You can only do so many CD track acts before you start getting that way. When the most important instruction of the tour manager is making sure you know which mic's NOT to turn on, it gets a bit depressing.

Brent,

Your second mix is really impressive. It shows what can be done with some talent and artistic sensibility.

Strictly from a mix perspective, overall I thought it was very good except that in certain parts the vocal wasn't forward enough. In those particular sections it sounded like there were too many elements (organ, guitar, etc.) competing for the same frequency/volume space. Of course, others may disagree, but I just feel thats one area where it could be improved a little.

From an arrangement perspective, this was the most interesting thing of all. It sounded like Justin called you up and said, "Brent, Dick Clark just called and they want me to perform at the American Music Awards. Can you put a live show arrangement together for me?" The extra parts made it a bit over the top, but it was fun! What would have made the illusion of a live performance complete would have been to end it on a single note rather than fading it out.

In addition, I am not a master of any particular musical instrument, but it seems to me that the parts you added were beautifully played.

With all that being said, I suspect that your motivation behind this mix was to show what CAN be done without any self-imposed restrictions, and in that regard I believe you have really succeeded.

Great job Brent,
You take the CHEESE. I like the way the vocals sit in the tracks.Maybe the organ, guitar, etc. could stand to be pulled down in a couple of places.I think Justin just sent these tracks
out to see if anyone could whip them into shape. You did. He has probably already pressed the song and waiting on a release date. After all
it is a catchy little number.
Remember stacking tracks, "less is more" fronk10

Thanks for listening Fronk. Criticism concerning masking was very good too EWF.
The tune could make good use of more space in the instrument/playing dept. As Dan said the playing was a little over the top. Making better use of what was played... as in, less is more {indeed Fronk} would probably fix much of the masking. This likely demonstrates the slippery slope when trying to instantly switch from musician to mixer. Musician wants things that aren't always beneficial in the big scheme.
As far as motivation EWF, this was fun. But think it does show the importance of song and a little pre-production. Again, the missing ingredient was artist and outside musician involvement to put it all in motion. Those things would change the entire attitude again and better represent the artist's original intent.
Just wasn't possible here.

I'm going to set the end date as September 30 for the contest. I know a few folks who wanted to participate were either on vacation or too busy. One month left should be enough time. After September 30, we'll all vote to decide a winner. 1st prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, 2nd prize is a set of steak knives. Just kidding! There'll be some small prize for the winner, maybe a Amazon gift certificate. More importantly, you get the respect of your peers and an award certificate from the site. Cool huh?

TLiX (Sam) -

Take a listen to Brent's latest mix. He was kind enough to send me the entire Pro Tools session with no plugin's inserted except for Strike. I was thinking it'd be a trip to pass the session to you and maybe have your wife recut the vocals. Dyin' to hear how a female voice sounds on this song as that's how I originally intended it. The country-pop thing might be right up her alley. Let me know what you think. If you like the idea, I'll put it up on my FTP server for you to download. About 400-500 MBs.

http://www.audiotalkback.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=34

Hi, everyone.

I stumbled onto this website looking for more info about the DA7 we use at church, and saw this contest. I'll probably post more on myself later. I'm a complete beginner when it comes to mixing, but I'm having fun learning.

I downloaded and listened to pretty much everyone's mix, and I've read nearly all the posts in this thread so far. I do like what Brent did with his latest. And Jeremy's current entry gets my vote for "most likely to have done his most recent mix on a 4-track cassette." (I think that's what he was going for with that entry, and also from what I've read I get the gist that we may see a second entry from him.)

Well, call me crazy, but after listening to all those mixes, and getting ear fatigue, I found that going back to Justin's original was like fresh air.

So, I went for something "cleaner." Here's my mix. I wouldn't really call it a contest entry; I'm very green at this; just having fun and thought I'd see what you all think about it. After I get a few critiques, I'll let you know what I used; I don't want the tools to bias your opinions quite yet.

Trying to learn how to mix is difficult, because there aren't many opportunities to get raw tracks. Thanks so much for making the raw materials available, Justin!

Swahl,
Nice job.. and yes I think you accomplished your goal of clean. That was first impression with out even reading your post. Really nice separation on everything and giving the tracks their own space. Kudos..

J

I'ts a group, Group drums .07 and get the piss out of ya!

Just for fun, here's a mix I did a few weeks ago.

Far From Home Cheap Knife Mix

Someone (I don't recall who) upthread was talking about doing stuff all on the cheap and that got me thinking. I set out to do the entire thing in my free time, at work, on my office desktop, with nothing but free-ware - just to see how far you could go in a crappy environment, with a cheap system and free tools.

The entire thing was done on a plain Dell office desktop PC with 726k of memory and onboard sound. Speakers were little desktop Harmon Kardons (not even a "gaming" system, with a subwoofer). The DAW I used was Cockos' "REAPER" (which I was so impressed with, I ended up sending them the $40 "registration fee"). All plugs were what comes with REAPER. No 3rd party plug-ins, at all.

This was all done in my spare time, between real work tasks, at my office. I imagine the total work put in is a couple of hours. I have never even monitored the mix on any other system.

I initially considered doing some major work to the arrangement and/or adding some instruments, as Jeff E and Brent did (spectacularly IMHO, I might add), since the tune lacks a bridge and kind of just goes on and on, but ultimately, I agree with some of the other folks' sentiments: that if this is really about the MIX, we shouldn't be adding new tracks and the like.

I did create some harmonies and I moved some of the guitars and drums around, but I even stopped doing that, eventually.

I honestly don't care about the "contest" aspect of this. I'm a really bad "mixer" and it was fun to just work on someone else's tracks for a bit, just as a diversion and an exercise.