How is Dr. Dre's mixing so much better than everybody else's?

[karim]

I recall when MMM was in it's finishing stages him saying the mixing was his favorite thing to do to an album and he felt it was the most important part sonically.

Answer the question though, do his joints be mixed smoothly and clear or nah?

I haven't listened to a puffy Album since No way out, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't him who did the mixing. He might have sat in with the engineer and gave a direction, but he didn't do the mixes.

 

[ThaRealness]

LAD, No Way, Out, and MMM all sonically A1

But not A0

 

[KnowledgeOfSelf17]

Puff mixes beat Dre with the jayz projects

But dre is still king

Anyone who left Dre lost their sound

Only one recovered was snoop when he met Pharrell


I dont see Dre having remastered versions like puff

 

[One]

The compressed to death but clear loudness! Then I found out a famous mastering engineer blew out a few bulbs in his mastering house wile mastering 2001 to perfection. I knew I couldn't achieve that with plugins I downloaded for free.



Then used to try to get the vocals to match his till I found out he used a Avalon Amp and Sony C800 (8,000 microphone). I knew I couldn't achieve that with a 200 dollar mic and preamp.







My guess would be Shock G cause it sounds like they went for a funkadelic type vibe with his voice.

Yeah, that's how all engineers start out, but on the bright side if you started off with complex mechanisms you wouldn't even make use of them because you wouldn't have an expectation, experience or even know just how far you could push them.

Aside from that I'm not sure if you're saying that you did invest in equipment identical to the tools used by Dr.Dre and his team, but I often ask other engineers why? Because usually whatever material you're working on likely isn't going to be analyzed to the extent of a Dr.Dre album, and also doesn't require the polymathic professional technique that he and a team of engineers can create and even if you do there's few to appreciate it besides you yourself if it's not a gigantic release.

Regardless I'm not trying to pep talk your ear off, I just wanted to know who else OP was comparing Dre to because I now realize major engineers in Hip-Hop are so few. Tupac's vocals just sound so poorly done on that reference I have a difficult time believe that was an aesthetic choice, especially since none of his re-masters sound like that.

 

[dubsmith_nz]

haaa i get yellow from the neptunes as well!

the 2001 album i get green

for Nas i get orange

Yeah I get green for 2001 as well
I always thought it had something to do with the album art influencing how I see the music but maybe that's why artists choose certain colours for their albums.

The Chronic is a lot lighter with yellow/sepia tones whilst 2001 is dark and neon green to me.

 

[1-8-7-Skillz]

Side note:

dilliot2k

Im currently watchin this guys videos where he remakes classic hiphop instrumentals, to get more of an idea of the whole process
Can only recommend him to my fellow production rookies

 

[gluvnast]

Dr. Dre started to take production quality serious in 1991 when he and Yella produced nikkaZ4LIFE. Dre felt that period of rap music sounded terrible, because of low muffled sampled tracks, low definition sounding vocals and rushed engineering. And that's mostly due to the little money rappers had to use for production. Most of it be recorded in the basement, garage or bedroom unmastered. Or the studios they do go were cheap and some unskilled engineer behind the boards. At that time it was accepted because it gave those beats that raw street feel. But Dr. Dre was disatified. He even initially hated Straight Outta Compton because it was just two weeks making the album and he felt he rushed it. He was inspired by Michael Jackson and how PERFECT the quality in production him and Quincy Jones had done. So, he went to the SAME EXACT STUDIO as they did to produce nikkaZ4LIFE. And that was the album EVER where a hip hop album sounded clear and crisp and I still consider it Dr Dre's best produced album EVER.

 

[O.Red]

But the best trap produces keep the melody at a pretty low volume and just let the drums & 808s shine

This is what Metro's style has evolved into in the last year

 

[O.Red]

I have this weird thing where my brain associates every specific note or sound with the spectrum of colors, to the point where I can identify a bunch of albums' overall sound just by identifying a color. Like the Infamous to me is a mostly indigo/purple album, The Chronic is yellow/sepia tones, etc.

Synesthesia

Kanye, Havoc, and Pharrell have this condition

 

[O.Red]

Anyone who left Dre lost their sound

Only one recovered was snoop when he met Pharrell

 

[FunkDoc1112]

funny, i always got these from the album

Here's how I see it track by track:

Start of Your Ending
Survival of the Fittest
Eye For an Eye
Give Up The Goods
Temperature's Rising
Up North Trip
Trife Life
QU-Hectic
Right Back At You
Cradle to the Grave
Drink Away the Pain
Shook Ones
Party Over

 

[Flav]

Dr. Dre started to take production quality serious in 1991 when he and Yella produced nikkaZ4LIFE. Dre felt that period of rap music sounded terrible, because of low muffled sampled tracks, low definition sounding vocals and rushed engineering. And that's mostly due to the little money rappers had to use for production. Most of it be recorded in the basement, garage or bedroom unmastered. Or the studios they do go were cheap and some unskilled engineer behind the boards. At that time it was accepted because it gave those beats that raw street feel. But Dr. Dre was disatified. He even initially hated Straight Outta Compton because it was just two weeks making the album and he felt he rushed it. He was inspired by Michael Jackson and how PERFECT the quality in production him and Quincy Jones had done. So, he went to the SAME EXACT STUDIO as they did to produce nikkaZ4LIFE. And that was the album EVER where a hip hop album sounded clear and crisp and I still consider it Dr Dre's best produced album EVER.

How is it Dr Dre best work when Dr Dre left Ruthless before half of that album was mixed. Ruthless Records panicked when Dr Dre left and had a short deadline to release that album so they had some amateurs that didn't really have a clue on how to engineer mixed half of that NFL album.

 

[gluvnast]

How is it Dr Dre best work when Dr Dre left Ruthless before half of that album was mixed. Ruthless Records panicked when Dr Dre left and had a short deadline to release that album so they had some amateurs that didn't really have a clue on how to engineer mixed half of that NFL album.

Dr. Dre left shortly AFTER the album was complete. Not during. He was already in the middle of doing The Chronic and left Ruthless. Snoop and Warren G and Tha Dogg Pound were already there and Dre took them with him.

And where you can up this crazy assumption that they had last minute engineers for nikkaZ4LIFE?

 

[The Fire]

Timbaland was talking about this a while back. A lot of these beatmakers today like Metro Boomin ain't producers, just engineers that can program some hot beats.

You oldheads are running in circles, first you said the mixing these days isn't good enough and now you're saying Metro is an engineer turned producer.. that shyt dont even make sense
Metro is a great producer

 

[gluvnast]

Dre and NWA in the studio