Mixing Challenge No'5

PolarityMan

Mines coming along slowly...got everything bussed. distorted guitar sound, 90% of drum sound done...not happy with bass or cleans yet and havent started vocals.....i only get an hour or 2 a night free though and its in cans so its always slow going for me

IMC1980

PolarityMan said:

Mines coming along slowly...got everything bussed. distorted guitar sound, 90% of drum sound done...not happy with bass or cleans yet and havent started vocals.....i only get an hour or 2 a night free though and its in cans so its always slow going for me

Sounds like the amount of time I get to do music related stuff! Except it's not every night. 

Bod

Right, just sent mine in.  I'm by no means entirely happy with it but I've learned loads doing it so thanks for the opportunity. 

My room has severe low end issues so that part is a best guess after many listens on lots of different systems.

Bezzer

OK, mines submitted now … I think I'm reasonably happy with it.  I think.  Maybe.

Fretwired

Sent mine in .. not sure .. I don't really do 'metal' so my mix is a little old school .. :-)

poopot

Got them, will upload tomorrow at some point!

poopot

@Bod @Bezzer & @Fretwired added to the playlist...

Entry closes tonight chaps and chappettes.

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/mixing-challenge-no-5

PolarityMan

I'm going to be to the wire on this (as usual)

PolarityMan

Ok sent mine in...not that happy with it as didnt have time to do a static mix and i fiddled way too long trying to sample replace the toms so i timed out ont he rest of the mix.

One point worth mentioning is that i decided i didnt like the kemper tones on bass once i had a mix going so i went back to the DI's and build a different sound for the bass. 

poopot

Added to the list....

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/mixing-challenge-no-5

Entry closed... coz im going bed innit

Stuckfast

Well I had an hour to kill in a hotel room so I got out my headphones and gave them a listen, and for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. I haven't listened to the multitracks, but it seems to me that they pose a couple of problems which no-one completely managed to solve.

One is that the drum sounds just aren't right for hard rock, they would be more suited to a jazz fusion band. The snare in particular lacks any power and sounds 'papery' and gutless.

The other is that this is a classic case of a track with a huge dynamic contrast between the intro and the heavy section that follows. This sets a big trap for the mixer, because it's easy to make the intro sound huge and then leave yourself with nowhere to go when the heavy guitars kick in. (My suggestion would be to mix the heavy bit first.)

I think some of the entries fall into another trap too, which is that they've spent ages coming up with cool effects and haven't paid enough attention to the basics of creating a good mix balance.

For me, the best mix is Branshen's (#4). It definitely has the best vocal sound, the heavy guitars make a proper impact when they come in, and it has the best tonal balance -- it's not tinny like several of the others, or muddy like #5. 

Branshen

Stuckfast said:

Well I had an hour to kill in a hotel room so I got out my headphones and gave them a listen, and for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. I haven't listened to the multitracks, but it seems to me that they pose a couple of problems which no-one completely managed to solve.

One is that the drum sounds just aren't right for hard rock, they would be more suited to a jazz fusion band. The snare in particular lacks any power and sounds 'papery' and gutless.

The other is that this is a classic case of a track with a huge dynamic contrast between the intro and the heavy section that follows. This sets a big trap for the mixer, because it's easy to make the intro sound huge and then leave yourself with nowhere to go when the heavy guitars kick in. (My suggestion would be to mix the heavy bit first.)

I think some of the entries fall into another trap too, which is that they've spent ages coming up with cool effects and haven't paid enough attention to the basics of creating a good mix balance.

For me, the best mix is Branshen's (#4). It definitely has the best vocal sound, the heavy guitars make a proper impact when they come in, and it has the best tonal balance -- it's not tinny like several of the others, or muddy like #5.  

So  all the nights of annoying my girlfriend by mixing metal in the living room have not completely gone to waste.. Very pleased you like it. 

The only thing I've done to the vocal is volume automation, subtle compression and minimal reverb (you wouldn't hear it unless you solo-ed the vocal track, and even there, you could only tell by A-B-ing the reverb on and off. 

PolarityMan

wow awesome number of mixes for this one ...im looking forward to hearing some of these

poopot

PolarityMan said:

wow awesome number of mixes for this one ...im looking forward to hearing some of these

voting thread here:
http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/148866/mixing-challenge-5-voting-thread#latest

PolarityMan

Stuckfast said:

Well I had an hour to kill in a hotel room so I got out my headphones and gave them a listen, and for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. I haven't listened to the multitracks, but it seems to me that they pose a couple of problems which no-one completely managed to solve.

One is that the drum sounds just aren't right for hard rock, they would be more suited to a jazz fusion band. The snare in particular lacks any power and sounds 'papery' and gutless.

The other is that this is a classic case of a track with a huge dynamic contrast between the intro and the heavy section that follows. This sets a big trap for the mixer, because it's easy to make the intro sound huge and then leave yourself with nowhere to go when the heavy guitars kick in. (My suggestion would be to mix the heavy bit first.)

I think some of the entries fall into another trap too, which is that they've spent ages coming up with cool effects and haven't paid enough attention to the basics of creating a good mix balance.

For me, the best mix is Branshen's (#4). It definitely has the best vocal sound, the heavy guitars make a proper impact when they come in, and it has the best tonal balance -- it's not tinny like several of the others, or muddy like #5. 

I struggle a lot with the dynamic impact thing..not jsut on this mix but others too. I suspect I need more confidence to let the quiet sections be quiet. Especially for an intro I worry that if it isnt loud enough then it wont seem competitive with other mixes.

I also suspect my 2-bus compression is not helping me, as when the loud part hits I think it slams down the transient so you dont get the same punch fromthe first beat that you do in person.

Once voting closes I will post the mix we will actually be releasing which was done by @WiresDreamDisasters as will be interesting to see the compare. I know he augmented the drum sounds with samples a fair bit for instance.

WiresDreamDisasters

PolarityMan said:

Stuckfast said:

Well I had an hour to kill in a hotel room so I got out my headphones and gave them a listen, and for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. I haven't listened to the multitracks, but it seems to me that they pose a couple of problems which no-one completely managed to solve.

One is that the drum sounds just aren't right for hard rock, they would be more suited to a jazz fusion band. The snare in particular lacks any power and sounds 'papery' and gutless.

The other is that this is a classic case of a track with a huge dynamic contrast between the intro and the heavy section that follows. This sets a big trap for the mixer, because it's easy to make the intro sound huge and then leave yourself with nowhere to go when the heavy guitars kick in. (My suggestion would be to mix the heavy bit first.)

I think some of the entries fall into another trap too, which is that they've spent ages coming up with cool effects and haven't paid enough attention to the basics of creating a good mix balance.

For me, the best mix is Branshen's (#4). It definitely has the best vocal sound, the heavy guitars make a proper impact when they come in, and it has the best tonal balance -- it's not tinny like several of the others, or muddy like #5. 

I struggle a lot with the dynamic impact thing..not jsut on this mix but others too. I suspect I need more confidence to let the quiet sections be quiet. Especially for an intro I worry that if it isnt loud enough then it wont seem competitive with other mixes.

I also suspect my 2-bus compression is not helping me, as when the loud part hits I think it slams down the transient so you dont get the same punch fromthe first beat that you do in person.

Once voting closes I will post the mix we will actually be releasing which was done by @WiresDreamDisasters as will be interesting to see the compare. I know he augmented the drum sounds with samples a fair bit for instance.

I hope it holds up!

PolarityMan

beats mine anyway havent listened to the others yet

paulmapp8306

Ive never in my life augmented mixes with samples - to be honest I wouldnt have a clue how   I guess learning these tricks will help my mixes when I cant bring something through naturally (the bass in my mix in particular). 

Stuckfast

So... having heard all the entries, I got quite interested in the challenge of mixing this track, and I had a long flight with nothing to read, so I thought I'd have a stab at it. If anyone can face listening to yet another mix, mine's here:

https://soundcloud.com/the_unequal_struggle/disconnect-the-dots-stuckfasts-mix 

Mainly I was curious to see whether I could get a good drum sound without using replacement samples. The raw drum tracks have a few issues that make them hard to mix, but sample replacement always feels like a bit of a crutch to me, though I guess it is part of the sound of modern metal in some ways.

There's more limiting on this than I would normally use but I thought it'd be a better comparison if it matched the release version in level.

 

WiresDreamDisasters

paulmapp8306 said:

Ive never in my life augmented mixes with samples - to be honest I wouldnt have a clue how   I guess learning these tricks will help my mixes when I cant bring something through naturally (the bass in my mix in particular). 

Slightly off-topic, but would a video on this topic interest you and others?