One of the most common task when mixing the vocals to the free hip hop beats, is to find out how loud the vocal should be in the track.

If the vocals is too loud you can lose the energy from the beats and it will sound boring, and if the vocals are too low, it can be hard to hear the words.

First you need you compress the dynamic of your vocals with a compressor. Most recording software has several compressor plugins. I like to go with vintage sounding compressor plugins, like the UAD L2 plugin. Don’t compress too much. I like to compress hip hop vocals 4-6 db avarage.

To find the best level for the vocals, you should compare your mix with some of your favorite songs. Always listen a low to medium volume. If you listen too loud, you ears will fatique, or even worse, you can lose some of your hearing over time.

When finding the right level, I like to listen at low volume and to small speakers. Compare with other recordings and make sure the overall level is the same as your mix. When listen to the music first, adjust your mix so the level feels the same, and then slowly increase the level of the vocal until you clearly can hear the words. Compare again with your favorite songs, this time listening to the vocal level.

Good luck mixing…

Just uploaded a brand new free beat as you can hear in the player. Be sure to check your email for the download link.

Not a member yet?

Sign-up to the memberslist and get new free beats every month.

Very easy sign-up and no cost at all.

More free beats will arrive soon, so check back often.

When mixing your vocals with the free hip hop beats, a good pair of speakers are a must.

You can have the perfect recording, but if you can’t hear how it sound on most other systems, because you got crappy speakers, you are not going to get a great mix.

So a quality pair of studio monitors is a must. But don’t get caught up in those huge speakers with 12 – 15 inch bass. Sure they sound great in the store, because they have sound proofed the room, but at home without sound proofing it’s going to mess up your sound. The bass will bounce off your walls and celings, even with curtains and carpets installed. You need proper bass traps and measuring the room, adjusting with Eq to be able to handle deep frequencies well.

So unless you are prepared to do that, I suggest going with a small pair of good quality speakers. 90% of the time spend on mixing you will be focusing on the mid frequencies anyway. When you occasionally need to check the low frequency of the mix, use a good pair of headphones instead. Headphones can playback the low frequencies without problems.

But remember, don’t mix your entire mix using headphones only. They don’t translate well compared to when playing on speakers. The stereo perspective and depth is different on headphones, so you might end up with a mix that sounds great on headphones but dull on most speakers.

Happy mixing.

Johnny Jam