a mix off?

[Jroye82]

we should have a mix off.

Someone supply the tracks.
Someone Conn an industry dude to judge them.
Make a write up of what you did and what you used.

maybe we'll learn alot about stuff.

If you win you get kudos.

Any thoughts?

[aarathi]

I don't understand what you say ? Please explain it?

[brandondrury]

I really like this idea. I'm wondering the best way to implement it.

Are we going for objective audio quality? Are we going for excitement? Is it okay to add stuff or remove stuff?

Brandon

[Jroye82]

Well...*deep breath*

We get some stock wav. files. I can even get some from past projects I have done. Stock stuff. Decently recorded...no huge bleed issues or anything. Good sounding tracks.

Drums, Guitars, Bass, Vox, Bg Vox, Keys whatever.


Then you mix.
Your allowed to do any effect with what audio is given to you...only those tracks.

You can synthetically double stuff - eq - phaser shit - be as creative as you want with what is supplied.

You can use whatever flavor of software / mastering software


Maybe have different catagories tho? Not everyone has a waves diamond bundle of plugs, and not everyone has PT HD...

You have to make a write up of the software used - plug-ins on what tracks - and settings used, so we can all learn some shit, and see how stuff is done.

As far as judging...I dunno - see if you can conn a real deal industry dude to listen to all the mixes? or maybe brando could judge - I dunno...or maybe its not a contest at all...we just submit and see where our ears stack up.

feel free to ad or take away from my suggestions. This is only a weird idea running around in my head. I think it would be a fun thing to do.

[brandondrury]

Maybe have different catagories tho? Not everyone has a waves diamond bundle of plugs, and not everyone has PT HD...

No way! I want to go head to head with Mr. HD. I can handle losing, but gear is no excuse!

I really like where this is going. Let me bounce it around the brain somewhat. I could see this having the same effect as Recording Diaries, but with a lot more people willing to waste the time to write out what they actually did.

I know that if I do a mix one day and then start all over the next day on the same song, I can come up with tremendously different results. This could be a fun excercise and an incredible learning experience.

Now I'm just trying to figure out the bandwidth issue. I'm not worried about the amount of bandwidth. Most host provides a ton. I'm more concerned with the time it takes to download the files.

Hmmmmm

I do like the fact that we are only judging mixing tricks and not a song. I hate the notion of telling someone who wrote a good song that someone else's is better. There is a discouraging element to that. But with this, who gives a shit if I thought Tommy got the snare compression right and Jimmy didn't. It's not like Jimmy is going quit writing music. In fact, he can then immediately steal Tommy's snare compression tricks.

I'm liking this!

Brandon

[thesilentdrummer]

Personally I love this. Even if its not a "contest" per say, if you put it up in a "beginner's guide", it would give beginners a chance to mix down a song before you throw in tracking. even if its not a contest, I would love to do that. Very few new people have time to screw around with a full band recording before it actually means something.

Great Ideas

[aarathi]

Thank you. Now i realized that it was the term used in recording.

[rorry]

perhaps there could be 3 levels :
beginners: 4-6 tracks ,pan, levels, add eq and reverb
intermediate: 6-12 tracks ,pan, levels, compression, eq and reverb
advanced:15+ tracks, pan, levels, compression, eq, reverb,timming and pitch correction, effects and basic mastering
anyway it just a thought.
the prize could be the satisfaction of having a go.
cheers

[richiebee]

Great idea.

A couple of random thoughts...

1. RAR compresses wav's much better than ZIP does.
- 1minute WAV at 44.1/16 = 10Mb
- RAR'ed = 7Mb
- ZIPped = 9.5Mb
2. Since all this stuff is so subjective, it might be cool rather than being a competition to just post your mix, details of what you did to get there, and let people post on their opinions.
3. Possible structure -
- one thread is the original files (or link to them) and discussion on what might be good to try...
plus,
- one thread started for each submission. Comments go on that thread about that mix only. Its complicated, but a similar kind of thing seems to work over at KVR. It's just a case of making the rules clear, making sure everyone knows the rules before they post. Your forum software might even allow only people with, say 10 posts to their name, to post comments. Something along those lines - just to keep down the traffic to relevant stuff.

4. To restrict the space requirement a little, you could say that only one mix (MP3 or whatever) can be posted to each submission. Ie, once you submit your mix, you can't change it. This avoids any confusion when discussing it. Remember, its not about getting the mix perfect, its about identifying problems and documenting how to fix them.

5. If you wanted to make it into a competition, you could perhaps have a week of voting, then the winning mix gets posted to the original thread with mix settings. Then the thread gets closed, and a new one started for the next track.

[Hivemind]

Great idea..I'm in if there is an "Idiot" category. This might Bee the contest Mr. Drury was lookin for.