Preparing your beats for live shows. Making them crisp and knockin.

[Mils]

Greetings peoples,

I've been making beats and performing since 1998, but I've came to a place where I want my instrumentals for performing over to be BANGIN! The albums get a lot of praise that I produce for quality and being original when listened to on any home systems, ipods, computer speakers etc.

BUT! ! !

It always seems like the headliners have sound quality from another dimension that you feel the bass and the sounds pushing air into the audience...thats the one thing that makes hip hop so NICE! But even whe we headline I've still had 1 opening group come with the crispist most moist and tasty sound. Mine sounded like mush :( boo urns......

Anyway I learned that the best show beats are masters made of your instrumentals while you are getting your ish mastered....You simply ask the ME to make "T V Tracks" of your instrumentals while they are running the full songs and while the settings are collaborated they just slide the instrumental with maybe a chorus on it thru and its BLAM!

Fortunately, I got this advide just recently from some of my mentors who told me that TV tracks were the shit! They called em TV tracks.....But I've only done that once for our latest album and it did turn out fabulo and with our shows this summer although there is a huge differencet bettween older gems that peoople wanna hear that dont compare the the ones we had done.

So if anybody has any DIY, step by step, plug ins and technuiqe for achieving this stellar sound, drop some knowledge.

[iceberg]

I would experiment with eq and comp setting if you want to diy. then take some good notes on the settings and see if you can run the experiments at sound check or something. maybe u can get into a club in the morning or afternoon to try out some different mixes ad see what works. just remember that a empty club will sound different than a club full of folks.
you could also compare the 'tv tracks' with your old shit with a spectrum analyzer to check out any differences in frequency levels.
hope this helps.

[t.dizzle]

TV Mixes are standard for professional mixes. It's not the mastering engineer's job to do that. The TV Mix will get mastered along with all of the other mixes that you print. Usually, you'll have at least these versions at the end of your mix session -

Final Mix
Instrumental
A Cappella
TV Mix

Get your songs mixed really well and they will bang wherever you play them.

[TTB]

I've done plenty of shows like that.. and seeing plenty of shows like that..

I think this is done on purpose sometimes, especially if you dont have a sound man. The only shows our shit was bumpin at is the one we had a sound man on. otherwise i dont think the house guys give a crap. I've seeing a santana show where Anthony Hamilton opened up, and the sound for anthony was weak...but when Santana came on, it sounded like a CD; Nice, clear, and thumpin.......

[boodah]

Originally Posted by TTB

I've done plenty of shows like that.. and seeing plenty of shows like that..

I think this is done on purpose sometimes, especially if you dont have a sound man. The only shows our shit was bumpin at is the one we had a sound man on. otherwise i dont think the house guys give a crap. I've seeing a santana show where Anthony Hamilton opened up, and the sound for anthony was weak...but when Santana came on, it sounded like a CD; Nice, clear, and thumpin.......

I agree, sometimes it's done on purpose. I remember times as a dj, when I guest dj at new clubs, after the house/main dj plays my sound sounds like mush. And once they see the house is still rocking, then they put it back to where it should be. It's the nature of the business, I guess. Once you have the repoire that you're good, then those issues, don't come back.

[beat you down]

i recall a lot of 12" singles used to have tv tracks on them.
i could never spot the difference between the main and tv track, so what exactly is?
thanks.

[t.dizzle]

I don't think that he's talking about live bands dudes. He's talking about rap shows where a TV Mix is the backing music. You gotta have a good sounding record for it to sound good. There aren't any tricks or gimmicks. The soundman or dj ain't got nothin to do with it.

A TV mix is without lead vocals for live performance.

[boodah]

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

I don't think that he's talking about live bands dudes. He's talking about rap shows where a TV Mix is the backing music. You gotta have a good sounding record for it to sound good. There aren't any tricks or gimmicks. The soundman or dj ain't got nothin to do with it.

A TV mix is without lead vocals for live performance.

I know. I didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Yes the TV mix may or may not have the chorus as well.

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

...A TV mix is without lead vocals for live performance...

is that different from the instrumental?
a lot of hip hop instrumentals have ad's and hooks.

[Mudnoc]

Originally Posted by TTB

I've done plenty of shows like that.. and seeing plenty of shows like that..

I think this is done on purpose sometimes, especially if you dont have a sound man. The only shows our shit was bumpin at is the one we had a sound man on. otherwise i dont think the house guys give a crap. I've seeing a santana show where Anthony Hamilton opened up, and the sound for anthony was weak...but when Santana came on, it sounded like a CD; Nice, clear, and thumpin.......

I'm sure any promoters out there can attest for this... But I've seen riders where the headliners require all opening acts be a certain dB level lower than their sound....

[illynoise]

Originally Posted by Mils

Greetings peoples,

I've been making beats and performing since last century, 19 hundred and 98, but I've came to a place where I want my instrumentals are bangin, the albums get a lot of praise that I produce for quality and stayin true to making my own sound and stickin with it.

BUT! ! !

It always seems like the headliners have sound quality from another dimension that you feel the bass and the sounds pushing air into the audience...thats the one thing that makes hip hop so NICE! Sometimes if the sub is tuned just right it can effect an audience members nether ummm...regions. haha....But even whe we headline I've still had 1 opening group come with the crispist most moist and tasty sound. Mine sounded like mush :( boo urns......

Anyway to make a short story a little longer, I've concluded that the best show beats are masters made of your instrumentals while you are getting your ish mastered....You simply ask the ME to make "T V Tracks" of your instrumentals while they are running the full songs and while the settings are collaborated they just slide the instrumental thru it and its BLAM!

Fortunately, I got this advide just recently form one of my mentors, a member who rolls with Murs, The Grouch, Eligh in the supergroup known as the LIVING LEGENDS of LOS ANGELES. They told me that yes TV tracks were the shit! Confirming what Stic.Man of Dead Prez hipped me too. He calles em TV tracks.....But I've only done that once for our lates album and it did turn out fabulo and with our shows this summer although there is a huge differencet bettween older gems that peoople wanna hear that dont compare the the ones we had done to provide that physicall interaction at shows.

So if anybody has any DIY, step by step, plug ins and technuiqe for achieving this stellar sound, drop some knowledge.

A couple guys that have done sound have told me that they make sure that the head liner always sounds the loudest. Otherwise there is crowd fatigue, with the usual 10 opening groups. SOUNDCHECK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT IF YOUR AN OPENER!

I do Black Pegasus show mixes and they always bump just as hard as the headliner. He goes off of Minidisc (still!), but all I can say is most instrumentals are RMS at -11 to -10, I just usually bump that up to -8 rms. There is a really good plugin called Loudness Maximizer that I used to use and that killed it on at the pepsi center on Snoop's system! I got some video that I'll upload with that sound.

Basically it helps if you have some mastering skills when you do show mixes.

[Mils]

Thanks everybody for your support....this has always been kind of a blurry area for me. I know now in the future I am gonna get the:

Instrumental, Acappella, & TV Mix mastered along with the album. Cause the latest album where I did that is lightyears ahead of the other 5 albums that were mastered but not the instrumentals!

Also thanks for the spectral analyzing suggestion with some high quality mastered inst's and plugins.

Since I have shows all next week I wanna prep my older beats for performance. Any plug ins or plug in settings I could use in my daw to get em ready? Should I hype the highs and lows? How about push the limiting harder than usual?....Also I am going to A/B reference some nice Dr. Dre Inst's along with a few other grade A recorded, mixed, and mastered commercial releases.

anything else would be awesome...

Thanks again!

[Mils]

Does anybody whos actively performing, headlining, opening, or even prepping beats at their own studio?

Are Low enhancing plugins a good idea for the beats? Any good recommendations?

[t.dizzle]

Originally Posted by beat you down

is that different from the instrumental?
a lot of hip hop instrumentals have ad's and hooks.

An instrumental only has music - no vox. Otherwise it's a TV track.

[t.dizzle]

Originally Posted by illynoise

There is a really good plugin called Loudness Maximizer that I used to use and that killed it on at the pepsi center on Snoop's system! I got some video that I'll upload with that sound.

Snoop doesn't have a "system". He uses whatever the venue has.

[Apex]

Originally Posted by t.dizzle

Snoop doesn't have a "system". He uses whatever the venue has.

thats how rumors get started I guess kinda like snoop only records on rode mics lol...