TFOG challenge! Best mix will be used in music video + gets reward

[PJ Sonaj]

Hello practice room! We are a czech band called The Fall of Ghostface. We've currently finished tracking a new song and are shooting a music video for it. We're in a phase of genre transition and are looking for new interesting sounds and we'd love to see what you guys can do. You can hear our previous music here.

We've appeared on this forum with a similar challenge in the past. It was won by Sayocean (Aleksi Rintala of Sonicstorm audio, big thumbs up ) and his mix was used in our first music video. He also mixed our album Secret Ingredient as well as some other things.

To spice things up while you're practicing your skills, we're offering 120 € as a reward for the best mix

Tracks here. (dropbox)
We're looking for modern sounding rock'n'rollish mix. As a sound reference you can use The Ongoing Concept, Fishface.

Deadline for this project would be 20th July 2016.

Also please keep the mixes and links to them in this thread. No public youtube/soundcloud etc.

few notes:
- the samples are a very flavor thing in this song, should not stand out very much
- vocals are sorted in the order of importance
- song is called Speedfreak
- contains tempo map
- all tracks are edited
- you can sample replace the kickdrum, but it would be great if the rest of the drumset could keep it's live sound
- guitar sounds are made with Axe FX II with some tonematching, based on live sound, but DIs are included as well
- the stereo room mic on drums is a little bit unbalanced due to room geometry
- recorded in 48k, with the exception of few tracks (vocals, drum tracks containing cymbals - 44,1k)
- lyrics if interested
- ask if there's anything unclear

Hope you have fun while mixing!
<3 TFOG

 

[MrBongo]

awesome, finally a nice contest again

deadline?

 

[mickrich]

Great song.
I'm sitting in the studio backing up some sessions and had the EVH 5150 running for a session today so thought I would do a quick reamp and mix for this.

I really tried to get the CLA snare sound. All compression is MJUC MK2. Guitars are EVH channel 3 into Zilla Fatboy.

 

[PJ Sonaj]

Updated the original post with some additional info

Mickrich very nice fist entry! Nice coincidence with the EVH - I just started using that amp's model in my Axe FX preset We would only ask you to set the youtube video privacy setting as "unlisted" so only people on this forum who click the link would see it. The song should remain here for now as we are planning a release with the music video later.

 

[mickrich]

Updated the original post with some additional info

Mickrich very nice fist entry! Nice coincidence with the EVH - I just started using that amp's model in my Axe FX preset We would only ask you to set the youtube video privacy setting as "unlisted" so only people on this forum who click the link would see it. The song should remain here for now as we are planning a release with the music video later.

Cool. I will change YouTube listing when I get home. You should put a notice in the first post to tell people to keep it in this thread.
Evh really suited this. Super tight and present.

 

[TRUIE]

Hi,
Really cool song, thank you for the tracks !

Was about to start working on it, but I noticed that not all the tracks have the same sample rate.
Most tracks are 48 kHz, but some are 44,1 kHz :



I see 2 options :
1. Everything was tracked natively at 48kHz, and you converted some tracks at 44,1kHzz by mistake during bouncing.
2. Everything was tracked natively at 44,1kHz, you had to convert everything to 48kHz for some reason (AxeFx reamp maybe ?) and you forgot to convert some tracks.

I'm afraid to add useless conversion to the tracks, can you help with this ?

 

[mickrich]

I just set up a 48k session in Logic and it auto converted everything when I imported.
Didn't even notice there different sample rates. Made no difference.
Everything lined up perfectly.

 

[TRUIE]

Yeah, I know it will made very little difference and I can just convert the 44,1kHz tracks to 48kHz, but I'm just curious and a bit picky (annoying ? ) with that kind of things.
The drums tracks being partially 48kHz and 44,1kHz made me tick.
I just want to avoid the scenario of doing 48kHz > 44,1kHz > 48kHz again for the few tracks that were provided at 44,1kHz.

 

[PJ Sonaj]

Hi,
Really cool song, thank you for the tracks !

Was about to start working on it, but I noticed that not all the tracks have the same sample rate.
Most tracks are 48 Khz, but some are 44,1 Khz :

I see 2 options :
1. Everything was tracked natively at 48Khz, and you converted some tracks at 44,1Khz by mistake during bouncing.
2. Everything was tracked natively at 44,1Khz, you had to convert everything to 48Khz for some reason (AxeFx reamp maybe ?) and you forgot to convert some tracks.

I'm afraid to add useless conversion to the tracks, can you help with this ?

The original sample rate of the recording is 48k, but the vocals were accidentaly recorded in 44,1k, sorry for that complication.. same thing with the few drum tracks I had to render separately because I added one extra cymbal in them (rooms and OHs) - I can get the drum tracks rendered in original 48k if needed, but not the vocals.

as Mickrich said, you should be fine if you set your project to 48k, I'll add this info to the first post as well.

 

[MrBongo]

who records audio at 48k anyway, when the destination format (CD) is 44.1k?
But the distorted kick is far, far worse than some sample rate issues. Spent 3 hours on damage control. How is it possible to distort a track that much?

 

[mickrich]

who records audio at 48k anyway, when the destination format (CD) is 44.1k?
But the distorted kick is far, far worse than some sample rate issues. Spent 3 hours on damage control. How is it possible to distort a track that much?

Destination for this is video according to the first post so 48k is correct.
I mix loads of stuff I didn't track and there are often problems with badly recorded or distorted tracks. You just have to get on with it.
This track is very well recorded. I sample replaced the kick so no problem there.
I did reamp, mix and master in just over an hour =]. If it's taking too long to fix something, shift to plan B.
Getting bogged down with things will be detrimental to a mix. You loose focus.

 

[Marcos Pereira]

To participate as I send you the mix?
Thanks!

 

[MrBongo]

replacing anything in a mix competition is cheating
plus this is Rock´n Roll, dudes. With people on instruments, not machines. Use that damn kick track!

well, I doubt it´s recorded just for a video. It´s most probably going to end on an audio release as well, and this release has priority.
If not, there´s no sense releasing the audio on its own. Videos are a by-product

btt: the song rocks!

 

[soty91]

My 30min, headphone go. Did it jsut for practice without any hope to win Without samples I cant get an "modern-studio-like" sound. So I decided to go for a "live-rehearsal" sound without any samples or reamping.



BD requierd like 34243356324536453452 BD Tracks with 134452344354 effects for me :O

 

[PJ Sonaj]

who records audio at 48k anyway, when the destination format (CD) is 44.1k?
But the distorted kick is far, far worse than some sample rate issues. Spent 3 hours on damage control. How is it possible to distort a track that much?

Woah, didn't even realize the kick was that bad, I was tracking the drums in another studio and was trying to get the right slap so I may have driven the preamp too much. As for the 48k, it's caused by the phase in your life where you read so much discussion about which sample rate is better that you gotta try it Also got swung by the video factor a bit, but yeah, as you say, video is a by-product.

replacing anything in a mix competition is cheating
plus this is Rock´n Roll, dudes. With people on instruments, not machines. Use that damn kick track!

well, I doubt it´s recorded just for a video. It´s most probably going to end on an audio release as well, and this release has priority.
If not, there´s no sense releasing the audio on its own. Videos are a by-product

btt: the song rocks!

Tbh I think sample replacement just on the kick wouldn't hurt the liveness of the record too much. If it adds the right punch to suit the mix. I'll add a line about that in the first post as well. But I do admire your dedication to live instruments! Also glad you like the song!

To participate as I send you the mix?
Thanks!

Yup, just upload it anywhere we can listen to it and post it in this thread

 

[TRUIE]

The original sample rate of the recording is 48k, but the vocals were accidentaly recorded in 44,1k, sorry for that complication.. same thing with the few drum tracks I had to render separately because I added one extra cymbal in them (rooms and OHs) - I can get the drum tracks rendered in original 48k if needed, but not the vocals.

as Mickrich said, you should be fine if you set your project to 48k, I'll add this info to the first post as well.

OK don't worry then, I'll do with the tracks as they are.
Thank you for the explanation

 

[Marcos Pereira]

Here my mix, hope you enjoy!

 

[MetalMiller]

My stab:

 

[johnny ForTiorI]

here´s my mix:



hope you guys like it. been working on it all day today. i had a lot of fun mixing this. i really like those falsetto screams. they remind me of One Punch Man.

at first i used the live kick, then i just tested a kick from NI Modern Drummer and it just sounded 100 times better, so i went with that. the snare is mostly the original but i also reinforced it with a snare from Modern Drummer. it´s mostly just to bring back some bightnees and actual snare sound, because after the bleed reduction i did on the snare i lost some of that.

i reamped all the DI´s using TH3. for the rhythms i used the Pro Co Rat emulation, going into the Dual Rec model and a Mesa cab. for the solos i used an Overloud original amp and a Peavey cab.

i know you specifically say no public links like soundcloud. but imho when you post your tracks on a forum for everybody to have a go at it, that doesn´t quite work out. when many people put a lot of effort into it but only one gets picked, the least you can do is let the not-winners use their mix for their portfolio. it´s just common mix forum courtesy imo.

 

[MetalMiller]

Stab 2, still no toms