MIX CHALLENGE - MC091 April 2023 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Thank you for handling the evaluation, @JeroenZuiderwijk.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us kick off Mix Round 2, which will end on Tuesday, 09-MAY-2023 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

As of this moment, that is 5 days (plus the hours since @JeroenZuiderwijk's announcement, and I've updated the post). 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)

@BenjiRage (Wild Card)
@Christoph_K
@Franz
@GeorgeCorg
@Havol
@IbanezoO
@jules666
@kombainera
@LowlandsWave
@PauPeu
@PeterGomes (Wild Card)
@Piranha
@rvalle
@SDB_12
@Wohooo3000
.

!	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. Please use the following filename template: MC091__SilverStoned__EyeOfTheNeedle__ForumUsername_R2.wav

The feedback to the productions can be found here:
Please see post #168



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.

[kombainera]

Thanks for the feedback its a lot of a work to listen so much mixes !

[pabloAT]

@JeroenZuiderwijk, thank you so much for the feedback. 100% agree with your remarks and suggestions. Congratulations to the TOP 15!
Cheers,
PabloAt

[lupobuonino]

Thanks @JeroenZuiderwijk for your feedbacks, I appreciate and will take care of them.

congratulations to the top 15 participants!

Paolo.

[kombainera]

So this is my edited version :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bqoxQ5 ... sp=sharing


i treat the guitars just a little bit with sooth and hi pass them more so they can sit better,for the soft part i add some automations so the guitars are not so gainy there.For the bass i add paralel distorsion from fab-saturn but automate it again so in the soft part bass is more likely clean.For the vocals i add 1 more revurb but cant add much more effects there cose they will got lost in the mix.That is more or less what i do hope to enjoy !

[BenjiRage]

Here's my revised version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cplWjs ... sp=sharing

Main Changes:
• Lowered the loudness to within spec (-16.4 LUFS, -1.7 dBTP)
• Turned down the top snare a little, changed the compressor on the duplicated snare track for less transient and more body. Also added some distortion
• Added some effects to the bridge vocals (radio eq, valve filter, auto-pan, quarter delay and reverb)
• Chorus guitars came in with a bit too much of a push so I've tamed this slightly so it's not as abrupt but used some compressor tricks to maintain the apparent energy increase

Additional tweaks:
• The ride cymbal and some crashes were a bit lost in my first mix so I've added some light compression to the overheads, relaxed the HPF and increased the level slightly
• Also added some light compression with fast release to the kick drum
• Tamed the compressor transients on the toms so they're less spikey and I've added more body with vintage warmer
• Changed the amp settings on one of the stereo rhythm guitars for a slightly different tone, less hissy fizz, more crunchy mid as it seems to sit better
• Also duplicated one of the rhythm guitars in the choruses, with a high-pass filter and widener just to expand the stereo field a little more for these sections
• Added a filter gate to post-bridge guitar (sorry, yeah stolen from Christoph_K but it just works so well!)
• Bass slightly louder overall with a little more distortion
• Increased the delay effect send on the lead guitar track and removed the automation that cuts off the delay tail at the end to let it ring out

Once again, thanks to Jeroen for wild-carding me through! Best of luck to all

[Yann]

@JeroenZuiderwijk Thanks for your feedback. I got the same sensation with my mix : lack of energy and impact. I have to work on that for my next try in the mix-challenge !

Congratulations to all the participants and the 2nd rounders !

[GeorgeCorg]

Hi,

Thanks for choosing my mix for the Round 2!

I tried to address the remarks made, also tried to add more excitement to the whole song to make it larger than life, hope I managed to do that.

Noteworthy:
- I reworked the bass guitar from ground up, to make fit better.
- Added some automation to the guitars in the bridge sections
- Recalibrated the vocals in the mix overall.

I am happy with what I accomplished, I hope JeroenZuiderwijk is as well

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6EA5S ... share_link

[Franz]

Hi Jeroen, hi everyone,

Thank you first of all for letting me access round 2.

I absolutely agree with some of your comments about "perfecting" my mix. First the subject of reverb.
Sensitive element in the structure of the mix, it allows firstly concerning THE guitars to consolidate a kind of "sound wall".
I used reverb on some guitar tracks, not all. So I dosed this reverb differently on the tracks in question while trying not to
destroy this relative fragile balance of the guitars. Then at the level of the bass guitar, I eliminated some annoying resonances
(between 150 and 50 Hz) of this instrument in conflict with the kick. Then I completely revised the "bridge" by lowering the
general level of this passage (guitars and voices) so that the "break" between the two parts of the title is very obvious.

I hope you will be convinced by the result.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12bn-9y ... share_link

Franz

p.s.: congratulations to the 14 other participants of the second round and congratulations to all the participants of this
competition which was rich in various lessons.

[BenjiRage]

Um... @Franz, I just noticed something about your mixes. You said you didn't use any drum samples, which you convinced me of, but (and I failed to notice this in your first mix) I'm curious as to why there are snare hits in the bridge when the drummer is playing sidestick in the recording? If these aren't samples then you could also argue that your editing of the drums in this fashion might constitute changing the arrangement, which is also not allowed, @Mister Fox am I right?