Pls Suggest a 'how to mix' book..

[Chrizcol]

Hi guys... I figured you gurus would be able to suggest some.

I realise its a creative and individual art. But i'd love to have another source (apart from these forums) to learn about various methods / principles / techniques etc.


Please not TOOO electrical theory heavy (I am a musician afterall.. not a scientist). Practical pls.

If possible.. Choose ONE that is your 'bible'?

Thanks very much.. feeling a little swamped by everything i still have to learn!

Only just getting my "EQ EARS".

[ScumBum]

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook -

The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Recording Great Audio Tracks in a Small Studio-

[Chrizcol]

Originally Posted by MushroomKingdom

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook -

The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Recording Great Audio Tracks in a Small Studio-

Great. Thanks. Audio examples will be invaluable.

[drakewire]

Well this is a conundrum

It depends on how you are gonna mix... ITB and you are lucky to have Waves the Production, Mixing and Mastering Book is amazing.

Anything by Bob Katz is a god send for understanding

GEAR SLUTZ COMMUNITY GREAT START AND FINISH

Your own ears (just thought Id add that one)

The Mixing Engineers Handbook
Bill Gibson's Audio Handbook for Home Recording a great read

The main thing my friend is first having some decent equipment, because no amount of knowledge will help that. I wish I could just give you my books because even though you read them, the best way to do it is hands on experiences and failure. After a while, you will learn to view audio as an image, which leads me to my last recommendation, there are lots of video's out there go to sweetwater, musicians friend, and go to books and video's, this is a very good way to learn...
Whateverthe case... Good luck with your endeavors.

[denne]

once again:

http://www.mixingwithyourmind.com/

worth every buck

[Chrizcol]

Thanks all. Fortunately I have some decent gear so i'll begin the 'playing'.
Not as fun as lego but hey...

[Marlowe]

I agree with this and would add "The Recording Engineer's Handbook" as well.

Also, +1 for "Mixing With Your Mind".

Three books that will take you a LONG way.

Originally Posted by MushroomKingdom

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

[nerogtr]

Originally Posted by denne

once again:

Mixing with your Mind

worth every buck

+1, awesome book. expensive, but it takes a very unique approach that other books ive read lack.

[RainbowStorm]

Originally Posted by Chrizcol

Hi guys... I figured you gurus would be able to suggest some.

I realise its a creative and individual art. But i'd love to have another source (apart from these forums) to learn about various methods / principles / techniques etc.


Please not TOOO electrical theory heavy (I am a musician afterall.. not a scientist). Practical pls.

If possible.. Choose ONE that is your 'bible'?

Thanks very much.. feeling a little swamped by everything i still have to learn!

Only just getting my "EQ EARS".

For the moment I use magazines and I'm willing to spend. I think Sound on Sound has become a very interesting magazine, especially with their concept of going deep into something in every issue and posting sound clips on their web site. I feel that with books the gap between modern recording and the content inside the books is often a bit too big to be useful enough. When you really read the articles in Sound on Sound and let the writer teach you what he has written in the article you learn a lot really fast. The April's issue was great, I tried to find the May's issue today, but it hasn't arrived quite yet... Can't wait to purchase it...!

Other than that I think "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" give you a good basic understanding of the principles behind mixing commercial music, it mostly covers only mixing though.

[Unclenny]

Mixing Engineers Handbook
Recording Engineers Handbook
Mastering Audio
Professional Microphone Techniques
EQ Magazine
Mix Magazine
Recording Magazine
Sound On Sound
Recording Engineers Quarterly

Did I miss any?

Oh yeah...the Best Of The Bunch.......Gearslutz.com, Baby!!!

[GregP]

Originally Posted by drakewire

The main thing my friend is first having some decent equipment, because no amount of knowledge will help that.

I'm not a mix engineer or hands-on producer... I'm barely an amateur recordist. But this advice flies in the face of logic and what I've seen in my experiences as the typical advice! Usually I see people say, "You need ears and good sensibilities, because no equipment in the world can MAKE a mix for you" or somesuch.

I mean, it's one thing to emphasize that you'll never get absolute professional results without professional gear. But logic dictates that even with freeware ITB and a good set of ears and honed skills, you'll get better results than someone with top-grade gear and no knowledge.

So, while I appreciate what you're TRYING to say (emphasizing that ears will only get you so far before equipment becomes a factor) I think you said it backwards. The gear can come AFTER you've developed some skill either ITB or with some mediocre outboard gear.

I'd trust Bob Katz and a bucket full of freeware VST + Guitar Tracks Pro (not even sure that's a VST host... just grabbing a name out of the air) to mix a song more than I'd trust me and a Neve.

Greg

[filthyrich]

I'd trust Bob Katz and a bucket full of freeware VST + Guitar Tracks Pro (not even sure that's a VST host... just grabbing a name out of the air) to mix a song more than I'd trust me and a Neve.

Me too. However; I tried over and over to get great sound through a studio projects C-1 mic and a Studio Projects VTB-1 preamp.

It wasn't until I got a Chameleon Labs 7602 preamp that I finally got most of the way to what I was looking for.

It made everything I recorded sound worlds better than ever before. It seems like before I was recording some volume and a lot of air. Now, when the meter gets close to in the red, it's mostly voice and very little air.

Thin and tinny are no longer part of my vocabulary.

[John Suitcase]

Originally Posted by GregP

I'm not a mix engineer or hands-on producer... I'm barely an amateur recordist. But this advice flies in the face of logic and what I've seen in my experiences as the typical advice! Usually I see people say, "You need ears and good sensibilities, because no equipment in the world can MAKE a mix for you" or somesuch.

I mean, it's one thing to emphasize that you'll never get absolute professional results without professional gear. But logic dictates that even with freeware ITB and a good set of ears and honed skills, you'll get better results than someone with top-grade gear and no knowledge.

So, while I appreciate what you're TRYING to say (emphasizing that ears will only get you so far before equipment becomes a factor) I think you said it backwards. The gear can come AFTER you've developed some skill either ITB or with some mediocre outboard gear.

I'd trust Bob Katz and a bucket full of freeware VST + Guitar Tracks Pro (not even sure that's a VST host... just grabbing a name out of the air) to mix a song more than I'd trust me and a Neve.

Greg

It's a funny thing. I believe that someone with great ears and mediocre pro-sumer gear can make a really good recording. Maybe 80-90% of the way to what we'd call 'polished'.

And yes, someone with no skills or ear won't be able to make a great recording even with great gear.

But, in my experience, it's 100x easier to make great mixes when the tracks were recorded through top-notch gear. You pull up the tracks, and the mix is 90% there already. You tweak things a little, add some aesthetic things like reverb, and bang. As opposed to tracks that were recorded using a cheap-o setup, which you CAN get sounding good, but it'll take you a LOT longer to get 90% of the way to where you were with the good gear.

So, in the end, it's much easier to be a great mixer when you're getting great tracks in the first place. If you record on cheap stuff (quality-wise), you're handicapping yourself right out of the gate. You'll spend 2 weeks on a mix, going 'why doesn't it sound like a record?' Then, you'll track something using some nice pre's, good mics, etc. And it'll take you 2 hours to get a better mix than you had before.

I have tried to believe otherwise, but my experience is that the gear matters.

[Sparks6505]

I've heard the "Mix It Like A Record" DVDs by Charles Dye are good. A little stiff though at $135 or whatever it is.. along with a bunch of instruction and tips they have a number of sessions of raw tracks for you to experiment with which is exactly what all the books are missing - anyone work with this?

[GregP]

Originally Posted by John Suitcase

But, in my experience, it's 100x easier to make great mixes when the tracks were recorded through top-notch gear. You pull up the tracks, and the mix is 90% there already. You tweak things a little, add some aesthetic things like reverb, and bang. As opposed to tracks that were recorded using a cheap-o setup, which you CAN get sounding good, but it'll take you a LOT longer to get 90% of the way to where you were with the good gear.

It's a very fair point. I was primarily making my point in terms of the actual mixdown stage without taking the recording phase itself into account. I agree that a signal has to be fundamentally what you WANT the end result to be to begin with, or you're in for a world of hurt. And the more you can accomplish at the recording phase, the better and easier the mix is going to be. I agree with that approach totally.

I have tried to believe otherwise, but my experience is that the gear matters.

Right, and I agree with this, too. I just thought that the qualification was backwards-- what was stated in no uncertain terms was, "gear is more important than knowledge" which I still don't agree with at all. But "gear matters" is absolutely a valid and logical point. What's more, it's a tool to aid the (more important still) knowledge. Using guitar as an analogy-- you can theoretically learn to play guitar on anything with frets in relatively the right place and strings tuned to more or less the right pitch. But you'll get much better results, more quickly, and you'll be a more enthusiastic learner when you've got at least a decent guitar.

To trace that analogy back to what I was attempting to say-- I wasn't saying that the Sears Roebuck electric is up to the task (though it may be), I was saying that if you have an Epiphone Dot 335, you have a good and inspirational piece of gear, beyond which there are diminishing returns and your abilities are what matters. You don't need the "real" Gibson ES-335 to record a quality passage.

Brilliant players can probably make a lot of great music with the Sears guitar, but it's their skill and ability compensating for the poor gear. Mere mortals are better off with the dot-335, and can get the ES-335 later.

Greg