We always talk about producers, but did you know top mixing engineers charge $4,000-$5000+ per mix?

[Mac Casper]

explain ? do u mean that they want the clean style instead of the gritty stuff?

A lot of rapper just want the bass low and that throws off the dynamic of the mix. Or they want the mix really loud and have no idea what mastering is

A track can only be so loud

ProTip - after a certain point you can only raise the "perceived loudness" to do this . . you're going to have to compress the record so you can raise the levels without distorting. It doesn't actually make the track louder but it makes the lowest levels louder and thus the record is perceived as louder

 

[Mac Casper]

jaycen joushua do alot of big rap singles .....i think hes great for bass. n of course young guru.

He came up under the wing of Dave Pensado

 

[Axum Ezana]

Example. To me Kanye's best sounding beat (not best beat composed) is Game's Dreams. Young Guru is alright but his mixes aren't as polished as Dre's. Dreams was a busy ass beat to sound so prestine and clear.

yeah dre is a legend at that shyt...even danjahandz admitted it.

 

[DJDONTNOBODYPAYME]

This x100

Interesting thread

Out of curiosity, how would u knowledgeable bruhs rate the mixing on YGs album. When I listened to that, I remember thinking it just "sounded" good. Is that a result of the mixing or am I off ?

It was okay for a rap album but some of that shyt was terrible lol. I still love "my krazy life", no backpedaling. But some of those mixes were

 

[Mac Casper]

^ this is the guy who provided the foundation of the mixes for Dr. Dre's 2001 - I'm sure Dre went over the mixes and added some touches . . I'm not sure what this guy's rate is. He should have a web site. Most of these engineers have their own managers

 

[shakobe]

Listen to old rocafella cam when his shyt was getting mixed by guru then go listen to his new shyt

 

[kingdizzy01]

i know mike dean and anthony kilhoffer gotta be filthy rich by now



@KushSkywalker come make sense of this i dont even know wtf im looking at here

someone still usin the oxygen8

 

[PRVLG Sound Studios]

explain ? do u mean that they want the clean style instead of the gritty stuff?

Not necessarily gritty every time, but the main issue is trap beats and distorted 808's. Modern hip hop/rap beats are crushing these sounds and the dynamic range on most of the production.
A lot of the sessions we get from producers have distorted 808's that sound terrible, lo-if synthetic brass from some vst, multiple random synths that are all fighting for the same frequency in the record, and 4-5 different speed fake sounding hi hats. All in all the production is already a mess, and we haven't even mentioned the poorly recorded vocals that are going in the song.
Then they want the low end to dominate the track, while still being "loud as fukk", and they care nothing about the headroom needed. So most of the music you hear is compressed to shyt,has no dynamic movement, is poorly mixed because of that, and on top of that, might have autotune on it.

 

[scuba]

Listen to old rocafella cam when his shyt was getting mixed by guru then go listen to his new shyt

to bee fair public enemy beats were based on noise

how 'I really mean it' actually works as a song with all that noise going on is a testament to mixing...

or compare black moon's stay real to jay-z's PSA... almost the same beat...

 

[kingdizzy01]

I'm not going to pretend to know the difference between a mixed and unmixed song, can someone explain with audio examples?

mixed:


unmixed:

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

Not necessarily gritty every time, but the main issue is trap beats and distorted 808's. Modern hip hop/rap beats are crushing these sounds and the dynamic range on most of the production.
A lot of the sessions we get from producers have distorted 808's that sound terrible, lo-if synthetic brass from some vst, multiple random synths that are all fighting for the same frequency in the record, and 4-5 different speed fake sounding hi hats. All in all the production is already a mess, and we haven't even mentioned the poorly recorded vocals that are going in the song.
Then they want the low end to dominate the track, while still being "loud as fukk", and they care nothing about the headroom needed. So most of the music you hear is compressed to shyt,has no dynamic movement, is poorly mixed because of that, and on top of that, might have autotune on it.

You murked. They're paying to have the vocals rounded out and make it louder than it suppose to be. The consumers eating it up so they know something.

 

[Renegade47]

I need some lessons from dj quik. his shyt so beautiful

 

[Sound (∀√a) Maths]

Engineering is maybe the next frontier in Hip Hop. I'd elaborate but I don't wanna give away too much game.


I will say tho as I've been saying for over 10 years now. "I'm a student of Dr. Dre". I always paid close attention to what that man was doing #Pause. Ever since "detox" got announced I always wanted to be ahead of the curve. My mind went wild when I first heard about it

Engineering is maybe the next frontier in Hip Hop. I'd elaborate but I don't wanna give away too much game.


I will say tho as I've been saying for over 10 years now. "I'm a student of Dr. Dre". I always paid close attention to what that man was doing #Pause. Ever since "detox" got announced I always wanted to be ahead of the curve. My mind went wild when I first heard about it

Are you an engineer?

 

[PRVLG Sound Studios]

Not necessarily gritty every time, but the main issue is trap beats and distorted 808's. Modern hip hop/rap beats are crushing these sounds and the dynamic range on most of the production.
A lot of the sessions we get from producers have distorted 808's that sound terrible, lo-if synthetic brass from some vst, multiple random synths that are all fighting for the same frequency in the record, and 4-5 different speed fake sounding hi hats. All in all the production is already a mess, and we haven't even mentioned the poorly recorded vocals that are going in the song.
Then they want the low end to dominate the track, while still being "loud as fukk", and they care nothing about the headroom needed. So most of the music you hear is compressed to shyt,has no dynamic movement, is poorly mixed because of that, and on top of that, might have autotune on it.

You murked. They're paying to have the vocals rounded out and make it louder than it suppose to be. The consumers eating it up so they know something.

There's a lot more to mixing than that, the key is having a great arrangement, as great signal path when recording vocals. With everyone and they're mother having a home setup now, quality is being lost to having things more convenient.
I gotta agree with you, it's not the artists,not the producers, but the fans! They keep eating this shyt up so more artists are putting it out. Especially if they're making money in the process.

You guys mentioned a bunch of great engineers in this thread, all who I respect and have different skills....but if you give the best engineer in the world a track, and ask them to mix it a certain way, you're gonna get just that.

 

[Mac Casper]

mixed:


unmixed:

Not a good example

You're looking at mastered vs. unmastered