Mix Challenge

As a main instrument I used TAL-Sampler. It's designed to behave like an old school sampler from the 80's where you can use sampled sounds as "oscillators", feeding them into a resonant filter. Then you can modulate its parameters with envelopes and LFOs like on a typical subtractive synth.

The song consists of four sections:
First one, chilled and melodic.
Second with the synth solo.
Third with distorted bass.
The last fourth section with the focus on ambient parts.

Percussion:

1. Bass Drum:
"Random_Smacks_on_Cushion_Bookshelfs_Floor_and_body" (01 Filler Material), trimmed and pitched.
"Lightswitch" (01 Filler Material), trimmed and layered on top of the first sample.
2. Snare Drums:
"Processed_Hat_and_Snare_Bounce" (01 Filler Material) trimmed to a single hit, almost unprocessed. 
3. Four Toms:
"SWC-077_VCA-089_04_Drum_Hits" (VCA-089), two samples trimmed, pitched and layered in octaves.
4. Hihat:
"Processed_Hat_and_Snare_Bounce" (01 Filler Material), used two instances for closed and open hi hats.
5. Two Cymbals:
"Crash" (01 Filler Material), two instances, almost unprocessed.
6. Rimshot:
"02 Percussion with a stick" (EsteveCorbera), trimmed and sent into reverb.
7. Clap:
"Snaps-Claps-Punch-Noise" (01 Filler Material), trimmed, pitched down and sent into reverb
8. Snap:
"Snaps-Claps-Punch-Noise" (01 Filler Material), trimmed and sent into reverb.
9. Clav:
"sin_1760Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" (00 Generated WAV tones), a single sine wave with a very short envelope.

All percussion sounds are processed with EQ, compression, saturation and limiter. All sounds sent into a room reverb.
In the fourth section the drums get filtered and gradually blended into shimmer reverb.

Tonal Instruments:

1. Layered Bass:
"LI - Bass 3 - Gm" (Lady Incognita), trimmed to a single note and stacked in octaves. Processed with spring reverb. Used through the whole track.
2. Bottle Flute:
"SWC-077_VCA-089_01_Bottle_Blowing" (VCA-089), trimmed to a single sound and looped. Can be heard in the first and fourth sections.
3. Strings:
"Violin Tuning A-String" (00 Instrument Tuning Samples), trimmed and looped. Two sounds stacked slightly out of phase. Processed with a chorus. Used through the whole track.
4. Bend Pluck:
"SWC-077_VCA-089_03_String_Bending" (VCA-089), trimmed to a single note. Two sounds stacked slightly out of phase. Can be heard in the first and fourth sections. A pitch shifted delay used to add another layer in the fourth section.
5. Synth-Lead:
"saw_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" and "sqr_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" (00 Generated WAV tones), stacked like a waveforms on an analog synth, processed with resonant filter and chorus. Can be heard in the second and third sections. Additional layer with an amp simulator used in the third section.
6. Distorted Bass:
"Distorted_Bass_Sound_with_BLEASS_dry" (01 Filler Material), trimmed and looped. Two sounds stacked slightly out of phase with the left channel being slightly delayed, processed with amp simulation software (very high gain). Can be heard in the third section.
7. Synth Pluck:
"saw_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" and "sqr_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" with additional "white_-6dBFS_3s" noise layer (00 Generated WAV tones), stacked like a waveforms on an analog synth, processed with resonant filter and chorus. Can be heard in the third section.
8. Ethereal Pad:
"LI - Pad 1 - Atmospheric C" (Lady Incognita), looped, playing big chords in the intro/outro sections.
9. Ethereal Lead:
"saw_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" and "sqr_440Hz_-6dBFS_0.3s" (00 Generated WAV tones), stacked like a waveforms on an analog synth, processed with resonant filter (with a very slow envelope) and chorus. Can be heard in the fourth section.
10. Bass Drone:
"EXP_Bass_Loop_Reese" (The Exponent), trimmed, looped and stacked in octaves. Used with filter automation. Can be heard in the outro section.

Effects:

1. Noise sweeps:
"white_-6dBFS_3s" (00 Generated WAV tones), typical automated noise sweep sound processed with chorus and delay. Used through the whole track.
2. Wok Hits:
"SWC-077_VCA-089_02_Singing_Wok" (VCA-089), slightly pitch shifted and trimmed to a single hit, spread across the intro section.
3. Mangled Guitar:
"SWC-077_VCA-089_05_Guitar_Noodling" (VCA-089), two sections with "random noodling" processed with frequency shifter. Can be heard in the intro section.
4. Water Tank:
"waterTank" (1ktone), layered with "Wok Hits" in the intro, almost unprocessed. Than used in the outro section, processed with ring modulation and frequency shifted delay effect.
5. Boing:
"boing" (1ktone), trimmed and looped. Used with pitch automation like a rising sound.
6. Phasing Sound:
"Plasma Cutter (IMGUR ID 2prJ6Qa)" (00 Internet Random and Viral), pitch shifted and looped. Heavily processed with amp sim, phaser and chorus to create a noisy texture in the third section.
7. Ether Drone:
"231229_0080 Soma Ether Drones" (CotMM), trimmed to a very short section, used as a drone layer in the outro.

As a main reverb send I used "Blackhole" from Eventide.

Produced in FL Studio 21.2.2

Generators:

x27 TAL-Sampler

EQ & Saturation:

x1 BPB "Dirty Filter"
x3 BPB "Saturator"
x29 TDR & VoS "SlickEQ GE"
x3 TDR "Nova"

Dynamics:

x21 AdHd "Leveling Tool"
x1 D16 "Frontier"
x1 TDR "Kotelnikov"
x10 Thomas Mundt "LoudMax"

Delay & Reverb:

x9 Audiority "Xenoverb"
x1 BPB "Dirty Spring"
x1 Eventide "Blackhole"
x14 FL Delay 3
x2 NUSofting "Echobis"
x1 VoS "epicVerb"

Modulation:

x2 FL Frequency Shifter
x4 FL Hyper Chorus
x2 Full Bucket Phaser
x4 TAL-Chorus-LX
x2 Valhalla "FreqEcho"

Processing:

x1 Audio Assault "Grind Machine 2"
x2 Tonelib "GFX"

Master Chain:

TDR "Nova"
TDR "Limiter №6" GE

Total:

x27 Generators
x116 Effects
x29 MIDI Patterns
x34 Mixer Tracks
x7 Audio Clips
x33 Automation Clips