Interesting.
Anyone who pays attention to balance of sounds? I mean, Low - Mids - Highs
Lol of course. I try to avoid using too many instruments with the same region of freq. When Im playing a guitar, i try to avoid using a piano with it. It's either a piano or a guitar unless of course one of them is playing the Lows and the other is playing the HIs (i never do inbetween because i still hear some clashing of freqs).
The way you meant balancing though is incorrect. Do not try to keep the levels of all the freqs the same.
Don't act on what you see - Act on what you hear. Only do what you hear sounds right. But naturally, the following paragraph is usually what you will probably have the mix look like.
Pop in a mastered CD of any song you like and check the EQ Graph. U should notice that the majority of the songs have the highest peeks on the bass (which the highest peek for that is around 60hz) with the mids coming in second highest, and the HIs coming in last.
It's easier to hear high frequencies, that is why we don't need a high level for it to be heard. Besides, if the freq on the HIs are too loud then itll add either too much brightness, clarity, and/or hiss when the whole song is turned up in volume.
Well...on to what I really wanted to say.
Hip hop. Depends on the track. Typically I got a ton of percs going off panned/eq'd and whatnot. I'd use a nice oldschool drumkick with a hollow sound to it if Im tryna work on an open track where there is a lot of space for people to rap/sing on. For hard hitting tracks, I use whatever I got, but i usually limit the amount of percs I use because it makes the track sound too clublike and doesn't give it the hard hitting groove I want to hear.
For southern beats I try to get the whole track filled out as possible. I use brasses/strings to give it some rich bass, and some choirs/pads to give it an atmospheric effect (only if Im tryna make the beat epic..otherwise i might not even use it). I use clean synths for the leads (By this I mean I dont add effects so basically it's dry) Percs I try to keep it simple, only adding a Ride, Snare/Clap, and Hihat.
Rnb beats...U gotta have those percussions man. Those shakers/toms really make a beat sound rnb if u know how to make a pattern outta them..U gotta know some chord progressions too. It really builds up an emotion to the track if U do em properly. A lot of rnb songs go out of key (modulation) for a bit because its within the possible progressions (again learn music theory)..
...use rhodes,rotor organs, tymes, piano, nylon/acoustic/electric (strat) for the background track thing. A nice riding 808 bassline (or a sinewave sub) will do. use anything u want to make a nice rnb melody... thats for like slow jams tho..
for pop rnb it's real nice to sometimes use saw synths. Gated saw synths add a real good atmosphere and can sometimes even be used as a lead (think aobut something like beyonce's tracks). but again..percussion, progression and melody play a huge part in rnb.
I always add effects. They bring the track out alot if you properly utilise them. You can actually use it to connect the hooks to the verses without them sounding so broken up. Once, I had a track that had a simple verse but when the hook came in, it was pretty complex. As u might notice..the jump was sorta OBVIOUS...but a nice sweeping effect followed by reverse crash, then a crash...it made the transition smooth.
I EQ almost every sound. And the sounds that I do EQ, i almost always cut a bit of the High-Mid freq...it just gives it so much clarity...idk if thats just me but it really makes my mix sound clean.
compression is good too..dont forget that...just dont compress everything cuz it can also be bad...dont forget that either
this is how i do things though..so yeah not everyone does this..
