That's cool and you're entitled to your opinion. I like TWU beat a lot but that Inspector gadget beat was bananas and it didn't even place. Even your beat was dope. I thought you was going to win with the westcoast style beat. Those 3 beats had a chance to win and one did. I see you take pride in mixing (which is great) but its seems like you only vote on a person mix instead of the full criteria of a beat (I could be wrong). I never said you were praising anyone
Whats ironic, is a year or so back, I was arguing with 2Good because I said I don't really take a mix too much into consideration if the beat/song/music is great. Whereas he and I think couple others were putting almost all the eggs on the mix when voting.
Now, it is definitely fair to say in recent months/this year, I've taken an extra keen interest in mixing, it's been a huge focus of my music making. And I didn't necessarily think I had gotten much better, but had noticed I'm hearing much more nuanced details. So whilst a lot of it may be unintentional, the mix aspect of voting is likely playing a bigger aspect than it was for me - but it’s important to note, prior it was only informing a small portion of my decision, now it's likely a lot more balanced; I don't know if Fade can see who voted for who, but I've often voted for beats with less than perfect mixes because I thought the beat was so good - I'm also pretty transparent about who I voted for etc.
So, for me, when it comes to mixing/voting, I'm not merely voting for the best mix (in fact there used to be someone here who had brilliant mixes but had no success because the music was plain),
If a beat say, compared to Arvin Mine or Twu's mix is very flat very 2D, a bit dull, a few things slightly off, but the beat is amazing, it can still get my vote - voted on many like this. ---
What the issue is, is if the mix problem is something that
distracts from the beat, i.e. something thats 20db too loud, the kick is inaudible and there's a piercing sound making my ear bleed, then that's going to take me away from being able to hear or connect with the beat. Like someone (I think Crog) said, it's about how you connect with the beat --- and why I even suggest some people should just make the beat and leave the mix/master alone, as some (I've been there myself) fuck up the beat by overprocessing/processing wrong.
This also goes the other way - you can balance something too perfectly that you've mixed the emotion out of it. Sometimes it's about 'misbalancing' things a little because it "feels" right, or communicates the tracks emotion.
These are things I'm taking into consideration when making music. I was quite pleased my track actually sounds to me, very well mixed, don't know if it's just a fluke and the next batch might not sound good. But I also thought my beat sounded a little boring, and said this privately to Arvin. Might just be 'Cause I've heard it so many times.
I voted for Crogs beat in the battle because it just had a certain feel, that I dug.