KVR MIX CHALLENGE - MC15 #Rocktober 2015 - Winners announced

[Ichad.c]

- Sorry to the following. It's sometimes hard to separate to top few when there are good elements within each mix. In the end I've just gone with my gut on the mixes that were on the fence and chosen those that sounded most like the end result I originally wanted. I live in my own world musically so I hope none of the comments are offensive.

Not offended at all. Your input is is greatly appreciated! It's all about the music.

Ichad.c
I admire trying something different with the intro but didn't go for it myself. I think some work is needed to help the vocal match the mix a little better. Seems a bit separated from the rest of the mix. Guitar solo is a bit small sounding, possibly because it comes in quieter than the vocal. Guitars also seem a little weak and not that meating riff sound I was going for.

After listening to the songs you selected, I totally agree; I went for the very dry 1990's type grunge/metal/rock sound(RATM) and you were more after a slightly wetter 2000's type rock/funk/alternative sound(Audioslave).

I did however enjoy mixing the song, so thanks for letting us tinker around with it.

Regards
Andrew

[Yeager]

Yeager
Bass is not eqed to my taste. For the genre I am after I think it is not sitting where it should. Guitars and vocal are very much in the background. Vocal has some good qualities but I think it is a little too wet and doesn't have the presence it should. Also, the guitars need to stand out for this some. I think the bass really is too loud.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my mix.
And you are right on all counts

Good luck to the magnificent 7

[photonic]

Thank you for choosing me for the 2nd round

I tried to follow all your comments:
I lowered the bass a bit and made it brighter. For the guitar sound, I tried several things, so that they are no more thin. I ended up with a boost in the low mids and with AkustiX from Tone2, where I used the multi exciter and the possibility to widen the stereo sound. The guitars are now more powerfull, without putting the voice down.

This should be an improvement in comparison to my first mix.

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

[radio12]

Hi,
first i want to thank you very much for listening and giving me a second chance, Morelia.
When i listened to the mix i wanted to do it all over again, like always, instead i just made the adjustments Morelia mentioned
and wrote some notes about the mix:
On each subgroup is a nebulavst N14 line Input, a neve emulation.
1. Bass is a mix of the original bass and a trackcopy with Amplitubes Ampeg Vst on it,
Bass bus studio devils tubepreamp for saturation and to roll off a bit high freq.
2. Drums: i only used the Kick beater track with studio devil on it to cut off some bass.
snare top: ddmf lincomp multicompressor to cut off 6db between 1 and 4 khz to avoid some of the mids
when the snare ist played hard, and valhalla ubermod for a gated reverb,
like most reverbs in the mix not very loud
Room was compressed heavily with Klanghelms MJUC
Overhead Lincomp cut -10 db between 600 an 3 khz
nothing on snare bottom (polarity reversed) or toms
drumbus with MJUC around - 4 db comp timing 4
3. Guitars nothing just a highshelf on the center guitar at 7 khz 3.3 db
Guitar solo psp echo and a 3 db boost at 1 khz
Guitar bus acustica ochre 3 db boost at 2000 hz
MJUC 3-5 db 10 ms attack 4:1
4. Vocals: the chorus from the vocal track doubled and panned with Martin Eastwoods Duet, not very loud,
Lead Vocal put together from the two extra vocal tracks, no fx,
Lots of plugins on the vocal bus : ochre 6 db on 1khz, 3db on 4 khz, Psp echo slapback,
natives Vc 2 a comp light levelling, heavy comp with MJUC, studio devil tube and bass cut.
Masterbus somehow i thought i need a bit more mids so i inserted nebulas MMEQ with 2 db on 1.5 kz,
psp xenon limiter to be safe, i did not need it but kept it anyway, and Voxengos span.

mp3 :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8toh0dnpp2hn ... 2.mp3?dl=0

wav:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zczvanwufsvvd ... 2.wav?dl=0

hope you like it better now
manfred

[piranha81]

WAV:
https://soundcloud.com/roberto-ortenzi/ ... iranha81-2
MP3:
https://soundcloud.com/roberto-ortenzi/ ... iranha81-3

NOTES:
-The biggest part of the remix work was spent to make kick sound much fuller, natural and easy to hear. Mainly with eq.
-Snare was reworked a bit too. Some eq and parallel distortion
-On bass the distortion channel was totally changed, and some general eq was also changed. Now sounds fuller and more in your face.
-Vocals was made a little fuller and dry.
Hope the mix now works better

[erictracks]

morelia-

I appreciate the evaluation, and the chance to mix in the second round. You were spot on, especially with the vocal dub echo effect in the middle of the last chorus, and over-de-essing.

MP3:
http://www.erictracks.com/wp-content/up ... mp3_R2.mp3

WAV:
http://www.erictracks.com/wp-content/up ... wav_R2.wav

There is indeed an 8th note delay on the verse vocal, and I filtered it so I could make it a bit louder without overdoing it. There is a quarter note delay way back in the chorus vocal, but I thought it sounded better tucked away. There's already some chorus vocal widening with a faster echo.

I remixed the vocals, speaking of them, to remove the edge that's somewhere around 4k, and to try and better fit them into the song, as you suggested. Also dialed back that de-essing.

I tried to add a touch of presence to the mix with a very light touch on the TDR VOS SlickEQ. Also used Slate VTM, and the Slate Neve VCC on the busses. Also SDRR on the vox. Obv I use a lot of Echoboy, too

I referenced Audioslave's Cochise.

Thanks again, its a cool song, and it felt great to make the second round! Good luck to everyone else.

[davemcisaac]

Thank you Morelia for the chance to move on to this second round. I've listened to the other entries and there is a wide variation in the overall sounds. This should be interesting!

I followed your suggestions:

1. the bass (particularly in the chorus) which seems to have too much mid and high end for it's own good.
I used MDynamicEQ to tame the mid highs, which seems to have it sitting better in the mix during the choruses.

2. I wonder if it would be possible to make this mix a bit more in your face like the Audioslave material referred to.
I brightened up the mix by boosting just a touch of mid highs @3.5 kHz with BootEQMKII and was able to get a little hotter send by taming the peaks from the snare. So this mix is a bit hotter & brighter and plays well next to Audioslave.

3. Rhythm guitars are a bit on the weak side.
I boosted the rhythm guitars just a tad and put a little body back into their tone. Hopefully that is enough to satisfy you.

4. Not sure I like the snare reverb. Perhaps if it was a little less obvious.
I switched reverbs on the snare - I was experimenting with GlaceVerb on the first round (1st time I tried it) and went with ReaVerb using a snare plate from Big Gee's Lexicon 480L collection on this round. I think it fits much better.

https://soundcloud.com/dr-audio-labs/mo ... -round-wav
https://soundcloud.com/dr-audio-labs/mo ... -2nd-round

[jhkennedy5]

Here is my round2 mix:

WAV: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/896 ... ennedy.wav
MP3: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/896 ... ennedy.mp3

Cleaned up the vocals slightly and removed some of the grit/harshness. Just a few other minor tweaks to better match it to the Audioslave reference.

Enjoyed rockin' along with this song!

[slick3gz]

https://soundcloud.com/slick3gz/morelia ... ck3gz-rd-2

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gq1jebrgo1n5b ... 2.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2ht0887vmbmr ... 2.wav?dl=0

I lowered the bass a little but spent most of the time trying to find a good sound for the vocal. Tried to go for something more aggressive in the chorus but still have depth. Thanks for the evaluation and feedback. It is invaluable to me as i'm still fairly new to mixing.

[Compyfox]

Looks like we have all tracks of round 2 in. Thanks once more for your participation.
Let's start the second evaluation round.

[morelia]

Ok, sorry for the delay everyone. Non music life is throwing a few hurdles at me. Will post back results in 24 hours.

[morelia]

Thanks again for your effort everyone. Once again a really hard job to pick the winners. Basically they are all really good mixes so I just picked the ones with the least concerning elements. If anyone wants feedback let me know.

1st - photonic
2nd - DR Audio Labs
3rd - radio12

[davemcisaac]

So close, yet so far away...

Congratulations to photonic for the win - Great job!

[Compyfox]

You did make second place, no?
That's a great start for your first entry.



Overall - congratulations to everyone.
We proceed with the usual-usual. If you want to, please pick a license to your liking - in order of the winners podium, then please mention it here in public, then get in touch with Satyatunes. He will sort you out.


All others are invited to help us out with a new song, join MC16, join the discussion in the Gossip Thread and/or spread the word on social media.

[photonic]

Oh WOW !!!

Thank you very much Morelia!
When I heard the other second mixes I thought that my chances are not so big. You all made real improvements.
Congratulations to DR Audio Labs and radio12 for your top places!

For the prize I will pick the Restoration Suite from Acon Digital.