April/May Mix Competition - VOTING COMPLETE!

[Twigman]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1369128551' post='2085060']
I guess that's symptomatic of how a lot of people listen to music these days. I only get chance to crank up the home hifi at weekends myself, so I'm certain among the headphone brigade.
[/quote]

I am the opposite.
I live alone, so there's nobody to get upset and almost everything is done on speakers.
Mixing and judging...
i only use the phones very rarely.......

[Skol303]

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1369128855' post='2085064']
I am the opposite.
I live alone, so there's nobody to get upset and almost everything is done on speakers.
Mixing and judging...
i only use the phones very rarely.......
[/quote]

I want to come play at your house!

I do nearly all of my music stuff in the evening once our 2 year-old is tucked up in bed, so that rules out speakers most of the time for me. Plus the room I work in doubles as a spare bedroom / store room / fly tipping site, so it's anything but an 'acoustically treated' environment. It's more like an experimental reverb chamber, designed by Aphex Twin...

When I do get chance, I crank up the hifi and stand just outside the door, which helps to stave off rogue bass frequencies and provide the closest thing I can get to a 'flat' environment. So yeah, it's complicated

We're moving house sometime this year, at which point I'll have opportunity to set up a more 'useful' space for music making. Till then it's a case of make do and mend.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1369128400' post='2085055']
Bass on headphones is always a slippery beast!

Generally speaking, if you're using a 'flat' pair of headphones that are designed for mixing (like your Sennheisers perhaps) rather headphones than are built for just listening (like those Dr Dre 'Beats' jobbies), then the bass tends to sound more quiet than it does when listening through external speakers, such as a home hifi. Why? Because when listening over speakers you literally 'feel' the bass as the low frequency waves impact with your body - especially the very low sub bass in certain genres of dance music, which is certainly more felt than heard (and is almost totally absent on headphones: it tends to feel like a pressure headache, if anything!).

Hence, when mixing on headphones it's easy to over-compensate and crank up the bass too loud - so that it sounds good on headphones, but will generally sound boomy thru speakers as a result. I've kinda got used to this, and I now know when the bass sounds about right on headphones. But it's still a guessing game. And all the more reason why I need to sort myself out with a pair of monitors! (a priority once we've moved house...).

If anyone else here is mixing solely on headphones, then you might want to have a look at this product - a magic box that emulates different listening environments for the purpose of mix referencing:

[url="http://uk.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/vrm-box"]http://uk.focusrite....erfaces/vrm-box[/url]

I don't own one myself - so this isn't an endorsement! - but I've heard that it's a useful little gizmo, although of course no substitute for decent monitor speakers.
[/quote]

These headphones definitely are flat. I think they were developed with DJs in mind, so I think they didn't want it to be particularly bassy, because DJs tend to be dealing with a lot of bass heavy music. I would get that little box, only, y'know *holds out pockets*. I'll know for next time anyway.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1369128551' post='2085060']
I guess that's symptomatic of how a lot of people listen to music these days. I only get chance to crank up the home hifi at weekends myself, so I'm certain among the headphone brigade.
[/quote]

I have no decent speakers to listen through. Anything I can listen through is going to mash it up so bad because it will be cheap and so flawed, that it's not even worth it. I could make my judgements based on that, but that's less accurate than my headphones.

[Twigman]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1369129550' post='2085070']
I want to come play at your house!


[/quote]
I am in the process of converting what was marketed by the estate agent as the dining room into my music room.
It adjoins the sitting room and the playroom.
It currently houses a huge QuikLok desk with platforms for the Rokits. amd my yamaha 10/2 mini mixer. My Roland D10 keyboard andf my behringer BCR2000 midi controller sit on the desk.
A 10U rack space housing a JP8080, an Alesis compressor, a MOTO MTPAV midi distro and a HiFi amp, the speakers for which are on pillar stands.
There is a sofa and a Marshall fridge in there.too and my basses and guitar on stands....I do have kids that come to stay with me every other weekend and they have a playroom in the next room which I use as a vocal booth, running the mic cable under the door.
As far as sound 'deadening' is concerned, there are heavy curtains draped on 3 of the 4 walls and carpet on the floor - not ideal but eliminates a lot of reflections..........the playroom is more lively with a hard floor and walls so has some reverb but not so much as a bathroom!

All the gear, no idea me

If I ever come to sell the house it will be a bastard to market as it no longer feels big enough to be a dining room!

Ha Ha

Edited May 21, 2013 by Twigman

[Dad3353]

Let's not over-think this, folks. We all have our individual way of playing/mixing/listening/judging, and there is almost no chance of any of our criteria being even close to equivalent. This, without the extra factor of experience, or even hearing accuity (mostly 'cloth' in my particular case; I may not be alone...).
It's a fun 'competition', with only a peer review as a prize for us all, and an opportunity to access some fine 'stems' that we would not have otherwise come across. If the playing field were absolutely levelled (not possible, even if desirable...), the mixes and judgements may well turn out to be identical..!
No, leave things quietly as they are, warts an' all. We all do our tiny best; it's great as it is. Who knows..? Maybe I'm 'beating' the masters..? No..? No, didn't think so, either... Oh well...

Edited May 21, 2013 by Dad3353

[51m0n]

Oh I know what you're saying Dad3353, its good fun, and hopefully a great learning tool.

It certainy isnt a competition ( you cant have competition in art etc etc ), but I want to get mixes together that people always want to hear more than anyone elses, because they 'hit the spot' every time, for every one.

No I know thats not possible and from a technical and experience standpoint I've mixed more than most on this site (certainly not more than everyone though, the real pros arent soing this competition, they are too busy earning a living mixing), but that doesnt mean I dont want to get more of an impression from all the mixes I do, and so understanding why certain things seem popular where others are less so, when I currently dont is important, and sometimes hard.

I can understand exactly why Mix I is where its at - I can explain what it is doing to myself (technically and empotionally), and why that appeals in a lot of listening environments, and I can also judge it critically and make an argument both pro and con for the stylistic choices that were made when it was mixed (it could be mine, or it may not be, you will have to wait for the answer), but not Mix E, I really have no idea why its where it is in the poll. And to get better myself, I need to understand exactly that so that I know when to step that far away from what I consider a great sounding mix to make something great precisely because it isnt a great sounding mix (if you see what I mean).

I'm still happy that to my ears my mix is still the 'right one' and the rest are just pale imitations though

[Twigman]

What I want to learn from this exercise most is how to get the best out of the drums.

The demos I make and the previous recording I have done have, for the last few years, all been done with the same kit - a specific custom kit in Superior drummer which uses (albeit professionally recorded) samples of the exact bits of kit our drummer uses). I know how that sounds, how the rest of the band want it to sound and how to make it sound that way etc etc.....

Using a new source I find drums really really tough...the drums are by far the weakest element of my mix.
If I understood the techniques employed by some of the others I feel sure my mixing could improve....

So, those of you who seem to be able to nail the drums month in month out, please reveal how you do it.

[lurksalot]

I am pretty much purely on headphones , I will soon be setting up some monitors , sad to say due, to reasons of noise/ kids/ listening time etc I let my HI-FI wane to NO-FI by the time the bits got cherry picked by family and friends .
I am probably missing out on a big part of the learning by the sound of it ( or by the lack of the sound of it ) so I will make an effort to sort out our 'music room'

[lurksalot]

I am still at work and had a listen through the crappy computer speakers and also on my phone , and I can hear differences now that I couldn't pick up before

[51m0n]

Heh, welcome to the world of 'mix translation'

[cheddatom]

I've had very little time - can't listen at work - so I listened on my mixing set-up (NS10 copies and a sub) and my TV. The three best were obvious on both systems, but I'm not sure E was one of them. I just kept listening to a bit of the intro, then skipping to a loud chorus.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1369075590' post='2084614']
I don't understand how saying his mix is "too good" amongst a bunch of rookies is harsh? I didn't want to vote for the pro, because I thought the hobbyist might appreciate the vote more.
[/quote]

I just thought we should be voting for the best mix, and it should be anonymous... I guess the voting is as subjective as the mixing!

[MiltyG565]

So It's been a week (or is it being left up for a couple more days?)

I'm eager to get started on a new one

[51m0n]

Closing date is 31st May for the voting.

Doesnt mean we cant look for more stems and get on with another mix in the meantime.

Anybody want to offer somehting to get it mixed??

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1369220177' post='2086383']
Closing date is 31st May for the voting.

Doesnt mean we cant look for more stems and get on with another mix in the meantime.

Anybody want to offer somehting to get it mixed??
[/quote]

I'm going to be in hospital then

I have nothing to offer for mixing, unfortunately. Are there any good resources to find unmixed tracks on the net?

[Ziphoblat]

Hmm, the votes are strange. Seems very few other votes have gone to the one that I thought sounded best aside from my own, and lots of votes to one that I simply didn't like at all. Sounds like it was recorded in a tunnel in the next room or something, to my ear at least. Interesting. I'd like to hope that my own mix looks a little bit neglected because it sounds audibly quieter than most of the mixes.

[Skol303]

Only 17 votes thus far...! (hypocritical of me to say so, as I've not voted yet myself ).

Time to give this a plug if you have the time, folks. I've spammed out a message on Tw@tter and given it a bump in the General Forum.

Please ask any friends, Romans, countrymen (and urban women) you know to have a listen and vote. The more the merrier.

[Dave Vader]

I still haven't had the time to listen chaps, sorry, will try and get to it at some point.
If you want some challenging mixing material I could try and dig up some of my old stuff with overclogged channels recorded badly with a load of hiss straight out of a mixer to the soundcard. It would be challenging if nothing else.

[xilddx]

Some excellent entries, there were two that really stood out for me. I voted for the one I imagined some grizzled old geezers driving dusty roads to, with a million telegraph poles disappearing into the hazy horizon.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1369241906' post='2086819']
Some excellent entries, there were two that really stood out for me. I voted for the one I imagined some grizzled old geezers driving dusty roads to, with a million telegraph poles disappearing into the hazy horizon.
[/quote]

Just out of curiosity, did any of our signatures lead you to vote, or were you just going to do it anyway?

[xilddx]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1369242172' post='2086828']
Just out of curiosity, did any of our signatures lead you to vote, or were you just going to do it anyway?
[/quote]

Well normally I have my eyes on the recording forum, but I've had some sad sh*t going on in my life in the last few weeks and I'd forgotten about it, and the composition challenge (for which I've had no time to submit an entry either) so it was skol's sig that drew me to it about an hour ago.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1369242877' post='2086842']
Well normally I have my eyes on the recording forum, but I've had some sad sh*t going on in my life in the last few weeks and I'd forgotten about it, and the composition challenge (for which I've had no time to submit an entry either) so it was skol's sig that drew me to it about an hour ago.
[/quote]

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble mate

It's good that Skol's sig idea is working though.

[xilddx]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1369243166' post='2086846']
Sorry to hear that you're having trouble mate

It's good that Skol's sig idea is working though.
[/quote]

Thanks mate.

[51m0n]

Cheers for voting Nigel, would love to know which one you voted for though (PM me!)

Hope stuff gets better asap!

Edited May 23, 2013 by 51m0n

[gapiro]

I just voted based on my first impressions. Didn't sit there listening hard for nuances, just went with the one that sounded most natural.
May not be technically the best, but it was the most listenable to me.
A couple of them were downright horrible (no offense to whoever made them) through my headphones at work.