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

[JanLefr]

Hi all!

Here's my mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7gcerh1n ... 9kzp1&dl=0

Thinking of the 70s this was the perfect opportunity to test a certain mixing approach: First thing I did was insert a tape plugin on my master bus, proceeding to mix everything into the tape.
The result is subtle as it should be, but it makes a difference :)

Besides that I focused on good balance and not "overprocessing" the tracks. Special things I did besides basic EQing and compression:

- Aphex exciter runs on several tracks for saturation and brightening
- Aiming not to over-EQ things, I used the 3-Band Pulsar W495 analog EQ emulation for EQing
- For compression I mostly grabbed sonibles smartComp, which I find to be quite transparent
- Bass guitar treatment with Ozone module chain: EQ - Multiband Compressor to control the low end - Exciter for some tube saturation - Vintage comp for serial compression
- smartComp as glue compressor on the sub-busses (drums, instruments & vocals) and finally Shadow Hills compressor on the master bus doing max -1dB gain reduction for glueing everything together

Send FX:
- a small room as a natural space for all instruments and vocals
- a bigger room blended in at low level for more depth and glueing
- a seperate drum room blended in to bring the drums to life a little more
- plate reverb for the snare

- Vocal FX besides the mentioned small and bigger room:
EchoBoy: Slap Delay, Delay throws at 1/4T; steinberg stock StudioChorus // all automated to be more present e.g. in the chorus and more subtle in the verses.

Last not least: a lot of subtle volume automation :)


For all FX I went as with my general approach: no overdoing it, everything should still sound natural and not be drowned in reverb and delay. In that terms my mix turned out a lot dryer than the reference mix, even though there are quiet a few things going on :)

Thanks @A Future in Noise and Mister Fox! Looking forward to the evaluation.

Good luck everyone!

[rodzroom]

Here is my mix of Get a Grip. After listening several times, and playing around a bit, I settled on a wide and aggressive panning approach, with a few reverb and delay busses to add depth and emphasis. The mix is build around the beautiful and airy lead vocal track, with a mild tape saturation treatment on the master buss as glue, which I feel complements the 70s pop feel.

I did pay special attention to riding the lead vocal to ensure the words in the chorus were clear. Other than a bit of spice on the guitar solo, I mainly used gain and eq on the instrument tracks, and gain riding into the reverbs and delays.

MC097__BellenerAndFriends__GetAGrip__Rodzroom

[Zep]

Bonsoir à tous !!

My proposal of the mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tgyE20 ... drive_link

I wanted to mix this piece a bit like on a console with an SSL channel strip for all the drums, lead vocals and bass tracks.
By using simulations of tube compressors or those on board the channel strip.
Particular attention to the stereo balance and levels in order to succeed as much as possible in distinguishing the max from all the numerous instruments
I didn't try to do anything very particular except to keep a maximum distinction of all the elements
Hoping this will be pleasant to listen to, in all that was the case for me!

Good listening to all

[juhu]

Hello,

1) Enjoy my mixdown of "Get a Grip" by Bellener and Friends:
http://tinkerstate.com/mix-challenge/MC ... __juhu.wav

2) Documentation (click on "SHOW" to read):

► Show Spoiler

This was my first time ever using Luna (instead of my usual DAW which is Logic). Every track went through API Vision channel strip, additional plugins were used sparingly - only when I couldn’t achieve what I wanted using just the console strip alone. Here are some processing highlights:

• Lead Vocal has 2 main compression stages in series: 1) the channel strip compressor doing 1 dB to 3 dB of gain reduction on average, followed by 2) the LA-2A (Gray variant) that isn’t really compressing much - only 0.5 dB to 1 dB on average, occasionally a bit more, I suppose it’s there more for the coloration
• De-essing the Lead Vocals was done in 2 serial stages, using 2 additional instances of the API Vision console strip with their EQ sections emphasising sibilance and side-chained to their respective compressors which are working quite aggressively, applying up to 12 dB of gain reduction during sibilances
• Lead Vocals has additional EQ stages after the de-essers: 1) an EQP-1A doing a bit of low boost and quite a lot of high boost, and, 2) yet another instance of API Vision channel strip EQ cutting some leftover sibilance at 8 kHz with a slight compensating shelving boost at 12.5 kHz; and, pulling back 240 Hz while simultaneously pushing up 300 Hz (no idea why that worked but since it sounded better this way I went with it)
• Wurli track has MTremolo plugin on it, with timings that mimic the tremolo option on the original instrument. Additionally, it has MAutopan on it.
• The biggest challenge was creating stereo width for the Chorus sections, as there were no double-tracked instruments provided for those sections. I ended up using MAutopan on Electric Rhythm Guitar as well as on the Sampled Acoustic Guitar in opposite phases so that they cover each others’ “holes”, also added sends from these tracks to 2 Galaxy Echo busses panned L/R with 1/4 note delay times in order to mask the “holes” further. Quite happy with the result - the Choruses no longer “deflate” width-wise in comparison when transitioning from the Verses.
• A neat trick for creating more cohesion between the drum samples that just suddenly occurred to me was to add duplicate parallel tracks of Hat and Cymbals and gate them with side-chain signals from Snare and Kick respectively, in order to simulate some juicy virtual “mic bleed”. This made the drums sound less like samples and more like a kit! Absolutely happy with that result.
• There is a Plate Reverb bus used via Sends, and I must say - the UAD Pure Plate plugin is the most beautiful-sounding plate emulation I’ve ever heard so far! This is especially evident during the a capella sections. Also, I flipped the L/R channels on the plate bus in order to reinforce the apparent stereo width and added an MAutopan plugin on the plate bus for some additional motion.
• Master tape emulation: ATR-102 using Auto Calibration option
• Master bus compression: API-2500, 4:1 ratio, medium knee, 10ms attack, 500ms release, around 2 dB of gain reduction on average, occasionally more
• Master corrective EQ by ear: MEqualizer, using wide and gentle moves, deviation from unity: -0.5 dB min to +0.3 dB max within the range that matters: 30 Hz to 20 kHz (exception: -0.8 dB @ 20 Hz)

That concludes the highlights for this mixing session.

[SimaGT]

Hello,

This is my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y4c2dp ... sp=sharing



It was quite challenging to create retro style of a mix with digital tools, but I think that at least to a certain extent we can direct it towards the sonic experiences of the 70s and 60s.

I will highlight what I think are the most crucial parts in my mixing process.

Vocal:

Started it with the NLS channel on top just to give it subtle amount of warmth, folowed by the downard/upward MV2 compressor in small amounts to level it abit.
Doubler 2 from waves with 2 more voices panned left/right slightly detuned in a very small amount just to enrich stereo image slightly.
Main compressor was LALA from from Analog Obsesion doing compression in a more musical way.
Soothe 2 for subtle resonance taming in the mids and hi frequencies.
Smart EQ as a final eq boosting air in 10k+ and reducing mud in 280 Hz also some in the mids. Subtle deEssing in the end.
There are 3 verb sends in different amounts and 1 delay send, automated like the main volume of the vocal.

Drums and bass:

SSL ch. on a kick to get some punch and bottom nothing fancy. Layered with highpassed kick alternative for more hi end definition.
Snare not a big processing there, just aded some attack with transient shaper with saturotion and some meat in the lower register same as toms.
Hats-cymbals just some cleaning with eq and tiny amounts of compression.
Artificial drum room was created with a send to T-RackS The Farm Stone Room plugin.
Bass duplicated and Amped with SVTVR Classic with bit of compression DI signal hi passed and saturated.


Everything else:

Keys strings and guitars are then incorporated into the rest of the mix so that they do not interfere with the vocals and do not attract too much attention.
That is mostly done with only compression and eq.
All sent to reverbs/delays in different amounts.
Automation of volume and sends and compression in main vocal, was done in many tracks to get more dynamic and organic feel.

[E.Rueda]

Hi everyone! This is my mix:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZcY0fs ... sp=sharing

The general approach of the mix is based on that atmosphere that the artist requested from the 70s but with a more modern touch, the voice had to have many FX, but at the same time bring it to the front, making it big and integrated with the instrumental section. That large amount of delays and reverbs creates the big challenge of not messing up the mix and making it sound clean and full at the same time.
The drum section of my template is largely based on that of Jaycen Joshua, however this template is more adapted to electronic genres, although it is also valid for more organic music such as pop and rock, however special care must be taken in the process to not destroy the naturalness of the instrumentation and that has been the objective of this mix.
As for the music, the goal was for no instrument to stand out too much from the others and for each one to have its role. It has also been a great task at the level of frequency and especially automation.
I hope you enjoy the mix as much as I enjoyed mixing this beautiful song.

[rijavia]

my mix , a few days ago - https://soundcloud.com/kostadin-andonov ... al_sharing

[Ojo]

Hi, everyone.
This is my Mix link.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/25q266mk ... zxhcv&dl=0

I used new technic this time!
Thank you.

[jules666]

Hi

Here is my attempt for this challenge.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S-JxM5 ... drive_link

Started with my normal template, and got a rough volume/pan mix going.
All tracks have a saturation on, some tracks have it a little more than others.


DRUMS:
Used the lowend only on the Kick Alternative track and the high end from the other kick track - Phase/time aligned and some EQ/Clipper and little transient shapper going to a Kick bus where I used SSL for some compression and further clipping.
Snare: Duplicated, EQ on one one with a high shelf around 4k to reduce the highs, compression/transient shapper. On the duplicated snare I rolled off everything below 4k, compressed hard and clipped and sent to verb, my aim was to create a "fake" snare down track and bring the wire sound out a little more.
Toms: Just some EQ/Clipper
Cymbals/Hi-Hat: Just some EQ to sit in, rolling off signal below 500Hz
Drum Verbs: Used 3 verbs and sent different amounts of kit to these and blended to taste.

Bass: Duplicated and processed one for hi other for lows, using Sansamp/EQ/Limiter and also used the MixBox from IK Multimedia as I picked this up recently and thought I would try it out.

GTR:
Two accoustic tracks and the Sampled track were sent to two parallel buses which had EQ/Compression and an exciter on, one bus concentrated more on the mids where I also included a small 16ms delay. This then went into an SSL strip for final compression/EQ.
e-GTR - used the DI, MixBox again for the tone, and two different delays, which I automated in the track this was also sent also to room verb
Solo: used printed, just some extra verb/eq and a limiter.
Cello/Trumpets/String: Just EQ, and a delay on Cello 2
Wurlitzer: Used the printed track with extra verb/chorus and some EQ/Limiter

VOX: Normal chain of three compressors each doing a little, EQ/limiter and de-esser. These all fed various parallel fx which included, Saturation, extra compression, chorus,delay verb etc

Instruments were all summed into respective busses where I used Waves NLS,Kiive Tape Face and some extra EQ if needed.

Used a rear bus technique for everything except drums
MixBus: Compressor and tape saturation which I mixed into, then added Pultek eq nearer the end of the mix process, and also another EQ just to remove below 30hz, and mono below 100hz

Automation all over the place, hope you enjoy!

Cheers,
Jules

[jakeh83]

Hi all here's my mix, not my usual genre but enjoyed mixing it, using S1, i replaced the drums for my own, very basic eq and comp, saturation, nice bit of balancing around the production elements, anyway hope you like it!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ewvqi00e ... k1pur&dl=0