Blend Mastering!

[fain]

When i listen to mixes from the "top mixers" like dante, rizzle, dj dant etc. i recognize they sound much better then mine.
So what do you do before or after you mix the acapella with the beat?
And what do you do when you have different acapellas and you want to adjust the volume?
Do you use vocal compressors or just your ears?

 

[Preach]

earlier i used to "master" my beat, then make the acapella fit. now i master my beat more so it fits the acapella in terms of where stuff is placed and frequencies.

if you use an industry instrumental you normally don't have to do much to it because normally it's compressed and mastered like it's supposed to be. unless it's a tape/vinyl rip. then you may need to eq it.

for the acapella, there's so much you can do. you have to be careful with compression because it makes pac look different. abatino, for instance, used a lot of compression on both his acapellas and instrumentals which gave his mixes a unique sound, but it doesn't make the beat and pac's voice sound like it was meant to. it's a good effect if you play the tracks at parties or clubs, but not when you're high and chilling to some music in your headphones, for example.

eq and reverb is pretty much all i use on vocals, plus some minor compression on acapellas that sound uncompressed.

i'm strictly talking about remixing now.

 

[fain]

thx rizzle..yes they do master their beats otherwise they wouldn'd sound that "good"

 

[Preach]

I always wondered, do big time producers like Scott Storch, etc. master their beats before they send them out to people?

i believe they mix them, but in the industry i don't think it's normal to compress a beat and then compress the entire mix, so i would have to say no, they are mixed but not mastered.

the entire mix with the vocals included is mastered by a mastering engineer, which is the final step of the artistic process of making an album.

and what i obviously meant in my first post was that compression makes pac SOUND different, not look different. lol.