MIX CHALLENGE - MC056 July 2019 - Winners announced

[dandimite]

Hi MC-Community,

here is my Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1szlx55rvr6ee ... e.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubtmuhvvz5fgl ... e.wav?dl=0

Tools that i used: VTM, Softube Console 1, SPL Attacker plus, Waverider, CLA Plate from Verbsuite Classics.
Dont had time to fix the timing issues. Left that for round 2 :-)

Cheers,

dandimite

[HalfinHalfOut]

I'd call that actually a bug. If it's a "buffer thing" from the reverb, maybe extend your loop points, then render again before you upload your edit.


Also - welcome to the forum. The there is no wait time until you can post. But I do not recommend to submit anything at the last minute.

Thanks for the welcome!

It's not a bug! It would be intentional as I want the echo playing when I start the beginning of the song as an artistic choice to fill out some of the space surrounding the acoustic guitar. I'm using a very long automated reverb effect off an eventide and played it into the reverb, then before it is fully decayed begin playing back and printing the mix. Hence wondering if that takes my role to far beyond mixing into producing.

To clarify I use an external summing mixer to print my mixes to a secondary A/D so I can capture reverb tails in a live manner. I like to capture some effects like this to create unique and more original mixes.

[HalfinHalfOut]

Hey there! Here is my submission, putting it in a day early as I ended up booking a short session tomorrow! What better to do on your birthday than record?!?!

MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WbsZS ... xor5mlTpCc
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10lPyw ... E54uHft4oS

Cubase 10

Track Levels:

Momentary peak -16LUFS
Over all LUFS - 18-16

Mixbus Processing:

Dangerous 2bus+ (Parallel limiting on drums, minor X-former saturation, some harmonics)
Manley NUMU .5db of compression -3db input setting, slow attack, fast release, mostly for color
Summit 410c inductive EQ's in stereo for a tiny bump @60 and a high shelf for some chime in the cymbals @12k
Dangerous A/D+ transformers in with a small amount of the enhancement knob
Calibrated on clean send to measure for stereo matching/level matching.

Plugins:

Console 1 - Class A on every channel
Softube Tape - Every Channel (minus mix print) varied tape style depending on character color I wanted.
Reverb - Softube TSAR Verb, Eventide SP2016
EFX - Soundtoys Echoboy Jr and Primal Tap
Distortion/Saturation - Various Plugs including built in Cubase, Softube Saturation Knob, Console 1 Saturation settings etc.
Compression - CLA1176's, Console 1
EQ's - Cubase studio EQ for small cuts, Console 1 for rest, Pul-tec style a time or two.

Techniques:

Parallel bussing with things like vocals, and drums. EQ's I can further explain if necessary, however some of the cuts/boosts only make sense in relationship to other tracks.

Lot of automation on reverb and effects.

Standard side chains of bass and kick and some on effects processing to stay out of way of keys, also side chained a gate to open to push the kick sonically further with a sine wave.

HASS'ed the Tambo to get it out of the way and used an Envelope filter in the low mids to deal with the massive crash ride on left hand side that was eating the entire mix via overheads.

Great track overall, only slightly fixed a very small section of the bass, I felt time correcting this track would kill it's vibe, had bass follow guitars as literally a bass guitar, rather than a bass playing with the kick, helped it work better over all!

Let me know if there are anymore questions, and if I botched anything up in the submission and DQed myself already!

Best Regards,

Dallas

[canese]

What an amazing challenge this month. Cool song, stayed for days in my head.

Wav:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gnh5io6ze4ilj ... e.wav?dl=0
Mp3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9dwkkcgmexgo ... e.mp3?dl=0

The first thing I did was trying make to the drum groove steady, then I added bass, guitars, piano and vocals in that order and make sure they were in the correct tempo, volume and side. Then added effects regarding always the balance of the whole song and always hearing in mono just in case...

Drums: A lot of EQs in the Snare to remove unpleasent frecuencies, Also Eq to remove low end in the Overheads. EQ, Compression and reverb for blending in the bus channel.

Bass: Used only one of the takes, add EQ, compression, distortion and little reverb.

Guitars: EQ to remove low end and boost around 3.5 kHz, compressed and panned all to the sides. I muted the guitars at the middle of the song and at the begining of the bridge because I thought we needed a break from them since they play troughout the whole song non stop.

Vocals: Just used the pitch corrected one, Add some compression, reverb and distortion. Automated some delay also.

Piano: Compressed and added a long reverb for ambience.

Whole Song: I wasn't content with the groove of the song so I automated the tempo in parts I heard it was rushing or dragging (Fletcher from Whiplash would be proud of me). Also automated some volume, EQ, panning, width and delays at the begining to make an introduction that leads your ears to the song.


Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for my bad English.

[Lastdegree]

Hello,

Here is my mix:

Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/523r5vqoej9t2 ... 3.mp3?dl=0
Wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wu5zmj2c60t9 ... v.wav?dl=0

Plugins used:
on every tracks: Isotope Trash compressor, clipmax, acon equalize
3 bus : hofa iq reverb + acon equalize, Isotope Trash delay, Isotope Trash compressor

some notes:
HP at 130hz on reverb
LP 115hz on bass
HP 5k on overheads
reverb setup: 1.2s duration 50ms predelay
big cuts at 2k and up at 8k on vocal, guitars and piano

[Marc Rapture]

What's up everyone!

Once again, thank you Mister Fox and this months song provider, Chris Wilson!

MY MIX
WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/es15c2mw3gv8y ... e.wav?dl=0
MP3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzekfw6aiqoqa ... e.mp3?dl=0

DAW: Harrison Mixbus

Plug-ins:
Plutec EQ's
Manley VOXBOX
Scheps Omni Channel
SSL E Channel
SSL G-Master Buss Compressor

Harrison Plug-ins (Stock)
Compressor
Limitor
EQ's
Gverb+
3D Triple Delay


I went for a more natural acoustic vibe. I didn't want to over-process the song or even time align. I tried, but it dramatically changed the feel and emotion to the track. Anyways, great song!

Hope you enjoy my mix!

Good luck to everyone, happy mixing and have a great weekend, cheers!

[Waleed Morris]

Hello everyone,
As usual to me, I start with drums, used eq and compression, so guitars, then I took some time with vocal eq, compression, and saturation.
Plugins I used, waves, sound toys eventide, slate digital.

My submission.

MC056_Chris Wilson _Ghost Limb_Wizzo.wav
MC056_Chris Wilson _Ghost Limb_Wizzo.mp3
glad to answer any question ,comments or feedback are most welcome .

Cheers!

[TanglewildStudio]

Hey Everyone,

Hope you are all well. Sorry Mr. Fox for my lateness, i'll be earlier in my entry next time.

Here is my entry into this contest:

WAV:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y6xp2 ... gAQDidgrrn

Here are some things I did for this mix:

All tracks:

My Favourite EQ, the NOVA by Tokyo Dawn was used on every track. To make leveling easier, I used a limiter from WAVES Audio called the L2. Compressor was their PIE compressor. Reverb was the abbey Road Reverb.

No drum samples except the kick which was provided.

Vocals:

Most of what I did with the vocals is add 10dB at 10,000hz. I felt there was high end detail missing from the high end. In addition I added a dynamic EQ to 500hz and 3500hz with a wide Q as there were some frequencies that peaked above the rest there.

Rest of the instruments:

Mostly just added 10k and cut at around 4k to make room for the vox.

Enjoy! You guys are sounding great!

[Dodgingrain]

Here are mine:
mp3: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrjZdxGjI ... Q?e=X2Twn5
wav: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrjZdyuxS ... A?e=f88mFw

Thanks Chris for providing the song, it really grows on you as its being mixed and has some interesting challenges. I think its a better song than some of the normal stuff we get.

This one has lots of compression and eq. The timing on some of the tracks isn't so good, I think I would recommend this went back to be re-recorded with tighter timing. I might also ask for an alternate snare recording with a different sound or enhance the current snare with samples but unfortunately samples are against the rules. I did my best to do small tweaks to some of the drums, bass, and piano to try and make it a little bit better. The bass seems to have the biggest issues with timing, sometimes it seems like there are extra notes or the musician is trying to catch up with the song by playing to fast. The guitars had a lot of finger slide noise which I took out as well. I dig the vocals and did some work on getting them to sit well and not sound to harsh. I added quite a bit more reverb than I normally use. There is some volume automation occurring on the vocals and piano, not to much on the other parts. I ended up going with LA-2A compressors on the vocals while most of the rest of the tracks have SSL4000 channel compression. The vocals are also treated with a couple delays to make them sound a little bit bigger.

Overall there are no special tricks on this mix. I stayed warmer than the rough mix which seems a bit harsh at times.

[Miha]

Hello everyone !

Here is my submission :

Mp3 : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WHljY ... UD15wDMiOr
Wav : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qA7gm ... C2l28vV2cI

I mixed Ghost Limb in Reaper with Softube Console 1 (American Class A, API style channel strip) on every track .
The song reminded me some sort of Jeff Buckley vibe so I used ''Lover You Should've Come Over'' as a reference track.

I am still working on ''top-down'' approaches so I put in place three mixbusses for instruments layering :
First one with the lead voice and piano, second one with guitars, tambourine and bass (with Drawmer S73 compressor on it) and last one with drums and back vocals (with Softube Harmonics saturation on it).

I added Izotope Nectar EQ on each vocal as well as Summit Audio TLA-100A compressor. I also used Neutron Scultpor (spectral enhancer) to tame sibilances and harshness on vocals and cymbals and tried to get more separation betwween instruments (specially guitars) with Tonelux Tilt EQ.

I tried to keep the song fresh and alive (with its imperfections) so I did very few editing, mostly at the sections transitions.
Same thing for automation, minimal : voice and kick riding, a little bit of volume adjustment on the piano, back vocals and master track.

I used three instances of Slate Digital Verbsuite Classic with different predelays to create depth and a short stereo delay on the intro guitar to give it more space.

On the masterbus, I used JDK analog EQ to add color followed by Drawmer S73 compressor to glue things up.

As always feedbacks are welcome.
Cheers !