reaMIXed: The Reaper Mixing Contest - March 2021, featuring Forkupines

darjama · 03-01-2021, 01:31 AM

REAPER CONTEST - March 2021
(ONLY REAPER PLUGINS ALLOWED)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: reaMIXed.com

MIXING: 1-16 March
VOTING: 20-26 March
RESULTS: 28 March
FEEDBACK: 29-31 March

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This month's song was selected by Tiny Tortoise, last month's contest winner. The track is Semantics by Forkupines. We're changing it up with a more rock oriented track. Enjoy!

You can download the multitrack from the website or clicking on this link.

Again, no prize this month, aside from the customary track-picking privileges for the next month's contest.

Happy mixing!
-Daryl

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IMPORTANT

Please use the reaMIXed.com website as the main resource for the contest.

kavacs · 03-01-2021, 09:44 AM

There was some talk about equipment in the last month's thread. I would like to continue on that a little. If you don't mind sharing some details about what you're mixing on, please join.

Let me start.

I have no acoustic treatment, as I'm mixing in our living room.
Yamaha HS7
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80ohm
ATH M50XBT
Steinberg UR22 mkII

I know that acoustic treatment is one the most important things, but what can I do. I try to switch between speakers and headphones while mixing as well as while voting. The January contest made me realize that I'm really sensitive to bass, especially on my beyerdynamics as I found almost every mix too boomy and bass heavy. Now I take this knowledge into consideration and try to work with it somehow.

Djmajik · 03-01-2021, 10:18 AM

Excited for this one. It's way out of my comfort zone and not my preferred style of music. So it should be very educational for me. I love @kavacs idea in talking about our setup. Here's mine:

My main mixing position is in my "Studio" which is a spare bedroom box (uggg)
I do have some acoustic treatment up to tame reflections and such but nothing too advanced. I'm switching rooms on spring break to a bigger, better sized room, so at the point, I'm going to redo the acoustics and try to talk to people who know about that kind of stuff as it's not my forte. I also want to start using SonarWorks or similar to eq my monitors when I move, but for know i know how my current room sounds so I don't want to change anything.

Gear:
Behringer 1820 Interface (main setup)
Motu M4 Interface (laptop and mix check setup)
JBL 305 Monitors
Behringer XTouch Control Surface
Beyer DT770 Pro 250ohm

I check my mixes on the monitors, Beyer Cans, a Klipch HiFi System, Apple Ear Buds, a small bluetooth speaker, and in my car. I'm really working on getting my mixes to translate to various, non optimal sources. I'm still struggling with the low end in this regard.

jansen · 03-01-2021, 10:39 AM

Good idea! As most of the contestants are regulars, that might shed some light on the comments.

So, I also mix in an untreated room, which actually is not suited for audio work (lots of windows). We moved in a year ago and the plan is to turn the room into a proper sound studio, but I'm just a hobbyist and have very little knowledge of acoustic treatment (only the usual advice). However, I made sure to place my monitors in the least offensive location in the room, to minimize the damage.

My equipment is quite standard:

-Yamaha HS7 monitors
-Sennheiser HD280 pro (my third pair in 22 years)
-Babyface pro interface

Overall I have been been recording and mixing stuff on and off for the last 25 years, but I really consider myself more of a singer/songwriter dabbling in sound recording and I have very little knowledge of the technical stuff: most of the time my "technique" is trial and error. That's why I was interested in joining this contest, and have avidly followed it since the very beginning (even if I didn't participate). I actually have a folder with all the mixes stored and ready, and I'm amazed at the complexity of some of the projects here (I am still learning Reaper also, former Logic user). In comparison, my mixes are very simple, naive almost: EQ and light compression, as little reverb and delay as I can (growing up in the 80s I developed a phobia of reverb), and as I'm very sensitive to high frequencies my mixes will always be darker than most.

So that's it for me! Curious about other setups

garanimals · 03-01-2021, 01:03 PM

I sold my house with my studio last year, got a new audio interface and can only mix on headphones with periodic checks on monitors as I now live in an apartment.

This has seriously shaken up my workflow/sound and I have been making rookie mistakes on the last few mixes (like not noticing that my mixer eq had low end turned down about 12 DB)

Byerdynaics DT770 Pro 250
Studiolive AR12c
Event TR6 monitors

ColinJ · 03-06-2021, 08:12 PM

Yipes! I just submitted mine. I'm a total n00b so be as brutal as you like.

I dug the raw, garage-y sound of the band (reminded me a bit of Marmozets, actually), so I did no re-amping.

Obviously, in a real-life scenario you would ask the band what they wanted the song to sound like and work from there. But not having that I just tried to enhance the performances as they were recorded using only Reaper plug-ins.

Tiny Tortoise · 03-07-2021, 01:29 AM

Oh boy, I did not expect to struggle this much to get a snare sound that I like. But it's led me to discover after all this time how much of a godsend Saike's JSFX are. I'm using the Bandsplitter/joiner (in linear phase mode), Tanh saturation with AA (it has a nicer clipper than event horizon imo), and Never Odd or Even.

jansen · 03-07-2021, 02:08 AM

I agree, the snare sound kind of discouraged me. This needs more expertise than I can provide, and I'm not sure I can devote enough time for it this month... but we'll see.

Talking about the bandsplitter /joiner, I've seen it used so much in the mixes, but it mystifies me. Would anyone know of a tutorial for these?

javiramallo · 03-07-2021, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jansen

I agree, the snare sound kind of discouraged me. This needs more expertise than I can provide, and I'm not sure I can devote enough time for it this month... but we'll see.

Talking about the bandsplitter /joiner, I've seen it used so much in the mixes, but it mystifies me. Would anyone know of a tutorial for these?

Hi Jansen.

Take a look to these two videos, I think could help.

https://youtu.be/XLhAIrPYW20

https://youtu.be/OrvexC7ydXk

Cheers.

jansen · 03-07-2021, 10:05 AM

Oh nice! I get it now. This seems super useful but also time-consuming if you have to experiment with three or four tracks instead of one

Anyway I'll try it on the snare tracks as soon as I have time; hopefully tuesday.

Thanks Javi!

WaveTrans · 03-08-2021, 03:42 AM

The word "Hope" (at about 1.22) ends with a sound like "ooup" which imho sounds a bit distracting.

Are you leaving it in, since it is part of the artistic expression?

Or are you trying to cover it up somehow for the reason it sounds a bit strange for this musical genre?

beingmf · 03-08-2021, 05:15 AM

What happened to that overhead track? Was it denoised or something? Süper weird.

Tiny Tortoise · 03-08-2021, 05:33 AM

@Wavetrans
Yeah that sounds like a pitch correction artifact. I'm copying another part of the vocal file and fading it in to make the word ending less noticeable.

@beingmf
I took a peek into the Cambridge-MT forum and it looks like most people found this song pretty challenging. Seems like the drum tracks were quantised but not properly phase-locked. For what it's worth, I didn't find the weird overhead stereo to be too much of an issue after mid-side encoding to cut some lows on the side channel.

WaveTrans · 03-08-2021, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiny Tortoise

@Wavetrans
Yeah that sounds like a pitch correction artifact. I'm copying another part of the vocal file and fading it in to make the word ending less noticeable.

Cheers, funny thing is, the mixed version on spotify has the "ooup" in it.

Trogdor · 03-08-2021, 05:26 PM

I think this is a far more difficult track to mix than I thought it would be. The drums are very difficult to get a grip on. The overheads are really strange with the phasing of the snare. I see lots of out of phase issues or something going on with the other tracks as well.

Not sure if I will have enough time to submit something decent in this month.

ColinJ · 03-08-2021, 07:06 PM

Are we allowed to submit an updated version of the mix before the deadline? I jumped the gun on this one. I'm still tinkering and feel like I've got it closer to how I wanted it to sound.

javiramallo · 03-09-2021, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColinJ

Are we allowed to submit an updated version of the mix before the deadline? I jumped the gun on this one. I'm still tinkering and feel like I've got it closer to how I wanted it to sound.

I think this is something that you can address directly with Daryl.

Dex · 03-09-2021, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trogdor

I think this is a far more difficult track to mix than I thought it would be. The drums are very difficult to get a grip on. The overheads are really strange with the phasing of the snare. I see lots of out of phase issues or something going on with the other tracks as well.

Not sure if I will have enough time to submit something decent in this month.

I cut up and time slipped the overheads (or rooms, can't remember which) to correct some of the more egregious snare timing issues, where there's audible flamming. It wasn't that much work. Maybe five or six cuts throughout the song.

REDTone Studio · 03-09-2021, 10:21 AM

Just submitted my first entry in the contest. I've followed a couple in the past, but feel I am getting good enough to try my hand in it. We'll see how it comes out!

As for hardware equipment:
Interface - QU16 Digital Mixer
Monitors - JBL 308 MKII
Headphones - Yamaha RH-5Ma (good for hearing midrange)
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro (Good for overall sound)

My studio is out in my shed, built a room in the back 20x30ft. Partially treated (cloud, left and right walls, Gobo's right behind me while mixing, superchunks in the rear corners)

javiramallo · 03-09-2021, 02:38 PM

Mine is Up.

Certainly snare and OOHHs were a headache. The phase and time between tracks are wavering at best.

funny mix in any case.

Cheers from Spain friends!

garanimals · 03-10-2021, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

Just submitted my first entry in the contest. I've followed a couple in the past, but feel I am getting good enough to try my hand in it. We'll see how it comes out!

As for hardware equipment:
Interface - QU16 Digital Mixer
Monitors - JBL 308 MKII
Headphones - Yamaha RH-5Ma (good for hearing midrange)
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro (Good for overall sound)

My studio is out in my shed, built a room in the back 20x30ft. Partially treated (cloud, left and right walls, Gobo's right behind me while mixing, superchunks in the rear corners)

That sounds awesome! (20x30 back of shed?!!))

REDTone Studio · 03-11-2021, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garanimals

That sounds awesome! (20x30 back of shed?!!))

Yeah, it's a 40x50 Morton shed that I have built a room in the back in. It is pretty much a giant echo chamber right now, but I continue to build out slowly more and more acoustic treatment.

I have a few Youtube video's up if you want to see the progress. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoy...7khaIszfu_jHnw.
All DIY so far.

LCM! · 03-11-2021, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

I have a few Youtube video's up ... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoy...7khaIszfu_jHnw.

What a voice! Awsome

REDTone Studio · 03-11-2021, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCM!

What a voice! Awsome

Thanks for watching! I'm getting tired of mixing myself and looking to branch out and get some clients. Hoping this contest will help hone my chops a bit, especially on music I wouldn't normal listen to or make.

kavacs · 03-12-2021, 09:05 AM

Just submitted mine. This time I've put a lot of time into it but still couldn't get satisfiable results, especially the drums. Looking forward to other mixes!

garanimals · 03-12-2021, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

Yeah, it's a 40x50 Morton shed that I have built a room in the back in. It is pretty much a giant echo chamber right now, but I continue to build out slowly more and more acoustic treatment.

I have a few Youtube video's up if you want to see the progress. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoy...7khaIszfu_jHnw.
All DIY so far.

Nice space! Hopefully things calm down and you get to record some bands soon.

germano · 03-13-2021, 05:41 AM

Just submitted!

jansen · 03-13-2021, 07:42 AM

Finally submitted my mix too. I never thought I would get to something half-satisfactory, this is way above my league. I felt I was fumbling in the dark most of the time, but somehow it sounds OK-ish.

Javiramallo, I did not have the time to really delve into the splitter/joiner JSFX, but I'm curious to hear how others have used it. Very curious also to hear your own mix, you said you enjoyed working on that genre.

I felt the biggest challenge here was to get clarity AND massive sound at the same time. I also did stuff that I never do, like trying to fix phase issues and sibilance (I know, I know... mixing 101). I think I miserably failed, but somehow it felt satisfying.

javiramallo · 03-13-2021, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jansen

Javiramallo, I did not have the time to really delve into the splitter/joiner JSFX, but I'm curious to hear how others have used it. Very curious also to hear your own mix, you said you enjoyed working on that genre.

Hi Jansen. Great to know you uploaded yours, Sure it´s a great one.
Finally I didn't use the Splitter neither.

YES!, I like mixing this genre which does not mean that I am particularly good at it. Especially this song, from which I have been left with the feeling that I have not gotten a good result.... what am I going to do? sometimes happens!.

I wish you The best.

Funicello3 · 03-13-2021, 06:39 PM

My mix is submitted too. I found this one to be as challenging as everyone else. The good news is that I probably don't need to worry about picking the song for April. :-)

It was still fun and I look forward to learning from the comments and other mixes.

LCM! · 03-14-2021, 08:48 AM

Just submitted. Fallen in love with the tune. Once again.

Dex · 03-15-2021, 04:50 PM

Submitted. This was a tough one! Looking forward to seeing how everyone else handled it.

darjama · 03-21-2021, 10:02 AM

Okay, voting is open: https://reamixed.com/vote

There's a good variety of approaches this month, look forward to seeing how it turns out!

javiramallo · 03-21-2021, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darjama

Okay, voting is open: https://reamixed.com/vote

There's a good variety of approaches this month, look forward to seeing how it turns out!

Thanks Daryl!

darjama · 03-21-2021, 02:06 PM

FYI there was a problem on my settings for mix #13 that was causing the ending to get cut off when listening with the player. If you had opened the browser to vote previously please refresh your browser to make sure you hear the full version.

REDTone Studio · 03-21-2021, 06:39 PM

I voted!

Quite a turn out. I'd say most had trouble, like me, to get the vocals right. I wasn't to keyed in the on the drums and the timing issues while mixing or voting. Good luck everyone!

fuzzball · 03-21-2021, 11:10 PM

Being a relative newbie at Reaper I didn't contribute nor even vote, but I do find this monthly contest fascinating.

I wish that rather than downloading the FLAC files of the results I could download everyone's RPP files so that I could see how you all manage the tracks visually. Colors, folders, groupings, text notes, markers, etc. That, I think would be extraordinarily educating for me.

darjama · 03-21-2021, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzball

Being a relative newbie at Reaper I didn't contribute nor even vote, but I do find this monthly contest fascinating.

I wish that rather than downloading the FLAC files of the results I could download everyone's RPP files so that I could see how you all manage the tracks visually. Colors, folders, groupings, text notes, markers, etc. That, I think would be extraordinarily educating for me.

Check out the archive section, under the playlist there are download links for the project files for past contests. The project files for the current contest will be available when results are ready.

fuzzball · 03-22-2021, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darjama

Check out the archive section, under the playlist there are download links for the project files for past contests. The project files for the current contest will be available when results are ready.

Oh my goodness, that's awesome! I was there before and only saw the FLAC download. I'm very excited to take a look tomorrow when I get some time.

PVinKC · 03-22-2021, 05:15 AM

Life got in the way this month. My work schedule was changed and my days off went from Sunday and Monday to Saturday and Sunday. However to get on the new schedule I got only one day off last week.

My PLAN was to mix the song and record a video for my YouTube channel. However I am upping the quality of my videos and changing my workflow has proven to be quite a challenge. Long story short...I didn't get either a video OR the song mixed.

So I didn't submit anything this month. As well we are moving soon and because of that we are spending a lot of time house hunting which leaves less time for everything. So I may not get time to vote either, my only day for me right now is Sunday, and I spent all of it yesterday trying to get my video workflow up to snuff, and falling short unfortunately.

Anyway, point is I won't have a chance to vote until Sunday. But since I'm also trying to get my video workflow sorted, the best idea and maybe my only chance of doing both may be to film a video of how I load all the tracks into Reaper and compare them, and ultimately vote and comment on them, live?!

I'll have to think a bit on this.