How Does Vybe, Johnny Juliano, Superstar O Get There Mixes Soooooo Crisp?....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beatz R Us
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I know Jazz is difficult. For one, the playing is extremely dynamic, so one moment you have no bleed problem, the next you do. One moment you have tons of headroom, the next moment your overdriving your preamps. I work with a pianist that's so dynamic, I have to set up four mics inside the lid - 2 closer to the soundboard for when he plays quietly and 2 a little further up for when he's smashing the keys because the piano starts to project differently and the sweet spot for the placement changes. It's only three or four instruments, but they all play in the same space - and you can't really put the bass player on the other side of the room because he and the drummer near to be able to have a clear line of communication. Then factor in the practical issues - you NEED a great space for jazz, period. The bleed is inevitable, so you have to coordinate all the spot mics in a way where the bleed sounds like a nice room capture for every other instrument in the room, with enough space between instruments to not get phasing issues. And you really have to get it right in the tracking, because with that much room tone bouncing around there's only so much you can effect any one individual sound.

Mastering.... I don't know if any genre is by nature harder to master than any other. I think the frequent demands of certain genres can make certain mastering tasks tough. Lots of home recording and mixing in Hip Hop. Lot of squashed mixes coming in for a number of genres.
 
Superstar O uses Cubase, while Johnny uses FL Studio with Waves plugins & Vybe uses FL Studio rewired with Sonar. They all pretty much mix within their DAWs occasionally with external mixing suites. It doesn't take much to get a crisp sound just make sure you don't OVERDUE stuff. Many producers and beat makers over think when it comes to mixing and OVER compress, EQ, and limit sounds. Mixing isn't really something you can explain which is why when you search 'Tips On Mixing' you pretty much get the same outline (which is why I don't search for tips too much). Cut your lows on high and mid frequency sounds and get a solid 808 kick or sub bass to fill in the low frequencies that doesn't need too much or any compression. Overall just start with quality sounds and everything else will fall into place for the most part. Don't make flat beats cause I've never met an artist who liked a flat sounding instrumental. Flat beats sound generic and won't distinguish you from other producers and beat makers and without EQing frequencies, sounds are going to clash. Try not to use EQ presets because every beat is going to be different for the most part. And for the love of god don't use too many programs if you don't know what your doing and even if you do try to stick to just two. Making crisp mixes doesn't take that much and the more you pack on to one beat the better chance you have at ruining the original taste of it.

In my opinion, think about what Vybe, Superstar O, and Johnny Juliano are doing right now, making beats and mixing. Only doing these things on a constant, not overbearing, can help you achieve the mix you want. Only YOU know what it is. None of these beat makers send their beats to engineers to get mixed they do it all on their own so practice, practice, and practice. Going through these great lengths to dissect another producers beat on a forum is pretty ridiculous because you give him more authority on mixing than yourself. We all have the same ability Vybe and the rest of Team Hitz has. Disect your own mixes and compare sparingly to others. Team Hitz have quality beats and I've been a fan of their's since '07 and I respect their music but COME ON!
 
Hambino's definitely got some great points. If you guys really want to get good at mixing, then do this (with a high quality sound card of course): go into your daw and record the audio output of your computer then play a bunch of beats in the top charts of soundclick. Then put a graphic EQ on that and play it back. Not only can you analyze the wave form which tells you so much about the mixing, but you can also see the levels of each frequency. Do this and it improves your mixing 1000 fold!
 
Oxygen Beats said:
Hambino's definitely got some great points. If you guys really want to get good at mixing, then do this (with a high quality sound card of course): go into your daw and record the audio output of your computer then play a bunch of beats in the top charts of soundclick. Then put a graphic EQ on that and play it back. Not only can you analyze the wave form which tells you so much about the mixing, but you can also see the levels of each frequency. Do this and it improves your mixing 1000 fold!
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I'd be wary about that. Frequency curves don't make for good mixes or music - and they can be extremely misleading if you don't know how to interpret them.

Anyway I've mixed a number of these guys. They're mixing isn't really what makes them good. They do decent roughs but I've never felt their roughs were too challenging to top. I don't think they even really mix that much. It's just in the sound selection and the actual music itself.
 
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WeissSound said:
I'd be wary about that. Frequency curves don't make for good mixes or music - and they can be extremely misleading if you don't know how to interpret them.

Anyway I've mixed a number of these guys. They're mixing isn't really what makes them good. They do decent roughs but I've never felt their roughs were too challenging to top. I don't think they even really mix that much. It's just in the sound selection and the actual music itself.
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Exactly. Good sound selection + some basic eq to get rid of unnecessary lows and low mid's + re-verb on the snare/clap is probably like 90% of their mixes.
 
Think that we are over analyzing here. Good selection of sounds, proper mix. Instrument selection, frequency balance, panning, ect...Plain and simple. If they are mixing it or not, dont know. I could simply ask. I have communication with SSO.
Frequency, spectral, and phase analisis of .mp3's, to find out what they are doing, wont get you far.

The overhyped exported and uploaded songs you are hearing on soundclick, other, is a somewhat mastered version.
SSO and other make more doe selling licenses off a single beat, in the long run, than selling most exclusives.
And the delivery for non exclusive is usually the mixed/mastered .mp3 (320kbps) that you hear on the site, minus the vocal "Tag".
Usually they have a special license/price for tracked out wav. files, unmixed, unmastered.
 
DaGSpotSoldier said:
Think that we are over analyzing here. Good selection of sounds, proper mix. Instrument selection, frequency balance, panning, ect...Plain and simple. If they are mixing it or not, dont know. I could simply ask. I have communication with SSO.
Frequency, spectral, and phase analisis of .mp3's, to find out what they are doing, wont get you far.

The overhyped exported and uploaded songs you are hearing on soundclick, other, is a somewhat mastered version.
SSO and other make more doe selling licenses off a single beat, in the long run, than selling most exclusives.
And the delivery for non exclusive is usually the mixed/mastered .mp3 (320kbps) that you hear on the site, minus the vocal "Tag".
Usually they have a special license/price for tracked out wav. files, unmixed, unmastered.
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So there's two different issues here. There's a huge difference between trying to sell a beat a soundclick than selling an exclusive to an artist. In a regular scenario, Rapper A would select a track, rap over the rough mix, and have everything shipped to a mixing engineer.

In JJ's case, he's selling to cats that aren't going to be doing all of that. They essentially want a "mastered" instrumental and then just mix the vocals over it. To the second scenario, I also would like tips because I know what the OP is referring to when he says 'crisp'. The poster that said he "doesn't want his beats that crisp" is clearly smoking something. That doesn't even make sense...lol
 
Phortune500 said:
There's a huge difference between trying to sell a beat a soundclick than selling an exclusive to an artist. In a regular scenario, Rapper A would select a track, rap over the rough mix, and have everything shipped to a mixing engineer.

In JJ's case, he's selling to cats that aren't going to be doing all of that. They essentially want a "mastered" instrumental and then just mix the vocals over it
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true...true...

---------- Post added at 03:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 PM ----------
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
BEATS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE FINALIZED SONGS.
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...then what are they supposed to sound like?

---------- Post added at 03:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:34 PM ----------
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
Audio is supposed to be left "flat" for the consumer to EQ to their liking.
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good point...
 
It seems to me that they each hire thier own mixing engineer
 
klassik334 said:
It seems to me that they each hire thier own mixing engineer
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I don't believe so. I've only been hired on to mix their work as a secondary source. They've never hired me directly. And it doesn't really sound like they're hiring a dedicated mix engineer. It also wouldn't make much sense economically.

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Phortune500 said:
So there's two different issues here. There's a huge difference between trying to sell a beat a soundclick than selling an exclusive to an artist. In a regular scenario, Rapper A would select a track, rap over the rough mix, and have everything shipped to a mixing engineer.

In JJ's case, he's selling to cats that aren't going to be doing all of that. They essentially want a "mastered" instrumental and then just mix the vocals over it. To the second scenario, I also would like tips because I know what the OP is referring to when he says 'crisp'. The poster that said he "doesn't want his beats that crisp" is clearly smoking something. That doesn't even make sense...lol
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Crisp comes from clarity in the transients and a present upper mid/treble range. So seek to emphasize the transients of the signals, particularly front rhythmic things like drums, and to open up the midrange so as to make the upper mids and treble greater by proxy.

But some people don't like that sound. Some people like a rounder, warmer sound. They like that even harmonic distortion.

I try to do both simultaneously :sing:
 
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It seems from all the beats I've listened to of his that he does the same "mastering process" every time. He makes them appealing to his market, which are people who just want to buy what sounds loud and packs a punch. Whatever he is doing, it is working out great for him. I follow him on twitter, and I have seen him mention Izotope Ozone 4, maybe be does some "mixing/mastering" in there!
 
uh-oh...what does that mean...? ;)

@pimpenstien
 
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