MIX CHALLENGE - MC103 April 2025 - Mix Round 2 until 12-MAY-2025 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

[juhu]

Hi, fellow mix engineers / friendly competitors!

1) Foreword to my feedback:
Due to large number of entries, I chose to provide my feedback to those select competing mixes that I liked the most. For the most part this means that I could pin-point just a few potential Round 2 improvements to consider in each mix, should it get selected for Round 2 by the Song Provider, whereas for a few mixes I couldn’t even pin-point anything specific to improve upon so for those I simply described my impressions. Please don’t take this harshly if your mix doesn’t appear in my feedback, or if it does and you disagree with my comments!

2) Click on "SHOW" to expand my feedback:

► Show Spoiler

-
@Mork
Good tonal balance in Choruses and in the Bridge! As for Verses, I would like to hear “git-fills” louder than “git-verse” because I believe “git-fills” is supposed to form a query-response kind of dialogue against the Lead Vocals. Easy to fix for Round 2. That one detail aside - a well-balanced and clear-sounding mix that propels the song forward really well!

-
@Miłosz
Clarity is very good indeed. Regarding ambience, the one thing that bothers me is that the Verses are too dry compared to the Choruses, and the good clarity of the mix in fact exaggerates this dryness - a good example of how achieving a good aspect can reveal a jarring aspect. In terms of balancing, the Choruses are balanced the best, while in the Bridge I feel that “git-bridge” combined with the huge Synths gets too powerful and “jumps out” and buries the Lead Vocals a bit too much. The Tom fills sound slightly anemic compared to Kick and Snare. Finally, in the Verses, my ear kinda “wants” the “git-fills” even louder, I’d say as loud as the Lead Vocals, since the two feel like they are supposed to form an alternating dialogue! Should the mix get selected for Round 2, then consider fixing those issues in addition to the technical issues mentioned in the stats sheet, and the mix will get even better I think!

-
@Eastpark Sound
Tonal balance is great, but what jumps out for me is the different ambiences across instruments making some of them feel like they’re playing in different rooms. Further, the Verses feel much drier ambience-wise than the Choruses or the Bridge. I can hear heavy compression on some instruments, which makes chord tails occasionally slightly bleed into clashing harmonies of the next chord - this could have been cleaned up with automation perhaps, might be something to consider for Round 2. Peaks have been handled expertly in the sense that the Kick and Snare are not peaking out and yet are still audible, propelling the song forward at all times while still being nicely tucked-in-the-mix.

-
@Alex Van mixland
Excellent tonal balance, whereas heavy compression has become glaringly obvious - especially the frequent breath noises on the Vocals. Heavy compression can be a stylistic choice, for sure, but the breath noises in this case have become loud and frequent enough to be distracting IMO. Nothing that a few hours of manual gain automation couldn’t fix for Round 2, of course. The breath noises aside, everything else in this mix kinda works, despite tons of compression.

-
@scottfitz
I’m unable to find anything to complain about in the Verses and Choruses preceding the Bridge! Then as the Bridge arrives, some distinction across instruments gets lost along with specificity of notes played, as everything suddenly blends together too well, forming a sea of sound that is somewhat indistinct. The same issue persists in the final Chorus re-cap that follows the Bridge - this time around there’s so much reverb that any distinction the instruments had drowns into it. Such a thing could be a useful creative choice if this was a soundtrack to a movie where some dramatic change of events in the screenwriting would demand such a change in the audio, but since this is not a movie soundtrack I cannot really justify this dramatic change of sonic signature to myself in my mind. The final Chorus still sounds good per se, it’s just that the change in ambience is so unexpected that it throws me out of the song.

-
@vitamin
Interestingly, while in my reviews of other mixes I have complained about the Verses sounding drier compared to other sections; in this particular mix the choice to have Verses drier kinda works, and I can’t even pin-point the reason why it works in this mix and not in others! The timbres have been heavily, yet tastefully processed here, in a way that works with the song, not against it. Again, in my other reviews I have pointed out when things sound overprocessed to me, and yet in this mix, everything has been sort-of overprocessed but has somehow worked out regardless, and I’m clueless as to the exact reasons why heavy processing works in this mix and not in others! All I can say is that this mix sounds solid and coherent to my ears despite all the obvious processing. I wish I knew to pin-point what the exact reasons are, but I simply don’t know.

-
@MartialFromentin
This mix is for the most part excellent, the only fault worth mentioning is that the Snare in the Choruses sounds a bit too jarringly different from the Snare in the Verses - almost like a tiny explosion, which on small radio speakers distracted me out of the song as soon as the first Chorus hit. Funnily, I didn’t notice that as an issue on bigger 8” monitors at all, so it definitely pays to double-check mixes on small speakers. Fix the Snare in Choruses for Round 2 and the mix becomes even better IMO!

-
@GeorgeCorg
The mix is clear and balanced in Choruses and in the Bridge, so the only places that would benefit from further balancing are the Verse sections where the Bass Guitar sounds slightly overpowering to me. I wouldn’t touch anything in terms of balance in the other sections, so I guess automation is the most obvious way to go about this for Round 2, should the mix get selected.

-
@titantraxx
Good clarity and mostly balanced, my only gripe balance-wise is how “git-verse” stabs too loudly in the Verses. Ambience is interesting and works with the song. Basically, tame the “git-verse” stabs for Round 2 and that’ll already improve the mix, on top of whatever adjustments the Song Provider might request!

-

[scottfitz]

Hi all,
I generated random numbers from 1 to 75 to decide who got the feedback (I actually did that)
Sorry if a lot of it sounds like wall to wall criticism, but of course you have all done plenty of things right too. This is the way I see mixing, we start off doing nearly everything wrong and then fairly quickly we have learnt absolutely loads and are doing lots quite well but it still sounds bad and that's very demoralising. But we need to remember that some of it is better and to just keep identifying which bits to work on next. Anyway hope something useful is here and good luck to all.

@gassianto
The balance is ok, a little bit muddy - some subtractive EQ probablyneeded in the bass, but definitely enjoyable in places. I would be careful with the amount of low end reverb flying around in the verse section. The lead vocal sound just a little harsh in the top end. I would try to get a bit of the smack out of that chorus clap and probably take it down a bit too. Something that needs to be addressed is that the overall level seems to dip in the chorus hinting that the mixbus compression is coming in heavier there. In the middle section I think more work is needed to make the vocals work with this newly introduced synth sound - that’s the fun section - so time to go nuts (that’s what I thought anyway). It’s sounds ok the way you did it, but I think it’s a missed opportunity


@Mark929
Verse sounds OK, reasonable balance, but try to get a bit more punch out of the drums, I think they could come up in level first of all, but comparing with Pharrell Williams “Happy” you should notice that you are missing a fair bit of punch from kick and snare. If you haven’t done it, then try using a compressor on the bass sidechained to the kick to allow the kick to punch through. Also try out the transient shapers to get the transients popping a bit more. On the chorus, I think the slap delay on the LV could maybe do with a lpf to cut off above about 3k, else you get quite a bit of distracting consonant sounds. I think the middle section is fine, but again I’d try to have more fun with the vox FX. In the last chorus I think the guitars are too loud.

@maxovrdrive
Decent balance, I love the FX on the guitar coming in the other side. Verse is overall great, only probably is that when the chorus comes in the overall level seems to drop, so check what the mixbus compressor is doing on each section to start with and explore what all the other compressors are doing also. Sounds pretty good overall. On the middle section again I think the vox should have some new FX to help them sit with this new synth.

@mbernbrich
low end seems v muddy indeed. the kick and bass both just need some cleaning up especially I am guessing the 0-30Hz area. After that is done you may be able to hear better what other adjustments can be made to allow the bass and kick to live together in harmony! The higher instruments sound a bit dull and this could be partly just because of all that bass energy, but you may want to start experimenting with high shelves.

@Piotr
I love reverbs and I always want to turn them up like this, but in the end we just can’t do it very often sadly What happens is if you use a decay time like 2.5+ seconds on the guitar, then I think it can become a blur. I liked the way maxovrdrive got some FX on the guitar, but I think we need to be careful to not mess too much with the groove and it’s tricky to pull it off. I think on the chorus the bongo type track is a bit high. I love that track and I kept wanting to sneak it up, but I try to remind myself when I’m doing things like that to listen to the clients demo track and try to keep it generally close to that because they’ve given you the answer there!

@rbwolk1
a bit of noise at the start - this can indicate you have a noisy plugin somehwere, try to indentify which one it is and maybe replace it with one that does the same job but with less noise. there’s too much reverb in general and the low end reverb on the kick is playing havoc in my opinion. The first thing I would do is completely turn off the kick reverb/drum reverb and also high pass any other reverb channels to get all that out of the low end. The vocals are getting a little lost in general, especially on the chorus, they need to come up.


@Rc²
The groove is nearly there, but the rhythm guitar is a bit high and causing an issue. Also as with a couple of the others I am giving feedback for, the chorus seems quieter than the verse - mixbus compressor problem? Check all the compressors and see if you can understand why this is happening. It sounds clean in general, perhaps lacking a bit of bottom end and lacking punch from the drums. I liked the distrorted guitar sound on chorus 2. Middle section sounds like the vocals need a bit more automation or compression to fit the dynamics of the track.

@Stfh
slightly weird high pitched sounds in intro (is this an FX channel?). Way way too much reverb on the verse! I think given how much you’ve used, you did a great job of almost making it work. That high pitched sound is back in the chorus and it’s unfortunately spoiling what is otherwise quite enjoyable. Good punch to the drums - try reducing your reverb timings to get them to work with the groove more and you’ll get even more out of it.

@Swiv_In_Da_Mix
low end v muddy, like the feedback for mbernbrich, I would think you need to high pass the low instruments carefully. You may also need to remove a fair bit of 250-350Hz. We can’t feel much kick at all, and that’s a bit of a critical problem for this genre. I know what the game is, you try to turn it up, but then things get muddy so you try to turn it down and it’s not enough so what do we do? The answer is that we keep in the minimum amount of kick sound that we actually need and then we can use sidechain compression on the bass to get it to duck and allow the kick through. We can emphasise parts of the kick that our ears are expecting and remove parts of the kick that our ears don’t seem to notice. This is EQing in a nutshell for me, it’s a trick basically wherein you try to trick a listener that everything is still there when in fact it’s nowhere near that. The reverb on the LV is interesting, I think it could work well but I wouldn’t spend time on vocal effects when you mix (even though that’s the fun bit). I like the crunchy vocals when they come!


@titantraxx
Great sound on verse, maybe the guitar on the left is a bit too high? Also I think the chorus sounds pretty good. I think the reverbs are a bit too long for me, but it’s not bad at all. I think the LV on the chorus should be louder. On your mix it sounds like the BVs are louder than the LV? Enjoyed the middle section, but maybe that LV FX delay is a bit too crazy when the track becomes isolated at 2:54 ?

[MartialFromentin]

@MartialFromentin
This mix is for the most part excellent, the only fault worth mentioning is that the Snare in the Choruses sounds a bit too jarringly different from the Snare in the Verses - almost like a tiny explosion, which on small radio speakers distracted me out of the song as soon as the first Chorus hit. Funnily, I didn’t notice that as an issue on bigger 8” monitors at all, so it definitely pays to double-check mixes on small speakers. Fix the Snare in Choruses for Round 2 and the mix becomes even better IMO!

Thank you for this feedback and for the kind words, and "almost like a tiny explosion" made me laugh a lot.

My main goal was to keep the groove between the verses and choruses, but it was far from easy. The rhythm guitars and acoustic snare drum contribute a lot to the groove on the verses and it was quite tricky to maintain that groove on the choruses with just the piano and synth, and especially with a sample-based snare drum and claps.

I listened on small speakers and it's true that we feel this difference in sound more. Perhaps there is a rebalancing to be done between the snare drum and the claps on the choruses in order to have something more homogeneous.

In any case, it was very informative to have your feedback, I will think about checking the mixes on small speakers better in the future.

[red86549]

Can someone explain this?

Please see post #122 (above), 2nd paragraph, made more visual with the icon.

Mix Challenge - Addendum: Statistic Sheet and Wild Card Mechanic


Everything is explained in minute detail multiple times over. Including the mix pack bundled "TL;DR Rules.txt".

many thanks... i'm really newbie in this contest... so next time i pay attention to all this details..

[juhu]

@MartialFromentin
This mix is for the most part excellent, the only fault worth mentioning is that the Snare in the Choruses sounds a bit too jarringly different from the Snare in the Verses - almost like a tiny explosion, which on small radio speakers distracted me out of the song as soon as the first Chorus hit. Funnily, I didn’t notice that as an issue on bigger 8” monitors at all, so it definitely pays to double-check mixes on small speakers. Fix the Snare in Choruses for Round 2 and the mix becomes even better IMO!

...
My main goal was to keep the groove between the verses and choruses, but it was far from easy. The rhythm guitars and acoustic snare drum contribute a lot to the groove on the verses and it was quite tricky to maintain that groove on the choruses with just the piano and synth, and especially with a sample-based snare drum and claps.
...

I think the Claps are the key to solving this issue! Rather than relying too much on the Snare in Choruses, try processing the Claps in such a way that the initial transient of the Claps works as the back-beat that keeps the groove going! The Snare can be blended in at a level roughly equal to the Claps, not overpowering the Claps. Now if you can get the Congas just right so that they don't poke out too much while also don't completely disappear, you will have a groove forming between the Kick, the Claps+Snare blend, and the Conga rhythm. I wouldn't rely too much on the EPiano in Choruses. I hope this perspective is helpful, or at least a fresh idea to try out and see if it gets you where you wanted.

[Stfh]

@scottfitz @christianthomas thank you both I'll have a look into it, I appreciate your opinions. I admit that I designed the high pitched noise on purpose ... so maybe i've clearly overdone it . I tried to generate a effect that adds some higher frequencies to the keys and moves slightly beetwen L+R.
I found the key track great so I didn't want to mess it up with eq-settings but also I wanted "something higher" with the keys.

[Piotr]

@Piotr
I love reverbs and I always want to turn them up like this, but in the end we just can’t do it very often sadly What happens is if you use a decay time like 2.5+ seconds on the guitar, then I think it can become a blur. I liked the way maxovrdrive got some FX on the guitar, but I think we need to be careful to not mess too much with the groove and it’s tricky to pull it off. I think on the chorus the bongo type track is a bit high. I love that track and I kept wanting to sneak it up, but I try to remind myself when I’m doing things like that to listen to the clients demo track and try to keep it generally close to that because they’ve given you the answer there!

Thank you very much @scottfitz for your time and your valuable comments. I am glad I was chosen. I completely agree with what you wrote. Modern productions are often very dry when it comes to reverb. In complete contrast to the 80s. However, there are still many new songs that boldly use it, especially things like dream pop, shoegaze, etc. However, it suited me here, especially in relation to the references I mentioned.

The reverb on the guitar placed slightly in the opposite channel to the instrument was a decision aimed at balancing the stereo image. I think it was not a clearly bad decision, but I agree that it should probably have been more subtle.

Conga - that was my intention and I even wrote it in the description - it was a suggestion from me, as the person doing the mix - to make it more present and discuss it with the author. Because it enriches the additional rhythm and texture, thickens the arrangement of this part. So that was exactly the point. If the answer is no, then no problem. So basically what was supposed to happen in reality happened.

Thank you again for your time and very valuable comments! At the same time, I am glad that these are more matters of taste and feeling than any serious mistakes or errors. This is very important to me, because it means that this is another step in the skill of mixing for me.

Thank you!

[Strange]

Thank you very much for all the feedback and for engaging with my music.

That alone makes me happy and a little proud, thank you all for that!
Dealing with the many different variations of my song over the last few weeks has first and foremost led me to think even more intensively about my recordings and the idea I have for this song. Thanks to all participants for that too!

So first of all, I would like to describe my “dream mix” in more detail. What I hear in my head and what I would like to hear as a result (if that's even possible :-))
My Pharrell Williams reference still describes the overall sound quite well: rhythmic, upbeat, cheerful, soft and poppy at the same time.
For the bass range, this means a crisp but rather warm basic sound that needs the right balance between attack and sustain. So be careful when compressing and be careful with too much sub-bass. I've done the math: A wave with 20Hz needs 50 ms. That's exactly one 32nd of a note for a song with a tempo of 150, which already has a significant influence on the groove.
The hi-hat also has quite an influence on the groove and, for my taste, should rather form the timing in the background. When I match the EQ curve of “Happy” with many of the mixes available, the hi-hat automatically becomes quieter. This often corresponds much more to my ideas.
The snare in the verses and the claps in the chorus should be equally powerful, but only differ in terms of sound. That's why I layered the second snare with the claps, which gives the claps more weight but shouldn't overpower their sound.
For me, the verse guitars are clean blues guitars with the typical Fender basic sound: attack, twang and assertiveness and fullness with a tasteful amount of reverb, but always suitably warm to the overall sound.
The funky crunch guitar is a small rhythmic variation that must not be too loud, otherwise it gets on your nerves.
The piano sound is in the foreground in the chorus, the pad sound should only thicken it a little. The piano can have an attack, but should still sound warm and not harsh.
The congas are at their best when they are embedded in the overall groove. I generally like that best with most congas. (Unless it's perhaps Latin time)
The bridge should be darker and represent doubt and thoughtfulness. That's why I layered the distorted guitar and the synth bridge. Together they are responsible for the sound. The half-time groove is supported by the toms, which definitely need attention so that they can be heard and felt.
If the guitar sounds too low-mid-heavy, it can sound dissonant because the bass is not playing the fundamental notes.
The distorted voice in the bridge only works for me in the first part, after that everything can sound as usual again.
Before the outro chorus, it gets a bit intimate in the car again, so automation is necessary, possibly also with the reverb.
The final guitars are more of a pad on the sides and should increase the "drive", but don't overdo it, otherwise there will be an accident.
The song has two risers next to the reverse cymbals, which are intended to increase the drive. The volume should be adjusted so that the 1 is the climax. In addition, the part before it (the flute and the solo piano) should be quieter so that there is a build-up.
To maintain the intimate atmosphere, the reverb and delay should not be exaggerated. To support the groove, suitable reverb and delay times are advantageous, which is easy to calculate at this tempo: 1/32 = 50ms, 1/16 = 100ms, 1/8 200ms, ... These are already approximate values for reverb, pre-delay and delay. But everything should be done with caution and well dosed by ear. It's important to me that the overall spatiality fits together and that the band is on one stage.
If you like it a bit airier and poppier, you should use the highs from 7-10kHz, which are above the hi-hat. That's what “Happy” does. But I don't think this mix needs that very much.
I like stereo width and the song can become very wide towards the end.
If you want to rework your mix, you can try it with these tips.

I would like to ask the following 15 mixes (in no order) to enter the 2nd round:

► Show Spoiler

@JeroenZuiderwijk
- Nice round and full overall sound.
- somewhat heavy kick sound
- HH clearly too loud
- intro too loud, riser too weak
- Spatiality okay, rather a bit too much
- Gtr and vox suitable
- bridgeGuitar and pad too quiet

@Mellow Browne
- Dry overall sound very appealing, but not quite coherent
- sub bass resonates too long and works against the groove
- HH a little too noticable
- Guitar room too explicit/loud compared to the vocals. They are not on the same stage.
- Balance is great

@VividPhase
- modern, poppy and nice and direct, with good depth
- very strong transient accentuation, resulting in bass and kick slightly apart
- HH a little too loud
- Vox a little too much compressor, produces strong transients, less smooth.
- bridge sound too quiet, gtr too boomy

@scottfitz
- super balanced, even the different parts are well put together.
- nice spatiality, especially in the vocals
- sub-bass a bit too much, hardly needed.
- HH too loud

@Ronson79
- Independent idea to vary verse and chorus, has something.
- Kick too low, barely audible on small speakers
- riser too little boost
- the delay sounds a bit too fast somehow, out of timing. But the idea is nice.
- Bass tone is a bit boring, honky, but balanced.
- piano a bit too dry
- Bridge: strange space, Gtr and keys not one

@Drannob
- fat full sound
- Guitars a bit too far away, lots of big reverb
- too much (sub) bass, it rumbles
- HH a bit too loud (in the verse)
- Balance okay, less balanced in the chorus

@GeorgeCorg
- Nice vocal sound
- very centered, slightly boxy, probably the bass in the 300Hz range
- too much HH
- a little too much sub-bass
- too much pad and funky-crunch-gtr in the chorus
- Snare in the chorus very loud

@Mork
- Toms well integrated, balanced overall
- good low end, just a little too much sub bass
- HH too loud
- too much bass in the SN

@MartialFromentin
- round overall sound
- Snare nice overall, a bit too sharp in the verse, chorus too fat.
- High mids too harsh
- lead gtr too quiet
- Gtr too far back (reverb)
- don't like the distorted vox, a bit too much phaser/flanger in the bridge

@MadMav
- nice natural guitars
- the initial riser is ducked away,
- kick hangs behind bass due to the bass flutter (sub bass and 150Hz range)
- HH a bit too much

@LowlandsWave
- crisp verse guitars
- HH too loud
- Vocals not consistent enough, could use some careful dynamic processing
- Spatiality good, Gtr and Vox a bit too far apart, BGV very far back
- HH and congas work against each other
- strange bridge sounds, vox too loud, instruments too quiet

@titantraxx
- nice and punchy
- too much low end
- the low snare sound (approx. 150Hz) results in a different groove, the ghost notes are assigned to the bass range.
- the piano in particular has too much reverb

@Pentatonicdave
- FIRST: please turn off the Kick and Snare samples, they're not allowed and you don't need them.
- fat lead guitar sound, the delay is very nice in some places
- no bass, only sub and treble
- too much bass compressor, string buzz is overemphasized.
- Vocals sometimes too loud
- rhythm guitar a bit without body and too quiet

@Miłosz
- nice vocal sound, nice and direct
- but not always embedded in the overall sound
- bass not audible in small speakers
- bass pumps the whole track too much
- Gtr too quiet

@Eastpark Sound
- Very direct, modern, hard sound
- it distorts and pumps a little too much for me (clipper, limiter, compression should all be a little less)
- too much sub, pulls the bass rhythmically backwards.
- BGV partly too quiet, too far back

Again, this is only my subjective selection. Everyone of you has his own ears and his own taste, I'm not the "judge of mixsound" or anything else.
But if you like to flatter my ears, please read and try to understand my describtion above and compare it to your mix.

I don't want to give feedback to any mix, cause I have underrestimated how difficult it is and how much time it spent. But I want to appreciate your work and so I'll try to do my best for anyone who'll ask for it.

Another thank you to @Mister Fox for his dedicated work for this challenge. He will probably post notes for the next steps.

Greetings
Peter

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, @Strange ...


Ladies and gentlemen, let us kick off Mix Round 2, which will end on Monday, 12-MAY-2025 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

As of this moment, that is 5 days (plus the hours since @Strange's update), and also gives a little bit of headroom for those that attend Superbooth 2025. All Mix Round 2 participants will be sent a reminder via mail shortly.


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN available to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



The following 15 participants go into Round 2 (alphabetical order), with "Wild Cards" being pointed out (if present this month).
(all Mix Round 2 participants should have been pinged, all participants will also get a reminder via the new newsletter engine)

@Drannob
@Eastpark Sound
@GeorgeCorg
@JeroenZuiderwijk
@LowlandsWave
@MadMav
@MartialFromentin
@Mellow Browne
@Miłosz (Wild Card usage offered)
@Mork
@Pentatonicdave (Wild Card usage offered)
@Ronson79
@scottfitz
@titantraxx (Wild Card usage offered)
@VividPhase



.

!	Bonus Info
	Please read more about the "Wild Card" game mechanic here Mix Challenge - Addendum: Statistic Sheet and Wild Card Mechanic All Wild Card users are not only asked to apply the requested changes, but also to fix what they had at fault with Mix Round 1 (including warnings!). Please use the following filename template: MC103__Strange__WegZuDir__ForumUsername_R2.wav

The feedback to the productions can be found here:
Please see post #138 for individual feedback.



If you are unsure what to do exactly with your mix, reach out to the song provider and engage in a conversation here on the forum.
And please keep the Rules and Guidelines (post #6) in mind regarding submitting your entry. Please do pay attention to detail. (yes, please also check the song length of your entry!)

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Thanks Peter! That is cool, I was hoping I would get a chance to improve my mix a bit..... I'll do my best.

Cheers, Jeroen