Mixing a Hip Hop Vocal Into an Instrumental (The Instrumental) [2 of 7]

Welcome back to How to Mix a Hip Hop Vocal & Instrumental.   In this article we will be exploring what was done to the actual Instrumental while mixing this record. What are we trying to achieve? So there were a couple issues with the beat that we needed to address but we had to be careful because the goal was […]

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Mixing a Hip Hop Vocal Into an Instrumental (Intro) [1 of 7]

This is the introdution to the newest series I put together called How to Mix a Hip Hop Vocal & Instrumental.  In this series I use mostly stock plugins but I also feature the new Manny Marroquin Signature Series Plugin Bundle by Waves.  I tried to find a way to do the entire mix with […]

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How to Find the Tempo of an Instrumental in 7 Steps [Pro Tools]

Today, I wanted to talk about finding the tempo of an instrumental in Pro Tools.  This is probably the first thing I do when I get a session that has a two track instrumental with multiple vocal tracks.  It’s important to the process of mixing and tracking because it helps with: Copy and paste functions […]

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Subtractive EQ – DON’T BOOST and SWEEP!!!

First I just wanted to put it out there that this post is not about having a love affair with subtractive EQ because I do boost a lot.  I’m just trying to give another alternative to boosting and sweeping. Don’t boost and sweep? So everything I have learned about finding problem frequencies is completely wrong? […]

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M/S Processing

I wanted to cover this a bit because it is a segue into my next video project. M/S processing is also referred to as Mid/Side processing. So in order to not confuse people and also to not embarrass myself, I’ll be giving a pretty basic explanation. Another reason is because I don’t like to complicate […]

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Compressing Vocals PART 4 (Parallel Compression)

So lets sum it all up: PART 1 – We talked about using compression like sand paper PART 2 – We talked about how to use the compressor to push sounds behind the vocals PART 3 – We discussed how to use a limiter to keep a vocal part in check (Peak Limiting) So in […]

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Mixing Kick and Bass Without EQ

 When we think of how to mix our kick and bass, the first thing that usually comes to mind is… how are we going to treat the extreme low-end sub frequencies?   Although it is important to get the low-end right, I believe that that is just the tip of the iceberg for the kick […]

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Compressing Vocals PART 3 (Limiting)

The other 3 parts in this compression series: PART 1: Compressing Vocals PART 1 (Sand Paper Theory) PART 2: Compressing Vocals Part 2 (Ducking) PART 4: Compressing Vocals PART 4 (Parallel Compression) Welcome back!  So in Part 1 of this compression series we discussed the theory of using a compressor like sand paper and in […]

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(Review) Native Instruments – DRIVER

This plugin actually did much more than I expected.  However It’s a bit on the technical side, which is a bummer. I really think that manufacturers should keep plugins as simple as possible yet still be able to push boundaries.  None the less, they have a lot of presets which should keep you busy.  This […]

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Compressing Vocals Part 2 (Ducking)

The other 3 parts in this compression series: PART 1: Compressing Vocals PART 1 (Sand Paper Theory) PART 3: Compressing Vocals PART 3 (Limiting) PART 4: Compressing Vocals PART 4 (Parallel Compression) In Compressing Vocals PART 1 (Sand Paper Theory).  We discussed how to use the compressor as if it were sand paper, helping those […]

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Compressing Vocals PART 1 (Sandpaper Theory)

The other 3 parts in this compression series: PART 2: Compressing Vocals Part 2 (Ducking) PART 3: Compressing Vocals PART 3 (Limiting) PART 4: Compressing Vocals PART 4 (Parallel Compression) When I think about when I should use compression there’s four ways that come to mind.  Now at the time of this posting these are my go […]

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