MIX CHALLENGE - MC37 October 2017 - Winners announced

[Photonic]

Congratulations to Zsolt and Kevin Gobin

And thank you very much Fese I am very happy to reached second place (or any of the first three on another day)
I do a lot of mixes just for fun and training with multitracks from different web-sources. But I never get a response for those. What I like here in this contest is the chance to get the feedback from the songprovider and, if I am lucky to get to the second round, to practice an improvement to the mix, based on the comments from the client. And it is a good feeling when it works!
Fese, thank you again for providing this very nice song. It was again a pleasure to work with your material

I will take no price. So Kevin can pick as soon as Zsolt has chossen his price.

See you in MC38!

[HerbFelho]

Congrats to the winners!

I have a general question to all of you about EQ-ing. I still feel like that is the hardest part for me during my mixing attempts. Now I know how to find resonances with sweeping, but one day I might find this frequency annoying and one day another. Even worse is with boosting frequencies, I cannot really make up my mind, sometimes this feels good, sometimes that. I have learned that sometimes drastic EQ can be required, but am not sure when and how.
I know a lot of it is experience, but quite frankly I've started doing this over ten years ago (though I don't mix often, a song every couple of months) and I still feel like most of the time it is just brute force "try and error" with EQ.
How did you tackle EQ?

Good question fese, and one of the hardest to answer in a general manner.
I know that´s not what most people want to hear, but in fact experience and practice are really the most important things. Everyone of us is constantly learning and getting better and I actually think your mixes are not bad at all, especially when you say you only mix a song every couple of months!

And if anyone wants to hear my thoughts on that - and some more uncomfortable and boring pieces of wisdom here:
The basis of every mix decision you have to make (not only EQ) is the ability to hear everything as clearly as possible, so the room has to be treated as good as possible, the speakers setup correctly and I also use headphones as lot for detailed listening or simply not to only rely on one system.

Second, constantly use reference tracks, as boring and often times frustrating it may be, I know, but nothing helps more to stay on the right track. Otherwise your ears will adapt to whatever you did “wrong”. This also helps to compensate if your room acoustics are not ideal or the speakers aren´t that great.

Also, whatever you do when mixing: ALWAYS A/B LISTEN! AND DO IT WITH EXACT EQUAL VOLUME as possible!
No matter if you compare to ref tracks or make a mix processing decision. Only with equal volume you will really hear what´s truly different between two sounds and if you actually improve things. If the volume is different it´s completly worthless and a recipe for failure!

There´s a lot more to say of course but that´s the basis of all and since you said you know the "boost and sweep method" and I guess you´re also familiar with basic EQ functions like high-pass, low-pass, shelf- or bell-filters etc... just keep practicing. Oh, and also trust your gut feelings, often times they tell you exactly what´s wrong with a sound but we all tend to ignore that for some strange reason

Cheers
Herb

[fese]

Good question fese, and one of the hardest to answer in a general manner.
I know that´s not what most people want to hear, but in fact experience and practice are really the most important things. Everyone of us is constantly learning and getting better and I actually think your mixes are not bad at all, especially when you say you only mix a song every couple of months!

And if anyone wants to hear my thoughts on that - and some more uncomfortable and boring pieces of wisdom here:
The basis of every mix decision you have to make (not only EQ) is the ability to hear everything as clearly as possible, so the room has to be treated as good as possible, the speakers setup correctly and I also use headphones as lot for detailed listening or simply not to only rely on one system.

Second, constantly use reference tracks, as boring and often times frustrating it may be, I know, but nothing helps more to stay on the right track. Otherwise your ears will adapt to whatever you did “wrong”. This also helps to compensate if your room acoustics are not ideal or the speakers aren´t that great.

Also, whatever you do when mixing: ALWAYS A/B LISTEN! AND DO IT WITH EXACT EQUAL VOLUME as possible!
No matter if you compare to ref tracks or make a mix processing decision. Only with equal volume you will really hear what´s truly different between two sounds and if you actually improve things. If the volume is different it´s completly worthless and a recipe for failure!

There´s a lot more to say of course but that´s the basis of all and since you said you know the "boost and sweep method" and I guess you´re also familiar with basic EQ functions like high-pass, low-pass, shelf- or bell-filters etc... just keep practicing. Oh, and also trust your gut feelings, often times they tell you exactly what´s wrong with a sound but we all tend to ignore that for some strange reason

Thanks for your input. I know that practice is the key to everything, and I know I've gotten better over time, but the problem with mixing is, as much as I like it, it means sitting in front of the computer which I do at work all day anyway, so there's a limit I just have to live with . And then I need to practice guitar, accordion and singing, too... So yes, I'd personally wish there was an easy way out

I haven't got really in to reference tracks, because I don't really know how to chose them and how to work with them. What are the criteria for chosing them, is it mainly the frequency balance I want to achieve? I guess they should be of a similar genre or type of song. What should be the focus when comparing my mix to the reference?

[fese]

And thank you very much Fese I am very happy to reached second place (or any of the first three on another day)
I do a lot of mixes just for fun and training with multitracks from different web-sources. But I never get a response for those. What I like here in this contest is the chance to get the feedback from the songprovider and, if I am lucky to get to the second round, to practice an improvement to the mix, based on the comments from the client. And it is a good feeling when it works!

Well, if you like mixing and also prefer feedback, why don't you have a look at kompoz.com? Apart from song creation and recording, there's also people there that more or less exclusively mix other peoples tracks. There's no guaranty for qualified feedback, but you might get some appreciative comments

[HerbFelho]

as much as I like it, it means sitting in front of the computer which I do at work all day anyway, so there's a limit I just have to live with . And then I need to practice guitar, accordion and singing, too... So yes, I'd personally wish there was an easy way out

Oh, I know how that feels, sometimes you want to do all at once and end up with nothing. What helped me personally was to concentrate on one or two things that I love most and I´m best or most talented at and really get advanced in that and ditch the others...

I haven't got really in to reference tracks, because I don't really know how to chose them and how to work with them. What are the criteria for chosing them, is it mainly the frequency balance I want to achieve? I guess they should be of a similar genre or type of song. What should be the focus when comparing my mix to the reference?

Yes, just pick some well produced songs in a similar genre and style that you like, import them in your DAW and constantly switch between them and your mix while mixing. Figure out a way to adjust the volume as equal as possible and also to make instant switches (without any time delay) and you will immediately notice where the differences are. Focus on overall tonality, the low end, the high end, how loud are the vocals, how wide is the mix, ambience and space etc. Maybe use spectrum analyzers and other metering to compare. You can do lots of stuff there and will learn A LOT, at least I did and I know that almost any mix engineer does that, even the experienced big guys. And it´s not about copying mixes and styles, it´s about learning from the pros and not get misguided by non ideal listening environment, ear fatigue or whatever. Lots of pitfalls out there...
You can also see it as re-calibrating your ears by switching to ref tracks from time to time.

[Zsolt]

WOW!
First of all, congratulations to Photonic&Kevin!
Thank you Fese for your appreciation It was a pleasure to mix your song!

I choose Gothic Gold for DUNE 2 Dark (satYatunes)

Thank you,
Zsolt.

[kevin gobin]

Tone2 really surprised me: UltraSpace will be welcome here!

Thanks!!!

[fese]

Well, this was once again a pleasant experience, albeit lots of work (as for all of you, too, im sure), hope to see/hear you next time!

[OctopusOnFire]

Thank you for providing the song and going through the whole feedback/selecting process. See you in the next challenge!