Born in the heart of America, in New York City, it has conquered the world and grown into a huge family of sub-genres. Hip-hop mixing and mastering services is one of our favorites, and the most requested. Almost every day we send a ready-for-distribution hip-hop song to compete in the music world. We’ll give your future hip-hop hit the power and energy it deserves!
Hip hop mixing and mastering that produce results
Well-balanced music. Your music will be mixed well and you’ll hear that it sounds professional. We’ll create for you a record that is ready to compete in the music industry.
Powerful 808 bass and kick drum. This is the basis of Hip-hop music. We join them seamlessly so that both of them are absolutely clear and energetic in the mix
Clear and charismatic vocal. We clean your vocal and add the needed plugins to it. It will sound upfront, distinct, and impressive.
Catchy sound from the first second. Our knowledge and vast experience allow us to create the sound that catches the attention from the first seconds.
Industry-level and competitive mixing. To stand out among other songs today, your music must be of the highest quality! We have the experience to professionally prepare your future chart-topper for success.
Check out some of our mixing and mastering before and after samples. See for yourself!
Mastering hip hop for a streaming platform
We also master hip-hop songs for release on different platforms, particularly, for Spotify and iTunes. Each streaming service has different requirements for master records and normalizes songs differently. We prepare songs professionally so they could sound perfect on the platforms.
Mastering for iTunes, we create the record according to the requirements of Apple Digital Masters. Major Mixing is on ADM providers list, we have all needed certifications. Having mastered your hip-hop song for iTunes with us, you will be able to receive an Apple Digital Master badge.
How do I get my hip-hop song mixed and mastered?
Want your future hip-hop hit mixed and/or mastered? Whatever option you need, it’s simple and easy. Just place the order or drop us a line if you have any questions. You will receive your song in 3 days or earlier.
The price can be calculated directly in the order window, so you will know the exact amount without any hidden fees. And guess what, you have up to three free reviews, so should you want to change something in the mix, you can tell us and we’ll do it. Mix your future hit with us and receive the industry-level music to grow your career.
Professional hip-hop mixing and mastering services by Major Mixing
This unique genre needs the most professional techniques for mixing and mastering. Because of its aggressive and rich sound, hip-hop is very vulnerable to sound fighting, masking, and creating a mess in the record. Some other genres that may have a moderate bass sound, and a clear, free place for vocal frequencies will have a simpler mixing procedure, but not hip-hop. That’s why it should be mixed and prepared for release by professional sound engineers.
The majority of the orders for mixing and mastering we get here, at Major Mixing, are different kinds of hip-hop songs.
Over the years, we developed our own approach to mastering hip-hop and creating industry-level hits that sound loud, clear, and captivating. We know how to capture your listener’s attention from the first notes because the quality of the sound is everything, especially for this genre. Our customers sign contracts with record labels and their careers grow.
Contact us with your hip-hop song for mixing and/or mastering, or ask any questions, we’ll be happy to help.
What we do at our hip-hop mixing and mastering studio to achieve success.
We have worked with hip-hop for many years and know how to mix and master this and similar genres to the industry level.
Mixing 808 bass and kicks
The sound of 808 bass is huge and kicks are also big, so the question is how to set them correctly in balance so that they won’t fight with each other.
Well, at first, we use equalizer and other plugins to clean the bass and kicks and make them more powerful and substantial. We remove the frequency ranges that are not needed for them, creating more room for other elements in the mix.
Then we check if bass and kick can stay in separate frequency bands. Rarely, but sometimes it happens, that by removing the bottom frequencies of the kick and the top frequencies of the bass, we can manage to separate them.
If the frequency bands of these instruments overlap, and we can not separate them, other tricks must be used for creating space for them. Because we know that waves with overlapping frequencies can resonate positively, creating louder spots, they can also resonate negatively, destructing each other, or they can just mask each other. In either way, you’ll not receive a piece of clear, beautiful music.
The general rule for processing 808 bass and kicks is to make the bass quieter at the time spans when the kick hits. We choose the way to work with the beats depending on the song, but usually, we pick one of the following:
- We edit the 808 track manually, creating spaces for kicks to hit
- Use sidechain compression
- Use multiband sidechain compression
Sidechain compression is a type of compression that affects the instrument depending on the volume of another instrument. In our case, the sidechain compression we use will affect the 808 bass depending on the volume of the kicks. So the bass will be made quieter when the kick becomes louder. This will create room for kicks.
Multiband sidechain compression is the most sophisticated approach and we use it most often. This is a frequency-specific compression, that applies the effect only to a certain frequency band. In our case, we choose the band for the bass that interferes with kicks the most, the lower frequencies, and put sidechain compression on it. This unites the bass and the kick, and at the same time creates space for the kick.
The goal is to have the bass and the kick integrated and form a clear, consistent harmony.
Preparing vocal track
First, we work carefully with the vocal. The lead vocal is the central part of the mix, it’s mixed in mono and placed in the center. What we do:
- Remove unwanted frequencies from the vocal
- Perform de-essing and cleaning
- Enhance, enrich the vocal greatly with various plugins and move it to the front
Then we prepare backing vocals. We move them to the sides so that they create the surrounding and width.
Mixing vocals and hats
Another challenge when mixing hip-hop songs is to unite the expressive hats with the vocal. The high-end frequencies of the vocal are emphasized, the voice is bright, loud, and compressed, and the loud hats fall to a similar frequency range.
Working on the vocal, you should make it very upfront, distinct and clear. As in rap, words are important in hip-hop, and so is clarity. We use compression, equalizer, and other plug-ins on the vocal track to make it upfront in the mix, loud and clear.
The hats will interfere with the vocal, so, similar to working on bass, you’ll need to use equalizer or sidechain compression to achieve a clean and distinct sound on the high-end.
Besides that, for mixing hip-hop, we may use all the plug-ins, effects, and tricks that we use for mixing pop music, or other genres. The majority of the popular songs now tend to acquire some hip-hop traits, and modern hip-hop also got influenced a lot by pop music.
Things we keep in mind while mastering hip-hop
As low and high frequencies are amplified, they are highly susceptible to distortion while mastering, this is the main thing the best hip-hop mastering engineer would be careful about. At the same time, if you suppress bass and vocal frequencies to process the record without the risk of distortion, you can lose the emphasis on 808 and vocal, and this will ruin the song. It should be mastered loud, keeping the high and low ends elevated, but without distortion.
Another problem for hip-hop mastering is that highly elevated low and high ends, together with the aggressive loudness, will not sound well on every device. The desired LUFS for hip-hop mastering is high. Consumer-level speakers are simply not designed to reproduce the overamplified high and low ends and will distort the sound. As most of the audience will probably use consumer-level speakers, we consider the equipment limitations while mastering hip-hop music, making the song sound as good as possible for every device, not only for a professional speaker system.
As a result of mixing and mastering hip-hop, we receive a clean but loud song, where the bass and kick are in harmony, and at the same time, hats don’t mess with the vocal. The high-end and low-end frequencies are emphasized greatly. And the overall loud and powerful song does not contain unwanted distortion.
How do I prepare my hip-hop song for mixing and mastering?
If you have this question, it’s awesome! Because it means that you are trying to create something amazing, an artwork, that will inspire people.
The song production includes certain steps. Each of which has to be done well for the song to become a potential hit.
- Creating a song idea
- producing music (or beat)
- Writing lyrics
- Rapping or singing
- Recording
- Mixing
- Mastering
- Release
Writing a hip-hop song
Hip-hop is a wonderful genre, using which you can tell a whole story with the lyrics. By writing the lyrics your audience can relate to, you increase the chances for your song to become loved and appreciated.
The core element in a hip-hop song is the hook in the lyrics. It can be in the chorus or in the verse as well. You need to create a catchy line or lines your fans will love and sing along to.
Many people appreciate hip-hop songs for their ability not only to open up their everyday struggles but also give them the strength to keep going. And what gives hope and strength to people is just realizing that they are not alone in the struggle, that someone else has gone through the same things and can relate to the experience.
Rap and hip-hop songs are excellent means to tell the story in the lyrics. It doesn’t mean though that you have to write about yourself, put everything in your bio, or make your bio into a song. Remember that the honest artist is not the one who tells everything about himself in the performance, but rather the one who gives all of himself to the performance.
The quality of the music
Whether you choose a ready beat, or create it yourself, all the sounds you use have to be of the highest quality. They must sound great without effects to give more scope for shaping them with different plugins while mixing.
Hip-hop is all about rhythm, kick and bass. The beat must be as engaging, energetic, and even aggressive as possible. If you don’t catch yourself moving your head with the beat, your fans won’t do it either.
By the way, if you are struggling with choosing music for a hip-hop song, we have an awesome beat-making service. We can select an experienced producer for you, who will professionally create the music you need.
Recording a hip-hop song
We live in the time when everyone can create a recording studio in their bedroom and then share their creation with the world. Where there is a will, there is a way. But not many artists know that the high quality of recording is one of the key elements in creating a good song.
There is a rule in music production that states that most of the mistakes can only be corrected on the level they appeared. This means that if you make a mistake at the stage of recording and use a bad microphone, for example, then nobody will be able to correct the poor quality of your music with mixing or mastering.
Use the best equipment, or record in a professional studio to produce the song that people will love and appreciate.
Rapping the lyrics well can be tricky, it requires skills and practice. It’s usually the unique individual style of rapping and intonations that do the trick and get in the hearts and minds of the audience. Practice and create your perfect style within the genre.
Mixing and mastering your song
After everything is recorded, the song must be mixed and mastered. Working with hip-hop is challenging but rewarding, because, when done correctly, it results in a possible top-chart hit.
Almost all popular music right now has some hip-hop traits. Here are some of the features that have to be dealt with while mixing and mastering hip-hop:
- Heavily compressed kicks
- The 808 bass
- Loud hats
- Amplified low-end and high-end frequencies
- Upfront and emphasized vocal
It is a challenging genre. What you don’t want to get after mixing and mastering, and, by the way, is quite easy to receive without using professional hip-hop mixing studio, is a muddy sound, masked vocal, and too loud, distorted bass. The mix can easily build into a chaos of loud instruments and voices where heavy 808 basses can even damage the speakers.
Artists can mix their songs themselves, but to learn how to match the industry standards takes years. You may know what sound qualities you wish to obtain as a result of mixing hip-hop, but what plugins to use to achieve it? What settings to apply? Here works the similar rule as in every other industry – everything should be done by a specialist in this particular field. Otherwise, the quality of the product will suffer.
To avoid the troubles and amateur low-quality sound, it’s a great idea to work with a professional audio engineer who has skills and good experience in hip-hop mixing and mastering. Mix and master your song here, at Major Mixing hip-hop mixing and mastering service, to get the best results and an industry-level song.
Mix and master your hip-hop song with us
For the last several years, hip-hop has been taking the top places of music charts. Leading in the USA charts since 2017, it is also incredibly popular all over the world. Hip-hop has greatly influenced many other genres, and of course, pop music, as well.
Mix and master your hip-hop song with us professionally, and give it a chance to overcome the high competition on the market and become popular.
Contact us now and we’ll be happy to help! We are interested in your success.
