Lewitt mix contest

[Tadpui]

Not sure if you guys have already seen/heard about this, but Lewitt microphones is holding a mix contest. They provide the tracks (and the song is actually pretty good) and you mix them. It's a pretty straight up contest, no frills. Just grab the tracks and see what you end up with. And you could win a nice mic as a prize. Not much to lose, other than your time and effort.

I just downloaded the tracks last night and stayed up way too late playing around with them. There are some weird things with the files, I'm wondering if they did that to weed out the people that'd just bring the faders up and render the mix without much effort. I can only imagine how many entries they're going to have so I guess they've got to have a level 1 filter somehow .

Anyways here's a link in case you want to give it a go: https://www.lewitt-audio.com/mix

I've listened to a handful of entries on Soundcloud today. They ranged from OK to pretty good, nothing mind-blowing. But with such a straight-ahead set of rules, I'm not sure how they're ultimately going to judge this thing. They all kinda sound alike (mine included, so far).

[WhiskeyJack]

Looks interesting. Might take a stab at it.

[Greg_L]

I might try this too. My new setup is coming along

[Tadpui]

Looks interesting. Might take a stab at it.

Its a well-performed song, though not exactly perfectly tracked. It's been good practice for me. Definitely worth a try!

I might try this too. My new setup is coming along

Yay, progress! Looking forward to seeing the new space!

[Greg_L]

Yay, progress! Looking forward to seeing the new space!

Lol I've got to be the worst time manager on earth.

[WhiskeyJack]

Yay, progress! Looking forward to seeing the new space!

Lol I've got to be the worst time manager on earth.

I guarantee i you got a way to go to catch up with me my friend.

[Greg_L]

I guarantee i you got a way to go to catch up with me my friend.

Sloth fight!!!!

[Tadpui]

[mention]Greg_L[/mention] [mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention] I hear ya, fellas. I haven't accomplished much of anything in the last couple months. Any time I get a little down time, I end up squandering it being lazy just to conserve energy for the next day.

[vomitHatSteve]

This could be cool. Looks like a pretty causal contest from their ToS (they specify that it's subjective several times)

[Tadpui]

This could be cool. Looks like a pretty causal contest from their ToS (they specify that it's subjective several times)

Agreed. I read the interview with the band where they asked them what they were looking for with the mix contest. They weren't very specific, other than embracing the mistakes and making the female lead vocal sound cool

So far mine is pretty bland. I think I've got a pretty sweet drum mix going, but I'm struggling with the bass and where to put the guitar and keys. Vocals are pretty dynamic, which isn't to my taste. I've already compressed the holy living crap out of them and they're still missing something.

The good news is that the deadline isn't until the end of the year, so we've all got time to give it a try and change our minds a few times.

I'm looking forward to getting back in front of my desk tonight and giving it another go from scratch and see where it leads me this time.

[Tadpui]

Anybody else got a start on this?

I lost my first attempt at this mix in a storage/backup snafu. So I started it again and ended up in just about the same place.

If you've started this mix, did you bother with using the polarizer plugin on the drum overheads? I just split the tracks and panned them L/R as if they were regular overheads and forgot about the plugin.

And has anybody tamed that goddamned hi-hat? Sheesh, talk about a heavy hand and lots of bleed! I even tried pulling up the hi-hat mic and flipping the phase just to see if it would cancel out at all. No luck. Lead hi-hat it is, then!

I'm getting close to being done, but I've still got a few revisions to make before I'm happy enough to let it loose in the wild. I'm fighting my tendency to add too much low end, and that synth/fuzz/whatever bass part has proven to hit me right in my weak spot.

[Greg_L]

I've got the tracks, but I haven't dug in yet. I think I might get to it this weekend. I have a hard time with nameless faceless people whose credentials I don't know judging mixes though.

[Greg_L]

If you've started this mix, did you bother with using the polarizer plugin on the drum overheads? I just split the tracks and panned them L/R as if they were regular overheads and forgot about the plugin.

I just listened through headphones. WTF is up with those overheads? Why did they do them like that? Crazy. I think what you did is the way to go.

[vomitHatSteve]

I totally forgot about this!

[Tadpui]

I just listened through headphones. WTF is up with those overheads? Why did they do them like that? Crazy. I think what you did is the way to go.

They were recorded with a single stereo mic, and I think that whoever set up the Pro Tools project during the recording messed up how they created the tracks. Either that, or its some weird artifact of how that mic records, since it's intended to be used with a special plugin that allows you to change polar patterns in post.

I totally forgot about this!

There's still plenty of time! I think the deadline is 12/31. I might or might not be ready by then

[Tadpui]

For some reason, the forum wasn't letting me post for the last couple of days. It may have been a disagreement between my VPN and the forum, maybe?

But anyways, I finally finished my attempt at a mix for this contest. I have no delusions that mine is good enough to win, but I think it came out OK. What a challenging set of tracks to work with! Here's what I ended up with. Hopefully SoundCloud didn't mangle it too badly. Oh, who am I kidding...SoundCloud mangles everything pretty badly!

https://soundcloud.com/cd_prewett/move- ... ng-contest