PureMix / Sonnox Mixing Contest!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chater-La
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Hi there folks!
Had fun mixing this tune... (first time here for me..)
Mixed ITB
Using protools 10.3
Black Lion Audio DAC
using mainly:
Waves.
Lexicon
Air
Hope you will have a chance to listen and enjoy the mix!
 
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uploaded mixes

I uploaded my mix but cant seem to stream it .. anyone else with the same issue ? just wanna know if it uploaded properly..

Moe
 
Hi all:
I just posted up my mix. As an amateur, I would say this was the biggest mix I have ever worked with in ProTools.
It was quite a joy to work with this song. I love Amber Skye's voice and the song is beautiful. Just about every track was extremely well recorded.

Here is how I approached it:

DRUMS:
I had a bit of trouble with the drum sounds - mainly the stereo room mic track. I couldn't find a way to make that track blend well with the other drum tracks, since the overall tonality of that track was wildly different from the rest of the drum tracks. I felt the need to EQ that track and put in a bit of compression on it, and adjusted the fader till I found a happy point blending the real drums with the synth drums. As with many of the other tracks, there were varying degrees of reverb/delay wetness in the tracks, so I ran a reverb Aux on the drums with individual track sends to balance out the ambiance between all of them.

GUITARS:
The biggest thing I did on these tracks was automating volumes in each of the tracks. All the guitars had some "peaky" notes that interfered a bit with the vocals...

EXTRANEOUS SYNTH SOUNDS:
For the "reverse sucking", "backwards", and "impacts", i tweaked the levels to taste. There was was "reverse" sound I let through louder at the end of the quiet interlude right before the song comes back in... At the other points, I pulled the levels down a little further to keep it from fighting the vocals... I thought these sounds were a bit boring by themselves. I played around with some rapid panning on these. I actually EQ'd some of these sounds to pull some midrange out of them to get them out of the way of the vocal, but still be loud enough for dramatic effect... One of the impact sounds had what seemed to be some ultrasonic frequency content ( kind of like how some people can sense an old CRT TV being turned on, even if it's silent ). I low passed that track around 15kHz to address that.

VOCALS:
For the harmonies, I played around with panning mostly and some track levels for the harmonies. Some of the vocals seemed to have varying amounts of ambiance to them. I ran differing amounts of send level to a vocal aux track with some reverb and compression on it. Though I varied it a bit between the two different harmony parts in the chorus. I most enjoyed the outro ad lib vocal line... I solo'd that track at one point to check something and it was so beautiful just on it's own... I threw a tiny amount of ping pong delay on a couple of the higher pitched words at the end.

SYNTH PARTS:
With so many tracks, not everything can be dominant... For the synth parts, I made them just loud enough to be present where you could notice something falling away if the track was muted... There was a track called "Arp" running through the chorus that I made a bit louder than the rest of the synth parts...

VERSE GUITAR:
I wasn't liking the wide low frequency image on this track... It sounded like out of phase bass to me. I used an imaging plug-in to narrow the lower frequencies on this track while still keeping the wide image on the upper frequencies...

PIANO/ORGAN:
Didn't do much of anything to these tracks except levels and panning.

SYNTH BASS:
There was a bass synth solo track going on during the bridge with all the "oh oh oh" vocals... I brought up this track just loud enough to be present but not dominant... Just subtle. As for the bass "phatty" track, i used my best judgement on the level to ensure it wasn't going to be too boomy on the final mix. At first i level the level alone and thought it sounded good, until i lowered the level and thought it was beefy enough even with lower volume.

OVERALL EQ:
I have learned to strive for getting a mellow overall tonality, and rolling off the bass and treble in the final 2-track mix. I used a mix of analyzer and my ears for this one. I put on a typical "car stereo" EQ setting for testing -- with the default boosts around 100Hz and 10kHz -- since that is how 99 percent of all drivers adjust their stereos. As long as it doesn't sound horrendous with that kind of EQ setting, then I think I am o.k. Aside from that, i did a little bit of mid-side EQ on the final 2-track to scoop out a small bit some mid range out of the middle. Also tamed down the stereo imaging in the deep low and low mid frequencies. I also listed at varying volumes -- both normal and loud -- to get a sense of how it sounded in either condition. My target is to make it sound good a lower volume with stuff cutting through, but not sounding harsh or too boomy at high volumes.

I messed around with this mix for a couple weeks, but did most of the work in the last four days - as time permitted around my normal day job. Were it not for the deadline, i probably could have been tweaking this for another week or two. If I had to do this all over again; i could probably end up with a similar result in less than half the time. So these mix challenges are good in that regard -- it's great practice.

I'll post a link here soon with the song mix... For all i know, it may be a total busy sounding mess, but feedback welcome...
 
Moe Aladdin said:
I uploaded my mix but cant seem to stream it .. anyone else with the same issue ? just wanna know if it uploaded properly..

Moe
Click to expand...


You are not able to stream your song within the cloud player? Perhaps refreshing the site or logout/login will fix you problem.
Give em a try ;-)

Greetings

Mountain Lime
 
synchronia said:
Yes I do. OTB mix with SSL Matrix + some outboard for the more important tracks:

Kick: SSL E series eq + comp
Snare: SSL E series eq + comp
Beat: SSL stereo eq + Urei 1178
Main vocal: Millennia STT1 + Urei 1176
Bass: SSL E series eq + Dbx 160VU
Piano: SSL stereo eq
Guitars: SSL E series eq
SSL bus comp on the master bus.



Let me know what do you think, thanks! ;)
Click to expand...


Hey Allesandro,

nice to see you here besides of indaba ;)

Your mix seems to be nicely balance. But there are two things I'm not sure about.
First the peak levels, second I would love to hear more of the bass synth in the mid/high range.
In my studio thetracks works well, but on my pc boxes I miss the synth a bit.

Best wishes from Vienna

Mountain Lime
 
gozmozis said:
My mix. Did actually some changes again after yesterday. A little distracting cause I just became a father :-) But my newborn son has been with me in the studio.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5726699/Amber Skye - Howlin Anders Fogelqvist mix.m4a

All feedback is most welcome.
Click to expand...

Congratulations ... I became a granddad (also a boy!) 4 weeks ago ... he already likes music. But had too coz mum played sax/flute/clarinet/piano/singing for his "first" 8-9 months too! He'd even been on stage in an amdram musical (singing and dancing) - 6 months ago - hee hee!!!!!!

Cheers all, and good luck with all the mixes. Some good ones there.

Like you mix, by the way..

Rob (aka doctorbob)
 
Hey japancakes,

Ive listened to your song again,


and there are one point in special It think you know already; you have a really prominent mid/high range, including some harsh things goin on there.

Perhaps you can fix these things, it would sounds much smoother I than guess :)



Greetings

Mountain Lime
 
Mountain Lime said:
Hey Allesandro,

nice to see you here besides of indaba ;)

Your mix seems to be nicely balance. But there are two things I'm not sure about.
First the peak levels, second I would love to hear more of the bass synth in the mid/high range.
In my studio thetracks works well, but on my pc boxes I miss the synth a bit.

Best wishes from Vienna

Mountain Lime
Click to expand...

Hi Mountain nice to meet you here too! :D

I don't understand what do you mean with peak levels.. would you prefer a lower peak level? I did a bit of premastering just to mimic the reference track.
The Bass synth has a lot of low-end informations, maybe a bit of high mids would cut better also on cheap speakers. By the way the sound you listen is also the color of the Dbx 160VU.
Thanks for commenting, let me know the link to your mix so I can listen to it too.

All the best from Rome! ;)
 
akiraclub said:
Hello there !

I just finished my mix and uploaded it on soundcloud,



Focal Solo 6
MacPro Quad 2009
MOTU ultralite MK2
Mackie Control
Logic Pro X
and some plugs like waves SSL (on voices ...)

I really enjoyed doing this, I hope more contests will come soon. I'm happy to discover this forum too.

Have a great day !
Click to expand...


Hey Akiraclub,



I like how your mix fades in, also like the vocal effects (Dly, Filtering).
But to understand what the artist sings there is hard to understand. Think you'll find the problem in the main frequencies of the vocal itself.
The drumkit sits well in the mix, but a bit prominent bass area I guess ;)
Perhaps an Multiband compressor would fix it for you?

Greetings

Mountain Lime
 
I heard ben's mix (mastered version), my thought is mastered version is too much compression, and the vocals is too far even its clear to be heard, to much reverb. The tracks recorded really good, i think it pre processed, So what i've done :

1. load intro project
2. balance with fader and panning
3. brighten up a bit on stereo bus
4. done.. :)

No reverb, delay,EQ even compression on the tracks (i'll post the track later on this forum)

i late to know this contest so i dont have much time because im on work, see u guys. Sorry for my english, regard from Indonesia ;)..
 
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synchronia said:
Hi Mountain nice to meet you here too! :D

I don't understand what do you mean with peak levels.. would you prefer a lower peak level? I did a bit of premastering just to mimic the reference track.
The Bass synth has a lot of low-end informations, maybe a bit of high mids would cut better also on cheap speakers. By the way the sound you listen is also the color of the Dbx 160VU.
Thanks for commenting, let me know the link to your mix so I can listen to it too.

All the best from Rome! ;)
Click to expand...


Hey Allesandro,

you're right I've been talking about the lvels of your whole mix, but premastering is the answer I guess ;)
Concerning your bass synth, I tried to say the I miss some mids and highs in and "it would cut better also on cheap speakers", haha, but its a matter of taste, right ;)
But besides of that great balanced mix!
 
Forget to mention Allesandro


here is my version so far,

but other listeners are welcome too ;)





Greetins Mountain Lime
 
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Hi all,

Here's my take on this song. Mixed in Logic Pro X. Plugins from Waves, PSP, some Sonnox (Inflator & Limiter, on master only), Native Instruments etc. Uploaded, but also on a link below.

Hope you like it!

/MelkerMusic, Sweden

soundcloud.com/tobberyden/amber-skye-howlin-mixed-by-tobbe-ryden-140601-mix-contest

(sorry for no active link, I wasn't allowed since I'm new at this forum..)
 
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doctorbob said:
Congratulations ... I became a granddad (also a boy!) 4 weeks ago ... he already likes music. But had too coz mum played sax/flute/clarinet/piano/singing for his "first" 8-9 months too! He'd even been on stage in an amdram musical (singing and dancing) - 6 months ago - hee hee!!!!!!

Cheers all, and good luck with all the mixes. Some good ones there.

Like you mix, by the way..

Rob (aka doctorbob)
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your congrats! Congrats to become a granddad!! Thanks for your nice Word regarding my mix also.
 
Uploaded my Amber Skye mix to the pureMix Cloud! :D

Hey all!

I'm a brand new subscriber to puremix.net and homerecording.com so it's a bit overwhelming to see how gigantic this thread is at the moment! :o I guess at this point most of my thoughts and impressions about mixing the Amber Skye Howlin' source were likely addressed by many of you already. So I hope you don't mind bearing with me a li'l bit as I play catchup here! :guitar:

I guess for starters I should probably begin by saying that I normally listen to pop, dance, and rock, so it was a real blast to work on this mix! Right off the bat I thought the Producers' production elements were excellent at describing and supporting the lyrical content and the flow of the song. They really managed to extract a lot of tone and energy from the samples in a pretty impressive way.

Since I normally listen to this genre of music, I found the material to fit right into my style so I never really felt that I was ever "battling" it in the mix. The stems were (obviously) very well recorded and (thankfully) very well organized too. (A credit to those involved, including the artist!) :thumbs up: So from my perspective I think the big challenge here was to just get acquainted with these new and unfamiliar clips, and to keep as organized as the Producers.

Regardless of how we might choose to mix the material, I think what's really cool is that having participated in the same mix with everyone else here, we can all have a real appreciation of how we can each hear different things from the same song! :cool: So I hope you all had as much fun on this mix as I did! I look forward to seeing you here on the forum and talking shop! :D (And I promise that I'll eventually get through this entire thread!) :eatpopcorn:

Cheers! :)
seanbil
 
Mountain Lime said:
Forget to mention Allesandro


here is my version so far,

but other listeners are welcome too ;)





Greetins Mountain Lime
Click to expand...

Just listened to it! Well, you went to the "soft" side of the song and that is cool. I went to the "punchy" side, trying to give more impact, especially to the choruses. However I liked your interpretation of the song, it sounds balanced to my laptop speakers. I will check it once in the studio as well. Good luck! ;)
 
Hi

Just posted my mix of the song. I thought it was well recorded and performed, so it wasn't difficult to mix.
I imported the tracks into ProTools and adjusted the pan and volume to get a nice start. I tried to enhance what I thought the artist would want to hear by doing some volume rides and pan automations etc. I used eq's, compressors, delays and reverbs in addition to some other fx.
Hope you like the mix.

Kind regards
d
 
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