and so on my mindset when it comes to

mixing the low-end compared to vocals

you know vocals are the center of the

song they there's generally over every

style of music you're gonna have the

vocals gonna be the center is gonna be

the attention is gonna be what people

want to connect with

but in hip-hop very close second is the

bottom of the song it needs to have an

impact it needs to have an aggressive

feeling now it doesn't mean every

records the same but generally speaking

a good hip-hop record is that low end is

in you know hidden you're right it's

gonna be it's gonna be a problem so my

mindset to it is very important I put a

lot of time into making sure that's

working and also that it doesn't

ultimately interfere with with the vocal

I'm gonna play the session for you guys

to just get familiar with the way the

song goes and the way it sounds right

now

[Music]

you won't feel it bad

you will feel it babe you forgot so look

who's your basic idea of the Sonics are

there I'm just looping the hook that's

the most intense part of the record so

the first time I ever heard an  in

Miami coming out of the trunk of a car

was a record name give the DJ a break by

Dynamix - and boy I changed my life

first time I heard that I thought bass

is life so now I'm gonna move on to the

sub I'm gonna jump around a little bit

back and forth because like I said

there's a lot of relationship between

these two elements and I'm gonna show

you pretty much how I got the sub to get

those low frequencies in there and

normally I would use an our base or

something like that but in this case I

used vitamin and I'll show you why vitam

is a really cool plugin because it's

it's almost everything mashed up into

one it's not an exciter it's not an EQ

it's not a compressor it's kind of all

of it together and if you notice here I

panned everything to the middle right

here because you want some frequencies

to come mono right down the middle of

the record you never want a pan kicks

snares or I mean you could but in

hip-hop you know the strength is gonna

come from the middle from the from the

mono

[Music]

so now if you notice it almost seems

like the sub is actually going down a

little bit but what's happening here is

the tone now you gotta remember when you

have a when you have an eighth away

you're dealing with sometimes people

think oh I just got a ton of sub but the

definition of that  is not gonna come

through a laptops not gonna come through

a pair of maybe five-eighths speakers a

lot of people have at home so you got to

be very mindful of su frequencies that

are much higher than where the sub sits

in order to hear the tone because we

would all love to have $, pair of

speakers to listen to but not everybody

does

so although the low end is the sub and

it matters very much you have to pay a

lot of attention to the upper

frequencies on this on this up and this

is what I do with a vitamin here so now

I'm gonna show you real quick the blend

of both

[Music]

now if you Solo each one of these it'll

give you a good idea what you're

affecting if you see that that's a very

high frequency for the for the for the

boom but in this case I want that to

stick out I want that grit to be out

there

that doesn't mean you do it for every

record it's on this particular record I

wanted that great to stick out right now

if you notice my direct bottom is all

the way down I was just showing you what

I was affecting and what's great about

vitamin is you're able to blend back in

the original signal

[Music]

and those two elements together how I

influence the sound in these three

faders and together with my original

gives me that thick  I needed now to

bring the sub frequencies even sweeter

and nicer I love the way the jjp politic

sounds

[Music]

so you can see that there's where I

really added all that bottom of it but

beginning of it vitamin gave me the

elements sort of shaped the sound first

before I threw it through the jjp cue to

really finish it off and give it that

smooth low-end so I'm gonna go over the

kick just the way it was put together

with DZ cues a lot of people ask me

sometimes why using an EQ and then

another EQ of those other EQ and you

don't eat each one of these things have

a character to a meal either color the

sound even without doing anything you

don't do a plugin though they'll change

the way the sound sounds after years of

using this stuff for me I just love the

way certain things sounds so you have

six here for example is the first

plug-in I'm using and this is a dynamic

EQ which is basically a combination of

compression and EQ put together and in

this case I'm using it as an EQ and all

I'm doing is really just shelving out a

little bit of the low end to give the

sub now you know less interference with

the sublet the sub carry those

frequencies let this kick sort of be the

punch and if you notice I bumped up

maybe   k k and that's just to get

the attack out so that when the you got

to keep in mind when the mix is on that

kick sometimes gets lost the punch may

be there but it needs some top end so

that you can identify

oh there's where the kick is a lot of

times but people mistakes people make is

they think I want more kick and you just

really want to hear it more you don't

want it louder and level because it

throws everything off it throws the

whole relationship to between the boom

and the and the kick when all you had to

do is maybe brighten it up and bring out

the punch so that's basically what I'm

doing right here it's very subtle but

it's just that frequency I'm building up

at the top end and you'll see why the

next plug-in I went to is an SSL and I

love the e-channel

it just sounds good to me and I use this

to also bring up more so you can see on

the top end here I'm hitting it and even

you've been down there just exaggerate

that punch are the top end or the skin a

little bit more so you can really start

hearing it like bright now they may

sound crazy to you now but in the mix

it'll sound right

that's that's uh told you got to keep in

mind and then lastly I used the API and

again I love the way this API sounds it

just sounds to me like the original I

love the crunch in it and as you can see

I'm popping off another k there and

even  just to give it a little bit

more grit a little bit more more punch

so we're just together that makes I'll

play for you with it now kick is super

bright there's common mistakes that

people make a lot of times I think it's

just the approach because they assume

that you can take one sound like say the

kick and the q''-word processes do

whatever you do and it sounds great to

you and then you could do individually

the sub or the  and that'll sound

great and then you smash them together

there's all kinds of problems and that's

probably the biggest rookie mistake

people make is that you have to think

about it and in relation to each other

at the end of the day they work as one

unit because they exist in the same sort

of you know spectrum of the of the of

the sound now what's happening is I'm

sending this kick through a box to the

side chain of this f that is plugged

into where the sub is and the point of

it is to carve out a space so that my

kick sits in there correctly and they

can gel together and that's what we're

trying to do here so let me play it for

you and I'm gonna bring in the sub slow

as you can hear

[Music]

so the objective here is again is much

basis I came out of that sub and as much

of the kick punch working together and I

can get as much volume into the mix of

it and by using the side chain on the f

and allows that job to be compressed in

that frequency I'm trying to push my

kick into and then let me play it to you

real quick with the rest of the drum so

you start getting a better idea what's

going on

[Music]

that's the drum section and I'm gonna do

something for you real quick I'm gonna

bypass the plugins here so you can hear

the difference before and after this is

without the plugins so you can see the

difference is huge once you start adding

all these elements together so this is

the the approach I took with this

particular song and like I said earlier

every song is different and every

approach is gonna be different but

hopefully you learned something from

this song and how I approached it and

got the low end to feel right take care

[Music]

imagine what I can't do

going between your legs you ride in our

pocket instead let me coach your

position you know what you're missing

go ahead make a decision do deep end I'm

playing you like what it is and I'm

saying babies

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