KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC06 November 2014 -Winners announced

[satYatunes]

Hello and welcome to the KVR Mix Challenge 06 - November 2014.

This is the introduction post, where we link directly to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the voting and maybe even the first post for resubmissions.

This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:

Submission Period - General Information, Source Files, Sponsors

First round results - First round results

Winners announced - Winners

[satYatunes]

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Saturday, 1st November 2014 to Friday, 21st November 2014 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-11-2014, 11:59pm PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) - if you want to find out when that is the case at your place, please use the following tool and and select "Los Angeles" as location 1, and your location as location 2:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html


Song Provider: Satya Choudhury aka satYatunes
Song Name and Length: Summer Rain, 4:06 Min
Song Information: 80 bpm, 4/4, D minor
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 16bit

GENRE: World Music, Lounge, Ethnic Fusion, New Age

Preview of the Song:
https://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a84719/ ... -traveller

It's the second song in the list. Sorry, it's not available on Soundcloud.

A word from the song provider:

satYatunes wrote: This is a very old track I wrote during my initial days of music making. It was probably in 2004-05. It shows 2011 on Jamendo cause that's when I added it to my profile. I used a lot of samples/loops around that time. I had limited plugins/equipments and knowledge so don't crib about the mixing quality . Even though mixing isn't great, I am still proud of the tracks that I wrote in those days. Also, I was hoping that a label will pick it up and will do mixing/mastering on their own for final release. Well, that didn't work out.

I know some samples are glitchy/flangy. Can't help it, they weren't even good to start with. Not to worry, you are allowed to replace the samples with your own especially windchime, thunder, rain cause they are very glitchy but please note that the sound has to be same just different sample.

Now to the expectation - I am happy with the arrangement of the track. It has a nice ambiance/feel to it that I don't wanna change. All I want is super clarity of all the sounds. Vocals and Shakuhachi flute are the main players of the track, so treat them with care and love . I am really excited to hear your mixes.

Thanks to my other two partners Eric and Roland (Compy) for selecting this track for this challenge. I am truly honored.

Special Add-On Rules:
- No rearrangement of the song structure
- Absolutely no drum replacement
- All acoustic instruments like Guitars, need to retain their sound/character
- Some sounds are allowed to be replaced - see word from song provider above


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Source Files:

Mirror on Studio Compyfox (61.5MB, LZMA compressed)


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 850 MB, packed 61.5 MB (ZIP, LZMA)
In order to extract the files, we can recommend these programs:

Macintosh:
The Unarchiver - get it here

Windows:
7zip - Installation, Portable


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Please take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
KVR Mix Challenge - Official Rules and Guidelines

Please address any question in the official Gossip thread:
KVR Mix Challenge - Gossip and Discussion


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SPONSORS (Prizes):

Prizes for mix participants:

Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.


IK Multimedia is kind enough to donate a license of one of their API Plugins. Winner's choice.
More info on IKM: http://www.ikmultimedia.com



Metric Halo will give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
More info about Metric Halo: http://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/



JRR Shop will give away either one of the following plugins:
SONiVOX Wobble, Pulse, Vocalizer, or Twist
More info about the plugins on SONiVOX: http://www.sonivoxmi.com
More info about the sponsor: http://www.jrrshop.com/



Camel Audio is kind enough to donate either Camel Space or CamelPhat to the winner.
More info on Camel Audio: http://www.camelaudio.com



Tone2 is kind enough to donate a bundle consisting of AkustiX Enhancer and WarmVerb to the winner.
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com



KVR user Karten (CEO of Ghostwave Audio) is kind enough to donate MixRight (a Reaktor Ensemble) to the winner (until further notice)
License won't turn into NFR, you need Native Instruments Reaktor 5.8+ for this
More info on Ghostwave Audio: http://ghostwaveaudio.com/


THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributor as well.

If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on mix plugins, bundles and the likes), please get in touch with the headmaster of the competition.


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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

[photonic]

Hello Satya,

Beautifull relaxing track! Will be a pleasure to out my hands on it.

[Uncle E]

IK Multimedia is sponsoring again, too!

[Fritze]

Nice One! This will be fun...

[Compyfox]

A word from the song provider:

satYatunes wrote:

...
I know some samples are glitchy/flangy. Can't help it, they weren't even good to start with. Not to worry, you are allowed to replace the samples with your own especially windchime, thunder, rain cause they are very glitchy. You can also replace percussion sounds if would like to (e.g. hihats, cymbal crash, reverse cymbal) but please note that the sound has to be same just different sample. Muting/unmuting of some sounds are allowed.

...

A personal comment on this:
I will not(!) touch the samples except for the Sound FX (rain and thunder) maybe. And even then, I am not sure. Because the music itself is perfect, only that the source material (thunder especially) is heavily glitched out. Which can be masked in the mix.

Everything else would count to me as remix and complete recreation of a song, which isn't 100% possible unless you have the very same samples that the client used, or put a lot of work into recreating the sound of the samples, and the loop (which is hard).


So to me, the following highlighted rules still apply:

Special Add-On Rules:
- No rearrangement of the song structure
- Absolutely no drum replacement
- All acoustic instruments like Guitars, need to retain their sound/character
- Some sounds are allowed to be replaced - see word from song provider above

[/quote]

To this would count:
- no new percussion samples
- no muting allowed (which would count as rearrangement)


Come to think of it - there is a track preview which can be downloaded.
People need to stick to those previews, but can add their own twist with EQ/Volume/Panning/Send FX usage.

This is not a limitation, this is a as guideline and you should work as well as you can with the limited material. Because this is what the KVR MC is all about: a challenge to work with every material that is being given to you.

So please keep that in mind!



Else, have fun and good luck.

[satYatunes]

^^^ Now after thinking for a while, I agree with your comment. We are trying to create an ideal scenario so allowing to replace lot of material defeats the purpose. I will allow only the FXs as they are very very glitchy. However, it's not mandatory, if one can get it to work by masking or whatnot then great.

I have updated the song provider section. No percussion replacement is allowed, only FX.

[3ee]

Cool, relaxing track and would be interesting to try and mix, will try to make time for it!

Cheers"
3ee

[camsr]

Is it okay to use heavy sound altering effects on the percussion?

[satYatunes]

Is it okay to use heavy sound altering effects on the percussion?

Nope. Sorry. All sounds should retain their original character. I am allowing FX sample change so that you guys can use a better sample as the original is glitchy. It is also limited to Rain, Thunder, and Windchime. If one can get best out of those glitchy samples then it would earn more points from me

[photonic]

Ok, here comes my mix of this nice relaxing tune. It was a real pleasure to mix it.

MP3: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/717 ... otonic.mp3
WAV: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/717 ... otonic.wav

No sounds have been replaced. All remains original.

Except Uhbik-A Reverb and Uhbik-D Delay all other tools are only freeware.
Second reverb is the TAL reverb III for an extreme wide and long stereo reverb, stereo widened with GStereo.

Beat – FluxBitterSweet to get more transients, TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 5dB at 70Hz and a 5 dB highshelve over 4kHz, ReaComp
Tabla – just a smaller room reverb
Crash rev – ReaEQ smooth highpass below 1kHz, boost 3.5dB at 8.5kHz, Reverb
Windchimes - ReaEQ highpass below 1kHz, boost 9dB at 4kHz, NastyDLA
Crash - ReaEQ smooth highpass below 1kHz, boost 3.5dB at 8.5kHz, Reverb

Bass – ReaEQ cut 5dB at 400Hz, boost 10dB at 800Hz.

Pads – Acon Multiply to add more chorus, ReaEQ cut 5dB at 400Hz and a 8 dB highshelve over 2kHz

Guitar 02 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 4dB at 670Hz and a 8 dB highshelve over 4.2kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA
Guitar 03 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 6dB at 440Hz and a 7 dB highshelve over 4.5kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA

Shaku01 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 5dB at 500Hz, boost 5dB at 3kHz and a 3dB highshelve over 4.5kHz, ReaComp, Reverb, NastyDLA
Shaku02 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 5dB at 450Hz, cut -5dB at 730Hz and a 4dB highshelve over 3kHz, ReaComp, NastyDLA
Shaku05 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 5dB at 430Hz, cut -6dB at 880Hz and a 3dB highshelve over 4.5kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA
Shaku03 - TDR VOS SlickEQ cut -3dB at 430Hz, cut -4dB at 880Hz and a 3dB highshelve over 4.5kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA
Shaku06 - Shaku01 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 5dB at 500Hz, boost 5dB at 3kHz and a 3 dB highshelve over 4.5kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA

Vox03 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 2dB at 330Hz, boost 3dB at 4kHz and a 7dB highshelve over 3kHz, ReaComp, Reverb
Vox06 - TDR VOS SlickEQ boost 10dB at 4kHz and a 10dB highshelve over 3kHz, ReaComp, Reverb, NastyDLA
Vox05 - TDR VOS SlickEQ cut -4dB at 300Hz, cut -7dB at 860Hz and a 3dB highshelve over 3kHz, Reverb
Vox outro - Acon Multiply to add more chorus, GStereo, TDR VOS SlickEQ cut -3dB at 1kHz and a 3dB highshelve over 3kHz, Reverb, NastyDLA

Summerrain – ReaEQ highpass at 100Hz
Thunder – ReaEQ boost 10dB at 70Hz, boost 5dB at 600Hz and smooth lowpass below 12kHz, Uhbik-D Delay to mask the glitchy thunder sound.

Stereo-Master:
MQ57 filter for final sound shaping
The Span Analyser

[PALU]

It's my first KVR MIX CHALLENGE - so I'm not sure if I did everything right If I did something wrong - please let me know.

Here are the links:

http://paluchowski.home.pl/Satya%20Chou ... lonykp.mp3
http://paluchowski.home.pl/Satya%20Chou ... lonykp.wav


What I've done (mixed in Reaper):

REVERB_BUSS
Valhalla Vintage Verb - Concert Hall with a 4s decay and a lots of modulation. Highpassed with GlissEQ.

BASS
- Manually created (via volume envelope) transients
- DC8C2 compressor - to tighten the bass
- GlissEQ - highpass at 40Hz, boost around 180Hz, highshelf
- SDRR - to give some tube drive to make the bass more pronounced
- MonoBass - to make sure it's in the middle

SHAKUHACHI
- made it all mono - I've found that there is something wrong with AFAIR the second Shakuhachi track in the stereo field department I've tried to repair it while maintaining the original stereo image, but was unsuccessful.
- ADT - to give it a consistent stereo feel that it had in the beginning
- GlissEQ - highpass, boost around 3,78KHz
- Nomad Factory Echoes - bypassed almost all the time, turned on only on the ends of the Shakuhachi phareses
- send to reverb bus (Valhalla Vintage Verb)
- some parts (I called them "ornaments") panned to the left

BEATLOOP
- manualy tamed some of the hits (the kickdrum and the snare mostly) via volume envelope
- ClipShifter - to delicatly tame the transients even more. They were still uneven.
- GlissEQ - highpass around 50Hz, cut around 3,51KHz (to control the snare), highshelf
- DC8C2 - to make the transients do what I want and for a little saturation
- Mongoose - to make the bass part mono
- ClipShifter - to control the volume and make it as even as I can (without any of the drums sticking out)
- everything sent to the reverb, automated the send volume to make the snare more reverbated


TABLA
- GlissEQ - highpass around 80Hz, highshelf
- panned it to the right a little bit
- StereoTool - made them wider in the stereo filed
- DC8C2 - compressed to get more body from the sound and for saturation

CRASH+REV CRASH
- sent to the reverb
- on the rev crash automated Nomad Factory Echoes in the "drop" to give it a nice tail

WINDCHIME
- StereoTool - made it very wide
- GlissEQ - cut in 860Hz and highshelfed to kill the highend sizzle
- SDRR - to saturate and to kill the highend sizzle even more
- Nomad Factory Echoes
- sent to the reverb

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
- treaded both tracks in one buss
- DC8C2 - to get more body
- GlissEQ - highpass around 100Hz, highshelf
- StereoTool - to make it a little bit wider
- ValhallaVintageVerb - as an insert - used as an effect in the end of the song and a little bit throughout the song. The same settings as the main reverb.

VOCALS MAIN
- divided vocals into main and background ones
- DC8C2 - to make the vocals even
- SDRR - to saturate them
- bx_solo - the make them mono
- Nomad Factory Echoes - only in the ends of the phrases
- there was one part of the vocals (the second verse AFAIR) that sounded different then the rest - I've used GlissEQ to make it sound more similarV to the rest
- sent to the reverb

VOCALS BG
- StereoTool - made them wide
- GlissEQ - highpass around 100Hz, highshelf
- sent to the reverb

PADS
- StereoTool - made them wider
- GlissEQ - highpassed (50Hz), mega boost around 2,3KHz and highshelf boost
- SDRR - to give it more life

RAIN & THUNDER
- replaced samples
- thunder sent to reverb

MASTER_BUSS
- Polysquasher and Elephant - touching the material a little bit both

Used Slate VCC on all channels and the master bus.

I'm very curious what you guys and gals think about it

[Fritze]

I'm very curious what you guys and gals think about it

I like this mix a lot! Thanx.

[clepsydrae]

[delete this]

[PALU]

I'm very curious what you guys and gals think about it

I like this mix a lot! Thanx.

Thanks. There is always some room for correction - as I understand I can make some changes before the deadline?