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June/July Mix Competition - THE RESULTS!


Skol303
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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1375315153' post='2159800']Who fancies a crack at mixing Kit Richardson's You Look So Good Tonight?[/quote]

[i]AAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!![/i]

Translation: yes, I definitely want to have a go at mixing this track! But no, I don't want to do it this month as I have zero time with crazy busy-ness going on at work.

…but seriously, don't let my predicament throw a spanner in the works. This is a superb track and by far the best offering we've had to date. Gets a definite thumbs up from me, although it's unlikely I'll get time to do it any justice [i][sobs][/i] :sad:

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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1375355189' post='2160131']
We'll have to come up with another way of getting the stems to people though.

IIRC there will be too much duration to get on a free soundcloud account.

Any ideas welcome!
[/quote]

Wetransfer to the contestants' email addresses?

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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1375355189' post='2160131']
We'll have to come up with another way of getting the stems to people though.

IIRC there will be too much duration to get on a free soundcloud account.

Any ideas welcome!
[/quote]

Not sure of any other way, but I was sent an audio file over Facebook last night by a mate. Maybe, you can put everything into a file, zip it, and put it on to something like Drop-Box. I've never used it, but I hear a lot of people use it now for sending files and whatnot.

Or email. You can attach files in email. I don't know what the limit is, or what size the track is, but that might be worth considering as a last resort.

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[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1375357315' post='2160161']
Wetransfer to the contestants' email addresses?
[/quote]

Yeah I think this may be it, its a pretty large set of stems I think - not as bad as Russian Dolls mind :D - will take a bit of checking when I can get hoime to see how much we are actually talking. The there are the couple of little freaky bits to do with the lining up of some of the vocals, may have to run off stems for those to make things simple.

I may have the dropbox capacity though - if I clear it right down - andthat way people can download the stems when they like rather than me sending them a wetransfer link.....

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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1375355189' post='2160131']
We'll have to come up with another way of getting the stems to people though.

IIRC there will be too much duration to get on a free soundcloud account.

Any ideas welcome!
[/quote]
Dropbox FTW

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Thank you to everyone who voted for me.
Overall I liked the song and the performances although there were mistakes and the song went on for far too long. One question that was raised was whether there was any merit to kipping to the original recording. the choice for me was simple what is best for the song, hopefully I kept within the bands intentions.
IMHO the arrangements of songs need to be tight and you need to be ruthless and cut out any fat. The internet is full of people wanting you to give their music a listen and if a song gets boring or too repetitive people will move quickly on to the next song or band, also if the intro is flat they might not make it to the first verse.
I also believe there is no such thing as cheating when mixing, it is about getting the best results you can with the time and resources you have to make the recording fit for its purpose.


[b]Drums:[/b]
there has been allot said about drum replacement so I won't go into it but I prefer to turn the hits into midi notes so I can edit and refining them afterwards.
The kick is made up of two sounds a Sub kick sample from BFD and a Steven slate kick sample.
The snare is also hybrid of two snare samples.
[b]Bass:[/b]
The bass was split into two tracks with different EQ and Comp a transient designer was also used on the slap track to give the pops more snap.
[b]Guitar :[/b]
Nothing special on the rhythm guitar but the second staccato guitar I used a phaser and auto pan to create movement.
the lead guitar was a bit of a disappointment for me I wanted to create a synthy envelope type of effect but it never worked.
[b]My contribution:[/b]
I added a organ based on the staccato style of the lead guitar.
A Trombone sound based on Xilddx intro from his recording.
And a simple guitar chop to help keep the stereo image more balanced.

John

Edited by ironside1966
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For what they are worth here are the notes I made after I listened through a few times

July mix notes

1 very good clean , kick a bit prominent for me, not sure on the bass part or the crackling on the bridge I thought the guitar could a bit more , the second bridge had lrics that should heve been cut and a new bass part , interesting police car at the end , very light cymbal work lets this down ,

2 I thought more of as rerecording than a re-mix , a great piece of work however

3 the drums were lacking but nice vocal treatment apart from the delay bit in the middle, overal a bit thin .

4 a bit much reverb on the vocal and the drums a bit lacking in umph

6 difficult to listen to TBH , the vocal was great but everything else was mush with soume odd seperation , no attempt to sort the second bridge

7 all bass and off centre vocal , the ride is lost and the bass line line seems a bit odd rhythm guitar is buried , it seems very disjointed . The drum hits are missing continuity .

8 warts and all on this one , not really much effort in cleaning up the out take bits , no drums to spaek of , a bit bass boomy .

9 it seems a bit hollow , lead a touch low , odd noises through first bridge , vocal seems a bit detached but works ok second bridge warty bits and an added drone

This month I really learnt to do loads of stuff with regard adding midi drums , this made a massive difference to the mix , after that I was unsure exactly how to make it better , I cut loads of stuff that was obviously not needed and was amazed that others didn't , I also thought that the added instruments took the song passed a mix brief.

To spoil my ponderings I then sped mine up a touch as I thought it helped the flow of the piece and moved it along a bit smoother .
Now, finally to really ruin my credability , I voted for my own , now this was purely down to the fact I honestly struggled to interpet a better job , I say that not as a smart arse , just that as a learning curve I was unsure which held the detail I was looking for to improve on mine, and after the work I had done my version it was just in my head , if that makes sense.

I would love to do the Kit one Si , and if it were another 2 monther maybe that would give Skol a chance to get stuck in , August for me is a real push with family holidays and work going bonkers , but what will be , will be . Very generous of all involved to offer it to us .

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I don't really make notes, and I don't think I really have the experience or knowledge to tell any of you anything that you didn't already pick up on. but I can explain what I did with my track.

Basically, I wanted to try and clean everything up. What I didn't like with the guitars and drum tracks was the amount of bleed into other tracks, especially since the drums were being redone, I didn't want too much of the old drum sound on the guitar tracks, but a noise gate and a denoiser was enough to solve it, and it wasn't too noticeable when in the mix.

I also tried to make the vocals sound a bit cleaner, but it was pretty bad, and I don't think I succeeded entirely in that, but same with the guitars - when everything is playing, it's not too bad. I also cut out a few bits that were not great, like where he says it's out of time.

Then I created 6 tracks for the drums, and recreated the drums with midi sounds. Thankfully, the bass drum, snare and ride weren't too hard to capture. The sounds come with the panning already applied, so I was able just to set the levels, and then send it all to a bus with a reverb effect on it so it all had an even kind of room sound.

I added effects to the guitar tracks, and spent a lot of time setting panning and volume automation, and similarly with the 2 bass tracks, they kind of work together and it switches between tracks here and there.

I'm not going to pretend like I made a great job of any of it, but I think it's alright, especially considering what we had to work with. I didn't add in lots of other instruments (mainly couldn't be bothered) but I think it's an improvement on last month's entry :D

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I'd like to say well done to all who attempted to make a song out of the stems & working with those drums. :hi:

It's a hard choice to say who's is the best mix, there's a couple of excellent mixes that had a little too much reverb for my liking (though I was guilty of that last month).
I like what Ironside's done with the track & the horns are a nice touch, so a worthy winner.

Like Skol said at the start, it's the sort of stems most bands on a budget would end up with, though getting a soundy that knows how to record drums properly would be my priority for any future recordings as the other instruments can be redone at home. We tested all the drum mics were putting a signal out to the desk, but we only got the overheads & the kick. The snare & toms all had individual mics, but we never got those tracks. :(

Bring on the xilddx/51m0n track & give us the luxury of working with good stems again! :)

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Right, the first wave of stems can be found here:-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i3lfo7fba2oneg6/87m9E6fooW

I'll set up a proper Aug/Sept topic later, but for the very keen you can get to work with this lot.

However, I'm not going to have access to decent upload speeds for a week so I wont be able to furnish you all with the rest of the stems until then (that would be the backing vocals, of which there are quite a few).

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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1376043432' post='2168887']
Right, the first wave of stems can be found here:-

[url="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i3lfo7fba2oneg6/87m9E6fooW"]https://www.dropbox....neg6/87m9E6fooW[/url]...
[/quote]

[URL=http://www.smileyvault.com/][IMG]http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/CBSA/smileyvault-cute-big-smiley-animated-041.gif[/IMG][/URL]

Mille mercis, mon ami. Real quality stuff. This is going to be a huge challenge, not to mess this up. The download (I got the 'zip'...) worked a treat. Unpacked it's just under 700 Mb. The fun starts...

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[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1376121230' post='2169876']
Just wait till you hear the rest of the stems!
[/quote]

[URL=http://www.smileyvault.com/][IMG]http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/CBSA/smileyvault-cute-big-smiley-animated-035.gif[/IMG][/URL]

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[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1376133216' post='2170017']
700mb!? Aw hell, I best leave my laptop on all day to download that.

How long is this one running for, because I've not started yet. I assume into mid-September?
[/quote]

OK,here it is again, in English... :rolleyes:

"Unpacked it's just under 700 Mb". Note the 'Unpacked'. The 'zip' file is 280 Mb. B)

No idea for the dates, but not worried, as I've nearly finished. ;)

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[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1376135850' post='2170057']
OK,here it is again, in English... :rolleyes:

"Unpacked it's just under 700 Mb". Note the 'Unpacked'. The 'zip' file is 280 Mb. B)

No idea for the dates, but not worried, as I've nearly finished. ;)
[/quote]

Oh, ok then! 280mb isn't too bad! I'm downloading a 27mb file that will take about 40 minutes, so 280 should only take about... 6/7 hours?

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[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1376136497' post='2170069']
Oh, ok then! 280mb isn't too bad! I'm downloading a 27mb file that will take about 40 minutes, so 280 should only take about... 6/7 hours?
[/quote]

I feel for you.. A connection like that would kill me.

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