some low and high frequencies, then a Neutron Elements with EQ and an Harmonic Exciter, then a Fruity compressor,
and La Petite Excite as finally as another Harmonic exciter adding more low end.

Hihats dry:
Cleaning frequencies with eq, Neutron elements (EQ,Exciter and Compressor in that Order), Animate Grow, La Petite Excite, Supercharger, Ozone Imager 2, Some EQ adding side frequencies (WAVES F6), Some reverb, and finally a Cleaning EQ.

Kick:
EQ Cleaning freqs, Neutron 3 elements (EQ, Exciter and Compressor), Animate Ignite ...
I've made a Summing bus for the kick at -16.6 dB with a Fruity Love Filter so Kick Sub bass was integrated and glued nicely.

Snare dry:
As the Beat already had a snare, I just kept the high end for a fresh sound on this stem,
First cleaning EQ not too much, then ANIMATE Grow, then Neutron 3 Elements (Transient shaper and EQ), Waves F6 RTA Eqqing some harsh frecuencies, fruity limiter and fruity reverb.

Sidestick dry:
Parametric EQ 2 cleaning frequencies, Neutron 3 Elements (Equalizer exciter and compressor), Ozone imager 2, and Fruity Reverb, then a Summing bus to balance frecuencies at the low-end on Left Right Channel with also a Fruity love filter.

Bass Massive dry:
Parametric EQ 2 Freq clean, Neutron 3 Elements (Just EQ and compression), then Ozone Imager 2, Animate Grow, Monofilter, F6-Rta eq for making a better layering, and fruity balance so I can automate.

Bass Poly Stabs dry:
Eq 2, Neutron 3 Elements (Eq Compressor Exciter in respective order), Maximus, La petite Excite for some nice High-end, Neutron 3 Element but Transient Shaper, F6 RTA Stereo EQ Adding mids, Monofilter, and Fruity Reverb and Fruity delay 3 for ending the song.

Bass dry:
Eq 2, Neutron 3 Elements (Eq exciter compressor), Animate Ignite and Grow, Waves F6 RTA Stereo added some low-Mids to the sides, la petite excite, FX (FL Studio effect called FX Flanger 0.3 Wet for adding texture), Fruity convolver for layering texture, and a bit of fruity love filter.

Serum_dry:
Just Cleaning EQ 2

Serum_dry 2:
Cleaning Fruity parametric EQ 2, Animate Grow as preset Pad Spreader, and Waves F6 RTA stereo reducing mids harshness.

Alchemy dry:
Eq 2, Neutron 3 Elements (and inside it EQ, Compressor and Exciter in respective order), La petite excite, Animate Ignite Lit Mix, And ozone imager,
then there is a summing bus for layering to make it fuller in presentation.

Padsylenth dry:
Eq2 and Monofilter.

Pad air dry:
Parametric eq 2, Fruity Compressor and Ozone Imager 2.

Massive dry:
Parametric eq 2. Neutron 3 Elements (Equalizer compressor exciter), Ozone imager 2, Maximus, F6 RTA Stereo reducing 1khz -1.7dB with Q factor of 1, then Fruity convolver, La petite Excite and Fruity reverb.

Violins 1 dry:
Fruity parametric eq 2, Neutron 3 (Eq and compressor), and monofilter.

Daydreams choppy vocal:
Eq2, Neutron 3 elements (Equalizer, compression and exciter) and Animate Ignite.


MASTER:
In the master bus I just added La Petite Excite, to ad warmness, and a limiter.

Thank you and good luck eveyrone, thank you for hosting this challenge this new opportunity and thanks a lot to song provider Samuel and Mr Fox for your hard work.

Hi.
A question.

Since the package to download have files in 48/24... Need this mix Challenge to be exported in 48/24 too?.

Thanks in advanced!

Javier.

As per the Rules and Guidelines - yes.

unless otherwise stated, export in the sampling rate and bitrate the material was provided in. However, bar minimum in 24bit.

Nice introduction with a first mix at - 14.1 Lufs.
Notice to the deaf and blind

Hi everyone,

just want to give a live sign. I am happy, that I get the chance to get my song here mixed in many versions, to see or better hear, what is possible. As mentioned in the introduction my responsiveness will be limited till 2020-08-10, after then I am going to try anwering any questions as good as I can. I hope you enjoy the song and the challenge.

BR
Sam from Digital Sound Labs

DigitalSoundLabs wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:23 CEST

Hi everyone,

just want to give a live sign. I am happy, that I get the chance to get my song here mixed in many versions, to see or better hear, what is possible. As mentioned in the introduction my responsiveness will be limited till 2020-08-10, after then I am going to try anwering any questions as good as I can. I hope you enjoy the song and the challenge.

BR
Sam from Digital Sound Labs

Hi Sam, Thank you for provide this song and give us the opportinitty to enjoy mixing it.

Cheers.
Javi.

Mister Fox wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 03, 2020 22:54 CEST

As per the Rules and Guidelines - yes.

unless otherwise stated, export in the sampling rate and bitrate the material was provided in. However, bar minimum in 24bit.

Thanks Mister fox.

The Section of examples drove me to Doubt.
This is why I asked.

Thanks in any case.

Franz wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 03, 2020 23:31 CEST

Nice introduction with a first mix at - 14.1 Lufs.
Notice to the deaf and blind

And 32Bits