What am I allowed to do to my beat before I send it to an engineer?

S

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, I'm thinking of sending a beat of mine to an engineer. I was just curious what I can and can't do before I send it to him. I know I'm not supposed to EQ or compress or anything. I was wondering if I am allowed to add Reverb or Saturation or Delay or anything like that before I send it to an engineer? Also am I allowed to mix volume levels or should all this be strictly handled by the engineer?
 
When people send me tracks to mix I prefer:
1. All tracks at moderate levels (not too quiet and not normalized)
2. No delay or reverb plugins used on the tracks.
  • I'm fine with being sent a file of an instrument that has a simple delay on it.
  • If a producer wants reverb or delay in the final product, I prefer that they send an extra copy of the tracks that have the reverb or delay on it so that I can get a sense of what they want.
3. EQ mostly used for something like filtering out low level background noise
  • I'll end up doing this myself, so I don't really care what if it's done or not.
4. If a track has any affect that is part of the sound design (ex: if you add a lot of distortion to a kick as part of sound design and not for making the kick stand out in a mix) I'm fine with that.

However, I'll work with whatever a producer sends me. I've gotten pre-processed tracks with instruments grouped together and made a good mix out of them. If you want an engineer to have the most control over a track, then send them the most unaffected tracks separately and communicate your expectations for the track with them!
 
Hey thanks for the response. Ok so I use Maschine 2 to make my patterns and what not and then I drag them into pro tools to sequence/arrange and mix and what not. So what if in Maschine I like to add reverb to like my snares/samples and stuff or delays to certain things or saturation to my drums and samples, would this be a problem? Is this something I am allowed to do as a producer or is this something the engineer does if he feels is right or I request or something? I'm talking specifics because in Maschine I use some reverb on certain things(not everything, certainly not the entire track or on the master or anything, just certain sounds) and delays and saturation and what not but once I drag it into Pro Tools it only has effects and stuff that I put on my sounds from maschine.
 
I'm fine with reverb on drums as long as all of your percussion isn't bused to one track. The main issue that I have with receiving tracks with reverb is that a producer may not have a concept of a "clean" mix in mind when they are putting different types of reverbs on every track. IF I get 10 different tracks each with it's own reverb, I'd have to do a lot more work to get everything to sound nice as one song.

I like to get dry tracks because I can process the reverb separately from the instrument its on. Kind of the same reason I want a separate track for each instrument. What you described with adding effects in Maschine seems fine if you were to be sending me a track to mix, I would just need each individual instrument. I think it will all depend on who you decide to work with though.
 
Alright cool well in maschine i don't use a bus or a group or anything if i want something done to a sound i just do it individually and what not so theres no group or sounds or anything running through a bus and what not. But anyways would it just be better for me overall if I just sent everything to pro tools with no reverb or saturation or anything?
 
StanleySteamer said:
Hey thanks for the response. Ok so I use Maschine 2 to make my patterns and what not and then I drag them into pro tools to sequence/arrange and mix and what not. So what if in Maschine I like to add reverb to like my snares/samples and stuff or delays to certain things or saturation to my drums and samples, would this be a problem? Is this something I am allowed to do as a producer or is this something the engineer does if he feels is right or I request or something? I'm talking specifics because in Maschine I use some reverb on certain things(not everything, certainly not the entire track or on the master or anything, just certain sounds) and delays and saturation and what not but once I drag it into Pro Tools it only has effects and stuff that I put on my sounds from maschine.
Click to expand...

Why not mix the track yourself? In today's day and age the lines between producer and mix engineer are pretty blurred. If you are making your own drum patterns and what not, adding verbs etc, you're already halfway to mixing you're track anyways! Part of the fun in "producing" is getting tha perfect mix, have the delay bounce perfectly and what not.

Just my opinion, but you're only having half the fun by sending it to an engineer. And spending uneccesary money, especially if you're paying a master engineer after.
 
Honestly idk man it's like I know how to mix to a certain degree you know but it's like I have all these beats laid out and complete and i want to move forward and start working on new projects but I am just spending so much time on the mix it's crazy. I need to get a clean mix and master that I can upload on soundcloud so artists can hear and see if they want and stuff u know?
 
I don't care whether I'm given reverb or not when I mix.
What's important is that any reverb is on a separate track.


-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)
gpWmqu
 
Last edited:
Personally I ask for everything separate and dry and then a bounce of your mix to reference. If you want to send your reverbs or delays on a seperate track thats great too.
 
good responses guys. last question, is it ok if i leave the volume of every track untouched? even if its clipping and what not. I assume thats for the engineer to fix lol?

edit: reason why i ask is because when i make patterns in maschine sometimes when i pick a sound it will automatically be set down to like 7 or 8 db on the maschine mixer by default and i normally don't touch it and just export to pro tools.
 
Last edited:
Haha no dont send tracks that are clipping! Thats not something thats fixable, aim to have everything between around -20 to -15 dB ideally.
 
Yeah if youre sending a finished mix off to be mastered, aim for around -6dB. If youre sending individual instrument stems to mixed, aim for each one to be around -15 to -20.
 
You should not be sending your beats off to an engineer especially if your intention is to have somebody record vocals over them because if you do that you are just defeating the purpose of the production process in it's entirety. You would not put the roof on before the rest of the house is built, would you? It's same principal with audio production. Your beat should only be mixed when vocals have been recorded and once the song has been properly mixed in preparation for the mastering stage then finally you should move on to the post production/mastering process. If you do the process in any other order it is wrong no matter what people are saying on any music forum on the web and don't be misled by loudness, louder does not mean better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top