Mix Challenge - Gossip and Discussion

How to do this, that and the other. Share, learn, teach. How did X do that? How can I sound like Y?
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Compyfox wrote: 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).

:shrug:
Sorry man, I just looked at the date, was ready to finish it anyways. Must of been 12am PST, that would make it 9am there. Hope that's ok.

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Personally I'll let it slide - but I didn't write the rules (and slightly fine tuned them with Eric) without a reason. So it is a bit disappointing to me to see that at least one user didn't care for all the recommendations.


Of course, a fast turnaround is pretty much always requested - since clients usually don't have any time at their hands (sadly, no joke - ultra short deadlines, changes at the last minute, has to be done two days ago, etc). But the main recommendation I can give anyone, especially those that don't do this professionally, is to listen to the tracks again with fresh ears one day later. Always! Sometimes you're like "WTF did I do there?!".

I still do that, even if I take several breaks during mixing. And yes, I know that you won't be finished - there is always something to change. But your ears tire out - there is no way evading that. Which is why I personally count in an extra day for an extra listening check while doing mixing jobs. Just to be sure.



The 96kHz release might turn into an issue to those that don't have broadband access, or a limited broadband access (as it will be put into place, hidden as so called "fair flatrate", from 01st July 2014!). Which is why there was mentioned in the rules "ideally, provide both an MP3 and WAV file. The WAV file is for the purists among us. Those that want to do "blind tests" and the likes. The MP3 files are for those that only want to listen to the content, or have a limited internet bandwidth.

If HD-AAC would be widespread already (or accessible to a lot of users), I'd even go for that format as the filesize at the same high bitrate is actually lower than MP3, and the sound is just as good (well, Hydrogen Audio might think a tiny little bit different - and by that, I mean a whole lot!). But, so far it's still a "niche" CODEC, even if it's the ultimate successor to MP3.




I also miss at least some basic information of what you did with the song in text form (another rule). Bullet points really, what your main focus was (take note of Uncle E's comments on the last page). If you turn out to be the winner, it would be nice to reveal more. Though that rule might change at a later state, if people speak against it.
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Yeah the mp3 vs WAV thing is a problem for a lot of people. That file was 86mb, and if you have a download cap I guess it would be a pain. So I did upload the mp3 version as well, converted from that same file.
Should I write something about the mix in the submission thread? I must of missed that part of the rules, plz excuse me.

On quick turnaround, it was sunday and I was bored :D. It helps to use a monitoring EQ most of the time, emphasize the bass and less treble. I bypass it to reference and listen for artifacts, but it is mostly on while mixing.

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Yes, a little bit of writing about the mix would be nice - again, this is stuff to debate for the "gossip" thread.

Else, thanks for the MP3 upload. I made that a bit more clear in the official rules/submission thread.
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Double Post, but we just got a new donor: Camel Audio.

I just updated the main submission thread with further info. I take it that the donation is "until further notice", just like the donations by JRR Shop/Sonivox.



Now we only have to clear how we split up the donations. One getting "everything" is kind of unfair. The first three places would be more appropriate (if there are enough participants), but then it's the question... if the 1st place wants (for example) a Sonivox module, and the second winner as well... how should we handle that?

Personally I'd love to see people like Melda Production on there, ToneBoosters, etc. Those companies that are mostly overlooked, not the usual suspects that are like "you know what - we give it away anyway, so... yeah".

Either way... thanks for the efforts, satYatunes. Definitely appreciated.


I'm curious how much entries we will get in the end. The deadline is the 22nd June (midnight to 23rd). So we still have a couple of days until then. :tu:
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kbaccki wrote: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! :tu:
I'm just glad it's such a good song. It was a pleasure to mix and I caught myself singing it in my head several times afterwards. :)

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Compyfox wrote: Now we only have to clear how we split up the donations. One getting "everything" is kind of unfair. The first three places would be more appropriate (if there are enough participants), but then it's the question... if the 1st place wants (for example) a Sonivox module, and the second winner as well... how should we handle that?
To split up the donation we should go by top down. First place gets to pick first, second place picks from the remaining prizes and so on so forth
Compyfox wrote: Personally I'd love to see people like Melda Production on there, ToneBoosters, etc. Those companies that are mostly overlooked, not the usual suspects that are like "you know what - we give it away anyway, so... yeah".
I have e-mailed Vojtech (Melda), but they are on vacation so haven't received a response. Tone2 also donated two FX plugins. I have posted details in the competition thread.
Compyfox wrote: Either way... thanks for the efforts, satYatunes. Definitely appreciated.
I like this idea, I don't want it to die down like mastering challenge we had some time ago. So just doing my bits to keep it alive.
Compyfox wrote: I'm curious how much entries we will get in the end. The deadline is the 22nd June (midnight to 23rd). So we still have a couple of days until then. :tu:
One is already in :-). I am expecting somewhere between 15-20. Time is short though. I want to join this myself have to find some time. Lets see how it goes.

If people just submit their final track without sharing the story behind it like how they approached it, what techniques they used, which plugins they used and why, blah blah blah.. then it's going to defeat the purpose.
satYatunes - Sound and Graphic Designer
Beautiful UI and skins for VST plugins.
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Uncle E wrote:I'm just glad it's such a good song. It was a pleasure to mix and I caught myself singing it in my head several times afterwards. :)
Definitely looking forward to your mix. Keep in mind... you can submit, but not vote as headmaster.


Actually... I think voting should not(!) be limited to the participants. Unless it turns into a "please vote for me" outside of the competition. We still have a couple of weeks to set some rules for that.



satYatunes wrote:To split up the donation we should go by top down. First place gets to pick first, second place picks from the remaining prizes and so on so forth
This might be a start. But what if (for example) the second place is like "but I wanted it, now I won't take anything because the rest doesn't interest me"...

It's a bit of a new topic for me. Most of the times I joined competitions for either for fun and honor ([/turns off the echo]), or there was something different at stake (like a CD release).

satYatunes wrote:I have e-mailed Vojtech (Melda), but they are on vacation so haven't received a response. Tone2 also donated two FX plugins. I have posted details in the competition thread.
I updated that.
Just for clarification (both directed at Eric and you)

- Sonivox sponsors either one of the plugins to the winner(s) until further notice?
- Camel Audio sponsors either one of the plugins to the winner(s) until further notice?
- Tone2 is the only company that sponsors two(!) plugins to the winner until further notice? We should make that somewhat clear.

Another thing to clear would be... How can the winners claim their prices? Contact the company and be like "hey, I'm the winner of MC. I'd like to get this plugin"?


satYatunes wrote:I like this idea, I don't want it to die down like mastering challenge we had some time ago. So just doing my bits to keep it alive.
:tu:


satYatunes wrote:One is already in :-). I am expecting somewhere between 15-20. Time is short though. I want to join this myself have to find some time. Lets see how it goes.
I think the time will always be short. 2 weeks max is a realistic time. Of course we can extend that period and let stuff run in parallel (like: 1 month mixing, one month voting - while the voting is taking place, the next mix competition is running).

But I speak up for a streamlined, short competition. This way we have 2 weeks of work, 2 weeks of voting and taking a break. Keep in mind, the current OSC's and SWC's also overlap with the MC!

satYatunes wrote:If people just submit their final track without sharing the story behind it like how they approached it, what techniques they used, which plugins they used and why, blah blah blah.. then it's going to defeat the purpose.
Agreed.

At least mention how much time you put into it, what your main focus was, maybe 2-3 essential plugins or suites, or if you used "host bundled stuff only" - point that out. Mention the highlights! If you're the winner, you can still go far out on this.
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Compyfox wrote:This might be a start. But what if (for example) the second place is like "but I wanted it, now I won't take anything because the rest doesn't interest me"...
As long as everyone knows from the beginning that first place gets first pick, they'll hopefully not be too hurt if their favorite plugin gets picked. If I win anything, I'll do a Facebook giveaway for it because I'm doing this for fun and learning, not for free stuff.
- Sonivox sponsors either one of the plugins to the winner(s) until further notice?
JRR is giving this away, not SONiVOX. We can give away 2 of our new Harmor libraries, as well, but maybe that's not so interesting since this is a mix contest?

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Then I'm sure to make that clear in the submission thread regarding the sponsoring.
Is this ongoing until you say "this month, we sponsor something else"?

The libraries would indeed make more sense to be sponsored for the SWC or OSC.

Thanks Eric.



EDIT:
Come to think of it, and on taking a closer looks - the Sonivox plugins are mainly instruments. Not FX. Though PULSE definitely caught my attention. At it's current price at your place, it's a huge(!) competition to One Small Clue's POISE.
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Compyfox wrote: Actually... I think voting should not(!) be limited to the participants. Unless it turns into a "please vote for me" outside of the competition. We still have a couple of weeks to set some rules for that.
I agree it shouldn't be limited to only participants but we should have a rule around it. A voter should have 20-30 posts in KVR prior to voting or is a participant. This is to make sure that one is not creating IDs to just vote in this contest.
Compyfox wrote:
satYatunes wrote:To split up the donation we should go by top down. First place gets to pick first, second place picks from the remaining prizes and so on so forth
This might be a start. But what if (for example) the second place is like "but I wanted it, now I won't take anything because the rest doesn't interest me"...

It's a bit of a new topic for me. Most of the times I joined competitions for either for fun and honor ([/turns off the echo]), or there was something different at stake (like a CD release).
If someone doesn't want a prize then it will flow to the next person. This is how it's done in songwriting contest also OSC. Personally I think it's fair.
Compyfox wrote: Just for clarification (both directed at Eric and you)
- Sonivox sponsors either one of the plugins to the winner(s) until further notice?
- Camel Audio sponsors either one of the plugins to the winner(s) until further notice?
- Tone2 is the only company that sponsors two(!) plugins to the winner until further notice? We should make that somewhat clear.
Camel Audio - Either one
Tone2 - Two plugins
Compyfox wrote: Another thing to clear would be... How can the winners claim their prices? Contact the company and be like "hey, I'm the winner of MC. I'd like to get this plugin"?
We will contact the sponsor, for example, I will contact Camel Audio and Tone 2 with further details of the winner. Winners are not aloud to go to sponsors directly. Please add it to the rules if it's not already there.
Compyfox wrote: I think the time will always be short. 2 weeks max is a realistic time. Of course we can extend that period and let stuff run in parallel (like: 1 month mixing, one month voting - while the voting is taking place, the next mix competition is running).

But I speak up for a streamlined, short competition. This way we have 2 weeks of work, 2 weeks of voting and taking a break. Keep in mind, the current OSC's and SWC's also overlap with the MC!
I would suggest we keep within a month, only exception is current month as it kicked off little late. Otherwise 3 weeks for mixing and last week for voting then on 1st of the month we announce the winners and the challenge for the next month.
satYatunes - Sound and Graphic Designer
Beautiful UI and skins for VST plugins.
Website | Portfolio

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Compyfox wrote:
Uncle E wrote:I'm just glad it's such a good song. It was a pleasure to mix and I caught myself singing it in my head several times afterwards. :)
Definitely looking forward to your mix. Keep in mind... you can submit, but not vote as headmaster.
Eric please submit the track. It will keep the momentum going. Secondly, the main purpose is to share the technique and story behind it, I guess everyone will find it helpful. It may also open up ideas for others who are at the verge of start. You can throw in some advice for those who are new as well.

Quick q, we are not allowing multiple entries from the same participant, are we? I wouldn't encourage multiple entries.
satYatunes - Sound and Graphic Designer
Beautiful UI and skins for VST plugins.
Website | Portfolio

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Compyfox wrote:Then I'm sure to make that clear in the submission thread regarding the sponsoring.
Is this ongoing until you say "this month, we sponsor something else"?
The two sponsors I'm talking with want to see some metrics. If they see 100+ entrants, they'll probably want to sponsor future challenges. If they see less than a dozen, I imagine they'll probably pass.

Does anyone know if I can announce the challenge and these sponsors in the KVR News section? The appeal for them is the marketing so anything more we can provide will be good motivation for them.

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Got it, so Tone2 gives away a bundle (interesting), while all other companies offer one of the available tools.

What about second and third place? Can they take what's left? How is that handled through OSC?



No, we're not allowing multiple entries. In case of camsr, he forgot the MP3 file.

I try to make the rules a bit more clear in terms of winning once we got the main questions cleared. I think one person should globally take care of handling the won licenses: meaning either the headmaster, or a second-in-command of the competition. I basically set up the rules only and started the first threads. So I'd like to keep it a bit low in the future.


Regarding submitting a track... I'm currently distracted a bit, but get me a couple of days, then I'm sure to join.




Sorry, can't help you with the news system, Eric.
So far, there were never any competition mentioned in there. The only way I can think of in terms of promotion, might be through Bedroom Producer Blog (BPB).

But... handling over 100 entrants/submissions will be a nightmare to sort and vote! This would clearly break our set timelines, and our personal spare time for this.
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satYatunes wrote:Eric please submit the track. It will keep the momentum going. Secondly, the main purpose is to share the technique and story behind it, I guess everyone will find it helpful. It may also open up ideas for others who are at the verge of start. You can throw in some advice for those who are new as well.
Soon. I still need to do a listen with fresh ears per the guidelines. :)

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