How to Produce Hip Hop Beats: Mixing Drums

Mixing drums for Hip Hop music can be a simple process, or something that takes hours. This all depends on your level of expertise and what you are trying to accomplish. You are more likely to get the best drum mix by using drum kits that sound good already out of the package.
First, you get a hold of some good sounds. Second, you need to make sure your levels are right. Third, you need to add in your signature sounds. Fourth, you need to be aware of the MC's position in the frequency range. This article will hopefully help you mix your drums a little better to fit into your overall mix for your Hip Hop music production.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Passion for Hip Hop music.

1. Get good sounds. Whether you process the sounds until your heart's content or whether you acquire some quality drum kits, you need to have some good sounds from the very beginning. Without good sounds you will almost need to be an audio engineer to get a studio quality drum mix. A good start off point for good Hip Hop sounds is www.banginbeats.com

2. Be careful of extremes. Extremely low and high frequency sounds distort when you mix the track down to MP3, especially if they are conflicting with other sounds at the same frequency. Use any compression or bass boosters with caution. Professional engineers use a bass booster to actually minimize bass, not maximize it. Another thing professionals do is put each drum sound on its own track with its own EQ. This is so you can avoid affecting the snare with a process that was meant for the kick. This is critical when you produce Hip Hop music because the snare is supposed to snap and the bass thumps. A good place for free VST plug ins is www.gvst.co.uk.

3. Pan and automate your sounds. Digital Hip Hop music can sound stale and bland, even when the track is high energy. Most mainstream Hip Hop producers would recommend using a piece of hardware for the drums for the sole reason that the newer drum machines and keyboard workstations play a different sound depending on how hard you press the key. You can record some realistic drums with all of the humanization in one take. If you use a Digital Audio Workstation such as FL Studio or Reason, you can still accomplish these humanization effects, however it will take you a significantly longer time than with a piece of hardware. A valuable resource to pick up some good info and watch free FL Studio tutorials is www.warbeats.com.

4. Leave room for the vocals. One mistake that Hip Hop music producers often make is their drum mix will be too noisy. The end goal is to have someone vocally perform over the beat. The vocals are an instrument that has to be accounted for the same as any other. This can easily be forgotten when mixing the drums.

Resources

• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Mixing Bass
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Mixing Synths
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Mixing Samples
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Overall Mix
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Bass Drops
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: Mastering Music
• How To Produce Hip Hop Music: USB MIDI Controller
• Hip Hop Beat Production