What has been your biggest challenge with the mix contest mix?

Archive Manic Mix-Off (Finished)
#1

What has been (or was for those that finished) your biggest challenge with this mixing for this contest? What are you using to work around it?

1 Like
#2

Personally, I had to fly out of country and wanted to get this mix finished in quick time. I gave myself about 24 hrs to complete the project, which most of that was spent asleep admittedly. I wanted to experiement with just how much fatigue and general glossing over I could experience given a crunch like that. I have taken each of the (I’m truly humbled by the amount of great and helpful constructive) criticisms and made a lessons learned list for future mixes, time-crunched and otherwise strained.

1 Like
#3

Also, I can finally access the website at work, whee!!!

1 Like
#4

The multitrack drums. I’m pretty new to mixing multitrack drums, so it was hard for me to find the right mic balances for the whole drum set.

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#5

Convincing people that muddier indie songs have made it big.

3 Likes
#6

well played :thumbsup:

#7

Well, this one is good practice for you then. To their credit, the band did a pretty good job of tracking these drums, so this will be a good learning experience! Did you feel like it’s coming together?

#8

First of all time, I wanted to take my time, but all of a sudden work got it the way, so I had to finish and upload, cause I wouldn’t have time to do any more work on this song till the deadline. Not saying that my mix would be much better if i had more time, hahahahaha. Now in the actual mix, my biggest problem was the cymbal bleeding in the snare track, it drove me crazy. Cause I don’t like to have the hi hat in the center, but when I panned it left at first, you could still hear it from the snare channel at the center, so I had to do some surgery to tame that.

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#9

I found getting the vocals to sit right and sound good was the hardest part for me. Apparently getting the bass right was also an issue but not one that i knew about until after i submitted the mix. :confounded:

2 Likes
#10

The clicking in the snare track

#11

I’m struggling to find a way to make the mix memorable, I’m also struggling with getting the drums to sound punchy and rockin’ but I think I have an idea how to achieve that, what eludes me is finding ways to keep it interesting. It doesn’t help that the reference mix is awesome and intimidating, I almost wish I hadn’t listened to it, except that if I hadn’t I might have felt like my version is finished already and might have already submitted.

#12

the kick was a bit weak on verse and too clicky on chorus.

#13

Yeah, I agree. The weaker kick on the verses made it tough. I ended up re-sampling so I could get some consistency.

1 Like
#14

Yep, totally. I always felt disappointed to fight against “pro”-mixes.
By the way, it gives some goals… the question still is: how to reach them :blush:

#15

My daughter!
My 7 months years daughter wanted to make her own mix.
Kept moving faders around.

2 Likes
#16

Getting an early start!

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#17

Letting people know that there was only one serious mix, and to stop objectively listening to silly mixes! Come on guys! St. Anger mix was a joke. I know the drums are out of time, and it’s too compressed, that’s the point!

Cheers,
Doubletrackinjive

1 Like
#18

You should save it sometime just to see the result. It may be better than some of my work. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#19

Definitely!!

#20

Yeah, I’d say it was the drums. They were recorded well enough, but with the hihat leakage I couldn’t get the lighter snare hits to speak without adding a sample, which I don’t usually do… I also found that the drummer’s kick was a little ahead, which was tugging at the groove for me, so I sliced and diced a bit, which I also don’t usually do . Good practice tho…:grin:

1 Like