Heavy Duty Rap Club Playback Question

[dbbubba]

I have a question here for anyone who either has mastered or knows how to make a rap CD sound like a major release (ie. really good low end) CD.

I have been providing a 10Kw p.a. rig for semi-major rap artists in a big club.
The low end on the CDs that the artists provide has been all over the place, so I'd like to know what the standard is.

Specifically, none of these artists ever do a soundcheck. They hand me a CD as they walk up on stage and off we go! I have to have compression on the rig for at least some protection, but some CDs have excessive low end which causes the compressor to clamp down on the vocals. I have to set up on the side of the stage, so I can't easily twiddle with stuff. There are also about 1000 plus people crammed in the club, so getting out front is near impossible!

I'd really like to know how low end is mastered on major label rap CDs.

I know how the process works in most all other forms of music from the mic all the way to playback because in my thirty years of audio fun, I have been involved in every part of the process.

I just lke to know what is going on!
It is definitely deffirent than rock, C&W or other types of music sound re-inforcement!

I am probebly going to buy a big time rap CD and listen to it through the system.
Any suggestions?
I would ideally like to be able to say, "Well, here's so-and-so's CD and it sounds fine through the system, so.....

Thanks in advance,
Danny Brown

[DaKid]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

I have a question here for anyone who either has mastered or knows how to make a rap CD sound like a major release (ie. really good low end) CD.

I have been providing a 10Kw p.a. rig for semi-major rap artists in a big club.
The low end on the CDs that the artists provide has been all over the place, so I'd like to know what the standard is.

Specifically, none of these artists ever do a soundcheck. They hand me a CD as they walk up on stage and off we go! I have to have compression on the rig for at least some protection, but some CDs have excessive low end which causes the compressor to clamp down on the vocals. I have to set up on the side of the stage, so I can't easily twiddle with stuff. There are also about 1000 plus people crammed in the club, so getting out front is near impossible!

I'd really like to know how low end is mastered on major label rap CDs.

I know how the process works in most all other forms of music from the mic all the way to playback because in my thirty years of audio fun, I have been involved in every part of the process.

I just lke to know what is going on!
It is definitely deffirent than rock, C&W or other types of music sound re-inforcement!

I am probebly going to buy a big time rap CD and listen to it through the system.
Any suggestions?
I would ideally like to be able to say, "Well, here's so-and-so's CD and it sounds fine through the system, so.....

Thanks in advance,
Danny Brown

Are you sure these artists CD's are mastered?

If you have an eq, bringing down the lows would keep the bass tame if it seems to be overpowering (but I'm sure you know that)

But yeah- I'd definitely purchase a CD so you can play it through the system to reference where the low end should sit at.

But if you're accepting CD's from unsigned acts that do their own production, I could only imagine how "all over the place" the low end would be seeing as that seems to be the hardest thing to get right in hip hop/rap.

Best of luck.

[TonyBelmont]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

I am probebly going to buy a big time rap CD and listen to it through the system.
Any suggestions?
I would ideally like to be able to say, "Well, here's so-and-so's CD and it sounds fine through the system, so.....

Thanks in advance,
Danny Brown

Hi Danny,

It's tought to say why the bass on these guys recordings are all over the place, other than to say they probably weren't mixed properly. I would suggest picking up Dr Dre "2001" (http://music.yahoo.com/release/172278) as a CD that will give you the definition of what a well recorded rap CD sounds like. That and Justin Timberlake's new CD "FutureSex/LoveSounds" will give you a good contrast between the typical mono sparse rap music and the more dense mixes of Jimmy Douglass on Justin Timberlake with the songs "My Love", and "Chop it up".

[t.dizzle]

Yeah man, there haven't been any standards for LF since the days of vinyl. Why don't you just go the "old school" route and drop the bass on the mixer as needed?

[Flymax]

a multiband compressor would work for ya..

[dbbubba]

Yeppers.... going to buy a "big time" rap CD (the Dr. Dre 2001 thing sounds best) and use it as a standard.

These guys are signed and one guy was on Sony/Interscope, but that doesn't mean anything. There is no telling how or where the tracks I am handed were recorded. It ain't rocket science!

A multiband compressor would be nice and the dBx DriveRack does have multiband compression, but I am not going to be futzing around in the tiny little window of that thing during a show with four guys on wireless mics and 1000 club goers! I am not going to buy a piece just for this gig either.

Danny Brown