Mix Challenge

Hello Gary and Nick!

58 tracks! that´s tough man! but really fun too.

The first thing I thought when I heard the song for the first time was that It sounded a lot like a mixture of "Mr. Blue Sky" from Electric Light Orchestra and Queen lol.
The upbeat tempo, strings, vocal harmonies, the arrengment in general.
I tried to mimic that specific song by adding a short delay to the main vocals and harmonies, I love using ADT type effects on pretty much everything but in this case I decided to keep it more simple and clean since the harmonies already did a great job "fattening" the vocals. The final mix itself is very similar the one used in the video, similar panning and levels, I hope you like it!

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-HEH ... kd6djVhM1U
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-HEH ... zB4eHQ0dWs

Almost every track has eq and compression.

Drums:
Parallel compression on the drum bus

Vocals:

lead,2nd and 3rd vox grouped, de-eseer in 7Khz, added slapback delay
vocal harmony tracks grouped, added vintage plate reverb
I used an am radio sim for the old voice part during the bridge

Strings:
added reverb
automated panning 20% to the left during the chorus.

Guitars
separated tracks in groups
panned sustained chorus 20% to the right
panned mid harmony to the right and hi harmony to the left
added 1 beat delay to the chords
added delay to lead harmony guitars

Organ
automated volume +3dB during chorus and -2dB during outro
added saturation IVGI (Klanghelm)

Brass
panned 20% to the right
added delay

delay used :Leet Delay 2
reverb used:OldSkoolVerb (Voxengo), Space Knob (Abletunes)
Compressor used: ReaComp (Reaper), DC1A2 (Klanghelm), MJUCjr (Klanghelm), S.LA.X (Sonic Anomaly)
Eq used: ReaEq (Reaper), FabFilter ProQ-2 for lead vocals.

Master bus: mvMeter, FabFilter Pro-L limiter +4dB gain.

Integrated loudness -13LUFS measured with Youlean Loudness Meter
DR according TT-DR-Meter: 11
Average RMS: -14dB
True Peak: -1dB

I will not add any comments just yet so as to avoid giving others an advantage but I will say I have enjoyed both submissions very much. You might be interested to know that when I finished tracking the vocals this had a track count of 140 plus which is why some of it is now kind of premixed.
All the best
Gary

Hello from Germany!
Only today I discovered mix-challenge.com and decided to directly attack the current track!

Here is the mix:

MP3
WAV

I tried not to add a particular edge or fatness to it. Instead I wanted to obtain a clean retro pop-sound that has some groove and tightness and get rid of potential muddiness from the multiple guitar tracks and strings etc.. Also I did not change anything about the arrangement or replaced any sounds.

DAW:
Cubase 8 Artist
Plugins:
Compression: Waves VComp
EQ: Cubase Channel EQ
Delay: Waves H-Delay (Preset: Filter Delay) as Send for Vocals
Reverb: Waves TrueVerb as Send for Drums (Preset: Studio A), Vocals (Preset: Short Vocals Plate), Guitar (Preset: Rock Guitar Room)

Vocals:
All vocal tracks went through a vocal bus with slight compression and a slight amount of Reverb Send. Each Vocal track was added a 12 dB low cut from 200 Hz. Lead and 2nd Vox were added parallel compression and Delay and Reverb Send. No Deesser was applied.

Drums:
Drums went through a drum bus with Compression and some Reverb. Also paralled compression was added with boosts around 80, 220 and above 3 kHz. Kick 2 was added a boost at 72 Hz (D) and mixed equally with Kick 1 (as is). Snare Top was compressed, added punch at 220 Hz and Highs above 2 kHz. Also Reverb Send was added and mixed equally with compressed Snare Bottom. HiHat is added some Reverb as well as the Tambourine. The Drum Room Tracks are omitted.

Guitars:
Guitars went through a Guitar Bus with slight compression and Reverb Send. All Guitars are treated with a 5 dB low cut and a high shelf (max 2 dB) where needed for clarity.

Strings:
Except for the Intro, Strings are treated with an 8 dB low cut starting from 200 Hz.

Organ:
A 10 dB high shelf is added.

Bass:
Some additional distortion as well as slight compression are added.

Vocals in the Bridge are treated with H-Delay (Preset: Telephone).

No effects are added on the stereo-Bus.

A friendly reminder:
incl. today, 14 days left to submit your mix




And to all new faces on the forum - welcome! Please enjoy your stay, and good luck in the challenge(s).

FixInTheMix wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2017 20:32 CEST

Master bus: mvMeter, FabFilter Pro-L limiter +4dB gain.

Integrated loudness -13LUFS measured with Youlean Loudness Meter
DR according TT-DR-Meter: 11
Average RMS: -14dB
True Peak: -1dB

BONUS INFO (and up for debate):
I think we don't need to mention the DR values - it's an outdated concept IMO and highly program material dependent. Meaning: the "more dense" something is mixed, and the more squashed transients, the lower the value.


Also - I don't want to cause any controversy with this, but... - a warning: mvMeter is offset
There is a 7+ page long thread over on KVR Audio explaining the situation. Basically, the VU in stereo mode is "summing" the analysis in a strange way while also only using "one" needle and not two (like most other VU's in single meter view would do). I can not(!) recommend this plugin for accurate measurements

Hi Sven Welcome

My mix is here:

MP3 https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsUyMNuVXiPSjWplJIqCGGOaPW8V

WAV https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsUyMNuVXiPSjWupJC_nTWqkpqXE

Using mostly EQ and compression on subgroups and 3 comps on master buss very light.
Thank you and best regards to all!

Hi Plavakuca

Man this youtube song caught my eye and interested mixing this song. Is round 1 over or I still can download and mix?