MIX CHALLENGE - MC097 April 2024 - Mix Round 3 in evaluation

[cpsmusic]

All I need to know is whether it's the 1/4 note hi-hats or the 1/8 note hi-hats that are the problem.

Cheers!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your edit for Mix Round 2.


So far, we have 7 out of 15 entries, with a bit more than 21 hours left on the clock.

There will be no deadline extensions! Please get your edit submitted today. Please also pay attention to detail still.

[floodo]

First I wanted to thank you for choosing my mix to pass to the second round among the many works that were sent and I will comment on the changes I made

I totally changed the perspective I had adopted on the acoustic guitars, initially I had transformed one to stereo and complemented it with the other in mono so that they worked as a single guitar, that changed, now I use the classic panning one in L and the other in R separating them so that they can be perceived one from the other.
I automated the piano so that it is not present at all times giving space to the other instruments, I also made some automations in the mix looking to give a little change of energy in the choruses so that they have a little more impact.

I also deactivated the wow effect that gave that tonal sway of the cassette emulation that I had in the bus of keys, strings and trumpets, although I left the saturation provided by the plugin.

I made some corrections in the mix bus and changed a little the general frequency balance of the mix, I also removed some resonances that I found and also eliminated some hiss that some of the vocals had, finally I tried to make the mix sound a little more analogical combining preamp emulation with tape, and in this part I think I ruined the mix, you will say .... the idea was to give it some warmth and density, but with tired ears I have my doubts about listening objectively, I usually wait a couple of days to listen to the mix again, but this time the clock is knocking at my door.

Here is my mix ---> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oa5mIi ... sp=sharing

[A Future in Noise]

What do you mean with "just barely so".....and you finish that line with "good" so i was a bit confused. What does this refer to? And is your conclusion that 'something' is barely audible something that needs to be changed? or am I reading it right that it is good' as it is?

The main / lead vox is played back with a louder volume than the voice below (Sandra sings that one as well, of course.) I mean that I like that the lower voice (the Swedish word is 'understämma') aint too loud. (Some participants have chosen to let the 'understämma' be much more loud.)

Not everyone are native English speakers, that's just how it is. (And Google Translate and DeepL are not totally reliable.)

Cheers

[A Future in Noise]

All I need to know is whether it's the 1/4 note hi-hats or the 1/8 note hi-hats that are the problem.

Cheers!

There's no problem with the HHs whatsoever. The 1/4 are great, the 1/8 as well.

[A Future in Noise]

Hello!

thank you for choosing me for round 2
I agree with the corrections highlighted, I made the corrections.

Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1su6dZ8 ... drive_link


Thanks
Valter Zape

Hi! Excuse me, but which corrections are 'highlighted'? And also I couldn't access your file. (I think you will receive a request.)

[cpsmusic]

All I need to know is whether it's the 1/4 note hi-hats or the 1/8 note hi-hats that are the problem.

Cheers!

There's no problem with the HHs whatsoever. The 1/4 are great, the 1/8 as well.

Thanks, I'll upload my Round 2 entry shortly.

Cheers!

[A Future in Noise]

Hi @floodo

I apologize for not responding to your long comment from May 22. I wasn't actually prepared for any questions at this stage, but perhaps I should have understood that there might be things that need to be cleared up.

However, what you write is quite complicated. I don't understand what KSHMR essential kick is, or what smile balance means.

What I meant when I mentioned 1000 Hz is that it is a frequency range that gives quite a lot of "presence" - although I just googled that what is called presence is rather found at 4000 Hz. Perhaps I would have preferred a little less "presence". But now you've already posted a new mix (which I haven't heard yet), so maybe this discussion isn't relevant anymore.

[cpsmusic]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my entry for Round 2 of Mix Challenge 097.

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

The changes that I made to the individual mix elements were fairly minor and followed the song provider's suggestions.

1. I added the Fuse 376 preamp to brighten the acoustic guitars ("acoustic guitars embedded in cotton").

2. I added a dynamic EQ (Nova GE) to the electric piano to create a dynamic high shelf that reduces everything above 400Hz by 2-3 dB ("notes from the electric piano high up on the keyboard, from “participate” and a bit forward for example, should definitely be reduced in volume by automation").

3. The electric guitar in the verses has been spread away from the centre, however the hi-hat is are already panned 25% left so I left that as it was ("electric guitar and the hi hat are panned in the middle/center ").

4. I added a Pultec MEQ-5-style EQ boosting about 4dB at 200Hz and some saturation with Kit’s Burier to the snare. I also increased the snare volume by 2 dB ("the snare sounds thin, and it also needs to be louder").

5. I changed the EQ settings for the toms reducing the fundamental and low end boosts, and also increased the amount of ring for each tom hit using a transient shaper. Initially I’d reduced this to keep them behind other tracks but I think it made them sound too un-natural ("and you've changed the toms' sound, I notice now. They don't sound bad, but the question is whether it sounds like a tom being hit by a brush? By the way: just after the solo I hear a couple of toms that don't sound so good... I don't think I like them").

For the Round One submission I stayed all in-the-box, using the bx_townhouse and TB Reelbus as the only mixbus processing. For the Round Two submission I thought I’d try and polish the sound a bit more and used a hybrid mixbus chain. First was my DBX 162SL doing a small amount of soft-knee gain reduction. What I like about this is that the 162 can be unlinked which maintains the stereo image better than a linked compressor like the Townhouse (or any other SSL-type compressor). Next was my Warm 273-EQ doing three small boosts at 220 Hz, 1600 Hz and 16 kHz. After this was my Vitalizer adding some mid-range and high-end fairy dust. Then it was back into the box for high-end smoothing using Nova GE before hitting some tape simulation using Make Believe Studio's MixHead (the Serban preset of course, lol).

Specs:

24-bit/48.0 kHz
-16.1 LUFS (int.)
-1.7 dBTP

Good luck to all Round 2 contestants and once again thanks to everyone involved in the challenge.

Cheers!

[floodo]

Hi @floodo

I apologize for not responding to your long comment from May 22. I wasn't actually prepared for any questions at this stage, but perhaps I should have understood that there might be things that need to be cleared up.

However, what you write is quite complicated. I don't understand what KSHMR essential kick is, or what smile balance means.

What I meant when I mentioned 1000 Hz is that it is a frequency range that gives quite a lot of "presence" - although I just googled that what is called presence is rather found at 4000 Hz. Perhaps I would have preferred a little less "presence". But now you've already posted a new mix (which I haven't heard yet), so maybe this discussion isn't relevant anymore.

Thanks for answering, probably we can not understand each other because of the bad translation of deepdl, KSHMR is a plugin specialized in the kicks of the drums, on the other hand the 1000 zone gives more presence but has its complications as the nazal sound for example and the 4000 zone may increase the presence but also makes the sounds more aggressive and that did not want for this song so I chose to give presence in the area of the fundamental that is a warmer range, the smile is a way of balancing that was very fashionable in some genres, it is the increase of the expansion zones of bass and treble leaving a small valley in the middle zone.