In the world of hip hop, where the beat is the heart and the flow is the soul, mixing and mastering are the magic ingredients that transform raw recordings into polished tracks that knock. But what exactly goes into this process, and how can you ensure your beats are hitting hard on every system?

Mixing: Sculpting Your Sonic Canvas

Think of mixing as the art of arranging your instruments and vocals like a skilled graffiti artist. Each element has its own place, its own volume, its own EQ, and its own effects. It's about creating a cohesive soundscape where every element shines without clashing or getting lost in the mix.

Here are some key aspects of mixing in hip hop:

Balancing the Boom:
The low-end is the foundation of hip hop, but it needs to be balanced to avoid muddying up the mix. A good mix engineer will use EQ, compression, and other tools to sculpt the bass and kick drum to sit just right.

Taming the Highs:
The crispness of the hi-hats, cymbals, and snares is essential for that cutting-edge hip hop sound. But too much treble can become harsh. Mixing involves finding the sweet spot where the highs shine without piercing the listener's ears.

Vocal Clarity:
The MC is the star of the show, and their vocals need to be clear and upfront. Mixing involves techniques like EQ, compression, and de-essing to ensure the vocals sit perfectly in the mix, cutting through the beat without being overbearing.

Effects Galore:
From reverb and delay to distortion and panning, effects can add depth, texture, and excitement to your mix. A skilled mix engineer knows how to use effects creatively to enhance the vibe of your track without going overboard.

Mastering: The Final Polish

Once your mix is banging, it's time for mastering, the final step that takes your track to the professional level. Mastering involves subtle adjustments to enhance the overall balance, clarity, and loudness of your song. It's like adding that extra layer of gloss to your freshly painted masterpiece.

Here's what mastering does for your hip hop track:

Level Up Loudness:
Mastering increases the overall volume of your track without sacrificing quality. This ensures your song sits well alongside other professionally mastered tracks on streaming platforms and radio.

Balance the Spectrum:
Mastering refines the overall tonal balance of your track, ensuring that the lows, mids, and highs are all in perfect harmony.

Add Polish and Shine:
Mastering adds a subtle layer of polish and sheen to your track, giving it that professional, radio-ready sound.

The Art and Science of Sound

Mixing and mastering are both art and science, requiring a deep understanding of audio production principles, a keen ear for detail, and the ability to make nuanced adjustments. But when done right, they can transform your beats from bedroom demos to chart-topping anthems.

Ready to Elevate Your Sound?

If you're serious about taking your hip hop production to the next level, invest in professional mixing and mastering services. It's an investment that will pay off in the long run, giving your music the polish and power it deserves.

And remember, just like a skilled graffiti artist, a good mix engineer and mastering engineer are your partners in creating a sonic masterpiece that will leave a lasting impression.

In today's music landscape, full production is generally an afterthought. Many of today's producers often do not see a project through to completion, instead they sell or rent a beat to an artist and that is often the end of contact.
In order to develop your sound and meaningful reputation as a serious producer, you must see a project all the way through. A producer must not only compose the beat either directly or via third party but they must have a vision for how the vocals must sound as well as how the mixing and mastering is done.  A producer is often the coach for an artist, the same way a coach is for an athlete; their job is to get the best performance in the studio.  A producer must not pass off the beat and leave the artist to do their own thing unless, they are 100% comfortable with the artist being able to rock the beat without assistance.  To be fair, there are some artists that are uniquely talented enough that you can leave them alone to do their thing but their are others that have the raw vocal skills but need a little guidance to make the song pop.  A producer must determine this by vibing with the artist in order to learn their personality and skill level.
If you are new to the production game, you may not feel comfortable coaching an artist or sitting in on a mixing session, but as you grow, this is a valuable asset that you must add to your skill set in order to be placed with the professionals.

In part 2 of this blog series, let's discuss how you can get paid if you maintain the ownership of your publishing. Everyone likes to get paid, right? I know I do! 

That is why publishing is one of the most valuable assets to a producer, songwriter or composer. The ownership of this will allow you many different streams of revenue for years to come. One of the most popular ways to get paid is via ASCAP,SEASAC or BMI. These are called performance rights societies and they collect money on your behalf every time your song is gets a spin on broadcast radio, tv or cable. In order to receive this money though, you must sign up with either of the three as a publisher member or a writer member. 

A publisher member is the entity that owns the rights to the composition or lyrics within the song. A writer member is the author or creator of the lyrics or the music. If you own your rights and you are the creator you can sign up as both and get paid twice! 

If you have signed over your publishing rights to another company, you can only sign up as a writer member. That is why it is valuable to hold on to ownership of your publishing, unless a big publishing company is gonna offer you some big bucks or some other incentive to give it up. 

Sometimes, this can work to your benefit if a big publisher wants to sign you, because they will actually work to get your songs placed with artists, which is what a publisher's job is. But, a lot of publishers, just want to take the money and they do nothing for you in return. So you must be careful. There many other ways to get paid from publishing besides the ones mentioned above. In the next part, I will go deeper into that. Stay tuned…

Don't forget to check out my "beats" page on the site, we have beats for lease as low as $10. Thanks for stopping by and we hope that you will let a friend know about us. 

Also if you like playing fantasy football, join the fanduel fantasy football site where you can win money just for playing! Check it out at  by clicking here.

As always,
Keep Bangin'
Cee

Music Publishing is kind of a strange animal in the digital age. A lot has changed over the last 15 years or so. This is such an in-depth subject that I will not be able to cover it in one post. So I will be posting topics on this subject in a series of posts. This is going to be part 1. Now keep in mind, that I am NOT an attorney, so please consult one before signing any documents. This series of posts is meant to help give you a little insight into music publishing from my experience, this post should not be taken as 100% accurate, therefore I can't be held liable for any damages from you not consulting an attorney. Now with the disclaimer out of the way, let's get to it.

The basic definition of music publishing in everyday terms without using the attorney talk (legal definition) is this: You own it unless or until you sign it away!!! From the time you create the beat, if you are a producer or the time you write the lyrics, if you are a song writer; you own the publishing rights. That is no one can do anything with your songs, without your permission (i.e. release them commercially via record labels, put them in films, play it on the radio, put them in video games ect.).

The legal definition is this: Consists of companies mainly engaged in acquiring and registering copyrights for musical compositions and promoting and authorising the use of these compositions in recordings, radio, television, motion pictures, live performances, print, or other media. Companies in this class represent the interest of the composers ( beat makers or Lyricists) , or other owners of musical compositions, to produce revenues from the use of such works, usually through licensing agreements. These Companies may own the copyright or act as administrator of the music copyrights on behalf of copyright owners. Also included in this class are Companies publishing sheet music (including in bound book form).




When or if you sign with a record label, you still own the publishing rights, which is the P.A. Copyright (Performance Artist), the label will own the S.R. Copyright (Sound Recording). You will own these rights unless you sign either all or part of it away. Unless a company is offering you some real big money, it is NOT advised to sign over ALL of your publishing. Most companies will want you to sign over a portion, which is fair up to 50% but not over that. Beware of any company that wants more than 50%


In the next post, I will discuss how you can get paid by owning your publishing, so stay tuned!!!

I often get mixes for mastering or track for mixing that have vocals that sound horrible. Now I understand that not everybody has a Neumann u87, AKG C 414 or a Rode NTK tube mic. Those are my favorite mics, by the way.. But you really don't have to have any of those to get a good sound.  First you need to make sure that your recording environment is quiet, then take off all eq's; vocals or anything else for that matter, should never be recorded with eq. You should also try to use some sort of reflexion filter if you are recording in an open room as well as a popper stopper to help reduce "p" popping.


If you must use compression, use very little during the recording process as compression is usually added during the mixing process. 


Make sure if your mic is "not" Bi- directional, that you are recording on the front side of the mic; if you are getting that hollow room sound, your mic is backwards. The logo of the brand of mic you are using should be facing forward in front of the artist.


If you run through those simple checks, your vocals should come out crisp and clean.

I my studio sessions with new artists the question almost always comes up and that is How do I get noticed as new artist.
Many will think  a move to Los Angeles, Atlanta or New York is the instant fix but as anyone who already lives in those cities will tell you, it is not that easy for them either and they live there. So moving is not always the answer, especially in the digital age. During the 90's and early 2000's, if you lived in Chickenfoot, Texas, a move to a bigger city would be necessary. After all, how could you promote in a town of 200 people? But, now in the digital age, you can bring the big city  to Chickenfoot all at the click of a mouse.

The first thing you need is a great song. Whether it is Rap, Pop, Country, R&B, EDM or whatever, the song has to be great. Not just good but Great! You need to stand out from the crowd.

You may ask, how do I know my song is great? Put it out on the internet and test it! Get you a soundcloud, youtube, facebook, twitter and instagram account and release your song to the world and see what feedback you get.

Social media is a must in this digital age! If you don't have many followers, I suggest you get to working. It is hard work but it can be done if you want success bad enough.

Once you get this first step done and working you are well on your way.

In the beginning of the DAW (digital audio workstation) revolution Pro-tools was considered the gold standard in studio recording (and still is) by both small and big studios alike. Most people just went with it because of it's popularity but the truth is, there are options and there have always been options.

There are many great sounding DAW's that are equal if not better than Pro-tools. There is Logic, Digital Performer (DP), Cubase, Nuendo and others which do the same thing as Protools for a lot less. My Personal preference is DP, it's ease of use, great sound quality, unlimited tracks (as much as your computer can handle) and access to lots and lots of Audio Unit plugins make it a no brainer because you get so much for a lot less money.

So when building your studio, don't just go with Pro-tools because "everybody uses it" or because someone said that your favorite record was recorded on it, think about your options and go with works for YOU best.  I learned years ago when I first started producing music that the equipment you use is only as good as its operator. Many people swore by the MPC and still do but I know quite a few wanna be producers who bought one and their beats were still wack.  I, by the way, used an Ensoniq EPS 16+ for all of my hits in the 90's and early 2000's. I just wanted to be different and stand out. If you are ever to become a successful producer or engineer, follow your heart and dare to be different.  Innovators lead the pack and do not follow!

Until next month,
Keep Bangin the hits
Crazy C!

Last month we talked about the 2track instrumental and the mixing of that instrumental. Now we will talk about proper mix levels for the best possible master. I know that most everybody nowadays wants their song to be loud and proud! I feel that but, there is a proper way to achieve that as well as a wrong way to achieve that. Let me explain.

Do not normalize or place a limiter on your mixes in an attempt to make your song loud before mastering. This severely derails the mastering engineer's ability to give you a quality sound. You should leave your mixes in their raw form, ideally -1db to -2db below zero; this gives the mastering engineer "room" to increase the overall volume before distortion is introduced to the signal.

The goal here is to have the loudest possible volume without distortion. If you hear distortion, you have gone to far. In my personal opinion I believe quality should win out over top volume any-day. A lot of today's songs are loud but they lack the clarity, quality and warmth of the recordings of yesterday.  Take Ice Cube's "amerikkka's most wanted" CD or Blackstreet's self titled debut CD, both of these Cd's may not have been very loud, compared to today's standards but they sounded great! I would gladly turn up the volume myself on the CD player any day to get a better sounding product! But that is just me. Lol

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'!