rapping over masterd beats mixing

i understand that when i want to record over masterd beats that the beat is going to be a 0 DB level. but i hear people say i need to just lower the volume of the beat to leave room for my vocals so i can properly and better set the volume/panning of my vocals. could i possibly do this with headphones since its just fixing the vocals instead of me mixing a bunch of tracks and instruments. or would i still need to use my studio monitors for the mixing of the vocals,comprerssion,eq over the masterd beats. i dont have a properly treated room yet so thats why im asking. i am still going to of course use my monitors while im doing all of this. or should i just use my studio monitors for doing all of this regardless of the room treatment for this particular task

if i were you i would just mix on headphones and check on your monitors until you get proper room treatment. keep a reference mix from a cd ready and really learn how your headphones sound. there are still quite a few good mixes that are done on headphones, especially mixtape ones.

i see your logic in thinking maybe it will be "easier" to mix a 2 track to vocals, so maybe your room treatment wont matter; but in reality it doesnt matter if your beat is "mastered" and you only have a few tracks to mix, because in the end, your room isnt gonna give you an accurate representation of the sound.

with your headphones, keep in mind that your bass is gonna be a bit lacking, so be sure to check your mix on a variety of sources before your done with it.

Best to master the beat after you recorded the vocals and have it all peek at 0dB. The mastered beat should be an instrumental. Unmaster it and then lay your vocals.

I love this topic... Lol

Heres what should happen:

When your sending beats its ok to send "mastered" aka limited beats for loudness purposes but if you move forward with that production, go ahead and send another unlimited reference track to lay down your vocal or instrument preformances. Then once done, send your stems (beat, vocals, etc) to your engineer or yourself and mix that baby down. Once you have a healthy mix, send to a mastering engineer or move forward "mastering" yourself.

Pretty simple stuff. I am amazed at how much distorted material is released? Sure, its loud but you dont hear that??? Come on son!!

isnt he talking about industry instrumentals here? if thats the case, its gonna be pretty hard to get an un mastered version, but by all means, if your guy just sent you a beat with a limiter slapped on it, get that shit taken off and record/mix to the "un mastered" version.