I've slaved over those thirty six stems and I've had enough LOL
 
https://soundcloud.com/andy_synk/believe-i-am-cassettes-bdl-mix-contest
 
I've not put it under my usual SoundCloud profile because I want to keep this mix stuff off my usual account from now on.
 
I can't even start to count how many peeps have entered this contest, so it was just an interesting and educational exercise for me.
 
I struggled with de-essing the vocals.
 
I struggled with the drums.
 
There was a glitch, as far as I was concerned, in the main vox at around 2:20 and I used Melodyne to try and iron it out.
 
And on another vocal stem there was a harsh his right at the start. I used Sound Forge 10 to mute that bit...
 
I enjoyed it though, and I'm reasonably happy with the end result, which I also listened to on my telly surround sound system, just to make sure it wasn't too bassy.
 
I'm not doing any more mix stuff for a bit... I want to get down to doing some more original work...
 
 
cheers
 
andy

Sounds nice here Andy, glad you had a go as you say an education.

indeed... 36 stems FFS... I think I ended up with ten busses, which is unusual for me...
 
 

Andy, I know you normally mix on headphones, and it's always a good idea to hear the mix in a real world situation like your TV.  You do a really good job with the cans, much better than I ever did.  The bass is tight and well defined, and is balanced quite well with everything else.  There is much of the magic sparkle dust sprinkled throughout, especially on the acoustic gtrs.  This sounds like a very modern mix to me, and I can relate to other contemporary songs I hear on the radio.  However, I think that I'd get ear fatigue after a few listens, as that sparkle becomes more like diamond dust that gently abrades after a few spins.  Otherwise, this is very professional.  Best of luck!

Nice Mix Andy, I found it easier to bus elements together and just mix the bus, for example I balanced all the strings relative to each other and panned them, I then sent them to the one bus and used the bus track as if I would an individual track and applied eq and compression to the strings buss and forgot about the individual tracks. Doing things this way can really help. Anyway really nice mix, I liked it.

 If I had to vote on the three I've heard so far, yours would be my vote for overall sound. I like what you did with the bass and drums. Also the treatment of the higher note synths was real nice. To be honest, the vocals sound real good but another here was a bit stronger as far as vocals in my opinion. Also some of the transients could use some softening IMO, especially on that intro acoustic.
 
 

Lynn
Andy, I know you normally mix on headphones, and it's always a good idea to hear the mix in a real world situation like your TV.  You do a really good job with the cans, much better than I ever did.  The bass is tight and well defined, and is balanced quite well with everything else.  There is much of the magic sparkle dust sprinkled throughout, especially on the acoustic gtrs.  This sounds like a very modern mix to me, and I can relate to other contemporary songs I hear on the radio.  However, I think that I'd get ear fatigue after a few listens, as that sparkle becomes more like diamond dust that gently abrades after a few spins.  Otherwise, this is very professional.  Best of luck!

Thanks Lynn... As usual, I generally fluked most of this mix. I did roll off some of the high end, but not enough by the sounds of it. For me, it's either too much bass because I'm mixing on headphones, or too much top, because anything above 14 kHz is lost to me. So, relying on SPAN yet again...
 

sausy1981
Nice Mix Andy, I found it easier to bus elements together and just mix the bus, for example I balanced all the strings relative to each other and panned them, I then sent them to the one bus and used the bus track as if I would an individual track and applied eq and compression to the strings buss and forgot about the individual tracks. Doing things this way can really help. Anyway really nice mix, I liked it.

Thanks for listening Andrew.
 
Yeah, this is what I found too, mixing with the busses I mean... I've never done that before. Like you, I worked on getting a nice level on a drum/guitar/whatever buss, and then I mixed the busses...
 

ohgrant
 If I had to vote on the three I've heard so far, yours would be my vote for overall sound. I like what you did with the bass and drums. Also the treatment of the higher note synths was real nice. To be honest, the vocals sound real good but another here was a bit stronger as far as vocals in my opinion. Also some of the transients could use some softening IMO, especially on that intro acoustic.

 
Thanks Grant 
 
Like I said above... Fluked as usual LOL... Sure can't be down to experience as this is only the third "proper" song that I have mixed since gaining loads of knowledge from the Cakewalk forums.
 
The vocals were a pain for me... There were a few glitches, and I also ended up installing a demo de-esser because I just didn't like the sibilance sounds at all, and EQ alone was not taming those. It's the first time I have ever used a de-esser...

i kind of dislike the idea of a 'contest' for mixing,
because there are so many variables that rely on 'subjective decisions'.
 
on any given day, i like super clean production,
and on other days, i like distorted modern tracking...
 
this song is a perfect example of having tracks that all seem to be pretty much all one level, as if they had been compressed and limited already, normalized....
even tho it is a 'mellow' song, the tracks come off as a bit one dimensional....
 
so, when mixing tracks like these, you almost have to back off, from the very beginning,
to get them to gel and translate.
 
all of you guys that have done mixes with these tracks, have done a good job.
they all sound pretty much ready to go.
 
but i think this one is the one is closest to the way i would approach it..
and i think the addition of the deesser was smart.
 
it's a matter of ear fatigue, versus that first blush impact of it being in your face....
 
and for better or worse,
each mixer hears a possible mix from a different perspective,
and i find that a bit fascinating.
 
 
there are elements of each of these submissions that i like...
the guitar treatment on andrew's mix....
the soft vocal and drum treatment that wookie went with.....
i think yours sits right between wookies and saucy's......

I like the song and think everyone did a good job.  This mix seems really good to me.

Sounds good, Andy.    I know how difficult these tracks are since I just started mixing it last night.   
 
I like what you've done with the vocals in regards to tone/taming the harshness.  It gets a little lost here and there because of that but I still like it.   And the loud end section doesn't get overbearing which is good.  Overall... nice!