GearFest Mixing Contest

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Hey Jimmy said:
I don't claim to have golden ears. But I do know what consumers are listening on: Beats, iPod docks, Sony Mini Shelves, and earbuds. If you're making mixes for audiophiles, best of luck to you.
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Just because there is a trend toward crap audio and lossy audio compression, that doesn't mean we need to pander to it. Someone has to promote better quality audio. I don't mean "audiphile" pseudo-science. I mean measurable quality audio. Show me a mastering studio that mixes solely on Mixcubes. You won't find one. They're more likely to have a set of B & Ws or Grover Notting. Checking your mix on other speakers is great for reference but you don't fill a Pinto with premium gas.

And, for the record, I am not a fan of Spector and his "wall of sound". I personally think it sounds like excrement but that's just my opinion. I'd much rather listen to a production by Allan Parsons. That's just my opinion.
 
liza_colby_oh_baby_gearfestpuremixcontest2013_solomonothniel

This is my interpretation of Liza Colby-Oh Baby. After I did over ten different mixes, I am satisfied with this one and I hope you do too.
I had the luck of buying my new apollo quad recently (straight from the moon) and was able to have all the plug-ins in trial mode………lucky me. but unlucky with the fact that I didn't have a proper monitoring system to mix on. I only had a beyerdynamic DT 770 pro and a pair of old computer speakers., with no sub.

My thought process for this song was this;
This song has four sections to it. A: the verse B: the chorus C: the guitar solo section and D: I call it the "oh baby grande finale". All four parts I tried to treat according to it's feel.
There are only four instruments in this song ( yes…i had to consider the vocals as an instrument because her voice is powerful enough )
After watching the video of the making of the song, I was inspired to try and capture the that live performance. I hope I did…….
I did not want to kill the dynamics of the song.
I wanted to capture the different emotions of Liza Colby in the verse vs. the chorus and also the grande ending.

The daw of my choice was Pro Tools 10. The plug-ins that I use varies. I use what ever plug-ins that will give me the sound that I'm looking for.( i'm not bias) I used pro tools stock plug-ins, UAD, Sound Toys, Steven Slate Digital and Waves. I re-recorded all the tracks through the UAD studer ( except the vocals, because I found out that it makes the bad frequencies come out even louder) and UAD 1176 or LA-2A to control the dynamics a little more or if needs be.
My approach to the getting the tracks ready for mixing was :
The Drums: I did a lot of drum editing because I wanted total control of the parts. I separated the kicks, the verse section different from the chorus sections, just to clean up and tighten the low-end a little bit. I did a parallel chain on the over heads and put an Uad Amp room on one to give it some color. I separated the toms from the overheads and Eq-ed them so they would stand out in the mix especially at the "oh baby grande finale" ending.
The bass : I just add the UAD Bass Amp room and use the stock EQ to clean up the low end for the Bass Amp track and for the D-I track, I used the bass amp room but added some high frequencies to let it pop out more, even on small speakers.
The guitars : I used three tracks for the guitar. A; first mono G-track was for low presence. I took away the high mids because it's purpose was to just add some bass resonance under the vocals. B; stereo G-track was for to make sound big, because the vocals was that powerful. and C; the G-solo track I used it just to add some sonic change when the chorus comes. I also used the pro-tools stock DB-33 organ effects to give it a different color when the guitar solo comes in. ( I said whatever works, I'll use it ).
Vocals : The vocals was the most interesting to work on because it was the hardest. Because I had to make the decision of not using a lot of plug-ins to make it sit in the track. because the vocals was recorded in a big room with instruments playing, it also picked up a lot of ringing/bad frequencies, so The normal way of compressing and EQ-ing was out the door. I used the Slate Digital VCC, the D3 COM/LIM stock plug-in ( I used the side-chain feature), the stock EQ plug-in and finally I got to use the UAD LA2A to end the vocal chain. So the trick is to make the vocal sound big in the mix and that brings me to effects.
Effects : Now this part of the mix I find has been the most important. Because instead of turning up the vocal tracks to make it stand out in the mix, I turned up the effects instead. And I used the delay on one of the reverb aux to make that continuous sutle sound in the background, It's not rely present but it kinda fill the gaps when the vocal are out. I wanted to create a big acoustical space around all the instruments so it seems like it is a live recording……of which it really is.
I hope this has explained my approach to this Song. and I hope I did a good job capturing the different moods. It has been a journey and a pleasure.
Thank You.
 
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Here is my mix. Maybe I got a little carried away with multing out the guitars, but I couldn't resist. What can I say, I'm a sucker for some stereo width.

 
please can eanybody help me on to find out the group adress to add my mix of "OH BABY" song for the MIX CONTEST? The group link "https://soundcloud.com/groups/gearfest-mixing- contest" on the instructions seems not to work. The browser says the group doesn't exist.
 
I just finished my mix for this contest. It has been a very wonderful experience. sorta like an exam to me. good luck everyone.
 
hey dude, here is the link.
 
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Hello.

I'm new here and this is my mix for contest:



I really enjoy making this :). Great contest - it would be great to here same words from you guys and after ending same words from jury (it's gonna be difficult, I know).

Good luck everyone.
 
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great mixes everyone!

I'm really impressed with lots of the ones I just listened to. I did one this afternoon, but I'm traveling and only have my laptop and crappy earbuds. Anyways, it was a fun exercise. I just hope my eq isn't too skewed. I either nailed the cymbals or they're destroying the mix :)

hmm, it seems I can't post urls. anyways, it's soundcloud followed by /gearvote/gearvote-scott-m-oh-baby-gearfestpuremixcontest should anyone want to hear an earbud mix....

Cheers!

 
smgear said:
I'm really impressed with lots of the ones I just listened to. I did one this afternoon, but I'm traveling and only have my laptop and crappy earbuds. Anyways, it was a fun exercise. I just hope my eq isn't too skewed. I either nailed the cymbals or they're destroying the mix :)

hmm, it seems I can't post urls. anyways, it's soundcloud followed by /gearvote/gearvote-scott-m-oh-baby-gearfestpuremixcontest should anyone want to hear an earbud mix....

Cheers!
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Heya, you don't need to post a URL, just use the soundcloud icon in the Go Advanced menu of the Post Dialog.

I hooked you up with the link. :)
 
smgear said:
I'm really impressed with lots of the ones I just listened to. I did one this afternoon, but I'm traveling and only have my laptop and crappy earbuds. Anyways, it was a fun exercise. I just hope my eq isn't too skewed. I either nailed the cymbals or they're destroying the mix :)

hmm, it seems I can't post urls. anyways, it's soundcloud followed by /gearvote/gearvote-scott-m-oh-baby-gearfestpuremixcontest should anyone want to hear an earbud mix....

Cheers!

Click to expand...

actually not half bad for an earbud mix! the cymbals weren't too bad, the snare seems just a little bit too forward, and the voice seems a little bit lo fi for some reason
 
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