KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:41 am

Hello and welcome to the KVR Mix Challenge 11 - June 2015.

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.

Please take note that as of MC10, we will now be more strict regarding the rules. The submission period will not exceed 21 days anymore. Unless there is a very special reason for an extension. So please have an eye on your schedule.

We also highly recommend to sign up to our official Twitter account to stay up to date regarding news. Though we will try to answer short questions as well of course. The Gossip Thread also is barely in use anymore, so we plan to un-pin that one in the near future. Though if there are general questions, we will try to answer them of course.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KVRMixChallenge
Hashtag: #kvrmixchallenge

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: End of Round 1
Mix Round 2: Song Evaluation, Beginning of Round 2
Results of the Mix Challenge 11: Winners announced

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:41 am

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Monday, 01st June 2015 to Sunday, 21st June 2015 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-06-2015, 11:59pm PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) - until further notice. 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: 3ee (KVR Profile)
Song Name and Length: Drop that Ego, 5:43 Min
Song Information: 123bpm, 4/4, in Key of G min
File Format: WAV, 44kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Deep Garage House

Preview of the Song:
https://soundcloud.com/3eesounddesign/3ee-drop-that-ego

A word from the song provider (edited):

3ee wrote:This song was produced for a music production competition organized by Wave Alchemy where a -selection- sample pack was provided and participants had to use at least a number of samples.

I tried to use as many samples and except the sub drone bass part present in the break/bridge, all samples used are Wave Alchemy!

Went for a Garage House vibe but ended up with a blend of deep and somewhat-progressive also.

A good mix would be one that features all the elements with clarity, punchy and tight or solid bottom end which isn't exaggerated. Don't forget to hook up some side-chain compression to help you highlight the kick's punch a bit...

Not sure what reference song to give you beside the original mix, maybe this one?

https://youtu.be/ugJQEmxMRV4

Don't take it too literally, just take the overall sound and levels into account to some degree.

RULES:
Focus on mixing, no replacements, all tracks need to be featured

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Compyfox) wrote:There is not really much to say for this particular challenge. Other than if you're not familiar with this genre, I do recommend to take a look at the following video game soundtracks:

- Wipeout 2097 (1996)
until
- Wipeout HD & Fury (2009)

Another soundtrack I can recommend, is:
- Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body, Co. (1997)

They do cover a lot of styles of the Garage/House genre, on the lines of "late 90ies". And such mixes can rage from being dry, to very spacious and delay heavy. To me, these soundtracks are the citadel of this genre (no wonder, a lot of famous EDM artists / forerunners are among those projects)

All we can give you on the way - be creative and have fun.

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:
- Focus on mixing
- No rearrangement of the song structure (all tracks need to be featured)
- No omission of any track/no muting/deletion of channels other than to cut noise or using a custom reverb
- no drum replacement
- try to not(!) pre-master the track

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Source Files:

Mirror by the Song Provider (592MB, LZMA compressed - Google Drive)
Mirror on Studio Compyfox (592MB, LZMA compressed)

The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 1470 MB, packed 592 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!

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:47 pm

Good luck everyone!

Might also do a mix just for fun.

mixedmind · Post by **mixedmind** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:29 pm

is the "Wood Loops" ok? it is 1.3GB. The rest of the tracks are 88MB.

cheers,
mixed.mind

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:14 pm

^ strange, it's the same as every other track on my system: 88,741 KB

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:15 pm

Are you sure the file downloaded correctly?
Did you use 7zip to extract the files?

I just downloaded the source files from my server again (just to be really sure) and checked the files. No errors, no wrong filesize. On Windows 7, they should show up as 90MB (86MB if you use right mouse-click and "properties").

Depending on the used file browser and HDD cluster size, the "size" readout can vary. But you also got a confirmation by 3ee now.

mixedmind · Post by **mixedmind** » Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:29 am

ha ... weird. I downloaded it again from Google Drive and this time the "Wood Loops" looks ok. Don't know what happened. Should be ok for now. thx.

photonic · Post by **photonic** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 10:22 am

Hi all,

My thanx to 3ee to offer this nice track for mixing. I am not familiar with this genre, so it is something to learn for me.
Just loaded the project and did a rough volume mix. It is allready sounding good without doing anything else.
So this is a tough challenge to add some ideas and creativity instead of making it sounding good.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 10:53 am

I do recommend to read the comments above among "a word by the Mix Challenge Staff".

All of the listed albums can be found on YouTube as well. This should get you started.

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:51 pm

photonic wrote:Hi all,

My thanx to 3ee to offer this nice track for mixing. I am not familiar with this genre, so it is something to learn for me.
Just loaded the project and did a rough volume mix. It is allready sounding good without doing anything else.
So this is a tough challenge to add some ideas and creativity instead of making it sounding good.

Thanks!

about adding "ideas and creativity instead of making it sound good"

You will find that in most cases, clients won't want the engineer messing too much with the sound as they usually spend a good amount of time tine-tuning tones and if the end result sounds too -different- then it sounds -wrong-

Any creative direction is meant to be as conservative as possible.

If you have anything creative in mind and think it works, be my guest and feel free to try it, these contest are suppose to be fun!

(you can get a bit more creative with reverbs and delays and what-not within the break/bridge part)

...but if this were to be a real-world scenario... than, I as a client, would have wanted the track to basically be as intact as I left it expecting the mix engineer to add his/her knowledge on top of what is already there.

photonic · Post by **photonic** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 3:01 pm

3ee wrote:
...but if this were to be a real-world scenario... than, I as a client, would have wanted the track to basically be as intact as I left it expecting the mix engineer to add his/her knowledge on top of what is already there.

OK, understood!

camsr · Post by **camsr** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:31 pm

I have changed the hats a bit to sound less PWMish and more natural, hopefull you'll like it.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:44 pm

Via sample replacement or transient designers and/or EQ?

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Fri Jun 05, 2015 2:19 pm

camsr wrote:I have changed the hats a bit to sound less PWMish and more natural, hopefull you'll like it.

hopefully it's not sample replacement, curious what you did!

tip for those who need extra layers: use pitch shifter sends (I use Waves Doubler with the -1 oct switch or Uhbik-G)

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:36 pm

Can we please focus on the tracks that are "available" rather than creating new layers?!

Mix Challenge - no rearrangement challenge.

KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC11 June 2015 - winners announced