MIX CHALLENGE - MC27 November 2016 - Winners announced

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Compyfox wrote:All right, thank you for the feedback on the productions, Slacker.

Let's kick off Mix Round 2 - which will end next Wednesday, 30-11-2016, 11:59pm CET/GMT+1


The following participants go into Round 2 (alphabetical order)
  • Dave McIsaac
  • Davias
  • erictracks
  • jhkennedy5
  • Par9 zalpov
  • Photonic
  • thiagoam88

Thank you for your participation, and good luck to the contestants for Round 2 :tu:
Compyfox and Slacker thank you!
and good luck for other guys, let's meet at next round!
I can't wait for it :ud:
Bears, vodka, balalayka.
Mixing tracks. neurodriveaudio@gmail.com

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A friendly reminder:
We're in the last 72 hours for Mix Round 2 - please try to send in your overhaul in time
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slacker wrote: thiagoam88

Again, lots to like with this mix. I thought the kick and snare balanced well, although I felt the hi hat in the intro was slightly too harsh somehow? I liked the tone that you'd got with the bass, but as with some of my other comments above, a little more bite in the tone in parts might be helpful. I liked the way that you handled the choruses - although again in line with my opening comments about the arrangement, I'd lose the higher backing vocals in chorus 1 - either all together or trying them in chorus 2. I liked the way that the acoustic guitars had been mixed and felt that you could hear them in the chorus better than in some mixes. I did think that the main vocals might be getting slightly lost in verse 2 though. I thought the vocals at the end were handled well, but wondered about getting slightly more warmth into the girls vocals. I also thought there was a good sense of stereo width, but if it was possible to get the guitars even fuller in the choruses, that might be good.
Hey, slacker!

Thanks for your feedback and for giving me the opportunity to mix a second round. I addressed all the general comments regarding the arrangement and the girl's vocals. As for the specific comments, I gave the bass more bite with some more "aggressive" mids. The vocal was automated on the verses to be more clear and present. For the guitars, I added a smidge of saturation to fatten it up and used a doubler to spread it across the stereo field. Hopefully I did not overdo anything :lol:

https://soundcloud.com/smartmix/slacker ... 88-round-2

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_g4B ... zJxbDFBSlE
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_g4B ... 0xOT2tXU1U

Good luck to everyone!

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"In terms of things that I wondered whether they could be slightly different":

1. I liked the bass, but would have liked a bit more presence if possible? (The bass has more bite but I left the "body" intact.)

2. I liked the sizzle on the ride in verse 2, but wondered if that could come down just a notch? (I tamed the sizzle a "notch")

3. There also seemed like a strange sustain on the guitars at the end of chorus 2 which I wondered if it could be faded out? (I re-worked the electric guitar fade - it's much smoother)

4. I'd like the bass a little louder at the start of the chorus with the girls vocals, so that it's the bass driving that section not the shaker. (I brought down the Shaker along with the Tamborine - it really stuck out when I brought down the Shaker - and bumped up the Bass a couple notches at the start of that chorus)

5. I also think that the descending instrument parts in verse 3 could come down a shade...I hope that makes sense. (I did some automation on the Pads to accomplish that - along with trying to accomplish the effect you suggested to the group)

6. I also edited the backing vocals in the 1st chorus as you suggested to the group.

I hope that takes care of it for you.

And thanks for the opportunity to compete in the 2nd round!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0O6oz ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0O6oz ... sp=sharing
Dave McIsaac

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Friendly reminder:
We're in the last 24 hours of Mix Challenge 27.


Additional to that:
Feedback needed in the Gossip Thread
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slacker -

Your feedback was excellent, thanks for taking the time.

WAV:

http://erictracks.com/wp-content/upload ... acks22.wav

MP3:

http://erictracks.com/wp-content/upload ... acks22.mp3

I'm still on the fence with the kick, but I think it's fuller and less flabby this time around.

I really wanted the mix to develop into a wall of sound by the last chorus, so I did some more work on the overall dynamics.

I've made some automation and eq changes to the snare, and brought in the OH bleed track for some additional ambience.

I agree on the lead vocals, and tightened up the reverb and delays. As you wrote, they had too much reverb. For the backup vox in verse 2, I took a look at the "wrong" line, and gently truncated it (hopefully) appropriately.

I love the harmony in chorus 1 so I left it (and didn't move as you suggested in your overall expectations). I really enjoyed it with a ton of plate reverb, so it has this haunting quality to it.

On a related note, I tried to make a wide stereo thing happen with the doubled lead in chorus 2, so there is something always interesting happening in the choruses. I really like the chorus effect you put on the doubled vocal in chorus 2 btw.

I also adjusted the guitars and overall intensity of the third chorus. I ended up playing a game of upping the volume first on guitar, the vocals, rinse, repeat. But I think this might actually help with dynamics, as it's really pushing the meters near the end.

I enjoyed my time with your song. Good luck to all the participants.

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A bit more than 2 hours left for Mix Round 2.
If there is a time to send in your mix, it is now(!).



Additional to that - MC28 has been pushed to Mid December so that it can run through the Christmas Holidays....
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Here is my new version !

Thanks The Slacker for selecting my mix ! And thanks to Compyfox for allowing my mix to round 1 :)

I did try to enhance further and finish what I started, I also followed the comments and upped the bass, toned down the instruments at the end, cleaned the girl's voice, processed the rhodes (it was untreated before), a smooth compression on the guitars, new distortion for the hard guitar (from the DI) blended with original one, tiny sat on kick and snare + eq to tame, volume down for the choir and eq out some lows, volume up for the wind (in order to fill the middle part with bass and beat), hi hats a little bit volume up, pad slightly up, toms EQed and transient designed to make them cut more through the mix also a gate to shorten their tail, reverb EQed with volumes adjusted and more tracks are going into it, i put a tape on the master to vintage and beef a bit the sound and changed the compression, and a bit of changes here and there ^^ I realize that I forgot to clean the tail of the distorded guitar somewhere and a nasty white noise can be heard, sorry about that :p

[FLAC]
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2m81itrxvjwg ... .flac?dl=0

[MP3]
https://www.dropbox.com/s/83vutjn5i4c89 ... 2.mp3?dl=0

Good luck to everybody !
Last edited by Davias on Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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edit: mistake

P.S @compy: could you re-link that post on slate tips to enhance the drum you posted 2 contests ago please? I can't find it.

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Thanks everyone for your mixes for round two :tu:

I've been listening to them as they have been coming in. :)

I need to catch up with the latest entries and do some final listening and comparisons.

I'll be back with my final thoughts asap...

Thanks again everyone,

Slacker

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It's the 01st December at about 0:25o'clock (GMT+1) - the 2nd Mix Round has officially ended.

Please check your links and add documentation if you want.
Also please take note of the Gossip Thread and the new start date of MC28.

Good luck



@mementus
Go via mix-challenge.com to find the Challenge you're looking for, then do a search for my name in the thread
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Right Folks,

Apologies for the delay in sharing my thoughts on round 2. I've been listening to the tracks in various settings and wanted to have a final listen on my studio monitors, which I was able to do this morning.

Can I start out my sharing how useful this process has been from my perspective. It's been really great that you've taken the time to mix my song :hug: and I've got a lot from the process and from listening to all your different takes on the mix :) .

I've also been impressed by the extent to which you've been sympathetic to the track and also been able to act on my feedback!

So, if the decision about who to put through to round 2 was hard, this was even harder!

I thought everyone did a really good job on acting on my feedback and I'm confident that if we were in the room together every one of you would have been very quickly able to make the vey minor tweaks, which in the end, have separated out the different mixes in my mind.

As I've said, it was really hard and I liked all the mixes in different ways. So, in ranking the mixes, I worked on the basis that if this was a real mix setting and we'd completely run out of time and/or money, which of the mixes would I be most content to come out of the session with as the final product.

The results then are:

1 - Dave McIsaac
2. - Jhkennedy5
3. - Photonic
4. - (if needed) Erictracks


DaveMcIsaac's I felt was the mix that I was happiest with overall and was closest to the sound that I had in my head.

It was really close between 1st and 2nd though and Jhkennedy 5 ,I really liked your mix, there was just the odd word here and there in the female vocals that popped out at me in a way that I could never quite get past. Like I've said, in the room together you'd have fixed it really easily!

Photonic, I thought your mix was really good too, I simply felt that the vocal was a touch loud to start with and I'd given a steer that I wasn't keen on the harmony vocal in chorus 1.

Erictracks, I loved the fact that you'd managed to get a more varied feel to the track and some difference to the choruses. But, I'm still not convinced about those vocals in chorus 1 as above - and of course the client is always right! :wink:

Thiagoam88 and Davias, again I liked a lot about your mixes. Thiagoam88 yours was another mix with the harmony vocal in chorus 1 and then unfortunately you'd taken the harmony vocal out of verse 2 which I really liked. I also wasn't sure that the vocals at the end were handled as well as some of the other mixes. Davias, lots of positives in your mix too, I just felt that it had edged towards being too harsh and there was also a couple of nasty guitar sustains at the end of chorus 2 and in chorus 3.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to mix the track, it's given me more confidence to share music in the future, and congratulations to the winners!

Ok, now who is up for making any final tweaks and doing me a nice mastered version of your mix :wink: :tu:

Slacker

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Thanks for the final feedback and announcement, slacker. And congratulations to the winners.


We perform with the usual-usual. For the top 3, please take your pick from the available pool, mention it in the thread, then either get in touch with satyatunes or me (TwoNotes and Nyrv Systems).


Other than that, I'll bump the Gossip thread in a minute, same with Twitter.

See you in the next challenge. :)
Last edited by Compyfox on Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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I am honored to be the winner of MC27! Sometimes you get lucky and your vision of the project is very similar to the client's vision. I got lucky on this one. :D

Congratulations to Jhkennedy5, Photonic & Erictracks for placing in the top 4!

My choice is Acon Digital Verberate - You can never have too many reverbs :wink:
slacker wrote:Ok, now who is up for making any final tweaks and doing me a nice mastered version of your mix :wink: :tu:

Slacker
Slacker - if you would PM me for any final tweaks I would be happy to do you a mastered version (as long as you aren't in too big a hurry...)
Dave McIsaac

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Thanks for choosing my mix for second place. Congratulations to Dave, Photonic, and Erictracks (all of these provide consistently high quality mixes so I am thrilled to be in their company).

I won't be choosing a prize (I am challenged enough figuring out what I have already).

Slacker - Thanks again for providing great tracks and insightful, timely feedback. I expect that you will work with Dave on a final mix, but I am happy to work with you as well. I am currently on international travel, but could devote time to this starting December 9th.

Thank you!!!

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