A home-recorded track rarely competes on streaming until it's been mixed and mastered. Simvicious, a studio in Wrexham, mixes and masters rap, drill and hip-hop so your song sounds clean, full and loud next to the records you're up against.
What mixing does
Mixing balances the vocals and the beat, clears up the muddy bits and gets your ad-libs and doubles sitting right. The aim is a track that translates: it should hold up on phone speakers as well as it does on headphones, not just on the studio monitors.
Made for the genre
Drill and rap mix differently to a live band. The 808s, the vocal up-front sound, the space around the hi-hats: that's the focus here. Because Simvicious produces this music as well, the mix is built around how the beat was meant to hit, not pulled towards a generic template.
If you still need the instrumental, you can order one through custom beats, or browse the licences on the home page.
What you send and what you get back
Send your recorded stems or vocals and get back a finished mix, or a full mix and master ready to release. If you'd rather record with me first, see recording in Wrexham, and the same ear carries the track through from the booth to the master.
Current rates are listed in the services section on the home page: beat mixing starts at $15, and a full mix and master is $99. For anything outside the standard options, send over the details and you'll get a quote.
What actually changes in a rap or hip hop mix
Most mixing advice online is written for live bands, and almost none of it survives contact with a drill or hip hop record. Three things behave differently, and they are where the time goes.
The 808 and the kick are one instrument, not two. In rap they occupy the same octave and fight for the same space, so they have to be treated as a pair. That usually means ducking the 808 under the kick so the transient still cuts, and it always means checking the 808 is actually in key with the track. An 808 a semitone out will sound like bad mixing no matter how it is EQ'd, because the problem is not the mix.
The vocal sits further forward than you think. A rap vocal carries the record. It needs to be present and intelligible over a busy beat, which is a different job from blending a singer into an arrangement. Doubles and ad-libs then have to support that lead without crowding it, which is mostly a question of placement and level rather than effects.
The top end has to survive a phone speaker. Hi-hats, open hats and the air around the vocal are where a mix either translates or collapses. A track that sounds detailed on monitors and turns into a hiss on a phone has been mixed for the wrong room, and most of this music is heard on phones.
Because the beats are produced here too, the mix is built around how the instrumental was meant to hit rather than pulled toward a generic template. If you still need the instrumental itself, that is custom beats.
What to send, so nothing has to be redone
A clean set of files saves more time than any plugin. Five things, and the first is the one people get wrong most often:
- Dry vocals. No autotune printed, no reverb, no delay baked in. If the effect is part of the sound you want, send a second copy with it and say so, but the dry take has to exist.
- Separate tracks for leads, doubles and ad-libs. All three bounced into one file cannot be unpicked later.
- The instrumental, and the stems if you have them. If the beat came from somewhere else, the stems are usually worth asking for before you start.
- Tempo and key. Both, written down. It takes ten seconds at your end and removes a guess at mine.
- A reference track. One released record that sounds like where you want to end up. This is the single most useful thing you can send, because it turns a conversation about adjectives into a conversation about a specific sound.
All files at the sample rate you recorded at, WAV rather than MP3. If you would rather record the vocals properly in the first place, that is studio recording in Wrexham, and the same ear carries the track from the booth through to the master.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between mixing and mastering?
Mixing is the balance between the parts: vocals against beat, 808 against kick, ad-libs against the lead. Mastering treats the finished mix as one file and sets its overall tone and loudness so it holds up against commercial releases. A track can be mastered and still sound wrong if the mix underneath it was not right, which is why the two are usually bought together.
Do you master hip hop and drill differently to other genres?
Yes, mostly in how much low end survives and how the vocal is treated. Rap and drill carry far more sub energy than a guitar record, and the master has to keep that without the track turning muddy after normalisation. The vocal also has to stay in front rather than sitting inside the instrumental.
Can you mix a beat I bought from someone else?
Yes. Send the instrumental, and the stems as well if the producer supplied them, because separated stems give far more control than a single stereo file. Check your licence covers what you intend to do with the finished track.
How much does mixing and mastering cost?
Beat mixing starts at $15 and a full mix and master is $99, both listed in the services section on the home page. Anything outside the standard options gets a quote once I know what you have recorded.
Do I need to be in Wrexham?
No. Files can be sent from anywhere and most work is done that way. Being local only matters if you want to record the vocals here rather than send them.
How loud should my track be?
Loud enough to hold its weight once the platform has normalised it, and no louder. Spotify publishes a target of around -14 LUFS and the others apply the same idea, so a master pushed past that gets turned down anyway and only keeps the damage.