HaHa thanks, but my name is Curtis!
GearFest Mixing Contest
- Thread starter Chater-La
- Start date
- Status
HaHa thanks, but my name is Curtis!
brassplyer
Well-known member
Is the deadline the midnite between 5/31/13 and 1/1/13 or the midnite between 1/1/13 and 1/2/13?
AndyGallas
New member
Well, I wouldn't take that all too serious! It's a cool event and the fun and perhaps the learning thingy should be the main motivator me things. If I want some cool monitors I usually have to work hard to get them. But yes if you are too close to a song, at some point one can't see the forest because of all those trees.
That happens to all of us... all cool!
fHumble fHingaz
Member
Oops, sorry Curtis
...Well said, Curtis!
A lot of the anti-loudness war rhetoric on the net is ill-informed and misleading - especially to newer audio engineers who are trying to grasp the very complex issue of compression... Often the loudest (haw,haw, irony) proponents of it don't really understand the real, practical need to control real-world dynamics when translating it to the finite, fixed parameters of domestic playback systems.
I remember this being very confusing to me at first...Whether it be loudness wars rhetoric or gear worship, getting past all the superfluous, misleading "noise" surrounding the art of audio engineering on the net to the stuff that really matters is often half the battle in improving as AE.
soupiraille
New member
Guys, in case you missed it, you ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE THAT!
Start at 7:07
HOW TO MIX WIDE ROCK GUITARS
Start at 7:07
HOW TO MIX WIDE ROCK GUITARS
I thought it was really coincidental and odd that I decided to post my mix, and I've had like only 3 comments on it, and I've not been on this board in two years, and your post was right above. lol. I was going for a "live" feel to the mix. This was a small blues-rock band that kind of reminded me of some bands I heard back in the day, as in way back. And with the imperfections in the recording tracks I figured, okay, let's go "live." Live means some unevenness. I don't have the UA stuff, I just used the R-comp very lightly on the drums (actually the vocal preset) and Maserati stuff. Yeah, I may have been a bit high on the room part of the reverb on the vox, but they were so dry to me. And I know myself that I start tweaking things too much and I need to just stop some times and say "this is good enough" get a second opinion from someone who is not afraid to hurt my feelings and if it's a thumbs up go with it.
I think there are going to be a flood of entries during the next 7 hours.
Oops, sorry Curtis
Well said, Curtis!
A lot of the anti-loudness war rhetoric on the net is ill-informed and misleading - especially to newer audio engineers who are trying to grasp the very complex issue of compression... Often the loudest (haw,haw, irony) proponents of it don't really understand the real, practical need to control real-world dynamics when translating it to the finite, fixed parameters of domestic playback systems.
I remember this being very confusing to me at first...Whether it be loudness wars rhetoric or gear worship, getting past all the superfluous, misleading "noise" surrounding the art of audio engineering on the net to the stuff that really matters is often half the battle in improving as AE.
Absolutely. Mixerman addresses the issue very well in Zen and The Art Of Mixing (a book which you don't have to agree with but being able to decide whether or not you agree is a huge step towards becoming a better engineer.)
Ye olde Waves Doubler (mono/stereo) + Waves S1 Imager trick. He's doing some other things with it, but that's basically the trick even if you don't have those other plugins. Make sure the "chorus" part is stuck on the doubler like EVH used to do live with his chorus pedal, and you've got it done.
My gear
Hardware
Dynaudio BM6a
Metric Halo ULN-2
Overstayer Stereo Dynamics Processor
DAW
Pro Tools 10
In Every channel i inserted the Waves NLS Channel Non-Linear Summer adding a little bit of harmonic distortion.
The EQ in every was the Fabfilter ProQ, i like the sound and the graphical interface is great.
Every Channel in detail:
Kick Drum: I basically cut the frequencies between 200 sand 300 hz, an area where I do not like that resonances. I incremented the low end in 50 hz to give it more weight
and and turn up between 4000 and 5000 to emphasize the kick. The compressor was the API 2500 Plug in with a ratio of 2.1
The last thing, i duplicated the kick only in the part of cappella "kuk ku ku!", the last beat with so much of sustain with the SPL Transient Designer Plugin.
Snare Drum & Hi Hat: EQ: I cut frequencies in 230 hz, 460 hz, 700 hz, 940 hz, 1100 to kill unwanted resonances and turn up in 7500 hz .
The compressor was the Waves Ultrmaximizer L2 (a little touch). Order to have the SD level I wanted, because when i turn it up the Hi Hat invaded so much the mix,
i decided to double the SD using SPL DrumXchanger to give a little more trying to be as transparent as possible.
Toms: i edit the SD channel and put the toms in another gave another mix volume
OH: a low cut in 140 hz. cut in 400 hz and 800 hz (so much SD unwanted resonances) and turn up 3 db in 9400 hz.
All the drums have a parallel compression with the Overstayer Stereo Dynamics Processor.
Bass: I elected the Bass DI. I use Amplitube Tube Vintage Combo. The Eq: strong cut in 190 hz. To give it definition, turn up in 1400 hz and 2100 hz. And a low cut cut in 38 hz to not disturb the kick low end.
Compressor: Elysia Alpha Mix Plugin (1.3 Ratio).
Guitar: Eq: Low cut in 120 hz, cut a little bit in 240 hz and turn up 4 db in 5200 hz. The guitar was duplicated and inserted a PS22 Spread to generate a touch of stereo imagen.
Vox: The Alpha Mix Compressor Plugin (Ratio 3 db, and the War Function active). EQ: low cut in 118 db. And + 5 db in 5200). Harmonic Distortion with the SPL Twin Tube Processor plugin.
Lexicon Vintage Plate Plug-in in the voice and the snare drum!… and that's all!!
diego-ordoqui soundcloud
Hardware
Dynaudio BM6a
Metric Halo ULN-2
Overstayer Stereo Dynamics Processor
DAW
Pro Tools 10
In Every channel i inserted the Waves NLS Channel Non-Linear Summer adding a little bit of harmonic distortion.
The EQ in every was the Fabfilter ProQ, i like the sound and the graphical interface is great.
Every Channel in detail:
Kick Drum: I basically cut the frequencies between 200 sand 300 hz, an area where I do not like that resonances. I incremented the low end in 50 hz to give it more weight
and and turn up between 4000 and 5000 to emphasize the kick. The compressor was the API 2500 Plug in with a ratio of 2.1
The last thing, i duplicated the kick only in the part of cappella "kuk ku ku!", the last beat with so much of sustain with the SPL Transient Designer Plugin.
Snare Drum & Hi Hat: EQ: I cut frequencies in 230 hz, 460 hz, 700 hz, 940 hz, 1100 to kill unwanted resonances and turn up in 7500 hz .
The compressor was the Waves Ultrmaximizer L2 (a little touch). Order to have the SD level I wanted, because when i turn it up the Hi Hat invaded so much the mix,
i decided to double the SD using SPL DrumXchanger to give a little more trying to be as transparent as possible.
Toms: i edit the SD channel and put the toms in another gave another mix volume
OH: a low cut in 140 hz. cut in 400 hz and 800 hz (so much SD unwanted resonances) and turn up 3 db in 9400 hz.
All the drums have a parallel compression with the Overstayer Stereo Dynamics Processor.
Bass: I elected the Bass DI. I use Amplitube Tube Vintage Combo. The Eq: strong cut in 190 hz. To give it definition, turn up in 1400 hz and 2100 hz. And a low cut cut in 38 hz to not disturb the kick low end.
Compressor: Elysia Alpha Mix Plugin (1.3 Ratio).
Guitar: Eq: Low cut in 120 hz, cut a little bit in 240 hz and turn up 4 db in 5200 hz. The guitar was duplicated and inserted a PS22 Spread to generate a touch of stereo imagen.
Vox: The Alpha Mix Compressor Plugin (Ratio 3 db, and the War Function active). EQ: low cut in 118 db. And + 5 db in 5200). Harmonic Distortion with the SPL Twin Tube Processor plugin.
Lexicon Vintage Plate Plug-in in the voice and the snare drum!… and that's all!!
diego-ordoqui soundcloud
Spiralwave
New member
Spiralwave mix of gearfest premix contest
hi,
Mac pro, rme ff400, cubase6, behringer ultragain pro-8, vintaje analog, alesis monitor m1 mk2, plugins oxford, waves, brainworks
Thanks
.
hi,
Mac pro, rme ff400, cubase6, behringer ultragain pro-8, vintaje analog, alesis monitor m1 mk2, plugins oxford, waves, brainworks
Thanks
.I like this ^^^^
Just for s***s and giggles, I took my contest entry and dropped one mastering plugin on it and a limiter. I'll post both of them here and you can hear the difference. I could have left the limiter off. I don't think mastering was the intent of the contest. But it's absolutely amazing what one Ozone plugin can do, isn't it? But that would be cheating, and I was taught not to cheat in school. And this was a mixing contest.
Contest Entry:
Fun Craptastic DR14 Hack Job
Contest Entry:
Fun Craptastic DR14 Hack Job
Yetti
New member
Final mix before the deadline
As for the Gear I used....Mixed in my basement project studio, using ProTools 8LE. I did not use any hardware, all was done ITB. My monitors are Amrita Kronos, with a QSC PLX power amp. I used TL space for the Vocal and Guitar reverb, I used Reel Tape Saturation on the Master Fader for a little retro saturation to the sound. I had a Fab Filter Limiter last on the mix buss, but my levels didn’t touch the ceiling…I used it just to see my RMS level, trying to stay in the recommended -16,-18 range.
I didn't do any eq with the bass tracks, it sounded right with both faders up, and a couple db of Massey CT5 on the Bass buss.. For the drums, I used a little Massey eq on the kick, and Massey CT5 for a little drum buss parallel compression.
I duplicated the snare track, and put the stock DIGI Gate and the stock Digi Compressor on the duplicate snare track to get the snare to punch out a few db in the mix.
I spent a little time trial and error on flipping the phase between the drum tracks, but I got it pretty good without doing any “nudging” of the tracks.
I gave the guitar track had a little low midrange boost using Fabfilter Pro-Q, and just a little TL space reverb panned hard right for some depth.
The Vocal track had a chain of BF LA-3A, Massey eq, Massey CT5 compression, followed by BF Fairchild 660. I manually fixed a couple sibilant sssss’s, but there were only a few spots that bothered me, so I did not use a desser. I manually “ducked” the fader on a the word “Louder” in the first verse, and the first F in “Feel it” on the second verse, but other than that I let the vocal performance be dynamic without crushing it. All plug-ins were used at light settings, just a db or 2 , and mostly for the retro tone and a soft dynamic control.. (More info below)
As for my artistic intentions...I had a good vision of how I wanted to mix this song, and I am very happy with the result. I was fortunate to be in the front row near the center for the Fab Dupont's tracking session at Sweetwater's Gearfest 2012. It was a great live performance, and the Drummer was stage left, and Guitarist stage right...So in my mix, I panned the Drums and Guitar a bit left and right, the way it sounded to me live. In addition to that, I listen to alot of music styles, and I particularly spent about an hour every night for 2 weeks listening to music that I thought had a similar "vibe" to the Liza Colby Sound. I think the old school (60’s) way of recording drums panned hard left (or right), and creating a stereo sound stage with creative use of panning techniques guided my taste in mixing Oh Baby, although I did not pan too extreme left amd right…I tried to keep it natural, but with some retro vibe influence.
I resisted the temptation to use special effects and drum triggers… I tried it, and then said forget it, keep it real. So it’s all real, with a little reverb, and panning for the effects.
As for the clapping at the end....well, if it was a live concert, I am sure there would have been thunderous applause in the beginning and the end of the song, with some cheers during the softer passages. However, since the forum was a recording seminar, the applause at the end was way too "polite", and frankly not long enough without copying and pasting extensions to get a decent fadeout. I tried it, it sounded cheesy, and so I cropped it out. To my ears, my Oh Baby mix sounds like a late 60's early 70's studio recording. It was a great song to mix, an awesome fun contest to enter...I am very happy with the result, and I gave this my best shot.
Thank you to PureMix, Dangerous Music, and Sweetwater for putting this contest together.
Best regards, and good luck Guys!
ElectricBillYetti-
As for the Gear I used....Mixed in my basement project studio, using ProTools 8LE. I did not use any hardware, all was done ITB. My monitors are Amrita Kronos, with a QSC PLX power amp. I used TL space for the Vocal and Guitar reverb, I used Reel Tape Saturation on the Master Fader for a little retro saturation to the sound. I had a Fab Filter Limiter last on the mix buss, but my levels didn’t touch the ceiling…I used it just to see my RMS level, trying to stay in the recommended -16,-18 range.
I didn't do any eq with the bass tracks, it sounded right with both faders up, and a couple db of Massey CT5 on the Bass buss.. For the drums, I used a little Massey eq on the kick, and Massey CT5 for a little drum buss parallel compression.
I duplicated the snare track, and put the stock DIGI Gate and the stock Digi Compressor on the duplicate snare track to get the snare to punch out a few db in the mix.
I spent a little time trial and error on flipping the phase between the drum tracks, but I got it pretty good without doing any “nudging” of the tracks.
I gave the guitar track had a little low midrange boost using Fabfilter Pro-Q, and just a little TL space reverb panned hard right for some depth.
The Vocal track had a chain of BF LA-3A, Massey eq, Massey CT5 compression, followed by BF Fairchild 660. I manually fixed a couple sibilant sssss’s, but there were only a few spots that bothered me, so I did not use a desser. I manually “ducked” the fader on a the word “Louder” in the first verse, and the first F in “Feel it” on the second verse, but other than that I let the vocal performance be dynamic without crushing it. All plug-ins were used at light settings, just a db or 2 , and mostly for the retro tone and a soft dynamic control.. (More info below)
As for my artistic intentions...I had a good vision of how I wanted to mix this song, and I am very happy with the result. I was fortunate to be in the front row near the center for the Fab Dupont's tracking session at Sweetwater's Gearfest 2012. It was a great live performance, and the Drummer was stage left, and Guitarist stage right...So in my mix, I panned the Drums and Guitar a bit left and right, the way it sounded to me live. In addition to that, I listen to alot of music styles, and I particularly spent about an hour every night for 2 weeks listening to music that I thought had a similar "vibe" to the Liza Colby Sound. I think the old school (60’s) way of recording drums panned hard left (or right), and creating a stereo sound stage with creative use of panning techniques guided my taste in mixing Oh Baby, although I did not pan too extreme left amd right…I tried to keep it natural, but with some retro vibe influence.
I resisted the temptation to use special effects and drum triggers… I tried it, and then said forget it, keep it real. So it’s all real, with a little reverb, and panning for the effects.
As for the clapping at the end....well, if it was a live concert, I am sure there would have been thunderous applause in the beginning and the end of the song, with some cheers during the softer passages. However, since the forum was a recording seminar, the applause at the end was way too "polite", and frankly not long enough without copying and pasting extensions to get a decent fadeout. I tried it, it sounded cheesy, and so I cropped it out. To my ears, my Oh Baby mix sounds like a late 60's early 70's studio recording. It was a great song to mix, an awesome fun contest to enter...I am very happy with the result, and I gave this my best shot.
Thank you to PureMix, Dangerous Music, and Sweetwater for putting this contest together.
Best regards, and good luck Guys!
ElectricBillYetti-
soupiraille
New member
OH MY GOD I've posted my mix on SoundCloud! 
I said him goodbye, take care and good luck... :tears:
I said him goodbye, take care and good luck... :tears:
Spiralwave
New member
Spiralwave mix of gearfest premix contest
i upload again 44.1/24
Mac pro, rme ff400, cubase6, behringer ultragain pro-8, vintaje analog, monitores alesis m1 mk2, plugins oxford, waves, brainworks
Thanks.
i upload again 44.1/24
Mac pro, rme ff400, cubase6, behringer ultragain pro-8, vintaje analog, monitores alesis m1 mk2, plugins oxford, waves, brainworks
Thanks.
Rotarybowl
New member
My Mix
I mixed this through a Focusrite 2802 console. For outboard gear, I used a pair of Rupert Neve Designs 542 tape emulators, a pair of Atla Moda Am-25 eq's, and the compressor and eq on an LA-610 channel strip. I also used various waves and UAD plugins, as well as native plugins from Cubase 7, which is the DAW I choose to mix with. The interface I used was a Lynx AES16e card sent to a Lynx Aurora 16. The speakers I used to monitor the mix were Focal CMS 65's.
When mixing this, I tried to keep the overall live feel of the track while also cleaning up things. So i gated the kick a little bit, as well as the snare. Since there was a generous amount of Hi-hat in the snare, I was careful not to create a pumping hi hat every time the gate opened and closed. I used the UAD SPL transient designer plugin to cut some of the ring of the snare out so that it fit a little better within the mix. I also used some transparent compression on the kick and snare to help reign in any odd or uneven hits without it sounding to odd. Since the toms were mixed in with the overhead mic tracks, I split a separate signal off to an FX channel track in Cubase and put on a high pass filter around 400hz to cut out the meat of the drums, and sent that to some FX returns on the console so I could better balance the toms and cymbals. Toward the end of the track, when the drummer really digs into the toms in the outro, I double the overhead track and put a transient designer on the insert point to really give the toms better sustain and attack to fill in and make the outro bigger. I also eq'd it different, boosting the resonance and the attack of the toms, as well as cutting out some muddier low mid frequencies around 400hz. I also added slight touches of some room reverb to the overhead and snare tracks to help them sound more alive and add to the original live recording. The EMT 250 UAD emulation was the reverb of choice.
I chose to solely use the Bass DI track because I felt it had better or similar tone to the amp track with the excess cymbal room noise. I simply compressed the bass a little and added a bit of low shelving eq so the bass would better fill in the low end of the track. I tried to get it into its own space to live, so when he did do bass fills they come out naturally without having to do rides on each fill. I also added a slight bit of overdrive to make the DI feel a little less sterile.
The guitar track took a little more effort to feel right. Since its only one guitar, I had to figure out how I was going pan it and make it fill up space in the track. I panned left at first for the whole song, but it felt too static. I added some short plate reverb and panned it opposite of the guitar to fill in more space and make the whole track feel fuller. So it wouldn't be too static or boring, during the bridge guitar lead I moved the panning to the center. This really made the guitar lead a feature and sounded really nice. During the outro, I automated the pan so it goes back and forth between left and right. This, along with the added plate reverb, helped make the outro a nice big, rock ending, while also keeping the track from stalling in feel too much.
The vocal track sound great for the most part. She is a very dynamic singer, so I had to make a fader ride automation track throughout the whole song to make sure her nuances were heard without being too overbearing in other parts. I did add some compression as well to make her transient peaks feel less unsteady. I added some fast attack, transparent compression with the standard Cubase 7 compressor plugin, then to add some smoothing and warmth to her vocal I patched in the UALA610 T4 optical compressor into the insert point on the console. This helped tame some of the harsher transient peaks without taking away her voices natural beauty. I also added a bit of high and low shelving eq to help bring the vocal out without over compensating on level. I added some delay effects when I thought parts needed a little filling or carrying over. I chose to use a delay with some some lo fi aspects because I thought it matched the aesthetics of the song.
I used the consoles built in VCA compressor on the main mix bus to try to give the track a more finished sound. I also ran the track through the AM-25 els and the RND 543 tape emulators to give the track some extra feel and weight, and to brighten the track a bit.
Overall, I think I made the track sound a little less like it was recorded live, but I feel the choices I made added to the song in a meaningful way, without subtracting anything from the original recording. It was a fun process!
-joe
I mixed this through a Focusrite 2802 console. For outboard gear, I used a pair of Rupert Neve Designs 542 tape emulators, a pair of Atla Moda Am-25 eq's, and the compressor and eq on an LA-610 channel strip. I also used various waves and UAD plugins, as well as native plugins from Cubase 7, which is the DAW I choose to mix with. The interface I used was a Lynx AES16e card sent to a Lynx Aurora 16. The speakers I used to monitor the mix were Focal CMS 65's.
When mixing this, I tried to keep the overall live feel of the track while also cleaning up things. So i gated the kick a little bit, as well as the snare. Since there was a generous amount of Hi-hat in the snare, I was careful not to create a pumping hi hat every time the gate opened and closed. I used the UAD SPL transient designer plugin to cut some of the ring of the snare out so that it fit a little better within the mix. I also used some transparent compression on the kick and snare to help reign in any odd or uneven hits without it sounding to odd. Since the toms were mixed in with the overhead mic tracks, I split a separate signal off to an FX channel track in Cubase and put on a high pass filter around 400hz to cut out the meat of the drums, and sent that to some FX returns on the console so I could better balance the toms and cymbals. Toward the end of the track, when the drummer really digs into the toms in the outro, I double the overhead track and put a transient designer on the insert point to really give the toms better sustain and attack to fill in and make the outro bigger. I also eq'd it different, boosting the resonance and the attack of the toms, as well as cutting out some muddier low mid frequencies around 400hz. I also added slight touches of some room reverb to the overhead and snare tracks to help them sound more alive and add to the original live recording. The EMT 250 UAD emulation was the reverb of choice.
I chose to solely use the Bass DI track because I felt it had better or similar tone to the amp track with the excess cymbal room noise. I simply compressed the bass a little and added a bit of low shelving eq so the bass would better fill in the low end of the track. I tried to get it into its own space to live, so when he did do bass fills they come out naturally without having to do rides on each fill. I also added a slight bit of overdrive to make the DI feel a little less sterile.
The guitar track took a little more effort to feel right. Since its only one guitar, I had to figure out how I was going pan it and make it fill up space in the track. I panned left at first for the whole song, but it felt too static. I added some short plate reverb and panned it opposite of the guitar to fill in more space and make the whole track feel fuller. So it wouldn't be too static or boring, during the bridge guitar lead I moved the panning to the center. This really made the guitar lead a feature and sounded really nice. During the outro, I automated the pan so it goes back and forth between left and right. This, along with the added plate reverb, helped make the outro a nice big, rock ending, while also keeping the track from stalling in feel too much.
The vocal track sound great for the most part. She is a very dynamic singer, so I had to make a fader ride automation track throughout the whole song to make sure her nuances were heard without being too overbearing in other parts. I did add some compression as well to make her transient peaks feel less unsteady. I added some fast attack, transparent compression with the standard Cubase 7 compressor plugin, then to add some smoothing and warmth to her vocal I patched in the UALA610 T4 optical compressor into the insert point on the console. This helped tame some of the harsher transient peaks without taking away her voices natural beauty. I also added a bit of high and low shelving eq to help bring the vocal out without over compensating on level. I added some delay effects when I thought parts needed a little filling or carrying over. I chose to use a delay with some some lo fi aspects because I thought it matched the aesthetics of the song.
I used the consoles built in VCA compressor on the main mix bus to try to give the track a more finished sound. I also ran the track through the AM-25 els and the RND 543 tape emulators to give the track some extra feel and weight, and to brighten the track a bit.
Overall, I think I made the track sound a little less like it was recorded live, but I feel the choices I made added to the song in a meaningful way, without subtracting anything from the original recording. It was a fun process!
-joe
ALEKNOSTAR
New member
Any word from puremix to know until when we can upload?
- Status