Do you mix/master a beat before rapping over it?

[Propaganda]

depends on the genre tbh, i guess for more rap stuff a beat maker might master a beat for themselfs not thinking a rapper will lay something down, it happens

nah, it doesn't depend on the genre, man.

you gotta think of the vocals as one of the instruments...in fact, the MAIN instrument, especially if we're talking about rap/hip-hop. you wouldn't mix and master a song then add a bassline afterwards. so if you have a choice, you certainly shouldn't do it with the vocals.

make a solid mix of your beat for dudes to rap over, when you have the vocals, do your full-on mixdown. then you master. once. mastering it twice doesn't even make sense.

 

[mortuus est]

nah, it doesn't depend on the genre, man.

you gotta think of the vocals as one of the instruments...in fact, the MAIN instrument, especially if we're talking about rap/hip-hop. you wouldn't mix and master a song then add a bassline afterwards. so if you have a choice, you certainly shouldn't do it with the vocals.

make a solid mix of your beat for dudes to rap over, when you have the vocals, do your full-on mixdown. then you master. once. mastering it twice doesn't even make sense.

like i said some people do it if they taking a track from one studio to the next, ive seen it being done and didnt sound bad at all lol, guys if everything sounds clear whats the problem

some songs are double masterd for radio , some not touched at all but somehow gets play on day time commercial radio

chief keef probably doubled masterd his old stuff (just a guess from listening to his older mixtapes) still sounds good

 

[Propaganda]

i've seen people bring tracks like that into big legit studios too. that doesn't mean it's good practice to do it. there are basic fundamentals at work here. there are reasons that you do things in a certain order. doing otherwise is just shooting yourself in the foot cuz you're not gonna be able to achieve the best quality of music you can.

putting your vocals over an already mixed and mastered beat is like going to mcdonalds and ordering a big mac...and the employee assembles the burger...the bun, the condiments, the toppings...then puts it in the box but just before he gives it to you he goes "oh shyt, i forgot the meat!" and then just slaps the patties right on top of the container.

double mastered for radio? a lot of shyt is mastered "for radio", as in, they send out a mastered track which has been tailored for radio and is a bit different than say, how the album track was mastered. it could be a clean version, a radio edit, a shorter version, one with less compression and limiting (sometimes none at all cuz most radio stations squash the audio so hard), could be for some other reason...but they don't master the song, then master the already mastered song again for radio.

 

[DJ Mart-Kos]

But the vocals mix better with an exported Wav-file i think.