Mixing Contest! Tons of prizes!

Myriad_Rocker

Myriad_Rocker

New member
Alright, I lied about the tons of prizes bit. However, there WILL be a prize at the end for the winner. ALL are welcome to try your hand at this.

The song:
It is a rock/hard rock song with a bit of a blusey vibe to it. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to mix a masterpiece (or thereabout). There are plenty of faults in the tracks, so it represents a real world scenario. That being said, it's not a mess. All tracks are full length and 24/48 wav files. Just import them in and get to mixing. Fair warning...there are 36 tracks in total. It's roughly 800MB worth of stuff. I have uploaded in 200MB chunks to make it more manageable.

When mixing the song, as always, do what is best for the mix. If a track is not working, don't use it. I have included some kick and snare samples in the tracks. Use them if you want. They are merely a tool. At the end of the contest after the winner is announced, I will post how the mix turned out on the actual CD release so we can compare and contrast.

The judges are:
Myriad_Rocker (yours truly)
Greg_L
VomitHatSteve
Track Rat
PoeticIntensity

Mix will be judged on a scale of 0 to 5 in the following criteria:
Balance - spectral balance including levels and panning
Separation - everything clean and audible in its own space with no EQ clashing
Production - clever use of automation or effects
Overall Mix - general overall sound

So, a maximum score of 20 is possible from EACH judge. That means 100 points total.

The first 10 people (or 5 if response is slow) to respond to this thread that they would like to participate is where I will cap it. If the response is good, we'll have another contest with a different song! And please, if you say you would like to participate, please do. Once we have a fair amount of responses, I will upload the files. You will have one week to complete your mix.

PLEASE do not post your mix publicly in the thread. I want to make the judging blind and totally unbiased. Please PM me when you have completed your mix and we will work out a way that I can get the mix from you. Once I have all of the mixes, I will post them to a central location and then post them here for the judges to retrieve.

ENROLL NOW!

EDIT: Please subscribe to this thread if you are a participant or if you simply want to follow us!



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This is the list of the entrants. If you're on the list, I took your response in the thread as meaning you wanted to participate. If your username is on the list and you did not intend to partake, let me know so someone else can join.

one guy
Br3n
mhaudio
dawg711
Chibi Nappa
BasickMusic
Manslick
talkingsmall
JB's Studio
trumpino1
D_Vincent

The link to download the tracks will be posted tonight. You will have ONE WEEK from June 22nd to complete your mix and PM me with a link to download it (IN WAV FORMAT) so I can upload them all to a central location.



THE TRACKS - CLICK HERE
 
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dawg711 said:
i'll also give it a go =)

do ya want it mastered as well? or just mixed?
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Just mixed, but do what you wish. If you want to master, go for it. Loudness will not make you a winner, though. :D



That's 4 so far! Let's see how many more we get throughout the day today.
 
As a ruthless and omnipotent judge of this thing, I have to say that I'd like to hear a "mastered" mix. I can't speak for the other judges, but I wanna hear a mix that's finished - like it's a single. If you choose to "master" your mix, it might help your score with me in the "Overall Mix" category. But be warned, don't just make it loud and think I'm gonna be okay with that. There's good loud and bad loud. If I deem your loud as bad loud, you will pay dearly for your transgressions.
 
Br3n said:
does this work the other way to if it's to quiet that's not cool for you either?
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I won't penalize if a mix is too quiet. I can turn it up. But if it's unreasonably quiet...well, that's a problem. Greg_L wants to hear a finished single. I certainly wouldn't mind. It would likely boost your Overall Mix score.
 
Br3n said:
does this work the other way to if it's to quiet that's not cool for you either?
Click to expand...

No that's okay. I can turn it up. Sounding good is the absolute most important thing. I'm just saying for me, if you wanna "master" it, and it's done well, it might help your score.
 
Myriad_Rocker said:
Mix will be judged on a scale of 0 to 5 in the following criteria:
Balance - spectral balance including levels and panning
Separation - everything clean and audible in its own space with no EQ clashing
Production - clever use of automation or effects
Overall Mix - general overall sound
Click to expand...
Criteria 1-3 are made irrelevant by criteria 4. And none of that bullcrap aside from 4 matters anyway. Simplify this thing. What one you like the best and nothing else.
 
ok cool. because i dont master my own mixes. so i will do the best i can with a mix that i would be happy with for my own band to sell.
 
Chibi Nappa said:
Criteria 1-3 are made irrelevant by criteria 4. And none of that bullcrap aside from 4 matters anyway. Simplify this thing. What one you like the best and nothing else.
Click to expand...

STFU peasant.

You're wrong anyway. Criteria 4, in my mind, is like overall listening pleasure. Lots of technically bad mixes are still awesome to listen to. The Stooges anyone?
 
Greg_L said:
STFU peasant.

You're wrong anyway. Criteria 4, in my mind, is like overall listening pleasure. Lots of technically bad mixes are still awesome to listen to. The Stooges anyone?
Click to expand...

agreed!!! to make a good full mix you need all 4 criteria without balance and separation a mix will sound muddy and dissatisfying and production is very much a personal thing what sounds good to you may not sound good to others.
 
I'm a little confused;
You say in the post you'll give us some snippets of kicks and snares...
But don't really say if we're mixing vocals or instruments +

It's probably an obvious answer,
But could you shed some clarity?
 
Greg_L said:
STFU peasant.

You're wrong anyway. Criteria 4, in my mind, is like overall listening pleasure. Lots of technically bad mixes are still awesome to listen to. The Stooges anyone?
Click to expand...
I dunno. Seems like an invitation to fire up the cookie-cutter factory. And a mix CAN'T be technically bad if it is awesome to listen to. If you "fixed" the Stooges, they wouldn't be as awesome to listen to. Anyway, the one that bothers me the most:

Separation - everything clean and audible in its own space with no EQ clashing

Many productions would fall flat on their ass if you did this. The entire point of Cherub Rock was that you couldn't pick out an individual guitar from the 15 or so playing the rhythm part. They wanted it to sound like a guitar wall. Does an orchestra mix fail because you can't pick out an individual 2nd chair violin? It would be a grating fractured mess if you could. Yeah, a mix can't sound like a muddy blob... but that's just "how does it sound".
 
BasickMusic said:
I'm a little confused;
You say in the post you'll give us some snippets of kicks and snares...
But don't really say if we're mixing vocals or instruments +

It's probably an obvious answer,
But could you shed some clarity?
Click to expand...
Not snippets of kicks and snares. Tracks. There are sample tracks of snares and kicks. Use them if you want. There are guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, as well as a couple of other goodies. You're mixing an ENTIRE song.

Chibi Nappa said:
I dunno. Seems like an invitation to fire up the cookie-cutter factory. And a mix CAN'T be technically bad if it is awesome to listen to. If you "fixed" the Stooges, they wouldn't be as awesome to listen to. Anyway, the one that bothers me the most:

Separation - everything clean and audible in its own space with no EQ clashing

Many productions would fall flat on their ass if you did this. The entire point of Cherub Rock was that you couldn't pick out an individual guitar from the 15 or so playing the rhythm part. They wanted it to sound like a guitar wall. Does an orchestra mix fail because you can't pick out an individual 2nd chair violin? It would be a grating fractured mess if you could. Yeah, a mix can't sound like a muddy blob... but that's just "how does it sound".
Click to expand...

Do you want to participate or complain? :D Just do a mix. If we like it best, you win. If not, you faltered somewhere.
 
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