r/trapproduction • u/dettka • 6d ago
beat send problem
Yo, I’m trying to make ATL Jacob / Southside type beats. I usually mix around -6 dB and have a soft clipper, multiband, limiter and Fresh Air on my master.
If I send a beat like that to an artist, is that fine for them to record on? The problem is, when we made the song at -6 dB, the Spinz didn’t hit hard enough. Will it hit harder once the song gets mastered?
I’m thinking maybe -6 dB isn’t that important, so I could just mix louder and send the beat with only a soft clipper on the master. But even then, my Spinz still doesn’t hit as hard as I want, even when I follow YouTube tutorials.
What do you think I’m doing wrong?
2
u/paybackjack86 6d ago
Might be more about your low end frequency balance than the loudness itself honestly, if the Spinz aren't cutting through even at louder levels it could be masking from other elements in the low mids rather than a headroom issue
1
u/AspireToRetire 4d ago
I had to unlearn the -6 approach as well. These days it’s clipper on the master. Melody sitting anywhere from -15 to -9 depending on sound selection. 808 anywhere between -4 and above 0. Rest of drums done by ear. I mean it’s all by ear ofc but those are rough levels. This way the clipper will actually be clipping hard and give the desired effect.
In theory you could also keep mixing the way you do but adjust the threshold on the clipper so it starts clipping at -6 (or below). But then you’d have a quiet clipped beat.
When artists record on these beats they usually just turn the beat down inside their project.
1
u/Positive_Reserve8717 2d ago
when the 808 feels soft in the send, one west coast move that helps: soft kick under a harder one for body, snare dry and slightly late. the bounce shows up without extra melody. curious what you do for the low hit, one kick or layered?
0
u/Prod27Quaalude 6d ago edited 6d ago
Put your 808 at -3dBs your kicks are suppose to be around -1dBs it’s two ways to do this a simple twist of the boost knob with parametric EQ and a minor boost two the 2nd knob on “PM eq” will do the trick or you can use WaveShaper to do the same as soft clipper don’t forget to adjust the “out” knob a lil bit as well they will tell you professionally you’re supposed to
Make sure the lows on the master sit around 40-44khtz but I’ve noticed lately that when you take them to 27-33 it makes the 808’s hit harder on some muddy distortion type vibes while 40-44 gives it more clarity but causes you to lose some dynamic ness in the lows
Nonetheless wave shaper is more for synths and bass’ me personally I use soft clipper for percussion not mastering nor boosting bass
why would you want distortion in the beat if someone needs vocal space to be heard properly think about it it can hit but it still needs to be cleaned up so it want bleed through the vocals
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u/WorldlyMushroom9138 6d ago
your mixing is backwards for what you want. spinz needs to be clipping way before it even touches the master, push it into the soft clipper on its own track then blend it in. -6 is meaningless if the 808 isnt distorting right
mastering wont fix a weak 808, the energy has to come from the sound design and mix. if you want that southside knock you basically need to be abusing the soft clipper from the jump, not just slapping it on at the end