Who Knows How Dr. Dre Mixes?

[Hardnox]

Okay, regardless of whether you like hip-hop or not, Dr. Dre's records sound so clean. That Grammy for "producer of the year" in 2001 shows that the Recording Academy believes this too. When everybody was coming pissed at them that year about the Eminem record, all that Academy President guy said on the news was "You can't deny that this is an amazing sounding record!"

I read an article in EQ last year. Dre has a mix engineer working with him, but the article mentioned that he often is the one mixing down. Anybody know how the knobs are getting turned on that board? Is he doing any extra compression to those Akai drum samples (which are already compressed probably). When I do hip-hop mixes (most of what I do) his records are the ones I'm referencing. Some hip-hop guys are obsessed with low end and care about nothing else, Dre does not sacrifice his other instruments just to make it "BOOM". His highs are sparkly, everything is so tight and clean.

I also know that Brian "Big Bass" Gardner has mastered most Dr. Dre projects. How much of what I'm hearing is Dre, and how much is Gardner's mastering? Please, has anybody been around in a Dr Dre mix session? I know what he uses to produce, I want to get into his mixing techniques. Come-on folks! I know he's not a Pro Tools fan. Digi should go lend him an HD rig so he can get on some high sample rates!

Thanx

[theexplodingboy]

let's sing together:

if i knew the way to the dre mixes
if i knew the way doctor dre mixes
i wouldn't be here in my bedroom mixing
i wouldn't be needing a
2-knobs-mouse for tweaking
myriads of tiny frustrating plug-ins
lookin at my fifteen inches screen
if i knew the way to the dre mixes
if i knew the way doctor dre mixes
i'd got a big car and a big flat screen

[Jeff Hodges]

Hardnox, I agree, I listen to music as much for the production value as anything. Maybe some of other pro's will chime in.

PS: And I have plenty of knobs and buttons on my ProControl (which ain't in my bedroom), fyi explodingboy [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Felix]

you may find something with a search. i think i've seen Dre mentioned before with a good link to an article about his work. much of it has to do with great gear, rooms, musicians, etc. (of course, that's not all.)

[Hardnox]

Thanks everybody. I did a search and nothing came up. Hey theexplodingboy, good song. You just need a Dre beat behind that and you're in the top 10! PLEASE somebody pipe in. EQ said that "You won't find much outboard gear in a Dr Dre mix session." What's he doing to make those beats sound sooo clean?

[slangification]

He's way into SSL's. Analog guy. Also 1073's, Studer A827. Mixes straight to DAT, Panasonic 3800. For beats, MPC 3000. Lots of SSL eq/limiting/compression. Big fan of SSL quad bus compressor.

If you can find a copy of EQ Magazine from June 2001, Dr. Dre is the feature article and it gets into all his stuff.

[Hardnox]

I own that issue, right on the shelf in the studio. I just wanted to see if I could get anymore info. I guess one of my questions has to do with this:

All of the drum machine samples I use (Akai Samples) which is what Dre uses too, are pre-compressed. They seem to come compressed already. Lately I haven't been doing much extra compression to the samples other than bussing all the drums to one compressor. (I do use Maxx Bass on kicks lightly). Some of these samples that are already compressed, it seems like compressing them too much more sucks the life out of them. I was wondering how Dre does this. What do you folks think?

[SmlTwnGuy]

I don't think there's any particular "magic" to the way Dre records and mixes. Take a song like "Slim Shady". I'd bet the majority of the sounds are from a Korg Triton, slammed onto analog tape, and then mixed (with healthy doses of eq and compression) through an SSL. That's it! It doesn't take genius, just a big checkbook. Once you follow that procedure yourself, you'll "hear" what I mean.

[Hardnox]

True. It would seem that a lot of sound from synths like the Triton are "already done". As opposed to the skill and talent it takes to mic a musician playing an instrument, and capturing that certain sound, am I wrong?

[BboY]

Why dont you write to MTV and ask them to let you be Dre for a day!!! Ha Ha, get off his nutz. by having Dr. Dre's hat, his socks and his underware it wont make you anymore like dre than by buying Jordan shoes geezzz, I appreciate Dre's work also his stuff has always been clean since NWA. I want to say Big Bass Brian has a lot of mastering input. He helped a lot on DJ quik's albums You have to start with clean samples and the use of o SSL or Neve really helps. But here is the big secret, and that is to take the time to check your mixes on various platforms eg. boombox, car, home stereo etc. and record them clean. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]