Few months ago I decided to start mixing my own beats, and I'd love to get some feedback from mix engineers on this forum.

The beat is inspired by Kanye West's Real Friends, so it would be a good idea to listen to Kanye's song first and then check out my beat. I didn't aim for an exact copy of the mix, just used it as a reference.

Reference:

For the next mixes, I gotta admit I don't remember which reference tracks I used, but I still wanna hear your thoughts, please. Thanks a lot!

 

Honestly the production and mixing on these tracks are solid. Definitely above average.

The Kanye track had my least favorite mix. Not because you did anything wrong, but because I don't really like the mix on the reference haha. You matched it pretty well with the kind of "blanket over high freq" and "everything slightly crunchy" sound that I hear in a lot of Kanye beats/production.

Sometimes I think that Kanye believes that making every element in the tracks dist/crunch to the point of breakup is like a trademark of his style. While it can be tasteful in certain circumstances, I find it gets old fast when you listen to back to back tracks.

The other mixes were a lot better in my opinion! The joey badass one had very good clarity and separation between elements. I really like the fact that you didn't fall into the trap of soft clip the shit out of the kick until it's a pancake. I find that it makes the kick overwhelm the bass in a lot of modern hip hop. You had a great balance between kick and bass. Also left plenty of room for a vocalist.

The MF Doom track was a solid mix as well. Nice high end on the main snare sound (not the whole Kanye blanket thing lol). Only critique would be that the string part panned to the left was a bit too loud in my opinion.

I think you really need a vocalist to be able to decide which elements to bring up a bit in the mixes tho. Maybe the Joey Badass one could use an extra dB of kick depending on the situation.

I listened to these on decent (but not great) earbuds (JVC HA-EB75) to give a non perfect listening environment scenario and they passed the test.

Hope that's helpful feedback.

 

Also I just wanted to mention that I personally know people who've had beats placed with rappers that are significantly lower quality than yours.

It kinda sucks that it's all about the people you know and not your actual ability.

The world in a nutshell.

 

An old man in a neighbouring subforum is trying to write Hardstyle EDM. Can you please give that kick away to him and use the one appropriate for your own arrangement instead?

 

Hahaha that's one of my gripes with modern hip hop. The kicks have lost all character and almost all semblance of being produced by an acoustic drum. Sometimes it works well but is hugely overused at the moment.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback! It really motivates me a lot to get positive comments in general. I've been mixing music for a short while now (exactly 2 and a half months), even though I've been producing beats for almost two years. The thing is, I used to get super scared and frustrated about mixing, so I only learned the basics to make better beats and left the mixing part to someone else. Thanks for taking the time to listen and for the feedback!

 

That's life for us! often, it's not the most talented person who goes far, but rather the one with more connections or the luck of being stumbled upon randomly, hahaha. Thanks again.

 

You need to listen to more music then. It'd give you a stroke to listen to experimental/abstract rap productions where they use kicks that are way beyond the conventional.

 

I have to agree. I personally like boom bap these days. I've heard enough 808s to last through the rest of my life. Just sick of them.

 

:D
I mixed and sometimes produced heep-hup for a living for five years. No thanks, I've had enough type beats for the rest of my life.

But yours isn't one.
Your kicks and snares don't feel like they're a part of the same kit, and they don't create a coherent picture with other instruments. And the kick I was talking about has a techno rumble baked in.
The second track feels the most coherent, but even then the rim click is too bright, cause you treated it like a snare hit. That's actually an objective mistake on two levels. First, IT'S A RIM CLICK. Second, it creates very sharp spikes in the high frequencies, which are unnatural to a human ear and can even be damaging.

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2024