KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC02, July 2014 - Submissions Feedback and Q&A

[Compyfox]

Now that the Soccer World Cup is over, and there are school holidays in Germany, not to mention 5 days left on the counter...

Can we expect more submissions?
Currently we have two submissions out of 17 from last month. Not that much.


Is the genre not to anybody's liking?

[camsr]

I like the tune a lot actually, and it's my style of electronic music, using lots of samples. Kinda having a tough time finding a creative direction for it. And also started hitting a bit of a CPU wall. But I hope I can get something in on time!

[Headphone]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/230 ... dphone.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/230 ... dphone.mp3

What I've done:
I couldn’t imagine that aliens have sex to those piano sounds, so I’ve put a granulizer with a lot of grains and quite high grain length on them.
For me the FX-Sounds are not outer-worldly enough, so I’ve put a frequencyshifter on them (can’t remember the exact settings).
The pad-sounds are too harmonic for me, so I’ve put a ringmodulator on them.
The drums sounds too straightforward to me, so I’ve put a bitcrusher on them.
The rest were a little bit EQ-ing a little bit reverb and tons and tons of automation.
Maybe someone likes my mix …

[Uncle E]

https://soundcloud.com/jrrshop/satyatun ... e-kvr-mc02

Kick: NI VC76-> Satson Channel
Snare 1: NI VC160
Snare 2: Presonus Gate->VC160->Satson
Rim Shot: VC160->Satson
Brush: No inserts
Closed HiHat: Satson->VC160->Presonus Compressor (side-chained from OHH)
Open HiHat: Satson->VC160
Drum Buss: Supercharger
Arp Bass: Presonus Compressor (side-chained from kick)->VC160->Satson
Bass Combo: Satson->Presonus Compressor (side-chained from kick)
Piano Chords: VC160->Satson->Presonus Gate
Piano Melody: Presonus Compressor (side-chained from kick)->Satson->Presonus Autofilter->VC160->Presonus Gate->Presonus Pro EQ->TAL Chorus 60->Presonus Analog Delay
Pad Heavenly: Satson
Gated Pad: VC160->Satson
Harp: VC160->Satson
Klingon FX: Satson
RadioX FX: Satson
Reverse FX: Satson
Pad Verb: Satson
Aux Send 1: RC48->Satson
Aux Send 2: RC24->Satson
Main Buss: Satson Buss->Eventide UltraChannel->Nebula 747

Notes:

Almost every channel is heavily automated. That's the main thing I've been playing around with in these Mix Challenges. I think the snappiness of the VC160 works well here since the song itself is not heavy or percussive. Satson was only OK, I like its filters but found Satson Buss to be almost pointless. I'll probably try Britson next time. The piano melody was the most challenging part for me, I had gotten a nice Rhodes-ish kind of tone at one point but then found that it was too blended and hidden in the mix. The current sound, though not my favorite, does a better job of showcasing the melody.

[mwaudioprod]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/rmd ... ioprod.mp3
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7fh ... ioprod.wav

Kick: EQ-> Transient Designer
Snare 1: EQ
Snare 2: EQ
Rim Shot: EQ
Brush: EQ
Closed HiHat: EQ
Open HiHat: EQ
Arp Bass: corrected Phase ->Comp->EQ->Saturation->Stereo enhancer
Bass Combo: Comp->EQ->Saturation
Piano Chords and Piano Melody: Piano Group->corrected Phase->Comp->EQ->Doubler->Saturation->EQ
Pad Heavenly and Verb Funk: EQ-> Comp->EQ->Doubler->Saturation
Gated Pad: -> Comp->EQ->Doubler->Saturation
Harp: Comp->EQ->Doubler->Saturation
Klingon FX: -
RadioX FX: Comp->EQ
Reverse FX: -
Aux Send 1: Plate
Aux Send 2: Hall
Aux Send 3: Delay
Main Buss: -

Notes:

It was difficult for me to mix this because I do not know how to listen to this kind of music. It is the first time that I've mixed a synth instrumental. I had great difficulty with the snares. I have a lot of experimenting, but somehow has nothing sounded good. Therefore, they have landed more in the background. Since there is no voice I have put the piano in the foreground. I hope my mix is not too boring.

[Compyfox]

Care to elaborate what you mean by "corrected phase"?

[mwaudioprod]

I inverted the phase of the right channel. So that it is mono-compatible.

[satYatunes]

It was difficult for me to mix this because I do not know how to listen to this kind of music. It is the first time that I've mixed a synth instrumental.

It was difficult for an experience engineer like you. Now imagine, what I would have gone through, being a noob as far as mixing is concerned . It wouldn't have been interesting and challenging if you were doing the same stuff over and over again. I hope your first time experience was fun for you.

Since there is no voice I have put the piano in the foreground.

I thought all contestants would understand that but doesn't seem so. Fact of the matter is, it's an instrumental. Piano melody is the heart of the track, without that what do you have? nothing.

I had great difficulty with the snares. I have a lot of experimenting, but somehow has nothing sounded good. Therefore, they have landed more in the background. Since there is no voice I have put the piano in the foreground. I hope my mix is not too boring.

Your mix in MC01 was on top of my list and this mix, I am sure going to end up at the same place. You have done an excellent job on this one. I was looking for someone to bring the melody and chords to the front. The piano chords underneath the melody needed some clarity. I see most mixes are failing to create a good balance between the kick and the ArpBass. It was sidechained with the kick in the original. So far, your mix has done a good job on that too. The drums are good.

I hope my mix is not too boring.

No it's not. I love it. Could you please share which saturation plugin you used, just for my knowledge.

I will provide my feedback (as client ) to other mixes soon.

[satYatunes]

Thought I would share the background story, so here it goes:

I wrote this track for Sample Remix Contest at Rekkerd.org. Here is the link:
http://rekkerd.org/sample-remix-contest ... -synthogy/

They provided a pack of one-shot samples for this contest (which is still available at the link above). The idea was to explore the sounds and come up with a track using the samples from the pack only. No outside samples or sounds were allowed. The winner was selected by voting. 58 tracks were submitted. This one ended up at #3

Link to the results: http://rekkerd.org/sample-remix-contest ... e-results/

I used ShortCircuit 2 to load those samples in Reaper 4. The entire track was composed and mixed in Reaper. There was only a few days left for submission when I came to know about this contest. I was racing against the time. I am not being defensive but that's the truth. I wrote the track in a few days (couple of hours per day). I understand there are a few technical issues with it, which I am not very proud of but I take it as a learning. The main Piano in the track, I don't know which Piano it was sampled from. I came up with the melody first and everything else was built around it. ArpBass was slapped at the last moment but it did give an excellent sheen to the track as it was pretty dull without it. I used Arto's Cream arpeggiator for it. As far as mixing is concerned, I hate to admit that I didn't spend enough time on it. That was a big mistake. For the record, I didn't like the original mix but love the structure and melody.

Now the title, it was 3 AM and I was struggling to come up with a nice title before submitting it. I don't know how I ended up with "Alien Love". There is no story behind it. It was weird and very unusual for me cause most of my tracks are based on a theme, that's how I get my inspiration. I think of a theme first then start working on a track. I would agree with Headphone's comment that there is not much outer world elements in the track except a few fx.
I was helluva surprised when I saw the results. Honestly, I didn't expect it but contestants loved it. First time I won something for my music.

[mwaudioprod]

I love it. Could you please share which saturation plugin you used, just for my knowledge.

Thanks! I used the IVGI from Klanghelm.

[No_Use]

Here's my entry

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/120 ... No_Use.wav
(wav 48/16)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/120 ... No_Use.mp3
(mp3 48/320)

Actually I didn't do much processing this time as I found the stems quite usable as is.
A bit EQ here and there for space and separation and occasionally some light (bus) compression. Only Piano I compressed harder as it should go up front (the 'replacement' for the vocals so to speak).

The only sound I radically processed was the Arp Bass as I found it to "stereoized". Low bass always has to be mono for me but when I tried to collapse the Arp Bass I found phase problems so I mono-ized it first (used only one channel) and stereo-ized the upper frequencies again with a widener and chorus.

Some volume automation also going on (to distinct the parts without rhythm with the 'full on" parts a bit).

Also a bit delay and reverb for the 'depth'.

Nice track I enjoyed mixing.

[H-man]

Whoa, got onto this one pretty late. Still time tho ....think I'll have a shot.

[Compyfox]

So as of this moment, we have 6 entries.
By the new "participants/4 = license winners" rule, that would mean we'd have one license as giveaway, but still three winners on the podium. But the voting/winning rules still marked for a change the next days... who knows what will happen.


Mister Fox, where is your track?! Copying the best bits again?!

I am currently still struggling with my rig. Last time it was Nomad Factory that acted up. This time it's Slate Digital and very random crashes, but I can use the NF plugins this time around. If I send in anything, it will be once again at the VERY LAST minute.

I can confirm that parallel processing helps fixing certain things here and there. So does a Transient Designer. I can however not confirm to use "phase cancellation" to make signals mono compatible. After doing that, the provided track's sound simply poof'd into thin air / fall apart. Special treatment with special tools is however essential. The track is otherwise fairly mono compatible. Especially the bass sounds (which were criticized as being "non-mono"). Well, that's part of the challenge to work with that content.


No, I haven't listened to any track other than 10s from Headphone's mix, since i was intrigued after reading his comments. I ignore everything else to not be jaded while mixing. Even if it might look otherwise in the end.

I'll try to get back to work and redo what I did in the last hour or so, since the crash also corrupted my current project (grrrrrr!). Won't promise that I'll be in time though. But I do my best, parallel to work and family business of course.



LESS THAN 46 HOURS LEFT FOR MC02, PEOPLE!



EDIT:
After about 4 hours on the HOFA timer, and 3:10am in the morning... my eyes are blurry, I can't hear anything useful anymore. So... 2-3 hours tomorrow, then maybe 2 more hours on Friday. All in all maybe additional 5 hours of work time time the Challenge is over.

Expected less work hours - in the end it will be about 10 hours again. Mostly because I'm not happy with certain sounds I sculpted (the piano really is a bit troublesome). And as usual, I'm way too late in the game to get anything done. Being lazy and 10 things happening at once doesn't really help either.

I'll see what I can do. The audio file might make it just barely. Dunno about the documentation however.

[3ee]

mp3 @ 320: https://app.box.com/s/3ca8l2dy4gevf9xk2or2
wave @ 16bit 44.1k: https://app.box.com/s/w15p79i5qql0bkt1ohg8

A bit of a general description.

Drums had to be shaped. had 2 snare tracks. Used one for the top-bright part and the other for the low punch. grouped to glue and send to some reverbs... (also sent the individual tracks to some reverbs and doubling delays IIRC)

Hats and pretty much the whole drum kit was overly bright with some brittleness and that was taken out with LP filters and saturation (FF Saturn on Rectify mode on the main open hat and TB reel bus to bring out that dusty hysterical character on the drum bus as well)

The bass was too wide in an odd way, than I found out that it had a channel inverted (a big no-no IMO) so I inverted one channel again for a normal stereo image, cut the Sides from the low end and side-chained with the kick.

There was a gated pad, put a flanger on top and did an overall tonal shaping incl some resonance removal wish narrow Q eq bands.

Piano and harp sounded a bit static (they were played using only a sample each, I know since I also took part in that contest) so had to hide that static aspect with effects and the Plogue chipcrusher helped allot here.

The piano also has a nice chorus gloss via the TAL-LX chorus. Harp also has a murky phaser via the Uhbik-P
etc... more info on request.

Cheers"
3ee

[Compyfox]

Ringing in the final 22 hours for MC02!


We currently have 7 entries.