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

[C-Styles]

On another note, The 7 day theory gotta be the WORST MIXED album among the classics, i mean, the vocals are mixed so horrible on hail mary, you got the doubles going out of place not even lined up, the eqs are all over, they weren't lying when they said he recorded the album on the WACK ROOM which is where all the none elite producers on death row would be at and pac gave no sh*ts when it came to recording, just press record and worry about the mixing later type of ideology

sh*t sounds like he just recorded it and the engineer turned this in cuz the deadline was the next hour or something

 

[bouncy]

Dr. Dre's newer stuff (2001 and on) is very minimalist as opposed to his earlier Bomb Squad type sampling style which allows him room to play with frequencies and maximize volume.

Bernie Grundman also makes his shyt bang, he's mastered a lot of west coast classics for Quik and many, many others. Seek out OG copies to hear them in all their glory, no remasters.

I think that's what made sampling great, you are mixing different samples that have been recorded in different studios that give them their own sound, and combining them into one. To me that's what makes the "The Chronic" so special, as opposed to a lot of west coast albums where they used live instruments, and recorded in the same studio.

I never even thought about that until I just read your post!

As far as stuff from "the chronic 2001", I think he uses parallel mixing on his drums, you can tell that is always his main focus, and everything revolves around that. He is from the old school, and drums was the main thing with them.

 

[Dr.HannibalLecter]

I was bumping 2001 today and it remains the GOAT production album

No album has ever sounded as good as that

It's literally impossible to make that album sound bad, there's no device that could do that. You can play it in a $10 cassette player or $10.000 home audio system, it will always sound great at worst.

It's actually an underrated album, believe it or not. The 2001 Instrumental cd should be a mandatory listen for every hip hop producer.



That's wasted on a skit.

Even the instrumentals of the supposedly weaker second half are masterpieces.

I mean listen to the bytch nikkas, Ackrite and Housewife instrumentals for example

 

[bouncy]

That's one thing that's crazy about Dre. A lot of people are blessed with the ear and they can get busy on the pads, but they need other people to come in and properly mix their shyt. A lot of these guys find a good engineer and keep working with them. DJ Premier had Eddie Sancho, and now Alchemist has him. Kanye West has Andrew Dawson. Rappers do it too. Jay-Z has Young Guru. Kendrick and TDE crew have Ali.

But then there are the super rare cats like Dre that can do both.

I think it comes from being an all around DJ!

Dre was was good at blending, and that is basically the first step to mixing. Once you blend instruments, now you just have to adjust the frequencies. Plus, having access to the best boards before most of hip hop helped as well, because NWA recorded out of rock studios, and I remember those 80's rock albums were very clean sounding, while having a lot of dynamic range. Once you mix that with hip hop, you have dr.dre!

Now, most producers can barely dj, if they ever dj'ed, and the styles they do imitate tend to be electronic, so the emphasis is on the 808 bass. You can still give dynamic range with that in the mix, but a lot just want to sound like those before them, or don't want to take the time to manipulate a song. Its about making the song, and getting it out to be heard, so you can be a star. Remember, what dre was known for, taking his time to do a record. People complain, but its been almost three decades, and we are talking about dre's music, not his personal life. That tells you something!

 

[Blackrogue]

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.

Why those colors?

 

[mortuus est]

Like the Infamous to me is a mostly indigo/purple album,

funny, i always got these from the album

 

[Da King]

It's literally impossible to make that album sound bad, there's no device that could do that. You can play it in a $10 cassette player or $10.000 home audio system, it will always sound great at worst.

It's actually an underrated album, believe it or not. The 2001 Instrumental cd should be a mandatory listen for every hip hop producer.



That's wasted on a skit.

Even the instrumentals of the supposedly weaker second half are masterpieces.

I mean listen to the bytch nikkas, Ackrite and Housewife instrumentals for example

That pause 4 porno instrumental is classic, never realized it till I heard the instrumental version and was like was

 

[CashmereThoughts]

How does he do it?!

His mixing elevated the Bar in the genre.
But can someone people tell me what that hissing noise is on "housewife"

It's been driving me crazy for 1.5 decades

 

[karim]

From my understanding Dre doesn't compress much, if any at all. I think the current generation compresses too much! I also raise DJ Quik, Troy Hightower, MixedByAli, Russell Elevado and Bob Power.

dre's music is highly compressed. that shyt is loud as fukk and chronic 2001 is among the most brickwalled albums ever released. he is just very meticulous with eq's resulting in a very clean sound. he went overboard with it at some point (not helped by using those plastic drums instead of the signature ssl distorted ones he had in the early 2001) which is why beats like the one he gave jay for lost ones almost sound flat in my ears. he corrected that on compton though. don't get me wrong, i love dre's sound, but he uses a lot of compression.

 

[Sound (∀√a) Maths]

dre's music is highly compressed. that shyt is loud as fukk and chronic 2001 is among the most brickwalled albums ever released. he is just very meticulous with eq's resulting in a very clean sound. he went overboard with it at some point (not helped by using those plastic drums instead of the signature ssl distorted ones he had in the early 2001) which is why beats like the one he gave jay for lost ones almost sound flat in my ears. he corrected that on compton though. don't get me wrong, i love dre's sound, but he uses a lot of compression.

I hear you. I've always felt that Dre's mixing isn't warm but the loudest with the most clarity on individual instruments. Quik's albums, Like Water For Chocolate, Electric Circus etc are more warmer.

 

[Da King]

His mixing elevated the Bar in the genre.
But can someone people tell me what that hissing noise is on "housewife"

It's been driving me crazy for 1.5 decades

That hissing still got me fukked up

 

[tonyclifton]

funny, i always got these from the album

Was gonna post this

I get a lot of blue from mobb deep

Red from Kanye

Yellow from neptunes

Sbviously not all the time but in my head it's there main color

 

[letti cook]

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


i literally sit and mix songs until I can get the colors Im looking for

i spent the last 3 days mixing this song...got frustrated...legit hit that "what would dre do"...

love this thread

 

[I love Latina women]

His mixing elevated the Bar in the genre.
But can someone people tell me what that hissing noise is on "housewife"

It's been driving me crazy for 1.5 decades

I don't know what creates that sound. @ThaRealness or @shopthatwrecks might know tho.

 

[CoCKy GeNiuS]

So we're going to act like Puff can't mix a sonically top tier album?

His last one MMM was sonically great.