Trouble Mixing trap/rap beats

goonman300

New member
I’ve been making beats for roughly three years and still have mixed that sound terrible. It feels as if I have learned more than enough considering that a lot of producers barely eq and just bring up the master volume. I have a pretty good setup currently with a Focusrite Scarlett solo gen 1 and some jbl lsr305s On fl studio. I am at a point where I’m wanting to give up because mixing has become so frustrating to me. Please help or point me in the right direction. Thanks
 
Here's what I would do if I were you:
Go over the Fundamentals of Mixing first time you're trying to master the track;
Which sounds need compression? Are your drums too muddy?
Are your hi hats too obvious in the track?
Make sure you're not clipping but your track isn't so quiet that is sounds incomplete.
If you're sampling vocals leave head room for them. Make sure every sound you create is tight so it leaves no trail of frequencies other sounds need to work properly.
It all depends on getting it ready to be heard from all sources so use speakers, headphones, even what it sounds like from your phone.
 
Here's what I would do if I were you:
Go over the Fundamentals of Mixing first time you're trying to master the track;
Which sounds need compression? Are your drums too muddy?
Are your hi hats too obvious in the track?
Make sure you're not clipping but your track isn't so quiet that is sounds incomplete.
If you're sampling vocals leave head room for them. Make sure every sound you create is tight so it leaves no trail of frequencies other sounds need to work properly.
It all depends on getting it ready to be heard from all sources so use speakers, headphones, even what it sounds like from your phone.

I try and spend time on my mixes, and I try to do what I think sounds best, but most of the time my mixes come out sound off(that’s the best word I could use to describe it) for example, my clap or snare would be to loud after hearing it on my iPhone instead of my monitors. It’s almost like what sounds good on my monitors doesn’t necessarily sound good on anything else. Thanks for the reply
 
Dope, great tips really needed these I tried them out on a couple of my tracks and they sound so much better, thanks!
 
Your mixes will sound different on each format and on each set of speakers. You are looking for the happy medium called "translatability." Your mixes should translate well to other systems, but they will not sound the same. An iPhone speaker cannot reproduce the same frequencies as your monitors, listening back in mono is different than stereo, etc., etc.

Two things that might help. 1) Make sure you are using reference tracks. Whether files or CD's, have music available-- that you know well on your speakers --that you can reference or "A-B" during mix down. This gives you a standard to shoot for. Make sure you volume match (the reference tracks will probably sound louder, and therefore "better" to you, so you'll need to compensate). 2) Even if you have great monitors, you should have some additional speakers or listening set-ups to check potential mixes on. Car stereo, boombox, headphones, Bluetooth iPhone speaker, etc. can help you make tweaks to find that happy medium.

If all else fails, send a track to someone else to mix and/or master, and if you like it better, ask them what they did.

GJ
 
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