Mix/Master Contest
10 CONTESTANTS
have agreed to mix and master
Ed Eagle's upcoming single,"IT'S FINE"
for a CHANCE TO WIN $50
and absolute bragging rights!!
It will be up to you, the New Artist Spotlight artists, to choose who will win the prize. Each vote we'll have two engineers going head-to-head anonymously, with your votes deciding who moves on and who is eliminated.
Your votes will be tracked, just like they are in the Top 20 voting, and you can earn a bonus point for each of your votes.
Here are Ed's mixing notes (to tell the engineers what he is looking for):
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I'd love the bass and the distorted guitars to sound more like the song "Just" from Radiohead.
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I'd like more space between the instruments so that everything fits into its own place in the mix.
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I purposely put a lot of dynamic range into the song. I'd like to keep it that way. NO BRICKWALLING PLEASE!
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I want this song to speak to the rockers and dance folks. Please don't alienate one fan group at the expense of another.
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And finally, here's what I was thinking when I wrote the song, so you'll have a better idea of how things should work together:
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The narrators starts off sounding kind of happy and upbeat. That's why I did the vocals in kind of a radio commercial effect. But it is fake. He has everything he’s ever wanted but he’s hiding the pain inside.
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He has a sudden realization that everyone else around him who seems happy and successful are also medicating their pain away.
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“Pressure’s coming from inside” is the realization he’s doing it to himself. He’s the protagonist and the antagonist . The last verse is acceptance and the last chorus is madness.
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So I’m my mind it starts off as kind of 80s synth pop rock ( the Cars just what I needed or Let’s Go or shake it up), but you also hear those reverse keys kind of sucking the rest of the music in, showing something is not quite right.
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The chorus is where you see the cracks in the armor. Multiple voices in the head, the ominous synth sounds, the acoustic guitar as the one analog counter to it all, the last pureness of sanity.
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By the second verse the bass and drums feel more like the machine you are caught up in pushing you forward. And the realization that everyone else is in this machine, too. And the whole tone gets darker. To the point where we get to the bridge, where the truth is exposed - he’s the cause, not the machine ...
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So the third verse is acceptance. The loud guitars are the walls caving in as he stops fighting insanity
And then he screams.