MIX CHALLENGE - MC067 July 2020 - Winners announced

[stargazerbass]

Hi Everyone,

being quite busy lately but decided to give it a go for the challange, song is very well recorded and a pleasure to work with!
here's my take on it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FnBww3 ... p=sharing

[Clueless]

https://mega.nz/file/X09mjCAC#YoWy2Hotp ... 8eEe5_zAmI


MC067 paint me in colour
Bass
Purist gain
D.C. filter Cocoa delay, ReaEq,TDR nova
Parallel Purest gain, minus delay, Bass drive, ReaEq
Kick Purest gain, ReaEq
Parallel sn01 compressor, Basskit, Bark of dog, ReaEq
Snare Purest gain, ReaEq
ReaComp
Hats
Purist Gain, bright ambience, ReaEq
All other drums
Purest gain ReaEq
Into ReaEq, Bright ambience, Valhalla Supermassive, distance
Rhodes & Pad Purist gain ReaEq, NA analog rack chorus
Guitars Purist gain, ReaEq
Some instances have minus delay
Vocals
Purist gain, DD d esser, ADT, HLQSE, Debess, TDR Nova
Avermatrix, Sonnycomp
Some instances have minus delay
Main buss
D.C. filter, POP, ReaEq. Buttercomp, loudmax for peaks
Monitoring, dpmeter , Span, Youlean

Bit messy my end

[guitarjeff]

Hey Guys, I'm new to this site. Is the not exceeding -16 LUFS the "integrated " measurement? Or are we looking for every peak not to exceed?

Thanks in advance!

Jeff

[sam.pierpont]

Hey everyone!

Thought I’d just check in with everyone as we’re almost at the half way point now, a massive thanks to everyone who’s entered so far we’re all blown away with the amount of submissions!

Thanks again guys!
Paint Me In Colour

www.facebook.com/paintmeincolour

[HomespunAudio]

First post!

Glad I discovered this challenge - this song was a lot of fun to mix and a pleasure to have stuck in my head for the past 24 hours :-D Also I really appreciated how clean and organized all of the stems were. Well done Paint Me In Colour!

I wanted to get my own mix finalized before listening/giving feedback to others just to maintain a fresh perspective, so once I post mine I'll go back and give everyone else's work some love.

Here's my take on Me Without You:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J8Vkco ... sp=sharing

Now to break down the mix. I'll only list specific tracks that had processing attached to them, so anything not listed didn't have any plugin inserts. I'm happy to share plugin screenshots if anyone wants them.

I didn't apply tuning or time correction/quantizing to any tracks, except a couple drum tracks where I nudged things minimally to help with phase. I wanted to keep the performances sounding natural.

Drums

Kick In:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (5 dB boost around 50 Hz, 6 dB cut at 291 Hz, 4 dB boost at 5017 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (4:1 ratio, attack at 2, fastest possible release)
-JST Transify (Bass and Mid bands active with +10 attack and -10 sustain on each)

I nudged the Kick In track forward a tiny bit to more closely phase align it with the Kick Out track.

Snare Top:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (5 dB boost at 202 Hz, 3 dB wide cut at 1028 Hz, 8 dB boost at 7053 Hz)
-JST Transify (Bass band active with +15 attack and -15 sustain, and Mid band active with +20 attack and -20 sustain)
-Maag EQ4 (Air Band set to 5 kHz with the Air Gain set to 7)

I nudged the Snare Bottom track forward to phase align it with the Snare Top track. I also flipped the polarity of both snare tracks to phase align with the kick tracks.

Overheads:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (3 dB high shelf cut at 5010 Hz)

Room:
-UA 1176LN E (All-Buttons mode, slowest possible attack, fastest possible release)

Tom 1 Dub:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 63 Hz, wide 3 dB cut at 765 Hz)

Tom 2 Dub:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 63 Hz, wide 3 dB cut at 949 Hz)

Tom 3 Dub:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 63 Hz, wide 3 dB cut at 999 Hz)

Drum Bus (all drum tracks summed):
-UA SSL G-Bus Compressor (attack at 30 mS, auto release, 2:1 ratio, sidechain filter set just above 80 Hz)
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (1.7 dB low shelf cut at 808 Hz)

Bass:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (24 dB/oct low cut at 15 Hz, 1.5 dB wide cut at 69 Hz, 4 dB boost at 191 Hz, 12 dB/oct high cut at 7098 Hz)
-UA SSL E-Channel Strip (narrow 3dB boost at 3 kHz)
-UA LA-2A Silver in limit mode
-Soundtoys Decapitator ("A" style, drive set to 5, tone brightened a little, Mix set to 2)

Verse Cab 1 & 2:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 44 Hz, 4 dB low shelf cut at 713 Hz, 24 dB/oct high cut at 18057 Hz)

Lead Cab:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 48 Hz, 4 dB low shelf cut at 281 Hz, 3.5 dB boost at 3123 Hz, 12 dB/oct high cut at 6525 Hz)

Lead Keys:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 48 Hz, 2 dB wide boost at 2876 Hz, 4 dB high shelf cut at 7990 Hz)

Rhodes:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 152 Hz, 3 dB wide cut at 644 Hz, 3 dB wide boost at 4008 Hz)

P Chrs Cab:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 133 Hz, 3 dB wide boost at 1447 Hz, 12 dB/oct high cut at 11327 Hz)
-JST Transify (Mid and Treble bands active with +11 attack and -11 sustain on each)

Pad:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 80 Hz, 5 dB broad M/S mid-only cut at 962)
-Nugen Audio Stereoizer (IID mode, low bound of 1.0 kHz, width of 100%)

Swell:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (8dB low shelf cut at 439 Hz, 3.5 dB boost at 3348 Hz)
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (6 dB broad M/S mid-only cut at 1215 Hz)
-Nugen Audio Stereoizer (IID mode, low bound of 1.0 kHz, width of 100%)

Chrs Cab 1 & 2:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 39 Hz, 2.5 dB broad cut at 565 Hz, 3 dB broad boost at 3005 Hz, 12 dB/oct high cut at 15400 Hz)

Build:
-UA Moog Multimode Filter (automated filter sweep with Resonance set to 6)
-Wave Arts Tube Saturator Vintage (Fat mode with Drive at 8)
-Waves H-Delay (1/8 Triplet ping-pong delay, Feedback at 59, Mix at 3)

Crunch 1:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 31 Hz, 3 dB broad boost at 714 Hz, 3 dB broad cut at 3031 Hz, 12 db/oct high cut at 14009 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (All-Buttons mode, attack at 2.5, fastest possible release)

Crunch 2:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 31 Hz, 3 dB broad cut at 714 Hz, 3 dB broad boost at 3031 Hz, 12 db/oct high cut at 14863 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (All-Buttons mode, attack at 2.5, fastest possible release)

Funky Cab:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 76 Hz, 3 dB low shelf cut at 335 Hz, 4 dB boost at 905 Hz, 3 dB boost at 4726 Hz, 24 db/oct high cut at 26229 Hz)

Crunch 4 (I only ended up using this one, Crunch 3 is muted:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 104 Hz, 3 dB low shelf cut at 660 Hz, 3 dB broad boost at 1991 Hz, 12 db/oct high cut at 11760 Hz)
-Softube Tape (Speed Stability at 25% and Mix at 50% to get a tape flange effect)

Now for the vocals!!

Lead Vocal:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 90 Hz, 2 dB broad cut at 710 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (8:1 ratio, attack at 5, fastest possible release)
-UA LA-2A Silver in Comp mode
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (3 dB cut at 1002 Hz, 2 dB boost at 2500 Hz)
-FabFilter Pro-DS (Wide Band mode between 7 kHz, and 14 kHz, 6.5 dB range)
-Maag EQ4 (Sub boost at +2, Air Band set to 40 kHz with the Air Gain set to 7)
-Waves RVox (Comp at -13.5)

I sent the vocal to two different delay sends and a reverb send:

Lead Vocal Delay send:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (6 dB/oct low cut at 124 Hz, 9.5 dB high shelf cut at 1991 Hz)
-Waves H-Delay (1/4 note delay with Feedback at 30)

Lead Vocal reverb send:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 161 Hz, -3 dB broad cut at 2183 Hz, 12 dB/oct high cut at 13171 Hz)
-Valhalla VintageVerb (Plate mode, 1.54 second decay, 43.68 mS predelay)

Lead Vocal slap delay send:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 150 Hz, 5.5 dB high shelf cut at 3452 Hz)
-Waves H-Delay (1/16 note delay with lowest possible Feedback)

I bussed all of the Ahh vocals and processed them together.

Ahh bus:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 90 Hz, 2 dB broad cut at 1192 Hz, 3.4 dB broad boost at 5163 Hz)
-UA SSL G-Bus Compressor (attack at 30 mS, release at 0.6, 2:1 ratio, sidechain filter set to 80 Hz)
-Izotope Vinyl (Year set to 1950)

BGV 1 & 2 bus:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 131 Hz, 4 dB low shelf cut at 518 Hz, 3 dB broad cut at 1348 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (12:1 ratio, attack at 5, fastest possible release)
-UA LA-2A Silver in Comp mode
-Maag EQ4 (Air Band set to 40 kHz with the Air Gain set to 8)
-Nugen Audio Stereoizer (IID mode, low bound of 2.0 kHz, width of 100%)

Low LV:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 76 Hz, 4 dB broad boost at 350 Hz, 3 dB broad cut at 1497 Hz)
-UA 1176LN E (All-Buttons mode, attack at 3.5, fastest possible release)
-Maag EQ4 (Air Band set to 5 kHz with the Air Gain set to 6)
-Softube Saturation Knob (Keep Low mode, Saturation at 25%)

Soft LV 1 & 2 bus:
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (12 dB/oct low cut at 162 Hz, 6 dB low shelf cut at 550 Hz, 2 dB broad cut at 1857 Hz)
-UA SSL G-Bus Compressor (attack at 30 mS, release at 0.3, 4:1 ratio, sidechain filter off)
-Maag EQ4 (Air Band set to 40 kHz with the Air Gain set to 4)

And finally, the Master Bus

Master Bus:
-UA ATR-102 (15 ips, Hum turned off, Hiss set low, other settings at default)
-FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (1 dB broad cut at 351 Hz)
-Hardware SSL G-Bus Compressor (attack at 30 mS, auto release, 2:1 ratio)
-Maag EQ4 (Sub boost at +1, Air Band set to 40 kHz with the Air Gain set to 6)

[Mister Fox]

Hey Guys, I'm new to this site. Is the not exceeding -16 LUFS the "integrated " measurement? Or are we looking for every peak not to exceed?

Thanks in advance!

Jeff

Hi Jeff, welcome to the forum.

As the Rules and Guidelines clearly state, your average signal strength (perceived loudness) should not exceed -16LUFS ILk (Integrated), and your maximum signal strength (aka max peak) shall not exceed -1dBTP.




Regarding this question:

I noticed...

I've reached out to you via PM to get some further clarification.

[guitarjeff]

Thank you! That's what I thought, but never actually paid attention to LUFS before and noticed 3 different levels in my meter in Cubase. Thanks for the quick answer!

[Clueless]

First post!

Have to say, the clarity on your mix is excellent & you info very informative.
I’ve compared it with my effort and it’s Light years ahead in terms of quality.

Well done

[s&f]

hi, thank u for ur song.
MP3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bl8ma6pt17v3s ... F.mp3?dl=0
WAV
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3eho7h826a00 ... F.wav?dl=0

screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pn03unv3vj8bf ... M.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p6nmnpg4czcao ... M.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9po0t6b38f19j ... M.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdf45hje2apkh ... M.png?dl=0

very fun challenge, and I loved the ending of the song.

I had a lot of trouble cleaning up, and there is a kind of a 4k whistle on the vocal that I didn't manage to take it out.

I used a lot of aggressive treatment and automation, so there were lots of glitches / artifcats in these treatment. I thought it was cool so I let them stay, but it might annoy people sometimes (phase, loud crashes etc).

a lot of fun !

[guitarjeff]

Hi Everyone, here is my first submission.

It's a good song for sure. In my mix I made the lead vocal the focus. Make it shine and get everything conflicting with it out of the way as much as possible.

Here is the link to the mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ye6dlumcy4nk ... f.wav?dl=0

Here is a basic description, I hope i am doing this right.

DAW Cubase:
All subtractive EQ and filters for entire song is standard Cubase track EQ unless noted otherwise.

Kick – both tracks processed on group –high pass and dip low mids. Add slight amount of 60 with UA 1073

Snare - both tracks processed on group. HP, Dip low mids, Comp – UA 1176 rev A

Toms processed individually- HP, dip low mids

OH - both tracks processed on group. HP, dip low mids and notch annoying high mids

Room- same as OH plus UA 1176 AE comp

Drum shell Bus - Compressed with BX Townhouse No EQ on bus

Bass -HP, cut mids , L1 limiter.

Guitars (all tracks in general) HP, lots of notching out high mids + L1 -Dipped out some 3k on bus to unmask lead vocal.

Keys – only used 2 of 4 tracks, HP and dipping low and high mids. On keys bus dipped out extra 3k to make room for the vocal.

Did not use the Post effect track.

BGV -all tracks processed on group, HP, Low mid cut, High mid notches, UA LA-2A grey comp, UA Dreamverb on group.

Vocals – Only used LV and 2 soft vocal tracks (very low in mix) Tracks processed separately with duplicate chains – HP, Cut low mids, dip out annoying High mid/High frequencies, Slight boost @ 15K on UA Pultec. UA 1176 rev A Comp x2, Fabfilter Pro DS. UA 140 Plate reverb on send, and Echo Boy on send. (1/8 delay)

Master Bus UA Neve Preamp, UA SSL Bus Comp, Waves Lin MB.

That’s all folks.