i need help desperately

[alevy]

how are you guys doing i was wondering what are some good attack/ release settings when using a compressor for hip hop music i think im allready headed in the right direction but i was wondering what everyone else's opinon is. my settings on the waves renaissance compressor at this moment :the ratio is like 5.50 gain reduciton is in between -3 and-6 wit the peeks at -8 my threshold is -21 release 478ms attack is 40ms gain is at 9 i think the gain is set to high possibly. i need help desperately im about to get five minutes of fame on a local radio station so any input would be helpful negative or positive. thank you

 

[Massive Master]

You have a $3800 set of plugins and don't know how to use them?

 

[RhythmRmixd]

Reminds me of the time I bought a Ferrari F40 and couldn't drive a stickshift....

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Reminds me of the time I bought a Ferrari F40 and couldn't drive a stickshift....

Or the time I brought Claudia Schiffer home and couldn't...um...drive a stickshift.

G.

 

[alevy]

basically i have a lot of things beyond the plugins but it doesn't do any good if you cant crank it up as loud as needed to accurately to mixdown songs. i live with my parents and i usually dont get home until about 1 in the morning so i cant crank up my radio as loud as i want so im in the mode where i have to burn out a cd and go to my car. i do have monitors i have a booth i have everything needed i just need some assistance thats all. no matter how much i read you cant learn how to use stuff with out the appropriate hands on experience. so before anyone jumps down my back, within the next few months i plan on going to school to learn how to be a studio engineer. there are some classes they have locally but i dont know if itll be enough for me to get a professional job in neworleans a lot of people want degrees and for you to go like to new york and stuff for school. i cant
afford to go way out of town for school so any input is needed until i can get in school thank you. i love music im not some kid with no sense that expects things to happen magically. thank you guys again
anybody know of anygood studios in neworleans that may be open to helping me if so let me know

 

[Quagmire02]

It would be nice if I never had to hear another hip-hop song again, so I'm very reluctant to help you.

 

[Quantagee]

basically i have a lot of things beyond the plugins but it doesn't do any good if you cant crank it up as loud as needed to accurately to mixdown songs. i live with my parents and i usually dont get home until about 1 in the morning so i cant crank up my radio as loud as i want so im in the mode where i have to burn out a cd and go to my car. i do have monitors i have a booth i have everything needed i just need some assistance thats all. no matter how much i read you cant learn how to use stuff with out the appropriate hands on experience. so before anyone jumps down my back, within the next few months i plan on going to school to learn how to be a studio engineer. there are some classes they have locally but i dont know if itll be enough for me to get a professional job in neworleans a lot of people want degrees and for you to go like to new york and stuff for school. i cant
afford to go way out of town for school so any input is needed until i can get in school thank you. i love music im not some kid with no sense that expects things to happen magically. thank you guys again
anybody know of anygood studios in neworleans that may be open to helping me if so let me know

I mix on headphones. I like this because the bass response is really great. When my mom and dad are home, they usually stay in their bedroom. I think this because I record too loud. I know this because I saw my mom and the mailman go into my parents bedroom this morning, so it is not just my mom and dad that this happens to.
Anyway, I have the same problem and i can recommend headphones to mix. Of coarse, the mixes don't come out too good so I have to search for the problem. There are always problems.

 

[jonnyc]

I think what John was saying is you should read your manuals and learn what all those numbers mean. There isn't a "setting" for hip-hop or anything for that matter thats set in stone. Everything is different for everyone. I know you don't want to hear that answer but its the truth. Also reading the manual is required on most of these forums before you ask questions, otherwise we'll have hundreds of pirates on here asking how all the software they stole works. I know the manuals will explain stuff, even my presonus eureka manual gave me some settings to begin with.

 

[alevy]

actually i cant say i blame you hip-hop is in horrible state right now if it doesn't sound how clear channel (and company) want it to sound they wont play it so you have a bunch of young artist mimicing the popular sound so that they can get a deal and ride in the (ferraris with the stick shifts) lol
i know this place is filled with knowledgeable people come on dont throw so many tips at once lol. any info you guys extend won't be in vain. like i said i'm just trying to get some tips opinions anything you have for me from your past experiences so i can get my mixing down my goal is to at least learn something i didnt know before i posted.if it helps i have a at home studio and i just dont deal with hip-hop i do r&b to.

 

[RhythmRmixd]

When my mom and dad are home, they usually stay in their bedroom. I think this because I record too loud. I know this because I saw my mom and the mailman go into my parents bedroom this morning, so it is not just my mom and dad that this happens to.

Your mom and the mailman go into your parent's bedroom because you record too loud? Sounds suspicious....

 

[alevy]

i guess a better question would be how fast of release is too fast/slow was i right or close to a normal range on any of the setting that i listed above. did i go over board with the gain if so approximately how much. how can i post a mp3 of what i recorded. pretty much my situation is initially i starten of with a stage mic and over the past three years that stage mic in my garage has blossomed into a neaumann tlm-103 a eureka preamp echo mia sound card that is low as hell for some reason and i did read the manual i called tech support everything. i have all the equipment but as for advice on how to get the most of it no one i know can help me they are still stuck in neautral they all admire my equipment but they dont know anymore then i do. im sure i should know a lot more then i do but if you dont know u have a nitrous switch in your car why would you reach for it i just dicovered that i can do better then i have been as for my mixing. im mainly a rapper i write all day and some how i've fallen in love with the thought whole mixing thing its a challenge for me to tackle.

 

[alevy]

i cant lie rythmrmixed that thing with the mailman does sound a bit suspicous lol i hope it is because you record to loud though. (the mailman thats nasty
man lol)

 

[jonnyc]

LOL what the hell is that kid talking about, the mailman comes in his house? I think mommy is friendlier than normal. Do you ever see those bands you record go into mommies room? Anyway you said earlier you used radioshack speakers for years yet in another post you aren't even in high school and by your speech you seem very very young. And mixing in headphones is about the worst thing you can do. If you have the eureka then open the manual there are starting perameters for all kinds of situations.

 

[Zed10R]

i guess a better question would be how fast of release is too fast/slow was i right or close to a normal range on any of the setting that i listed above. did i go over board with the gain if so approximately how much. how can i post a mp3 of what i recorded. pretty much my situation is initially i starten of with a stage mic and over the past three years that stage mic in my garage has blossomed into a neaumann tlm-103 a eureka preamp echo mia sound card that is low as hell for some reason and i did read the manual i called tech support everything. i have all the equipment but as for advice on how to get the most of it no one i know can help me they are still stuck in neautral they all admire my equipment but they dont know anymore then i do. im sure i should know a lot more then i do but if you dont know u have a nitrous switch in your car why would you reach for it i just dicovered that i can do better then i have been as for my mixing. im mainly a rapper i write all day and some how i've fallen in love with the thought whole mixing thing its a challenge for me to tackle.

I have to say that you will have to follow the same path as the rest of us. You MUST use your ears. You have gear that many of us wish we had, yet you lack the basic understanding of how to use it. There is no secret recipe. There is no quick easy way to do it. There is nothing anyone can say that will all of the sudden turn your mixes into professional recordings. You MUST use your own ears and judgment and TRUST what you hear. YOU are what makes great recordings and mixes, not your gear. That is the truth.

Why would you put nitros in your car if you don't know what it's for?

BTW - mixing with headphones will not help you. And it would be good thing to work on grammar and punctuation. Good luck.

 

[alevy]

i did read the manual i dont have any probs with the pre amp its just low so i turned up the gain but i dont think i should have to do that but it works
i think its my computer i have a dell

 

[jonnyc]

Its not your computer its your mixes, many people use dells with no problems. Are you having trouble getting your mixes loud? If thats your problem then there isn't anything we can tell you other than you have to do what we all did. Work at it and practice. I used to get levels so low I had to turn my bose system all the way up. After a year of learning and reading I can get my mixes damn close to commercial levels. You just have get all your levels as hot as possible without clipping or sounding like crap.

 

[alevy]

the nitros was a bad metaphor i wasnt talking about not knowing how to use it i was trying to say that you touch it by accident maybe and your like wow i didnt know it could do that and you discover you can go faster but you dont know how fast but you can trully go faster then you have been going. im not tryna go from zero to sixty just from o to 5 just baby steps. i think i may have just made it worse lol. i understand that it wont turn magically into a well mixed song from a particular setting i just wanna know what you guys use for hip hop vocals and maybe i can use it as a starting point if my attack is at lets say 2ms at its supposed to be way at 30ms for this particular track then i am way off. im just tryna get closer (am i cold or warm) trust me i know i wont learn everything in one day like i said my goal is to take one tip and apply it. if it works good if it doesn't ill put it on my list of things not to do in my eyes thats still progress

 

[alevy]

i was inquring about the echo mia dell computer combo, has anyone else had any difficulties with it. everything going in through my mic is low it wasnt like that before when i had a cheap soundcard of course it sounds better and thats not really a problem i dont have any distortion i was wondering if anyone had that problem? where they had to apply gain to there recordings because there soundcard sounds low

 

[MadAudio]

Echo + Dell = good combo.

 

[alevy]

are there any engineers in here from the neworleans area