How much mixing do "pro" producers do themselves?

[Iron Keys]

i have an idea for a little project:
how about, that some of us just mix&master the track fromeach other... i mean, you will face some new problems to solve. you can improve your skills.
what you think?

Good luck with that,

Had offered free mixing before so some of the people who have bad mixes could hear how their productions could sound.

Even said i could tutorial them after on the bits they want to know how to do. Get really low takers on that.

As an idea I think it's great.

 

[Fade]

The MOD being the judge?

Who should judge then?

 

[Mr_SWADA]

 

[Fade]

No no I want to know who he thinks should be judging. Apparently not THE MOD.

 

[Mr_SWADA]

Options

1: the mod as host and the provider for the beat as judge
2: everyone
3: just @Fade
4: invide some guests? some "pros"?
5: me?
6: my cat?
7: chatGPT?

 

[VVS]

Who should judge then?

I feel honored that you desire my input. To answer your question, the members of this forum. You know...the same people that vote at every battle.

 

[Armani]

Just check the credits...

Produced by:
Mixed by:

Usually there will be a mixing engineer listed.

Dr Dre mixes his own stuff I believe. Some producers may mix their stuff sometimes.

Take a look at Timbaland's masterclass video, I think he has an engineer there mixing as he produces. Timbaland also does some mixing stuff; but in the video i mentioned I saw him put like a wamp high shelf boost on his kick, pretty sure I see the mixing engineer then use an eq to cut that same boost.

There's an old old incredible video of Scott storch making a beat. He has an engineer present at the time making adjustments to what he's doing (I do believe).

WARNING: this video will either demoralise you or inspire you.



Dr Dre..


Also bear in mind, a lot of producers will make the beat, the beat will get sent to the artist to record and a mix engineer will receive the stems to mix the whole thing.

It can happen in varieties of ways.

Young Guru mixed a lot of if not all of the Roc A Fella stuff.

There's probably some crossover too - some producers likely "mix as they produce" and you can argue whether it's mixing or sound design. Or both. Some may produce dry and let the mix engineer do the work. Some my mix whilst producing then take their processing off when sending to the mix engineer but bounce their mixed version as a rough/guide mix so the engineer can see what they're trying to achieve.

I sometimes take a mix as I go approach, moreso when it comes to drums cause I may want to first know if they can sound as I want as a unit before bothering with the rest.

So there's no hard and fast rule, think of any combination and it's likely practised.

Then it goes to mastering ( :

And sometimes a mastering engineers job is merely just to make it louder if the mix is good, or simply say "I don't need to do anything to this record."

that storch video, I could already describe what happens in it by heart when I saw the thumbnail. even the fact that the dumbass cameraman gets too close to the monitors and it goes all "WUMB WUMB". man, when this guy opens up the string plugin tho... I can swear I feel his left hand on the vagina I never knew I had.

the dre one I never saw tho. I *almost* never saw dre or ye actually making shit in the studio, and I consider both of them in my top 3 greatest producers all-time.

 

[Mr_SWADA]

a 1v1 battle, voted by everyone... anonym...
at the sign in would be a random match making...
or would it be funny if you could challange someone?

 

[Armani]

vs. their engineers. I assume most "pros" probably make beats all day, do a little bit of mixing or whatever go-to techniques they apply, and then that's it until it's time to release, but that's me talking out of my ass.

I think they'd all know how to do it if they're forced to/if the want to, but they don't do a lot. they just do some stuff that are considered mixing but it's really creative/production work, and they send it in.


imo you don't *need* to learn mixing anyway. it's more of a you ain't gotta do it but fuck it somebody gotta do it situation, yk? be it sometime when ur self-releasing, or when ur sending ur shit to A&Rs, or even ur tryna send ur shit to a mix engineer but ur not sure if they'd really get what you're going for so let's hope you can make it sound somewhat like what ur envisioning before sending it in, or u just wanna send it to a battle, or whatever. always useful to know how to mix ur own shit.

dw tho, AI is gonna do it all for u before u know it. personally I'm happy I'm getting to somehow learn how it works even tho it's gonna be a dead job in like 5 years 10 years max, at least in our crumbsy ass level. pretty sure it helps with getting a perspective that not everyone has and I consider that a privilege in it's own way ig. hell maybe if we get on the top end of the production chain it'll be useful again.



but damn tho imagine all the useless info we retained about all the ways an opto compressor is slightly different than a vca one, only for some braindead ass AI to take over our jobs without even "knowing" half of that shit. it just does what it's programmed to and it works. been fun times fr.

 

[Armani]

why should you "waste" your time with these things when you got someone who can do it better and faster? thats time you can focus on your next beat.

it's cool to be able to finish your own projects ig, rather than pay someone to make it sound remotely tolerable, only so then you'd finally be like "Ohh, now that I can hear what's going on, I think it needs this & that" but you can't do shit cuz you're docile and you'd need pay that other douchebag extra to grant you permission to get that new edit in. god forbid you try to make money from your music too.

on the top level where you're making big money or getting actual attention, yea sure, I can definitely see how that'd make sense. but that point just doesn't apply to us. I used to submit some otherwise lit sounding shit to this site that got -6 votes because I just didn't know mixing existed. that's just the start.

 

[Armani]

I feel honored that you desire my input. To answer your question, the members of this forum. You know...the same people that vote at every battle.

you say it like it's the most obvious answer ever, as if the average illmuzik member knows dick about mastering. I'm not suggesting one mod should be judging it, I'm not even suggesting this battle should happen cuz every other battle already functions as this in it's own way (we do also subconsciously listen to eachother's mixes while voting don't we?), but your retarded ass democracy isn't always the answer. I'd personally be more happy if someone like your good friend 2GooD was the judge, and he somehow got the beats in an anonymous way from fade.


retard.

 

[VVS]

you say it like it's the most obvious answer ever, as if the average illmuzik member knows dick about mastering. I'm not suggesting one mod should be judging it, I'm not even suggesting this battle should happen cuz every other battle already functions as this in it's own way (we do also subconsciously listen to eachother's mixes while voting don't we?), but your retarded ass democracy isn't always the answer. I'd personally be more happy if someone like your good friend 2GooD was the judge, and he somehow got the beats in an anonymous way from fade.


retard.

Now if only you would put the same level of energy towards learning how to mix properly your beats wouldn't be so...

 

[Mr_SWADA]

you say it like it's the most obvious answer ever, as if the average illmuzik member knows dick about mastering. I'm not suggesting one mod should be judging it, I'm not even suggesting this battle should happen cuz every other battle already functions as this in it's own way (we do also subconsciously listen to eachother's mixes while voting don't we?), but your retarded ass democracy isn't always the answer. I'd personally be more happy if someone like your good friend 2GooD was the judge, and he somehow got the beats in an anonymous way from fade.


retard.

now were talking... @Fade we have all the answers for you... its going to be a community work!

 

[Armani]

Now if only you would put the same level of energy towards learning how to mix properly your beats wouldn't be so...

sez u

 

[Armani]

@Iron Keys is it just me or do the other guys just seem untalented next to storch? I mean I'm not tryna glaze, I fw some of the shit timbaland allegedly made WAY more (mirrors, 4 minutes, etc) but am I the only one feeling the uhh... ig the unevenness?

 

[Fade]

I think I speak for everyone here that we've had enough of VVS and his holier-than-thou attitude. Good luck in your future endeavors.

 

[Iron Keys]

Salute

 

[2GooD Productions]

@Iron Keys is it just me or do the other guys just seem untalented next to storch? I mean I'm not tryna glaze, I fw some of the shit timbaland allegedly made WAY more (mirrors, 4 minutes, etc) but am I the only one feeling the uhh... ig the unevenness?

I make beats in a very similar way to Storch, but I do use some samples a lot of the time. Its just the results arent as good as Storch.

 

[Dusty B]

Is it weird that I don't really like watching beatmaking videos?

 

[2GooD Productions]

Is it weird that I don't really like watching beatmaking videos?

Me neither, I find it very hard to listen to music without wanting to make some of my own or sample what Im listening to.