KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:52 pm

Hello and welcome to the KVR Mix Challenge 20 - April 2016

This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (source files, submission information, sponsors), start of the evaluation process and the first post for re-submissions for Mix Round 2.

Please raise your glasses for the 20th Mix Challenge!

This month's track has been long in the queue, since last "Rocktober" to be precise, and I am more than happy to finally unleash it. We're now delving into Psychedelic Rock / Classic Rock with a heavy 60ies/70ies vibe, kindly provided by erictracks.

Please take note of the following

as of MC17, the rule set has been overhauled/simplified - please take note of them in the Rules and Guidelines thread.
as you're probably noticed, the Mix Challenge sports a bit of a face lift. We now go by the name "Mix Challenge" only, the Twitter account name (Twitter handle) changed to just @MixChallenge as well
a newsletter will be available in the imminent future (we'll inform you separately), it's planned to be sent out bi-monthly

Also Important:

We're desperately looking for new source material for future Mix Challenges. Our pool is in constant fear of running dry. Please follow our official campaign for this in the Music Cafe. No new tracks, no more challenges!
Please also spread the word on your preferred social media platform. Our Twitter Account is already a good start

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
Mix Round 2: Global Feedback and Round 2 Participant Announcement
Results of the Mix Challenge 20: Winners announced

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:53 pm

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Friday, 01st April 2016 to Thursday, 21st April 2016 (21 days)

Challenge submission will end on 21-04-2016, 11:59pm CEST/GMT+1 (Germany) - 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 "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html

Song Provider: erictracks (KVR Profile)
Song Name and Length: All We Ever Were, 4:17min
Song Information: 75 bpm, time signature 4/4, in G major (according to Hornet SongKey)
File Format: WAV, 48kHz, 24bit

GENRE: Psychedelic Rock / Classic Rock

Preview of the Song:
http://www.erictracks.com/2014/12/25/tr ... ever-were/

erictracks wrote:A word from the song provider:

I’m thinking 70s heaviness. Emphasis on the verse's droning G contrasting with the lighter choruses. Creative processing ideas for the piano and organ. Vintage plates and tape delays for depth.

For general inspiration, see:
Led Zep's 'In the Light’. Pink Floyd's 'Fearless'.

That said, I submitted this track because I want it mixed to your taste. I've purposely left just about everything unprocessed. My demo mix obviously provides one example, but try not to reference it too much.

RULES:
It is not mandatory, but I encourage the mute button. Don’t remove entire tracks, but you do not need to use every second of every track. In fact, it's a bit of a mess with everything up the entire time. Have parts appear at appropriate (or surprising) moments. Or leave space early, and build up the sound over time. It is not a remix contest, though, so the song should be easily recognizable when you’re done.

You can also edit and move the Percussion tracks to your taste, if you wish (the edits themselves will not be judged). Ear candy effects are encouraged, but not obligatory.

Please do not add/move/replace anything else.

I’d also like to see a fade out. The final chorus measures have no vocals and a mellow guitar solo going on, perfect for a gentle fade that makes the party sound like it goes on forever.

I’ll primarily judge on levels, balance, and tonality, and how they serve your mix direction, and secondarily on creative mix decisions.

DISCLAIMER:

The vocals:
I know. They’ll probably need some help. Bury them if you must; we’re going for a 70s sound here anyway.

Bass:
Has been DI'd

A few words by the Mix Challenge staff:

Staff (Compyfox) wrote:I can't give and further recommendations (in this case, see "words" above) other
than listening to rock music from both the 60s and 70ies. As usual, Youtube might be of help.

As mentioned before, you can be creative in terms of the mix. This can go modern pop, this can go full on vintage (tapes and tubes). There are no further rules on that behalf.

If you want to mute tracks, please don't overdo it. This track sounds "old" on purpose.

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:

try to create a mix that complements this production (in your own style)
No rearrangement of the song structure, other than maybe the hand percussion
muting is encouraged, but only if used sparingly to "clean up parts" (no remixing/rearrangement challenge) - if you're unsure, don't do it!
creating a fade out effect is mandatory
try to not(!) pre-master the track (please no overuse of mix bus treatment)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source Files:

Main Mix Package - Mirror on Studio Compyfox (456,26MB, LZMA compressed)

The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression.
File size extracted: 1745 MB, packed 456,26 MB (ZIP, LZMA)
In order to extract the files, we can recommend these programs:

Macintosh:
The Unarchiver - get it here

Windows:
7zip - Installation, Portable

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
License will turn into NFR
More info on Acon Digital: http://acondigital.de

Ghostwave Audio (KVR User Karten) 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/

JRR Shop will give away a free copy of Audiffex/Audified STA Preamp (until further notice)
More info about the plugins on Audiffex (now known as Audified): http://shop.audified.com/
More info about the sponsor: http://www.jrrshop.com/

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

Nyrv Systems offers AGENT incl. all currently available NyrvDevices and free update to at least v1.5 of winner's choice (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info about Nyrv Systems: http://www.nyrvsystems.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/

Tone2 is kind enough to donate either a bundle consisting of AkustiX Enhancer and WarmVerb, or a license of Ultraspace to the winner (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com

Two Notes Audio Engineering is kind enough to donate one license of Torpedo Wall of Sound III to the winner, loaded with 57 cabinets (equivalent to "Torpedo WoS II") (donation until Q3 2016)
License will not turn into NFR
More info on Two Notes: http://www.two-notes.com/en/

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 Mix Challenge staff.

Did you know that there are even more contests / competitions / challenges here on KVR Audio?

One Synth Challenge (see stickies) - a demanding game where you have to use "one synth only", tweak it to your needs and write song with it (the OSC offered us a lot of songs in recent months!)
Music Cafe (KVR, see stickies) - A thematic monthly competition. Use recording, real instruments, synths and samples.

Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/MixChallenge

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Kolyev · Post by **Kolyev** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 4:44 pm

Nice track! This will be fun!

ykon28 · Post by **ykon28** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:32 pm

I really enjoyed mixing this song .

https://soundcloud.com/yannis-konstanti ... wn/s-HagtZ

photonic · Post by **photonic** » Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:42 am

Hi all,

This was fun to mix. A nice track and also an interessting challange, to make it sound not too modern.
So I tried to keep the drums very natural, not to much processing. The overall sound also has not much low and high end. It is more oriented to the mids.
All delays are tape delays from the U-he Satin tape emulation. And it was my first time where I could use the tape flanging FX that Satin is offering. This flanging is different to the common flanger FX. I hope you like this idea.

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

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Wed Apr 13, 2016 7:12 am

A friendly reminder:
You still have 8,5 days left to submit your mix.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:50 am

Ladies and Gentlemen - a friendly reminder:
You still have 1 week left to submit your mix.

Good luck

Ichad.c · Post by **Ichad.c** » Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:00 am

Cool track this month. Because of the genre I went for a LCR approach, simple eq, rooms/chambers/springs for the reverb. Did a slightly shorter/different fade-out, just couldn't let a good solo go to waste!

MP3
https://soundcloud.com/ichad-c/erictrac ... c20-ichadc

WAV
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0zqKT ... sp=sharing

Cheers
Andrew

M.O.R.K. · Post by **M.O.R.K.** » Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:35 pm

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I present thy mix:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

There is a wave and a mp3 version inside the folder. Let me know what you think

Aditya.inHim · Post by **Aditya.inHim** » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:05 pm

I am in again!

here is my quick and simple mix.. Try to hear the reference song and applied in my mix as I can and match it with reference, but still keep the original taste..

Mix in reaper, with my secret mix buss processing..
All tracks only get Eq-ed and some compressed only, my idea is mix in a console approach with little bit delay and console saturation in some points..

So, here is my mix

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/zs2 ... m.mp3?dl=0

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3d8 ... m.wav?dl=0

Please comment and build me up

persen71 · Post by **persen71** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:45 pm

Great song!

Here is the link to the wav-file on soundcloud of my mix:
https://soundcloud.com/erinaratle/erict ... inar-watle

I recide in Oslo and have been mixing for one year

This was very fun!

Here is the link to the mp3-version of the same mix:
https://soundcloud.com/erinaratle/erict ... -watle-mp3

Sincerely,
Per Einar Watle

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 10:33 pm

A friendly reminder:
48 hours left to submit your mix

Can we exceed 15 participants this month?

ThePresent · Post by **ThePresent** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:09 am

This was a very nice song to mix.
The requested fade out has been applied although I could make use of the isolated chords at the end of the song to make it a little different and mysterious, but that is just an option if the artist is interested.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkxt8ul7t4wqd ... t.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dal12qxsf54f3 ... t.wav?dl=0

kevin gobin · Post by **kevin gobin** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 6:02 pm

Hi!

I found this contest 3 days ago, so i did a fast job.
With more time i would have experimented more variations and special FXs, but let's play the game: i tried to make a fast and good job for my client.

I just used 1 delay and 2 reverbs so my work was just balance, EQ, FX routing and compression. I can explain in details if anyone asks.

I'm really pleased to discover Erictracks, i love his music.
This one was a pleasure to mix, except that the provided stems did not match his excellent reference track.

I'm also very pleased to meet the Mix Challenges!!!

Thanks for this one KVR, and good luck everybody!!!

Kevin.

https://soundcloud.com/kevin-gobin/eric ... evin-gobin

https://soundcloud.com/kevin-gobin/eric ... -gobin-mp3

lolilol1975 · Post by **lolilol1975** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 8:09 pm

Hiyaaaa,

Here is my submission for my first participation to the challenge.

https://soundcloud.com/inxlsisdeo/erict ... olilol1975

I don't know if the volume is correct, when I followed the rules (-16 dbFS), it was very low, much lower than everyone else. Organizers, if I need to resubmit at a lower level, please tell me.
Thank you to erictracks for this great track and to the organizers for the challenge, it was a lot of fun.

MIX CHALLENGE - MC20 April 2016 - Winners announced