How to Watch the Meters in a Rap Song

Video Transcript

"So now we're going to talk about looking at the meters. Looking at the meters is so important because you can tell if it's being compressed too much or what I was showing you earlier was the meters. You saw it jumping up and down. A lot of times in your mixes you want the meters to be jumping. Why? Because that shows, that gives the song a little bit more of a feel. If you put too much compression on it, the meters will kind of just stay at one level and it won't jump so much and it gives like a real, real hard feel. But when you're mixing a song, let the meters jump up a little bit. You should, you should see it, the kit, when the kit comes, the kit should jump and then the snare should jump and it'll give the wave kind of following. If you could look at it on certain programs, you'll see the wave following and it'll kind of go up and down. You want to have that in your mixes because, like I said, it gives the song more of a feel. When you compress stuff too much, then it gives it like a sound like a, just a flat sound. Everything is just so compressed and then it starts getting muffled. But look at your meters. If your meters are bouncing pretty well during the mix, then you know you've got you a pretty good mix. But make sure everything sounds they way you want it to sound. Add compression because compression does help, but you don't want to add too much where the meters stop bouncing. So just look at your meters when you're recording. Make sure everything is bouncing up and down and you'll get that same feel, and people when they listen to the song, they'll get that same feel of just moving because music has to be up and down. Rap music needs to just kind of like go up and down. When that kick hits, it needs to just hit and then everything else rise and when it hits again, it needs to hit and people need to feel the kick. And the things that you want jumping is the stuff that you want them to feel like the kick and like the snare, and like the vocals. Just continue the mixer and look at the meters and once the meters are right, then go on to move the the next thing."