How to Mix the Kick in a Rap Song

Series Summary

Rapping, also known as emceeing, MCing, spitting, or just rhyming, is the spoken, rhythmic delivery of rhymes and wordplay, and one of the elements of hip hop music and culture. Although the word rap has sometimes been claimed to be an acronym of the phrase "Rhythmic African Poetry", "Rhythm and Poetry", "Rhythmically Applied Poetry", "Rapping About Poetry," "Racing Always Pacing," or "Rhythmically Associated Poetry", use of the word to describe quick speech or repartee greatly predates the musical form. Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment, yet stylistically, rap occupies a gray area among speech, prose, poetry, and song.

When it comes to rap songs, the recording and mixing of the music and the vocals can make all the difference in the world. In this series of recording studio lessons, our rap mixing expert shares his tips for making a hit record. Learn how to mix the “kick” in a rap song, as well as the snare, high hat, bass line and melody. Follow Ricky B.’s helpful tips to get the vocal sound just right. Our expert shows you how to use studio tricks such as reverb and compression, as well as how to make sure you sound levels are exactly right. Watch this Expert Village series and be a star!

Video Transcript

"Now we want to talk about mixing the kick. Now the kick is the first thing you want to mix when you are mixing a rap song. Why? Because the kick most of the time is the loudest thing that you have in your song. So what you want to do is get your kick, mute everything else. Mute everything else and just have your kick something like this. That is a kick. Now you want to have your kick, you want to get your kick as loud as it could go but without distorting. So you just want to kind of fool around, adjust your kick, you want to keep fooling around with your kick, adjust it until you get it as loud as it could get without distorting. Sometimes if you have too loud, it will start clipping and you would get a distorted sound but what you want to do the first thing you want to do is mix your kick. Eq it make the bass that you want it, have the kick where you feel it. Whatever you feel for the mix for the song. But keep mixing that kick until you get the kick by itself and the way that you want it to sound. Once you have that done, then you are ready to go to the next step but just continue to listen and just listen to the kick. If it needs a little extra bass turn up the bass. If it is needs a little coming down then turn it down but just continue to fool with it mix it get it to the highest level that you can. Then you are ready to go on to the next thing. "