reaMIXed: The Reaper Mixing Contest - June 2022 - Naturally

[darjama]

that would be a bug. I do something in the player to deal with differences in start time, but the extra long lead-in this month seems to have broken it. I'll try to take a look tonight.

In the meantime you might want to download all the mixes for the month (the button at the bottom of the playlit)

[REDTone Studio]

I have been downloading the files and playing them back in Reaper for a while now due to just that problem with cutting of the end on some tracks.



I voted today, it was tough. Lots of good mixes.

I will have some questions about my Reaper settings, listening position and other things about panning once I see the final results. It seems that my far left and far right are much louder than my middle, if it is my system that is wrong. I noticed it a bit last month when I would say some mixes the background vocals far panned were louder than the lead vocal, but I was told in my mix that my more centered BVG's weren't able to be heard. I am seeing it with this month as well on some mixes (super loud far panned BVGs), I'll see if other commenters come up with the same conclusions...

[darjama]

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

I will have some questions about my Reaper settings, listening position and other things about panning once I see the final results. It seems that my far left and far right are much louder than my middle, if it is my system that is wrong. I noticed it a bit last month when I would say some mixes the background vocals far panned were louder than the lead vocal, but I was told in my mix that my more centered BVG's weren't able to be heard. I am seeing it with this month as well on some mixes (super loud far panned BVGs), I'll see if other commenters come up with the same conclusions...

My first guess is it might have to do with your listening environment. Are you using headphones? If so, perhaps try a plugin that simulates a speaker environment (or a channel mixer plugin that pans left and right channels at 75% / 25%) in your monitor fx chain. Are your speakers farther apart than usual, or possibly even out of phase?

[darjama]

We have a late entry due to some missed emails, Please include #28 in your voting if you haven't already submitted. And if you have, you can message me with your vote on that mix.

[Tesgin]

I feel so stupid for asking (this is my first ReaMIXed contest), but how do I cast my vote? There's no "vote" button.

Is the idea that I just drag them into the ranking position? Do I do anything else?

Sorry. Just not clear to me.

[Tesgin]

Originally Posted by Tesgin

I feel so stupid for asking (this is my first ReaMIXed contest), but how do I cast my vote? There's no "vote" button.

Is the idea that I just drag them into the ranking position? Do I do anything else?

Sorry. Just not clear to me.

Oh, crap. Was the button that says "28 more" how I cast my vote? I thought clicking that would load 28 more submissions. Did I mess this up?

[darjama]

Originally Posted by Tesgin

Oh, crap. Was the button that says "28 more" how I cast my vote? I thought clicking that would load 28 more submissions. Did I mess this up?

The button counts down until you've voted for each entry (click on the stars for each entry, and optionally leave comments), after which you can click on it to submit your vote.

[Tesgin]

Hm,m. I'm still confused. So if I cast a star vote for each entry and then finish by clicking that button am I doing it right?

So, am I only starring them? Or does my ranking matter too?

I "think" I'd rank order them and star them and click the button?

[Jopame]

Originally Posted by darjama

We have a late entry due to some missed emails, Please include #28 in your voting if you haven't already submitted. And if you have, you can message me with your vote on that mix.

Okay, that's the reason. And I was seeking for the reason why in the "202206flacs.zip" were 27 files while on the voting page there are 28 entries
Much appreciated that you've updated the zip-archive. I'm always judging all the flacs within a reaper project where I can define my own loops.

Regards

[BanzAndrey]

I finished my vote, for me there is clearly a winner, and I think it's better than my mix and it translates better the sound of the song although my mix has my style, I must say that I didn't like 90% of the mixes, which didnt happen last time (or i'm wrong? Maybe I'm too far off), didnt mean to say that my mix is better than all the others or something like that, but maybe we can learn a lot from this month! I bet we all learn as much from mixing for a contest as from giving feedbacks, we see different visions and even that expands our creative vision for some things.

[darjama]

Originally Posted by Tesgin

Hm,m. I'm still confused. So if I cast a star vote for each entry and then finish by clicking that button am I doing it right?

So, am I only starring them? Or does my ranking matter too?

I "think" I'd rank order them and star them and click the button?

There is no ranking, I think you mean the playlist? That's just for the player, it doesn't count for voting. Star ratings and comments are used for the results.

[Dex]

Originally Posted by Tesgin

Hm,m. I'm still confused. So if I cast a star vote for each entry and then finish by clicking that button am I doing it right?

So, am I only starring them? Or does my ranking matter too?

I "think" I'd rank order them and star them and click the button?

Starring them also serves to rank them.

[REDTone Studio]

Originally Posted by darjama

My first guess is it might have to do with your listening environment. Are you using headphones? If so, perhaps try a plugin that simulates a speaker environment (or a channel mixer plugin that pans left and right channels at 75% / 25%) in your monitor fx chain. Are your speakers farther apart than usual, or possibly even out of phase?

I am not using headphones, just 8in JBL studio monitors set about 7ft wide and I sit back in a perfect equilateral triangle. I have no mixer plugin that I know of engaged. I have not checked phase, but now I'll try to figure out how to do that.

I wonder if the few mixes I heard where the sides were so loud have speakers that are super close together in their listening environment. It will be interesting to see if others have the same comments on their mixes I did.

There is also a Pan law setting in Reaper where you can adjust your left and right levels to be up to -6.02. Default is 0 db, which is where I have it set. What are others using?

[Trogdor]

Just submitted my votes and notes. Pretty close to the time limit too with only 11 hours to go. I hope more people are voting (preferably all) this time.

[jansen]

So, I've not been at home those last two weeks, and all I have is this mono Bluetooth speaker. I still voted and commented, but frankly, I did not have access to much information in the sound, so please take my comments with a huge grain of salt.. Looking forward to the result, this is a great song and performance.

[Broken Glass Audio]

Got my votes in. There was a very clear winner (not me) this time around. Lots of good mixes around too. The 3 main things that stood out as struggles were: space, phase, and bass.

[sp3k]

I can't find my mix in there. Or my comments I don't think. What's going on? Did I f**k things up somehow?

[darjama]

June results will be available in about 15 hours, I think you're looking at the May results. Your vote was received, don't worry.

[ramses]

Originally Posted by darjama

June results will be available in about 15 hours, I think you're looking at the May results. Your vote was received, don't worry.

Ah, you're right. The title is right there!

[stefandy31]

hi, thanks all for the feedback. unfortunately i got a bad score, but i learned so much in this competition. i didn't expect i put a lot of reverb in my track. i mostly mixed my own track which mostly are orchestra tracks, so i usually tend to put a lot of reverb. i think my untreated room is the cause why i can't heard reverb. anyway, i hope i can do my best in the next competition

[MisterGTR]

My feedback for my own mix

Dull narrow. Rubbish compared to others. Organ needs more high end. As LV. Crash not well controlled. This will be 3rd last!

I was totally on the money ����

I got the top 2 the wrong way round so the only positive I can take is that I can hear the difference between a good mix and mine������

Thanks again to everyone for their feedback.

And Daryl for running of course

[pursgo]

Thanks for the feedback. Thought I would have gotten trashed more especially with the amount of time I had and mixed on a jbl charge 3 speaker.(No excuses) This is such a great platform and community for learning. Can't wait for the next one. Congrats to Jansen and to all who learned something.

[jansen]

Wow, really proud of that first place, thank you everyone. I spent very little time on it, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"-style: the performance was so good. Not much to add or to take out. I wasn't sure that would be enough for the contest though.
Anyway, I'm really glad you enjoyed my mix, and I'll try to find another good song for next month.
And congrats to JerZee who was my winner: really good work

[JerZee]

Originally Posted by jansen

Wow, really proud of that first place, thank you everyone. I spent very little time on it, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"-style: the performance was so good. Not much to add or to take out. I wasn't sure that would be enough for the contest though.
Anyway, I'm really glad you enjoyed my mix, and I'll try to find another good song for next month.
And congrats to JerZee who was my winner: really good work

Haha, thank you, appreciate it. And my congratulations to you! Well deserved first place. Sometimes it is just as important to know when something doesn't need any processing. So you've made well judged decisions.

[REDTone Studio]

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

I am not using headphones, just 8in JBL studio monitors set about 7ft wide and I sit back in a perfect equilateral triangle. I have no mixer plugin that I know of engaged. I have not checked phase, but now I'll try to figure out how to do that.

I wonder if the few mixes I heard where the sides were so loud have speakers that are super close together in their listening environment. It will be interesting to see if others have the same comments on their mixes I did.

There is also a Pan law setting in Reaper where you can adjust your left and right levels to be up to -6.02. Default is 0 db, which is where I have it set. What are others using?

Congrats Jansen, well deserved! One of my top picks as well.

I was pretty happy with my placement this time around, listening to all of the mixes showed that my reverb was a bit to strong. I love reverb so I'm not surprised! ha ha
I need to work on my compression still I guess. For past few months I've been getting comments on people hearing it, even though I try to keep it to a minimum. Something to watch out for.

As for Panning and back ground vocals I feel better now. The mixes that I heard the hard panned super loud BGVs were heard and commented on just like I heard. I think my listening environment is pretty good, but always room for improvement!

Great job to all involved, can't wait for next month!

[JerZee]

Originally Posted by REDTone Studio

Congrats Jansen, well deserved! One of my top picks as well.

I was pretty happy with my placement this time around, listening to all of the mixes showed that my reverb was a bit to strong. I love reverb so I'm not surprised! ha ha
I need to work on my compression still I guess. For past few months I've been getting comments on people hearing it, even though I try to keep it to a minimum. Something to watch out for.

As for Panning and back ground vocals I feel better now. The mixes that I heard the hard panned super loud BGVs were heard and commented on just like I heard. I think my listening environment is pretty good, but always room for improvement!

Great job to all involved, can't wait for next month!

Maybe the compression issue is the Reaper rendering set up. Yoy can set the lufs db and peaklimiter while rendering. In that case the compressed sound only appears after rendering. ...Just thinking. Your mix sounded really good by the way as you can read in my comments.

[Trogdor]

Wow, what a disappointing turnout again on the voting and commenting. Only 14 of 28 (50%) vote and comment. Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Takes me hours to go through every mix and make note, yet it seems half of the people don't want to do that for me. Very sad

[Broken Glass Audio]

Originally Posted by Trogdor

Wow, what a disappointing turnout again on the voting and commenting. Only 14 of 28 (50%) vote and comment. Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Takes me hours to go through every mix and make note, yet it seems half of the people don't want to do that for me. Very sad

I was disappointed in this too! Wondering if it's possible to institute some sort of system where if you enter and don't vote/comment, you can't participate in the next round.

I do however value the feedback that I do get, as I'm sure its from the awesome engineers active on these threads.

[darjama]

Congrats jansen! I'll be in touch shortly about picking a song for next month.


results & projects download at https://reamixed.com/results

[liquidlino]

First timer this month, and still learning mixing. This was great fun, both creating my own mix, reviewing others, and reading the feedback notes to me and others. Best mixing feedback I've had or seen on the internet. Looking forward to the next one. I did actually redo my mix since, as a top down mix, using third party plugs for reverb and compression, and way way happier with what I did there (not stock plugins fault, more just I'm still learning how to use the stock plugins). Only took about an hour too. I'll do better in the next one!

[darjama]

I'd say let's not be too hard on those who don't vote or comment. They may be new to mixing, or short on time.

But a big thanks to those who do take the time to leave thoughtful comments, you are benefitting all when you do.

If you voted and would like to submit comments after the deadline, let me know and I can include them. Or if you don't mind doing it publicly you can of course post feedback here as well.

[JerZee]

Originally Posted by Broken Glass Audio

I was disappointed in this too! Wondering if it's possible to institute some sort of system where if you enter and don't vote/comment, you can't participate in the next round.

I do however value the feedback that I do get, as I'm sure its from the awesome engineers active on these threads.

I understand what you are saying but at least now i know that the people who commented actualy took time to listen to the mixes. If we are forcing people maybe some comments would be useless anyway?

[MisterGTR]

Originally Posted by JerZee

I understand what you are saying but at least now i know that the people who commented actualy took time to listen to the mixes. If we are forcing people maybe some comments would be useless anyway?

Agreed.

There's a lot to be learned (for me at least) from listening to the mixes. Kinda like ear training. Picking out what elements I got wrong and what the better mixes had in common.

I'm still struggling with assimilation and implementation but that as much about application and time constraints than anything else.

I'm taking being able to pick the top 3 as a win of sorts

[pursgo]

Originally Posted by darjama

I'd say let's not be too hard on those who don't vote or comment. They may be new to mixing, or short on time.

But a big thanks to those who do take the time to leave thoughtful comments, you are benefitting all when you do.

If you voted and would like to submit comments after the deadline, let me know and I can include them. Or if you don't mind doing it publicly you can of course post feedback here as well.

sorry about that. I figured I would be at the bottom and no one would be interested in what I had to say. I did write out some very short notes.(don't know how to share them now) I will include next time but I tend to do it from an average listeners perspective not getting in too deep. learning all the time and will try to better next time. Thanks for doing this because it's awesome fun and learning. received 2 stars this first time out so look out 2 1/2 stars I'm coming for ya next month. ha.

[MisterGTR]

Originally Posted by pursgo

sorry about that. I figured I would be at the bottom and no one would be interested in what I had to say. I did write out some very short notes.(don't know how to share them now) I will include next time but I tend to do it from an average listeners perspective not getting in too deep. learning all the time and will try to better next time. Thanks for doing this because it's awesome fun and learning. received 2 stars this first time out so look out 2 1/2 stars I'm coming for ya next month. ha.

Your comments are valuable (to be for one)

And having to leave comments is actually a good learning process because it makes you listen critically.

As I said above, picking out the winner is worth attempting. And comparing your thoughts to others can be worthwhile.

[pursgo]

Originally Posted by MisterGTR

Your comments are valuable (to be for one)

And having to leave comments is actually a good learning process because it makes you listen critically.

As I said above, picking out the winner is worth attempting. And comparing your thoughts to others can be worthwhile.

Yes sir. first timer here (long time live mixer) getting use to this end of it. My note on your mix "sounds like it's down in a hole. maybe more eq." (i'll have to get better at notes.)
I think my top pick was jerzee. I'll have to start documenting everything. Thanks

[MisterGTR]

Originally Posted by pursgo

Yes sir. first timer here (long time live mixer) getting use to this end of it. My note on your mix "sounds like it's down in a hole. maybe more eq." (i'll have to get better at notes.)
I think my top pick was jerzee. I'll have to start documenting everything. Thanks

That's fair comment. My mix sounds terrible to me too. I used to mix in a smile curve. Now I've gone the other way too much. I'll get there one day.....

[sp3k]

Close, but no cigar.

Congratulations to jansen! Well done, not one unnecessary move in that whole project! Thanks for participating and critiquing everyone, participating in this contest keeps me humble and teaches me all kinds of things. Looking forward to the next one.

Regarding comments. It's not easy. I try to at least find something to say about every mix, good or bad.

[Broken Glass Audio]

Originally Posted by JerZee

I understand what you are saying but at least now i know that the people who commented actualy took time to listen to the mixes. If we are forcing people maybe some comments would be useless anyway?

That’s a great point I hadn’t considered.