I find I usually will go back to old mixes, and find so many ways I could have improved....separation/EQ/less or more compression, etc.

Who here likes (most/all) of their old mixes, and who hears them and goes 'uggghh I could do so much better now'

I think it's fair to say everyone continues to learn and improve, but who is pretty happy with current mixes? if so, what was the key to that, or steps you took to step up your game?

I notice too that lo-fi/'microwave' type beats/mixes I can focus on alot less (esp if its one stereo track from SP555 or whatever) but as soon as you get layers and multiple tracks you really have to work to avoid it getting muddy or too cluttered....I won't even get into trying to mix a full band/drums because that is another deep deep rabbit hole...

gettin a good mic made my voice recording better because i am very concoius of siblance and lazy voice siblance like lisping pops and voice clicks like if you just had a banana, I clean up the acapella now, something i didnt do before. my voice recording has improved 100% since I got a condensor, and now it seems, im putting more work into sounding good than rap and rhyming skills. another thing that improved my mixing alot is using the digital connections, so nothing has noise it stays pretty pure, sampling from hd stereo on youtube sounds pretty good. using speakers to test your levels before recording will save your ass from a poor mix too.

sometimes, i get into, ill just use headphones this weeek, and all my beats will turn out crap, the vocals will be too loud and stuff. little mistakes i have no excuse to make anymore. I record in 24 bit on the tascam, set a clap on all tracks at the beginning, then move the session to pro tools, I can clean up the tracks in audacity first with some smooth zero crossed fades to fix clicks and stuff.

every mix sounds better than the previous one, thats how i feel about my mixes.
i dont really care bout my old tracks' mixes, id be more worried if my new shit's mix sounded worst than one on a previous tape or release

Depends on the tune. Some mixdown techniques work better on certain types of tunes. But I think it's healthy progression if you look back at old tunes and go 'man, that mix is shit.'

Progression.

They're non-existent. I need to start watching tutorials. Gotta find a good series or something.

used to get annoyed especially the digital distortion on beats .. good with the digital mix .. hardware mixes still getting there.. need 31band eq to polish stuff up .. also monitors help .. could:-) maybe get some monitor headphones for improvement

.. what masterring!?

I never mixed or mastered my beats. I record my beats into a Tascam DP -004.
witch is digital. I spit over this one beat at an open mic night. I considered it dope and figured it was well recorded after hearing it on soundcloud and thought that it was a solid recording. But when It was played through them big ass speakers it sounded like shit.

^ eye man ,

I am definetly unsatisfied with my mixes. I avoid working with the pc and in my Hardware setup it's not possible to eq every fucking Instrument. For example I often do not Sample my Drums. They come from an emx through a lo-mid-hi eq on a Track of my Mixer. When i use a Bass synth of the emx, it Runs through the same eq. That is not a Good decision. Sounds often muddy. Have to improve my setup. Thinking of sampling all my Instruments because of the Ability to eq all in the 404. different eqs on Snare, kickdrum, bassline...and so on.
I think a Lot of you guys do this, aren't you? Is this working well for you?


Yesterday i Listened to Beats made by a Friend who only use Propeller. Reason and he eq every Instrument so their frequencies don't overlay each other. He Works Out the freqs of every sound in his Beats so they got a Lot of brilliance and Charakter. sounding Extreme HiFi and professionel. that's not my Kind of music on One Hand. Ithave to sound a a Little Dirty, Lofi and broken to Charme my ears. But some of the rappers i work with want clean, High quality HiFi mixes...

Used to be on the software route .. it is a lot easier to engineer .. however

.. get an eq and tweak as you sample in .. half the work before you've made the beat .. I sample my own drum sounds .. maybe add some kind of effect on the SP .. then when it comes to making a beat I choose what sounds I want for the particular beat in eq em(404 isolator) ..

maybe add an overall compressor to final beat/or track


..

They get better and better each time. I put most of my time into my mixes. So i spend less time mastering.

comp helps me

The art of mastering is a total skill within itself! Although, I do think to many people get to preoccupied with it nowadays. Especially when most people working in software will mix and compose at the same time.

You also gotta remember that all those pro beats have been mastered by top pros with top gear.

However, I did read somewhere this week that Fourtet hasn't mastered any of his stuff for years! He clearly doesn't care