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In terms of mixing rap vocals, I am wondering if I could possibly do this myself once I get better at it, or if it is much better to just pay to have it done. Some guy at a local studio said he'd do it for $400 per song and there is no way I'm doing that.

I'm thinking of doing a 5-7 song EP and if I'm just doing rap vocals, I'm not sure why I would need to pay someone THAT much just to mix the vocals... Right now, the beats I'm leasing aren't tracked out, and I'm wondering if I should spend the extra money to get the leased beats tracked out and if that will make a difference in the quality of music or not...

I'm definitely on a budget. Thus me not wanting to spend the $30 extra per beat just to get them tracked out because I'm not sure if that's necessary. And I know everything adds up so I'm trying to be as thrifty as possible right now.

I know that I won't be making my money back selling this EP on CDBaby (or other sites that are better, if you guys know of any please recommend some) or whatever for awhile if I ever do (I know I'll be lucky if I even push 100 units haha). Anyways, any information on mixing would be great. My understanding of mixing is like compression, EQ, Reverb, stuff like that.

If there are sites/videos for tips on mixing I will definitely try it myself. I did the compression which sounded good, but when I tried the EQ and Reverb it didn't turn out so great lol. Thanks!

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Comments

natural Thu, 02/17/2011 - 20:42

Yes, I agree. $400 is a little overpriced to mix a vocal to an already mixed backing track. 2 hours should be plenty if there's no more than 4 vocal tracks. So it should come closer to $150.00. (ok- maybe $200 or so total if the vocal tracks were poorly recorded, not organized well, or need a lot of editing- Of course, if you're going to be adding special fx, autotune type fx, stuttering, splicing, clean version, dirty version, that would probably take another hour or two, so maybe $350.00 total, tops. )

Of course, if the $400.00 price is the only guy in town, then I guess you're stuck mixing it yourself, since you said that there was no way you would spend that kind of money.
But you really should be able to get 'er done for $350.00 or less.

gdoubleyou Fri, 02/18/2011 - 12:38

kb7, post: 364753 wrote: Okay that all makes sense. And in terms of getting a beat tracked out instead of just getting the beat all in one track, how important is that?

Very important, it allows you to make adjustments during the mix process.

You have to decide how important your project is to you, because it will take time and practice to develop the skill to produce a good mix.
Most likely you won't get it right the FIRST time.

Will your time and money be better spent hiring someone to mix for you?