So I typically hate type beats, most are generic and boring. But a producer friend of mine who I've collaborated with makes them and pretty solid ones, but he won't give me mixing advice since he claims he gets it "right" at the source. But they all sound so clean and professional. This is one of his beats

He said he mostly omni and Output Exhale (I hate exhale its a bit overused).

And drenches his tracks in reverb (of course). He finds it amusing to NOT tell me his secrets, unless im being ignorant and it really is just THAT good without mixing

But I feel you HAVE to mix, EQ, Saturation, etc... to achieve that kind of production.

If anyone has an idea of how he does it, or how to get a mix like that, I'd love some/any advice. I really want to achieve a professional sound, and I find it hard to believe he doesn't mix most of his tracks...

 

Bro, to be honest.. there's nothing I hear that's particularly "special" about the mix.

It's mixed well, and sounds great, but I don't think there's any secret sauce to the equation. I think he just gets a kick out of your thinking it’s some sort of "secret" to it, hence why he finds it amusing... which is kinda an asshole type of thing to do, rather than just educate you, but some guys are like that.


Truth be told he kinda straight up told you the most important factor in his process, and its a thing many amateur and aspiring instrumental producers overlook: sound selection and arrangement. This is what separates guys with 'alright' beats, from guys who's tracks stand out on a professional level. He said he gets it 'right' at the 'source', meaning he's skilled at choosing the right sounds, and knows how to put them together in a complementary way. That probably means that he is also using drum kits that are most likely already processed quite a bit (many of the best urban/hip-hop kits floating around are already processed).


If your sounds and arrangement are decent to begin with, a little eq, reverb, and little creative fx like saturation or delays go a long way, especially with an empty, minimal instrumental like the one you posted. And of course a limiter which can make a huge differnce in teh finished product, (the importance of compression is way overblown on the internet, unless you’re talking about vocals, or real instruments).

Do you have any of your own tracks your willing to post, to illustrate the difference between your tracks and his?

 

Last edited: Nov 19, 2021

Man, that rim shot is hurting my ears. Anyways, starkid84 said it all tbh. If you want any suggestion besides that I would suggest you to go out of your "music box" and check other types of music, you will be amazed when it comes to mixing and your taste/perception of the quality the sounds, mix, etc will only improve. It's really a matter of getting familiar with, of active critical listening, theres no secret sauce, as with everything in this life the real secret (if one want to call it like that) is in the drill, the endless repetition.

 

A wise engineer told me this a long time ago: Admit u know nothing about mixing (or engineering, or production, et c.) This creates a blank slate in ur mind and opens u up, instead of having u bang ur head on the wall telling urself u know what ur doing but u cant figure this out. U kind of admitted this, by titling ur post "mixing", but talked about Omnishpere and Exhale, instruments have really little to do with mixing, this is a HUGE part. Good mixing ignores the source. Ask urself, "am I actually talking about mixing, or am I talking about production?" I feel u are referring to production, but I could be wrong. If u are indeed talking about mixing, mixing is fairly easy, all u are doing is putting ur sounds in a specific area and balancing tone, generally speaking. There are more details, but mainly this. Honestly, I found the mixing on the track u supplied to be basic, fairly simple. What could be helpful is to try to recreate a part of the track, maybe 30 seconds of the busiest part, and then try to balance out the sounds almost to the letter. This is extremely helpful and teaches a lot, maybe ur friend, if he is indeed ur friend (being stingy with advice is a kind of dick move, but that's just me) can lend u the samples? Then try to EQ the track the same. EQing shapes the tone in pretty drastic ways, and there are a few plugins that help with that, I know Newfangled has an eq that analyzes a track and applies that eq curve to ur track, also showing whats it's doing, boosting, and cutting.
Good luck, and I hope u take my words lightly. I don't mean to insult, but we all have to admit we are from an area where we just don't know shit, lol.

 

because, seriously, what could you do wrong with summing 3 tracks of audio?

well, except that this is not a musical work but more a background atmosphere for a parfume ad.

 

@Brendan

You guy is actually being honest. Keep it simple, sound selection and frequency band separation.

Mix it clean and low, watch you peaks aren't out of control and you can add dirt later if you want to. Generally do as little as you need to get what you want. There is some creative use of delay and convulsion but the general premise of the track is simple.

Starkid84 is spot on, too many people want to stack on too many things on top of a sound that is already perfectly good enough on it's own.

If you can make something with as little mixing or post processing as possible it is a bigger achievement than adding it in later.

 

Yeah I can display a few here. Really, my inspiration is the weeknds producer, illangelo. I've seen all of his production videos but he seems to "overmix" and applies 1,000 plugins to achieve one sound lol. But some of his techniques have helped. I just feel I'm lacking that pro sound, and have to fight daily to realize the LESS mixing the better, since it should already sound good with the arrangement, sweeps, drop, etc.

Here are a few of my tracks. (I recently posted Synth Sinners for advice/thoughts) I appreciate all of your comments/advice. LOL at the perfume Ad music. But I mean, its working for him, hes gotten placements and gets outstanding revenue from his music

 

How on Gods Green Earth do you come to the finding that this is a great mix? It's not. I've listened to it in my calibrated room and the whole bassfield is just wrong. Kick is overdominating the entire mix, and the bass in contrast is drowning.

No - this is not a good mix at all, sorry.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 19, 2021

I know he uses GMS in fl studio for the reese bass as he told me. But he won't tell me anything about his mixing and swears he doesn't mix the songs. I have asked this before, but all of his songs have a consistency to them that I admire

He said he uses ozone and a limiter for the master, and doesn't even mix most of the time.

I'm thinking its obviously lots of reverb, vocals from splice/exhale and whatnot. But it's always so CLEAN. All of them. I really want my mixes to have a consistency in the mix like these.

I do hiphop.trap/rnb and pop. I'm trying to have my songs sound a lot more professional. But they just aren't there yet. Any advice?

This is a link to mine

 

1 - download sample packs

2 - stack samples

done.

There's nothing impressive there and I wouldn't be surprised if there was no effort put into mixing, you can just stack samples, tweak the volumes a bit, pitch, etc. If there's effort put into it and they're simply choosing you no to tell anything about it I'd say be careful, it's not worth your time and they're an asshole.

 

He claims that he doesn't use ANY samples. And he has plaques, he's worked with big name artists so maybe he has a large ego. It was kind of an assholish thing to not disclose anything about his process. A lot of big time producers are secretive though.

What would you personally consider a good mix? and good techniques to apply to get a "pro" sound. I know its ultimately EQ and compression mostly though

 

Well that really depends on his definition of "mixing". If within an instrument you add reverb, compression, eq and whatever, instead of adding it afterwards, is that mixing? Or is it part of the intrument's sound?

There's reverb and definetively some level fiddling, so while he may not do mixing as a separate stage, the mixing could be done from the instruments themselves. Something as simple as changing the level of an instrument (from within the instrument) to fit better with the rest could be considered mixing. So saying he "doesn't mix it" is pretty ambiguous to me.

But on to the useful stuff. I'd dare to say his beats are very lightly compressed (if at all, could be effect of the limiter), while yours has quite a bit of compression. I think that's the number one thing to look into if you want to get that sound. That said, i liked yours more.

 

its down to the Sound selection.

goes a long way

in your song you linked.
Try change the kick and snare, and see how different it can make everything else feel as a whole.
as of now, the snaresound lacks personalty . the kick sounds like its from a different genre.

 

Have I got any ideas? Well yes a slightly tongue in cheek one. ..Put photos of beautiful women on the front.. Nobody will care what the mix sounds like! Worked for him!

 

there is no mix here , just keep it simple with few layers , choose high quality sounds that work together , eq and volume fader are your friends

 

Good samples, good and straight forward composition, not many elements.

 

I'd claim it's bullshit, unless they're recording their vocal lines (which I doubt). I don't even know why being secretive with this type of music, generic type of beat with the simplest of arrangements and mixing choices, it's not something new or unusual, quite the opposite. Like people said, sound selection, tweak volume, basic eq, compression here and there, limit. Done. I've made a couple of songs like that just for fun in a matter of a few hours, it's cool if you can learn how to do that so you can sell it, people actually buy this type of music quite a lot.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2022

I thought so too, i really dont understand why ppl consider these as good music and taking it as an example.

There is a saying if u want to learn about the artist who inspired u, u should first start learning their influences.
or somethin like tat.

Anyway the song that is posted kinda reminded me of the La Tour song (one of my favs) which was popularized by the movie Basic instinct,

Im not saying "its the best song ever learn from it" im just saying consider music like these too, u ll learn much more.

oh and a fav soundtrack from that movie

 

What do you mean drier? less compression or distortion?

also,Any advice or videos for working on low end?

Ironically, the genre I work in is hiphop/trap and I still struggle the most with low end. 808s are never hitting quite so hard, although I soft clip/use saturation or distortion, dynamic EQ, sidechain, etc. And my songs never have that professional "clarity". It always feels like they're submerged or under a blanket lol