Mixing and mastering - step by step - am I right?

homerthebeatmaker

homerthebeatmaker

New member
Hi,

as a beginner, I've spent some time trying to reconsider the sequences of activities when it comes to mixes/mastering. I'm just a home-based hip-hop producer who put from time to time beats on soundcloud/youtube.

So, I would like to know what is 'step-by-step' habit in hip-hop production (of course I realize that there are no iron rules that I should keep; I just want to have a general overview of things should be done during mixing).

here's my "check-list":


Step 1: I'm making beat. Digging in DAW, choosing samples, kicks, snares etc. and programming some drums patterns, playing the melodies included. In short, I just hit the pads and keys and don't care too much about volume and effects like panning and eqing.

Step 2: Next goal is to arrange the beat. After this step I've got the solid beat.

Step 3: So now I've got the beat that I like but I feel it could be better when it comes to general feeling, so I put some efforts on mixing. Firstly, as I want to make headroom, I'm turning down the kick track to -6/8dB (as I want to built the beat around the kick as a peak track). Now the kick track is like my reference track, and I'm setting up the volume of the other tracks.

So now is my WHAT TO DO moment. Am I supposed to do some EQ, compression on drums and reverb/delays? (as I said before, I'm not looking for golden way, but some solid workflow that could be my reference method).

Okey, let's say I did everything like I wrote above - guess I still supposed to have this all headroom (about -6dB) thing after put effects? So this way I've got the mixed beat that is ready for mastering, yup? Is that the 'final' of my work (as I don't feel comfortable with mastering and would like to sent the beat to sound engineer)?

But what if I would like to post my beat on soundcloud on my own, without master engineer work on the beat, but my tracks are still quieter (as I said before, I've made -6dB headroom)? How can I easily turn it up without lost of quality?
 
you will have to eventually find out what works for you.

But yes, like you i build around the kick. Gain stage every track to -6, EQ and compress as needed. group your drums and route them to a drum bus. then group your instruments and route them to a band bus. then group your drum and band bus and route them to a master bus. Apply EQ, compression as necessary to Buses. create FX track for delay, another one for reverb and send applicable tracks to FX bus. Throw an exciter and a limiter on your master bus and limit so your average volume levels are around -9 to -12 decibels. mixing in a nutshell
 
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Thank you. But what's going on later, when I've mixed all tracks? I just have a nice mixed master channel with -6dB/-8dB headroom. How to make it louder in proper way? Just dig with 'gain' knob?

I'm just curious what to do when I finish mix (and I'm not gonna do the mastering on my own), but I would like to publish this well mixed beat on my soundcloud. I guess that I have to make it far louder than just this -6dB/-8dB?
 
try to get the concept out of your head that your beats need to be mastered. If you master a beat before the song to be is complete, where does that leave the artist when you've slammed the door on them being able to release a professional sounding piece of music because it's already been ruined too early in the process??? Mix your beats just good enough so that your idea can be heard clearly, slap a limiter on it to make it loud and appealing to those who are in love with loudness for display purposes. This will also require the beat to be mixed again in conjunction with the vocals so that everything works together as it's supposed to musically. Mastering comes absolutely last and should NEVER be combined with mixing especially during the creation of a beat or any other piece of music where there is an intention to add more pieces to that particular work. This is the correct way despite what anyone on a message board or forum says.
 
"Mix your beats just good enough so that your idea can be heard clearly, slap a limiter on it to make it loud and appealing to those who are in love with loudness for display purposes."
Click to expand...

Oh, so that's the point. I'm not gonna make mastering on my own, I would like to:

1) mix the beat (with -6dB headroom included);
2) when the beat is mixed, make it louder for display purposes (for this I should use a limiter, right?).

When someone will be interested in the beat, I'll send him track outs with headroom as I said before, without this louder "effect" which I included above in point 2).


Is that correct?
 
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yeah, when you advertise the beats to the world it should be a fairly normal/high volume and sound like it's finished and complete. When you actually send people the tracks, you should either send them the individual parts of the beat or an un-mastered version. You can throw in the louder one too but if they're serious about sound quality on their final product, they'll want the separated stems to work with.
 
Thank you. Last question: is there any reason to start mixing levels of volume if I know that once some rapper buy the track-out beat, he'll probably take this to some mix engineer? I mean: why not just set the levels of every track no louder than -6dB and send it like this to mix engineer?
 
yes yes and yes, this is the right idea. Keep growing and best of luck to you
homerthebeatmaker said:
Oh, so that's the point. I'm not gonna make mastering on my own, I would like to:

1) mix the beat (with -6dB headroom included);
2) when the beat is mixed, make it louder for display purposes (for this I should use a limiter, right?).

When someone will be interested in the beat, I'll send him track outs with headroom as I said before, without this louder "effect" which I included above in point 2).


Is that correct?
Click to expand...
 
Im not trying to judge any mastering engineer but the whole concept of leaving enough headroom is misunderstood I think

if your kick level peaks at -6 how do you expect when other instruments added you get peak level at -6 ?? seriously ?
I dont say dont leave headroom, I say if you trying to pass your mixing duties to master engineer to complete for you , then YES
do this
 
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