KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC11 June 2015 - winners announced

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I didn't know KVR hosted a mixing competition until reading a post on Crowd Audio the other day. The more, the merrier! I don't see anything related to submitting a mix anywhere. Can anybody clue me in? I might not have anything ready in time to submit for MC11, but it looks like this is a monthly thing and I will definitely be wanting to participate.
Dave McIsaac

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Hey Dave, welcome! :)

Here are some info in the rules: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2&t=415154

But here's the short story:

Every month, there will be a thread with the edition number for contestants to post mix in, no mastering, keep levels below -3dbfs / -18db RMS? , post wav and mp3 within the thread as well as some info/story regarding what you did on your mix.

After deadline artist/client who offered the track for mixing will pick the winner or pick some finalists for round 2...
Winners (top3) then will pick prizes from a prize pool, 1st choosing 1st, 2nd choosing 2nd and so on...

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I dropped my ego for this!

like the others already mentioned it was an easy mix coz the samples were good. Just low-cut and hight-cut and done:
https://soundcloud.com/dilutedmind/3ee- ... nd/s-2QUCr


ok, ok ... it wasn't easy for me. I fought hard to get the kick and the bass right and groovy. I am not convinced I succeeded but at least I tried.

Please ask if you want details of the fight and plugins/technics I used.

cheers,
mixed.mind

ps: nice track

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http://www.speedyshare.com/g3A2V/kvr-mc11-camsr.mp3
24/48 wav, the file host wouldn't let me upload WAV but I tricked it by renaming the extension, note the filename.
http://www.webfilehost.com/?mode=viewupload&id=897871

Bass is 5-6dB too much. But it's "unmastered" and I only used slight compression and EQ on master bus.
I went with the philosophy "if everything sounds big, nothing sounds big". Some tracks got treated with distortion :D and others just basic effects. This mix was much different than what I usually try to do, in some parts I think it's congested, but hopefully it sound's alright. I used a lot of gating on the mid range sounds.

Vocal track 1: Float Crush, audio modulated filter, EQ. Since the bottom of the clap was on this track, I had to do it this way to get what I did on the main clap track to mix right. I cut a ton of mids.

Vocal track 2 and 3: Just leveled in.

Hats: Gating, more gating, EQ, more EQ, dynamic EQ, compression, not in that order :lol:

Clap: EQ, dynamic EQ, compression, gating, SmoothClipper.

Congas: EQ, compression, audio modulated filter.

Gata: EQ and SmoothClipper.

RevCrash: EQ.

Studry: EQ, filter FM.

Noisesweeps: Just leveled in.

Fills: EQ, Compression, more compression, more EQ, float crush, filter FM, smoothclipper.

Perc track: Just leveled in.

Stabs: Gating, dynamic EQ, float crush, filter FM, EQ, compression.

Woodblock: Some lousy tape emulation plugin (gives nice character tho), EQ, SoftClipper.

Kick: Filter FM, EQ, gating.

Bass: EQ, compression (sidechain to kick).

Kick/bass route: Compression, smoothclipper.

Stereo route: Acon Multiply was used to blend stereo image slightly, making the sweep sounds less drastic in headphones.

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Ringing in the bell of the last 72 hours for the submissions.
[ Mix Challenge ] | [ Studio Page / Twitter ] | [ KVRmarks (see: metering tools) ]

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http://www.erictracks.com/wp-content/up ... tracks.wav

http://www.erictracks.com/wp-content/up ... tracks.mp3

After listening on a few systems, I know I have some mid range problems, and the bass is too loud (I think), but I'm kind of digging the mix. Especially the last two minutes. I also became, uh, way too friendly with the conga. I really liked that conga.

I did a lot of gating, esp on the claps, hats, and longer synth delays. Subtractive EQd a lot b/t 500 and 5000, since there were so many elements going on at once.

Compressed just about everything, but usually not too heavily, just enough to even things out (def squashed and distorted bass and kick).

(Over)used SDRR, Valhalla Room/Vintage, Slate VMR and VTM, NI LA2A and 160, and studio one plugs.

Short, bright verb on everything. Too much and it started sounding like 1987. I dialed it back a bit and I think it glued a bunch of stuff together.

I'm really not familiar with the genre as a whole, so I may have whiffed on some of the more common conventions. I can turn it up loud and it holds together pretty well, though.

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Last edited by hebb on Sun Jun 21, 2015 8:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Ringing in the final 24 hours for the submission period.
[ Mix Challenge ] | [ Studio Page / Twitter ] | [ KVRmarks (see: metering tools) ]

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mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2ktxb2p1fnyn ... v.mp3?dl=0

wave: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fkapt3ywvkhkr ... v.wav?dl=0

as most others, I did not change the individual stems too much as they sounded great on their own. There's a bit of EQ on most channels and some compression on the drum bus.
The bass was obviously sidechained to the kick and I used a bit of sidechain compression on a couple of other elements as well to enhance the groove.
Besides that, I've mostly done volume and filter automations to smooth out the transitions. Reverb and Delay automation was used to add interest (especially in the breakdown).

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Trying to get this in just in time. Understandable if I'm not. I mixed it a while ago, just never got around to uploading, .WAV is still going.

Here's my MP3:

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

.WAV

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

EDIT: Looks like I read the time wrong. 12 hrs left.

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Hi!
This is my first try to participate in KVR MC.

Links:
https://www.copy.com/s/t%3A2rYvtEw6srfm ... axfell.mp3
https://www.copy.com/s/t%3AQBXNIyrYDum4 ... axfell.wav

The process of mixing was not too hard due to good quality of stem files.
The main goal was achieving good separation of instruments and pleasant groove of the song.
Plug-ins I used:
Main - VolumeShaper for fake sidechain compression (mostly for movement), FilterShaper and Boz Tbone for filtering and tone control, NI Transient Master for controlling attack and sustain of percussion parts, Panning, EQ and automation.
Additional - 6020 Ultimate Comp for sidechain compression of bass and some instruments from the Kick audio signal, Acon CM Verb and MPX Native Reverb and Voxengo OldSkool Verb for creating space (Room and Ambience), Acon Digital Multiply for chorus and widening, Noveltech Character for enhancing, NI Supercharger GT for fattening Kick&Bass pair and few instruments.
Minor or Mojo tools: Softube Summit Audio TLA-100A for vocal parts, SynthBuss Lite for instruments (Gata + Stabs), PSP Buss Pressor and NI Solid Bus Comp for (can you guess?) compression on the bus channels, PSP Vintage Warmer 2 and Sonimus Satson for analog feel, Eventide UltraChannel for parallel bus compression, NI Solid Dynamics and Klanghelm DC1A2 for other duties (don't remember exactly which is), Softube Focusing Equalizer and Passive EQ and Overtone DSP PTH2A-CM and NI Solid EQ for additional equalization.

That's all. :)

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Not sure if links works, here are additional for downloading and listening:

https://copy.com/2rYvtEw6srfmQ4cH
https://copy.com/QBXNIyrYDum4GHO6

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Here is my mix for this session. Sweet track to work with :)

FLAC : https://www.dropbox.com/s/2b86iciv686h6 ... .flac?dl=0
MP3 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/29iamtpmuku0g ... s.mp3?dl=0

Mix details :
- On each tracks and busses ('cept the mix buss, I forgot :P) : Console emulation
- Kick : EQ > Lows boost > Saturation > Saturation > Multiband compression > EQ > Clipper > Limiter
- Hats : Stereoizer > EQ > EQ > Tape > Limiter
- Off beat Hat doubled to increase volume
- Claps : EQ > Transient Designer > EQ > Clipper
- Congas : EQ > Dynamic EQ > EQ > Compressor > Clipper
- Crash reverse : Tape > Limiter
- Fils : Transient shaper > Tape > Clipper
- Perc Jam : Limiter > Compression
- Wood loops : EQ > Clipper
- Bass : Monoizer > EQ > EQ > EQ > EQ > Exciter > Exciter > Limiter
- Gata : Monoizer > EQ > EQ > Limiter
- Main vox loop : nothing
- Main vox loop 2 : Exciter > Compression
- Rock Down vox : nothing
- Stabs : Monoizer > Exciter > Harmonic enhancer > Clipper > Limiter
- Studry Synth : Monoizer > EQ > Compression > Saturation > Dynamic EQ > EQ > Limiter
- Sweep Fx : nothing

- Drum Buss : Compression > Tape > Limiter
- Bass Buss : Sidechained by the Kick
- Music Buss : EQ > Tape saturation > Limiter
- Mix Buss : EQ room correction > Enhancer > Amp sim
Good luck to everybody ^^

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It's the 22nd June, and the (first) mixing round of the KVR MC#11 has ended.

If you want to fine tune your reports, now if your time. Please watch this spot for the evaluation.
[ Mix Challenge ] | [ Studio Page / Twitter ] | [ KVRmarks (see: metering tools) ]

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