GearFest Mixing Contest

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fHumble fHingaz said:
I dunno...to put all us amateurs in our place, maybe? ;) Maybe they haven't got enough work because home studio dudes have learned all their secrets & are turning out pretty decent mixes these days, so there's nothing better for them to do... really... who cares? :D
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Probably yes. I was wondering because a guy that makes money with engineering is supposed to already have some success, people go and pay him because they know he does a pretty good job.

Anyways!

Regarding drum triggering, actually the goal is the complete some frequency information, not to change the tone of the recording. If you watch Pensado's ITLs you'll notice that the sample triggerings he does is way way way very subtle, all he does is adding a touch in a frequency area that make the recording better sit in the mix ; just a tiny touch, and absolutely no tone change.

But anyways as someone said before, as soon as a sound enters a microphone, it is transformed and will no more be the same from then. So...
 
soupiraille said:
Regarding drum triggering, actually the goal is the complete some frequency information, not to change the tone of the recording. If you watch Pensado's ITLs you'll notice that the sample triggerings he does is way way way very subtle, all he does is adding a touch in a frequency area that make the recording better sit in the mix ; just a tiny touch, and absolutely no tone change.
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I can see how using subtle drum triggering would makes sense. I didn't use any myself this time around, probably because I don't have any drum triggering software. I've been considering buying Slate Trigger for some time now. It it the best?

Here is my mix, without drum triggering ;-)
 
I hope I didn't mess up the official entry as I posted to the official site several times but deleted and re-posted the entry after getting a few helpful suggestions. I felt the song lent itself to vintage rock/current indie. I'm not as experienced as some in weeding through the stems and "cleaning" things up I had fun and learned a lot about what my DAW can really do. Some of the posts sound really good so I know this will be a tough competition. How do others feel about the genre of the song?
 
I also take issue with individuals who lecture home recording people behind more than a million bucks in rooms and gear as if it's impossible to get good results without signal paths that don't cost $5k a piece.
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Amen! Totally with you on that.

Regarding drum triggering, actually the goal is the complete some frequency information, not to change the tone of the recording. If you watch Pensado's ITLs you'll notice that the sample triggerings he does is way way way very subtle, all he does is adding a touch in a frequency area that make the recording better sit in the mix ; just a tiny touch, and absolutely no tone change.
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Yeah, this is so true. Drum triggering doesn't have to automatically mean drum replacement. Very "transparent" results can be achieved by blending.

I didn't use any myself this time around, probably because I don't have any drum triggering software. I've been considering buying Slate Trigger for some time now. It it the best?
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Trigger is very good, and in some cases can save time. However, virtually every midi capable DAW available now has transient detection/extraction as a standard feature, and since all that is required for drum triggering is to convert transient information into midi information, you may find that your existing DAW already possesses the ability to trigger drums from existing audio. If you don't have any drum sample libraries to trigger , you can find a few really excellent free multi-sampled libraries if you search around the net.

Before I got Trigger, I used Sonar's transient detection algorithm (called Audiosnap) very successfully for a few years.

Trigger is excellent and very fast to use where you have reasonably well isolated close drum mics and the playing is quite consistent. However, if you are trying to extract drum hits from non-isolated sources (like overheads, for eg.), or trying to trigger very dynamic and subtle drum styles, it is still takes a LOT of work and resourcefulness - in that case, it's definitely not a magic bullet.
 
SodOnBass said:
Hi Guys!

My first post here, don't be too rude...

I remember a video (may be from the GearFest) where Fab said drums replacement is a crime against humanity. On the other hand, in PureMix videos, snare sound is often mix with a sample. Is it drums replacement? Personally, I never had the opportunity to try any drums replacement tool but I sometimes put a snare sample in the mix to get the vibe I want to get...

Anyway, I don't know if this will help, but here is my entry for the contest. Pure amateur work and no samples, I swear :D!



Cheers!

SodOnBass
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Very well balanced, nice clean mix - vocals sound great - very clear, with perfectly judged ambiance - Nice full low end, drums sound is really crisp, without any muddiness or boxiness - sweet! About the only thing I personally would have preferred is a little more "room" around the drums - the snare is just a touch dry for my taste, but it's all good. Top job!
 
thomasjacquot said:
Hello !

this is my first mix on protools 10 for GearFest Mixing Contest with :
Waves Plugins (1176, LA2A, Kramer, H-delay, NLS, C6, R-dess, SSL bus comp, L2)
Sonalksis stereo tools
PCM91
SpringAgee
Fabfilter EQ

No mastering, no hardware (expet pcm), just PT 10 and plugins.
if you want to give me your opinion, it's so cool.

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I like the balance on your mix too - The bass drum has a nice "spongy" feel that is quite attractive. Some really inventive use of effects to fill out the stereo spectrum & create some little "special moments" too. I love that little stutter delay on the snare at the pre-chorus break! I thought of doing exactly the same thing, but then decided against it - it's a really good "energy builder".

About the only thing I'm not too keen on is the vocal reverb. 2 things would improve it greatly IMO -
1. Increase the pre-delay setting to about 70-100ms to offset the onset of the delay & bring the vocal "forward" in the mix.
2. Eq. the tone of the reverb itself to reduce that "bathroomy/metallicy" ring in the high mids - that would really give it a sweeter, more "expensive" tone.

Nice work!
 
jasperhb said:
I can see how using subtle drum triggering would makes sense. I didn't use any myself this time around, probably because I don't have any drum triggering software. I've been considering buying Slate Trigger for some time now. It it the best?

Here is my mix, without drum triggering ;-)
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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!
 
oh yeah, lots of great mixes, lots of competitors!

everytime I think I'm done with my mix, I take a listen on SoundCloud to see what other people did, and then I start doubting... it's very frustrating!

this contest is Really challenging, it's tough but that's how we progress!
 
Did they do this type of contest last year? If so are there any of the winners mixes still around?
 
I had a bit of fun with this earlier this morning. It's a great song....I really like it although I think after listening to loads of different mixes this could get old real quick. Here's my 30 minute mix of it.....



:thumbs up:
 
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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!
 
Well here is my first go at it. I'm not 100% if this is going to be my submission though as I really pushed the limits in terms of where the boundaries of mixing can go. No triggers on the kick or snare. I did opt to trigger the toms though aiming for samples as transparent as possible. Also: got to turn it up, there is nothing on the 2 bus.



I passed everything through SIR 2 with a room impulse I made last year. I was pretty stoked to finally use it. haha
 
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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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Same here. There wasn't a whole lot of options for this song. I assume the judges will do a quick wash off some key points and then proceed. It will still take them a while!
 
fHumble fHingaz said:
Very well balanced, nice clean mix - vocals sound great - very clear, with perfectly judged ambiance - Nice full low end, drums sound is really crisp, without any muddiness or boxiness - sweet! About the only thing I personally would have preferred is a little more "room" around the drums - the snare is just a touch dry for my taste, but it's all good. Top job!
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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.


 
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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