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The mixes are in, time to cast your votes!!!!
Vote for your top 3 mixes. If you have submitted a mix you can't vote for yourself. Feel free to share why you chose to vote the way you did.
1st choice gets 5 points
2nd choice gets 3 points
3rd choice gets 1 point
Final scores will be announced after voting ends at 11.30 on the 31st Jan
You can find all the entries the playlist below:
https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/mixing-challenge-no-5
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
No 1. Branshen. Everything I struggled with in my mix is just right in his mix. Just a pleasure to listen to.
No 2. Polarityman. Vocal clarity was great. Bass was mix more present and pumping than mine. My only real negative comment is I didnt like the guitar tones as much as Branshens (or mine but Im biased obviously). They just needed thickening up for me.
No 3. Really really tough. I though all the others were lacking, or odd in one way or another, but they also all had something unique going on in them. In the end it was less about the mix itself, and more about what I preferred in the "added FX". I ended up giving it to Bod - just over IMC1989, mainly because I just thought the delay on IMCs vocals was just too much for my tastes.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
REALLY difficult track to do in one sitting. Cripes, I must have spent about 16-20 hours over several days to get where I got to - which is far from perfect. Credit for creating something like that in one go.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
I'll post some feedback first then follow up with my points. I think the least I can do is give everyone some notes. Most of this feedback is kinda mix-notey in that its stuff I would change if I got this mix back from a professional just because its easier for me to provide input like that but hope no one takes it as thinking their mix is terrible or anything. I really appreciate the effort everyone has gone to here and this is a track where I have a really specific sound in my head that is probably impossible to achieve
I was surprised that even though I know there was a part with programmed overheads I actually did not detect it in anyones mix and I thought that would be a common weak point. I think where most people struggled was getting the energy build up right for the end of the song, which should be really frenetic.
A lot of people had the distorted bass track running through the entire mix (which is fair enough as to save time we reamped the whole thing) but the intention was actually to sue this as a layer only in the heavy parts....i think given that the intent wasn't signalled this is an easily forgivable mistake though.
@PaulMapp8306
@poopot
I think this one had some decent individual processing on parts but it felt like there were some fundamental balance issues that were preventing it from really gelling into a cohesive mix for me. Obviously with so many tracks and very little in the way fo references or guidance there is a lot of guess work so I feel like while I'm pointing out some things that I thought could improve I do think that mixing this is a tall order.
The bass drum sound was really punchy but I felt like the bass drum was a little dominant in the clean parts, until the quiet djenty guitar came in and the balance between the 2 guitars seemed very skewed..possibly a panning thing. The same thing happens when the distorted guitars came in where the right guitar dominates quite a bit.
The chorus I liked that the guitars came up but the vocals seemed to go down in the mix and also had maybe more delay/ reverb in that section so it felt like the singing lost its impact.
The wah section, the wah guitars and synth guitars were a bit too polite and there was some noise right before the synth solo that wasnt cut out.The 7/8 chug section again sounded like a weird guitar balance, it almost sounded like one guitar was delayed or nudged out of place.
The tom section near the end had good control of the low end
@IMC1980
The bass tone was nice on this one, super punch bass drum (sample?) but its sitting in its own space quite nicely so doesn't stomp on the other instruments, when the vocal comes in they sound nice and present and up front. The distorted bass tracks was really supposed to be brought in and out for the clean / dirt parts but you've managed to make it work nicely in both cases I think in the chorus the cymbals could come down a touch, I do like that there's a lot of energy there that cymbals are contributing too but I think would be fatiguing for too long.
Nice balance in the synth and wah breaks but I could hear a few drum edits in the gaps (probably my own bad edits admittedly!!) again the bass in this section is nicely balanced, giving a nice weight to the accents.
The 7/8 section I think the guitars could have had a bit more body, it sounded a bit like you were going to use the "shit tone" trick but then the full tone never kicked in when the drums started.
The death metal growls were really nicely balanced, again good control in the tom part and each guitar part is nice and distinct. I didnt really like the tremelo effect on the pitch shift solo.
@Branshen
I love the panning effects in the verse, this is supposed to have quite a spacey lush feel that youve summed up nicely. Bass sound is pretty nice, defined but not stomping on everything...tasteful actually The djenty guitars were a little loud right before the first chorus. Distorted guitars sound nice. There's a bit of high freq noise in my guitar parts that I struggled with too that comes through a bit jsut because the guitars are nice and forward...tbh I blame the source for that though.
Right before the "theres no on listening" something gets a bit flubby in the low mids, sounds like there might be some DI mixed in, once I heard that I felt like I could detect it in other places.
In the chorus liked the balance of the little "harmonic flavour stabs".
Wah guitar in the breaks was a bit polite, same with the synth..its kinda supposed to be quite apocalyptic feeling. The toms poke through nicely in this section though and the 7/8 chugs sound nice and meaty
The schism style bass solo sounded a bit over compressed and distorted.
Liked the panning on the growls, the toms in the death metal bit are right on the line of overpowering the low end but I think you get away with it (at least on headphones..might suffer on speakers). The faster triplet chugs in the end sound sweet and I think have ended up a bit buried in some mixes (includiung mine). In fact pretty good attention to little details like that throughout.
@Fretwired
I think this fell a little too on the "wet" side for me on the verse. I like that you clearly got the vibe we were going for but thought it was a bit overcooked both on the vocals and guitar. The chorus the DI guitars are WAAAAAAY too loud and in fact the guitars are ridiculously loud generally but it just sounds like a clean guitar with some fuzz in the background. The synth guitar was balanced quite well but the clean guitars everywhere are really distracting, especially in the 7/8 section where there seems to be a delayed or misaligned copy of one of the distorted guitars.
I'm guessing that metal isn't really your genre, the clean sections I think are promising and I feel like you've connected with the intent there but the distorted parts just don't work for me. The end parts seems to come together a bit more, leading with the vocals on the choir parts and ahhhs let the guitars sit back a bit makes the DI thing less noticable.
The intro sounds pretty quiet but that might just be because it came right after fretwireds super loud mix, I do like the space in the verses and the nuances of the vocal some through nicely. The bass sounded a bit lost though. In the distorted part I feel like the snare is overly loud, bringing the snare down might allow more headroom to bring the guitar and bass up a touch making it sound more aggressive. Again I noticed the same high freq stuff that i couldn't get rid of in my mix in my guitar.The drums sounded really articulate int he heavier parts including the fills into the wah/synth breaks.
Wasnt keen on the delay on the 7/8 guitar before the synth solo but when everything kicks in it sounds great.Bass drums sound nice and even in the section right after this even though I know they aren't in the stems so nice job there.
The ending I liked the balance with the choir/ ahhh parts but I feel like the guitar was too low in the mix to match with the intensity of the drum part.
Overall this one felt like it had really nice coherence though, seemed like everything was in the same space, there were no jarring changes in vocal treatment or anything like that.
@Bod
The vocals sound great in the verse...first line particularly had a really nice tense feel somehow. the bass there is suposed to be clean which would let the clean guitars sparkle a bit more but understandably its hard for you to know this in advance.
The distorted guitars in the first verse sound a little muddy and are maybe clashing with the bass a bit, the drums are sounding nice and clear though, cutting through nicely.
Nice balance of harmonies int he 2nd verse, the djenty guitar is a little loud I like the prominance given to the bass in the ascending run part but I think a more defined bass tone would have helped it pop even more.
2nd chorus it struck me that the snare is cutting through nicely,, really nice crack on it. On some of the fills the snare sounds a little odd though..maybe a double trigger of the same sample?
I liked the balance of the wah and synth part in the breaks but felt like the prelude 7/8 guitar cam in a bit loud giving nowhere for the mix to go when everything else hits, maybe an overly high ratio master bus compressor?
Too much fuzz on the solo bass.
In the death metal bit I felt like the solo guitar was a bit too high and didnt give the rhythm part enough room to come through and help add to the intensity
@stuckfast also sent me a mix to listen to to demonstrate drum treatment without samples. If he is happy to I will psot his feedback here to?
Anyway on to the points.
1st place @Branshen I think had the strongest connection to the vibe I was going for
The next 2 places I struggled as I effectively had to choose between different elements that were strong in each mix, but with difficulty I settled for
2nd place @Bod
3rd place @Bezzer
If you asked me in a week though @IMB1980 could easily have stolen 2nd or 3rd place.
Overall I really enjoyed listening to these and was surprised how many people actually gave this ago as it is a really challenging track. Congrats to everyone on getting through such a monstrosity!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftjkoz3rffk7sqr/DisconnectTheDots_mix02.mp3?dl=0
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
One thing I noticed with mine straight away was it is pretty quiet compared some of the others; I purposely left it that way, but maybe I should have squeezed some DB out of a limiter, anyway....
5 points - @Branshen - Nice mix overall, the kick got a bit lost when the heavy guitars came in and the backing vocals could have been a bit wetter IMO (reverb/delay).
3 - points - @paulmapp8306 - Could have had 1st place if the vocals had been a bit louder in the chorus.
1 point - @Bod Vocals were pretty wet which made them feel quite far back in the mix, but the guitars sounded good and the snare was well done.
I really like this song overall, it says something that I can still listen to it after hearing it so much throughout this challenge. To answer the question @PolarityMan, the kick was the original, not a sample. I wasn't sure if using samples constituted "re-recording".
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!