Mix Challenge

Dear fellows,

Here you can find my mix https://drive.google.com/file/d/1txG4kJ ... sp=sharing

You will probably benefit more from reading about my approach and process to this mix, instead of a list of plugins I used. So here it goes:

The tracks already have quite some sauce and character to them, so it was easy to get a decent mix going with just the faders. In this more electronic pop genre the mix is (almost) part of the production imo. All the sounds lend themselves for further mangling, without destroyed the original essence of the songs.

The main thing I tried to achieve in the choruses is to make to listener move, because well… I believe the protagonist sings he wants to dance! There are quite a lot of sustained synths and other elements playing on every beat. By partially ducking some elements rhythmically, it seems to groove harder and the kick hits harder; A very classic dance-technique you're prob all familiar with. I used Live's Autopan with a sawtooth wave for this.
To further clear some space and get more liveliness, I used gates to cut down on the reverb imprinted in some of the synths and the rototoms.
To keep the listener engaged, I used a lot of volume and filter automation. For example some moving LPFs with high resonance for transitions.

The claps (Drums 2nd) in the ‘Let’s Dance’ breakdown were a bit soft and dull for my taste, so I cut them out, put them on a separate track and added some high end.

For the verses I used milder pitch correction than for the chorus, but never 100%. This further helps the contrast in arrangement by having a more natural verse (acoustic instruments dominate) and a more synthetic chorus.

I used the Kompreskimo on the master because this compressor doesn’t squash kicks but it tucks the snare in in a fairly smooth manner.

DAW: Live 11

Hope you enjoy it, mix on!
Blang

well done, blang! thanks for your participation!

PHASE 1: Static mix, eq, compression, panning trying to obtain a balance of frequencies as flat as possible to move on to the next phase
MIXBUSS: Arturia V76-PRE, EQ; Api 2500 1 db, Fabfilter pro-c 2 compression of the sides to increase stereo sensation, fabfilter DS to control a little, Virtual Tape Machine
Drum bus: EQ, SSL COMPRESSOR, TAPE BUS, bass holdover cutoffs
KICK: EQ, PULTEC, BX_SUBFILTER, API 2500
SNARE: EQ, cut bass I didn't need, Reverb plate using impulse response
REST OF DRUMS: EQ, Cuts in unnecessary frequencies, Reverb with impulse response

BASS: EQ, TAPE BUS, RBASS, CLA-3 COMPRESSOR

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Nothing in particular, just low end cuts and some EQ
ELECTRIC GUITAR: Amp emulation, cabinet impulse response, eq and a barely noticeable wah wah

KEY BUS: focus one, SSL BUS COMPRESSOR, TAPE BUS
SYNTH-LEAD: EQ, low and high frequency cuts, the original track had a reverb that bothered me, I removed it with acon deverberate and the sound was more defined, and a lot, a lot of tape saturation to remove some treble that I they were a bit annoying
PIANO: EQ, PIANOCENTRIC
PIZZ: RX Sectral De-noise, eq
For the rest of the Keys, only cuts and some EQ so that important frequencies do not collide with each other.
Lead vox verse: EQ, mastering the mix reso, delay and reverb and Compression
Lead vox chorus: EQ, mastering the mix reso, delay and reverb, revoice pro compression with BG
BG vox: reverb, delay, comp, eq, stereo widening
All voices were treated with melodyne

Panning and Automations in some cases there are automations of pans playing between center and sometimes taking them off center a bit, changes in equalization, also change the stereo widening of some tracks closing or opening it according to what you wanted to achieve, generalizing, it opened the stereo when I wanted to send some element back and closing it when I needed it more towards the front of the mix accompanying this with cuts in the treble zone and releasing the cut at the right time, in the mixbus I automated the cut in the sub bass that was getting very close slowly at 41 Hz as it got closer to the chorus to suddenly release them with the first transient of the chorus to give it more impact, the same with the stereo width, I closed it very slowly to release it when I reached the chorus,also with the intention of adding more impact to the choir.
At the end of this phase of my mix I achieved an overall balance of frequencies flat enough to move on to the next phase

Phase 2: With the resulting mix from the previous Phase, find a general balance of the mix with which I feel comfortable, in this case I had 2 songs in mind, Get Lucky by Daft Punk or Don't Start Now by Dua Lipa I finally decided on Dua Lipa
MixBus:
1- Sound modeling with analog EQ until achieving a general balance as close as possible to my reference
2- Gullfoss (very subtle) to unmask frequencies and give clarity to the mix, increase the brightness a bit with a bax type eq in 7.1khz of around 1db remove resonances with Reso Mix Mastering, studio one native multiband dynamics, glue compression with ssl compressor 1db, a subtle saturation with decapitator and fabfilter DS to control annoying high frequencies
3- Use a Luca Petrolesi Parallel Compression Technique to boost your midsection.
4- Yes, More control, multi mono Multiband Compression to balance possible differences in volume between the two channels.
5- Control the Sides in the sub bass part, I did this with Brainworkx Control.
6- Finally look for an analogous color according to what I had in mind, once I obtained a color that I liked, I removed a little harshness that had been generated by the previous processes.
I hope to be understood, I don't know how Google translator translates from Spanish to English, sorry if you don't understand :S

Realmente me gustó mucho trabajar en este proyecto, aprendí bastante sobre la parte de la producción, y como cada instrumento fue elegido meticulosamente como una pieza de un rompecabezas que encajaba a la perfección con el resto de las piezas, Gracias por compartir con nosotros!

I really enjoyed working on this project, I learned a lot about the production part, and how each instrument was meticulously chosen as a piece of a puzzle that fit perfectly with the rest of the pieces, Thanks for sharing with us!

Without more to say, I leave the link to my mix https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_TyFzp ... sp=sharing

Hello,

Thanks for the opportunity to mix this song. It was certainly a learning process for me as this is not a genre I'm very familiar with, but I ended up enjoying this a lot, so thank you a lot for the opportunity!

Going into the mix I had three main targets:
Keep the vocal natural. It felt most appropriate given the somber lyrics to keep the vocal honest and "real". So I started with the dry vocal and tuned it a bit but mostly focused on leveraging the intimacy of the lyrics and the performance.
Build the mix on the bassline as this was really brilliant and I wanted it prominent in the mix right after the vocal.
Make the song dance. As I said I normally do not mix pop or dance music but I liked the idea that the song itself dances around the listener, so there is a ton of automation of panning, volume, instruments missing and reappearing, sweeping EQs to create movement etc. Just anything I could think of to make the song move!

With that said, here is what I've done:

(Regarding the EQ moves, unless I state otherwise, all LC are 12db/oct and when I say wide boost or cut, I mean Q 1 )

DRUMS
Kick: Volume and EQ automated to make the kick move with the rhythm of the song and make space for the snare. I have also used a plugin called Bass Professor which I normally use for metal bass guitar, but here it helped a lot to deepen the low end. Lastly there is a silly automated Haas trick at the opening four beats as I liked the way it brings the listener to the center of the song. EQ moves: LC at 60Hz, 4dB wide dip at 330 Hz (make space for bass), rhythmic -6dB high shelf at 1.2k automated for every other hit (so the kick top end slightly ducks when snare hits). Plus a HC and 12db narrow boost sweeping from 200Hz to 20k on the first initial 4 hits of the kick.
Snare: Next to nothing, just a small EQ to make it stand out. Sent to a plate. EQ moves: LC at 180Hz, 4dB wide dip at 520Hz, 2dB wide boost at 3.7k
Drums 2nd: A little widening and volume automation. EQ moves: LC at 75Hz, 4dB wide cut at 340Hz, 2dB wide cut at 1.8k., high shelf -6dB at 6.5k
HH-Claps-Snare, Perc and Clap: just widening, sent to plate.
Crash: This needed a big hall reverb to make it sound real, plus some panning automation to make it move and bring focus towards the center. The first hit also was a tiny bit late so I corrected it as it certainly felt like an error rather than an intention.
Rototoms: Panning and EQ automation to make them move on their second appearance (12dB wide boost running from 150Hz to 13k)

BASS: Again I have used my favorite Bass Professor where I added some lows and some treble. compressed it gently and added an EQ to make it audible behind the kick. I have also used a touch of chorus effect. EQ moves: LC at 60Hz, 2dB wide cut at 95Hz, 3dB wide boost at 330Hz.

GUITARS:
AC: This was super easy, just a little EQ to brighten it. EQ moves: LC at 170Hz, 2dB wide cut at 440Hz, 2.5dB wide boost at 1k
Funky: This on the other hand was not straightforward as there was some odd phasing effect I did not like and could not get rid of. In the end I ended up widening it and the panning to one side, which reduced the effect for some reason I can't comprehend. I have compressed it a bit and used a touch of distortion. EQ moves: LC at 75Hz, very narrow (Q 12) 15dB dip at 292Hz

SYNTHS: Generally there is a ton of automation on the synths, I have used 001 to fill the left side nad 002 together with BLIP to fill the right side. I have muted the PERC-RHYTM to only appear in some sections, which I have also done with the PAD. PAD also received a lot of automation of both panning and EQ and I generally used it to build the excitement as the song progresses. EQ moves: most synths have LC at 75Hz, the LEAD also has a wide 4dB dip at 360Hz and wide 2dB boost at 2k. The PAD has an automated 6dB side boost rhymically sweeping from 400Hz to 6k only back and forth only when the LEAD synth plays, not under the vocals. The EFX-sub has a giant -24dB high shelf 400Hz, which essentially removes everything above 2k as I found it too distracting.

PIANO: EQ to make space for the vocal, the aforementioned Bass Professor plugin to add some body (I never used it on a piano but it really did work very well), and some volume automation. EQ: 3dB dip at 380Hz, +3dB high shelf at 1.2k

VOX: I have used Melodyne to fine tune the vocals, mostly the backing as the lead vocals were very tight already. I have also used Melodyne to silence the ending of some words and on a few occasions moved whole words to another note when they clashed with the piano. Generally for all vocals I used 1176 emulation for compression, I have done some de-essing (just with a compressor, nothing fancy). For backing vocals, I have used Headcrusher to add some distortion to make the vocals stand out in the chorus, and I have added separate distorted stereo vocals on certain words to make them stand out as well. I have used three reverbs on the vocals (and other instruments as well): short plate, mid room and large hall and a little bit of slap delay. I have used no EQ on the vocal except for LC at 110Hz.

With regards to the ending, it somehow reminded me of football fans singing in a stadium, so I have done just that - I have added some slightly detuned variations on both lead and backing vocal, and I have also included the ending vocal effect from the original mix with some added vibrato for additional effect, just as a nod to the original mix. With this the song ends on an ethereal wave I would say.

On the mix bus, I have only used a few layers of analog saturation and a little bit of harmonic enhancement to make it slightly brighter

Again, thanks for the opportunity to mix this song, I spent quite some time with it but also learned a lot so it was absolutely worth it. I hope you'll like my mix!

Link: MC085__Tom_Besancon__Danser_en_automne__zajus

Thank you to Tom Besançon and Dirk Mallwitz (@dima510) for providing this song. Well recorded and pleasant to mix.

Here's my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gWgbUG ... sp=sharing

ALL vocals and instruments are grouped for further processing...

ALL VOCALS
- tuning, eq, deesser, compression
- plate reverb
- delay into long verb for tail
- doubler to thicken on chorus

ALL SYNTHS
- eq
- synth track has saturn to cut through
- synth lead has comp and flange for character

GUITARS
- eq
- acoustic has CLA guitars
- funky has has CLA guitars into soothe, limiter, then deesser to shave harsh frequencies

KEYS
- all keys have hipass and lowpass eq
- piano has compressor for character and JJP Strings
- pizz has comp for character

DRUMS
- judicious use of high pass on most
- DRUMS2 has more hipass on sides for focus, dynamic eq on highs (side) for excitement
- HH-Claps-Snare and Snare has a comp for smack
- Snare has parallel comp processing on another channel
- PERC has hipass and lowpass for focus then a comp for character

BASS
- both tracks have hipass and lowpass for focus, dipped a little 500Hz

BASS Group
- P42 Climax, Symphonic Flange, Lowender
EFX Group
- no further processing
DRMS Group
- compressor, limiter, dynamic eq for movement, clipper for character
KEYS Group
- comp for charater, finishing eq
SYNTH Group
- JJP Strings, eq, comp
GTR Group
- finishing eq
LV Group
- deesser, soothe2, comp
BGV Group
- deesser, soothe2, comp

2BUS
- comp
- finishing eq
- limiter

Kick: Tiny eq boost on the click.

Snare: eq boost at 5k with a shelf.

Drums-2nd: Frequency tilt with the elysia niveau filter at 349.23 Hz, mux exciter on to brighten up and then the big clipper to pull it together.

HH-Claps-Snare: that was the track with one of the hihats, i used msed to spread to stereo then a EQ to boost the highs on the right channel to bring out the hat.

SYNTH-PERC-RHTHM: some 5k EQ boost. mused and a clipper.

PERC: Left it alone.

Sub-base: Hi pass at 440 Hz, mused and some limiting.

CLAP: Some 5k shelf boost.

ROTOTOMS: some compression and then SC against the piano. (to get the toms to poke thru the piano)

EFX-SWISH: Some 5k shelf boost and compression.

BASS-1 & Bass-2: Hipass with a 6 db/Oct filter slope at 65.41 Hz, SC against the kick with the kotelnikov GE plugin.

EFX-bass-growl: Hipass and some mux exciter.

Piano & Piano-End: Compression, mux exciter.

GUIT-AC: VC-2A Compression , mux exciter, SC compression against the vocals, dynamic eq with a bell curve at 175 Hz and 294 Hz to tame the rumble.

GUIT-FUNKY: mux exciter and some compression.

PIZZ: VC-2A Compression, SC compression against the SYNTH track. (to make them live together better)


All the SYNTH tracks: hipass, compression, some mux exciter, the SYNTH-LEAD did some cuts at 880 hz, 1397 Hz and 2349 Hz to de-harsh it.

Vocal tracks: Did some tuning on certain track, lowshelf at 349.2 Hz, and some deessing.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GL9d8q ... sp=sharing

Hi!

First of all thank you to the song provider and the staff.

Following the rule "less is more" I'm applying most of the plugin on the foreground tracks, i.e. vocals, lead and drums.
I like working with reverbs and haas effect to create depth, so I use 3 reverb buses (one only with reverband and early reflections, 2 with only early reflections), as you can see in screenshots.
On almost all tracks I put Waves NLS to give some analog warming effect and depth.
I attached a screenshots zip file for your consultation.

ANALYZERS Working almost entirely on headphones, I'm helping with Span Plus, Voxengo correlometer and making levels in mono.
DRUMS - I used firstly some exciter (Aphex) to bring snare, kick and some percussion forward, besides compression, using analog emulation as API 2500 and dbx 160, a tube compressor from Steinberg. When harmonic eccitation is not enough I applied eq (waves linear eq or Cubase's Frequency).
I sent kick to sidechain compression on bass tracks.
BASS - Only sidechain compression, set to obtain 6dB reduction.
SYNTHS - I used almost always RS124 compressor, to give brilliance and warmth to vst synths, using parallel compression to not mess up transients. I used also Fairchild 670 emulation, always to get a brighter sound without using eq.
VOCALS - I tuned all tracks with Waves Tune, then I printed down some clip to get that "reply" effect on verses. I'm not a fan of modern autotune effect, so I went for natural sound at the end, doing an automation on delay bus, getting a quite nice effect I think.
The "reply" effect is done with flanger, delay and reverb.
On main vocal track I used a gate, tune, multiband eq, rvox, aphex, then sent to a specific reverb bus and "Cloner" effect (kind of chorus effect), to strengthen and widen main vocals.
I also sent vocals to a sidechain bus where all the backtracks goes into, and compressing only the 1.5kHz-3.5kHz range, so when the singer sings the music leave space to the voice.
MIX BUS - J37 tape emulation

With NLS Bus I adjust output level to about -18LUFS, -4.2dB TP.

Screenshots https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu1qyyjyj6w6r ... s.zip?dl=0

WAV https://www.dropbox.com/s/xdinx97ciq2vt ... x.wav?dl=0

Fun track for sure! My mix is here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqpB-RLndYJrkvtMIB8 ... w?e=eKAPuM

Drums:
I have a little bit of distortion on the kick, otherwise its eq and parallel compression on most of the drums. I did add an exciter on the snares to try and brighten them some and bring out the sizzle. The crash was really weak so I tried adding a parallel effects bus that has a reverb, eq and compressor to give it more thickness.

Bass:
Again, a little bit of distortion and saturation to add some bite for the bass parts. Minimal eq cuts to make space for the kick. A little bit of multiband widening, leaving the low end mono and the rest of the bass with some width.

Keys:
I used a transient designer on the piano to add some attack to make sure it is present in the mix, I also hard panned the piano and doubled it on the opposite side with an ADT plugin and some different eq settings. Most keys/synth parts have some compression to try and fatten them up. Several of the brighter synth parts have soothe applied to try and control the spikeyness and make them sit better in the mix. A few of the synth parts have 1/8 delays.

Guitar:
The guitars are compressed twice to try and fatten them up some, otherwise its just eq and a little bit of delay. The funk guitar part has a double track with an ADT and compressor.

Vocals/BGV:
I went for an autotune sound with a little bit of formant adjustment on the vocals, to me it works. I also did a flanger effect on some of the phrases similar to the production rough. The flanger worked well with the autotunned sound. The vocals are all run through heavy compression on parallel busses. The lead vocals have 3 delay lines. The instrumental tracks are routed to a bus which has trackspacer on it triggered by the vocals to create some space for them.

On the 2-bus there is some tape saturation, a glue compressor, a widener for the choruses, and a very small amount of limiting (1 to 2 db's).

Hello Fellow audio engineers this is my first time competing and excited to listen to all of the mixes

here is my Mix
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KpLL9l ... sp=sharing

Mix notes:
Session reverb: pre delay 32.6ms decay 2.17s
Session delay: 1/4 25% feedback dual

I started with the Beat stems All Bussed to a aux with a compressor.
Kick, Drums & toms - compressed ratio 3:1 att 15ms rel 525ms
hh clap snare - reverb -6 delay +1
snare - reverb 0
clap - delay 0
precs rythm - session reverb -4
crfash - reverb 0 session delay +6
efx bass - reverb 0 delay +4
efx sub - reverb -2 delay +2
efx swish - reverb 0 delay +6
funky - reverb -4 + compressor 3:1 att 85ms rel 182ms
pad end - reverb -4
pad - reverb 0 EQ low cust 239hz
synth02 - reverb 0
synthblp - reverb 0
guiyac - reverb -5
synth - reverb 0

VOCALs
Deesser
compressor
tape machine
EQ
Compressor


Let me know what you all think what i can do better Im open to all criticism

Hi there Killa,
I'm no pro at this game and make a ton of beginners mistakes myself, but I can see without listening that you are doing something which will cause problems in general. Sending many tracks consistently to the same effects is a bit lazy. It is unlikely that completely different sounds will both respond well to exact the same effect settings. For example with a vocal channel you might well want to round off a lot of 7kHz+ out of the reverb (sibilance issues) whereas on a lot of smooth synth parts you definitely don't want to lose the top end. So even if they are quite similar reverbs that you want, you need to put in the effort to tailor every single process to exactly what the sound needs. In isolation each change is a small improvement, but this is the game, you make maybe 200 small improvements and by the end it makes a huge difference.

Hopefully this is of some use to you and if you have any feedback for me on my mega crazy FX mix then please let me know
Scott