Who makes the best sounding mixes - CONTEST!

tigerflystudio

tigerflystudio

New member
Ok... just for fun, which of us Home Recording forum'ers makes the best sounding recordings?

RULES:
- 1 entry (song) only (i.e. your best piece of work)
- amateaur home-recordists only
- List what you played on the recording
- List what equipment you used to mix / master
- Date it

Post up your links
 
:laughings: @ miroslav

The big problem that sort of springs immediately to mind here is that this isn't a contest about mixing as much as it is about performing, tracking, arranging, and mixing. Furthermore, genre preferences are going to be huge - how do you compare the mix of a sparse piano, vocal, bass, and brushed drumkit arrangement to a heavily layered metal tune?

I think this could potentially be interesting if there was a file of raw tracks that everyone started with, and we could then compare how everyone used those same starting points, but there are just too many non-mix-related variables here.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
I think this could potentially be interesting if there was a file of raw tracks that everyone started with, and we could then compare how everyone used those same starting points.
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It's already been done several times. Over in the MP3 Clinic forum they have mixing contests all the time.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
It's already been done several times. Over in the MP3 Clinic forum they have mixing contests all the time.

G.
Click to expand...

We used to have very formal judging as well. I judged several of them, farview did some, the venerable Blue Bear judged the early ones. The raw tracks were good too, many from xfinsterx, I think NL5 supplied one of them. I forget all the details as I came in a little past halfway.

If somebody has truly worthy raw tracks, I would be interested in reviving a sequel. Search the clinic for "public mix contest" in thread title and you will find them.
 
I think he's talkking finished product not everyone starting with the same raw tracks. A lot of us already have that competition although it's called trying to get people to buy your stuff on iTunes!

I hear Simon Cowell will have some free time on his hands in a couple of months. Maybe he could judge :)
 
yeah, I'm thinking more along the lines of already recorded / mixed stuff that you consider well done, that YOU did at home.

Can someone tell me the best place to upload my audio file so you guys can have a listen and see what you think of my entry?
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Tigerfly - but, to my point, that's not really a mixing contest, right?
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I agree, we could do our best to judge only the mix. But how do you seperate a good mix, from a good initial track capture using equipment correctly. If I have Warwick fretless bass going through a UA 610 and some killer compression, my bass is going to destroy your Ibanez SDGR bass going through an M Audio Audio Buddy and a Alesis 3630. Know what I mean.
 
undrgrnd studio said:
I agree, we could do our best to judge only the mix. But how do you seperate a good mix, from a good initial track capture using equipment correctly. If I have Warwick fretless bass going through a UA 610 and some killer compression, my bass is going to destroy your Ibanez SDGR bass going through an M Audio Audio Buddy and a Alesis 3630. Know what I mean.
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That would depend on who was playing the bass, wouldn't it?
 
undrgrnd studio said:
I agree, we could do our best to judge only the mix. But how do you seperate a good mix, from a good initial track capture using equipment correctly. If I have Warwick fretless bass going through a UA 610 and some killer compression, my bass is going to destroy your Ibanez SDGR bass going through an M Audio Audio Buddy and a Alesis 3630. Know what I mean.
Click to expand...

IF you're a tight player, and know how to make that bass fit in with your guitarist's tone, and are playing an arrangement that works for all the parts. IF you even care for the sound of a fretless. Again, it just gets messier and messier and messier. :p
 
tigerflystudio said:
yeah, I'm thinking more along the lines of already recorded / mixed stuff that you consider well done, that YOU did at home.

Can someone tell me the best place to upload my audio file so you guys can have a listen and see what you think of my entry?
Click to expand...
I'd be interested in that I've never even gotten into posting stuff and it would be fun. Maybe segregate into song type/style’ or something?
I'm ‘long time part time musician as well as part time home project studio-for-hire guy.. that make me 'pro, semi-pro.. I'dn know.. :) ;)
Also, some spots won't allow up-load of 'cover tunes. Not sure how strict that gets.. but does that put a glitch in narrowing options? I’ve been sort of half-assed wondering about that, ‘my space' or what?

..Just to add. Part of the fun as I see it might be simply in seeing examples and the variety of what can be done from a 'home situation.
 
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DrewPeterson7 said:
Tigerfly - but, to my point, that's not really a mixing contest, right?
Click to expand...

undrgrnd studio said:
I agree, we could do our best to judge only the mix. But how do you seperate a good mix, from a good initial track capture using equipment correctly. If I have Warwick fretless bass going through a UA 610 and some killer compression, my bass is going to destroy your Ibanez SDGR bass going through an M Audio Audio Buddy and a Alesis 3630. Know what I mean.
Click to expand...
And it's not just what one does with the quality of the tracks but also how they actually use the tracks. Deciding when this guitar comes in, or that keyboard gets showcased, or whether the vocals are simple accompaniment or a call and response role, did one fly in the second chorus from the first or use the original second, or that th mix actually sounded better *without* that fourth cowbell, etc. are all important parts of the mixing skill set, and next to impossible to determine whether they were mixing choices or just what was there from just listening to the final mix without hearing the "before" tracks as well.

Just hearing the final mix is not a mixing contest, it's a song popularity contest.

G.
 
undrgrnd studio said:
If I have Warwick fretless bass going through a UA 610 and some killer compression, my bass is going to destroy your Ibanez SDGR bass going through an M Audio Audio Buddy and a Alesis 3630. Know what I mean.
Click to expand...

Oh, oh....this sounds like a challenge...the gauntlet is down! :eek:
We could do it like they did in "The Quick and the Dead"! :D

But yeah...most times, people are NOT judging the recording/mixing quality, they are judging the music...and then it gets very subjective based on personal tastes.
 
I think the best way to do this would be to upload some full-length individual
tracks as 44.1kHz, 24-bit Broadcast WAV of just drums, bass, guitar, vocals etc.
and let everybody download them and import them into their DAW and mix away.

Fully edited before it's uploaded would probably be best, so that we can focus
purely on mixing. I mean, it wouldn't be fair for somebody using top-of-the-range
samples (drums etc.) to compete against somebody who tracks a crappy kit
live with two crappy mics, when it comes to a mixing competition. Even if the
person tracking the crappy kit has the better mixing skills, the person with the
samples could sound better. It's hard to judge. I'd rather eat lobster that was
decently prepared by an amateur cook, than rubbish-bin contents prepared
by Gordon Ramsay, doesn't mean that the mcdonalds guy is a better chef :p
 
philbagg said:
I think the best way to do this would be to upload some full-length individual
tracks as 44.1kHz, 24-bit Broadcast WAV of just drums, bass, guitar, vocals etc.
and let everybody download them and import them into their DAW and mix away.

Fully edited before it's uploaded would probably be best, so that we can focus
purely on mixing. I mean, it wouldn't be fair for somebody using top-of-the-range
samples (drums etc.) to compete against somebody who tracks a crappy kit
live with two crappy mics, when it comes to a mixing competition. Even if the
person tracking the crappy kit has the better mixing skills, the person with the
samples could sound better. It's hard to judge. I'd rather eat lobster that was
decently prepared by an amateur cook, than rubbish-bin contents prepared
by Gordon Ramsay, doesn't mean that the mcdonalds guy is a better chef :p
Click to expand...

As had been mentioned above this has already been done before, and not to toot my own horn but I won twice, but the wining isn't the thing, it's the learning and seeing how others mix and come up with solutions.

here's a link to PMC (public mix contest) #8
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=144274&page=9&highlight=pmc

and #11
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=156602&highlight=pmc

wonder why I choose those?
Hey they even had prizes for some of these!!!
(Again thanks xfinsterx, mshilarious and to all those involved in making the old ones happen)

looks like there's been about 13 PMC's and a hand full of other mix contest.

I'd love to do another.
 
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