Average Hip Hop Beat Mixing Time

[MACHINE]

How long does it take most mixers to mix a beat usually ? You know a a beat with a bass line and drum pattern with maybe a piano and also guitar rhythm in it ?

[con?one]

just some beat tape shit, NOT a song? an hour.

[MACHINE]

no vocals are in it

[con?one]

yeah, i've never spent more than an hour just mixing a beat alone (unless i'm being distracted). a song is different.

[cap217]

I agree. A beat is pretty straight forward when it comes to mixing.... just getting the eq'ing right maybe some gates and verbs and your set.... When you add everyhting else, that takes time.....

[TonyBelmont]

15-20 minutes...

I'm mixing while I'm laying my beats, so there's not much to do other than some drops and rough arrangement....

[deuc647]

Damn ,y;all some speedy mofos, without vocals ,yeah ya right about a couple of hours, with vocals , it takes me a couple of days.

[Wiggum, Ralph]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

I'm mixing while I'm laying my beats...

That's pretty much what I do also.

[Eager2Know]

Originally Posted by MACHINE

How long does it take most mixers to mix a beat usually ? You know a a beat with a bass line and drum pattern with maybe a piano and also guitar rhythm in it ?

Depends on the use, if it's used for live session I'll invest more time in it, say like up to two hours, if neccessary..

If it's just a rough mix for my homies, less then 10 minutes, no need to invest more time..... save it for later when the song is finished

[illynoise]

When I'm using the Logic channel strip presets that I made, 10-30 minutes. If it's something that I know thats going to be on the radio or definately on an album thats going to come out, max 1 hour.

It's gotta bang hard, so I spend the most time on drums (I come from a family of drummers!).

BaseJase
Illynoise

[SctStudio]

Originally Posted by illynoise

When I'm using the Logic channel strip presets that I made, 10-30 minutes. If it's something that I know thats going to be on the radio or definately on an album thats going to come out, max 1 hour.

It's gotta bang hard, so I spend the most time on drums (I come from a family of drummers!).

BaseJase
Illynoise

You guys have no clue, to do it right you need time. Mixing a song takes time to get all the things in the right place in the song. If you mix a song in 1 hour, then it must have only 1-2 tracks or it is just junk. Everyone with a Mac or PC with PTLE is not a mix engineer. To do a R&B song right just on vocals it my take 8-10 hours or more. In the Rap and HipHop game it takes almost as long. I have been a PT Engineer for over 12 years and some of the trash I hear is out to lunch!!!! I would like to hear your 1 hour mix or better yet the 10 Min. one. I like a joke or two a day.

[SctStudio]

Originally Posted by illynoise

When I'm using the Logic channel strip presets that I made, 10-30 minutes. If it's something that I know thats going to be on the radio or definately on an album thats going to come out, max 1 hour.

It's gotta bang hard, so I spend the most time on drums (I come from a family of drummers!).

BaseJase
Illynoise

You guys have no clue, to do it right you need time. Mixing a song takes time to get all the things in the right place in the song. If you mix a song in 1 hour, then it must have only 1-2 tracks or it is just junk. Everyone with a Mac or PC with PTLE is not a mix engineer. To do a R&B song right just on vocals it my take 8-10 hours or more. In the Rap and HipHop game it takes almost as long. I have been a PT Engineer for over 12 years and some of the trash I hear is out to lunch!!!! I would like to hear your 1 hour mix or better yet the 10 Min. one. I like a joke or two a day.

[TonyBelmont]

Originally Posted by SctStudio

You guys have no clue, to do it right you need time. Mixing a song takes time to get all the things in the right place in the song. If you mix a song in 1 hour, then it must have only 1-2 tracks or it is just junk. Everyone with a Mac or PC with PTLE is not a mix engineer. To do a R&B song right just on vocals it my take 8-10 hours or more. In the Rap and HipHop game it takes almost as long. I have been a PT Engineer for over 12 years and some of the trash I her is out to lunch!!!! I would like to here your 1 hour mix or better yet the 10 Min. one. I like a joke or two a day.

We're not talking about mixing songs with vocals, etc...

We are talking about rough mixes of beats that are already tracked.. There's not a lot of reason to do much without the vocals, etc... Therefore, the 10 min - 1 hour time frame isn't that far fetched.

[con?one]

but tony, he's been a pt engineer for 12 years!!!!

[Tempest19]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

We're not talking about mixing songs with vocals, etc...

We are talking about rough mixes of beats that are already tracked.. There's not a lot of reason to do much without the vocals, etc... Therefore, the 10 min - 1 hour time frame isn't that far fetched.

Do you compress your sounds even if they've been programmed and are at full velo?

Say a kick, if you recorded a live kit you have to even out the dynamics but with a hard hitting sample with the same velo on every beat, is it worth compressing it?

10 - 1 hr seems about right for a rough mix.

Even on a final mix I dont think you'd ever want to spend anymore than 8 - 10 horus on it because you start focusing your ears on particular parts of the mix and get side tracked. Mix it today, put it to bed and check it back tomorrow to see how it sounds and if theres anything you've missed

[MACHINE]

thanx for all the replies guys

[SctStudio]

Originally Posted by con?one

but tony, he's been a pt engineer for 12 years!!!!

con?one This is what I was talking about!!! (to be on the radio or definately on an album)

Originally Posted by illynoise
When I'm using the Logic channel strip presets that I made, 10-30 minutes. If it's something that I know thats going to be on the radio or definately on an album thats going to come out, max 1 hour.

It's gotta bang hard, so I spend the most time on drums (I come from a family of drummers!).

BaseJase
Illynoise

[Methlab]

when it comes to making a beat, i spend WAY more time on creating the beat itself. the sounds I want to get out of my drums, synths and guitars are what inspire me to write parts..so after that, when it comes to mixing, I already have sounds in place that are great..no turd polishing needed, just my mix template and any creative mixing ideas that i may have for that piece...so i'd say probably 30 minutes or...i never really thought about it.

the beauty of rap is that the sounds are there..they should be great to begin with..so you need to really, really, really know how to EQ and when/how to compress. any other FX I use are warming plugs, verbs, crazy shit(flange, warping..etc) that are subjective to each song.

once vocals get in there..it can take a lot longer if you are doing it right (riding faders, comping, A/Bing different compressors..etc).

[illynoise]

Originally Posted by SctStudio

con?one This is what I was talking about!!! (to be on the radio or definately on an album)

Originally Posted by illynoise
When I'm using the Logic channel strip presets that I made, 10-30 minutes. If it's something that I know thats going to be on the radio or definately on an album thats going to come out, max 1 hour.

It's gotta bang hard, so I spend the most time on drums (I come from a family of drummers!).

BaseJase
Illynoise

SctStudio:

it's cool that you can do this your way in like 8 hours with vocals, I don't think that PT has the workflow that Logic has anyways. So yes it would take longer in PT. In L7, it's a lot faster, especially since I'm working with audio instruments and I can do whatever I need to with them. I was talking beats for the radio, I have a lot of stuff on the radio and TV and when the dj's start asking the artists (on air)where they record cause it sounds so good....I must be doing something ok.

I used to make a beat in the ASR-10 in 30 minutes and just stick it on dat, call it a day. Those were great songs. Beats are Beats are Beats. If they don't feel right, than there isn't any amount of twerking that you can do to make them sound good.

IMO.

BaseJase
Illynoise

[Tempest19]

Originally Posted by illynoise

SctStudio:

it's cool that you can do this your way in like 8 hours with vocals, I don't think that PT has the workflow that Logic has anyways. So yes it would take longer in PT. In L7, it's a lot faster, especially since I'm working with audio instruments and I can do whatever I need to with them. I was talking beats for the radio, I have a lot of stuff on the radio and TV and when the dj's start asking the artists (on air)where they record cause it sounds so good....I must be doing something ok.

I used to make a beat in the ASR-10 in 30 minutes and just stick it on dat, call it a day. Those were great songs. Beats are Beats are Beats. If they don't feel right, than there isn't any amount of twerking that you can do to make them sound good.

IMO.

BaseJase
Illynoise

I struggle to work with Logic at uni,

Everything seems overcomplicated to me.

[illynoise]

Originally Posted by Tempest19

I struggle to work with Logic at uni,

Everything seems overcomplicated to me.

It does look that way at first. But after you get to use it, there's just no other program out there thats better to record on and edit midi and get your projects done, with all of the plugins that you have in your arsenal, it's just redic!

I use Sonar, Cubase SX3, Samplitude, Digital Performer, and PTle, and Logic is the way to go. Doing beats in Logic doesn't get much easier.

BaseJase
Illynoise

[Tempest19]

Originally Posted by illynoise

It does look that way at first. But after you get to use it, there's just no other program out there thats better to record on and edit midi and get your projects done, with all of the plugins that you have in your arsenal, it's just redic!

I use Sonar, Cubase SX3, Samplitude, Digital Performer, and PTle, and Logic is the way to go. Doing beats in Logic doesn't get much easier.

BaseJase
Illynoise

I belive its editor is not sample accurate and this poses problems with converter delay etc.

I dunno I get by with it at university but it seems as though everything is made harder. I find PT much easier to edit in. I also prefer the PT midi editing as editing velos and what not in PT is strange. So is its quantize function. I dont just think of PT this way because of the hype, I started recording with Cool Edit Pro and then got Cubase SX2 for Christmas 2 years ago and that was a much needed step up. I then got PT and that seemed in a different league.

The screens are so simple it looks amateurish. I also dont like the way the mixer is set up. How your audio channels are at the start followed by instrument channels, then bus/aux, then your outputs. I'd prefer to alter their positions as I add tracks.

I also had bother quantizing audio regions in it. I recorded some live drums but couldn't for the life of me get the quantize to sound right. I suppose the best feature in PT is its tab to transient. There was no way, or from what I could figure of doing this in logic so it was a slow process of opening the kick file by itself and manually selecting and cutting slices. Even if it had snap to grid it would make it 1000 times easier. I know Beat Detective makes this simple in PT but even if you just group the tracks and cut and quantize the regions its effective.

I also have bother with audio files, having to keep opening the audio pool and re-importing files in because they grey themselves out.

Apart from all that, and that fact that PT is the only solution which integrates hardware/software, I have little beef with Logic.

I do however wish they would smarten up the interface with some light colours instead of the blue inlays.

I actually think Logic Express is better than Pro 7 but there you go

Sending myself to sleep now, I suppose its just what you're used to and that fact that I'm probably missing out a lot of Logic features.

Night,

[Sirocco]

depends if i have sidechaining available to me at the location.

with sidechaing 15-20 mins

without 20-30 mins

sidechaining its a vitale part of how i mix my stuff

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

15-20 minutes...

I'm mixing while I'm laying my beats, so there's not much to do other than some drops and rough arrangement....

i do 90% of the mixing on my own projects as i go along too..but sometimes it can mess with you mentally..and kinda stall from getting the song down ..happens to me sometimes :(

[Igotsoul4u]

15 minutes.

[Nomadik]

if you notice nobody fesses up to the REAL TIME they spend. I saw in that Just Blaze beat video. He said 9th wonder brought in a laptop with FL and some records and banged out 4
tunes in an hour. NOW!!! how did the sound travel from the laptop to the recording medium. Did they get good levels. OK... were all tunes recorded arranged and mixed. Remember we're talking about 4 tunes here. Most likely he's talking about 4 Beats, but that's alot different than 4 SONGS. DAMN everyone has gotten so profilic now. Buncha baby Mozarts runnin round . I DON'T BUY IT!!!!

ex. sometimes cats use mad layers for their drum tracks. A kick/snare/oh/ch/perc setup could equal 10/12 tracks or more with layering. So you got that plus a bassline(that may be layered, main riff(maybe a sample loop that always need eqing) a couple counterpoint lines . You're somewhere in the neighborhood 24 tracks, that need level adjustment, dynamics, placement in stereo field, effects. All these issues are given the attention they need IN AN HOUR. If you guys are doing all that in an hour, you need to be working with Fleetwood Mac or some big Rock band.

[Arka]

Sirocco, would you care to share how you usually go about sidechaining? plugs or analog? I´ve been trying some pretty standard kick-ducking-the-bassline stuff, and it seems pretty to work pretty nice.

I´d like to know how big a role sidechaining plays in hip hop engineering in general, I can´t say I´ve heard much obvious sidechaining in hip hop like you can hear on lot of house stuff where its really a major part of the sound.

peace /Arka

Originally Posted by Sirocco

depends if i have sidechaining available to me at the location.

with sidechaing 15-20 mins

without 20-30 mins

sidechaining its a vitale part of how i mix my stuff

[audioman]

takes me about 30 minutes to 2 days to make a beat. Longer if its an ill one

[SctStudio]

Originally Posted by illynoise

It does look that way at first. But after you get to use it, there's just no other program out there thats better to record on and edit midi and get your projects done, with all of the plugins that you have in your arsenal, it's just redic!

I use Sonar, Cubase SX3, Samplitude, Digital Performer, and PTle, and Logic is the way to go. Doing beats in Logic doesn't get much easier.

BaseJase
Illynoise

Illynoise
I use PT 7.1 with HD3 accel Not le, and as far as Logic goes it sucks for mixing!!!!
PT 7.1 HD is the top of the food chain. If you won't to make big sound then Get a HD setup not a le it's night and day.

[Wiggum, Ralph]

Quote: