Public Mix Contest #2!!

[Riccardo]

Bravo raw-traks!!!!
And a big thankyou to xfinsterx, blue bear, giles117 and to all the other.....

....So the next contest is on the 7th eh? Well I'll have some time to study,
hehehe be ready.... ))

 

[giles117]

Great Job guys!!!!!

Email me your address Raw... So I can ship this item when i get back on Detroit soil

And big ups for a Macintosh G3 OSX based Server for not crashing. LOL

Fin let me know when you are ready and we can use up all the bandwidth i got anytime

Pretty much goes for anyone hosting something of this sort.

 

[xfinsterx]

Much appriciated Mr. Giles.

Great Job guys!!!!!

Email me your address Raw... So I can ship this item when i get back on Detroit soil

And big ups for a Macintosh G3 OSX based Server for not crashing. LOL

Fin let me know when you are ready and we can use up all the bandwidth i got anytime

Pretty much goes for anyone hosting something of this sort.

Will do Giles. Good luck to you with your gig.

 

[NL5]

Yes, Congratulations raw tracks!
And Thank you xfinsterx, Blue Bear Sound, and the others who helped with this.
Can't wait for the new "even playing field contest" on the 7th See you guys then

Ya. what he said!

 

[giles117]

Good ole Gulfport, MS. LOL Nice and sunny (I hope or is this hurrcane season. LOL)

 

[Erik713]

Thanks to Bruce for taking the massive time to listen to our stuff. This place rocks. Thanks to Chris and Bryan for leading this fun contest!

Lookin' forward to the next contest!

-Erik

 

[Halion]

Congrats!

Shared third, that's not bad

 

[lumbago]

Perhaps next time we should start with a standard tune by name and let the entrants produce the entire track next time. So the competition becomes something like "release a version of Moon River in G" and see what gives.

The numbers were frankly, of limited value.

If the criteria were looser / tighter it may have been easier to realize the deliverable. As long as the requirements are expressed up front clearly. Even down to mentioning the target audience.

Thanks to the judges and hosts in any case.

 

[LemonTree]

great competition, congrats to the winner. Big thanks to Giles, Finster & Bruce. Can't say I'm too surprised by my miserable 10 points . Hopefully should have my new Wharfdale 8.2As and some room treatment up for the next one.

Goodbye hifi speakers!

 

[schenkerguy]

Congrats to the winner! I'll have to go down to my studio and have another listen to that track!

There's one thing I would like to hear; Bruce's personal mix, so I could hear what we were all aspiring to! It's like having your test marked with "X X X X" but then not being told what the correct answers are!

Also it would be interesting to know which mix the artists themselves pick as their favorite...

Oh well, thanks for running this contest, looking forward to the next one!

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

The numbers were frankly, of limited value.

Why's that?

If someone scored low in the LOW-END section they know they need to work on their low-end balance/definition, same with the AIR, and the DEPTH/AMBIENCE sections.

Most people had a lot of problems with both low-end and depth/ambience of the tracks in the mixes. A few got the imaging right, but failed with ambience or mix balance. Some got great balances but lost out by saturating things in too much reverb, causing them to lose out in the OVERALL MIX section.

Besides - I was judging the mixes, not critiquing them ------ you don't actually think I have time to write a detailed analysis of each of the 28 mixes, do you???

If you take the time to look at the each score in its section, you should easily take away some tips on areas that need improvement.


PS...... don't forget what I said before the contest closed too... this is, after all, just one person's opinion.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

There's one thing I would like to hear; Bruce's personal mix, so I could hear what we were all aspiring to!

I would like to hear that one too, if I had one....... if I'd had the time, I would have put one together.... on the other hand, one doesn't need their own mix to judge the sound quality of another. Sonic aesthetics are easily measured simply by comparison to professional commercial mixes.

If a mix doesn't measure up, then it is relatively easy to A/B the difference and understand why.... (whether it's actually acheivable by someone given their gear/experience/etc is beside the point....)

 

[NL5]

Besides - I was judging the mixes, not critiquing them ------ you don't actually think I have time to write a detailed analysis of each of the 28 mixes, do you???

Hey Bruce,

Crazy thought here. Have you ever considered critiquing for a fee? I think a lot of people would pay a small sum to have you EXPLAIN what is wrong with thier mixes. The numbers do help tho.......

Just a thought,

NL5

 

[MAC2]

Congrats to Raw-Tracks!

Big thanks to finster, the artist, Giles & Bruce for doing this.....it's a blast!....win or "lose" (...and that's debatable whether you can actually lose given the opportunity, feedback & chance to learn something from participating...) you all brought new meaning to the term "mp3 mixing clinic"!

...btw Bruce I liked your grid scoring system...thanks again for your efforts!

 

[giles117]

Yeah there are no losers here. Everyone learewnd a lot and that is what matters. making better mix engineers

 

[ocnor]

Bear
I think that the problem is that since you are a pro you judged the mixes by comparing them to pro commercial mixes. Most of us were not thinking in those terms as the scratch tracks that we mixed could never live up to that criteria. I thought that the final mixes would be compared to the original tracks. Had you attempted your own mix you would understand why the entries sounded the way they did. Why do you think most people replaced the tracks rather than try to fix them? Maybe you should have had a "silk purse from a sows ear" catagory on the chart. I think everyone would have gotten high marks on that one.
That being said , I appreciate the time and effort that you put in to judge the contest.
Congrats to Raw Tracks I also thought that you had the best mix of the original tracks.
Thanks to everyone for making this contest possible. I will be looking forward to the next one.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Bear
I think that the problem is that since you are a pro you judged the mixes by comparing them to pro commercial mixes.

Actually, I didn't compare them to commerical mixes at all...... I simply used my own ears, and made the evaluations based on my sense of audio aesthetics -- granted, I do this professionally for a living!

 

[schenkerguy]

Hey Bruce,

Crazy thought here. Have you ever considered critiquing for a fee? I think a lot of people would pay a small sum to have you EXPLAIN what is wrong with thier mixes. The numbers do help tho.......

Just a thought,

NL5

Actually anyone can critique.. (ok, I'd pay for Mutt Lange's or George Martin's critiques ) What I would really like is for someone to take my tracks and make a better mix with my gear.. then I could see precisely how I could have improved, what equipment and settings I should have used, etc. I'm sure a pro engineer could sit here with my $179 mic, Behringer board and garage sale speakers and make a better song than I could... but I want to see how he does it! Oh well... I'm finding some reverse reverb patches for the next mix!

 

[giles117]

Oncor. keep in mind, the only MAJOR diff between a commercial track and a non commercial track is peoples acceptance of it.

Plenty of GREAT indie (non commercial tracks out there that were poorly recorded but expertly mixed.)

The mix is the #1 issue not the original tracks. Bear was not focusing on the song it self, but the mixes. Any good engineer can come up with a great sounding mix 9audibly speaking) of just ok tracks.

And quiet as it is kept, Fins tracks were not awful. Not the best, but not awful.

I have had drum tracks where the recording enginner OVER compressed (darn near limited) the kick and snare going to tpae and they sounded like crap but after afew hours mixing you'd never know it.

The goal of any great mix engineer is to make diamonds out of coal.

Most of us started with crappy sounding tracks, etc... but who cares. Mix it and mix it well.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

My fault -- I used the term "commercial" when in fact, I meant "professional"... difference in meaning being attributed to a higher level of engineering skills, not simply monetary compensation.