KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:30 pm

Hello and welcome to the KVR Mix Challenge 09 - April 2015 - after over a month of hiatus.

This is the introduction post, where we link directly to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the evaluation process 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
End of the first mix round: Song Evaluation
Mix Round 2: canceled
Results of the Mix Challenge 09: Feedback, Results and Winners announced

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:31 pm

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Tuesday, 14th April 2015 to Tuesday, 5th May 2015 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 05-05-2015, 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: Paul Stevenson ( PStevenson )
Song Name and Length: Near Maine, 3:38 Min
Song Information: 140bpm, 4/4, in Key of F major
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Alternative Rock

Preview of the Song:
https://soundcloud.com/pstevenson/throu ... near-maine

A word from the song provider:

Paul Stevenson wrote:The song is called Near Maine and is in the key of F major, the BPM is 140. The focus of the song are the words - the words are about a nuclear apocalypse occurring.

RULES: nothing is forbidden. be as creative as possible.

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff wrote:This song can go several routes. Either modern "pop/rock-ish" (as with the Song Demo), or depressive with even more focus on the vocals and acoustic parts.

Whatever route you'd like to go, our recommendation is to heavily process the drums to get a more modern "(US) Punk Rock" and "(US) Alternative Rock" sound from mid/late 1990ies to mid 2000s

Please try to refrain from using drum triggering. It is possible to shape the overall sound of the drum set by being creative with EQ and compression. On that behalf, we also recommend to utilize a Gate or (more suitable) Expander to tame the toms. Else, it should be a straight forward modern mix. There is really no need to utilize "dub" effects or going uber-crazy with modulation effects.

Please take note of the demo mix, and then go from there with your own mixing style and opinion on how the mix should sound.

Please also consult the TXT files that are bundled in the source files package below. There you can find more information about the individual files and changes to the time signature.

Special Add-On Rules:
- No rearrangement of the song structure
- No omission of any track/no muting/deletion of channels other than to cut noise or using a custom reverb
- no drum replacement (the drumset is great to work with, the "Drums Master FX" channel is a guide track)
- try to not(!) pre-master the track

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Source Files:

Mirror on Studio Compyfox (395MB, LZMA compressed)

The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 1930 MB, packed 395 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 OT 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.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.

Acon Digital is kind enough give away a single plugin of winner's choice.
More info on Acon Digital: http://acondigital.de

IK Multimedia is kind enough to donate any one plugin of their T-Racks Singles range. 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/

Tone2 is kind enough to donate either a bundle consisting of AkustiX Enhancer and WarmVerb, or a license of Ultraspace 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/

Sound and Graphic, KVR user and Mix Challenge staff Satyatunes is donating one commercial product of winner's choice (until further notice)
More info on Satyatune's page: http://www.satyatunes.com/

THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors 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.

Also, please spread the word of the challenge. We now have a dedicated Twitter Account:
https://twitter.com/KVRMixChallenge

You can also still use the hashtag #kvrmixchallenge

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

Stonecutter · Post by **Stonecutter** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 9:18 pm

Looking forwards to this. Both of the snare tracks are silent for me though.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:00 am

Are you sure? I checked the files before uploading. The files are consolidated (meaning long silence). The first part doesnt have a snare, but a snare buzz.

Either way, if the files are really silent, I can't check them before Friday. I'll be at Frankfurt Musikmesse until then.

photonic · Post by **photonic** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 3:20 am

Hey, great to see that the MC continuous !

Question about the snare buzz: the WAV-file is incredible silent. Should this sound be audible in the mix or can we cancle this track, even it would be against the "Special Add-On Rules"?

Stonecutter · Post by **Stonecutter** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 6:40 am

Compyfox wrote:Are you sure? I checked the files before uploading. The files are consolidated (meaning long silence). The first part doesnt have a snare, but a snare buzz.

Either way, if the files are really silent, I can't check them before Friday. I'll be at Frankfurt Musikmesse until then.

No I am Not.

I just checked on the computer I downloaded from and the snare is there. I could swear that both tracks were dead silent on my mix computer. My mistake

, really sorry. Happy to have some snare buzz.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 8:56 am

Stonecutter wrote:I just checked on the computer I downloaded from and the snare is there. I could swear that both tracks were dead silent on my mix computer. My mistake , really sorry. Happy to have some snare buzz.

Things happen. The buzz responded to the tom and snare in the used Drum VI.

photonic wrote:Hey, great to see that the MC continuous !

We still need more and versatile content. Please get in touch with Eric or Satya.

photonic wrote:Question about the snare buzz: the WAV-file is incredible silent. Should this sound be audible in the mix or can we cancle this track, even it would be against the "Special Add-On Rules"?

Listen to the demo, use your instincts, it's a subtle effect for overall realism. What would you do in a modern mix?!

ThePresent · Post by **ThePresent** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:25 pm

I'm in, great song, I'll do my very best on this one.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:15 pm

Compyfox wrote:
photonic wrote:Question about the snare buzz: the WAV-file is incredible silent. Should this sound be audible in the mix or can we cancle this track, even it would be against the "Special Add-On Rules"?
Listen to the demo, use your instincts, it's a subtle effect for overall realism. What would you do in a modern mix?!

After thinking about the rules again (no mute/deletion - which comes form old MC's), I think a "noise gate" is still suitable if you think it does the trick to clean up tracks.

Fender19 · Post by **Fender19** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 8:12 am

Nice song, performance and arrangement. Sort of "Green Day-ish".

Demo mix is very good but I hear a few things I can adjust to improve it further (IMHO).

I'm looking forward to mixing these tracks!

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 10:58 am

Well, Green Day is (IMO) walking the lines of both Punk and Alternative Rock. Especially their "American Idiot" and "21st Century" albums. But (again IMO) this track also has a lot of influences from Bush's first album.

I am really curious how many people will go into a similar direction of Alternative Rock from the late 90ies.

satYatunes · Post by **satYatunes** » Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:04 am

Beautiful track. Love it.

I have launched my online store for soundsets and custom GUIs for vst plugins. Starting from this month, I am donating one commercial product of winner's choice until further notice. At the moment only one product is available - MayaBlue theme for Melda plugins. More products are scheduled to be released soon.

@Compy - Above banner is on it's way to you, please add it to the first post.

Stonecutter · Post by **Stonecutter** » Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:49 pm

.MP3
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/158 ... cutter.mp3

.WAV
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/158 ... cutter.wav

I guess I will set the bar here for better or worse.

Mixed in Tracktion 6. I tried to go for a vibe as opposed to a everything up-front modern mix. I wanted the vocals to be in the pocket and not too in your face. Some of my plugin highlights were NI VC-2A and MDynamicEQ on vocals. Lots of VintageVerb. VC-160 on most the drums. Satson on Everything. Elysia alpha on the 2-buss. I'd be happy to go into more detail, but it'll probably be a moot point once other people start posting better mixes.

Stonecutter · Post by **Stonecutter** » Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:55 pm

Sorry, double post.

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:54 am

cool song, I'm IN!

KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC09 April 2015 - CONCLUDED, Results are in