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

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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Headphone wrote: Maybe someone likes my mix … :shrug:
I like it but more as a remix rather than mix of the original. Some main elements are buried in the mix, and you have clearly explained the reason for the same. I would give full marks to your excellent sound design, you have created the ambiance that's really matches the theme you have mentioned. You have put an extra effort on the sound design part which is not a bad thing but IMHO all the elements in the track didn't warrant similar FX treatment. I cannot differentiate one sound to another. You could have been bit more creative. Bitcrusher on percs is okay but there is a very annoying sound coming out of left speaker, I think it's the brush sound or reverb spill, not sure. Reverb is overused, I understand it was needed for creating the ambiance, but again not on every element. All the best.
satYatunes - Sound and Graphic Designer
Beautiful UI and skins for VST plugins.
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satYatunes wrote:Why did you do that :(. That's the lead part. I explained it in another post earlier. You might have missed it.
From now on, in the first post we should probably lay out what elements the artist wants brought out the most, which is what would happen in a real session. It seems that several of us thought the piano was a background object.

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Why can not the voting take place?

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Technical difficulties.
We're working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Alright. I'm looking forward to it.

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mwaudioprod wrote:Why can not the voting take place?
I'm sorry, the delay is my fault. My wife had an emergency and I put everything on hold for the past 2 days, including uploading the audio files for voting. Everything is sorted now and we'll begin voting soon.

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You can now give objective feedback to the entrants.
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Here is my very quick and very subjectively feedback.
1. Photonic: Very good Mix. I like your Drumsound.
2. 3ee: Good Mix but the kick is missing in the intro.
3. Doc Jon: Good Mix. Nice Arp-Bass Sound.
4. Studio Compyfox: Good Mix but too dry.
5. Yeager: Good Mix but Piano is too quiet.
6. shroom feverish: Good Mix but the piano is not mono-compatible.
7. Eric Uncle E Dahlberg: Good Mix but the Arp-Bass is not mono-compatible.
8. H-man: Good Mix but too much reverb and delay and too loud.
9. Wesleyt: Good Mix but even too much reverb and delay and too loud. No correct Mixname.
10. Headphone: Good Remix.

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mwaudioprod wrote:4. Studio Compyfox: Good Mix but too dry.
Thanks. I'll be my own worst judge however and expand on it.

I indeed have a too dry sound. Reason due to this is probably tired ears and last minute editing (which pisses me off as I'd have loved to have more time for mixing). Should I work on a revamp, I'll get that fixed for several instruments. Most notably the snare and the piano. Everything else has an IMO fairly great reverb level.

On that behalf - the Hihats, brushed snare and snared in general need a slightly different treatment/mix balance at least. I noticed that a lot of users had a focus on the lower pitched snare, or actually pitched the sound (that is at least my impression!). I am also not happy how the hihat interferes with the brushed snare after listening to it after a couple of days. Maybe it's due to the parallel processing I used.

Personally I also noticed a lack of lowend frequencies. Especially compared to all other tracks. Now this might be due to the fact that I low cut pretty much everything but the kick to make space for everything else, but still.

These are mainly the things that stick out to me the most. Others might think different of course.

Summed up:
This might sound harsh, but compared to all other entries, my entry sounds like a very cheap 90ies RPG soundtrack. I funked up somewhere and didn't realize it until after I submitted the track.




Regarding the other entries:

I also like Headphone's interpretation. Though it's not technically a mix - it's indeed a remix (as in form of: new track) due to the intensive FX usage. Though I like the slightly wobbling and reverb drenched beat section.
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You all are good. I thought my mix was great until I heard yours. Each has something very nice about it. I learned a lot just listening to your mixes in preparation for voting.

Here are my notes on each mix. Please let me know if you'd like more detail.

3ee
nice mix
piano lead is a little thin

Doc_Jon
piano attack is lost in reverb
bass is thin

Eric_Uncle-E_Dahlberg
reinterpretation of the piano is interesting
phase issues

H-man
very nice mix
distortion sounds rather noisy in the first few moments
nice delay/reverb on the lead
strings sound really nice
hats may be a bit too far forward, but I rater like them that way
phase issues

Headphone
a nice remix

No_Use
very nice mix
hats may be a bit bright
gorgeous bass sound
phase issues

Photonic
pleasant mix
piano attack smushed

shroom_feverish
good mix
piano lead doesn't stand out as it should IMHO
phase issues

Studio_Compyfox
very nice mix
plucks need more space
piano needs more space
percussion sounds very good
snare could use more body

Yeager
piano sits too far in the background

mwaudioprod
piano kinda lost in background during chorus
sound effects and plucks are mushed up in background
lacks definition overall

wesleyt
good mix
hats are kinda mushy
snare lacks body
percussion lacks crispness
kick lacks definition
bass is too wide - lacks definition
Seasoned IT vet, Mac user, and lover of music. Always learning.

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The volume normalization is very good compyfox. It made it much more enjoyable to sit back and relax and listen to everyone's entries.

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camsr wrote:The volume normalization is very good compyfox. It made it much more enjoyable to sit back and relax and listen to everyone's entries.
Agreed; thank you very much for that!

BTW, mine was louder because I accidentally turned in my quick master, which I use for mix checking in my car etc. I apologize for that, and will not make that mistake again.
Seasoned IT vet, Mac user, and lover of music. Always learning.

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wesleyt wrote: Studio_Compyfox
very nice mix
plucks need more space
piano needs more space
percussion sounds very good
snare could use more body
Could you please elaborate a bit more on that?

Do you mean by "needs more space" to add more reverb/delay?
Piano is a different story, but I cut the pads fairly high and molded them to complement each other to be honest.

Just so that we're on the same page.

camsr wrote:The volume normalization is very good compyfox. It made it much more enjoyable to sit back and relax and listen to everyone's entries.
Good to hear. So I guess it will be some extra work on our side from now on to Loudness Normalize the entries prior to uploading the bundle to SoundCloud.



It also makes me happy to read that you learned something new in the process. We'd definitely love to hear more stories like that.
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Thirst let me say thank you for the comments to my mix so far. :wink:

OK, I also made some notes while listening to the mixes. Please take it as a very subjectively feedback. Generally I can agree with most of the statements from mwaudioprod. So my comments are close to his ones.

1. mwaudioprod: Very balanced mix, only Kick and maybe ArpBass a bit to dominant.
2. 3ee: Good Mix, a bit muffled sound.
3. Doc Jon: extrem stereo, especially the melody Piano, too less bass in Kick and ArpBass
4. Studio Compyfox: well balanced, but too dry. Offbeat hihats are too loud for me.
5. Yeager: Piano is too quiet, drums too loud, distortion is often audible.
6. shroom feverish: well balanced but the Piano is not mono-compatible, the delay of the Chord Piano is too dominant.
7. Eric Uncle E Dahlberg: Phasing Problems! Arp-Bass and Chord Piano are not mono-compatible.
8. H-man: too much reverb and delay, pumping audible
9. Wesleyt: too much delay! Drums too much reverb, does not fit to one piece with the melody.
10. Headphone: Very creative Remix. Extreme Stereo!
11. No-Use: well balanced but both pianos are not mono-compatible enough. They are louder in the side channel.

Is an extreme wide stereo sound really so important? :o
If so, one has to check always if the mix is still compatible to mono. I always have a tool in my master channel where I can switch to mono or to invert one channel to check this.
soundcloud.com/photonic-1

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Whether or not mono compatibility is still a thing in modern days, is definitely a good question.

A lot listeners use headphones (smartphones, iPod/MP3 player, tablets), radio is the second next medium and actually the only that still needs intensive mono compatibility checks. The TV got pretty much overrun by internet streaming services. Though TV stations do stereo field corrections.


It's an age long question. Sadly there is no ultimate right/wrong anymore. Other than "at least check if the phase is flipped upside down!".
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