KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC13 August 2015 - Winners announced

[audiosupernova]

Here is my attempt...

FLAC : https://www.dropbox.com/s/714b3dpn6rw3k ... .flac?dl=0

MP3 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/wc6a7wih9u5dq ... s.mp3?dl=0

Feedback:
The drums are getting hammered by your compression, and getting clipped like crazy. I would tone that down significantly, as the hits on the kick drum and snare drums are basically muting the rest of the instruments to a degree, in what I like to describe as the "techno ducking effect". Use EQ to cut back on the bass in the drums while you're at it as it's overpowering on the kick hits. Rhythm guitars also are too bass heavy, not enough in the midrange and treble. At the moment these problems are making the mix extremely muddy, and it's hard to distinguish the individual parts to give them proper analysis.

[audiosupernova]

In before the deadline... (yes, I actually joined!)

Mix for Mix Round 01:
Elsewhere - MP3 Version (ca 8,1MB, 320kbitm, 44/24)
Elsewhere - WAV Version (ca 97MB, 44/24)

Feedback:
The track currently sounds a little muddy in the lower midbass and low midrange regions (probably a little too bassy in general overall). It sounds like you're trying to separate the rhythm guitars from the lead guitar by having them occupy different regions of the EQ space entirely, but currently the rhythms don't really have any character, and need a healthy boost in the trebles. It almost reminds me of what it's like to listen to someone enjoying heavy metal while I listen through an apartment wall. Muffled. Lead suffers inversely, sounding almost exclusively treble, with little midrange and bass. Both rhythm and lead guitars need more presence in general though.

[audiosupernova]

Obviously your mixes are yours and as such all of my suggestions are that: suggestions. Feel free to make the song sound how you want it to sound, but I figured I'd post an example of what my tone stack look likes for my guitars since I am making a lot of suggestions and providing feedback specifically relating to guitar tone. Check out this full mix, then individual guitar and bass parts.

https://soundcloud.com/audiosupernova/s ... es/s-WgJTa

Here you can see everything that I'm using to shape the sound as you hear it in the tracks:
Rhythm guitar preamp stomps and amp. I have one of the EQ's pre, and one post amping to cut out the low end and make room for the bass guitar and kick drums. The signal in Amplitube is split for stereo(as the guitars are multitracked), and both left and right amp chains are identical. No post amping effects are used in Amplitube, and within the FL Studio mix channel, I only use EQ and Reverb. FYI, this track is using Evolution Banshee, not Shreddage 2. Banshee is an 8-string guitar, and puts out a lot more low end than Shreddage 2 does, so these EQ cuts are to compensate for that difference. This exact amp chain won't necessarily work for you, and likely won't sound the same, so be aware of those differences before making any major changes to your mixes. This is just to hopefully give you an idea of what my workflow looks like:



Bass guitar amp and effects:


The only other effects you hear in this mix is Maximus running on the master channel providing saturation on the peaks, and some compression. Unfortunately, you guys have to deal with some of the noise issues that were generated in the rendering process, so your jobs are definitely more difficult than mine, as I didn't have to eliminate buzzing and other noises in the samples, as they don't actually exist on my end (since I'm using virtual instruments). I think these were all generated due to the way I exported the raw clean signals. Bravo on the great work you all have done in spite of the challenges. I probably introduced more problems than necessary in that regard.

[audiosupernova]

So we're moving into the second round of the mix challenge. For this portion, we're selecting 5 participants to continue and take their feedback and tweak their mixes where necessary and resubmit. The winners of Round 1 are as follows:

photonic
mixedmind
polygonsheep
Kolyev
Compyfox

Great job on all the mixes though so far. This was a tough challenge, and you all did probably a lot better than I would have in your shoes had the roles been reversed. These 5 individuals were selected as I thought your tracks best conveyed the nuances of the track without committing any serious audio crimes, and because I thought they sounded the best in the majority of areas I was listening for. There is much work to be done, so see my feedback and suggestion posts on the topic of guitar tones, as guitar tone is where I think most of you still need work. You each have 5 days total to come up with your next best shot, and we'll declare the winners at that point for Round 2.

[satYatunes]

Congrats to the first round winners. Good luck for the finals.

[photonic]

Hi,

I am happy to reached the second round!
Thank you for all the detailed feedback of the mixes. It should be possible to shape the sound in the way you want it.

[Compyfox]

Thanks to AudioSupernova for commenting on all mixes.



Let's ring the bell for the 2nd Mix Round.

As of the time stamp of this post, all participants for the second round have 5 days until 01st September 2015 11:59pm PDT to submit their overhauled mix.


Good luck.

[Compyfox]

A couple of words on this particular post.

Unfortunately, you guys have to deal with some of the noise issues that were generated in the rendering process, so your jobs are definitely more difficult than mine, as I didn't have to eliminate buzzing and other noises in the samples, as they don't actually exist on my end (since I'm using virtual instruments). I think these were all generated due to the way I exported the raw clean signals. Bravo on the great work you all have done in spite of the challenges. I probably introduced more problems than necessary in that regard.

You should check if you rendered in 16bit, because the noise did not come from the DI guitar samples alone, but from a huge noise floor that is usually introduced with dithering or low bitrate rendered files. If the instrument was then rendered fairly low in terms of signal strength, if you raised the gain to get to unity level, you also raised the noise floor.

Always try to render in 24 bit at bar minimum if possible.

Then again, nothing that couldn't be reduced to a certain extend however.
In some cases (at least on my end), it even added to the sound.



Oh and...

[plays whip cracking sound][plays spaghetti western music][lowers pitch of voice]

¬_¬

We meet again in the second mix round, photonic and mixedmind. It's been a while.
May we all have a lot of fun and see who will be among the winners podium

[/music]

See you in a couple of days.

[polygonsheep]

Thanks for the notes, and passing me on to the next round. I wasn't overly happy with the guitar tones I got but have a few more ideas to try out.

[photonic]

Hi all,

Here is my hopefully improved 2nd version.

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

I did following changes, following to the comments from audiosupernova:
- more reverb on guitars when lead is not playing
- less bass in the guitar tracks
- more satturation on the rhythem guitars. They are now more beefy and agressive. I allready used the TSE808 before the amp, but with not enough drive.
- some slight EQ changes and added Xcita on the guitar bus.

[mrotsdnaS - eduraD]

Hey Guys! Sorry, this isn't a submission by any means, but I wanted to share my mix down and master of this awesome track! I'm a 19 year old college student studying for a degree in music production, and Ive been producing for a bit over 8 months so far. I just found out about this KVR forum a few days ago and I had to check out this mix challenge, it sounded like something that would be really interesting and fun! If you guys could check out my version and tell me what you think of it that would be great, looking forward to the next one!

https://soundcloud.com/justin-hansen-28/mix-challenge

[Compyfox]

Hi Justin, nice user name.
How did you find us? Just to get an idea where to improve things. Also, please keep an eye out on the "Production Techniques" forum. We'll start the next MC usually at the 1st of the next month.



For all others - a friendly reminder:
A bit more than 48 hours left for Mix Round 2

[mixedmind]

second round, second mix:

https://soundcloud.com/dilutedmind/audi ... nd/s-byFhx

cheers,
.mixed.mind.

[Compyfox]

I'll post my overhauled mix later today.


Just as reminder:
Less than 24 hours remaining.

Let's hope that polygonsheep and Kolyev can make it in time as well.

[Kolyev]

I'm basically done with mine, will upload it once I get home later today.