Drunken words mix challenge voting thread...

poopot

Time to vote.

All the entries are are in the playlist below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/drunken-word-mix-challenge

you should be able to download the wav for each entry... import them into your DAW and a/b them against each other in all their unsoundclouded glory... they should also be roughly the same volume as I’m sure everyone mastered to -14lufs as requested 


vote for your favs (and maybe an explanation as to why)

1st place gets 5pts,
2nd place 3pts 
and 
3rd place 1pt...

you cant vote for your own entry...

coring will close midnight on the 14th Feb and the winner announced shortly after where they will receive the adoration and contempt in equal measure of their peers

spark240

Very tricky this one....my choices are really down to really minor points in my opinion...I ended up dropping into all the mixes at different points and trying to hear which ones instantly sounded right.

 5 Points - Junction Ten - I found this mix the most consistent and appealing to me.....
 3 points - Oaf - I didn't think the overall mix was the best...but I like the fact you tried something deferent with the start etc,
 1 Point -  Siejen - There were elements I like such as the backing vox split and some FX here and there, which just tipped it...thought the guitar solo was a bit lost for me.

Good work from everyone one of course,...I found the challenge here was keeping the main vocal sitting on top, I tried using manual volume automation, i.e. writing it in real time...then making it quite bright....who knows if it works !   
 

Stuckfast

This was a hard one to score because all the mixes had good and bad aspects. Seemed to me that everyone struggled to get the guitars sounding clear and present in the mix. 

Junction 10: Decent basic balance, but it feels like there's too much compression going on and so it all sounds a bit soft and lacking impact / punch. I like the vocal treatment in some ways but not quite sure whether the dreamy feel is appropriate to the song. Guitars are mushy and lack definition. Bass is slightly too loud and uneven in level. 

Andy K: Nice punchy drums. Not convinced about the balance apart from that. The vocal and keys are too loud, the bass is very quiet, and the panning decisions don't work for me, especially with respect to the rhythm guitars. It sounds like a mono mix with a few stereo elements pasted on at too high a level.

Oaf: Good balance and use of stereo. Drums are a bit crispy and lacking oomph in the low mids. I like the bass sound. Guitars are clearer and have more impact than in the first two mixes. The one-note part in the chorus is a bit over emphasised and gets annoying.

Siejen: Sounds suspiciously louder than the others. Drum sound is pretty good but the drums and especially the bass are too loud. Guitars are very mushy again. Sounds like there's a phaser or flanger on them which doesn't work at all. Breakdowns are nicely handled and despite everything the mix as a whole has power and impact that is missing from some of the others.

spark240: Mix as a whole is a bit 'scooped' and lacking mid-range. I think the drums especially are too bright. I quite like the bright vocal sound, but there's some sort of stereo widening effect on the lead vocal which is a bit overdone to my ears. Again the breakdowns are well handled. Bass is uneven and too sub-heavy -- some notes really stick out. Guitars are a bit lacking definition again. A bit heavy on the reverb.

I guess overall I'd give @oaf the five points, @Siejen three points and Junction Ten one point.

spark240

Well clearly I disagree totally with @Stuckfast ....this is a Sh@t game anyway and Im not playing next time ;-)

Dainty

Well Its all down to what you like personally. If any of these were pumped on the radio enough times they would sell it's that simple!
I've A/B'd all of them now for the last 30 minutes and they are all very different.

Junction 10: Overall easy listening not too dynamic but then the song isn't very dynamic in itself! Feels well balanced and I can hear everything ok. I would possibly brighten the drums a bit. I think what I'm trying to say is the mix is close to pro standard although the song needs to be mixed more live, or with a rawer feel. Breakdown really nice and building well back into the track.

Andy K: Feels like a good live mix, good energy and I like the guitars. I think the low octave vocal needed to be slightly hidden more. Think the drums are good although the snare gets a little lost at times. I think the guitar tone for the solo is wrong and should have been a bit more "libertinesesq" It feels slightly boxy compared to the others I've voted for but in isolation, I'm sure that wouldn't stick out as much. Good job overall.

Oaf: Feels like a great stereo mix with dynamics and a good spread of guitars. Snare cuts through well as do the toms. The lead guitar is not trashy enough again. I think a song like this needs to have that guitar harshness about the solo. Good breakdown with some good imagination and use of stereo feel extra keys and vibe added. 

After that, My head is so done in... So my scores are...

Oaf 5 points
Junction 10 3 points
Andy K 1 Point


****************************************GOOD JOB EVERYONE*********************************************

Danny1969

Never been in here before but had a listen tonight. 

Catchy song and all were OK but for me the vocal is the main thing and everything goes around that. I don't know if everybody had the same session but Andy K's had the harmony up on the verse straight away and for me that made the song more interesting right away despite the lack of bass and stereo width. 

So I vote Andy K 

poopot

Danny1969 said:

Never been in here before but had a listen tonight. 

Catchy song and all were OK but for me the vocal is the main thing and everything goes around that. I don't know if everybody had the same session but Andy K's had the harmony up on the verse straight away and for me that made the song more interesting right away despite the lack of bass and stereo width. 

So I vote Andy K 

Need a second and third as well if poss!.

Siejen

The votes from the Coventry jury are in (well me and Minor Major).
First, I entered this in order to learn and be better, so thanks to all those that have commented so far. You've heard my mix attempt, so all comments should be judged against 'is that the best he can do?'. You can only imagine my shame that I lost the guitar solo section of my mix, on a guitar-centric forum competition!!

Junction 10: Really professional sounding balance. Main vocal treatment is really good (I listened to it a lot in January!), if a little forward at points. Backing vox are OK and the Bass is well balanced. The drums lacked a little weight for me, and were maybe a bit 'splashy'. Guitar solo felt too distant, too much reverb, like it's playing in a bucket.
Overall though, the mix was very soft. It felt lacking in punch and robbed of dynamics, which meant there was no real excitement coming out of breaks. So great balance and editing, but too much processing robbed it of punch and purpose.

Oaf: Vocals really bright, but I guess this had lead to lots of de-esser use. The effect of this has left the singer with a lisp on even the smallest 's'. Kick drum nice and clear, but overall drums a little quiet for me. Nice rise on some of the string pads, but the single notes under the first chorus were very loud. Guitar solo sound fitted nicely, good job!
Overall, dynamic and nicely balanced. 

Andy K: Guitars were crisp and clear, and some of the vocal transitions were well edited and sounded cool. Guitar solo was well integrated, present and focussed. Synths were loud for me on what I took to be a guitar driven tune. The 'sub' monotonic vocal was used heavily and I don't think it added a lot.
Overall I found the mix to be cold and quite thin. For a jangly almost shoe gaze type tune the overall feel was lacking in weight or solidity, while I sonically wanted a big warm hug. I'm sure this could be helped quite quickly with a judicious eq

Spark240: Clear guitar sounds, but lots of the mix elements (vocals, drums, guitars) were washed in an 80s style reverb for most of the track that wasn't to my taste. This was dropped in the build before the guitar solo came, which was almost too dry (never happy, I know). Guitar solo was washed in a delay that I found heavy, but the backing vox came in and had a harsh / buzzy / almost kazoo type treatment that was distracting to major minor (she sings...a lot).

So overall they all had good points, and I have much to learn, but I have to vote so..
5pts to Junction 10, 3 points to Spark 240 and 1 to Oaf (Sorry AndyK!!)

poopot

Ok... have had a message from @andy_k ;

he’s currently enjoying a holiday break from the forum and has asked me to post his vote and comments for him...


andy k. Drunken words vote

A tricky one, on many levels.

Can’t comment directly, so Poopot has done the translation for me.

I enjoyed this challenge (again), nice to have something original to work on, and there was a lot to work with. My only critique, if this was a ‘real’ project, would be to try and expand on the lyrical content, as I felt that there is a good song there-just not enough of one, so it feels a bit repetitive.

This led to some of my own decisions, in trying to get the song to build to a climax and to try and keep the interest by introducing more elements as it progressed.

My own mixing environment is less than perfect, so some of my decisions are based on experience with previous mixes played through bigger systems, which is always going to be tricky.

My system can’t cope with 50 tracks running with plugins, so I did what I usually do and broke it down into stems which were then imported into a smaller project, this helps to commit to certain elements, and helps me to wrap my brain around the problem.

I tried to get the feel of a young ‘indie’ band, with a live feel, and a more modern ‘pop’ vocal.

I am going to judge the tracks on my trusty Senn HD650s, although my mix was done through ILouds.

In order of submission-

Oaf- Quite a dense mix, feels like lots of things going on across the stereo field-too much at times.

Well balanced bass and drums, drums feel a bit lost at times though. Vocal sounds good at intro, but lose impact as song develops and is overshadowed as elements get introduced. This isn’t helped by the limited lyrical content. Guitar solo feels a bit underused.

Siejen- interesting intro, nice attempt at the vocal spread, but quite a lot of sibilance. Nice attempts to build excitement which helps the drops. Some of the guitar effects create a high end wash, but that contrasts well with the bass, sometimes too much. Solo section feels like it needs a bit more work to help it pop.

Spark240- Powerful drum sound, Nice use of reverb, but this causes a bit of a drop in the energy of the vocal, I felt the vocal as a solo felt a bit weak myself, Backing vocal feels a bit too loud and irritating at times, and guitar solo feels a bit underused again, against the rhythms in that section.

It can be tricky to work within the boundaries of LUFs, but we mostly all managed it well, but at a critical level every DB counts.

I wasn’t able to download the original version to compare, so I am not going to include it in my voting, and personally I took it as a reference version of the track and tried to develop it in my own way.

Really hard to pick an order, so I will give Siejen the 5 for his inventiveness with the vocal and I’ll diplomatically give Oaf and Spark240 2 each, really not much between them.

Again, any of these mixes would do the job, and it would be pretty easy to revisit the vocal with a few more lyrical ideas to have a song that could be released into the competitive market.

Good job everyone.

oaf

Haven't had time to listen properly could we leave it open until Sunday night please? Thanks

poopot

oaf said:

Haven't had time to listen properly could we leave it open until Sunday night please? Thanks

Yes not a problem.

poopot

I’m foregoing my vote this time round and instead passing it onto the yoofs who’s song it is...

so here’s Junction Tens collective (and probably argued) vote.

@Siejen 1st
@Andy_k 2nd
@spark240 3rd

Like the intro and drop-outs on siejen’s, vocals are quite nice.

Andy k has no bass but nice vocals. Strings are good, but bit loud.

Spark is just an all round decent mix but feels a bit plain and the chugging is too prominent

spark240

Kids....no idea ;-)

oaf

J10 a bit too much drum room? Cymbals a bit tinkly. Feels slightly distant as an overall mix, more glue? Vocals well rendered though backing vocals would have benefited from some tuning (and overall a bit drier for all vocals). Bass a little prominent and guitars could have had a bit more juice/definition. Last section quite busy and some of the frequency space seems a little bloated. Despite all that sounding rather negative I hear nothing hugely wrong overall, just a little lacking in punch/excitement perhaps?

Andy K the "drone" lead vocal is a little prominent for my taste. Vocals overall quite high in mix, bass a little too far the other way. Backing vocals not tuned. I like the build around 2m55s. Guitars felt a bit missing, not much bite (when this came through it was good). Keys sound a bit simplistic (which they are obviously ) would have been interesting to hear what you could have done with them (gate, filter, phase, chop, reverse?) Drums sound energetic but kick may be a touch high for me (I'm being fussy now). A bit mono with sudden leaps into stereo with the synthy bits. The more full parts of the song worked best for me.

Siejen I haven't checked but it sounds louder than everyone else. I liked aspects of the main vocal treatment/stereo splits, etc and the creative intro. Bass guitar well handled. Given the number of guitars they're not very prominent and there's not much use of the stereo space, a bit flat (while the cymbals are very crisp) so it's a touch inconsistent perhaps. Like me you struggled a bit with the sibilance of the vocal (at times he manages to be both indistinct and essy and there are some quite prominent breath/mouth noises). I found the guitars lacked clarity and a bit blurred (swirly phase/flange?) but I liked the creative ideas in the mix.

Spark240 Drums well handled, not too sharp (freq) or roomy (some others felt distant/lacking punch). Nice use of stereo for guitar placement though some parts may have benefited from a bit more EQ/prominence. Some essy lead vocal issues as above, I think there's a limit to what you can do with it. Is there a bit too much reverb generally? Not sure. I thought that this was well managed overall and has good balance and more glue/coherence than some of the others.

General comments: bass guitar track is nicely played but very lumpy; some huge transients and lack of dynamic evenness. Aspects of the recording have quite a lot of noise, I found RX helped with this. Some of the backing vocals were pitchy and there were quite a lot of breath/mouth noises too in all vocals. I felt the main vocal was either bright and a bit essy or not so bright and easily lost!

After my first (entered) mix to meet the original deadline I actually did another (slightly better? ha, who knows?) one but the second cut off date was brought forward and I missed it.

I liked the song and performances, it's catchy and has potential!

Scoring very difficult:

@Spark240 first

J10 second

@Siejen third

poopot

Voting closed

Siejen

Thanks Stu for organising, everyone for helpful comments on the mixes, and the band for letting us loose on their song