I’m just wondering in which genre it is easiest/hardest to get a pass mark mix and which is easiest/hardest to get an excellent mix.
Easiest genre is music…hands down. More specifically:
Easiest pass mark = low end karaoke rap. Largely because it doesn’t require autotuning or any type of knowledge of mic placement. Pass mark with podcasting, audiobook and voiceover still require you get a natural, even, and consistent sound, and the editing is more intensive and you have to understand basic metering.
Easiest pass mark (2nd place) = I would also say classical (non cinematic/theater/or film) orchestra. A stereo pair of field recorder mics plopped somewhere in a concert hall, slight EQ, a little limiting and you’re done.
Hardest pass mark = I think musical theater. Because you don’t get to use any of your typical tricks like sample replacement, hyper compression on vocals, autotuning…nothing is to a click track. Also, none of your vocalists are singing directly into SM58’s, so you have to deal with a ton of bleed. And live-to-film like the last Les Miserables would be an absolute nightmare for preproduction and workflow.
As for the excellent marks:
Easiest excellent mark? Probably music - EDM. …If the production is good. Because a lot of the sounds are prepackaged and already decent sounding off the cuff.
Hardest excellent mark? Anything film related requires a whole different level of technical skill. And because of the sheer scope, budget, and expectations of a client entrusting an army of musicians and audio techs with a budget with over $100,000,000 (just for sound and audio). Film audio is truly is own genre vs broadcast, music, live, gaming, or music production.
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My guess would be - Rap “music”. 
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Salsa music. Mexican music has sounded the same since the 1800’s, and they’re all listening on tortillas down there anyway so it doesn’t have to sound that good.
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In my experience this is correct. It’s just dudes talking basically, you’d have to be inept to get it wrong.
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I respectfully disagree. Considering Dave Pensado has made quite a name for himself in the rap/hip hop genre for mixing, I would tend to believe that his (among others) credibility would be shot if that genre were so easy to mix.
I can’t imagine his program would have such a wide reaching audience if this were the case.
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I conquer. There aren’t many instruments in rap so you don’t have many chances to make it sound great. On top of that you’ve got to find a way to incorporate mega-bass without making the whole thing sound like a muddled mess. The kid’s subs and shitty beats headphones are the ones making it muffled. I don’t think they care about any frequencies above 200Hz.
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That’s why I qualified my response as ‘low end karaoke rap’. Those guys can’t even afford Dave. And if they tried to get him, he’d turn them down. I also said rap to the easiest pass part of the question. Not the easiest to get an excellent mix on.
…and the rap producers he has on the show aren’t street hacks…most of those guys have multiple grammies. I’ve always thought you could learn just as much from the guys at the top of the scene as you can from the guys at the top of any other scene. Seems like its not comparing apples to apples if you look at the bottom of one tier and compare it to the top of another.
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All genres have famous producers, so by your reasoning this thread is moot before it even starts. The question is ‘what is the easiest genre to mix’, not ‘what genre is so easy to mix that any fool could do it’. Having recorded and mixed many rap artists I can say with all sincerity that rap is the easiest genre to mix, and I imagine it’s the same for Mr. Pensado. Whether you like it or not, rap is just dudes talking, which makes the job very easy compared to recordings of actual music, with people singing.
Edit: I’m retracting “you’d have to be inept to get it wrong”. On reflection, at the very least you need to know the basics of recording.
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So by your reasoning, the more instrumentation, the easier the mix.
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I’m pretty sure in my studio all tiers are the same, bearing in mind it’s a shoebox in a garage that costs a pittance to hire. In my experience, rap is the easiest genre to mix. I mean, I could name some other genre if people here prefer, but it would be a lie.
I’m just wondering whether the people who are making comments about mixing specific genres have actually had experience of mixing those genres.
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My son is an EDM artist, I know what he goes through to get a mix, one track can take him literally months, (although he doesn’t work on the music every day, admittedly). How does that compare with your experience mixing EDM Jonathan?
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I don’t think there is a spectrum of genres on the easy to hard to mix scale.
Perhaps it’s better to think of it as a song to song basis.
I.e - A particular rap song maybe easier than a hard to mix acoustic or perhaps an easy acoustic song maybe harder than a particularly hard rap track.
I think saying a whole genre is easy to mix would be quite unfair.
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No, I’m saying there aren’t many instruments to cover the frequency spectrum so it’s an individual challenge of mixing rap. Thanks for putting words in my mouth though. I love that.
So by your reasoning, you’re an asshole.
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You could just as easily say that when you have a multitude of intruments covering the spectrum it’s much more difficult because you only have a few instruments to deal with in rap, which is actually closer to the truth in my experience.
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Depends on where you define the mixing start point. In my experience, the sound design is the time consuming part.
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Great thoughts @Sammy…I agree with that on a song-for-song basis by large. I interpreted the original question as applied to mixing genre, not music styles. If you interpret the question like that, some are indeed easier and harder than others. Spoken word VO will always be easier than mixing a pop song. Film audio will always be harder than mixing a rap, country, blues or whatever song or EP.
Again, as far as specific music genre, again I agree its very subjective.
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I see you’re one of those people that would argue with me if I said 2+2=4. You have your experiences, I have mine.
No, I would agree, because it’s correct. “Thanks for putting words in my mouth though. I love that.”
I thought that was the point of a forum. Would you prefer that everyone just agrees with everything you say so that you don’t call them an asshole?
You can’t deny that you were being snarky and condescending in your original post. My post was obviously sarcastic hyperbole, and wasn’t putting anything in your mouth. I like different perspectives, and would be fine with you disagreeing if you weren’t so pompous in trying to cram it down my throat. It’s clear your mouth is already full of something.