the "this isn't mixed/mastered" excuse

I think producers (or beat makers) who were actually working DJ's tend to have a better perspective on the make it sound good as you do.

Think bad to the days of cassette tapes and how we manages to create tapes that sounded good when played in a live set.
You knew what sounded good and just worked to get your mixes and tracks to sound that way.

IMO opinion the biggest problem we have now is people have too many magic tools so most don't take the time to actually get a good sound.
Seems like the expectations is instant success by throwing a big name plug in on something.

It's amazing how when have all these great new tools yet people don't make the most of it.

I know people have different levels of ability but some don't even make the effort.

Notice how many people brag about how many beats than can in a hour, day etc?
It because they don't think about creating finished product since someone else will clean up the mess.

I guess step 1 on getting better results (in anything) is to take ur time and work harder on it.
Looking for excuses won't get u anywhere..

Also , if you can, learn from those who know more than you do.

some idea's on mastered vs. unmastered:::

An original mix should be listened to loudly, in order to feel the effect of the intention.

I think an unmastered song played loudly ends up with a better sound than a compressed song played medium.

It just makes a big difference. You want to actually push the amp and speakers and fill the room---- not squeeze the source to get as much juice out of a smaller dose of electricity.

I just suggest that if you really are listening to music, turn it up. in a car this can be toned down a little bit since u are so close to the speakers, but over all, an uncompressed album will sound better will all it's dynamics intact at a higher volume than a mixed, mastered, compressed, ect track at medium.

2 cents

consider that turning up a volume on a stereo in practice actually compresses the sound. there's a limit of how loud it can get, and by turning it up loud you can get a full, compressed sound out of an unmastered mix.

I wish my albums had been released unmastered sometimes because it just bumps better if you just 'turn it up!'

what youre saying kinda makes sense in terms of MASTERING... but NOT mixing...

it has to be mixed well to sound good, regardless... if its mixed like shit and frequencies are clashing, etc theres no way its gonna sound good no matter how loud or quiet.

in terms of limitting, compressing, maximizing, whatever.. yea that does make sense.. and not over do-ing it is key.. but MIXING is always important..

you can "mix" someone without even touching EQ if you can tell what sounds blend together well by ear.. i dont mean u gotta go in and **** with EQ im just sayin, the MIX of the track always matters.. even if its unmastered..

levels (volume) and mix (frequencies) always matter when it comes to how dope the beat is

es-k wrote:what are your thoughts on this? ......

ok end rant lol

I say if this was the only excuse I used, I'd be doing really well. Generally my excuses include the following;

1. I was just messing around with this one
2. i was drunk
3. I was drunk and messing around
4. I was drunk and messing around and then got food poisoning
5. I put this together in 15 minutes
6. I don't know what the **** I'm doing
7. I'm an idiot
8. I'm an idiot and don't know what the **** I'm doing and I was drunk
9. I've only been making beats for like 7 years, but 6 of those I spent in off-topic forums at mpc-forums viewing Bread's otter videos
10. I'm so stupid (hitting head over and over again)
11. I wasn't really feeling this one...what do you think?
12. This is an odd time signature and I wasn't really feeling this one
13. I was really distraught over the Canibus fail and it just ruined my flow
14. I don't flow, this was my 13 year old niece. Yeah she has a retainer that makes her lisp
15. Okay yeah it was me rapping but I was just playing the fool
16. I'm a **** idiot and I don't know what I'm doing

es-k wrote:you can "mix" someone without even touching EQ

I agree, but in order to do so you it has be recored and played extremely well. I had gotten my hands on a old Marvin Gaye song that was un-mixed and it sounded beautiful as is. I didn't have to do much to it to make it sound better. I could have left it as is and it still would have sounded amazing un-mixed.

JDSY wrote:consider that turning up a volume on a stereo in practice actually compresses the sound. there's a limit of how loud it can get, and by turning it up loud you can get a full, compressed sound out of an unmastered mix.

I wish my albums had been released unmastered sometimes because it just bumps better if you just 'turn it up!'

the whole point of mastering is t translate your mix transparently and only make it louder. a good mastering engineer can do this.
it sounds like your having a psycho-acoustic type thing going on. it doesnt really sound worse when you master if its done right, i think you might have just taught yourself that.

[quote="MeSoHordey"]

I say if this was the only excuse I used, I'd be doing really well. Generally my excuses include the following;

8. I'm an idiot and don't know what the **** I'm doing and I was drunk

^this is awesome

MeSoHordey wrote:

es-k wrote:what are your thoughts on this? ......

ok end rant lol

I say if this was the only excuse I used, I'd be doing really well. Generally my excuses include the following;

1. I was just messing around with this one
2. i was drunk
3. I was drunk and messing around
4. I was drunk and messing around and then got food poisoning
5. I put this together in 15 minutes
6. I don't know what the **** I'm doing
7. I'm an idiot
8. I'm an idiot and don't know what the **** I'm doing and I was drunk
9. I've only been making beats for like 7 years, but 6 of those I spent in off-topic forums at mpc-forums viewing Bread's otter videos
10. I'm so stupid (hitting head over and over again)
11. I wasn't really feeling this one...what do you think?
12. This is an odd time signature and I wasn't really feeling this one
13. I was really distraught over the Canibus fail and it just ruined my flow
14. I don't flow, this was my 13 year old niece. Yeah she has a retainer that makes her lisp
15. Okay yeah it was me rapping but I was just playing the fool
16. I'm a **** idiot and I don't know what I'm doing

You need to get this made into a poster and get tutor to sell them on the MPC-samples site....this shit is as classic as those gearslutz "engineer" YouTube vids!

ya man! that is so hilarious

honestly..i hadnt thought about proper mixing until this last year...i finally took the time to learn( after fifteen years of making beats as a hobby) tonight i finally finished my first beat thats properly mixed...and **** myself it sounds so much better then my previous work....

heres were the work comes in though...now after hearing how professional it sounds...i am really hating my old stuff..love the beats but hate the quality....i am going to go through and attempt to bring atleast my recent stuff up to par..


for so many years ive had the...why bother attitude.....man i was missing out....

thanks to you guys who chimed in this post and es k for starting it....i seriously have tried every single tecnique posted and this information is invaluable..props

I love to mix, its like solving a puzzle to put all the sounds in the right positions. Normally, when I sample, I EQ and pan them in so its banging from the get-go when I play the pads. Then I track out each layer to my multitracker where I fiddle with the volumes of each track, I only EQ if unwanted frequencies are lurking in the track, so its cut or boost at this point before the final mixdown. Final mixdown is where I record the song without none of the tracks clipping.

Ill-Green wrote:I love to mix, its like solving a puzzle to put all the sounds in the right positions. Normally, when I sample, I EQ and pan them in so its banging from the get-go when I play the pads. Then I track out each layer to my multitracker where I fiddle with the volumes of each track, I only EQ if unwanted frequencies are lurking in the track, so its cut or boost at this point before the final mixdown. Final mixdown is where I record the song without none of the tracks clipping.

thats the exact tecnique i used today and i loved it..i also noticed when i did my final mixdown it went hella faster and easier because most of the stuff was already setup properly..

i reworked this beat:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=156618

useing some of the tecniques people talked about in here...and am very happy with the results.

I think this point also brings up another issue.

When I hear someone say "awe man I could get such a good sound if I had ______ "

I did this for a long time, constantly buying new hardware hoping that it was the fix that I was looking for. When really I wasn't spending the time required to learn what I had and make the shit i was making sound dope.

"This isn't mixed or masted" is an excuse that can seem to justify buying new hardware and making yourself believe your shit could be better provided you had the right equipment.

Nowadays, I strive to get the best out of the box. I don't degrade the value or integrity of my MPC by saying that some other piece of equipment will make it better. I still buy gear but i don't buy gear because i think it is what I need to make my music sound "better". I buy it because its fun and I enjoy the possibilities and learning new techniques.

Anyways, thats my piece for today haha.