MIX CHALLENGE - MC097 April 2024 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

[BenjiRage]

Actually, loudness fluctuations measured with EBU R128 or ITU-R BS.1770-1+ are noted down in +- <value> LU, not dB (relative) or dBFS (absolute).

Exactly

[LCM!]

Hi everyone. First of all, thanks to the people who make this happens, @Mister Fox and @A Future in Noise.
This is my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1etB5Ww ... sp=sharing

Thinghs worth mentioning.
I thouht in a kind of Chamber Pop approach (strings, keys, soft drums discrete bass, long reverbs...), as I mentioned back in another post. It is clear this genre has a link to the 60's and 70's and adds a touch of comtemporaneity at the same time.
There is a room reverb where every thing is routed at certain amount.
Lead vocal: the pivotal centre of the song, parallel comp, fattener delay, plate reverb and slapback delay just in the quieter parts.
Vox veil and BGVs: pre-fx delay to get an ethereal mood.
Drums: softer than I use to. I hope the kick is right in the zone of being percieved but not dominant. A transient shaper to take out some attack of the brush-snare. Toms, cymbals and hihat with extra stereo effect. Toms splitted in four bands trying to separate the hits.
Guits: accoustic are hard panned.
Wurli: low-cut and panned to the left.
In the following elements my aim was to get a more natural sound out of them, by the means of tremolo, distortion and pre-fx reverb.
Strings: I really dislike the way it drops in transitions, so I streched the last note of some sections and create a fade out close to the next one. I did the same in the last note of the wurli. I consider that those radical cuts make the song to look artificial and more MIDI.
Trumpets and Cellos: pre-fader reverb.

I hope you enjoy it. And good luck.

[Cadence Soundlabs]

Hello everybody,

Here is the link for my mix:

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

Thank you for the opportunity to mix this.

My approach on this song was pretty basic. I used Mix Monolith to gain stage everything at the start. I opted not to use the Kick Alt as I thought it had too much of the modern sound that the client didn't want. And I used a compressor to help round off the kick transient a bit for the more 70s sound. All of the drums were routed to a bus with some bus compression.

I had a little compression on the bass.

I bussed the acoustic guitars together.

I added a tubescreamer style overdrive to the DI guitar tracks and bussed them together.

I bussed the Cello and the strings together and Eq'd them slightly and added a dynamic EQ to tame the high end a bit.

I bussed the Trumpets together.

I bussed the Wurlitzer tracks together.

I bussed the choir together. Then, I sent it to the Audiority Space Station to give it a bigger sound and then added a reverb.

I have an FX send on all of the music busses that go to a midrange bus. The midrange bus is filtered to taste, boosted and tamed with a Dynamic EQ.

I used the sidechain feature of Mix Monolith to control the Vox Under track.

I filtered the low and high end on the Vocal Wails track. And again used the Space Station for a bigger sound and feed that into another reverb. This was done directly on the track because I wanted to have almost no dry sound to it.

For the lead vocals, I EQ'd, de-essed, and then did the classic 1176 into a LA-2A. I also added a stereo delay which was feed into a Lexicon 480L emulation.

Then I used typical bus compression on the master bus, cleaned up some noise and did some other various automation stuff with a couple plugins, panning and volume.

I hope you enjoy! Thank you and have a wonderful week!

[Valter Zape]

Hello, here is my mix:

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

- Firstly, I leveled the volumes of all tracks to 0db VU.

- I started increasing the volume of the voice, and then other instruments.

- kick and kick-alternative, I joined the two channels into a group, inverted the phase of the kick-alternative, started with a compressor with slow attack and quick release, then I added an equalizer increasing low frequencies and lowering medium low frequencies.

- On the bass, a clipdistortion to contain louder transients and then a compressor with a slow attack and higher release.

- In the box, a compressor with slow attack and quick release, then a clipdistortion to contain louder transients.

- Hihat an eq cutting low frequencies up to 320hz, and a comb filter cutting at 6900hz.

- Cymbals a bass cut up to 500 Hz.

- Toms, a stereo imager to open up the stereo more, a gate to hold a little resonance and a compressor with long attack and short release.

- wurlitzer_cleaner_factory_preset, I used a delay to open up the stereo more, an EQ cutting at 100 and 500 Hz, a clipping to cut louder transients and a compressor with a slower attack and longer release.

- accoustic_gtr_no1 and accoustic_gtr_no2, I opened the pan of these two channels to left and right, I didn't do any more processing on the audio, I left it as is.

- e-gtr_with_all_FX, eq cutting lows up to 700hz and cutting highs up to 7200hz, gate and clipping to cut louder transients.

- e-gtr_DI, a clipping plugin, an eq cutting lows up to 400 cutting highs up to 7200, and increasing the frequency of 3470 by 6db.

- cello_1, low cut up to 200 hz, compressor with medium attack and quick release.

- cello_2, low cut up to 500hz, cut at 6500, +6db at 15200, compressor with medium attack and long release.

- Then I combined the two cellos into 1 track and equalized with a cut at 1000hz and 6db at 10800hz.

- rings-section eq with high cut up to 500 hz, cut at 1170 hz. Clipping and then a gate.

- acoustic_guitar_sampled, EQ cutting lows up to 200hz, cut at 870hz and 1370, and +6db at 5300. Then a clipping, a phaser pedal to make the mid-bass sound cleaner and a tone pedal to take away some of the shine.

- e-guitar-solo_DI and e-guitar-solo_with_all_FX, combined into a single track, gate, EQ cutting lows up to 300hz, cut at 2900hz, compressor with fast attack and medium release, and clipping.

- trumpet_no1 and trumpet_no2, combined into a single track, opened the pan left and right, eq +3db at 1600hz and +5db at 7060hz. Then a clipping plugin.

- Choirs, I combined them all into a single track, EQ with low cuts up to 100hz, and then clipping to cut peaks.

- vox_lead_cleaned, a low cut up to 100 hz, +3db at 180hz, -6db comb filters at 435hz, 820hz, 1690hz and 8550hz. Then a denoise to eliminate noise, a deser at 8000hz, a clipping, a gate and a compressor with fast attack and slow release.

- vox_under, same treatment as vox_lead_cleaned, with the exception of the eq which was cut low up to 270hz, and +6db at 11900.

- vox_wail, same treatment as vox_lead_cleaned, with the exception of the eq which was cut low up to 300hz, specific cut at 800hz and 2500 and +6db at 11900.

- Effects:

- Delay: used in vox_lead_cleaned and vox_under.

- Medium Plate Reverb: on all channels, with low cuts up to 100hz and highs up to 10000hz.

- Medium Plate Reverb: on the vox_under, vox_wail, srings-section, trumpet and choirs channels, without EQ cuts so that the reverb also picks up the high frequencies, with the aim of distancing these instruments a little.

- Chorus: on the vox_wail and choirs tracks.

- On the master track, a neve distortion simulator plugin, a clipping, a high frequency exciter and a tape simulator.

- Automations: on the track vox_wail panorama automation to attract attention and not clutter with too many vocals. On the e-gtr_with_all_FX track, volume automation to give more emphasis to certain points in the song.

[KCVanHorn]

Thanks for this opportunity!

Here is my mix: My mix of "Get a Grip"

I took about 2 days editing and mixing. I'll just highlight a few things that I did.

- Edited vocals and instruments to be slightly tighter all around.
- added EQ to all tracks (Fab Filter Pro Q3) I used the Q3's dynamic EQ in a few spots, mostly vocals
- added reverb to many of the tracks (Valhalla Vintage Verb)
- automated delay on the main vocals (Waves H-Delay)
- Bass Guitar:
1. I used BX Bassdude Amp (got for free from plugin alliance) to give the bass some more tone and a bit of crunch.
2. Reel Tape Saturation (free from Pro-Tools subscription) for some extra warmth.
3. Waves H-Comp for Compression (free Black Friday gift from Waves)

- Master Bus only has very light compression, high-pass EQ and an L2 (no limiting, just gain increase). So these can easily be removed for mastering.

Some other fun things:
Added a tail reverb to the male harmonies that end the song
Added a crash to begin the 2nd verse
Made the last bass hit longer to make the fade out more natural

tried to keep this mix 60's-70s inspired.

Thanks again!

K.C.

[A Future in Noise]

@KCVanHorn

Hi, you say that: "Added a crash to begin the 2nd verse."

According to the rules, copied from TL;DR: ” … neither any changes to the arrangement (copy/add/move/remove parts)! (Unless otherwise stated.)”

I haven't listened to your track (partly because I need to be able to be completely neutral at this stage), but I'm wondering if it's allowed to copy and move a cymbal several seconds (if that's what you've done)? But maybe it is allowed?

However, I write this comment also for another reason: there is some kind of wild card system. But I haven't been able to fully grasp what it means. Is it applicable in a situation like this? Some of the participants even have a small sign on the right that says "wild card". Maybe someone can explain?

[DSBotez]

Hello Everyone, and thank you "A Future in Noise"
The voice reminds me of Nina Elisabet Persson from The Cardigans.

Here is the link to my submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sVFDng ... sp=sharing

► Show Spoiler

Below is a look at how I processed it:

Drums & Bass:

Kick:
EQ boost at 90Hz for warmth, cut at 180 to reduce boxiness, and small bump at 1 kH to brighten.
Enhanced the transient material <80Hz
(did this in parallel)
Then I did a smooth EQ cut out around 500 Hz

(This was on a bus for both kick samples)

For the origional kick I did a low cut that ends at about 100hZ (just to make sure there are no phase issues between the kicks at around 50Hz.

I also did a big cut out from 500 hz and a smooth one between 2-5 kHz

For the other kick (Kick-alternative) I added a slight bump around 50zh to compensate the previous low cut for balance and another cut out (more precise) between 2-5Khz
I also use InPhase from Waves to slightly delay one of the kick sample to make them more in phase.



Snare:
Started with a console emulation knob for some warm/bright coloration, followed by a transient shaper, an exciter, and a very light compressor.
Did a Q0.9 boost around 224 Hz for some bottom and a slow shelf from 5kH for the highs.
Then I used a stereo imager to place the snare upfront and widen its higher frequency while restricting its lows.
Finally to ad the SLAP I put a light -3db GR compressor (SSL)

I sent it to a my plate reverb

Bass:
* I put on a clean bass amp emulation which I believe included some optic style compressor for levelling and some parallel drive.
* Low cut 45 Hz

* Sligth cut of the highs to make it less bright and more warm

* Sidechain with kick to act between 40-250 Hz for low end clarity, and another sidechain with a classic VCA compressor to add a faster response for the kick to punch through.


High hat:

* low pass from 17kH
* 4,5 dB boost at 10Kh
* and a send to the room reverb
pan slight left

Cymbals:

* Changed nothing, just sent them to the room reverb and slight right pan

Toms:

* (changed nothing, just sent some signal to the room reverb (panned somewhat to the right


Drum Bus:


SSL Bus compressor
and some EQ:
I do a low Pass from 15kHz (as this was was a technique from the 70s) then just boosted the high end afterwards (giving it that silky smooth top)


Guitars:

all the guitars were glued together with a stereo imager on their bus.

Chorus Acoustics Guitar:

low cut & two dips; (-4dB @ 5.8kHz) & (-2.6dB @ 560z) a nice mic model for tone shaping, and a slight transient shaper for the highs of the rhythm,
I added a lot of room reverb and panned it to the left

put some extra reverb on the three strums for atmosphere.


Verse AC Guitar:

* Some widening reverb,
and some mic modelling

* Bump at 806Hz and a smaller one at the 12 khz air frequencies.

* (one has a ensemble FX to create some contrast between the two guitars)

Electric Guitar:

reamped with a classic AC box, added a low cut, and sent to the room reverb
and brought in the origional FX ver slighty to add the dist.


Solo Electric:

* Firechild compressor for distortion
* A tube modulator that has a lsight tremelo panner to add some feeling/movement.
* Then a LA2A for some forefront evelling.



Strings & Trumpets

Did very little except mix

Panned the cellos,

strings also had a bus with a stereo imager and and a slight bit of brightening with an EQ

and a little bit of booth Reverb

Trumpets were panned similar to the cellos and sent to the room reverb.


Vocals:

Lead vocal:

Might feel like I did alot but everything is very minimal.

* Mic mod for AKG C414 (Gold)

* console emulation colouration

* LA2A levelling

* an EQ with very slight corrections

* a stereo field reverb set to like 8%

The vocal is sent to the booth and a plate.

* Then another compressor for anysudden transients (Very light GR)

* Another correctional EQ

* Another EQ doing like 0.5 dB gain changes

* Slight compression for some Sparkel (Very light GR)
* Stereo imager to place in center
* Multiband compression for consistent tone

* Then to end it of another Non-linear exciter to thicken
* Then a De-esser

Lower Lead Vocal:

only an LA2A for levelling, sent to the “Backing Vox” bus

Backing Wail:
Also LA2A with some unique reverb with wide tail.

Choir:
added doublers for each stem to thicken,

Panned out with some compression and slight distortion and some reverb to blend.

Backing VOX Bus:

Stereo Imager for placement
and multiband compressor for thickening


Wurlitzer only has stereo widening and some Distortion/Colouration




Mix Bus

I have bus for the instruments that excludes only the lead vocals and the Plate, Room and Booth Reverbs I used,

the instrument bus as an API model 500 compressor doing very little compression,(More about a littel low end shelf that it does)

The mix bus is doing a few things:

* Multiband compression
* Stereo widening
* Mid/Side EQ to roll of the lows from the sides and add presence to the centre
* DSEQ doing some ringing and harshness reduction but not affecting below 400Hz
* A noise reduction model used on tape to brighten the track,
* very slight parallel compression to glue
* Non Linear sweetness
* A limiter (doing around 1dB GR)

[KCVanHorn]

Hmm... you may be right. I read that editing was allowed, just no drum replacements (like samples from drum triggers). Let me find out what I can do.

[A Future in Noise]

Hmm... you may be right. I read that editing was allowed, just no drum replacements (like samples from drum triggers). Let me find out what I can do.

Adding a cymbal isn't really the same thing as a change to the arrangement. Maybe wait and see what admin says before you change anything. (To reupload an edited entry is not allowed.)

[Mister Fox]

I answered this for @KCVanHorn on Discord, @A Future in Noise.

As mentioned in the rules (see TL;DR Rules.txt -- paragraph 3, see Rules for Participants -- paragraph 8, Mix Challenge Rules FAQ Section -- Q7/A7), adding a crash cymbal that wasn't at this position in the arrangement, is indeed not allowed.

This topic is a rare occurrence, and while upholding the rules, I usually decide on a per-case basis. So unless an entry (or participant) grossly violates the rules, this will merely result in a "tagged disqualified" situation (for the time being), which makes it still possible to advance into Mix Round 2 with the help of a Wild Card, should this entry be selected for Mix Round 2.

In other words:
Please take this as a learning experience -- no changes please, no withdrawing.
Please wait until the the game has ended, and feedback for Mix Round 2 is available.




A friendly reminder:
Including today, 10 days left to mix and submit your entry.

So far I have 20 entries on my HDD, the multi-tracks have been downloaded 140 times.