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MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Winners announced

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zed999
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#161

Post by zed999 »

I should have asked earlier and may have missed this information somewhere, but a question for @JeroenZuiderwijk or @Mister Fox

Were the submitted files mono, stereo or a mixture?

[EDIT] I found a way to check and they are all stereo. Here's the thing - how does that work for the overheads? I ask because if I solo and mono either left or right tracks they sound very different from leaving them as supplied so I wonder what the intention was.

[EDIT AGAIN] OK, I worked it out, I'm feeling a little silly, but in fact using them incorrectly worked out ok for me. However, it's a change I'd make with hindsight.

Thanks.
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BenjiRage
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#162

Post by BenjiRage »

zed999 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 17:27 CEST
Were the submitted files mono, stereo or a mixture?
...
I wonder what the intention was.
Yeah it was quite odd, especially in terms of the overheads, I'm guessing it was a mistake. IIRC only the Organ was a true stereo file, the rest were just mono tracks presented as stereo where the left and right channels were identical (I discarded the right channels and only used the left)
zed999
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#163

Post by zed999 »

BenjiRage wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 17:46 CEST
zed999 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 17:27 CEST
Were the submitted files mono, stereo or a mixture?
...
I wonder what the intention was.
Yeah it was quite odd, especially in terms of the overheads, I'm guessing it was a mistake. IIRC only the Organ was a true stereo file, the rest were just mono tracks presented as stereo where the left and right channels were identical (I discarded the right channels and only used the left)
The overheads sound great both left as stereo tracks and both panned to the centre - it's a nice, placed, stereo image so I think it was Left and Right channels of the combined overheads, but the mics were not hard panned to make that image, so if you then hard pan the "left" and "right" tracks as supplied, or mono them and hard pan... it's not as intended.
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#164

Post by JeroenZuiderwijk »

zed999 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 19:20 CEST
BenjiRage wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 17:46 CEST
zed999 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 17:27 CEST
Were the submitted files mono, stereo or a mixture?
...
I wonder what the intention was.
Yeah it was quite odd, especially in terms of the overheads, I'm guessing it was a mistake. IIRC only the Organ was a true stereo file, the rest were just mono tracks presented as stereo where the left and right channels were identical (I discarded the right channels and only used the left)
The overheads sound great both left as stereo tracks and both panned to the centre - it's a nice, placed, stereo image so I think it was Left and Right channels of the combined overheads, but the mics were not hard panned to make that image, so if you then hard pan the "left" and "right" tracks as supplied, or mono them and hard pan... it's not as intended.
All the tracks (I think) where meant to be mono. I rendered them as stereo files for the upload on mix-challenge and didn't think about it.

Jeroen
juhu
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#165

Post by juhu »

JeroenZuiderwijk wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 20:49 CEST
All the tracks (I think) where meant to be mono.
IIRC, the Organ track had stereo signal, as someone already pointed out above.
Davias
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#166

Post by Davias »

Great and interesting discussions, sadly I don't have too much time to post, but I enjoyed the reading ^^

About the drums, I wasn't sure if we were allowed to make them more fitting in the "grid", and it would have been hard I guess since the tempo varies over time (maybe each parts is quite steady in its own, my brain can't figure it out)... anyways I made them cut a bit thru the mix for punch, and indeed it sounds a bit weird at times, trying to maintain some balance overall. Usually I use volume shapers to clean the bleed, but here of course, it was either manual editing or gate, I went the gate route, but all my multiband gates pose me problems for diff reasons. I ended up using Trash2 multiband dynamics after reading a bit some forums lol (wasn't happy with IL Maximus, UA Triad, or the free ones I have... lurking at you Metric Halo Multiband gate ! :D ).

Also just a note about my mixes... I tend to never do volume automation if possible (sometimes i do cut tracks in different clips, and I change the volume of the clips) for the first round.... trying to make it sound as best as I can just with the different processors doing their work, dynamically if needed. If I get to round 2, I might add volume automation as I usually do if I feel it is needed to even more impact for the final result.

About the mono tracks, I recall the OH weren't nulling each other when I tested (maybe I did something wrong lol), so I just panned them to taste and blended them in a bus for processing.

About the loudness I follow the rule -18db for tracks and -15 for busses, but I tend to overshoot often and then my mix got all saturated from the analog emulations... don't pay attention too much about the master bus loudness, as long as it doesn't clip (a few dbs I don't care) and then I used Youlean free loudness meter to adjust under -16dB LUFS-I... since two Mix Challenges I use Reaper's normalizing option to get right at -16 (dunno if it comes from SWS but it appeared in my render screen).

Cheers ^^

Also : I'm glad to see that the mixes that are disqualified or were submitted after the deadline will still get a review and even know if they would have made top 15 ! I'm a usual suspect for being late or making a stupid mistake at the last minute (like when I posted the mp3 I use to check on different listening environments, instead of the actual wav :D) and of course I accept the rules and it helps me improve my being in time aptitudes which are lacking, but once or twice, I felt I had the mix right, no matter how hard I worked on it, it just sounded good for once to me lol, and would have so loved to know I was maybe right in my feeling). And props to Jeroen for reviewing so many mixes, that seems a hard task ^^
Mixing : Reaper, Reason 12, Mixbus 32C 6.2, Cakewalk, Mixcraft 9, Samplitude
Producing : FL Studio, Reason 12, Renoise, Waveform
JeroenZuiderwijk
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#167

Post by JeroenZuiderwijk »

Hi all,

just letting you know I am working hard to get the list with comments ready and also the anouncement of the top 15. I'll let you know as soon as possible! A little more patience ;-)

Cheers,

Jeroen
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Feedback and top 15!

#168

Post by JeroenZuiderwijk »

Hi all! I have enjoyed listening to all of your mixes and reading the information on how you’ve managed to make it sound as it does. I have listened multiple times to the mixes paying attention to the details of your mix decisions.

I have been participating in this challenge many times so I realize that everybody has put a lot of effort and time in their mix and I appreciate every mix as an individual piece of art. I also liked the fact that (judging from the mixes) mixers from beginner to novice have participated in this contest. And that is great, because a big part of this challenge is to learn from each other and getting experience with mixing. Therefore it felt important to not only comment on the top 15 mixes. Everybody deserves a few words on their mix so I did my best to write down my thoughts about every mix in this challenge.
I also promissed to let you know if there are mixes that I would have liked to enter round 2 but are ‘tagged out’. In this case there sadly is one mix that didn’t make it to the top 15 because of disqualification and that is the mix of Nebuktnessar.

You all did a great job! Cheers,
Jeroen

In alphabetical order, here is my personal top 15 that made it to round 2:
► Show Spoiler
And here is my feedback on all the mixes, 74 in total. I double checked but If however I unintentionally forgot to copy my comments of your mix in the list (it is a big list after all) please let me know! It is NOT in alphabetical order. I just followed the mix-challenge forum upload order (I'm sorry you have to search a bit). I also included my feedback on the mixes that are disqualified in any way.
► Show Spoiler
zed999
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#169

Post by zed999 »

Well done top 15!
Thanks for the feedback, agreed on all counts. :)
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BenjiRage
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Re: MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Mix Round 1 in evaluation

#170

Post by BenjiRage »

@JeroenZuiderwijk, thank you for your stellar effort on the feedback for everyone, well done that was a herculean task!

Also thank you so much for putting me through to the next round, I've taken all your points on board and am currently working on mix V2 :tu:
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