Quote:
Originally Posted by t.dizzle  I've never been a fan of mixtapes, and have tried to steer clear of them as far as mixing gigs go (except for W.C.'s mixtape). But, as I'm sure most of you already know, there's probably more mixtape work out there right now than original stuff and it's easy money (or so I thought) for the most part. Anyway, I took this mixtape mixing gig that came to me from an artist in Philly (to pay for my fishing trip tomorrow!), and as I was working there were a couple of things that came to mind and I'm wondering if any of y'all have had similar observances/experiences...
1. The instrumental (Lil Jon's "Grand Finale" in this case) has already been mastered. Sounds great except the 808 sections are clipping.
2. I'm working with raw vocals being mixed on top of a mastered track.
Those two issues bring these complications into play -
1. Bringing up the mixed vocals to a mastered level to match the instrumental isn't the easiest thing to do. Just slapping on extra gain seems to make the vox disconnected from the track. Not to mention that the vocal tracks start to clip on the L/R. I've got about 2db of headroom left to push the faders up, which means that rides are damn near impossible. Apparent loudness is what I need, but that requires even more compression than what I'd like to use and will suck the life out of the performance.
2. The final mix can't be mastered again. Since the instrumental is already clipping, pushing it even further will make the distortion unacceptably loud. Also, I'm eq'ing the highs a bit more than normal to give the vox the feel of being mastered with the instrumental together like a normal mix. Making the two separate entities congruent is a bitch.
So, I've found this mixtape stuff to be pretty frustrating as far as mixing goes. I realize that most mixtapes are just kinda slapped together with not so much emphasis on sonics, but I can't work like that. |
In the case of the Vox mixing.. Try to notch out with a EQ these frequencies, 1k - 4k of the mastered beat. That should give you some room for the vocal without adding level to anything.
as far as making the Vox blend with the mastered track, Mix the vocal a lil higher than the pocket, than add some reverb to smooth out the edges. It should work pretty good, if you have quality components to work with..
peez