MIX CHALLENGE - MC090 February 2023 - Winners announced

[AskAndy]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al0k-deoMtpH41ykP6c ... Y?e=3leT4C
a wonderfull piece. pleasure to work on.

this is a go at a new template. based on a Michael Brauer template from PureMix . basically mixing into compression. .there is 5 different compressed sections/busses . one for Bv ,synths, and keys. one for the bottom which consists of the drums and bass. a Gtr section . a space/ widening section. a clean section ( no parallel compression on this bus). and finally a lead vocal bus.

used the ref track alot to justify some balances. It s a nice intimate piece so i tried not to overuse FX. Just trying to give the piece the space it deserved. No mastering on this. just a couple things on the master bus to control the lvels for spec requirements. EQ7 to tame the incoming level to the Mbus, Shadow Hills comp for a little character along with V Tape machine, finally an L1 to help meet MixChallenge requirements. Hardly an effort to master the piece, as I have zero knowledge of the task.
Thank you for this beautiful mix to work on.

[EmClrk]

Hello! I'm celebrating my 1st year anniversary of mixing by entering here for the first time. Glad to get involved.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10lTw95 ... share_link

Notes;

Main aims were to keep a full sound throughout but letting the song breathe and sound natural.

To achieve this I tried a number of techniques:

To get the kick and bass to gel together so the punch could be felt. I Used EQ to sculpt some space for each and used sidechain compression fed from the kick to the bass to knock it back with each hit just enough. I also tried to bring out some more mids in the bass to help the accented notes stay audible and add to the groove.After this I noticed the string slap becoming a bit too prominent on occasion so I made steps to reduce this with automated EQ and a touch of mutliband compression.

Create a clear vocal sound that would be intimate in the verses and expand a little more in the choruses. I used automated sends for two different delay and reverbs that I could combine to change the sense of space. Usual control techniques used for the general vocal sound, aiming for subtle EQ moves and a touch of multiband compression to target the high mids when the singer gives it some more oomph in the last choruses to maintain balance.

Embracing asymetry with the two guitar parts. I allowed the acoustic rhythm guitar to sit on the right to create an imbalance in the verse so that when the electric rhythm guitar enters in the choruses it feels more full.

Allowing the melody acoustic guitar to feel quite natural. I thought this added to a sort of spanish guitar feel that fit the mood so I didn't want to get too heavy with effects. I still took the edges off a little bit by mixing in a touch of guitar cabinet IR and a parallel drive channel that I also automated sends from selected instrument parts to give them a bit of hair.

The keyboard instruments were used for dynamics mostly. The rhodes provided some extra interest in the verses so I tried to bring out its warmth and chime when appropriate but scaled it back at times for other instruments to come to the front.

Backing vocals were used mainly to supplement the lead vocal and add some ear candy at the end without getting in the way of the lead.

Thanks, Matt

[Ojo]

Hello, everyone!
I love sound of this project.

Here's my mixing
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w5rdd00pfco79 ... o.wav?dl=0

There tracks are nice sound that enough basic sounds.

I have a good time.
Also I enjoy to listen to everyone mixing!
Thank you!

[dstra]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks to Cristian for the song. I enjoyed mixing it. Here you can find the result: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JZExQu ... sp=sharing

General approach
- Since Cristian wanted a different mix to the original, I first listened to the individual tracks and found many interesting details, especially in the percussive tracks (snare, high hat, tambourine) as well as in the bass track (attack/fret noise). Then I brought them to the fore. So my mix got a slightly different character than the original.

Processing
Tracks: Eq, compression and reverb to taste on almost every track. Additionally:
- VOX - lead: short reverb to thicken the voice
- GTR - acoustic solo & electric solo: comb filters for widening
- GTR - bass: dual band compression for separate treatment of attack/fret noise frequencies; sidechained dynamic eq to leave more space for the kick in the low end
- DRUMS - snare top: copied the ghost notes to an additional track to better control them
- PERCUSSION - tambourine: after the strong compression applied to bring the 16th notes to the fore, it was necessary to reconstruct the transients with a transient designer

Buses
- subtle compression on the vocals, instruments and drums buses
- "glue" compression on the main bus

Volume automation was also used.

Tools
- DAW: Ardour (Linux)
- plugin bundles: Calf, LSP, Zam and others

Hope you enjoy it!

[White Punk OD]

Hello Cristian and all,
thanks for the beautiful recording, and stay safe everyone.

So, this is my mix this time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v1yX3P ... share_link

I spent a lot of time on beautiful character and color of all sounds, so they fit together within a certain vision about the style.
For reference, let me say I have listened a lot to the engineer Maria Elisa Ayerbe.

My basic method is the bus tree. This is also the arrangement, reflecting the tools to interpret all the musical elements in the song, in that is supports comprehensive automation of sections and groups.

Example:
---Kick 1 - low range / Pultec type EQ
---Kick 2 - high range and click sound / hipass, limiter, saturator
--Kick BUS
---snare top
---snare bottom
--Snare BUS / bx_Focusrite (fatten up w/ EQ and a little compression)
-Kick & Sn BUS / 4000G, LittlePlate, TinyQ, SN05G-Limiter (Plate for sound shaping and space, limiter makes it punchy with attack settings)
--- Tom trks 1..4
--Tom BUS / Airwindows Point!, Channel X, epic Plate (funny 80ies boom)
---hihat / channel 50 (compress, overdrive w/ THD, EQ)
---crash (dry)
---ride / bx_Focusrite, elysia nvelope (the focusrite does some sound shaping with its analog features, more attack, shorter sustain)
--Brass BUS / Baxandall EQ (soften the "digital" highs)
---overheads / Baxandall EQ (soften)
---room
--Room BUS / TinyQ (mid-range dip)
-Drum BUS
---Bass low / Lindell 50 (this one very sensitive, hipass 25Hz, profile EQ as I avoided an amp, compression up to -4dB w/ slow attack)
---Bass high / Bessel hipass, strong MSaturator, Bessel lowpass (this creates the "live" sounds from the strings)
--Bass BUS / elysia mpressor, TinyQ
Drum & Bass BUS / tadaa here we are, according to the suggestion that drums, bass, and vocals shall be the main components to carry the sound.
...
...

bell tree, rev cymbal, rev snare, wahwah sound -- go to the "orchestral" bus which has the townhouse compressor, so these elements are tamed and always on the correct level according to their role.

acc git / SPL Vitalizer, elliptic hipass (very useful to not sound thin), soften w/ bessel lowpass
electric rhythm / both used, (panned a bit different, bussed into bx_RockrackV3 clean channel, delay2500, source hard panned right, delay hard panned left, I tried many emulations until I liked one)

git solo / bx-bassdude cranked up, resonant hipass at 98Hz, Lindell 50 (thicken EQ, comp because it's not a fuzz box, just crunchy), another EQ, haas delay, Little Plate, Baxandall EQ to soften, "trackspacer" sidechain feed to duck keyboards

acoustic solo uses Lagrange delay with quite a long tail

organ has added in a WOK leslie which does some panning game here, but at the intro this is switched off.

piano has a lot of subtle stuff, including transient restoration

rhodes / Noveltech character, and a chorus that gets switched on starting from the low volume vocal bridge part

string / tripled! (one hard right, next is delayed a few ms and hard left, third is an octave lower, very low volume like just a flavor, and plays practically with the organ)

as said, keyboards get ducked from vocals and git solo with some wired-together trackspacer function (around TDR Nova)

additional vocals / some comp, some character EQ, elliptic hipass, Nova GE for resonance busting, Neutrino makes it sit better in the mix, and finally, ERS 250 in "ambience" mode.

lead vc / automated izotope vocal doubler, TDR Nova for resonance busting and to make lyrics come though more intelligly (how you spell that LOL), compressed with Klanghelm MjUCjr "slow" setting, DeEdger, Klanghelm IVGI2, SPL dualband DeEsser

stereo bus:
IRON comp, Ozone EQ and some minor peak limiting, this chain creates brilliance and some transparent density and punch

[DeifDiamond]

Hi everyone, I love working on this mix.

All the instruments were very well recorded, especially the voice, so the processes I've done haven't had to be very aggressive.

On the drum part, I like to compress with a short attack, about 30ms snare, and with a wide gain reduction, in order to get a forceful punch. To this I add a reverb to trim the tail to my liking. I do this with the compressor that comes standard with Pro Tools.

Cymbals in general sound a bit "canned" to me, so I've polished them off with Api's graphic equalizer, which works very well for this task in my opinion.

The bass sounds good, I've just controlled the dynamics a bit to keep it always on the same plane, and I've boosted the 400Hz a bit to better distinguish it in the mix.

The guitars have the usual equalization and compression, and in terms of effects, for the guitars I think the plate reverb sounds very good.

Keyboards, strings, and those types of instruments that color the background a little do not require more processing than an eq to clean them up, and they are discreetly placed in the mix.

To the voice, after the usual eq and compression processes, I have added two reverbs, one short, and one a little longer.

I've added a subtle saturation to the drum subgroup with classic Pro Tools LoFi, and I've added a room-like reverb to the whole mix to give the impression that all the instruments are playing in the same place, and the mix is coherent.

Below I leave the link to the mix, I hope you enjoy it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FZE2_g ... share_link

[Jagmaster302]

Hello to everyone!

This is my first entry to a mixing competition.

In the last few months, I've tried multiple techniques in order to find the fastest way to get good results.
This time I focused on using multiband compressors with ability to use M/S on separate bands.

The technique was to mix lows, low mids, high mids, and high as they were songs on its own when band passed.
The goal is that the mix will hopefully translate better when played in different listening environments.

Cheers!


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[WideRangeEchoes]

So hello everyone.

I played around with some stuff to give this song a liiiiiittle "Santana-vibe".
It was really a lot of fun ti mix this, though it is definitly not my "home-genre".

Have a good time, cheers and good night everyone


https://www.dropbox.com/s/9207i09pl9hqf ... v.wav?dl=0

Stefan Weber
WideRangeEchoes

Sooo, as a reaction of the statistics-sheet where my documentation was something to have a look for, here now following what I did:


Kick - added my beloved TR5 Comprexxor with a 10:1 ratio to get it a little more punchy and used the "waves" submarine to add a little meat ;-)
Snare (Top) - TR5 Comprexxor at 20:1 ratio
Snare (Bottom) - "waves" Aphex Vintage Exciter with a nice crispy setting
Toms - I gathered them on a mixbus and added the Audified Tonespot drums starting with the on-board preset "AC Heavy Rock Toms"
and the send them to "waves" RS124 plugin
Drums Room - Added some more punch with a Signalchain I built in the TR5-Suite
1.Bus-Comp, ( VC670, EQP-1A, ) Tape Machine 24, Quad Image.
(OptoComp, White Channel, )
( used these 4 modules parallel )
Cymbals and Hi-Hat - the ride got some saturation by TR5 Tape Machine 80, while the rest of the cymbals needed no plugins at all

Bass - I sent the Basstrack to Amlitube 5 with their Orange AD200 on an Orange 1x15, a Gallien-Krueger MB15S on an Orange 4x10 and a liiitle bit of
fuzz with their Ambass´dor emulation

Acoustic Guitars - Those guitars were magnificently played, but I decided to get them to shine a little more
and found help with BIAS FX2, their Jubilee ´87 on the Celest V30 with a small amount of chorus

Electric Guitars - Tried to giveém a little twang and blues also with BIAS FX2 and dual routing to their ´69 plexiglas on the Green 25s,British OR30V2
on ORV-30s and added little fuzz

electric Solo(amp) - Again was Amplitube 5 my choice and since that solo is just great I wanted to get it in front of it all and steal the show.
Dual-routing through
Silverplate 50 on 4x12 Brit 8000 with a Harmonator and a veeeeery small inverse Reverb
Orange AD 200 (yeah I know its the bass-amp :-D ) with a little Tape-Echo and Saturation on the 3x10 VibroKing
Electric solo (clean) - And at least yeah it is Amplitube 5 I used on this because I wanted to give a little dirt to the sound and went "all-in"
Triple Routing
SLD 100 on 4x12 Darrell412
ENGL E650 on 4x12 Vintage M1
Orange Rockerverb 50 on Orange 4x12 PPC

Organ - I tried to push the retro-vibe of them and used TR5 Leslie-Emulation

Piano - Spiced them with a small amount of flanger and chorus

Rhodes - Do not think bad about me but even here I used a plugin thet does not usually belong here,
Softubes MurderONE AmpSim, It can add a certain special sound to any Instrument or voice. You know, spice things up a little

Strings, FX1, FX2, Drums overheads, belltree, tambourine , back 3 - I did nothing here but to adjust them to taste

Vox - artificial back octave and back1 - TR5 Sunset Sound Studio Reverb

back 2 (artificial 3rd) and back 2 - Sunset Sound Studio Reverb and gave back 2 some vibes with juuust a little of "Glitchmachines" Hysteresis

Vox - lead (reference fx) and Vox lead - put them to one mix bus with another TR5 signalchain
British Channel, Black 76 , Space Delay , DeEsser
CSR inverse

Vox-lead - got also a veeeeeery tiny amount of "Glitchmachines" Hysteresis (9% is really small but it suits fine here)

So, thats about all I guess.

Had really a loooot of fun mixing this and hope the provider still likes his song even through my vision of it.

Greetz to all of you guys here
stay creative

[alan_mix]

Hi folks,

Thanks for giving us chance to work on this great song.
here is my mix. Almost forgot today is the deadline and rushing to get it.
Overall, I was focusing on the vocals but not quite satisfied with how the drums ended up.

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

Cheers,
Alan

[Gertius]

Hi guys,
last minute entry, I am happy to have finished a mix in time

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dC5IU- ... sp=sharing

Great song and beautiful recordings!
My approach was to recreate an SSL mixing console setup with an SSL EQ and Dyn VST on every channel (only used a touch of compression on Kick, Snare, Bass, Voc, no expanders/gates as it was already edited).
Mixbus goes through a hardware summing mixer and a hardware SSL bus compressor.
I used soothe2 on Voc and Electric Guitar Solo to tame some of the resonances.
I was aiming for a warm but punchy and clear sound with room for each source.
Let me know if you have further questions.

Cheers,
Christian