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

[CodeBlaMeVi]

Not a good example

You're looking at mastered vs. unmastered

I got an example. Give a few.

Update:
Unmixed


Mixed and Mastered


@Drones this is a better example of unmixed and mixed/mastered.

 

[Mac Casper]

You're looking at mastered vs. unmastered

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.

Co-Sign

That's like having Gordon Ramsey come over to cook you chicken parmesan and giving him your recipe for making it. Once someone reaches the level that these engineers are at people are going to them and paying that rate for their taste. You've gotta trust that these guys know how to make things sound

 

[↓R↑LYB]

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

When a song is mixed it sounds good

When a song isn't mixed it doesn't sound good.

I hope that helps breh, daps and reps are appreciated

 

[Mac Casper]

When a song is mixed it sounds good

When a song isn't mixed it doesn't sound good.

I hope that helps breh, daps and reps are appreciated

 

[↓R↑LYB]

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.

Dope ass song. When Kanye is on, he's the GOAT producer IMO. Them soul samples he use are just

 

[↓R↑LYB]

I think what he means is that a lot of them are competing for loudness and the dynamics suffer
because of that.
If memory serves me correctly going for loudness can lead to distortion,muddiness, and just
general ugliness leading to bad mixes overall even though it "bangs".

Meek Millz diss to Drake was poorly fukking mixed. shyt was sonically one of the worst "big songs" I've heard in a long ass time.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

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

right right :word:

 

[↓R↑LYB]

^ 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

So how do you become a mixer. Is there a certain or something a nikka can get

 

[↓R↑LYB]

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.

Can you post an example of a rap song with a good mix and a bad one?

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

So how do you become a mixer. Is there a certain or something a nikka can get

No. Just prepared to hold a part-time job making nothing while working your way up being an apprentice. If you're lucky. Trial and error is good if you can buy the equipment and plugins.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

mixed:


unmixed:

That's not the same beat breh

 

[↓R↑LYB]

Not a good example

You're looking at mastered vs. unmastered

What does mastered and unmastered mean?

 

[PRVLG Sound Studios]

Can you post an example of a rap song with a good mix and a bad one?

Yeah I'll upload a bad one we got and a good one we've worked on. Give me a sec

 

[Mac Casper]

What does mastered and unmastered mean?

Mastering is the final process after mixing

Kind of like sweeping a floor to clean it up and then mopping the floor to bring out the shine

 

[PRVLG Sound Studios]

@bdizzle

Random Artist, A mix presented to us, done by the former engineers. Dull, Muddy, Super Compressed, Eq'd horribly,
Not even to touch on the misuse of reverb and delay's..sounds Like cheap waves plugins.
Mix:

Same Artist, Different song, but a mix done by us. Proper Vocal chain, Proper arrangement and editing done on the mix,
Clean Hi's but not harsh, Hard lows, but not distorted, and more importantly midrange treatment done right.
Not over compressed, very organic, and the vocals sit in the mix great.
Mix:


Edit: I didn't even realize you could see the waveforms, notice the bad mix seems to be
Hitting harder, or has the appearance of being louder, but the dynamics of the record are destroyed, so it's muddy and filled with horrible artifacts, and still has no room for the mastering engineer. We leave headroom for our ME's to do their thing.
Also these are MP3's i just uploaded, so bare with me.