new hiphop mix.

[jazzy655]

sup guys,
i'm working on a new song, just starting to tinker with the mix.
I'm feeling that the vocals are a bit detatched from the track. also, i'm not sure if the kick is hitting enough.

any pointers?

the song isn't finished so don't mind the holes in the verses, a girl will be singing in those holes "who can if i cant?".

the songs sounds like is should be pretty dope though.

any help greatly appreciated.

[jazzy655]

sounds good then??

[heathen]

Its pretty damn good.

[jazzy655]

Originally Posted by heathen

Its pretty damn good.

really?? the vox didn't sound a little too detached to you?
man i think mixing your own voice is hard, can it never seems to sound right to me, but other people don't hear what i hear when i listen to my voice recorded.
maybe it's a psychological thing lol

[guerillamixer]

Yeh, I think the kik could do with a little more edge, but it works.

As far as vocal levels, what kinda production are you aiming at? Can you give me a name or two?

[heathen]

Yeah never mix your own vox I reckon,haha,will probably always sound weird back to yourself. Sounded ok to me.

[scius]

jazzy,

i know you're asking about mix advice and i will say it sounds really good.

and your lyrics are mad nice.

vocals probably only sound detached because the kick needs to hit harder, in my opinion. may sound weird but i've found that it helps with my mixes.

however i gotta talk about the actual beat (because i heard your "building" track and loved that shit) and tell you that i can't stand the melody. it sounds like it was conceived within 5 seconds on a $10 casio keyboard. i will go so far as to say that it heavily distracts from the vocal because it's so annoying.

this may have to do with my musical taste (i hate everything on the radio). just my opinion and i'm not knocking your skills either because, like i said, i'm really feelin' "building"

[illacov]

I recommend some parallel compression on your vocals cuz their way too flat. Its not just the fact you got an mp3 goin on here its because of the way your vocals are being run in the mix. I kind of think that the emcee deserves more oommph on this track. Parallel compression will bring that out, use classic compressor as your parallel comp and mix to taste usually a 70 percent original to 30 percent accented signal will do fine. Use the vocal distinction preset or vocal accent whatever its called.

As for the strings you might even want to try getting Chris Melchior to lay some for you, hes like 75 bucks for a track like this and he could do so much more than what we'd accomplish with our samplers and keyboards..simply put dude is nice.

I got 150 bucks put away right now for him, once we finish our album (vocally) we gonna be sending him some mixdowns so he can get crackalackin.

I also think your beat needs a drop for when the mc comes in verse wise. You do something like a drop as a breakdown near the 2/3rd point in the song but he needs something like this for his verses. It would definately make the track more dynamic and alive, plus it would break up the whole issue with the melody.

Try cutting out some notes on the strings and lowering the volume on them well the velocity on them. Or just lower the velocity on the strings in a major way or filter them when the verse comes in. Add like something subtle for the verse like chimes or hi epiano keys or something. Somethin that mirrors the main melody but has a little life of its own to moreso complement the rapper.


NOTE: Also Chris seems pretty good at making up some hot transitions for hip hop beats so he might even be able to help you with this if you get him to work with you.

do a search on him Chris Melchior

Make it a bit more action packed. Im thinkin this track is supposed to be alive and energetic...Im seeing fireworks on the Hudson, not firecrackers in Wingate park. Go for this concept.

If you want some examples of what parallel compression sounds like ill post up a link.

Peace

Illumination

[jazzy655]

Originally Posted by illacov

I recommend some parallel compression on your vocals cuz their way too flat. Its not just the fact you got an mp3 goin on here its because of the way your vocals are being run in the mix. I kind of think that the emcee deserves more oommph on this track. Parallel compression will bring that out, use classic compressor as your parallel comp and mix to taste usually a 70 percent original to 30 percent accented signal will do fine. Use the vocal distinction preset or vocal accent whatever its called.

As for the strings you might even want to try getting Chris Melchior to lay some for you, hes like 75 bucks for a track like this and he could do so much more than what we'd accomplish with our samplers and keyboards..simply put dude is nice.

I got 150 bucks put away right now for him, once we finish our album (vocally) we gonna be sending him some mixdowns so he can get crackalackin.

I also think your beat needs a drop for when the mc comes in verse wise. You do something like a drop as a breakdown near the 2/3rd point in the song but he needs something like this for his verses. It would definately make the track more dynamic and alive, plus it would break up the whole issue with the melody.

Try cutting out some notes on the strings and lowering the volume on them well the velocity on them. Or just lower the velocity on the strings in a major way or filter them when the verse comes in. Add like something subtle for the verse like chimes or hi epiano keys or something. Somethin that mirrors the main melody but has a little life of its own to moreso complement the rapper.


NOTE: Also Chris seems pretty good at making up some hot transitions for hip hop beats so he might even be able to help you with this if you get him to work with you.

do a search on him Chris Melchior

Make it a bit more action packed. Im thinkin this track is supposed to be alive and energetic...Im seeing fireworks on the Hudson, not firecrackers in Wingate park. Go for this concept.

If you want some examples of what parallel compression sounds like ill post up a link.

Peace

Illumination

" Im thinkin this track is supposed to be alive and energetic"

yeah, we're going for that big alive sound that makes you go "GOD DAMN!" when you hear it lol!
i'm trying to show that even though i don't use profanity and talk about money and guns that i'm still a good rapper ya know?

no doubt, i will try these things. thanks a ton for the suggestions.
i've got one question though about parallel compression. is that when there is more than one compressor on the track? cause i've got like 3 on the lead vocal. i'm using a ren comp into the UAD LA2A plugin. i'm wondering if my attack and release times may be choking the vocal up. i'm desperatly trying to learn to use the correct time settings on compressor, cause i'm thinking thats where the "magic" lies. any pointers anyone??

i've gotta get a hold of that string guy. i've seen him post here before and i didn't think about that even though it'd be perfect for this track.

dj, thanks for the complements. actually "Building" is getting placed left and right in movies all of a sudden. people are really feeling that one. i think the melody of this on could possibly be annoying because of it's repetition, but i have a vision in my head of when we track the singer, i think that will break up the looping feel some.
at this point i have nothing but time to try new mixing and arranging techniques so i'm totally going to try the things you suggested.

thats guys, this forum is off the chain.
any more suggestions??

[illacov]

First off you aint mention your DAW but...

When you have a source on lets say Track A that sounds whatever what it sounds (it can be compressed or not, but lets say not) then what you do is either clone the source in this case the vox to another track and then compress the second track, but blend it volume wise with the original track. This way you have the squashed compressed sound, but also the original sound that lets in the transients and original dynamics of the source (vox).

If you have UAD compressors then you definately need to learn them better because they are top quality stuff, however I still prefer to use hardware going in and then use software to get it a little more tightened up. Im working on getting a limiter for our vocal chain so its one less thing that we need a plug in for. But either way the reason you might be using so many compressors is because of the original nature of your recording. But parallel compression is a lifesaver for people that dont use hardware because they may use some good plug ins. I would stick with the UAD compressor but only use that for the parallel compression. Try it with a vocal preset but blend the track with the original un effected track and see what kind of results you get like. You might also try putting the ratio to infinity or maximum and then cranking the output of the compressor so that it has a better output and then try blending this with the original because now all of your words that would have punch due to compression have this sharp stab like quality but blended in with the original so you have this heavy compressed sound mixed with the full bodied original sound. Then you could group these two tracks together in a group is de ess them or de ess them separately and then group them together in a group track and limit them with a nice limiter plug in. Its really about experimenting, but you can also do parallel compression with your drums MAN does that make your track take on some new life its really a nice effect. It works for drums and bass guitars whatever you want. Try it out on everything and see what kind of results you get.

E Mail me if you need any one on one advice.

Peace
Illumination

[jazzy655]

Originally Posted by illacov

First off you aint mention your DAW but...

When you have a source on lets say Track A that sounds whatever what it sounds (it can be compressed or not, but lets say not) then what you do is either clone the source in this case the vox to another track and then compress the second track, but blend it volume wise with the original track. This way you have the squashed compressed sound, but also the original sound that lets in the transients and original dynamics of the source (vox).

If you have UAD compressors then you definately need to learn them better because they are top quality stuff, however I still prefer to use hardware going in and then use software to get it a little more tightened up. Im working on getting a limiter for our vocal chain so its one less thing that we need a plug in for. But either way the reason you might be using so many compressors is because of the original nature of your recording. But parallel compression is a lifesaver for people that dont use hardware because they may use some good plug ins. I would stick with the UAD compressor but only use that for the parallel compression. Try it with a vocal preset but blend the track with the original un effected track and see what kind of results you get like. You might also try putting the ratio to infinity or maximum and then cranking the output of the compressor so that it has a better output and then try blending this with the original because now all of your words that would have punch due to compression have this sharp stab like quality but blended in with the original so you have this heavy compressed sound mixed with the full bodied original sound. Then you could group these two tracks together in a group is de ess them or de ess them separately and then group them together in a group track and limit them with a nice limiter plug in. Its really about experimenting, but you can also do parallel compression with your drums MAN does that make your track take on some new life its really a nice effect. It works for drums and bass guitars whatever you want. Try it out on everything and see what kind of results you get.

E Mail me if you need any one on one advice.

Peace
Illumination

cool, thanks man