Casamance

Win Big With Universal Audio and Lauten Audio

This month's Zelab is sponsored by Universal Audio and Lauten Audio

• 1st Place: UAD Apollo Twin MKii
• 2nd Place: Lauten Audio LS-208 Microphone
• 3rd Place: Lauten Audio LA120 Pair Of Microphones

The Song:

We recently had the honor of hosting the first season of the series, Simon & Greg Record The World, where two adventurous music producers from Montreal, Quebec, Simon Walls, and Greg Bonnier, packed up their mics, boarded a plane and went to a remote area of Senegal to build a recording studio from scratch.

This month’s Zelab Mixing contest features a song from this expedition called “Casamance” from the Asukatendeng Family, as seen in Episode 5.

In case you haven’t seen the series yet, we invite you to watch the episodes here and get in the vibe for what comes next:

Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6

Amazing, right? This is an opportunity to join the Asukatendeng Family as you mix “Casamance” for a chance to win prizes from Universal Audio and Lauten Audio, which you can use on your next expedition to help “Record The World”.

Here is a word from Simon Walls about the song:

“We met Asukatendeng Family through a previous band, Casavoice, we recorded in episode 3. Asukatenteng Family is a reunion of friends and family members making music together to share a message of peace and happiness. After the conflict that happened in the Casamance region between 1982 and 2014, Asukatendeng Family decided to give hope to the youth with their music, including everyone in their band who would like to be involved in any way possible.

We set a meeting in Ziguinchor and started recording on that day. Greg and I decided to set them up on the stage exactly where they rehearse every week so they would feel very comfortable. They played roughly 6 songs for us then we decided together which one we should produce. The choice was easy, the song Casamance. Catchy chorus, awesome groove, good lyrics, makes you wanna dance. What else do you want?

As for microphones, here’s a little description of each track:

• Back Elisa: Lauten Clarion - Overdub
• Back Harmo L + R : 2 Lauten Clarion on top of each other (See video at 9:49) - Overdub
• Back L + R : 2 Lauten Clarion on top of each other (See video at 9:49) - Overdub
• Back Papyto: Lauten Clarion - Overdub
• Bass: This is a DI from an unknown brand amp (See the trick we did at 5:00)
• Callebasse: Lauten LA-220
• Claps 1 - 4: Lauten Clarion - 4 separate overdubs
• GTR: SM57
• Keys 1 - 3: DI Mono
• Kick - D12VR
• OH - Lauten Atlantis
• Percs - Lauten Atlantis
• Room Callebasse - Percs: Pair of Lauten Clarion, the name refers to where the microphone is pointing
• Slogan - Lauten Atlantis
• Snare - SM57
• Vox Lead - Lauten Atlantis

Even though we had to troubleshoot a lot of problems (the bass situation, electricity noises, no ground !!!, birds on the roof, motorcycles passing by every 15 minutes, and on and on) the session went super well and the most important thing was that the band was extremely grateful and happy.”

How To Win:

Mixing is an art form, the winner will be chosen based on the judges' TASTE. There are no absolute rules. Don’t be upset if your version of this mix does not make it to the top. The pureMix team will listen to ALL of the mixes and pick 3 winners.

This contest is open to all residents of the USA, Canada, and the EU.

Here are a couple tangible suggestions to carve your way to be the potential winning mixer:

• Upload your mix by 11:59pm EDT September 24th, 2019
• Make sure you send in the right song (Don’t laugh, it happens quite a bit)
• Don’t send the mentor’s original mix hoping that we won’t notice (Don’t laugh, it happens quite a bit)
• Make sure the vocal/drums/bass/guitars are not muted in your mix. Especially the lead vocal. (We think the production was quite nice and would love to hear all of it.)
• Don’t change the tempo/key/arrangement. This is a MIXING challenge.
• Louder is not better, we level match everything before we listen (You know who you are)
• Consider using the pureMix LUFS Analyzer to help reach a reasonable final level!

Good luck!

Submissions

Winners

Congratulations on winning an Apollo Twin MKII

Second Place: AJ.C

Congratulations on winning a Lauten Audio LS-208

Third Place: EyeForMusic

Congratulations on winning a pair of Lauten Audio LA120 microphones