Mixoff Contest with Mike Senior - Win Mike's New Book!

[cosmicdolphin]

Cool, and congrats to everyone.

Mike - Why not make it an annual event ?

CD

[vvv]

Congrats, all!

[Zabrilla]

Great competition and congratulations to all for taking part & especially the winner, Martin.

Thanks for diligently taking the time to listen and critique the mix's Mike.

[Lastrite]

Grats Martin and runners up!w. And thanks to anyone involved!( Mike, YG and John in particular, but everyone who posted a mix as well)

@fHumble
Your mix was my favourite, nice job!

@Young Griffo (in reaction to ToddyO's post)
No need to defend yourselves at all as far as I'm concerned. You're a very talented band who wrote some awesome tracks in your young existence. The whole fix-it vs mix-it discussion is something that doesn't reflect on you at all. My intention when mentioning it personally was not to moan about the recording or the frame of reference for this contest at all. It was intended as something to take with you when going in to your next recording cycle. This recording has been made to sound great by the people in that top 5. But I truly believe that with a little more finesse in the recording stage (nothing to do with budget, just some simple tips and tricks), those same 5 guys could make Young Griffo sound amazing!

[JohnSuitcase]

Congratulations to Martin, and thanks again to Mike and Young Griffo!

This contest turned into a much bigger undertaking for Mike than he and I anticipated, but it is great to see so many people excited about mixing!

I'd like to invite people to continue posting mixes of this song (as long as the multitrack file is available), I think it is amazing to hear the variety of interpretations. Loading a few of the mixes into a DAW and toggling between them really illuminates the differences, and helps make Mike's observations even more apparent.

Hopefully we can all follow Mike's example in giving feedback. Detailed analysis requires that you pay close attention, and clarify your thoughts before writing them up, which I think is very helpful in learning to hear and articulate your opinions. Critiquing a mix can be almost as educational as doing a mix, and sometimes, I imagine, moreso.

Thanks everyone!

[deejsirois]

Martin, you da man. Crazy to think you pulled your mix together so well, so quickly. Clearly, you have a gift!

I am pumped for your revision.

YG:

Thanks for your perspective, comments, clarifications, and willingness to be under the microscope. It was great to hear you reasons for choosing the mix you liked best while still acknowledging mixes that might have faired better on radio. More than anything, though, I thank you for staying true...that is such a lost art these days. We've become so anal about perfecting things like timing and tuning. NONE of my favorite records/albums were treated to such a thing. So thank you for reminding me to stay true as a mixer and a musician!

Mike:

Sorry for not voting on the mixes. I felt like a real ass for not doing it. I have valid excuses, but the truth is that I should have MADE it happen...only fair for someone who put in as much time as you did. So my apologies for that.

IF you ever do this again, I would gladly pay you for your critique. In fact, I think you have insane potential to make a living at doing just that. You are an inspiration indeed. I am convinced that the large majority would have paid you for your critique. Post a fee for a critique. I'd be in. Thanks again!!!

By the way, this site is great. I feel blessed to have found it. There really is nothing quite like it. Thank you!!

[Vincent]

Congrats

 

[mrtuesday]

Congrats to you Martin (damn you Olsson! )
oh well - can't complain about silver!

I put pretty much every idea I had into this mix - partially as the brief invited us to do whatever we wanted & also due to Mike's repeated comments in his critiques urging us to make it interesting & make it build to a big last chorus pay off.
I would never have expected the band to necessarily go with all my ideas - more a "throw everything in & see what you like" theory.
It seems however that I may have alienated the band a bit too much with all my changes & additions:
Perhaps I should have held a few things back & made sure I was still creating a "band friendly" mix - a lesson for me perhaps?

There has certainly been many useful lessons, thoughts & tips come up here that I'm already trying to work into my mixing techniques.
Now if only I had Mike to critique every mix I did - +1 for a paid Mike Senior critique service.
Till then I'll just have to imagine his voice in my head -
"make it blend, check mono, automate, dynamics!, more automation"

Cheers
Malcolm

ps, YG - if you ever need some mixing done & Martin isn't available just give me a call 

[MatG]

Hey Guys,

    Just a quick note to say thanks very much for all of your efforts. We do take your feedback as it is intended and overall, it's been a pleasure! In particular -

Mike - You have gone through a soul crushing amount of mixes with humour, good grace and a willingness to really give all contributors a chunk of your time. From YG's perspective, it's pretty clear to see why you have such a great track record in the industry. You have been a class act and it is much appreciated.

Martin - We were just so impressed by the clarity and energy of your mix. It made us feel like we were having one of those rare live shows where all the pieces come together and the sound is perfect. I think most of us know it's those brief and infrequent moments that keep us going as musicians and it's a compliment to your approach that you captured such great energy for us.

Malcom - Just in response to your comments, we viewed your mix as innovative, clever and very well executed. Rather than feeling that your mix deviated too far from the brief, I would actually say that you demonstrated a really rich and creative ability to shape our song. That was a big part of the brief and you nailed it. You clearly have a great skill set and we know a revision process with you would uncover a massive, distinctive sounding track.

Andrew - You already know we have a great amount of respect for your ears, approach and patience. As the guy who has mixed the rest of our EP and done a superb job, YG have to admit that any direction too deep in the "grit" territory has happened because we demanded it  Thanks for putting up the mix that kicked this contest off. The quality of this mix stood up alongside 65 others. Thats pretty impressive I think.

So, in the end, we chose what we felt was a brilliant reflection of us as a raw, live band. It's interesting that all three mixers have shown distinct styles and all three have done an exceptional job. We'd happily work with each of you again.

Anyway, we continue to write new tunes and are already on our way to writing a second EP. Our live show is really where much of this music makes the most sense but we are learning a great deal and sooner or later I think we'll nail a studio release that gets all of the YG elements right. Even if we don't, it's a lot of fun attempting it 

Cheers,

Mat
Young Griffo

[Ti-ti-tim]

Hi, here is my interpretation of the song. I know the contest is over so I didn't spend any time on editing. I hope you have the time to listen to it.

[fHumble fHingaz]

Congratulations to Martin - top job on the mix - I voted for your mix too!  

A big WELL DONE Malcolm &  to all who took part in the contest - It's amazing to hear so many different takes on a mix that I had become so close to - it really provides a valuable perspective.

& of course, a MASSIVE thanks to Mike for contributing your golden ears & your thoughtful & eloquent critiques.

Paul, Matt & Toddy - keep on composing those YG indie anthems - I've learned heaps mixing your stuff - thanks for giving me a go.

All the best,
Andrew (aka fHumble fHingaz)

[Martin Olsson]

Thanks everybody!

Martin - We were just so impressed by the clarity and energy of your mix. It made us feel like we were having one of those rare live shows where all the pieces come together and the sound is perfect. I think most of us know it's those brief and infrequent moments that keep us going as musicians and it's a compliment to your approach that you captured such great energy for us.

Thanks, Mat!

It was a fun song to mix, and you guys has a nice thing going on in your band. Basically what I did was trying to enhance the vibe of the song and the performance, to make it "swing". I´m not skilled enough to pull off trix like mrtuesday and fHumble fHingaz, so I couldn´t compete in that aspect, but I´m glad that I at least can make you guys happy with the little I know.

Thanks a lot for supplying the tracks and hear from you soon!

/Martin

[PauloGomes]

Congratulations Martin... Great mix.

[Martin Olsson]

Thr book arrived today! Thanks a lot Mike and YG!

Congratulations Martin... Great mix.

Thank you, sir!

[triviul]

Hello again, everyone,

As I mentioned I was planning earlier, I've now consolidated the audio files, critiques, and much of the other discussion on this thread to a dedicated page on my forum:

The Great 'Blood To Bone' Mixoff!

It should now be a lot easier to navigate through and compare all the mixes, critiques, and forum responses related to each contestant's submissions, which will hopefully help maximise the usefulness of this resource from a learner's perspective. I've re-proofread my critiques in posting them on my site, but I've included links to the original forum posts if you prefer to read them in that context.

I've hosted all 101 mix files in their originally submitted format, although I've also provided a 192kbps MP3 preview conversion in some cases, simply to ease in-browser auditioning. I'm also going to leave the multitrack files up for as long as Young Griffo are happy for me to continue doing so, because having access to those really improves the value of this resource for learners, I think.

A number of forum members have asked whether I would be able to provide some feedback on their final post-critique submission, to evaluate the effectiveness of their subsequent mix tweaks. While in principle I'm interested in doing this in the long term, because I think it'd be a useful addition to the resource, in practice I reckon it'll take almost as long again to do each update critique (what with reminding myself of the original mix sound, rereading the comments, listening to the new mix, and then writing up something sensible) as it took to do each original submission. Given that there were 28 updated mixes, that's probably a solid week's work, so I wouldn't want anyone to hold their breath for an immediate update unless they fancy turning purple and falling over. If you're desperate for a faster turnaround (or if you just need similar critiques for other work you're doing, as some posters have mentioned), then you can get a quote for this via my Studio Services page.

I'm hoping to develop some of the ideas from this thread into a magazine article as well, so if you're a reader of Sound On Sound, keep your eyes peeled during the coming months...