Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
Just curious, but when you have a rap client, and he wants his CD as loud as, say a 50 Cent CD, or the latest Kanye West, what do you tell them?

"No, sorry. It'll sound terrible" or "OK, whatever you want!"

Because, if it's the former, they always turn round and say "but the Kanye sounds bangin'! That's what we want..."

How can you fight that?


Diki,

It is possible to make a track loud and not make it sound completely squashed. Of course it requires a high end compressor that doesn't impart excessive coloration to the mix and someone to use the compressor who won't get heavy handed with it. The trick is to try and school your client on what is available to do a great mix and hopefully they'll listen. Many times that's nearly impossible though. Most often once a mix is done it's completely out of the engineers, producers, and artists control. It doesn't take long for some label executive with a Deity complex to tell the Mastering engineer what to do and destroy a mix. After that its all downhill from there.