'Back to Basics' PLAPA Mix Challenge

[TobiKeymaster]

Yes, typically I'd edit not fader ride. Although I quite like the fader ride approach as it leaves the original audio intact. I might fader ride from now on 🙂

[Matthew SweetParticipant]

So. Many. TRACKS! 🙂

Total rookie here, but I'm still working my way through it. My primary DAW is Mixbus 32C, but I'm limiting myself to trim, pan, HP, LP, and faders. However I had a thought that I wanted a ruling on...how about the phase/polarity button? For example, if I had EQ, I would cut out some of the mids on the bass. If I have use of the phase button, I can still do so by duplicating a track, using the HP/LP filters to create a mid-band, flip the phase, and then fade in the amount of cancellation that I would like. This may be outside of the scope of the challenge though. What say ye?

Thanks for the challenge by the way...it's a great stretch for me. I should have something to post in a week or so.

Matt

[TobiKeymaster]

Welcome Matt!

Great to have you here and joining in! Yes, the track count is a little much. Took a lot folders to organize the session.

You should be able to handle the tracks pretty well without flipping the phase. Certainly if you're dealing with mids where the phase is less of an factor than in the lows. I suggest playing with different Q settings to effect the slope of the high/low passes to tame what frequencies you can. Everything fell together pretty well, about from maybe the bass - which was more stubborn.

But we've all faced the same issues. The guitars took a little work to settle down and sit well in the mix. No one expects a perfect mix or anything like. We're all here to test ourselves and learn. I'd work within the limitations of the rules and see what you come up with. And have fun with it.

Tobi.

[Matthew SweetParticipant]

Thanks Tobi. I'm glad to be here after years of reading and just sort of poking around, I'm trying to transfer head knowledge to actual skills. I'll keep working along as I have and see what else I can do to settle the bass out. It's been fun to scratch my head and try and solve what I hear without reaching for the plugin bin.

Regards,

Matt

[TobiKeymaster]

I used Warren's trick of using the DI for the lows and the Amp for the rest. Then used hi/low passing on both to try to clean out that 'stacked' frequency around 350 and so. Worked okay. Bass is difficult to get right with the limitations.

Tobi.

[Jeremy FlemingParticipant]

Challenge accepted!

[TobiKeymaster]

Cool! Looking forward to hearing the results!

[Mervyn WalkerParticipant]

All good mixes,some have even turned the limitations into an advantage with creative panning,amazing work

[Mark HoldenParticipant]

Hello

lots going on in here 🙂 been having a listen back and a read time to try those fader rides again I guess 🙂

[Ján KarchňákParticipant]

Hi Tobi,
great, many thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate that 🙂

I have to say I found lots of good stuff (not only) in this thread. I'm glad I joined the academy.

[Tony LoignonParticipant]

Here's my mix ... only LPF/HPF, all tracks except "Bussed" tracks. I had to put a limiter on the master out to keep it from clipping on export. No loudness increases though.

https://soundcloud.com/bemelodic/mixdown-christina-holmes/s-fD9oj

[TobiKeymaster]

Tony,

Nice sense of depth and there's a good increase from narrow to wide into the chorus. You're struggling a little with that 'low mid' build up from the electric guitars that I think we've all struggled to deal with. As the track gets busier the frequency masking gets more problematic - which I think is the challenge of taking an approach of having so much down or around the center of the mix. Very tricky to deal with those frequencies with such limited tools.

It's interesting that you can hear that slight tightening and 'glue' from - what I'm guessing - is a pretty small gain reduction on the limiter.

I have a stock Brickwall sat on my SBUS (which isn't doing anything) but I had to do some extra auto to stop it applying gain reduction. Took a while to figure out what was causing the peaks. Ended up dipping the bass, acoustic, electrics all 0.5 dB to catch the clips. Eventually I got cheeky and decided I'd try for a -16 LUFS average (Apple Music) and managed to add 0.5 dB on the average for the track. But it would have taken too long to auto a -16 average. Ended up around -17 or so.

It'd be cool to try to go for a -14 average (AES recommended for streaming). Oh so want to try that... could be another few hours of auto though. And there's no real point. But imagine the glory ..the glory!

Cool mix! I'd try to dig out some more low mids from the electrics and maybe think about giving yourself a little more room to work with down the center of the mix. Nicely done!

Tobi.

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