I listen to Blue Print, Dre's 2001, and De La Soul's "Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump".

That De La Soul album, in particular is so amazing as far as the bass sound goes. So tight and it goes sooo low.

recent murder inc(ashanti, ja rule) and aftermath-releases(eminem, game, 50cent). i love their sound.

I tend to import tracks from several different commerical Cds, into one protools session. its very easy to solo from track to track. This is a great way to learn what your monitors are doing or how your room's acoustics are. Also a good way to reference your ears a few days before a mix session.
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I'd say the same about the Aftermath releases.

I'm not too particular about Roc-a-Fella mixes, I don't think Guru is that good of an engineer.

I think Mariah Carey's new album was mixed PERFECTLY.

Ouch!!!

kanye west
Ludacris
some outkast
some aftermath(dre's stuff always has a great sound but 50's new album you can hear the distortion.. i don't like that)
some big and pac... a little busta too

no neptunes, huh?

For drum mixing: Rich Harrison on Amerie's "Why don't we fall in Love". Although, many would pick 1 Thang. Rich's programming on "Why don't we fall in love" is ridiculous. Lots of energy

For R&B Bass and Guitar: The Underdog's production of B2K's " Got's to Be". That's "gots ta be" the fattest mix of live bass and guitar I've heard. It's very hard to make a real bass compete with some of the electronic moogish basses on some of the keyboards. As a bassist myself, I sometimes find it easier to dial up the old moog for some of the sub base sounds that I need. They showed on this track that you can get that sound out of a real bass.


Another hot one for drums is on ATCQ's Award Tour. Drums is ridiculous.

Maybe not whole albums but selected tracks from:

Dre, 2001
ATCQ, Midnight Marauders
The Roots, (currently Tipping Point but also Phrenology)
The Game, Documentary
Talib Kweli, The Beautiful Struggle
Busta Rhymes, Genisis
Neptunes... anything

IMHO the Collge Dropout was mixed terribly. I almost bought the re-mastered cd because I like the cd so much, but thats ********. They should have done it right the first time.

Not for a hiphop project, but we used JT as a mix ref for a recent rock/soul project.

Dave Pensado mixed though, so that's what we were REALLY listening for.

Dave only mixed one track on JT's album and that was the ballad produced by Brian Mcknight.

Most of the tracks were mixed by Serban Ghenea with the exceptiion of the tracks by Timbaland that were mixed by Jimmy Douglass.

They must have took the vocals out.






.

select songs from kanye... i really liked the album too, but it was rather lofi sounding imo

For real.. we belong together is a great song but the vocals could've been mixed better than that...

FOR ME its mainly particular songs

Dre/Ice Cube Natural Born KIllers
Brian Mcknight (the wedding song ) and "Keep it on the downlow"
D'Angelo "Brown Sugar"
Waiting to exhale
Tony braxton "Wasnt man enough"
Anthony Hamilon "Charlene"
Sly "Family Affair"
Black Street "Fix"
GAME (the song with Mary J, I forget the name

nobody into the more "old school" sound??????

The Chronic, Ready to die, the 36 chambers... even N.W.A's straight out of compton...

What about DJ Premiere? I love this guys ears... That Group Home Album sounds sooooo good too bad the rapping is lame...

I must be stuck in a time warp....

Iagree about importing the song into PT Session at 44.1 16 bits... exellent way of knowing more about your monitoring setup

+1,000,000

I got that cd the first week it was out, and couldn't believe how horrible sounding it was. I can't even bring myself to listen to it most of the time, I think the mixes are THAT bad.

I can't really see the point of the re-mastered cd, unless it was also remixed.

It was mixed by Manny Marroquin who is a great mixer on his own.

It probably died in the mastering.

I could understand where a remastering would be in order.


A rap CD that dissapointed me sonically was Outkast last CD.

I had seen so much press on it that i was thinking it would be a sonic masterpiece.

Lets just say i gave my copy away.

CEE-LO's joint was the same way, but i did keep it

They just did this to Biggie's "Ready To Die" album too, and RUINED it. Lost all the low end.



CDs I reference

Dre Chronic 2001

Nas "It Was Written" crazy low end on this one.

Gang Starr "Hard To Earn" just classic ****, and i KNOW how it sounds, or is supposed to sound

Big L "The Big Picture" another classic that i just know really well

maybe some Beyonce(Maserati KILLED those mixes, a lot of depth) or John Legend stuff for RnB.


a lot of times if i'm gonna be workin with an artist more than once, I'll ask them who they like and who's sound they really dig, and then go get some CDs by those artists.

Woah! Mannn.......... You are not lying. That Amerie joint is BANANAS!

Agree with thrill about the outcast album. real dissapointment. New Mariah Carey has some nice production. The first balad she does on it is quite peculiar, lots of old school verb on the voice and a few other peculiarities as well. I would reference the Rich Harrison stuff for Amerie. I thing took a while to grow on me but now I love it. Best recent rb production. Turn da lights off. Tweet. no contest. Turns me weak at the knees.

Lately:

lots of DJ Quik
La Funk Mob - Tribulations Extra Sensorielles
Major Force stuff

Peece,
T. Tauri

a 2nd for "Midnight Marauders"...

"Low End Theory" gets more shine, but Marauders is better in many many ways

I love all those albums, 36 chambers was an epiphany for me, Illmatic and the ol Gang Starr **** is just brilliant, but is it mix reference material?. I mean, do you really need lo fi references?? Surely it's just a matter of leaving the dirt in?

As a side note (a train spotterish one at that) I love the dirty cross fader on the opening track (???place to dwell) of Daily Operation, Premier's doing cuts on the intro that sounds like the mixers just been pulled out of a club the nite before. If it had been done today, some fool would have cleaned it up in Tools

My reference must haves include:

House of Pain - 'Truth Crushed to Earth'

The beats on this are soncially superb. Everlast sounded like he was losing his voice and it's not really regarded a classic album as such, but you can't fault the production. Incredible beats and that classic SSL compression and top end polish is all here.

Blackalicioius - 'Blazing Arrow'

An album I originally bought just for listening that turned out to be produced extremely well. A darker sound than an SSL IMO, probably mixed on a Neve or something. A couple of the beats on this album I test against almost all my compositions, great album all 'round.

Portishead - (any song, any album)

Every beat these guys put out is a finely crafted work of art, you just feel like every sound was given special attention. I keep some of these handy for most reference occasions. As far as straight listening goes, it's alright, the vocal style is something different though, they get a little depressed about stuff...

Other stuff that I keep handy for reference purposes:

Dr Dre - 2001 (everyone knows why)
Notorious BIG - Life After Death (IMO sounds just as good as 2001)
De La Soul - Bionix (found it in the bargain bin but it's very well produced)
Slum Village - Fantastic Vol. 2 (Jay Dilla at his finest)

I found these 2 to sound so different. 2001 is squashed bright and punchy typical modern dre ish. Life After Death is big, spacious, smooth etc.(all the adjectives the old heads use to describe tape). IMO it sounds better. Helluva lot less ear fatigue thats for sure.

True, true....

2001 made my reference list mainly because of Dre's name and reputation, and it is good. I still don't really know who is responsible for the sound on Biggie's 'Life after Death' though, but you'd be hard pressed to find anything that sounded much better, anywhere.

BIG "READY TO DIE". real phat and warm but still punchy. engineers prince charles alexander and rick traveli did a great job.

DRE "the chronic"

The last time I talked to Dave Pensada. I asked him what did he think was a great sounding R&B/Hip Hop Record. He was very quick to answer Guy's III album. He said the songs weren't that great as I agreed with him as I'm a big Teddy fan but, the mixing was of another world. I happened to have that CD so when I got home I listened to it and he was right. I don't know what Teddy did on that one and how he mixed it but Damn!!!! Only if the songs were better. But everything is incrediblely clear and punchy. One of the best I've heard sonically in a long time. I haven't compared it to any of the new CD's lately but back then it was banggin.
Check it out.

As for me I have different mixes from Dave P. and Manny M. and Tony M. to A/B to.
I've noticed a long time ago that all of there mixes are very low in volume when mixed to CD but, very full sounding.

Hope this helps....

M2E