GearFest Mixing Contest

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Hi guys!

Here's my mix for the contest. Hope you enjoy it.
Good luck to all,
W

 
Hey Guys,

some nice mixes here of this simply amazing song (and performance).

Here is my mix:



I would post the informations about how and why here, but it's not a short text and i don't want spam this thread. Who is interested can read it in the SoundCloud Description.

Hope you enjoy !

Good luck to all !


Martin Stys
 
since the post before was also deleted / edited...
 
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Because it was a 70’S kind of rock song i decided to experiment a few things, so first of all i took a lot a psychedelic drugs… no kidding, but I’m a student in sound engineering and i wanted to apply what I’ve learned and unserstood in school mixed with what i’ve read on sound engineering and try things to go further… I’m a huge 70’S soul fan so i read a lot on how do the mix engineer worked on their project and i tried to create that kind of warm sound… i worked 100% in the box on PT10 (i’ve tried to print my mix on a reel to reel ¼ tape, but it wasn’t a success, too much vintage , i need to work on my tape for calibration, cleaning etc!!!) and it was the start of my experimentation : how to give an analog sound with plu gins only… just before the contest i purchase the PLUG And mix bundle with a lot of vintage effects etc, and i first decided to use only P&M… after a while i went to far on plu gins etc it was too much… so i decided to restart with all my plu gins….without restriction…
So my goal was to have a warm analog sound, with very clear centred vocals, a huge bass and saturated drums with a big rock guit, i wanted to have that soul sound with the loudness and the energy of the 70’s rock and try to preservate the energy of the song…

I was very inspired by Bob Ohlsson and his work in Motown, for the EQ and for the rest i wanted to have a huge warm rock sound : a mix of 70’s soul and rock !

Before i start mixing, i made a rough mix, with just panning and levels… i clean every track with automation on volume and i worked on the phase… first i tried to put the drum on the grid but it killed the vibe of the track, so i just rearrange the tracks to have a good phase, especially between the drums and the bass and after between the bass and the vocals…
After i started EQ and comp :

- Kick : PT Channel Strip, brickwalled at 70Hz, boost at 100 and 3,4k, cut at 200 and light Compression, P&M transient Control (attack and sustain arround 20)
- Snare : EQ and comp with channel strip and P&M transient Control, i dupplicated the track to make a kind of new york compression, more Eq, and API 2500 emulation. A little reverb... I had issue with the snare, but it sounds like the old soul record which has only 1 mic for the drums...
- OH : panned wide, channel strip cut o lot of High…
- Drum group : compressed and EQ with ALLOY2, with Tube and tape exciter, for the saturated and warm sound.. drum group duplicated with new york compression and P&M brightness boosta t 10k, reverb.
- BASS : to have a huhe bass i kept the 2 tracks, but the amp was kept only for dirt the DI a bit… EQ and a lot of compression with ALLOY2, on both, Monster Boost P&M and Analoger to have warm sound… i used the amp louder during the rock chorus. The 2 basses are in group with a retro compressor a montser boost…
- Guitare : dupplicated and panned to have a stereo guitare, a lot of reverb,, EQ, COMPRESSION, Alloy2 exciter and compressor, montser boost…and a spring reverb, side chained with the vocals, in order to have less loud guit when she sings
- Vox : the vox sounds great originally : so little EQ to clean the track, compression with channel strip and a quiet LA1176 emulation to have it more in your face, a reverb and a delay to give air… and i made a lot of automation, a manual vocal ride…
- Fx : a general reverb, a spring reverb, and i have an aux track with the LESLIE PM plu gins, where i send the overheads, the bass, one of the guit and the tambourin to have a vintage fx…
- A retro comp on the master instrument bus and
- A last eq on the master to give the final flavor, an analoguer with tape emulation, alloy 2 with exciter a very gentle compression…
 
Csavi said:
A quick question. In the discussion room on gearfestpuremix on soundcloud someone wrote this statement. "Guys and girls, i do not mean this as a cut down to your music because I am guilty of the same thing. I mixed to loud. I think the rules stated our mixes should be around -11 or -12 db and mine is WAY OVER that. That automatically disqualified me. And one other thing, we were not suppose to add any reverb, echo, etc. The rules said if we did use any of these to keep them as transparent as possible. I am also guilty of this. I know I never won, but to all the others here, all the best to you."

I just want to make sure if this information is correct cause in mixing using eq's, compressors, reverbs and delays are apart of mixing. Also in the instructions it didnt say you cannot use revebs, delays etc.
Can someone clarify this for me please thanks.
Click to expand...

You won't be disqualified When you're louder. The rms level was a Suggestion Not a rule.
And you certainly won't be disqualified for using reverbs and delays. That's bs...
 
I thinkthat guy just wanted to scare... Mix without reverb or delay? Or maybe he's just kidding...

 
rms reverb and delay

from some of the mixes I've listened to, IMO the people disqualifying themselves were using off key harmonizer effects on the vocals!! :facepalm:

i even heard one where some guy put OFF KEY harmonizer over the whole guitar part! wow



As for the -16 rms level, my fist test mixes were all reading at -21 or something, i ended up having to turn up my stuff to get into the competition guidelines lol... to get to -16, a few peaks were dealt with but the waveform still had plenty of dynamics

I'd also say a bit of reverb must be used!
 
QuintaQuad said:
I think most are posting wav. files.

You can repost as long as there is only one mix posted on June 1st, which is the deadline...
Click to expand...

I hope that's right...I feel like going back and making a few minor tweaks, but I didn't know if it was already entered.
I am new to soundcloud, and it shows that my mix was downloaded 2 times, but I didn't know if the downloads were my entry into the contest?
 
BrandonSchoch said:
Here is my attempt for the contest. Any constructive feedback would be great, thanks!!

Click to expand...

I think it's a good mix, punchy, and good balance...The only opinion I would have, is maybe a bit less reverb on the vocal, but hey, maybe the judges will think it's spot on, so it's just one man's opinion regarding the reverb.
Good luck Brotha.
 
I submitted my first mix early in this contest. It was unique, 70s, very lo-fi. But the vocal effects i was using was admittedly tough to listen to. After nearly a month of work on my little mix, this is my new version. Still tried to keep the spirit of the early 70s vintage blues rock recording sound.

But i feel like the vocals are much better in this mix. Dig how i panned the vocals pretty far left, almost as an answer to the right-panned guitar?

 
Analog Mono Mix

Everything was done on a 4-track Tascam analog tape deck.
Drums went through Altec 1567a, and sub-mixed to mono.
All 4 mono tracks (drums, guitar, bass and vocals) were then assigned a channel on the Tascam. I hit the tape pretty hard for a Motown/Stax kinda feel.
Purple audio LilPEQr provided eq on the way out, Overstayer for drum compression, Roland Space Echo and my bedroom as a reverb chamber.
Mono mix back into Logic.
I don't have a lot of gear, but this song seems to fit the gear i have!
Comment and suggestions welcome.
 
Curtis Heath said:
Everything was done on a 4-track Tascam analog tape deck.
Drums went through Altec 1567a, and sub-mixed to mono.
All 4 mono tracks (drums, guitar, bass and vocals) were then assigned a channel on the Tascam. I hit the tape pretty hard for a Motown/Stax kinda feel.
Purple audio LilPEQr provided eq on the way out, Overstayer for drum compression, Roland Space Echo and my bedroom as a reverb chamber.
Mono mix back into Logic.
I don't have a lot of gear, but this song seems to fit the gear i have!
Comment and suggestions welcome.
Click to expand...

I think the softer passes are really good with your analog vibe, very cool....but in my opinion, the louder passes are too over saturated and sound distorted...but hey, that's just my opnion, the judges might think it's spot on.
Best of luck Brotha!
 
Why in mono?man.
Curtis Heath said:
Everything was done on a 4-track Tascam analog tape deck.
Drums went through Altec 1567a, and sub-mixed to mono.
All 4 mono tracks (drums, guitar, bass and vocals) were then assigned a channel on the Tascam. I hit the tape pretty hard for a Motown/Stax kinda feel.
Purple audio LilPEQr provided eq on the way out, Overstayer for drum compression, Roland Space Echo and my bedroom as a reverb chamber.
Mono mix back into Logic.
I don't have a lot of gear, but this song seems to fit the gear i have!
Comment and suggestions welcome.
Click to expand...
 
Hi all,

Any final thoughts on my mix? Comments are welcome!

Cheers,
/M

 
guys, Gearfest mixers, - I wonder why some repost its mixes again as if a new one? Is it permitted by Gearfest rules?
 
I'm pretty sure that creativity is allowed and encouraged but people with bland, ultra clean mixes with bouncy clean bass lines and the guitar dead panned in the center sure do seem to be a bit full of themselves on the comments!
 
Hi, please check out my mix. I spent a great deal of time on it and am happy with the result. You can read the book I wrote in the description. Please like it if you like what you hear.

 
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