Public Mix Contest #12!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dogman]

7th. Not bad, eh?

Thanks, everyone.

Good job, geet. (and to all who did this...) This was pretty hard for me, as it had way too much stuff to play with, and I did... I know I should have just done a straight up mix, but......

Next time...

 

[bigbubba]

26th out of 27? It's 5th grade all over again.

Congratulations to Xstatic and Daunt. Congratulations to all for having learnt something here. I wasn't expecting to be the last almost so it's interesting to see how the low scores across the row will improve over time. I'm hopin' to learn a lot. Well, I did mix the whole thing on a home theater system without ever checking it in the headphones or even on a different system, so this was to be expected. I did listen to it at work a little bit but I think that was more for the tune.

 

[reshp1]

26th out of 27? It's 5th grade all over again.

Congratulations to Xstatic and Daunt. Congratulations to all for having learnt something here. I wasn't expecting to be the last almost so it's interesting to see how the low scores across the row will improve over time. I'm hopin' to learn a lot. Well, I did mix the whole thing on a home theater system without ever checking it in the headphones or even on a different system, so this was to be expected. I did listen to it at work a little bit but I think that was more for the tune.

Don't sweat it man, if you learnt something, that's all that matters. I actually liked what you were trying to do with your mix, from a production standpoint. Your low end was way loud, could be you're sitting in a null in your room and overcompensating the low end. Try moving around the room, trying different speakers, listen in your car, and use headphones. Comparing to commerecial mixes will be helpful here too. IMO the vocals were way too low in your mix. It should be the centerpiece of the song. The drums, particularly the snare was also too loud, tending to overpower the rest of the elements.

 

[bigbubba]

Don't sweat it man, if you learnt something, that's all that matters. I actually liked what you were trying to do with your mix, from a production standpoint. Your low end was way loud, could be you're sitting in a null in your room and overcompensating the low end. Try moving around the room, trying different speakers, listen in your car, and use headphones. Comparing to commerecial mixes will be helpful here too. IMO the vocals were way too low in your mix. It should be the centerpiece of the song. The drums, particularly the snare was also too loud, tending to overpower the rest of the elements.

Yeah, I did learn a good deal. And I mixed it on a home theater.... hardly an environment to mix a song in. Plus, PMC13 is around the corner. I'll try to place in the first 3 quarters of the list. Slow and steady climb to a more desirable placement.

 

[ecktronic]

thank you
the whisper part...again...is more of personal opinion. I just heard it as a whisper in a part of the music where every other instrument dies out....and then all of a sudden everything comes back in loud again! So I felt a big contrast in volume was needed. Not to mention it really hurts my ears listening to a lot of the songs where the whisper jumped up the volume by +9dBFS.

nice job though, even if you had to mix it in a round-about way

THnks Benny.
yeah was reall tricky to kinda guestimate the fxs settings I needed epecially for the bass guitar as when I listened to that solod it sounded really mid rangey and nasty but thats what I felt I needed to do to get it to stand out in the mix.

I look forward to PMC#13 if my computer doesnt die on me before hand, (its on its last legs)
Eck

 

[NYMorningstar]

Great reviews Bennichico. I couldn't agree more with your critique of my entry. Thank you xfinsterx for hosting this and NL5 for providing the webspace. It's been a blast!

 

[ecktronic]

I look forward to PMC#13. I wonder what style it wil be, something obscure would be cool, like early 50s jaz or somthing! but with techno MIDI drums. ok im geting carried away... too much stella!
Eck

 

[Dogman]

I look forward to PMC#13. I wonder what style it wil be, something obscure would be cool, like early 50s jaz or somthing! but with techno MIDI drums. ok im geting carried away... too much stella!
Eck

Well, hopefully another good one by Chris's band, and maybe I won't blow this one so bad. If'n I'd had just put it up as is, it probably would have done better. Got to remember not to screw around too much, myself. Any style would be cool, as they are so much different than working with the stuff I record myself. More fun than a drunk old guy, like myself, should have...

 

[tallman]

Am I too late ? Haha

I'm clearly too late for the competition, but I wanted to try something out. I'm a live sound engineer, so the biggest challenge in my job is getting an acceptable mix quickly. Before I even hear a musician strike a note, their sounds must be good enough that the audience doesn't notice the mix sucks.

Then I have about 15-30 seconds to correct the most dominant problems, and then I should have a good solid mix by 1 song into a set.

First I set myself up with a typical club configuration:

1 crappy delay, 2 crappy reverbs.
12 channels of crappy dynamics (i didn't actually have to *do* this.. I just made it a restriction)
24 * 8 * 2 board (the cubase *board* isn't that bad.. I'd have made it crappy if I could have.. haha)

Then I chose my mics. I chose:

1: The kick mic
2: The SM57 on the snare
3: T1 top
4: T2 top
5: T3 top
6: OH Left (drummer perspective)
7: OH Right (drummer perspective)
8: Bass DI
9: Bass Roy
10-14: 5 guitar tracks
15-17: 3 keys
18-whatever.. thousands of vocal tracks.

Here's the fun part.. since I don't have a physical board here, and I have to clickety click a bunch of stuff that I could normally just reach for, I gave myself 4 times through the song to get a stable(ish) mix. That's about 14 minutes.

There is no automation, nothing I can't do live in a club, and actually, I'm at a minor disadvantage cause in a club I can ride faders.. this is just a straight export. I think I may have accidentally snipped the begininng off of this file. Despite some obvious errors, I felt not too bad about the result. I'd love a critique:

http://houseofart.homeip.net/miscmp3/

It's circle.mp3 -- please right click and save.. it's off my home internet connection.

- Rich

 

[tallman]

OH.. I forgot to mention.. no edits on the source material in this version.

 

[mshilarious]

There is no automation, nothing I can't do live in a club, and actually, I'm at a minor disadvantage cause in a club I can ride faders.. this is just a straight export. I think I may have accidentally snipped the begininng off of this file. Despite some obvious errors, I felt not too bad about the result. I'd love a critique:

Definitely a unique angle towards a mix contest!

It's dark and drippy (the reverb, that is). Did you want it to sound like an arena show ? With a crap verb, I wouldn't be inclined to feature it.

The bass and kick could stand a touch more compression, they still lack punch for all their volume. The kick is missing its much of its click, this was mixed more in an '80s style. Overall though, the levels are good.

You probably knew a lot of that from the restrictions you placed on yourself. I would say it's good for a live mix, but I suspect you can really do a lot better.

 

[tallman]

It's dark and drippy (the reverb, that is).

Yeah.. I avoided putting much reverb on vocals directly .. most of the reverb is on the delays. I kinda like the drippyness, and I think it suits the genre.

The bass and kick could stand a touch more compression, they still lack punch for all their volume. The kick is missing its much of its click, this was mixed more in an '80s style. Overall though, the levels are good.

I probably could have slowed the attack of the kick compression to get some more kick. Something about the tune just screamed "epic" to me.. devon townsend popped into my head pretty quickly.

I didn't use the triggered kick.. so the click was definitely quite different. I *do* mix on very bright speakers at home however, so you might find that either pulling some low mids, or mildly boosting the high end has a major impact on the sound of this mix.

You probably knew a lot of that from the restrictions you placed on yourself. I would say it's good for a live mix, but I suspect you can really do a lot better.

Yeah.. I want to get better at mixing on time limits. Honestly, I occassionally get thrown into 2000 seaters to mix bands I've never met on gear I've never seen before. Knowing that I can react quickly makes it a lot less nerve racking when managers and house techs, or sometimes guest techs, are breathing down my neck.. haha

Thanks for the criticism. On a re-listen, I can hear a billion big flaws in the mix. Cranked up loud though, with an actual band there to add to the dynamics, this mix isn't too bad I don't think.

I wish I had an analog board here to play with though.. somehow, these plugins just don't feel right.

 

[Llarion]

Yeah.. I avoided putting much reverb on vocals directly .. most of the reverb is on the delays. I kinda like the drippyness, and I think it suits the genre.



I probably could have slowed the attack of the kick compression to get some more kick. Something about the tune just screamed "epic" to me.. devon townsend popped into my head pretty quickly.

I didn't use the triggered kick.. so the click was definitely quite different. I *do* mix on very bright speakers at home however, so you might find that either pulling some low mids, or mildly boosting the high end has a major impact on the sound of this mix.



Yeah.. I want to get better at mixing on time limits. Honestly, I occassionally get thrown into 2000 seaters to mix bands I've never met on gear I've never seen before. Knowing that I can react quickly makes it a lot less nerve racking when managers and house techs, or sometimes guest techs, are breathing down my neck.. haha

Thanks for the criticism. On a re-listen, I can hear a billion big flaws in the mix. Cranked up loud though, with an actual band there to add to the dynamics, this mix isn't too bad I don't think.

I wish I had an analog board here to play with though.. somehow, these plugins just don't feel right.

There was once a GREAT band named Tallman back from the old MP3.con daze... are you he???

 

[Izzy]

Sorry guys but the contest is still up????

 

[thajeremy]

the contest has been over for quite some time....If you just wanna play around with the tracks, I still have them on my server...PM me if you want the link to them....

 

[jamesduysen]

this is a cool tune, the vocals are awesome! But I don't have enough voices. I'm going to take a crack it without the keyboards and such...hope you don't mind.

james

 

[Crumbles]

this is a cool tune, the vocals are awesome! But I don't have enough voices. I'm going to take a crack it without the keyboards and such...hope you don't mind.

james

You might win a year old prize

 

[ecktronic]

Heres a blast from the past!
This song was fun to mix.
Vocals are very good.

Eck

 

[taeyoung]

Heres a blast from the past!
This song was fun to mix.
Vocals are very good.

Eck

Yeah, this is a great song. I just downloaded it myself to try to mix.
I had some questions for anyone who worked on it, or maybe for finster himself.

I've never miced up anything as much as this, and was curious on a couple points. For one thing, there are 4 bass tracks. 1 57, 1 DI, and 2 roy. Does that mean 1 take was done with the 57, roy, and DI? And then a second take of the second roy? What is the purpose of 2 takes? Do people mix multiple bass tracks together like guitars? I've never done that with bass, just curious.

Also, I thought it said no processing was done, but the vocals seem processed, or pitch shifted or something changed on them. Are they all seperate takes? Or did mr finster pitch shift them to the harmonies he wanted?

 

[ecktronic]

If I can remember I think it was 1 take. Im sure 1 of the tracks was distorted bass. Maybe he re-amped it to get distortion?

Just becuase he has recorded lots of diiferent tracsk for each instrument it doesnt mean you need to use them all. Try out different combinations and diffferent levels of combinations. This can take a bit of time but is seriously worth it.

For example I didnt use any of the bottom tom traks, I just used the top tom tracks.

The vocals have a processed sound to them. I think thats the pre and the mic he was using. Im sure the pre added alot of colour and some compression.

Good luck with it. Tis a good challenge.

Eck