Hey C Life,
Alota people here might be able to tell you that I mostly record hiphop and rap semi professionally around my way.
If you have a more specific question I might be able to help you with it but in general like the music there isnt much to the hiphop mixing game.
The eisiest and most complex mix (besides vocals) is going to be the drums (beat).
easy becouse its MIDI or samples and simple to control and tweak and complex becouse its just about the only tracks the require a great amount of time in the mixing process.
The melodys are so simple and strait forward when I conceive an idea for a melody part in my head it ends up almost the exact same way on tape. That usually doesnt happen any other times but with all MIDI synth and smple melodies its easy to take an idea and create it exactly.
Besides a few of the drum instruments everything is always panned center except if your doing something special with the melodies. I like to get as intricate as i can like the big rap producers and thats why people know me hear.
When i listen to rap demos from the Badlands it makes me laugh. No wonder people around here think Im good at producing. i think some of these guys either steal all there equipment or sell for it and have no real experience or idea of how to use it or what recording IS!
Heres some general rules:
No matter what kind kick drum sound you use (realistic or
TR808 type) your going to want to keep it in the center of the stereo spectrum with no real effects like reverb or delay. Its the heartbeat of your song especially in rap so you dont want people looking to the sides or way out in back to hear the driving force.
Same with snare but you can feel free to experiment with reverbs or delays. Short times for fast songs. Longer times for slow songs. You dont want it to change the feel of the song too much.
Other drum instruments can be panned in whatever way sounds good. You could set it up like a real set but theres no real need for that in hiphop.
The melody in most rap songs usually has at least one small string synth section if it isnt the entire thing. How you experiment with that and other synths and samples is entirely up to you.
Read all over this BBS to find out about vocals, its too much to even coment on except to say make sure you have a good mic so they will sound good being the loudest pert of your recording drawing most of the attention.
One thing about the bass. Im always hearing from "people" in my basement during a mix "More bass. Itll sound better. i want to hear it boom like in big car stereos"
Remember the reason it sounds like that in car stereos is becouse of the stereos. if your mixing on your monitors or your headphones (gulp!) and theres alot of bass there, come time to listen to your CD or tape on a stereo or system and there will be too much bass! it will be really hard to keep it from rumbling if at all.
If you want a large bass sound cut the low frequencies on your mixer when your recording the real bass or synth and boost with an EQ later. Dont boost a huge amount just enough and make the bass part louder then some of the other tracks and that my make it stand out more and sound like its hitting harder.
In the end only after youve mixed quite a few songs will you know how much bass to add or subtract to get the type of bass sounds you want. Experience is the name of the game in music and any art.
I hope this is some of what you wanted and clarified a bit for ya. Like I said if you have more specific questions post or mail them and ill be happy to respond.
Good Luck
