GearFest Mixing Contest

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hueseph said:
I really hope they take those Puremix subscriptions and give them to people who could really use them. Likewise with the gear. I'd really hate to see those Focals go to some dude sitting behind a $300,000.00 SSL and a couple of Bowers and Wilkins or Genelec 1036a. Because you know that a guy who already has an established studio is only going to want them for the hoard value. Sure give them the guy with the best mix who could use a new set of monitors....channel strip, microphone, DAW.
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I mean, honestly I don't think anybody on here is mixing behind an SSL board or anything even comparable to that. Besides, the only real value you'd get out of a board like that is the faders. Those mic pres (that make those boards so expensive) are pretty useless for bringing it pre-recorded tracks. And all that aside, I'd tip my hat to someone who took the time to route all these tracks to any board like that (SSL, API, Neve, etc etc) to mix to a tape machine.

And I mixed mine with Reason and nothing more than the built-in processing and effects on a Mac Mini and I couldn't be more proud of my mix. Expensive gear doesn't make a good mix. Good ears and know-how are always what it's been about!
 
You should also consider that a lot of these guys could very likely be clicking through Sweetwater and finding gear they can throw on their profiles to puff themselves up. The same way, like you said, I'm sure all the pictures of those dudes with huge consoles can probably be found with a google image search haha
 
I drastically changed my mix so I figured I would post it again. You guys are cranking out some killer stuff! Let me know what y'all think of this. I have heard this so many times that I am not even sure what I'm listening to anymore!
 
Rms help!!!

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I finished my mix for this contest 2 weeks ago, but I've been forgetting to upload it.
Today, I decided to do so, and also I gave some songs a listen and right away I noticed something.

My mix sounds incredibly low compared to all the songs on this contest. I'm not sure if I am the one that's wrong or the majority aren't following the rules(which I doubt).

I made sure I mixed between -18 and -16 dbFs RMS because I used a "Metering" plug-in found on Logic 9. In the plug-in, there are two meters on the right, one for RMS(average) and the other one for Peaks. I made sure I never went over -16dBs on the second meter.
Was I right in doing that?

If so, does Soundcloud somehow enhances the audio in some way? I'm very very confused, I appreciate your time to read this and help me out if you can.

Thank you!!!
 
meroleroman7 said:
Hello, I'm new to this forum and I finished my mix for this contest 2 weeks ago, but I've been forgetting to upload it.
Today, I decided to do so, and also I gave some songs a listen and right away I noticed something.

My mix sounds incredibly low compared to all the songs on this contest. I'm not sure if I am the one that's wrong or the majority aren't following the rules(which I doubt).

I made sure I mixed between -18 and -16 dbFs RMS because I used a "Metering" plug-in found on Logic 9. In the plug-in, there are two meters on the right, one for RMS(average) and the other one for Peaks. I made sure I never went over -16dBs on the second meter.
Was I right in doing that?

If so, does Soundcloud somehow enhances the audio in some way? I'm very very confused, I appreciate your time to read this and help me out if you can.

Thank you!!!
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For the purposes of this contest forget the peak meter and go with -16 on the RMS meter.

Most folks posting to SoundCloud seem to have ignored the instructions and smashed the crap out of their mix so they're around 0dBfs. Stick with -16 RMS and you're good to go.

Best of luck...
 
SteveC7 said:
Hi All,
Just another newbie here... not new to DAWs or recording, but new to this forum and to Soundcloud (only one other track).

So here's my question - in the contest instructions we're supposed to use the Add to Group button to link our mixes to the contest page. Since the only Add to Group button I see is on my personal Soundcloud page, I'm assuming that's what I use? I only ask because I tried that and when clicking on "GearFest Mixing Contest" nothing seemed to happen, and my mix isn't on the contest page. So I'm not really sure if I'm doing the right thing...

TIA for any information that might help. I'm looking forward to making my way around HomeRecording.com - it's been a while since I've been this new at something. :D
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First go to the contest page on SoundCloud and click on Join. Then go to your personal page and click on Add To Group. A menu will pop up with Gearfest on it and click on that. Voila...you're in.

Best of luck...
 


This be my final mix. I went trough of phase where I modified a TON of stuff, and after about 3 hours of mixing, scrapped it all and went back to my previous mis to tweak a few small things. I'm pretty satisfied with it, especially with how far I've come in the last 2-3 weeks just learning the craft on this song. Big thanks to anyone who gave me any feedback or advice, it was tremendously helpful :D
 
Where and how do we upload the song mix we've done for Liza Colby"Baby"?
 
QuintaQuad said:
First go to the contest page on SoundCloud and click on Join. Then go to your personal page and click on Add To Group. A menu will pop up with Gearfest on it and click on that. Voila...you're in.

Best of luck...
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Thanks. That is what I did on my work machine earlier using IE9, but it just didn't want to work. Because you confirmed what I thought were the right steps I just tried it again using IE8, and it worked the first time out and took about five seconds to complete. Cool. :thumbs up:
 
I am new here and I had a lot of fun doing the mix. I've heard some of the mixes and I recommend you guys watch the videos of the recording sessions of the song to get the sound concept of the band. That's what I did. Keep it simple and visceral. No major tricks or drum replacement. The snare sound is awesome.
 
the link in the instructions pdf isn't pulling up the soundcloud group, anyone have a link on it?
 
mix by tk said:
Where and how do we upload the song mix we've done for Liza Colby"Baby"?
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QuintaQuad said:
First go to the contest page on SoundCloud and click on Join. Then go to your personal page and click on Add To Group. A menu will pop up with Gearfest on it and click on that. Voila...you're in.

Best of luck...
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just read above / or read the instructions from the pureMix page where you dowloaded the tracks
isn't that wondeful?
 
LionsMaine said:
I mean, honestly I don't think anybody on here is mixing behind an SSL board or anything even comparable to that. Besides, the only real value you'd get out of a board like that is the faders. Those mic pres (that make those boards so expensive) are pretty useless for bringing it pre-recorded tracks. And all that aside, I'd tip my hat to someone who took the time to route all these tracks to any board like that (SSL, API, Neve, etc etc) to mix to a tape machine.

And I mixed mine with Reason and nothing more than the built-in processing and effects on a Mac Mini and I couldn't be more proud of my mix. Expensive gear doesn't make a good mix. Good ears and know-how are always what it's been about!
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There are definitely some people using high end outboard and as I pointed out before some of the monitor systems out there are worth more than most peoples home systems. Shall I quote? I shall:
I mix on ProTools HDX 10.3.5
and 16DA out of HDi/o to Dengerous 2 Bus
→Manley Vari Mue(no gain reduction I used it as a tube line amp )
→Ｓａｍｐｌｉｔｕｄｅ11Ｐｒｏ
Ｍｏｎｉｔｏｒ　is BearFoot MM27 .
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Mixed in PT10 with UA, Soundtoys, Sonnox, NI, Plugin Alliance plugins. Summed via Lynx Aurora through an Audient Zen (Drums/Bass/Guitar/Lead Vox). Outboard used: Avalon VT737 (only the Tube Signal Path used) , Vertigo VSC-2 (very lightly) and Bricasti M7 for vox reverb (Vocal Chamber)
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Outboard Used: Empirical Labs Distressor, BAE 1073mp, Summit FEQ-50
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I'm running Yamaha NS-6490 as my near-field monitors and B&M Diamond 800 as my mastering monitors. For my mix, I used Waves Mercury plugin bundle as well as a GML 9500 Stereo Mastering Equalizer, Tube-Tech SMC2B Stereo Tube Multiband Optical Compressor.
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Edit: One of the mixes did come from this studio: http://www.synchronia.it/Synchronia/Recording.html

Now also as previously stated, gear doesn't make the mix and it's likely that some of these guys are borrowing time from their place of employment. There were at the least three HDX systems being used the last time I searched and one in the above quotes.

So, as much as I'd like to think this is a skills based contest, I wonder how level the playing field is. Also as noted by others, they will very likely keep the gear list in mind when making considerations.

All that being said, I'm not complaining. Even considering the gear lists, there are some great mixes out there that are strictly in the box.

As far as importing and routing the tracks to a large format mixer, it's no different than routing to any DAW. Particularly with HDX based system, it's merely an import. Your channel routing is set up already. That's not something you want or need to change on a regular basis.
 
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T-Guitar said:
As another newbie on the block, What tool did you use for the file analysis?
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Samplemanger, but I think the RMS is more of a recommendation than a strict rule to help you not to fall in the pitfall to crush your mix and ruin it. A stock RMS meter dancing around from about -18 to -15dB RMS on the loudest parts should do it.

Cheers,
Andy
 
Hi there, I've been hearing lots of your mixes and I'm very impressed with the different approaches!!
This is my attempt (I have no monitors, so it is mixed with a hi-fi equipment and headphones)

 
Would like to hear some feedback if possible. Stil a week till deadline. I could improve my mix
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Sounds good to my ears. Maybe could improve the snare with more presence.
 
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