Mix Challenge - Gossip and Discussion

[Compyfox]

Allright - I'm... somewhat awake and I'll create appropriate threads shortly as template for future competitions.

The headmaster of this challenge will be Uncle E.
In terms of technical Q's, I try to be of service as much as I can. Though I want to participate myself just for the fun of it.

Our first competition will be a "Multi-Track Mix Challenge", the song provider is "Nine of Kings".

I'll make that clear in the other thread.

Let's do it. JRR Shop will give away SONiVOX Wobble, Pulse, Vocalizer, or Twist (winner's choice) to whomever gets the most votes. I promise not to vote unless there's a tie.

It's technically VSTi, no? Would love to see more plugins for engineering. But it's a start.

NineOfKings contacted me and has offered to upload a zip of the stems as soon as he's rendered them. What an awesome guy, I can't believe he's 18 making music that good.

We didn't contact the old OCRemix and VGMix community from 10 years back (well, actually I did contact some of them for this competition) - the prodigies of this community were even younger.

Nowadays it's amazing how great and easiy it is to make music.

If we get enough sponsor then lets distribute the prize similar to OSC. Top 5 will get a prize of their choice if there are more than 20 entries. If there are less than 20 entries, only 4 prizes, If less than 15, 3 etc.

I think we have to figure that out on the go. Depending on how much people will participate and how much content is available in terms of sponsoring.

Regarding voting, is it going to be open or secret?

As Eric mentioned, it's going to be open.

Each contestant has 3 votes (that the contestant should use!) to make the game more interesting. This can be adjusted at a later state - down to 1 vote even, if there are not enough entries.

By blind tests, I mean that we would have to match the descriptions to the final products or something. It'd be fun.

Only Sonar Plugs > entry _____
Waves > entry ______

Like I said - this could be a limitation for a future contest. Currently it's "use what you have - no limitation".

Nice tune. Just for clarification, unless I missed it on page 1, but I don't think I did, so here goes: is the mixer allowed some artistic control over the individual sounds in each track? By that I mean, specifically, if there's a synth sound I don't particularly like, can I use a filter and some other sound mangling to turn that synth sound into something else, within reason? Same for a bass, a snare, whatever?

Yes - this is what the "artistic freedom" was all about. And this is also a realistic real life scenario (engineers are contacted due to that). As long as it stays within reason and doesn't sound completely different compared to the source song. Think: an electro pop song turned into a rock song.

I also took a closer look at the stems - the vocals are mixed together, so there is not that much freedom as you'd have if you had the individual files (think: pitching). Which is also a good thing in terms of realism what we want to pull off here.

To sum it up:
Yes, do what you think works great for the production. Go wild, but not too wild. This is what this competition is about - at least if we talk about multi-track mix competitions.


Will create the threads shortly. Give me an hour max. And NineofKings - please keep the preview uploaded for people to listen to.

[Zombie Queen]

Oh, this is rolling. I'm looking out for it, one and only opportunity to mess up Nine of Kings work, and someone's gotta secure the last standing.

[Compyfox]

And yes - we are live!

This thread will be the GOSSIP thread, the other thread will solely for the submissions and minimal info what you did in terms of mixing (see rules).


PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE SUBMISSION RULES!
By that I mean, no submissions within the 24 hours please. Don't cheat yourself, invest some time, take a day off to listen to the track again - then submit. Resubmits or edits are not allowed.


Have fun.

[Uncle E]

Great job, Fox! Thank you for the great work you're doing!

[No_Use]

Great job, Fox! Thank you for the great work you're doing!

+1

I'll be in (probably).

[Compyfox]

I appreciate the positive vibes. But I want to keep the work low profile on my end. I hope that Eric takes over after we're done with the first challenge.


Already took a dive at it, created some personal corner stones as well (such stuff is great for beta testing as well!). Will definitely be a fun project. And I will(!) take my time with it; since I saw that this track definitely needs some in-depth editing. So I'm sure that we will see and hear a lot(!) of artistic freedom with the provided files.

I'm however also sure that it might itch in some people's fingers to pick up an instrument to re-track something. But... please stick to the rules. Only use what you have at your disposal.


To those that might need a starting point however:
The current track (MC#01) has roughly 159bpm (or 79,5bpm for that matter) and is in 4/4.

Maybe I should add a rule that the song provider adds the bpm and the measure with his provided content. But... that's half fun of the game to find that out yourself. Yet another real live scenario.



And as nice as the beat detection features in Cubase are, they definitely need some fine tuning. Then again, who am I fooling in terms of FR's.

[camsr]

In Depth Editing, that's good, I like that

This is directed to anyone who thinks of participating by providing stems, if you have access to the stems' effects, please REMOVE anything that isn't a sound or for tone. It's one thing to re-pan a sound, totally another when there's stereo. If you are using mono recordings to make your track, please include that mono source (that means no panned tracks, it's double the bandwidth and not necessary). If you think you must include a stereo track, then try to either include the source or make sure it's "easy enough" to balance another stem with.

[Compyfox]

That's part of the game, isn't it?

If you say "provide me the source files", you usually use what you can get. Hence my comment with the "in-depth editing".

Sadly, the vocal tracks aren't split, but I worked with worse before. And the initial 19-track project is now spread over 24 tracks on my end (which was the first quick edit). I'm sure there will be another one or two in the end, after I used a hammer, a jigsaw and some screws...


Oh wait... am I mixing up something again?


I see what you did there.... ¬_¬

[arkmabat]

Yeah, forget my idea. I'll be in the voting though! This is a great idea.

[kbaccki]

And the initial 19-track project is now spread over 24 tracks on my end (which was the first quick edit).

Def. a good first step, and good advice for anybody out there who may not have thought to split up the stereo WAVs... (I'm talkin' to you n00b ) ... you will make your life much easier...

[nineofkings]

I knew this one would be a bit of a doozy. I left some of the stems mixed on purpose; I know of mixers who work that way (Chris Lord-Alge among them).

In my defense about the effects on the synths, however, I removed all "mixing" effects. The delay and chorus were internal to the synth, so it was effectively "put to tape" that way.

[Uncle E]

Already took a dive at it, created some personal corner stones as well (such stuff is great for beta testing as well!). Will definitely be a fun project. And I will(!) take my time with it; since I saw that this track definitely needs some in-depth editing. So I'm sure that we will see and hear a lot(!) of artistic freedom with the provided files.

I finished my first pass tonight. I automated nearly everything, cut silences out of all the vocals and guitars, and gave the snare a Daft Punk-ish gate and low mid cut. I didn't drum replace anything, they sound great after some Harrison EQ and 1176. The clap is great! I tried Melodyning the end guitar riff which ended up being a HUGE mistake, being in tune has never sounded so out of tune.

To those that might need a starting point however:
The current track (MC#01) has roughly 159bpm (or 79,5bpm for that matter) and is in 4/4.

Also, it's in Bb Major.

the initial 19-track project is now spr ... on my end

Yeah, I'm at 23 after adding a drum buss and 3 reverb channels.

[hibidy]

Cool, d/l'ed dragged into studio one and ready for some mix action!

[Compyfox]

I knew this one would be a bit of a doozy. I left some of the stems mixed on purpose; I know of mixers who work that way (Chris Lord-Alge among them).

This is more than fine - trust me. I worked with way less before. There are just a couple of things that stand out (that I won't tell in here - it's part of the fun) that might need some editing or "different thinking". But, as mentioned, it is a real life scenario.

If you do a remix project, or mix up another musician, you usually don't have that much freedom. So it's cool to start with something like that right at the beginning.

In my defense about the effects on the synths, however, I removed all "mixing" effects. The delay and chorus were internal to the synth, so it was effectively "put to tape" that way.

And it was okay to do so. Theoretically, you could have even said "you know what, funk it - you get what you get - work with it" and it would have been okay. Now the tracks are fairly clean, which make them more flexible to work with. Ton of possibilities.


But even processed tracks can be further processed to a certain extend (or overprocessed - which sure is the rage these days). I can think of examples like "The Freemasons", the video tutorials by Ulli Pallemanns (PPV Medien / SAE Collaboration), etc.

So to all future song providers - do whatever the funk you want. It's part of the game to make something better out of it.

I finished my first pass tonight. I automated nearly everything, cut silences out of all the vocals and guitars, and gave the snare a Daft Punk-ish gate and low mid cut. I didn't drum replace anything, they sound great after some Harrison EQ and 1176. The clap is great! I tried Melodyning the end guitar riff which ended up being a HUGE mistake, being in tune has never sounded so out of tune.

Because he's playing harmonics (nothing new to you as guitarist), and most pitch correction tools are like "you know... funk it!". Don't know if I care to try VariAudio on this one.

Also, it's in Bb Major.

Thanks for the info - I didn't take a closer look at that since it's not a remix competition.

Yeah, I'm at 23 after adding a drum buss and 3 reverb channels.

I'm not talking about AUX returns and Sub Groups yet. I split the channels to my needs last night, and I will continue to do so for certain channels. It's just so much easier to mix then. (hint!)





And.. .we also have our first rebel: camsr

He releases his track within the first 24 hours (see "do-not-release-within-24h" rule, we don't have 3pm GMT+1 yet!), and it's also in 96/24 (ideal limit for submission is 48/24).

Of course we could go by a similar scheme like the "Pirates Code" in Pirates of the Caribbean - they're more like "Guidelines" than actual rules.

So yeah... technically that's a disqualification. But since it's the first challenge, I let the headmaster decide. I did however download the file to my HDD (will not listen to it yet). So even if camsr pulls back his track and rereleases it again (which is a clear disqualification), we will know.

[kbaccki]

10 lashings and a demerit should make him an example for the others.

Nineofkings, don't take any crits in these threads to heart... What you provided as source is actually really good in terms of overall consistency, room for effects etc. There's only one file that is a potential "problem" file, and if it's the same one CF was referring to, there's a technical way around it. Cheers on the tune!