MIX CHALLENGE - MC076 May 2021 - Winners announced

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to mix:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1hkl50xh070d ... m.wav?dl=0

For all track are used:
- Waves Q10;
- Waves C4;
- Db ProComp.

AUX Effect;
- Waves TrueVerb;
- Waves SuperTap;

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[AskAndy]

Hi everyone,

what an interesting and moving song! I really appreciated mixing it.
Here is the link to my mixed version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U3h7RT ... sp=sharing

My general approach to the mix:
- enforcing punch and bass to create a danceable track -> the kick has to hit you in the neck every time
- staying rather dry, reverbs shall be more atmospheric and ambient -> no noticeable reverbs at all
- the track needs to be open and wide at the same time

My personal challenge:
- only using FREE PLUGINS and stock plugins of FL Studio

Mentionable mixing moves:

DRUMS/PERC
Kick
- BPAGate to shorten the Oomph
- FetSnap (transient shaper) and FETISH (compressor) to enforce and shape the punch -> the neck has to hurt !!!
- EQ & Rare (pultec) to shape the tone and low end

Claps
- Claps 1 -> Ultra-Wide-Chorus Flanger (FL Studio preset)
- Claps 2 -> centered and mono

Drumloop
- FETISH (compressor), smacked really hard to get a roomy sound

Snare
- FetSnap (transient shaper) and FETISH (compressor) to enforce and shape the punch
- TRANSATURE for saturation

808 Toms
- FETISH (compressor) to control the transients

Rest
- All drum and percussion tracks have been EQed and panned to fit in the mix

BASS
before splitting into high and low busses
- FETISH (compressor) to control the dynamics and the transients of the bass

high frequency bus (> 250 Hz)
- PREBOX for immense saturation -> the bass track now doesnt need that much low and sub low information to cut through the mix, saving space for the neck-shattering kick drum

low frequency bus (< 250 Hz)
- EQ

after splitting into high and low busses
- Another EQ and Rare (pultec) to shape the tone to fit into the mix

GTR 1
- FETISH (compressor) to control the dynamics and transients
- CHOWTapeModel for dynamic control and saturation
- EQ

Piano
- FETISH (compressor) to control the transients and enhance the sustain of the piano tones
- EQ

Rhodes
- FETISH (compressor) to control the dynamics
- EQ
- PREBOX for saturation

Synths
- really nothing special on all the tracks, just EQ, compression and some saturation to make every synth fit...
- the compression was mainly done with FETISH and LALA

Ad Libs
- added a very subtle chorus effect (FL Studio)
- LALA (compressor) to control the dynamics
- EQ

Background Vocals
- FETISH (compressor) to control the dynamics
- EQ

Lead Vocals
- Every part needed to be EQed seperately to match all the other parts
- Especially the chorus LV were tricky. The spectral image was not consistent. I used a lot of dynamic EQ (TDR Nova) to make it match to the other parts.
- a lot of volume automation before and after the compression
- compression: FETISH
- saturation: CHOWTapeModel
- EQ
- I added one automated infite delay for some parts of the track

Mix Bus
- Britpressor (compressor/limiter) in compression mode, only around 1 dB of gain reduction
- CORALBAXTER (EQ) to enforce the high-end
- TesslaPromkII (saturator) for tape saturation

In general
- Almost every track has reverb or delay on it... BUT very subtle and most of the time in combination with a chorus or flanger effect to make it very atmospheric

That's all.
Cheers and good luck.

I believe you hit your mark. the reverbs are subtle and enjoyable. good work

[PGPMixing]

I believe you hit your mark. the reverbs are subtle and enjoyable. good work

Thank you very much for your feedback, I kindly appreciate it!

[dadomachado]

Hi All,

Follows my mix for this months song. Very nice song to work on !

https://drive.google.com/file/d/185fQkI ... sp=sharing

I've started by organizing the project and have creatd the following busses:

Drums
Bass
Guitars
Keys
FX
Lead Vox
BG Vox

I went with Slate's VMR on most tracks using the Brit N Channel.

Drums

BD - Waves EQP1 with a boost on 60Hz, tha used Pro-Q 3 to cut some space for the Bass (90Hz) and a small boost at around 2.5KHz for the BD click. Also used smack attack to increase some attack to it.
Other drums tracks - basic EQ with VMR and a little compression as well.
Sent a few tracks for a paralel distortion buss using Soundtoys Devil-Loc
Sent Snare and claps to a plates reverb

Bass

Added a little compression with Pro-C 2 (using a side chain with the BD) to make the BD stand.
A little EQ, distortion on mid highs and RBass to bring up the Low End.
Sent the bass to a little spread effect (Dim-D)

Keys / FX

Basic EQ with VMR. Added some saturation on the Rhodes (Black Box) and Sollo Synth (Abbey Road) to make them stand out a little.
Used Pro-Q 3 to do some Mid/Side EQ (cut on the low mids on the mid and little boost on high mids on the side) to make them wider.

Guitars

Just basic EQ and some saturation (Black Box)
Sent GTR1 to a hall reverb (Rverb)

Lead Vox

Work mostly on the LV Buss. Pro-Q 3 to cut some ressonances, Waves sibilance for deesing, Rvox and Waves CLA-2A for compression.
Sent the tracks to a Slap (J37), Hall Reverb (RVerb), and delays (Valhalla Delay). Sent the delays into the Hall Verb.

BG Vox

Basic EQ, RVox and sent the to the Hall Verb.


I hope to get some feedback and wish good luck to everyone.

Cheers,
dadomachado

[TomImmon]

This song ist pure „Pop music“ in the best meaning of these words. I enjoyed mixing it a lot. Thanks to the song provider Christoph_K and Mr. Fox.

My mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqgu2ynpyby2c ... n.wav?dl=0

Kick: A little bit boom with „BarkOfDog“, some saturation, and some EQ with a pultec style eq
Snare: Transgresor form some more Attack, a bit saturation with Blackbox HG2, and a slight compression for the body
Hihat: A bit saturation and some highs with „FreshAir“

Drumloop runs though a Fuzz :-)

All the other percussion instrumenst got some reverb and paning, just a bit eq, nothing more

Bass: CLA-76 compressor, some basic eq and some tube vibes with Blackbox HG2

Main Git: CLA-76 compressor, some basic eq and some tube vibes with Blackbox HG2, some spreading and eventide ultra channel for micro pitches and delay fx.
Dis. Git: Just some spreading

Rhodes: basic eq, a bit saturation and some vitalizer
Piano: basic eq and some vitalizer
Nothing special for the other keyboards

Nearly same setting for all vocals (just fx amount is different):
Basic limiter for some peaks, dyn EQ for low mids, Nectar Element for clearness, cla-76 and spl iron as comprssor chain, some tube saturation with Blackbox HG2

Master: Townhouse vompressor for the glue

FX: Epic mainly for vocals (Delay + Plate), Echoboy (Compressed slap) , EMT-140 Plate, Some ducked Stereo delays for back vox and vox FX.

A lot of automation on paning, level, fx level, aux sends.

Expose readings (all results are within range for Expose‘s „balanced mixing“):
Integrated LUFS: -16.3 LUFS
Short Term LUFS: -14.2 LUFS
True Peak: -4.0 dBTP

Cheers
Tom

[LCM!]

Hi, my first mix here.

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

First and foremost, thanks to MisterFox and to the band for making this possible. Nice song, delighted in dealing with it.

Some spots to underline (besides the most common stuff as eq, some saturation, some transients...):

- Parallel compression on LV and Drums (KD, SD, HH and crashes)

- Sidechain on the bass linked to KD.

- Reverb and delay here and there. Trying not to abuse.

- Tremolo effect for GTR2, Rhodes and the flute. The latter has some cuts and I added a tail so that to soften the end.

- A stereo enhancer for the pads and strings to give more air.

Reaper user. Stock pluggins.

Cheers and good luck.

[unclesnuggles]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v6TDNU ... sp=sharing

Good morning all
here is my mixing proposal. Mixing is done on Cubasepro10.5.
I first did the gain adjustment on all of my tracks, then I did corrective EQ, then pan. I did 4 group tracks (drums / bass, vox, gtrs, synthpad), then all in a mixbuss track.
For the Drumsloop track, I applied a parallel composition with an 1176uad, I also corrected the phase on this track.
The SD track that I processed with the ampexATR102 in delay recording mode.
For vocals, I also used parallel compression with an 1176 followed by a La2a.
I had a lot of fun with the reverbs and delays, while being sober in my settings.
I mainly used the Tsar as a reverb with the Cubase Reverence. The equalization of the group's tracks is done with the Tubetechcahannel from Softube.
on my Mixbuss I finish with a little compression and L'ampexATR102.
During the whole mixing phase there is automation, EQ, and sidechain compression.
In the end I had a lot of fun and learned a lot to make this mix, the song is cool! thank you for this Track.

[Skible]

Here is my entry: https://drive.google.com/file/d/165kpH0 ... sp=sharing

I felt the song had nice mellow feeling to it which I tried to preserve.

I used a noise gate to make the kick shorter so it wouldn't clash with the bass. Some bass notes had lots of ~80Hz which were competing with the kick. It was a challenge to balance those.
I delayed the claps ~5ms so I could hear the snare and the claps, not a blend of the two.

I sidechained the Glass pad from the piano and the rhodes. Slight ducking made the pad complement the piano sounds nicely.

For the vocals I gave a combination of different effects: sidechained reverb, delays, modulation. I automated the effects to keep things interesting. For the chorus, I wanted some thickness so I made some "harmonies" with a pitch shift. I didn't want them to be obivious, just to give little more something to the choruses.
I used a ton of automation to emphasis different things throughout the song. For example, bass and piano had nice fills here and there I wanted to bring slightly up.

My mixbus had an EQ filtering everything below 30Hz and everything above 16kHz and a "glue compressor". Gain reduction was not much more than 1dB at the loudest parts.

[Blang]

Hi all,

For this track the most fitting approach seemed to focus on groove and smoothness, rather than aggressive and very high energy.

The mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hA0yt7 ... sp=sharing

Even though it’s a mostly electronic production, the vocal really carries the track. So that’s where where a big part of the attention went to.
Finding the right space (verb/delay) for the vocals was slightly difficult, because I didn’t want to drown it in reverb. But, I do want it to feel big and fancy. I (think I) achieved this by combing 4 four timed based FX, each with their own function:

Fill space and glue with the rest: one very long, very dark reverb (almost like a pad)
Size and fancy: medium bright plate, UAD EMT140 Plate A, 2sec, pre-delay (important!) 90ms.
Energy, slickness and reducing claustrophobia: De-esser > Waves LayD (tiny bit of short octave up delay) > slightly crunchy amp sim with room ambience > Rverb: early reflections from plate.
Size and accenting: Quarter note delay with modulation, Echoboy Binsonette.

All of the send levels to these FX are highly automated to highlight certain words and to contrast the different sections.

Another hurdle for me were the chorus vocals. The artifacts from the time-stretching are a lot more apparent in this track, making it a somewhat robotic and metallic from 4k up. The add contrast to the chorus I made faux doubles of the lead vocal; plus and minus 5 cents. I still felt the chorus needed more lift, which is difficult because the pitch and intensity of the chorus vocal is not much higher then the pre-chorus. Anyhow, tucking in an octave under and above seemed to do the trick. Ableton Live's complex pro allows you to alter the formant when pitching. Very handy to make it sound natural or the complete opposite.

To make the hits on beat 4 before the choruses more powerful, I ducked some elements like tambourine, blip wet, reverb tails and such.

The pads have some quarter note volume pumping to add movement keep the whole from getting to dense.

The BLIP ARP has a lot of volume and HPF cutoff frequency automation. This to prevent it from getting to repetitive and to give space to other ear candies.

Masterbuss compressor: Kompreskimo
DAW: Live 11

[bluesation]

What I like with this challenge/song: It is well recorded, well performed, well arranged and a good composition. So, there is no need of fixing useless recordings, bleeds. Compensate bad arrangements, correct bad singers or exchange song parts (MC075). All time and work can be used for creativity.

This saying it was remarkable, that it already sounded good after just importing the tracks. Well done. So there is not much to do. I thought. After all, there was a lot done.

First of all, I spent “much love” for the guitar riff. It was smooth EQed, panned and got a vibe FX to widen the track.
I hi-passed the bass around 85 cycles.
There was not much need for compression. I just compressed the drum, bass and vocals buss. The pianos were compressed separately, to emphasis the attack.
From the busses low end rumble was removed via HPF from 150 up to 340 cycles. Further EQing is pretty standard, add a bit low end or emphasis the high end here and there.
The pianos were panned hard left and right. The pads half left and right, the ARP was not panned. Also the back Vox part were spread somewhere in the room.

In this mix I used more delay stuff than reverbs to get ambience or room effects. I used a slap delay with about 160ms, one with 8th notes, one with 4th notes. The pianos got slap delay, no reverb. I just used one room reverb just for the instruments, except the piano. The vox got both.


Here is my Mix: https://my.hidrive.com/lnk/duCIEzla