Quote:

---

why is the lead vocal a semitone out in the last passage before the end? Or is that jazz?

---

I think that's just a jazz thing... it doesn't sound like it was a mistake, and from the standard of the rest of the performance I'd be surprised if she was that far out by accident.

Quote CharlotteL:

---

Quote:

---

why is the lead vocal a semitone out in the last passage before the end? Or is that jazz?

---

I think that's just a jazz thing... it doesn't sound like it was a mistake, and from the standard of the rest of the performance I'd be surprised if she was that far out by accident.

---

Spot on Charlotte!

Quote musicproject:

---

james, just emailed you my - "oldschool jazz style" - mix of bewitched...

lot's of midrange, grainy vocals and brass and a 50's feel to it.

hope you like it.

---

OK - that's excellent!!

You obviously had a clear idea of what you wanted and I think it works really well! In fact, I was thinking you could almost pan the drums over hard left like on those really early stereo records?

Great job!

OK folks, I think we need some web-hosting for this - there's way more interest that I thought there'd be, which is great!

I propose we formalise this now:

All submissions to be 192kbps mp3 files

We also now need a webmaster!

Ideally you should have:

- A decent amount of download traffic allowance
- A fast server

and most important...

- You need to be around for another week or so in order to manage this efficiently and accurately!

I have had offers so far from "Koed", Guy Johnson, "DarrenSw" and James Richmond. Be honest guys - are you willing to take this on and do you have the time? If you are please publish an email address where we can send our entries, and please keep careful tabs on who's is whose!

I expect there will be 15 or so entries, so the files will be around 5MB each.

There's no need to make a webpage - as long as we can make a post here linking all the submissions it will be fine. People need to either be able to stream directly or to right click download.

You'll need to name the files properly - preferrably so that when folks download them they will appear in iTunes with the correct name of the mix engineer in the 'Artist' box - this is quite important otherwise confusion will reign as to who did which!

I have three mixes ready to go already - mine, "Vinylizor" and "musicproject"!

Hi James,

I'm a web developer with a re-seller package giving me unlimited disk space and around 40GB bandwidth/month. Happy to host the files (up to a sensible download limit, say 20GB/month, enough for about 4,000 5MB downloads).

If you are interested, let me know.

Darren

Quote stemwinder:

---

Hi James,

I'm a web developer with a re-seller package giving me unlimited disk space and around 40GB bandwidth/month. Happy to host the files (up to a sensible download limit, say 20GB/month, enough for about 4,000 5MB downloads).

If you are interested, let me know.

Darren

---

Darren - this sounds excellent.

If you're up for taking this on can we go for it?

I have 5 mixes that folks have sent me all ready to go - would be nice for people to be able to start having a listen!

Files must be able to stream and right-click download

Just to re-iterate - we don't need a fancy webpage - I'd like simply to post all the links to the mp3's from within this thread, where we will include all the relevant mix info etc. I will do this in a later post which I will update as the mixes come in.

Can you PM or email me (jameslehmann@hotmail.com) your email address and I'll start sending the 5 mp3's I already have as attachments.

Thanks for volunteering!


PS I saw you have some PMC TB2's as well so I'm interested to get your listening feedback too!

"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off
Participant update:

James Lehmann SUBMITTED
"CharlotteL"
"jumpeyspider"
"Lime ZRX"
"Wonkey Wabbit"
"Herewego"
Guy Johnson
"dave-lew99"
Chris Poulter
"DarrenSw"
"dunch"
"LDGuy"
"Vinylizor" SUBMITTED
"Doublehelix"
"musicproject" SUBMITTED
"Hugh" SUBMITTED

TOTAL = 16 mixes due no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August.

Have fun!

Hi James,

All set-up and ready to go... I've email you with the details.

Darren

Hang on to your hats folks - Darren is just setting this up for us (big thanks Darren!).

Shortly I'll post an email address where you can send your 192kpbs mp3 entries.

Once Darren gets the files up on the site I'll post the appropriate links and add in new ones when they arrive.

After some thought I've decided we will all put our names to our mixes (as opposed to an anonymous 'shoot-out') - this makes it more personal for listeners directing comments/feedback etc, plus you can openly discuss the particular problems you encountered and what gear you used with direct reference to your mix.

OK people - please send your 192kbps mp3 mixes of "Bewitched..." to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk

Unless you state otherwise your Forum name will be attached to the mix.

And now presenting...

[loud jazzy drum-roll...]

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!

(If you aren't downloading the raw files, for a rough idea of what we had to work with Mix #3 labelled "Band Akai" was the Guide mix done by the band with minimal processing directly in their Akai DPS16)


"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off
Participant update:

James Lehmann SUBMITTED
"Vinylizor" SUBMITTED
Band Akai (Guide Mix) SUBMITTED
"musicproject" SUBMITTED
"Hugh" SUBMITTED
"dave-lew99" SUBMITTED
"dunch" SUBMITTED
"CharlotteL"
"jumpeyspider"
"Lime ZRX"
"Wonkey Wabbit"
"Herewego"
Guy Johnson
Chris Poulter
"DarrenSw"
"LDGuy"
"Doublehelix"


192kbps mp3 mixes due to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August - please make sure we know your Forum name.

Have fun!

the stream links aren't working .. the m3u files should contain the complete path to the mp3 files.

Instead of

../mp3/mix5.mp3

they should read:

http://www.liquidbughunt.co.uk/jazz/mp3/mix5.mp3

or else they won't work on most systems.

Also.. it's nice to have a m3u with all the mp3's like this:

http://www.liquidbughunt.co.uk/jazz/mp3/mix1.mp3
http://www.liquidbughunt.co.uk/jazz/mp3/mix2.mp3
http://www.liquidbughunt.co.uk/jazz/mp3/mix3.mp3

etc etc..

If you click that m3u link you'll have all the mp3's in your mp3 player.


BTW .. it's almost weird and wonderful how different all of these mixes already are

"Koed" - can you email that info to Darren at the above email address, cheers!

They work fine for me on ie6 btw, just in case yer man is testing.

James -

thanks again for setting this up (and Darren for hosting). Have just spent a very enjoyable couple of hours mixing, and my mix has been mailed ... now to listen to the others!

btw, in case anyone is interested, it was mixed "in the box" using Sonar 5. The only non-Sonar plugin used was the free Blockfish compressor from Digital Fishphones.

cheers
Adrian

--------------------
getting better all the time..

Quote ow:

---

They work fine for me on ie6 btw, just in case yer man is testing.

---

Yes me too

--------------------
getting better all the time..

I have changed the streaming files (M3Us) to absolute references so they should work for non-IE6 users now. When all of the entries are in I'll put up a "stream all" playlist.

Seven up so far....

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!

(If you aren't downloading the raw files, for a rough idea of what we had to work with Mix #3 labelled "Band Akai" was the Guide mix done by the band with minimal processing directly in their Akai DPS16)


"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off
Participant update:

James Lehmann SUBMITTED
"Vinylizor" SUBMITTED
Band Akai (Guide Mix) SUBMITTED
"musicproject" SUBMITTED
"Hugh" SUBMITTED
"dave-lew99" SUBMITTED
"dunch" SUBMITTED
"stemwinder" SUBMITTED
"CharlotteL"
"jumpeyspider"
"Lime ZRX"
"Wonkey Wabbit"
"Herewego"
Guy Johnson
Chris Poulter
"DarrenSw"
"LDGuy"
"Doublehelix"


192kbps mp3 mixes due to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August - please make sure we know your Forum name.

Have fun!

Working like a charm now thanks

Mine was all mixed in Logic using mainly Waves and Elemental Audio plug-ins. Waves Renaissance compressor with appropriate settings on guitar, sax, bass, kick, drums, trombone, Waves Renaissance Vox on vocals. All treated with various Space Designer presets - vocal plate, guitar room, bass booth, sax chamber, brass plate, big kick, bright drums. then some EQ on bass and drums. master buss reverb - Space Designer Short Plate, compressor - Waves RComp, EQ - EA Equium, Limiter - EA Finis.

--------------------
Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay.
(Attrib. to Alexandre Dumas)

James - would it be possible to get hold of a list of exactly which mic was used for each track on the original recording? Just for interest..

cheers
Adrian

--------------------
getting better all the time..

Quote dunch:

---

James - would it be possible to get hold of a list of exactly which mic was used for each track on the original recording? Just for interest..

---

Info a bit patchy but what I know is this:

Drum Overheads - Rode NT5's
Other Drums, ie Kick, Snare, Toms etc - unknown mics, probably more Rode's, AKG's and maybe a 57
Drums pre-mixed to stereo feed (minus kick) via a Mackie Onyx
Bass - 5-string Fender Jazz >> Sansamp DI
Sax & Trombone - clip-on AKG condensers
Guitar - Ibanez Jazz >> DI from out the back of a Polytone amp
Voice - AT4033 >> Joemeek ThreeQ

All recorded directly onto an Akai DPS16 at 16/44.1k

Hi James,

This mix-off is a nice idea - thanks. I've just e-mailed my mp3 to Darren, so hopefully it should appear in the list some time.

For those interested; it was mixed entirely in Logic 7.1, using no third party plug-ins. If you want to know more - then just ask . . .

Tom

--------------------
My Little Project

"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!


Participant update:

ITB = In the box, mixed entirely within a DAW
OTB = Out of the box, mixed using analog processing

(NB: Participants - do please provide as much detail as you like about how you mixed and what monitors you used etc and I'll include it here - this is a Music Technology Forum after all and I think folks are interested.)

MIX 1: James Lehmann
OTB/ITB. My overall mix goal - making this production, recorded on very basic equipment, sound as expensive as possible; fixing a number of unwanted technical problems inherent in the raw tracks; preserving the dynamic and feel of the live take as you can hear the band play well together so the mix should reflect that. Firstly each individual track was re-recorded at 24/44.1k by being run out and back through a Metric Halo 2882 via a Speck ASC-T EQ and a Drawmer 1968-ME compressor for warmth, colour and character. Tracks were then edited to remove unnecessary spill and extraneous noise. Further corrective EQ was added ITB with Logic Channel EQ and Metric Halo Channelstrip - the latter was also used for volume adjustments as the resolution is much finer than Logic's and it sounds better. ChannelStrip's compressor was also used to deal with (significant) drum spike and kick problems - frequency-dependent sidechain input was very useful here. Sax and Trombone each required a heavily customised ChannelStrip patch with EQ & compression to warm them up and fill them out, and the Kick required some major corrective surgery to get anything remotely useable. Guitar went through a custom Logic Guitar Amp Pro patch and then a tiny amount of EQ correction with Channel EQ to make it 'sit' with the vocals, Bass I left largely alone. Reverb was a TC M300 set to TC Classic Hall which was patched into the S/P-DIF loop of the MH2882, with some EQ on the return. Volume and EQ automation inserted where needed (ie solos etc). Finally, the mix was summed and again sent out and back through the MH2882 (note: not summed in Logic) via the Specks (fine lo-end roll-off) and the Drawmer (very gentle compression) to create a nice pre-master. Elemental Audio Finis was used to raise the overall volume peak to -0.15dB but no limiting was used (death to the loudness wars!); the resulting 24-bit master was dithered back down to 16/44.1k and converted to a 192kbps mp3 in iTunes. All monitoring done on Blue Sky ProDesks.

MIX 2: "Vinylizor"
No info yet

MIX 3: Band Akai (Guide Mix)
ITB. Very rough guide mix done by the band in their Akai DPS16 with minimal processing so you can hear more or less what we had to work with!

MIX 4: "musicproject"
No info yet

MIX 5: "Hugh"
ITB. Mixed in Logic using mainly Waves and Elemental Audio plug-ins. Waves Renaissance compressor with appropriate settings on guitar, sax, bass, kick, drums, trombone, Waves Renaissance Vox on vocals. All treated with various Space Designer presets - vocal plate, guitar room, bass booth, sax chamber, brass plate, big kick, bright drums. then some EQ on bass and drums. master buss reverb - Space Designer Short Plate, compressor - Waves RComp, EQ - EA Equium, Limiter - EA Finis.

MIX 6: Dave Lewthwaite
ITB. AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 1Gb RAM, Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Ex, 160Gb RAID-0 (Stripe) Project Disks, Behringer Truth 2030A Monitors, Yamaha MG16/4. Mixed in the box with Cubase SX and only included effects, control surface Behringer BCF2000 was also used. My aim (as a beginner) was to keep it as simple as possible, yet still aiming for a pleasing sound. Tracks were split into mono using Adobe Audition, apart from the drums, obviously, and converted to 16-Bit/48kHz to conform with my restrictive ASIO drivers. All that is on there is a little 2:1 compression on the vocals and again over the entire mix and a slight amount of reverb over the entire mix - and thats it! the rest is just level setting and pan. The effects were simply 'VST Dynamics' and the 'Roomworks' reverb. Exporting was a matter of hitting record in cubase to record the stereo output back to another track, then imported into Audition for normalisation and a quick tidy at the beginning and end, the track was then exported as MP3 44.1kHz 16-bit from Audition.

MIX 7: "dunch"
ITB. Mixed "in the box" using Sonar 5. The only non-Sonar plugin used was the free Blockfish compressor from Digital Fishphones.

MIX 8: "stemwinder"
No info yet

"Extraborg" (Awaiting inclusion on site)
ITB. Logic Express

"Mr Tom" (Awaiting inclusion on site)
ITB. Mixed entirely in Logic 7.1, using no third party plug-ins, on Tannoy Active Reveals

"Wonkey Wabbit" (Awaiting inclusion on site)
ITB. 3.0GHz P4 with 1Mb RAM, M-Audio Delta-66, Cubase SX2.2, UAD-1 card, Behringer B3021 monitors (must get something better!), Wavelab V3. I didn't do anything fancy with the tracks like James but I split the files to mono in Waveleb (except the drum track) and converted the files to 24/44.1. I then edited them as much as possible to cut down on spill. Put a high and low pass filter on the kick to cut down on the hat/cymbal spill and take out some of the boominess and then added a touch of compression. I used 2 UAD Realverbs - one for vocals ( based on the wooden room preset which I like for vocals) and one for the brass and guitars (based on the jazz club preset - what else!). Most things had the UAD 1176LN compressor or LA2A limiter on them and I generally used the Pultec EQs on the tracks as well. I used the SX 'Q' filter on some tracks in a cut mode only. A bit of volume automation and that was it.


192kbps mp3 mixes due to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August - please make sure we know your Forum name.

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!

Have fun!

I'm kind of curious about the monitors used for each mix

Guessing that the huge variation in the mp3's I've listened to might have a lot to do with the monitor/room conditions.

Pretty sure there's an NS 10 (or descendent) owner in there, a HiFi set or maybe even a pair of headphones


I always check mixes on my event 20/20's, then on my midrange computer speakers and finaly on my senheisser headphones to see if they transfer well.

Only three of the current mp3's have passed with flying colors thus far.

Quote Koed:

---

I'm kind of curious about the monitors used for each mix

---

Tannoy Reveal Active in my case - and a pretty poor room acoustically!

--------------------
My Little Project

Dagnabit! I've just seen this with only a couple of days to go. I'm downloading now and I'll give it a bash but I'll decide wether I'm going to actualy enter the fray when I hear what I've come up with.

--------------------
He who feels punctured must have been a bubble - Lao Tsu.

I sent mine in late yesterday evening - hopefully it's got through OK. Only had a short time to mix it as I had only just finished repairing my music PC late Sunday afternoon after 5 months out of action. I used Wavelab to encode it to an mp3 and the first mixes 'jumped' and missed a section. Eventually I got one that seemed to play through OK all the way. Never had that before.

This is my set-up.

3.0GHz P4 with 1Mb RAM.
M-Audio Delta-66
Cubase SX2.2
UAD-1 card
Behringer B3021 monitors (must get something better!)
Wavelab V3

I didn't do anything fancy with the tracks like James but I split the files to mono in Waveleb (except the drum track) and converted the files to 24/44.1. I then edited them as much as possible to cut down on spill. Put a high and low pass filter on the kick to cut down on the hat/cymbal spill and take out some of the boominess and then added a touch of compression.

I used 2 UAD Realverbs - one for vocals ( based on the wooden room preset which I like for vocals) and one for the brass and guitars (based on the jazz club preset - what else!). Most things had the UAD 1176LN compressor or LA2A limiter on them and I generally used the Pultec EQs on the tracks as well. I used the SX 'Q' filter on some tracks in a cut mode only. A bit of volume automation and that was it.

The Ah-Q Arkestra - do they play everything in the key of F?

Ok, a little info about what i've done:

Hardware:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
1Gb RAM
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Ex
160Gb RAID-0 (Stripe) Project Disks
Behringer Truth 2030A Monitors
Yamaha MG16/4
Mixed in the box with Cubase SX and only included effects, control surface Behringer BCF2000 was also used

My aim (as a beginner) was to keep it as simple as possible, yet still aiming for a pleasing sound.

Tracks were split into mono using Adobe Audition, apart from the drums, obviously, and converted to 16-Bit/48kHz to conform with my restrictive ASIO drivers.

All that is on there is a little 2:1 compression on the vocals and again over the entire mix and a slight amount of reverb over the entire mix - and thats it! the rest is just level setting and pan.

The effects were simply 'VST Dynamics' and the 'Roomworks' reverb

Exporting was a matter of hitting record in cubase to record the stereo output back to another track, then imported into Audition for normalisation and a quick tidy at the beginning and end, the track was then exported as MP3 44.1kHz 16-bit from Audition.

--------------------
David Lewthwaite, www.lewty.org.uk, dave@lewty.org.uk

Edited by David Lewthwaite (31/07/06 05:20 PM)

He-he! Will be interesting to see if we get anyone to ante up an entirely OTB mix through [gasp] a real analog console and some esoteric outboard!

My set-up is:

- PC, ProTools 7, Digi002 (but mixed entirely ITB due to time constraints)
- PMC TB2s monitors
- PSP Vintage Warmer
- PSP Master Compressor
- DigiDesign DVerb

Darren

So here's a little more info on my mix (Sonar, ITB).

I monitored on Genelec 1029s + 1091 sub, and also a cheap old Sony hifi system.

After I listened to the guide mix I decided I wanted something a bit more intimate, like you were listening to them close up in a small venue.

Drums & Kick I compressed and eq'd till I felt they had a bit more punch and the kick was distinct from the bass.
Bass was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq.
Guitar was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq.
Sax I eq'd slightly to make it a bit less honky.
Trombone I eq'd to thin it out and stop it fighting with everything else, except when it was playing the solo part when I used no eq.
Vocals I used no eq, but did compress a little. Listening back just now I'd like to back off compression a tiny bit.
I added a plate reverb to the vocals (medium plate preset in Sonar convolution reverb). I varied the wet/dry throughout the song - pretty dry at the beginning, wetter as the vocals got louder.
Everything else had varying amounts of room preset, again using the convolution reverb.
I mixed fairly low, peaking the master bus at -4dB. No compression or eq on the master bus.
Exported at 44.1K/16, using pow-r 3 dither from Sonar's mix bus down to 16bit. Topped and tailed then converted to mp3 using lame.

cheers
Adrian

--------------------
getting better all the time..

"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off

11 mixes so far and counting!...

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!


Participant update:

ITB = In the box, mixed entirely within a DAW
OTB = Out of the box, mixed using analog processing

(NB: Participants - do please provide as much detail as you like about how you mixed and what monitors you used etc and I'll include it here - this is a Music Technology Forum after all and I think folks are interested.)

MIX 1: James Lehmann
OTB/ITB. My overall mix goal - making this production, recorded on very basic equipment, sound as expensive as possible; fixing a number of unwanted technical problems inherent in the raw tracks; preserving the dynamic and feel of the live take as you can hear the band play well together so the mix should reflect that. Firstly each individual track was re-recorded at 24/44.1k by being run out and back through a Metric Halo 2882 via a Speck ASC-T EQ and a Drawmer 1968-ME compressor for warmth, colour and character. Tracks were then edited to remove unnecessary spill and extraneous noise. Further corrective EQ was added ITB with Logic Channel EQ and Metric Halo Channelstrip - the latter was also used for volume adjustments as the resolution is much finer than Logic's and it sounds better. ChannelStrip's compressor was also used to deal with (significant) drum spike and kick problems - frequency-dependent sidechain input was very useful here. Sax and Trombone each required a heavily customised ChannelStrip patch with EQ & compression to warm them up and fill them out, and the Kick required some major corrective surgery to get anything remotely useable. Guitar went through a custom Logic Guitar Amp Pro patch and then a tiny amount of EQ correction with Channel EQ to make it 'sit' with the vocals, Bass I left largely alone. Reverb was a TC M300 set to TC Classic Hall which was patched into the S/P-DIF loop of the MH2882, with some EQ on the return. Volume and EQ automation inserted where needed (ie solos etc). Finally, the mix was summed and again sent out and back through the MH2882 (note: not summed in Logic) via the Specks (fine lo-end roll-off) and the Drawmer (very gentle compression) to create a nice pre-master. Elemental Audio Finis was used to raise the overall volume peak to -0.15dB but no limiting was used (death to the loudness wars!); the resulting 24-bit master was dithered back down to 16/44.1k and converted to a 192kbps mp3 in iTunes. All monitoring done on Blue Sky ProDesks.

MIX 2: "Vinylizor"
OTB/ITB. My mix was done in Pro-Tools HD, but mainly using outboard vintage comps and eq's as inserts on each channel, through Apogee AD/DA 16X convertors. Monitoring was on PMC AML1's & IB1's. For the vocals, the chain was a Calrec CL1170 compressor (an expanded BBC AM6/17 design) and a Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ (as used in the Focusrite console). Bass went through a Distressor (in opto mode), the guitar went through a Urei 1176LN comp, and again they both went through Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ's. Guitar was quite hissy. I tried both noise reduction and re-amping, but in the end it was always a compromise over what was a pretty good tone, so I left it. You can hear it quite clearly on the intro. Overheads went through a McDSP MC2000 multiband compressor in an attempt to readdress the crash heavy / snare light balance, without it sounding unnatural. They then went through a Tritone Valvetone EQ - for thickening more than EQ'ing. The bass drum track was useless to me, basically because it didn't even sound like the same bass drum you heard in the overheads. In this instance I think it was a case of the wrong mic in the wrong place - it's just all low end thud and no tone - great for rock but useless for jazz. So, I used Drumagog to blend a similar sounding multisampled bass drum in to the bass drum track for the attack and body part of the sound. Without such a tool I'd have left it out entirely. Sax and trombone went through a dbx 165A and another Urei 1176 (can't remember which way round without checking the session) and again through some Focusrite ISA 85110's for EQ. Reverb was an EMT plate setting from Digidesign's ReVibe, and I also used iZotope Ozone3's multiband comp and widener on the 2bus. There's a bit of volume automation on the horn and vocal parts, and also the high end expander in Ozone, but none on any of the sends.

MIX 3: Band Akai (Guide Mix)
ITB. Very rough guide mix done by the band in their Akai DPS16 with minimal processing so you can hear more or less what we had to work with!

MIX 4: "musicproject"
No info yet

MIX 5: "Hugh"
ITB. Mixed in Logic using mainly Waves and Elemental Audio plug-ins. Waves Renaissance compressor with appropriate settings on guitar, sax, bass, kick, drums, trombone, Waves Renaissance Vox on vocals. All treated with various Space Designer presets - vocal plate, guitar room, bass booth, sax chamber, brass plate, big kick, bright drums. then some EQ on bass and drums. master buss reverb - Space Designer Short Plate, compressor - Waves RComp, EQ - EA Equium, Limiter - EA Finis.

MIX 6: Dave Lewthwaite
ITB. AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 1Gb RAM, Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Ex, 160Gb RAID-0 (Stripe) Project Disks, Behringer Truth 2030A Monitors, Yamaha MG16/4. Mixed in the box with Cubase SX and only included effects, control surface Behringer BCF2000 was also used. My aim (as a beginner) was to keep it as simple as possible, yet still aiming for a pleasing sound. Tracks were split into mono using Adobe Audition, apart from the drums, obviously, and converted to 16-Bit/48kHz to conform with my restrictive ASIO drivers. All that is on there is a little 2:1 compression on the vocals and again over the entire mix and a slight amount of reverb over the entire mix - and thats it! the rest is just level setting and pan. The effects were simply 'VST Dynamics' and the 'Roomworks' reverb. Exporting was a matter of hitting record in cubase to record the stereo output back to another track, then imported into Audition for normalisation and a quick tidy at the beginning and end, the track was then exported as MP3 44.1kHz 16-bit from Audition.

MIX 7: "dunch"
ITB. Mixed "in the box" using Sonar 5. The only non-Sonar plugin used was the free Blockfish compressor from Digital Fishphones. I monitored on Genelec 1029s + 1091 sub, and also a cheap old Sony hifi system. After I listened to the guide mix I decided I wanted something a bit more intimate, like you were listening to them close up in a small venue. Drums & Kick I compressed and eq'd till I felt they had a bit more punch and the kick was distinct from the bass. Bass was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq. Guitar was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq. Sax I eq'd slightly to make it a bit less honky. Trombone I eq'd to thin it out and stop it fighting with everything else, except when it was playing the solo part when I used no eq. Vocals I used no eq, but did compress a little. Listening back just now I'd like to back off compression a tiny bit. I added a plate reverb to the vocals (medium plate preset in Sonar convolution reverb). I varied the wet/dry throughout the song - pretty dry at the beginning, wetter as the vocals got louder. Everything else had varying amounts of room preset, again using the convolution reverb. I mixed fairly low, peaking the master bus at -4dB. No compression or eq on the master bus. Exported at 44.1K/16, using pow-r 3 dither from Sonar's mix bus down to 16bit. Topped and tailed then converted to mp3 using lame.

MIX 8: "stemwinder"
ITB. PC, ProTools 7, Digi002 (but mixed entirely ITB due to time constraints), PMC TB2s monitors, PSP Vintage Warmer, PSP Master Compressor, DigiDesign DVerbt

MIX 9: "Mr Tom"
ITB. Mixed entirely in Logic 7.1, using no third party plug-ins, on Tannoy Active Reveals

MIX 10: "DarrenSW"
No info yet

MIX 11: "Wonkey Wabbit"
ITB. 3.0GHz P4 with 1Mb RAM, M-Audio Delta-66, Cubase SX2.2, UAD-1 card, Behringer B3021 monitors (must get something better!), Wavelab V3. I didn't do anything fancy with the tracks like James but I split the files to mono in Waveleb (except the drum track) and converted the files to 24/44.1. I then edited them as much as possible to cut down on spill. Put a high and low pass filter on the kick to cut down on the hat/cymbal spill and take out some of the boominess and then added a touch of compression. I used 2 UAD Realverbs - one for vocals ( based on the wooden room preset which I like for vocals) and one for the brass and guitars (based on the jazz club preset - what else!). Most things had the UAD 1176LN compressor or LA2A limiter on them and I generally used the Pultec EQs on the tracks as well. I used the SX 'Q' filter on some tracks in a cut mode only. A bit of volume automation and that was it.

"Extraborg" (Awaiting inclusion on site)
ITB. Logic Express


192kbps mp3 mixes due to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August - please make sure we know your Forum name.

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!

Have fun!

Edited by James Lehmann (31/07/06 08:49 PM)

My mix was done in Pro-Tools HD, but mainly using outboard vintage comps and eq's as inserts on each channel, through Apogee AD/DA 16X convertors. Monitoring was on PMC AML1's & IB1's.

For the vocals, the chain was a Calrec CL1170 compressor (an expanded BBC AM6/17 design) and a Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ (as used in the Focusrite console).

Bass went through a Distressor (in opto mode), the guitar went through a Urei 1176LN comp, and again they both went through Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ's. Guitar was quite hissy. I tried both noise reduction and re-amping, but in the end it was always a compromise over what was a pretty good tone, so I left it. You can hear it quite clearly on the intro.

Overheads went through a McDSP MC2000 multiband compressor in an attempt to readdress the crash heavy / snare light balance, without it sounding unnatural. They then went through a Tritone Valvetone EQ - for thickening more than EQ'ing.

The bass drum track was useless to me, basically because it didn't even sound like the same bass drum you heard in the overheads. In this instance I think it was a case of the wrong mic in the wrong place - it's just all low end thud and no tone - great for rock but useless for jazz. So, I used Drumagog to blend a similar sounding multisampled bass drum in to the bass drum track for the attack and body part of the sound. Without such a tool I'd have left it out entirely.

Sax and trombone went through a dbx 165A and another Urei 1176 (can't remember which way round without checking the session) and again through some Focusrite ISA 85110's for EQ.

Reverb was an EMT plate setting from Digidesign's ReVibe, and I also used iZotope Ozone3's multiband comp and widener on the 2bus.

There's a bit of volume automation on the horn and vocal parts, and also the high end expander in Ozone, but none on any of the sends.

After sending a version at the wrong bit rate, hopefully the correct one will have landed by now. Thanks Darren!
Loaded into Cubase SL3 and mixed on a Yamaha 02R. Just used one reverb from a Lexicon MPX550. I cheated a bit and changed some of the music. There's a couple of places where the bass player uses the same note for ages, I pasted another note in to give the speakers (Mackie 824) a rest! I didn't like the way the drums fell in at the start, or at the very end, so I cut them a bit. Also, I know the kick has been slagged off, but I've stuck it in a few extra places just to make it feel wanted. The vocalist- really nice voice I think- had a habit of singing an "a" sound before some lyrics, usually "a- bewitched". Took them out. It was probably a really important part of the jazz feel of the song and I'm going to be sued. Also, there was a wee pop on the first "simpering", so I took that out. I reallly must get out more.....
Oh, and I moved some of the guitarists chords a bit, and a few brass bits.
I do have the TC Electronic Finalizer in the 02R, but as others haven't resorted to mastering, I didn't touch it.
I hadn't turned my studio on for months, so this was good fun.

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Cubase, guitars.

Edited by Lime ZRX (31/07/06 10:20 PM)

"Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" Mix-Off

12 mixes so far and counting!...

Just a reminder deadline is tomorrow evening, ie 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August!

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!


Participant update:

ITB = In the box, mixed entirely within a DAW
OTB = Out of the box, mixed using analog processing

(NB: Participants - do please provide as much detail as you like about how you mixed and what monitors you used etc and I'll include it here - this is a Music Technology Forum after all and I think folks are interested.)

MIX 1: James Lehmann
OTB/ITB. My overall mix goal - making this production, recorded on very basic equipment, sound as expensive as possible; fixing a number of unwanted technical problems inherent in the raw tracks; preserving the dynamic and feel of the live take as you can hear the band play well together so the mix should reflect that. Firstly each individual track was re-recorded at 24/44.1k by being run out and back through a Metric Halo 2882 via a Speck ASC-T EQ and a Drawmer 1968-ME compressor for warmth, colour and character. Tracks were then edited to remove unnecessary spill and extraneous noise. Further corrective EQ was added ITB with Logic Channel EQ and Metric Halo Channelstrip - the latter was also used for volume adjustments as the resolution is much finer than Logic's and it sounds better. ChannelStrip's compressor was also used to deal with (significant) drum spike and kick problems - frequency-dependent sidechain input was very useful here. Sax and Trombone each required a heavily customised ChannelStrip patch with EQ & compression to warm them up and fill them out, and the Kick required some major corrective surgery to get anything remotely useable. Guitar went through a custom Logic Guitar Amp Pro patch and then a tiny amount of EQ correction with Channel EQ to make it 'sit' with the vocals, Bass I left largely alone. Reverb was a TC M300 set to TC Classic Hall which was patched into the S/P-DIF loop of the MH2882, with some EQ on the return. Volume and EQ automation inserted where needed (ie solos etc). Finally, the mix was summed and again sent out and back through the MH2882 (note: not summed in Logic) via the Specks (fine lo-end roll-off) and the Drawmer (very gentle compression) to create a nice pre-master. Elemental Audio Finis was used to raise the overall volume peak to -0.15dB but no limiting was used (death to the loudness wars!); the resulting 24-bit master was dithered back down to 16/44.1k and converted to a 192kbps mp3 in iTunes. All monitoring done on Blue Sky ProDesks.

MIX 2: "Vinylizor"
OTB/ITB. My mix was done in Pro-Tools HD, but mainly using outboard vintage comps and eq's as inserts on each channel, through Apogee AD/DA 16X convertors. Monitoring was on PMC AML1's & IB1's. For the vocals, the chain was a Calrec CL1170 compressor (an expanded BBC AM6/17 design) and a Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ (as used in the Focusrite console). Bass went through a Distressor (in opto mode), the guitar went through a Urei 1176LN comp, and again they both went through Focusrite ISA 85110 EQ's. Guitar was quite hissy. I tried both noise reduction and re-amping, but in the end it was always a compromise over what was a pretty good tone, so I left it. You can hear it quite clearly on the intro. Overheads went through a McDSP MC2000 multiband compressor in an attempt to readdress the crash heavy / snare light balance, without it sounding unnatural. They then went through a Tritone Valvetone EQ - for thickening more than EQ'ing. The bass drum track was useless to me, basically because it didn't even sound like the same bass drum you heard in the overheads. In this instance I think it was a case of the wrong mic in the wrong place - it's just all low end thud and no tone - great for rock but useless for jazz. So, I used Drumagog to blend a similar sounding multisampled bass drum in to the bass drum track for the attack and body part of the sound. Without such a tool I'd have left it out entirely. Sax and trombone went through a dbx 165A and another Urei 1176 (can't remember which way round without checking the session) and again through some Focusrite ISA 85110's for EQ. Reverb was an EMT plate setting from Digidesign's ReVibe, and I also used iZotope Ozone3's multiband comp and widener on the 2bus. There's a bit of volume automation on the horn and vocal parts, and also the high end expander in Ozone, but none on any of the sends.

MIX 3: Band Akai (Guide Mix)
ITB. Very rough guide mix done by the band in their Akai DPS16 with minimal processing so you can hear more or less what we had to work with!

MIX 4: "musicproject"
No info yet

MIX 5: "Hugh"
ITB. Mixed in Logic using mainly Waves and Elemental Audio plug-ins. Waves Renaissance compressor with appropriate settings on guitar, sax, bass, kick, drums, trombone, Waves Renaissance Vox on vocals. All treated with various Space Designer presets - vocal plate, guitar room, bass booth, sax chamber, brass plate, big kick, bright drums. then some EQ on bass and drums. master buss reverb - Space Designer Short Plate, compressor - Waves RComp, EQ - EA Equium, Limiter - EA Finis.

MIX 6: Dave Lewthwaite
ITB. AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 1Gb RAM, Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Ex, 160Gb RAID-0 (Stripe) Project Disks, Behringer Truth 2030A Monitors, Yamaha MG16/4. Mixed in the box with Cubase SX and only included effects, control surface Behringer BCF2000 was also used. My aim (as a beginner) was to keep it as simple as possible, yet still aiming for a pleasing sound. Tracks were split into mono using Adobe Audition, apart from the drums, obviously, and converted to 16-Bit/48kHz to conform with my restrictive ASIO drivers. All that is on there is a little 2:1 compression on the vocals and again over the entire mix and a slight amount of reverb over the entire mix - and thats it! the rest is just level setting and pan. The effects were simply 'VST Dynamics' and the 'Roomworks' reverb. Exporting was a matter of hitting record in cubase to record the stereo output back to another track, then imported into Audition for normalisation and a quick tidy at the beginning and end, the track was then exported as MP3 44.1kHz 16-bit from Audition.

MIX 7: "dunch"
ITB. Mixed "in the box" using Sonar 5. The only non-Sonar plugin used was the free Blockfish compressor from Digital Fishphones. I monitored on Genelec 1029s + 1091 sub, and also a cheap old Sony hifi system. After I listened to the guide mix I decided I wanted something a bit more intimate, like you were listening to them close up in a small venue. Drums & Kick I compressed and eq'd till I felt they had a bit more punch and the kick was distinct from the bass. Bass was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq. Guitar was slightly compressed to even it out, no eq. Sax I eq'd slightly to make it a bit less honky. Trombone I eq'd to thin it out and stop it fighting with everything else, except when it was playing the solo part when I used no eq. Vocals I used no eq, but did compress a little. Listening back just now I'd like to back off compression a tiny bit. I added a plate reverb to the vocals (medium plate preset in Sonar convolution reverb). I varied the wet/dry throughout the song - pretty dry at the beginning, wetter as the vocals got louder. Everything else had varying amounts of room preset, again using the convolution reverb. I mixed fairly low, peaking the master bus at -4dB. No compression or eq on the master bus. Exported at 44.1K/16, using pow-r 3 dither from Sonar's mix bus down to 16bit. Topped and tailed then converted to mp3 using lame.

MIX 8: "stemwinder"
ITB. PC, ProTools 7, Digi002 (but mixed entirely ITB due to time constraints), PMC TB2s monitors, PSP Vintage Warmer, PSP Master Compressor, DigiDesign DVerbt

MIX 9: "Mr Tom"
ITB. Mixed entirely in Logic 7.1, using no third party plug-ins, on Tannoy Active Reveals

MIX 10: "DarrenSW"
ITB. Mixed ITB using Cubase SL3.0 and no third party plug-ins. Have mixed it a little differently to others I've listened to, tried to stay away from the "Jazz must be almost dry" scenario by adding space i.e. reverb on Vocals; reverb and delay on the solos. Behringer Truth monitors and also little dodgy PC speakers.

MIX 11: "Wonkey Wabbit"
ITB. 3.0GHz P4 with 1Mb RAM, M-Audio Delta-66, Cubase SX2.2, UAD-1 card, Behringer B3021 monitors (must get something better!), Wavelab V3. I didn't do anything fancy with the tracks like James but I split the files to mono in Waveleb (except the drum track) and converted the files to 24/44.1. I then edited them as much as possible to cut down on spill. Put a high and low pass filter on the kick to cut down on the hat/cymbal spill and take out some of the boominess and then added a touch of compression. I used 2 UAD Realverbs - one for vocals ( based on the wooden room preset which I like for vocals) and one for the brass and guitars (based on the jazz club preset - what else!). Most things had the UAD 1176LN compressor or LA2A limiter on them and I generally used the Pultec EQs on the tracks as well. I used the SX 'Q' filter on some tracks in a cut mode only. A bit of volume automation and that was it.

MIX 12: "Lime ZRX"
ITB/OTB (digital). Loaded into Cubase SL3 and mixed on a Yamaha 02R. Just used one reverb from a Lexicon MPX550. I cheated a bit and changed some of the music. There's a couple of places where the bass player uses the same note for ages, I pasted another note in to give the speakers (Mackie 824) a rest! I didn't like the way the drums fell in at the start, or at the very end, so I cut them a bit. Also, I know the kick has been slagged off, but I've stuck it in a few extra places just to make it feel wanted. The vocalist- really nice voice I think- had a habit of singing an "a" sound before some lyrics, usually "a- bewitched". Took them out. It was probably a really important part of the jazz feel of the song and I'm going to be sued. Also, there was a wee pop on the first "simpering", so I took that out. I reallly must get out more... Oh, and I moved some of the guitarists chords a bit, and a few brass bits. I do have the TC Electronic Finalizer in the 02R, but as others haven't resorted to mastering, I didn't touch it.


192kbps mp3 mixes due to Darren at sos@liquidbughunt.co.uk no later than 19.00hrs Wednesday 2nd August - please make sure we know your Forum name.

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND/OR STREAM ALL THE MIXES!

Have fun!

Edited by James Lehmann (01/08/06 10:53 AM)

Re: My Mix

Mixed ITB using Cubase SL3.0 and no third party plug-ins. Have mixed it a little differently to others I've listened to, tried to stay away from the "Jazz must be almost dry" scenario by adding space i.e. reverb on Vocals; reverb and delay on the solos.

Behringer Truth monitors and also little dodgy PC speakers.

Enjoyed it!

Darren

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This forum is like Hotel California...
You can log-out any time you like, but you can never leave...

Well, my mix has been sent off!

My Setup:

AMD 2.0GHz laptop, 768MB RAM, Edirol UA-20X and Cubase SX3.

It's been mixed in-the-box using Cubase and its included plugins - Q, Dynamics and Roomworks.

I've tried to keep the whole thing quite clean sounding - I thought the untreated recording sounded pretty good as it was, TBH.

I'm rather annoyed with the situation I found myself in with regards to monitoring, though, so please forgive any glaring bass issues - my KRK fund is still a good month away from completion so this has been mixed on a combination of headphones, my hifi speakers and the Behringer Truth B2030A's in my (cube-shaped, untreated) office at work. Usually I'd have checked this on the Genelecs at Uni, but obviously it's summer so I was stuck with what was to hand.

Looking forward to listening to the rest of the mixes, hope I haven't embarassed myself too horrifically with this one!

Charlotte

Charlotte - look forward to hearing your mix although you may have the rather unlucky honour of being "MIX 13"!

Quote:

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Charlotte - look forward to hearing your mix although you may have the rather unlucky honour of being "MIX 13"!

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Lol!

I'm sure I can cope with that - my thirteenth birthday fell on a Friday the 13th... you get used to being cursed after a while!

Edit: And this is my thirteenth post! Argh, my brain hurts now...

Edited by CharlotteL (01/08/06 11:01 AM)

Ha! Finally got it together. Missed my pints of Cwrw Haf in the pub, too!

Well, I mixed it a major Neve-equipped studio I luckily have access to. All the tracks were transferred to 2" 8-track tape with no noise reduction, running at 64 ips. Reverb was from three (!) EMT 140 plates and a Cranesong compressor for . . . joking . . . it was mixed in Logic 7.1 on my just-out-of-guarantee iMac – All Logic plugs except some Tritone EQs and a couple of Altiverbs.

Monitoring with some PMC TB2+ loudhailers (powered by a Carver PM 1.5 amp) and a REL Stadium sub.

I didn't mind the drums too much, as they have a bit of that slightly boxy, muffled 'jazz' sound – except the OTT cymbals. The kick needed some work, and I thought the tracks were all phase-inverted, so I fixed that.

The hardest thing was the vocal – there are some nasty compression artifacts and what sound like edits, that spoil it a bit for me, though I tried to cover them with the band!

I just went for a natural-ish sound that I liked, rather than mix 'jazzy' (whtever that is) . I found myself enjoying the mixing, using quite a lot of volume automation in the end. I did no editing or arrangement-changing.

I put on a spot of 'angel dust' in WaveBurner, and converted to MP3.

Now I'll give it a rest, and listen to the others in the evening!

Guy

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PA stuff on FB