51m0n

Having thought about it a bit more, I wonder whether people ought to divulge what they were listening to the mixes on when they came to the opinion they did. I base my thoughts on having listened to these mixes on a whole array of sources usually, firstly my main work cans, because thats where my butt is sat more than anywhere else. They are a pair of Senn HD595s that have seen better days, but I have listened to music on them for nearly 10 years, and boy do I know their flaws! That will rule out all the mixes that are just not up to scratch technically, unless the issue is up high (above 8KHz), where they do tend to be a bit weak these days. Then I also listen on my phone's earbuds, (RHAs nice but a little upper mid present), if I'm working from home I make sure I have a listen on a set of Studiospares m1000s headphones, and I make a final call listening on the big speakers, with a quick refernce to the mono mix off my mobile speaker, because if it doesnt work with that, then how will the young oiks on the bus ever be able to enjoy it? With each proper listen to the mixes I can whittle out more of them, each month the general level has improved as well, some months we've had some really excellent work, this month I think people have found very difficult as it goes. That much twang is a very special kind o fchallenge in terms of frequency mixing to get elements to sit together and play nice. But it is staggering to me that mix E is gettng the love it is (not particualrly anti-E as it goes, I can just hear things that seem incredibly blattantly unmusical about it), and I really do want to understand what it is about it that is so attractive to so many, and whether it sounds partuicularly good on a certain type of playback set up may be part of that answer. I know this sounds like masses of listening for hours and hours, but I can pretty quickly rule out a lot of the mixes we have as not right because of <insert technical issue, or mixing decision I dotn dig, or reason why iot doesnt feel musical here>. So I end up listening to two or three mixes a lot, which I rather like doing whilst working. Even when it is Country and Western

Milty, it's cool mate. Vote for what you like the most. Vote for what says ' Great mix of this song '. Vote for the mix you most want to hear about how it was done. It's your vote, spend it well. If anyone wants to know how I did whatever after the reveal I will tell them regardless of where I came. It fascinates me how many votes go to mixes that I can hear technical flaws in. I really want to understand this more, so I learn by people's honest opinion too, even more so when my mix doesn't win the popular vote. It's still a really good mix by every criteria I can measure it by....

I need every vote I can get, I didn't win last month for a start!

Huge congratulations Trev, it's been fabulous to watch it develop from here, I can't imagine the rollercoaster its been for you though!

If you dial in full neck pickup they do a superb rock P bassy tone especially played with a pick IMO....

Oh good show! I am still utterly smitten with mine and I have the first Century Standard 5 that Mark got in I think...

No the drums are what they are. Think Shania Twain and go with it, they sound like that because of the type of heavy handed compression used when tracking, and that means that was the stylistic intention at the time. I think the thing that has stumped most people actually has been the lead vocal. Very few of these mixes have left the lead vocal undamaged, either by heavy handed inappropriate reverb, or heavy handed eq-ing. The thing is it's a great lead vocal, he has a superb voice and the only issue is that the sibilance can get a bit splatty in places. Nothing that either riding levels, appropriate de-essing and careful eq can't solve. On top of that, this track is chock full of melodic hooks. The best mixing makes them more obvious, some of these mixes bury the hooks behind the acoustic guitars, which wont help at all. Most if the entrants have really struggled to get the layers of 'twang' to work together rather than fight each other. I think a lot of these instruments were recorded with similar SDCs and so they have all got a similar eq stamp on them which if nor dealt with well adds up to a very harsh sizzly toppy mix. Last point the very best mixes here even work on a mobile phone speaker, which is my new crappy speaker ultimate mix test. My mix sounds great on my mobile, the balance is still as right as you could hope for, and that lead vocal sounds exceptional.

Well that would be awfully good of the two of you. I really like the anonymous aspect to our version of the mix competition, it levels the playing field a lot I think. But it is a PIA to do if I'm honest, and summer is mad/mental/hectic at work since that is when most of the design, sizing and documentation for the next seasons dev comes in, and thats my job...

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1368795954' post='2081629'] Thanks again mate. I'm happy to volunteer for the uploading shenanigans next time, unless anyone else has a burning desire to do it? Looking forward to listening to these mixes over the weekend... [/quote] [quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1368798812' post='2081684'] I don't mind doing it one month? [/quote] Chaps that is definitely appreciated. You need to know that there is significant time involved in uploading these as wavs from an ADSL connection (however fast it says on the tin, that is the download speed only - the upload speed is typically a tiny fraction of the download speed). It may be that we have to move to 320kbps mp3s instead

Oh now, leading question matey, can't possibly answer that having gone to all the trouble of putting it together anonymously. But I will say this, currently mine is my favourite one. There are a couple that come close, but for me mine has the best treatment of oiurtfewnfoihvroijnvrnoirv piojoijepiofjiopjer pjpoj pio jpioj ipj piojpojpo j ojkljhde dojhnd..... ... sorry we are breaking up Any of you who have paid attention to all the mixes so far will almost certainly recognise which one mine is if you listen hard on a decent playback device, some thing about my approach on these comp mixes where I have very limited time tends to make my mixes have a certain iuohnfoerijfoeijf efwpofjerpojerf loih oih ouhouhfewpoijfewpiojfewiojceoinoi fe about them that I think is quite recognisable. Sorry, terrible line at the moment, something to do with solar activity maybe?

Cheers bluejay!

Right chaps, please go to:- [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/204769-aprilmay-mix-competition-poll-added/"]http://basschat.co.u...ion-poll-added/[/url] Stick on some cans and listen to the tracks and vote for your favourite mix. [url="http://www.soundonsound.com/"]Sound on Sounds[/url]' own [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/30618-triviul/"]Mike Senior[/url] has joined Basschat having heard what we are up to (we are using a set of stems from his website this time) and is going to offer his own critique on the top mixes as voted for by all of you. Huge thanks to Mike for taking the time out and joining up for this, very generous of him! There has been a superb turn out this month, which means people are truly interested in the concept, but it also means more tracks to listen to. Having said that I found it pretty easy to whittle my way through them before deciding on my favourite. Not that I vote, since I know who entered what and its an anonymous competition. Thanks for your time, voting closes May 31.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1368794354' post='2081596'] I don't know why but Mix C won't play for me.....all the others do though...and this month it is surprisingly difficult to identify mine!! Edit: Got Mix c to play now..... [/quote] I know which one yours is

Thats all the mixes I've been sent as far as I know, we had some fun and games with a few of the last ones not being wavs, and a couple of my downloadcs went wonky too. And I was doing it from home with normalk broadband, whlst working from home over a VPN, so I had to throttle the uploads right down or I wouldnt get a usable dektop connection to work. Utter nightmare to be honest, took about 2 days to get it all done. This is heading into my really busy time of year (at work) now, so I am not sure I will be able to pout that much effort into the next one, so unless someone else volunteers to do the upload thing it may well have to not be anonymous. Sorry

Right am going to make the mixes available now - if I didnt get yours up there, sorry, I've done my best.... The is:- https://soundcloud.com/bc-mix-competitions/sets/mix-j/s-o2vko Which I will also put in the OP with the poll. Enjoy!

A flurry of late entries has delayed this till tomorrow afternoon at the earliest - busy day at work will be taking all my time, sorry....

Nearly all ready for the big reveal. Some interesting takes on this one I think chaps. Good stuff! Clearly still some confusion over the K Meter idea, most people have got their levels really close, but there is one really loud pumpy one, and one rather quiet one. Never mind though most of them are very close. Well done everyone who has had a go, really impressed with the effort and turnout this month (6 weeks)

Sorry this is taking soooo long, but Soundcloud is being an unadulterated pile of horse 5h1t and will not upload all the tracks properly. No idea why, there is nothing wrong with them at ll. Been trying all day and getting nowhere with the two that it has taken a dislike to. Doing my head in so it is (grrrr)....

Getting very close now.....

Woodford Reserve - very fine supping liquor that, booyyy....

Maxon AF9 if you after a really touch driven filter

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1368151660' post='2073883'] It's OK, Simon, you really have to worry when your wife disappears, the bank takes your house, and your crop fails. [/quote] At this rate thats only a matter of time!

Awww shucks, game changer, back to the drawing board etc etc Thanks for stopping by Mike, loving this one - which is why I chose it - the vocals are just sublime. Now where's that bottle of JD gone?

Really, Roscoe Century Standard 5. I knwo I'm just saying what I've got, but I got it for all the reasons you list. Light as a feather to hold, massive tight focused bottom end, punchy as hell, plenty of growl, goes from a super P sound on the neck across to burpy jazz on the bridge pup, there is something in between for you I'm sure. Only thing to watch is its a 35" scale and therefore will take you a while to get used to...

Double check your pickup heght before going for a compressor (did 51m0n really say that, must be the mushrooms!). Too high and the magnetic field will choke the string vibration, too low and it will not be hot enough. Typically the thinner strings have the pickups a smidge closer on a lot of basses, but not so close as to cause the choking effect (if the string doesnt sustain as long the pickup is too close) I think a compressor can really help but you may find it feels weird on the lower strings (ie its clamping down on them quite hard) if its working hard to bring the higher strings upto match gain. Make super sure the pickup height is as good as you can get it before going down the compressor route. The Cali76 is a truly awesome piece of kit (esp the tranny version) - mega bucks though. Search on here for mention of that pedal will take you to a thread with a huge collection of very very good compressors mentioned. As always ovnilabs is an invaluable source for all things compressor pedal...