preparing instrumentals

[1ManBand]

right now i dont have a mic or any plans to record vocals anytime soon. My mixing on my beats just keep getting better and better.. im wondering if theres any way i can anticipate vocals when mixing.. is it different for every vocal? or can i leave a notch out around 3khz and 1khz or something like that? or just ignore that and wait to get vocals to mix it in?

[T. Gundersen]

I'd leave those kind of decisions for the mix engineer. With that said, I usually do hi-pass filters on many elements in a beat during creation, just to make it more motivating to work with. Some compression as well (eg. when I want 808 snare-rolls to have that pop right away). And of course always arrange the beats with vocals in mind, but I guess that's a complete given.

If the rappers you're planning on working with is going to record on top of a 2-track of the beat and just go with that (I wouldn't recommend that, but many people do it anyway), I'd stay completely away from treating the 2-bus, and if I had a comp on the drums, I'd have it go a tad lighter as well. Then their mix engineer at least has some headroom to work with in order to make a little room for the vocals.

[1ManBand]

yeah i bet mixing vocals over the 2 track final mix would sound CRAPPY! .. thanks for the advice.

[termtables]

I got better at mixing my beats once I started recording vocals. I noticed I dont make my melodies as loud anymore or my drums are louder. Vice versa ya know?

[Igotsoul4u]

A multiband compressor on the bus can allow you to add a little compression in that 1k-5k range but I would use a low ratio with little reduction and a slower attack and release. You don't want to kill the snr or kik click. I use the McDsp ML4000 limiter and it sounds great. The mcdsp multiband works well also as does the waves.