GearFest Mixing Contest

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Guitargodgt said:
Is anyone hearing some lossyness in the high end even when uploading a 16 bit 44k wav to soundcloud? It's really obvious when I go from DAW to soundcloud. I did dither on the mixdown.
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Soundcloud is a mix killer. It's just the site-du-jour at the moment, so yeah. If you can make it sound decent on soundcloud, it's probably a pretty good mix.
 
Guitargodgt said:
Is anyone hearing some lossyness in the high end even when uploading a 16 bit 44k wav to soundcloud? It's really obvious when I go from DAW to soundcloud. I did dither on the mixdown.
Click to expand...

Definitely; high end is degraded by soundcloud's compression. Even in 24/44.1k (yep soundcloud accepts 24 bit wav files).
 
mjbphotos said:
Looking at all the forum newbies posting here with their mixes - and listening to parts of quite a few yesterday, I'm glad I didn't spend any time with it.
To me, mixing should be done with the artist/band's goal in mind. It's easy when I'm mixing my own stuff, I know what I want out of it. So many of the mixes I listened to were pretty similar, just some different EQ or reverb or overall balancing. I feel sorry for the judges!
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That's what the challenge is about: making a great song with a few tracks. I do agree with you, with a technical mix you end up with an ok mix, but not yet oustanding; this challenge is here to test participant's empathy towards the artists and the listener, their ability to create a bridge between them. Even if the artists explains their intentions to you, if you don't Feel the song, you won't be able to understand these intentions. All in all, to me a good mixer is someone who understands things without words. It works or it doesn't. -- my thoughts though.
 
soupiraille said:
That's what the challenge is about: making a great song with a few tracks. I do agree with you, with a technical mix you end up with an ok mix, but not yet oustanding; this challenge is here to test participant's empathy towards the artists and the listener, their ability to create a bridge between them. Even if the artists explains their intentions to you, if you don't Feel the song, you won't be able to understand these intentions. All in all, to me a good mixer is someone who understands things without words. It works or it doesn't. -- my thoughts though.
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Agree. The challenege is in the interpretation and conveying that as best as you can with what you have.
 
soupiraille said:
Definitely; high end is degraded by soundcloud's compression. Even in 24/44.1k (yep soundcloud accepts 24 bit wav files).
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Wow! I kept thinking I messed up my mix because I wasn't hearing some of the subtlety I had in my mix at home. I guess we'll have to see how they compensate for that in the judging. I did upload 24bit/44100. Does Soundcloud compress like it wants an MP3?
 
Hi there,

here is my mix. I'm not entirely happy with it yet, but I'd love to get some feedback, I mean if you are not already tired to listen to the song :-)

Cheers,
Andy

 
fHumble fHingaz said:
Another really good mix.
Vocals: great.
Guitars: very good.
Drums: have a touch of boxiness in them - not a huge problem - just could do with a few eq dips around the 200-400hz area in the low mids of the kick & toms (OH?)
Bass: Good level, but there is some muddiness coming through that could be masking some of the clarity in the low end of your mix. Somewhere around the 250hz mark could use some work - again, nothing really major.
Overall: Very straightforward mix, but well done. It does lose a little energy during the guitar solo - a few little automation "tricks" might have helped improve the flow of that part.
Top job!
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Thank you so much for the kind words and the feedback.

I've tweaked the mix some further. For the better I hope :-)

 
Guitargodgt said:
Is anyone hearing some lossyness in the high end even when uploading a 16 bit 44k wav to soundcloud? It's really obvious when I go from DAW to soundcloud. I did dither on the mixdown.
Click to expand...

No worries, if the song gets downloaded the soundcloud limitations are away.
 
SodOnBass said:
Thank you very much!

It is true that I am not the biggest fan of reverby sounds. I sometimes do not push my reverbs enough... May be because I mix with headphones.

Your mix is great too, with a lot of creative ideas, and reverbs ;). Your kick is a little bit too compressed for me but it is also a matter of taste here.


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No problem - Yeah, I wasn't talking bout reverb in the classic sense so much as "room" sound - just some dimension/depth - what Fab calls "the office"...and you're right, because mixing on cans reveals everything in great detail, there is the tendency to under-cook that side of things.

Regarding my mix, I really wanted the kick to drive the mix, so I deliberately made it tight and punchy. I'm actually not using that much compression on it - after your comment I checked my mix and I'm only getting only around 5dB of gain reduction in the loudest parts of the song.

Thanks for listening and commenting!
 
Greg_L said:
Soundcloud is a mix killer. It's just the site-du-jour at the moment, so yeah. If you can make it sound decent on soundcloud, it's probably a pretty good mix.
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Kills a lot of the airy sounding space as well. Super lame.
 
So, after quite a few people considered using samples and drum replacement cheating I gave it another try without any samples at all.
I've spend all my evening tweaking the drums. Had to use some very complex routing, but I hope it was worth it...

Just finished mixing and uploaded it directly and after four hours of mixing I can't really tell if it sounds good or not.
So if you got any suggestions, don't hesitate.

Thanks!

 
Hey Guys,
I stumbled upon the contest a few days ago and thought I would give it a try. Since I just registered, I can't post the direct link to my mix yet but i would appreciate it if you would still check it out (soundcloud.com/mrnilz/gearfestpuremixcontest-by). In the meantime I try to collect some posts here :cool:



[ModNote: Hooked you up with a link]
 
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My Gearfest mix

Hi there, just upload my mix today, any critics appreciated :D

 
MrNilz said:
Hey Guys,
I stumbled upon the contest a few days ago and thought I would give it a try. Since I just registered, I can't post the direct link to my mix yet but i would appreciate it if you would still check it out (soundcloud.com/mrnilz/gearfestpuremixcontest-by). In the meantime I try to collect some posts here :cool:



[ModNote: Hooked you up with a link]
Click to expand...

Another good one. Smooth drums.
That hi hat spill on the snare drove me crazy... hard to do anything with it.
 
thanks for hooking me up with a link!

@ ouzo77: yeah that hihat...well i just went with what was there an tried to make it work with the snare. not super happy with it...
 
blinkerss said:
Hi there, just upload my mix today, any critics appreciated :D

Click to expand...

Very, very nice mix - nothing I could fault - my personal preference would be for a little more low end punch out of the kick, but the balance you have between the kick & bass is really lovely. Top job!
 


Hello guys!

After listening today with fresh ears I did some changes... I tamed down the cymbal fizz, worked out the spaces and the guitar balance, I made the kick a liiiitle less fat so it doesn't steel too much attention especially in the beginning plus cleaned out the muddiness of the intro riff. I hope you like it.

Cheers!

P.S Mixed completely ITB in Logic 9, except for the vocals were I used an 1176 HW and a Filtek eq. No samples were used.
 
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