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

Hi i'm new at mixing and just found this forum. sorry i'm kind of late for the critique but if enyone
has eny feedback it would be nice to hear. here is my mix hope you like it?here it is....http://soundcloud.com/chico11/youngblood-1

John- Big thanks for this site, a great concept indeed.

I have been following this contest for some days after coming across the MixOff site, this is just what I was looking for, the multiple perceptions and opinions on mixes and techniques throughout this forum are incredible. 

Mike- Your critiques on this were outstanding and very dedicated and a valuable learning tool to say the least, I listen to a mix and write down my opinions on it, then I go over your detailed descriptions and listen to it several times over, this helps very much so with what to listen for and how to transcribe it.  I have not seen critiques this in depth since some Berklee courses I took, and they charge A LOT of money, I appreciate the value in this!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12572442/YoungGriffo_BloodToBone_gLOW-x.mp3

Thanks for your comments and listening

In fact, i finished this mix in a hurry, late, because the day before i received a phone call, gone to a job interview the same day and needed to start my new job the day after, day of the dead line.
Combine this with my 2 years old daughter and you get the picture 

Thanks again for your advices
This was my first rock mix, and it is not the last one 

PS : the opening sound is a very good freeware (and even open source) delay/echo/granular... effect, Fragmental :
http://www.niallmoody.com/ndcplugs/fragmental.htm
It is semi-modular, automatable, LFOable ...very impressive.
I just applied/tweaked it on bass.
Learn to use it from inside out, there is nothing like it 

Hi there! I just saw this competition yesterday, so I had a very quick go at it, for fun. Here it is:
http://soundcloud.com/dbstudio/bloodtobone1

Cheers
Eric

There are some nice mixes on here. I'm having so much trouble getting drop box to work. I can't post a link that works. It always times out. Any ideas?

There are some nice mixes on here. I'm having so much trouble getting drop box to work. I can't post a link that works. It always times out. Any ideas?

Why not post the Mp3 straight to the thread ?

CD

It only seems to post a download link.

Yes. That how it works on this site. But fortunately, Mike has been downloading the files anyway.

But if you really don't want to do that, http://soundcloud.com/ is popular. Just make sure you make downloading available.

soundcloud sounds horrible. I'll upload in a bit.

soundcloud sounds horrible. I'll upload in a bit.

Soundcloud streams at 128kb/sec, but stores your files at whatever quality you uploaded them at - so people can download them the quality you uploaded them at.

Here's mine.

Mike,

Thanks for your time, energy, enthusiasm, dedication, and your mentoring to us all. To say I have learned a lot is grave understatement. I am grateful to have been apart of this competition.

After listening to my mix, in light of your critique, I found myself agreeing with you too much...to the point where I really didn't like the mix in all honesty lol. So what do you do when you don't like your own mix? Note sure what the golden rule is on that one, but I decided to start from scratch. And this is the mix I am submitting for my grand finale. Hopefully, I can get your head bobbing (in time, of course), and maybe get you spilling some coffee too!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23347971/Blood%20to%20Bone-deej%27s%20mix%202.wav

YG Band,

Thank you for allowing us to be apart of the process we all love. It's been an honor. It's been hard work. But most of all, it's been inspiring. There were so many times during the mixing stage where "I (felt) like a failure" too lol. Afterall, if we aren't failing, there's a good chance we're not learning. So cheers to "learning".

My revised mix. Thanks all, really enjoyed this and thanks again to Mike for the advice.
http://soundcloud.com/stu-brown/final-mix-eq

http://soundcloud.com/smallfishrecordings/bloodtobone-young-griffo

There's some fantastic creativity in this mix! Unlike some of the more way-out ideas we've had so far, the digital glitch/telecom theme you've overlayed here actually feels very supportive of the band's own music and lyrics, so even though I'd never have tried it myself, I have to say I think it's got a lot going for it. To be honest, if you're going to take it that direction, I'd possibly make the statement of intent even more clear, so that there's no risk that people will think their modem's malfunctioning! Seriously, though, the best way to pull off a bold character-enhancement like this (in my opinion) is to give it your full conviction, so that the force of your vision (and it's alignment with the music's inherent emotions) will be most likely to win the band over.

And there's more too. How do I love the bass drop in mid-section one? Let me count the ways! Firstly it's just a great attention-grabber, which is never a bad thing, focusing the listener on the new guitar parts for a moment at a point where the recorded bass line is actually fairly pedestrian to begin with. The drop also functions as a way of buying extra arrangement headroom, allowing more of a build into mid-section two. And finally, I actually prefer the bass note you've put in as a lead-in to mid-section two more than the original one. Result! All that said, I'm not quite convinced by some of the bass notes before that point, as they seem to meander without seeming to quite know where they're headed. They just seem to need more logic somehow. Maybe try giving the notes some kind of scalar pattern, as this is a simple way of generating a sense of pattern to the line.

The drop before the outro isn't a bad idea in principle, but the execution doesn't quite live up to the concept, in my view. It's enough, at that stage in the mix, to wrong-foot the listener to some extent, but you go a bit too far for me in this case, with the reentry feeling like it's happening mid-way through a beat (according to my 'internal metronome' free-running after the drums drop out). Maybe you'd get away with this kind of drop before a second verse, or at the start of a middle-section, but by the end choruses of a song like this it's just going to be a recipe for chaos in the mosh-pit! I'd personally try to keep the eight-bar phrase lengths intact from the start of the final chorus onwards for this reason, although you still have lots of room to get seriously creative within that framework.

Those are all good things, but the more technical part of the mix aren't quite on a par with the creative side at the moment (and I imagine that lack of time may have played a role in that). My biggest concern is that the lead guitars and vocals have pretty much swapped mix positions here, to the extent that during the final choruses the lead vocals almost sound like backing vocals, and the lead-guitar riff becomes more like a solo. I like your guitar sounds overall (which charting a very sensible course between aggression, solidity, and aggression), it's just that they're dominating a little much for me. The fact that the effect levels get a bit OTT towards the end only exacerbates the situation, and everything starts to swim undesirably. While I agree that reverb can be useful in creating a powerful illusion of space, if it's taken too far then it begins to sound too much like the band's on the wrong end of a cathedral.

I like the way the bass and drums fit together, and the long cymbal sustain (with a good dose of compressor movement) is certainly along the right lines for the style. The snare, however, feels a bit spitty, with not enough going on in the low midrange to imply real power. That said, the high-frequency seems to be enough to guarantee good audibility during the heavier guitar sections, even when the loudness processing's hitting the end stops. The cymbal stick noise is poking too far forward for me too, partly as a result of the heavy drum compression. Threshold-independent transient processing would be my fix for that.

Your overall mix tonality could probably bear a few tweaks, taming the 3kHz region a decibel or so and adding some more centre at 900Hz. Mono-compatibility is a concern too, because the cymbals are really dulling in mono and some of the reverbs are becoming woolly on account of phase-cancellation. (Mono-compatibility is something that can really separate the men from the boys where reverb algorithms are concerned, but not many people seem to look out for this.)

Thanks for letting us all hear what you've done -- and for making my day with that bass drop, of course! I'm still grinning thinking about it...

All very gratefully received. I'll admit to being a bit nervous about your review but relieved in the end! With only a few hours to spend on this one, I was grateful to have tool like Slate's Trigger to help with a speedy drum mix. I've had more time to try a few refinements which hopefully improve things. I was very interested in your comments about verb phase cancellation - something which now seems obvious but which I'd never considered before!. I had multed the guitars and pulled up some of Logic's amp patches which had spring verb dialed in. I wonder if this was the culprit? Anyhow, tried again and another mix now resides at the end of the original link if you or anyone else has the time to listen.

As an aside - should it not be the "worst" mix that wins the book??

As an aside - should it not be the "worst" mix that wins the book??

So, ...


... you really want me to win, eh? 

Well

First of all I want to thanks Mike for all the effort that he did on reviewed all the mixes (mine included) and John to create this awesome forum.  

Thanks to YG for give us their tracks to participate in this contest.

Here is my revised Mix I hope you enjoy it!!  

      www.soundcloud.com/manuelbernal

Greetings
Manuel

 

I had a look through the comments from Mike and have re mixed the track again.  I personally think its a better sounding mix and included gtr dubs this time which has helpped so much.  If anyone has time please check both versions out let me know if you think this is better and any other feedback would be welcome.

http://soundcloud.com/studioimp/studioimp-younggriff-1

Perhaps we should all chip in for a weekend mountain retreat for Mike to clear his mind (and his ears!)



Cheers
Malcolm

I'm in!

Final Submission - Already have the book, as I was pretty sure I wouldn't win haha - This sophmore effort represents my mix as of Chapter 13 (plus skimming the later chapters and trying to quickly implement some of their ideas due to time constraints)

Though admittedly I'm still mixing on cans primarily, I'm also using a "grotbox" computer speaker set I taped together to simulate mono) I'm much happier with this one at least

http://soundcloud.com/red-room-recordings/young-griffo-blood-to-bone

Here is my mix:

<scratch that>

Damn, I forgot to unmute my multed mid bass.   I'll hopefully get a chance to throw up the proper mix later today.

Aaahhh, that's better. I hate when I forget to turn automation back on!

http://soundcloud.com/angusmaclean/blood-to-bone-1

Thanks Mike and Young Griffo. That was fun! Track has a lot of energy.

Thank you very Mike for your feedback and patience. I am sure everyone is extremely grateful for your contribution here.

It was nice having the extra week; it gave me the opportunity to get away from it for a few days, soak in your critique, and get a fresh perspective.

It's hard to give these things up, but here is my final mix submission:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12785429/Mixes/Blood_to_Bone_XM_v4.mp3

Here is my final mix for the Contest since today is the last day.

http://soundcloud.com/fishmed/blood-to-bone-fishmed-v2


I have another remix on the way, but it goes in a new direction and more for fun.

OK, here's my revised final mix after Mike's feedback.  Thanks again to Mike & Young Griffo.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/543762/Blood%20To%20Bone%20MixB.wav

-- Simon

Here is mine - almost forgot 

Here's my final mix.

http://texas-loud.com/mixoff/btb-jodawo-mix.mp3

Once again Mike, thank you for the critique.  I was very impressed with the accuracy and the depth of your insights.

Daniel