2 track Instrumentals and the mix process

There is a trend going on in this age of the DAW that is very misleading to many. It is the 2track instrumental mix that many producers are sending artists instead of the full tracked files of the beat. Now before you producers go off into a hissy, here me out. I am a producer so I understand that you want your beat to sound a certain way, i have no problem with that. The issue is this, when the artist sends the song off to get mixed, you handy cap the mixer. In other words, you take half of the control of the mix away from the professional.

When a song is mixed, the best and most quality way, is to have all tracks separate including the individual instruments used to produce the beat. Having this option, gives the mixer control over the entire mix instead of having to work around issues that may be apparent in the 2track instrumental mix. Just because you can produce a hot beat, doesn't mean that you can correctly mix it. A lot of 2track instrumentals i get are distorted, muddy and down right bad; and there is nothing I can do to fix it, so I have to camouflage it the best i can so that whole of the song sounds good but not great! There is a difference.

The correct way to keep your sound intact while giving the mixer the individual files separate and tracked out, is for you to be in the session when the mixing is going on. If you can't physically be there because you may be in another city, you can always send a reference file for the mixer to follow as well as communicate via phone, text or email. There are many ways to make sure your beat sounds the way you want it, while giving the mixer all of the tools he or she needs to give you a quality mix on the entire song.

Keep in mind, most anyone nowadays can record but not everyone can mix! Mastering is a whole separate issue that we will tackle next month!

Til then, Keep the music Bangin'!