DAW

So basically there's gonna be a few things you're gonna need. First and foremost is your DAW. I use and I highly recommend Ableton Live 8. It's powerful and versatile and works both in Mac and Windows. And once you learn the interface, it's pretty easy to get ideas down on the page. Plus it comes with a great set of built-in plugins.


SPEAKERS

The next thing you'll need is a good pair of studio monitor speakers. This is really important because you're gonna need to listen to the full audio frequency spectrum to get the mixdown of the parts of your track just right. You want studio speakers because they have a flat frequency response, unlike say most crappy desktop speakers. A good starting point is M-Audio. Check out their BX8a or BX5a Deluxe studio monitor lines.


SOUND CARD

To go along with that, you're probably gonna need a decent audio interface (sound card). I recommend getting a good external firewire or usb card. The company I like and card that I use is from FocusRite. Check out their Saffire 6 USB Audio Interface. You're gonna want a card that has outputs that will work with your studio monitor speakers. Most of them are balanced 1/4" or XLR connections. I recommend getting something with balanced outputs, as this will minimize any noise that might otherwise be created, and will assure you get the best sound out of your speakers.


SYNTHESIZERS

Next you're gonna want to invest in some decent synthesizers. As a starving college student, I don't have a lot of money to throw around myself, so I only have software synths, but there are some really excellent ones out there. These days, software synths are becoming more and more powerful and give hardware a real run for their money. Most of the soft synths made out there are in either the VST or AU format; these formats are pretty much the standard that basically all modern DAWs like Ableton will be fully compatible with. A couple of the ones I really like are:

Native Instruments Massive

Lennar Digital Sylenth1

U-He Zebra 2.5

U-He ACE

reFx Nexus

reFx Vanguard

FAW Circle

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

Spectrasonics Trilian

Arturia Minimoog V

GForce Software Minimonsta

FXpansion - DCAM: Synth Squad

Rob Papen's Virtual Instruments

One thing to realize is that most of these plugins won't run by themselves. You must run them in a host application, like Ableton to work. I find that this confuses beginners sometimes. You just have to make sure you setup whatever DAW you decide to go with, to look at a specific plugin directory, and then make sure you install all your plugins to that folder so your DAW can see them and they can be ready for you to use (not just your soft synths but other plugin units like fx for example).

As you can see, there's a lot of great synths out there, based on different types of synthesis. And for me this is a really fun aspect of trying to make music. I am still learning myself, as there is so much to learn, but I suggest you try some of those synths out, get to know them, and learn synthesis.

Synthesis is a whole monster onto itself, so I also suggest going online and searching for tutorials on youtube to help with that endeavor.

OTHER PLUGINS

As I briefly mentioned above, synths aren't the only types of plugins you will need in music production. There's other plugins that you will need to use like compressors, filters, equalizers, vocoders, distortion unit, gaters, chorus, and delays and reverb to name a few crucial ones.

There's a whole world out there of these type of plugins, with many great people/companies making some AWESOME plugins. In fact, there are WAY-TOO-MANY to mention here. But alas, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I will list a few, in no particular order, that you can check out:

Audio Damage

PSP Audioware

FabFilter

Togu Audio Line

u-he's Uhbik

2CAudio

Studio Devil

WAVES

Camel Audio

Sugar Bytes

SYNTHESIS

Most synths will come with presets. Again, the fun for me is trying to come up with my own patches and sounds, but at first, some of those synths will look like spaceship control consoles. But I promise, once you learn some of the basics of synthesis, most of those synths will have the same basic functions that you will immediately recognize. So when you first start out, go into those presets, and instead of just simply using them in the parts you write, go into the synth, pick some presets that you like, and try to figure out how those patches were made. Play around with the settings and knobs and see how the sound changes. This will help you translate sounds that you might come up in your head, and then translate them "to the page". I could go on forever about synthesis but I've just hit the tip of the iceberg.

MUSIC THEORY

So do you have to have a degree in music to make electronic music? While it certainly helps, you don't need to know music theory to start making electronic music. Honestly you just need to have a good ear. Also, you will need patience, and dedication, because it's not going to come overnight. There's a lot of established electronic music producers out there that started out with basically little background in music theory. You just have to stick to it, and learn on the way!

If indeed you know little music theory and you're just starting out, a great book that I suggest you pick up RIGHT NOW if you're at all serious about starting production is Music Theory for Computer Musicians. It's ~$20 on Amazon. FTW!

MIDI CONTROLLER

Now, the next thing that really helps to have around in your studio, is a good midi controller keyboard. Now with most DAW's you'll be able to write midi parts out just by the click of your mouse, but trust me, this isn't really fun. Having a midi keyboard makes your life, a whole lot easier, it's more fun, and you can get parts down faster onto your DAW. You won't need anything too fancy. I suggest looking at the M-Audio Axiom line of keyboard midi controllers. The 49 key ones are nice ;)

SAMPLES

Now, some people like to create their own percussion elements. Whether by recording their own sounds, or tweaking the shit out of existing samples they might already have. This can be time consuming, and when you're just starting out, you just want to get ideas down. Since you're starting out, and you said yourself you just wnat to start making the beats you hear in your head, I'd suggest looking into getting some solid percussion sample packs. You're not gonna be at the level of making your own, so you're gonna need a little help when you start out. And many established producers use percussion sample packs which will have many single shot drum samples of kicks, hats, snares, claps, fx. Some packs will have loops, but I generally stay away from them. I suggest using the single shot sounds, and try and create your own loops from scratch. The place I like to go to get some solid packs are

Loopmasters

Vengeance Sample Packs

OTHER RESOURCES

Another good resource is COMPUTER MUSIC Magazine. It comes out every month, from the UK, so go to your nearest chain bookstore, because they're bound to have it. CM has great articles and tips, and reviews on the latest software and hardware that's coming out. They also have great interviews, and it also comes with a CD that comes with a lot of good free and trial software that you'll find useful. There's also usually a video interview from a top DJ/Producer/Electronic Artist which are always really insightful and great resource as you can see the perspectives of music making straight from other artists themselves. For these interviews, they'll usually go explain and show you how they made one of their tracks; like I said, an awesome resource from which you'll get some great tips.


IN CONCLUSION

I hope that what I've written you will find useful, and will be a good starting point. If I think of something else, I might yet add it here. And of course like it's been said, you just gotta go in your DAW and FUCK AROUND; that's the only way to get better - through PRACTICE. And go to places like YouTube and search for production videos. You'll find some good tutorials from which you'll learn some good tips, synthesis, and production techniques.

If you stick to it, dedicate yourself, you'll get there in no time. You're gonna find yourself making those beats you hear at night in your head, and turning them into reality.

EDIT: Added Music Theory and Other Plugins section :)

Okay here's the list. I spend some time on this. If you have any specific questions, let me know:)


***

On Composition:

Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies - Dennis DeSantis
Amazon Link
This is a fantastic book. Each page has a general idea on boosting creativity, workflow, and designing sounds and tracks. I recommend you read and digest one of the tips per day and really think about applying them.

Music Theory for Computer Musicians - Michael Hewitt
Amazon Link
Really easy to digest book on music theory, as it applies to your DAW. Each DAW is used in the examples, so it is not limited to a specific program. Highly recommend this for someone starting out with theory to improve their productions.

Secrets of Dance Music Production - David Felton
Amazon Link
This book I recently picked up and so far it's been quite good. It goes over all the different elements of what make's dance music, and get's quite detailed. More geared towards the beginner, but it was engaging nonetheless. It is the best 'EDM specific' production book I have read.

Ocean of Sound - David Troop
Amazon Link
Very well written and interesting book on ambient music. Not only does David go over the technical side and history of ambiance and musical atmospheres, he speaks very poetically about creating these soundscapes and how they relate to our interpersonal emotions.


***

On Audio Engineering:

Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio - Mike Senior
Amazon Link
In my opinion, this is the best mixing reference book for both beginners and intermediate producers. Very in-depth book that covers everything from how to set-up for accurate listening to the purpose of each mixing and mastering plug-in. Highly recommended.

Zen and the Art of Mixing - Mixerman
Amazon Link
Very interesting read in that it deals with the why's more than the how's. Mixerman, a professional audio engineer, goes in detail to talk about the mix engineer's mindset, how to approach projects, and how to make critical mixing decisions. Really fun read.

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owinski
Amazon Link
This is a fantastic companion book to keep around. Not only does Owinski go into great technical detail, he includes interviews from various audio engineers that I personally found very helpful and inspiring.


***

On the Industry:

All You Need to Know About the Music Business - Donald S. Passman
Amazon Link
This book is simply a must read for anyone hoping to make a professional career out of music, anyone wanting to start their own record label, or anyone interested in how the industry works. It's a very informative book for any level of producer, and is kept up-to-date with the frequent revisions. Buy it.

Rick Rubin: In the Studio - Jake Brown
Amazon Link
Very interesting read that is a semi-biographical book on Rick Rubin. It is not so personal as it is talking about his life, experiences, and processes. It does get quite technical when referring to the recording process, but there are better books for technical info. This is a fun read on one of the most successful producers in history.

Behind the Glass - Howard Massey
Amazon Link
A collection of interviews from a diverse range of musicians who speak about creativity, workflows, and experiences in the music industry. Really light, easy to digest book.


***

On Creativity:

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
Amazon Link
This is a must-read, in my opinion, for any creative individual. It is a very philosophical book on dealing with our own mental battles as an artist, and how to overcome them. Definitely pick this one up, all of you.

This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel S. Levitin
Amazon Link
A book written by a neurologist on the psychology of music and what makes us attached to it. It's a fairly scientific book but it is a very rewarding read with some great ideas.


***

On Personal Growth and Development:

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Amazon Link
Although this seems like an odd book for a music producer, personally I think this is one of the most influential books I've ever read. Knowing how to be personable, effectively network, and form relationships is extremely important in our industry. Whether it be meeting and talking to labels, meeting other artists, or getting through to A&R, this book helps with all these areas and I suggest this book to all of you.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
Amazon Link
Similar to the recommendation above, although not directly linked to music, I assure you reading this book will change your views on life. It is a very engaging and practical book, and gets you in the right mindset to be successful in your life and music career. Trust me on this one and give it a read.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Amazon Link
You know the feeling when you're really in the groove of jamming out and all worries tend to slip away for those moments? That is the 'Optimal Experience' according to the author. This book will teach you about that experience, and how to encourage and find it in your work. This is a very challenging, immersive, and enlightening read, which deals with the bigger picture and finding happiness in your work and life. Very inspiring book that puts you in a good mindset when you're doing creative work.

The Art of Work - Jeff Goins
Amazon Link
A very fascinating book that looks at taking your passion (music in our case) and making the most of it. It guides you on how to be successful and turn your passion into your career. Some very interesting sections touching on dealing with failure, disappointment, and criticism, yet listening to your intuition and following your passion. Inspiring and uplifting book to say the least.


***


Phew. That was a lot of work. Hopefully you guys get some usefulness out of this list. This is put together after years of reading dozens upon dozens of books on these topics.


Enjoy!

I personally use Cubase, but it doesn't really matter which DAW you use, as all of them can do pretty much everything you want them to do. The punch you get out of your sound is based on what hardware and plug-ins you use, and more importantly, how well you are using them. DAW's just there to be a host for those things, and all the major ones handle the recording and mixing superbly. If you do a lot of MIDI stuff, then FL Studio might be the best choice, as it has the best Piano Roll input, making MIDI composition in it very simple.

Anyways, both the software and the hardware are gonna cost you quite a lot (unless you pirate). If you want good sound, there are no alternatives. For Symphonic Metal, some essential stuff is

1. If you'd prefer to obtain your MIDI from notation, then you will need a notation software. Finale and Sibelius are market leaders. Those aren't DAWs, though, so if you want some actual good sound, you'll need to export the midi files from those after composing, and load them up in the DAW, as controllers for VSTi-s. Do note that with this method you'll have to oftentimes make quite a bit of adjustments to the MIDI in the DAW as well (changing and automating the CC options, velocity settings, absolute note length, etc.). Good thing is, both Finale and Sibelius can load up VST instruments, so you can get a good approximation of how the music's gonna sound in the DAW before actually exporting the MIDIs.
   
   
2. Good amp head and effect sims. Seriously, this day and age, DI'd guitars can do at least the same, if not more, than the mic'd up ones. The good thing is, some of the best stuff is free. Really good examples are Le Pou plugins and free TSE audio stuff. As for the non-free stuff, Guitar Rig Pro, POD Farm and Amplitube are all pretty good.
   Now, a really important thing to remember here is, if you use those plugins, turn off the Cab Simulation parts. They're usually not bad, but they won't be able to match some of the Impulse Responses you can find on the web. Which brings us to,
   
   
3. IRs and a convolution loader. IRs are basically files that describe what a specific cab and microphone placement usually does to the audio signal, and convolution loader is a plug-in that will load IRs in your channel strip. There are tons of free Impulse Responses out there, but the best ones I've ever seen, Red Wirez BIGBox series, are totally worth the money. As for the loader, the best one I've seen, Le Pou's LeCab, is totally, 100% free. Though Red Wirez's MixIR is pretty good too, and you can load up BIGBox presets in it. Note that unlike the commercial amp sims, which most often advertise themselves as the complete guitar solutions and automatically load up cab sims (which you'll have to manually disable) whenever you load an amp preset, free ones almost never do. It is absolutely normal for an amp sim to sound like shit if no cab sim is loaded. Just load up some IRs through the convolution loader and see how it sounds then.
   
   
4. Some virtual drums. They make composing drum parts much easier. Right now, the best ones out there are available as expansions for Toontrack's EZDrummer and Superior Drummer. Superior Drummer can load up EZDrummer stuff, and is much more advanced, but is quite a bit more expensive (and larger). Anyway, the two best expansions for metal are Drumkit from Hell and Metal Machine. Metal!, Metalheads and the Metal Foundry expansions are all very good as well, but those two are the ones that have actually been used on the records, and sound pretty much perfect. Also note that Toontrack sells some really good MIDI drum line packs for those, and at a pretty cheap price. If you want to get started with drum programming in an easy way, you can try those.
   
   
5. Some orchestra samples. Those will cost you an arm and a leg, and then some. Some of the best stuff out there is by the EastWest/Quantum Leap group, famous for their EWQL Symphonic Orchestra sample library. Other good stuff is Vienna Symphonic Library and Garritan virtual instruments. Really, though, there's no cheap stuff in here. If you're going for a Lo-Fi feel, though, then there's actually quite a lot out there. Just google some VST keyboards and individual instruments. Many of them are actually free.
   
   
6. (Optional) Guitar VSTis. It takes some time and effort to learn how to get them to sound like actual guitars, but if a guitarist is not around and you need to do some jamming, they're irreplaceable. The best ones out there are Shreddage 2 and [Prominy V-Metal] (http://www.prominy.com/V_METAL.htm). Nothing else can really compare with those two (though EastWest's Ministry of Rock comes pretty close). For bass, some good stuff is NI's Scarbee Rickenbacker, Prominy SR5 Rock Bass, Orange Tree Samples Rick Bass and Shreddage Picked Bass (which you can buy together with Shreddage II as a bundle). All of those are DI'd samples, so as with a physical guitar, you'll need to hook them up to the amp, cab and effect sims.
   
   That's it for the software part. Those, together with the stuff that usually comes with the DAWs (some really simple mixing plug-ins, mid-grade instrument samples and synths), and some necessary hardware (another topic altogether), should be enough for composing and recording. If you're planning on mixing by yourself, well, that's a lot of additional work. You'll need to get some mixing equipment and/or plug-ins (many producers even do mixing completely inside the computer, with no external mixing equipment). So, shameless plug of /r/audioengineering, one of my favorite subreddits. You can learn a lot about mixing and mastering in there. If you're a complete beginner in mixing, I'll suggest 5 Minutes to a Better Mix series and this little, godly book.
   
   Anyways, have fun with the music.

From the Mixing Engineer's Handbook (third edition)

The Frequency Element: Using the Equalizer

Even though an engineer has every intention of making his recording sound as big and as clear as possible during tracking and overdubs, it often happens that the frequency range of some (or even all) of the tracks are somewhat limited when it comes time to mix. This can be due to the tracks being recorded in a different studio where different monitors or signal path was used, the sound of the instruments themselves, or the taste of the artist or producer. When it comes to the mix, it's up to the mixing engineer to extend the frequency range of those tracks if it's appropriate.

In the quest to make things sound bigger, fatter, brighter, and clearer, the equalizer is the chief tool used by most mixer, but perhaps more than any other audio tool, it's how it's used that separates the average engineer from the master.

> "I tend to like things to sound sort of natural, but I don't care what it takes to make it sound like that. Some people get a very preconceived notions that you can't do this or you can't do that, but as Bruce Swedien said to me, he doesn't care if you have to turn the knob around backwards; if it sounds good, it is good. Assuming that you have a reference point that you can trust, of course." - Allen Sides

 

> "I find that the more that I mix, the less I actually EQ, but I'm not afraid to brung up a Pultec and whack it up to +10 if something needs it. - Joe Chiccarelli

 

The Goals of Equalization

While we may not think about it when we're doing it, there are three primary goals when equalizing:

• To make an instrument sound clearer and more defined.
  
• To make the instrument or mix bigger and larger than life.
  
• To make all the elements of a mix fit together better by putting each instrument in its own predominate frequency range.
  
  Sometimes just being aware of which of these you're trying to accomplish at the moment can help you get the sound you're looking for quickly and easily, rather than just randomly twisting some knobs until you think it might sound right.
  
   
  
  

  The Frequency Bands and What They Do
  

  Before we examine the various methods of equalization, it's important to note specific areas of the audio frequency bandwidth and how they affect what we hear. The audio band can effectively be broken down into six distinct ranges, each one having an enormous impact on the total sound (see Table 7.1).
  
   
  
  Table 7.1 The Audible Frequency Ranges
  
  Range | Description | Effect
  ----------|-----------|-----------
  16 Hz to 60 Hz Sub-Bass | Encompasses sounds that are often felt more than heard and gives the music a sense of power. | Too much emphasis in this range makes the music sound muddy. Attenuating this range (especially below 40 Hz) can clean up a mix considerably.
  60 Hz to 250 Hz Bass | Contains fundamental notes of the rhythm section. | EQing this range can change the musical balance, making it fat or thin. Too much boost in this range can make the music sound boomy.
  250 Hz to 2 kHz Low Mids | Contains the low-order harmonics of most musical instruments. | Can introduce a telephone-like quality to the music if boosted too much. Boosting the 500 Hz to 1000 Hz octaves makes the instruments sound horn-like. Boosting the 1 kHz to 2 kHz octave makes them sound tinny. Excess output in this range can cause listening fatigue.
  2 kHz to 4 kHz High Mids | Contains speech recognition sounds such as "m," "b," and "v." | Too much boost in this range, especially at 3 kHz, can introduce a lisping quality to a voice. Too much boost in this range can cause listening fatigue. Dipping the 3-kHz range on instrument backgrounds and slightly peaking 3 kHz on vocals can make the vocals audible without having to decrease the instrumental level in mixes where the voice would otherwise seem buried.
  4 kHz to 6 kHz Presence | Responsible for clarity and definition of voices and instruments. | Boosting this range can make the music seem closer to the listener. Reducing the 5-kHz content of a mix makes the sound more distant and transparent.
  6 kHz to 16 kHz Brilliance | Controls brilliance and clarity. | Too much emphasis in this range can produce sibilance on the vocals.
  
   
  
  For those of you who have an easier time visualizing the audio spectrum in one-octave increments (like those found on a graphic equalizer), here's an octave look at the same chart (see Table 7.2).
  
   
  
  Table 7.2 Graphic Equalizer Chart
  
  Octave Band | Effect
  ---------|----------
  31 Hz | Rumble, "chest"
  63 Hz | Bottom
  125 Hz | Boom, thump, warmth
  250 Hz | Fullness or mud
  500 Hz | Honk
  1 kHz | Whack
  2 kHz | Crunch
  4 kHz | Edge
  8 kHz | Sibilance, definition, "ouch!"
  16 kHz | Air
  
   
  
  

  EQ Methods
  

  Since each specific song, arrangement, instrument, and player is unique, it's impossible to give anything other than some general guidelines when it comes to equalization methods. That said, there are a number of methods that can quickly and easily get you in the ballpark, as long as you know what you're going for. Remember that different engineers have different ways of arriving at the same end, so if the following doesn't work for you, keep trying. The method doesn't matter, only the end result.
  
  Before these methods are outlined, it's really important that you observe the following:
  
  

• Listen! Open up your ears and listen carefully to all the nuances of the sound. Everything you hear is important.
  
• Make sure you're monitoring at a comfortable level--not too loud and not too soft. If it's too soft, you may be fooled by the non-linearity of the speakers and overcompensate. If it's too loud, certain frequencies may be masked or overemphasized by the non-linearities of the ear itself, and again you will overcompensate.
  
   
  
  

  Method 1: Equalize for Definition
  

  Even source material that's been recorded well can sound lifeless, thanks to certain frequencies being overemphasized or others being severely attenuated. More often than not, the lack of definition of an instrument is because of too much lower midrange in approximately the 400- to 800-Hz area. This area adds a "boxy" quality to the sound. Sometimes it's because the sound is lacking in the 3-kHz to 6-kHz area that makes it undefined. Subtractive equalization is a method that allows you to zero in on the frequencies that are masking the definition in a sound.
  
  

1. Set the Boost/Cut control to a moderate level of cut (8 or 10 dB should work).
   
2. Sweep through the frequencies until you find the frequency where the sound has the least amount of boxiness and the most definition (see Figure 7.1).
   
3. Adjust the amount of cut to taste. Be aware that too much cut makes the sound thinner.
   
   There are two spots in the frequency spectrum where the subtractive equalization is particularly effective: between 200 Hz and 600 Hz and between 2 kHz and 4 kHz. This is because most directional microphones provide a natural boost at 200 to 600 Hz because of the proximity effect brought about by close-miking, and many mics (especially those known for being good vocal mics) have a presence boost between 2 kHz and 4 kHz. Dipping those frequencies a few dB (more or less as needed) can make the track sound much more natural than if you were to try to add frequencies instead.
   
   If there was a limited number of microphones (or even just one) used to record all the instruments in a home studio, these two frequency bands (or any other where there's a peak in the response) will build up as more and more instruments were added. By dipping those frequency bands a bit, you'll find that many of the instruments can sit better in the mix without having to add much EQ at all.
   
   > What I hate to see is an engineer or producer start EQing before they've heard the sound source. To me, it's kinda like salting and peppering your food before you've tasted it. I always like to listen to the sound source first, whether it's recorded or live, and see how well it holds up without any EQ or whatever." -Bruce Swedien
   
   Tip: Always try attenuating (cutting) the frequency first. This is preferable because all equalizers add phase shift as you boost, which results in an undesirable coloring of sound. Usually, the more EQ you add, the more phase shift is also added and the harder it may be to fit the instrument into the mix as a result. Many engineers are judicious in their use of EQ, but that being said, anything goes! if it sounds good, it is good.
   
    
   
   

   Alternate method
   

4. Starting with your EQ flat, remove all the bottom end below 100 Hz by turning the low-frequency control to full cut.
   
5. Using the rest of your EQ, tune the mid-upper midrange until the sound is thick yet distinct.
   
6. Round it out with a supporting lower-mid tone to give it some body.
   
7. Slowly bring up the mud-inducing bottom end enough to move air, but not so much as to make the sound muddy.
   
8. Add some high-frequency EQ for definition (see Figure 7.2).
   
   > "I just try to get stuff to sound natural, but at the same time be very vivid. I break it down into roughly three areas: mids, the top and the bottoms; then there's low mids and high mids. Generally, except for a very few instruments or a few microphones, cutting flat doesn't sound good to most people's ears, so I'll say, 'Well, if this is a state-of-the-art preamp and a great mic and it doesn't sound that great to me, why?' Well, the midrange is not quite vivid enough. Okay, we'll look at the 3k, 4k range, maybe 2500. Why don't we make it kind of come to life like a shot of cappuccino and open it up a little bit? The....
   
    
   
    
   
   Then it goes on more with another table later on but I ran out of text. You can get the newer 4th edition here:
   
   You can't Have an EQ chart for synths tho because synths make tons of different sounds in different octaves and frequencies.

I am hereby developing three steps to get started in future funk that I will gladly post on any thread where somebody is looking to begin. Here they are, in their first ever iteration. Comments welcome.


 


Step 0. Take your time. Be mentally prepared to throw out dozens of sketches of potential tracks representing hours of work for no other reason than that "they don't click" or you don't know where to take them next. Understand that future funk isn't a formula (and anybody who treats it as one is just asking to be ignored and forgotten). Just like ANY other form of music making, the good and the best take their time to really develop a craft. Be as holistic in your approach as your interest/life/ability allows (learn an instrument if you don't know one already, download ear training courses, basically be as adventurous as you can muster and look to, over time, learn things outside of just "future funk" skills).


 




 


Step 1. Learn to use some key tools. Pick and learn a DAW, anything will do as long as you learn it well (Ableton is popular for its flexibility and horsepower, but is more complicated than FL Studio which is an easy beginner's choice and is plenty legitimate as well). This will be your primary instrument, and over time using it will become second nature.

 

Step 1a. Learn about the tools for mixing- both generally, and the specific versions included in your DAW- this means basic knowledge of compressors, limiters, EQ, and reverbs at the very least to start with. Any audio mixing training will do, no need for it to be genre-specific. Eventually, start looking at mixing tools besides the built-in ones (browsing the Waves Plugin website will be equally exciting and overwhelming). Experiment over time and you'll gradually learn why certain tools/plugins are more powerful/preferred than others, and you'll develop your own preferences for what to use and how things should sound. Pay attention to the most subtle details. There's no shortage of great online tutorials on how to work with and listen to the tools of the trade in audio engineering.

>Recommended Resources: The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

>The Art of Mixing- old 80s tutorial video, very trippy, very educational


 

Step 1b. You'll also want to explore what instruments are built into your DAW, and what instrument plugins you may want to "acquire". Some good starting points for exploring instruments may be plugins that emulate classic synthesizers (CS-80, ARP1200, Korg legacy plugins, etc)- this kind of plays into point #2 as well, so I'll leave this point at that for now.


 




 


Step 2. LISTEN to other music. Your goal is to have a unique and varied and personal set of influences- see a great comment from Amherst here on why this is important.


Dig into your own iTunes library- what unique bits of your past may make interesting influences for your future funk music? My dad loved Dire Straits and Barry White and dad rock, my mom loved Deee-Lite and 80s hip hop. I've played on all of those elements before, plus the stuff I listened to at any point in my life (a lot of jazz in my teen years lol). Dig into the roots of future funk- disco, funk, boogie, smooth jazz, house, french house, 80s pop (feel free to ask for recommendations!). Go on your own digging adventures to find stuff that none of us have before. YouTube is your friend, Discogs is your friend (you can use other people's samples as starting points, but aim to get far away- both Amherst and I have playlists of samples we've used on different projects , just as examples of cool places to start).


You don't have to be looking for samples per say- you might just find some really cool sonic influences or ideas on song arrangement/elements (what synths are they using on that record you really dig? Try to find out!). But you need to spend a LOT of time listening to things that AREN'T future funk in order to make good FF. This is massively important, and one of the reasons future funk can often be seen as a stale genre is that many newcomers list their main influences as other, older FF producers and end up emulating the same old sounds instead of bringing something new to the table.


 



 


Step 3. At the end of the day, when you're looking at your project file and you think you have a groovin future funk tune ready to release, do a quick check that, if everyone did it, would solve 90% of complaints about this genre. "What is my unique contribution to this track?" Did you just take a j-funk song (because that's the type of music that so and so sampled!) and put drums over it at a certain tempo (because that's the tempo future funk is at!)? That fails the test. Did you chop up and rearrange a sample in a really unique way, did you combine 5 different songs to make something new and cool, did you add original instrumentation or harmony to old music? That passes the test.

> Side note: If something isn't very "original" and is just an edit of an existing track, or doesn't use much original material and should be considered a "remix"- be honest and label it as such. There's been a couple controversial FF "tracks" released lately where the artist in question became kinda shunned because they were attempting to pass off slight changes to an existing song as an "original track".

 

Try doing the same sort of self-check when thinking about how you represent yourself as an artist- your style and branding and vibe. Does the whole anime/kanji thing really represent you as an artist and your unique influences accurately? Or did you just default to that after seeing what other people are doing? Figure out something that's true to yourself. (For me, Camino is kinda a representation of me as a social being- upbeat, humorous, outgoing and partygoing- and that's why my music is meant for dancing and appreciating pop culture, and I often use recognizable music.)


 



 



Alright, hope that helps. Anybody starting out can always feel free to PM me, and I think I'll continually work on and update these guidelines/pieces of advice with the help of all mah good friends. There you have it- V1 of Camino's Guide to Starting in Future Funk

> best mix i ever did though, was on 2$ headphones (i was in vietnam 2 years ago.) listened to it the other day and i was blown away by the big boomy bass.

It's definitely possible to put together a great mix on a "bad" pair of headphones or speakers, especially if you actually know the strengths and (more importantly) the weaknesses of those headphones or speakers, although usually more work is required.

> any tips in relation to that?

I would suggest you read this article. It's written from the point-of-view of drum & bass production, but the underlying principles apply to every form of music. Don't be fooled by the title, Thinking Inside the Box. While "in the box" is often used to describe working with a computer or DAW that's not what the title is referring to, but rather a basic concept for visualizing mixing.

I would also recommend you take care in that your perception of stereo separation is more pronounced when using headphones, as each channel is effectively isolated to a different ear, and as such stereo effects and mixing can sometimes seem less pronounced on a home stereo as a result. Depending on your intentions this could be a good thing, or a bad thing.

> course, when im listening in headphones and lower the bass, it sounds more sucky lol.

This might be because your headphones aren't considered very good. The high expense of professional studio monitors isn't because they sound good, but because they playback a recording imparting very little of their own character on the playback sound. Lower quality studio monitors, and consumer grade equipment, are typically made with cheaper components and manufacturing techniques that do impart their own character on the playback sound. Sometimes manufacturers "cover up" the imperfections in playback caused by their devices by increasing the bass response, as it can drown out minor problems. This issue doesn't really matter to consumers, but for the purposes of mixing or mastering it's better to make adjustments to a recording based on the most accurate playback of that recording. Unfortunately the most ideal monitors in this regards are obscenely expensive.

Of course, people just simply like bass too.

> ah thanks alot, do you use this mono technique yourself?

Yes, often. It's so much easier to get instruments or sounds to sit well in a stereo mix if they themselves are in mono. When I do use stereo instruments or samples, or stereo effects such as chorus, I use them sparingly to create a specific feel, usually isolated to a specific passage in a song rather than through-out the entire song.

> and what do you do for a living (curious now, very well written and thoughtful answers.)

I actually work for Hewlett Packard, but I've had a lot of jobs over the years, including working as a studio assistant. I learned a great deal from the two audio engineers in that studio, but a lot of it came from experimenting and trying to emulate the work of others. I also borrowed an earlier edition of this book from one of the studio engineers, and although I never sat down and read it from front to back, but rather used it for reference for the most part, I found the book incredibly helpful. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in audio production and engineering. I'm an amateur musician as well, but these days a great deal of my free time is spent working on a business plan, as I'd like to secure a business loan (for a type of record label no less, although my proposed business process is radically unique).

> oh and have an excellent weekend if i dont see you before its over. :)

Cheers! You as well :)

I'm assuming this is a be-all, do-all type of room that includes tracking and mixing. I'm going to give pointers based on a "perfect world" scenario. It's up to you to make the necessary compromises.

1. Your monitor position is not great for mixing or tracking; for a few reasons. You got the angles right for the ideal sweet spot, but the monitors are close to the front wall boundary. The ideal placement is somewhere around a third of the room length away from the nearest boundary (9' room length = monitors at ~3' from front wall). Setting monitors on top of a desk is also not ideal because desks will most likely move with the speakers, thus effecting bass response. Desks also cause bad early reflections, and monitors on a two-tier desk will be sitting approximately half way between the floor and ceiling (thus breaking our 2/3 rule again). My suggestion would be to mount the speakers on heavy duty brackets screwed directly into the wall studs 2/3 of the way up the wall above you, pointed down. You will be able to get a wider sound field without sacrificing floor space due to the geometry, avoid reflections, and get better bass response because they will be coupled to the highest amount of mass possible (wall studs + slab). This was my personal solution at home and I have pristine stereo imaging and excellent bass response as a result. This obviously isn't an easy option for most consumer monitors though because not all of them have mounts. The alternative option (although pretty weak) is to at least use Auralex Mopads between the monitors and the desk to keep the two from coupling. I've used them and you will hear an immediate difference. Acoustics are all about mass, and you either want as much mass as possible keeping monitors still or as little as possible to let them move. Two schools of thought, both of which have applications, but setting them right on top of a wooden desk is the worst of both worlds.
   
   
2. It looks like you have bass traps in the corners, which is good. Ideally these should be 4" thick Owens corning 705 or a mineral wool of similar density. Yes, you can stack two 2" thick sheets together to get the same result as long as you don't use the stuff with the aluminum on the outside. 705 is better than 703 for bass traps because of the density. 703 is good for mid frequencies, so you can save a buck and get some of that for the door panels, but I'd go with 705 anyway because bass will go through the panel and then through the door (assuming it's a lightweight interior door) into the hall, acting as another bass trap. Do not pack pink stuff behind the corner panels. It's not worth it and it kills some of the bass trapping.
   
   
3. The panel above the piano will not be doing much. A more effective placement for that panel would be to use 4" of 705 mounted parallel to the wall but with air space of 2+ inches between them. This will trap lows down to ~50 or 60hz, mids, and highs. Mounting the panels directly against the wall will not allow them to absorb low end. The airspace is necessary to stretch down to deep low absorption. Mount as many of these types of panel as possible in this sized room for the flattest bass response. Expect to have some pretty bad modes below 80hz without more bass trapping. Ideally you'd cover as much wall and corner as possible.
   
   
4. Lots of insulation around a room will make it sound pretty dead in the highs, which make be to your liking. you may be happier though by taping crate paper or grocery bags to the faces of your wall panels. This will reflect the highest highs, keeping the room sounding a bit less claustrophobic. It's cheap and effective.
   
   
5. I don't see any ceilling treatment or mention of ceiling height. I'd install (at the very least) a 4" thick cloud above the drum kit and above mix position to kill early reflections. Ideally you would cover the upper corners where the ceiling meets the wall with 4" bass traps as well. This will greatly improve clarity. You can never have enough bass trapping in a room.
   
   
6. If that's a closet next to the drums, I'd fill it with bales of pink stuff as an additional bass trap (yes, just leave them packaged and stack them up).
   
   If you're interested in where I got my information, I basically just followed any advice I could find from Ethan Winer, but a lot of it didn't make sense until I built my studio and ran some of my own calculations using this porous absorber calculator. I found it very interesting that a really thick layer of the pink insulation works way better than the dense fiberglass stuff at controlling low end for cheap. The reason people like the dense stuff so much is simply because it saves space, but it's actually pretty ineffective compared to say, 8" of pink stuff.
   
   If you plan on mixing in this room I would highly suggest the books Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio and Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros, as they both go over small, existing room treatments in great detail.
   
   Good luck with your room.
   
   Quick edit: Don't be tempted to put your monitors on their sides just to look cool. If they have tweeters then they should be standing upright to give the best imaging.

I don't have much experience with Garage Band, but also do not frequently hear much about its use amongst solid engineers. My first suggestion is to download another DAW before you put too much time into learning ones ins and outs, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

A solid option if you are of humble beginnings is to go with Reaper. They give you an unrestricted demo version on their website. When you inevitably love it and get the hang of it and get your paycheck do go back and pay them for their hard work making it.

Next I'd say learn to download plug-ins. There are many free options online that sound fantastic compared to even paid ones just a few years back. Browse this sub and others, and by all means I always advocate Sound on Sound because man have they got the slew of articles.

Just use the googs. Find some sites you like and learn, learn, learn. Finally when you're speaking of "prepping for release" I would say don't try to learn mixing purely on your own.

Go find someone who is willing to talk about their mixing theory and talk to them about how they go about it. Even if it's just someone from Reddit in a Skype session there are people who have done it and who do it and they're usually willing to talk. That way your questions can get some answers and you get better faster. However, if you're taking their advice make sure you hear their stuff and know you like how it sounds.

Finally, if you're pretty sure you've got the mix and want to release a few songs in an EP or good gracious even a CD (ahh!) then have a mastering engineer get their hands on it. That's how it goes. They don't have to be the $2000 a day kind of guy but someone who identifies as a mastering engineer who you research and read good things about will be helpful. Always always always listen to someone's work before having them do a service you're signed up to pay for. If they do it and you don't like it you still owe them money.

In the way of direct answers:
Q: What is the common practice to EQ'ing everything?
A: Start with subtractive EQ (cuts instead of boosts) and cut out spots that overlap on two instruments so that one shines bright and the other shimmers in the background. You want to cut out all of the sounds with EQ so they fit together like a nice little puzzle. When two instruments are competing too closely maybe shift the octave on one. (Yes, when you're the artist it pays to be thinking of EQ blends as early as the songwriting and even brainstorming process.)

Q: What sort of compression should be looked at for all the instruments?
A: It shouldn't. If you don't understand compression you will not make it sound good by flipping on compressors on everything. Tweak tweak and tweak anything and everything and go online once again and learn the compression. In the meantime put your vocals in a 2.5:1 ratio with a fast attack and medium release and barely use the compression as need and leave the rest alone. Let that mixing engineer we talked about do the compression, and ask again what their theory or ideas when setting compression are.

Q: other general 'effects' and alterations that should be made
A: Use those plug-ins we talked about. Also in the way of phasing it sounds like you don't understand phasing. I'll let you dig up the articles this time. You should have some sites you like now. Phasing is about how time and space affects the way sound waves line up with one another and also flipping the phase can do things. You'll figure that out. But in the mean time you can also play with plugins that do interesting stereo effects.

I don't really know why I chose this to respond to, but if you do these things you'll be off to a good start. If you have Half Price Books (or the Internet and a finger that can click these links) go find yourself a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and become a master. Or Modern Recording Techniques. Or even a Dummies book. as there are good ideas everywhere. You find them by hearing things and deciding what you like and what you don't. Information is a buffet! Take what you need and leave the rest.

OK, the negative numbers thing is confusing at first, but there's a reason behind it. This will be easier if you understand logarithms, but hopefully it will make sense even if you don't.

Basically, an equalizer works by splitting the sound into different frequency bands, then passing each band through an adjustable amplifier.

An amplifier's job is to take a sound and make it louder. Well, really it's dealing with electricity, so it takes an input voltage and makes a higher output voltage. For example, using numbers I just made up, suppose the input is 0.02 volts and the output is 2 volts. It's basically multiplying the voltage by 100. If the output were 0.2 volts, it would be multiplying it by 10 instead of 100. So you've got ratios of 10 or 100 or whatever else.

In the audio world, logarithms are used when talking about these ratios. This is partially for convenience (the ratios can get really big), but it's also because it corresponds more closely to the way the ear perceives sound.

Continuing the example from above, the base-10 logarithm of 10 is 1, and the base-20 logarithm of 100 is 2.

Actually, I sort of lied. In audio, decibels (symbol: dB) are used. A decibel is simply a way of writing a ratio. It's the same as a base-10 logarithm, except then it's multiplied by 10. (Hence the "deci-" prefix.) So in the example above, the amplifier whose output is 10 times its input is increasing it by 10 decibels. Because 10 decibels means "a ratio whose base-10 logarithm is 1". The amplifier whose output is 100 times its input is increasing the voltage by 20 decibels, because 20 decibels means "a ratio whose base-10 logarithm is 2".

To summarize what we have so far:

input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB

But not only can amplifiers (and equalizers) multiply voltages and make them bigger, they can also make them smaller. That is, they can cut the volume level instead of increasing it. This corresponds to a fractional ratio, like 1/10 or 1/100 instead of 10 or 100. And when you take the logarithm of a fraction, you get a negative number. So let's extend the table a bit:

input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.0002V | 1/100 | -2 | -20 dB
0.02V | 0.002V | 1/10 | -1 | -10 dB
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB

You may have noticed that this table could use another row right in the middle. If an amplifier can either increase or decrease voltage compared to its input, can't it keep the voltage exactly the same? Yes, it can, and this is called unity gain. Updating the table:

input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.0002V | 1/100 | -2 | -20 dB
0.02V | 0.002V | 1/10 | -1 | -10 dB
0.02V | 0.02V | 1 | 0 | 0 dB
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB


So that's what the numbers on the equalizer knob mean:

• -15 dB (all the way counterclockwise) means you are multiplying the voltage by about 0.0316, because log(0.0316) = -1.5, and 10 * -1.5 = -15 dB.
  
• 0 dB (pointing straight up at 12 o'clock) means you are keeping the voltage unchanged, i.e. multiplying it by 1, because log(1) = 0, and 10 * 0 = 0 dB.
  
• +15 dB (all the way clockwise) means you are multiplying the voltage by about 31.6, because log(31.6) = 1.5, and 10 * 1.5 = +15 dB.
  
  More or less, a practical implication of this is that a good starting point is to have all the equalizer gain knobs (the blue ones marked -15, 0, and 15) set to 0. That's the neutral position where they are neither increasing nor decreasing their frequency band.
  
  If you look elsewhere on the mixer, you will see these dB ratios show up several other places. For example, up at the top where the mics plug in, you will see a GAIN knob that goes from 20 to 60. That means the voltage from the microphone is being amplified anywhere from 20 dB up to 60 dB, depending on where the knob is set, so it is being multiplied by something between 100 and 1,000,000.
  
  You'll also see the dB indicated on the main fader at the bottom of the channel strip. You'll see that the 0 dB point is near the top, which means when you have the fader close to the top, you are passing through the signal without changing its level, and if you have the fader all the way at the very top, you're boosting it by relatively little.
  
  And you will see that the LED lights in the channel's meter are marked in dB as well, with 0 dB and +6 dB.
  
  Anyway, (finally) back to practical issues and trying to actually answer your question. My suggestion was you could try boosting up to 5 dB at around 2-5 kHz. To do this, you'd basically do something like:
  
  
• Set the MF1 frequency knob (green) to 3kHz (pointing straight up).
  
• Set the MF1 gain knob (blue) to 0 dB (pointing straight up), then turn it 1 or 2 notches to the right. The first notch would be +3 dB and the second +6 dB.
  
• Now you will have a little bit of boost around 3kHz, but that may not be the best frequency. So try moving the frequency knob around in a range from about 2 notches to the left to 2 notches to the right. This will change where the boost is, and you may find that a certain frequency works better with a particular person's voice.
  
• Sometimes, once you've found the frequency you really wanted, you don't need to boost (or cut) as much, so you might move the gain knob part of the way back toward 0 dB.
  
  Of course, this idea might not help. It's kind of a case-by-case thing.
  
  Sorry that was so long!
  
  By the way, a really good resource, if you're in the mood for something book length, is the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It's chock full of useful practical and theoretical information. Of course, mixing sound is a bit of an art and takes practice, so no book is a shortcut to perfection, but it does help.

Hey cool. It’s vocal thread day. My time to shine! Kidding. I’m an amateur like most folks here. I’ve only been making tunes for about a year and half or so. But I see myself as a singer, primarily, a bad one, but still a singer. I answered something similar in a different thread but in general you can do vocals/melody/lyrics a couple of ways. The first way is to write some poetry then attempt to come up with a melody that fits it. If you’re good at keeping a melody in your head or written down, you could write lyrics, make a vocal melody and then flesh out the rest of the song. It’s like making skin for a person then making the muscle and skeleton afterward.

The second and most common way, as prescribed by Maynard from Tool, is to make your tune first. Build the skeleton and muscle first, then custom fit the skin over top. Maynard on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast talks about how he needs a finished, done track before he can do melody and then lyrics. He says he needs a stable foundation before building a room (the melody) and decorating it (the lyrics). He mentions that every time he has tried to cram some of his poetry into a track it has failed his standards.

After a little experience at the craft, I can corroborate what he says. It’s so much easier to put everything together first. When you’re constructing music though, if you want to sing on it, pre-plan your sections. Here is verse. Here is chorus. Then a bridge. Then verse 2, and two more choruses. Any structure you like, really. That’s just an example. You have to change the song for these parts so your singer or you know when to start. If you’re exceptionally good at counting (I am not, since I’m rhythm deaf, I said I was bad) you could do those parts on top of an unchanging foundation, I.e, the track never changes. You can change the drum pattern, the chord progression, something to help block out parts and make your song interesting.

Once you have that skeleton and muscle mapped out you can put the skin on your song. My best tracks have all been from that place.

Good luck my friend. Welcome to music creation. It’s pretty great.

Bonus help:
This is a fantastic book I highly recommend. You can be a know nothing and this book will guide you well.

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034

I'm going to disagree with a few people here. Getting an education to get a job in audio engineering is most definitely a bad idea in my opinion. Is this education worthless? No...but it's usually not worth what they're asking.

Audio engineering is a hard career to be successful in. I should know, as I've been doing it for quite some time. I've finally gotten to the point where as a free-lancer I can afford a car and house note, which is good. But there were plenty of sacrifices along the way. None of which I regret, of course. But I wouldn't have wanted to tack on extra debt going to school to get a job in a field that does not require a degree.

In all my time doing this, probably around 15 years professionally, nobody has ever asked me how to prove I know how to do this stuff. My resume speaks for itself. I've worked in studios in LA, Hawaii, Az, and now I'm a production sound mixer in Louisiana. I run sound for bands in venues around my city when I'm not on a movie. I own a recording studio for music and for foley and ADR for films. Currently, I'm on a shoot in Florida where I've been for 3 weeks. I got to shoot foley with one of the worlds greatest foley artists (Ellen Heuer). it's a great life!

My advise is do what most of my peers did. Get an internship at a studio. Or if your interested in movie work, assist a sound editor or a production sound mixer. Offer to be a sound utility for free. Or approach a local sound venue and offer to assist the live sound guy, wrapping cables and plugging in mics. Or call a local sound company that does festivals and other events, and offer to clean the snake at the end of the night.

Even if you do decide to get an education, the school will always be there, waiting for you if that's the route you decide to go. But a healthy amount of time in this field not paying for that education will both help you do better in school if you decide to go, and help guide you into a program that's right for both you and the specific set of skills you want to garnish. Or, you might find you don't need it.

The point is that yeah, just "looking things up on the internet" is not a good way to educate yourself. It's a good supplemental thing to do, to be curious and read. But hands on experience is much more valuable than any education I've ever come across in this field, and worlds ahead of just reading a book.

Now, not going to school isn't an excuse to not work. You simply have to take responsibility for your own education. Read books, talk to people who are doing the things you want to do. Learn from them. Help them, and make yourself invaluable to them. Make them wonder how they every got along without you there.

There are far too many opportunities to learn from within the industry than on the outside of it in a classroom or technical college. My career has been quite all over the map, ranging from music production to movie work. Here is a list of books that are about those various fields that I recommend.

The Daily Adventures of Mixerman - A great look at a recording session, and honestly one of the funniest books I've ever read.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Daily-Adventures-Mixerman/dp/0879309458

Zen and the Art of Mixing - mixerman

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Mixing-Mixerman-ebook/dp/B004CYE7OU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397229955&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+mixing

Zen and the art of Producing - Mixerman

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Producing-Mixerman/dp/1458402886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397229992&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+producing

Behind the Glass vol 1 and 2 - Howard Massey - Great interviews with producers and engineers. DEF check this one out. one of the best books i've ever read about recording.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Behind%20the%20glass

The Recording Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owniski - General information about gear, mic placement techniques, fundmentals of sound, etc...

http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Engineers-Handbook-Bobby-Owsinski/dp/1285442016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230109&sr=1-1&keywords=recording+engineering+handbook

The Sound Reinforcment Handbook - Live sound techniques

http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230178&sr=1-1&keywords=Yamaha+Live+sound+manual

The Location Sound Bible - Ric Viers - Great entry into sound for TV, Film, ENG, and EPP. Pretty much covers the bases of recording on location

http://www.amazon.com/Location-Sound-Bible-Record-Professional/dp/1615931201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230229&sr=1-1&keywords=Location+Sound+bible

That should get you started. Whatever route you choose, good luck!

Mics- 414s are fantastic mics no doubt. But there are many,many other more affordable options out there that are competitive in quality. I'd suggest checking out some higher end MXLs, they are super versatile and pretty too.

don't worry about thunderbolt. people were recording low latency drums and etc....long before thunderbolt came out.

monitors...well, the NS10s are pretty standard. if you can make a mix sound good on those it will sound good on anything.every major studio but one (studio a in dearborn) I've been in has them. If you are really burning for something new I'd suggest some genelic 1030a there the older model but they were used on pretty much every hit song in the early 2000s. Everybodys got them. I know the speakers and trust thier response. and they're affordable.

preamp- This is where I personally invest the most money... there are as many preamps as snowflakes. I like the Focusrites ISAs, Rupert Neve designs, go high end... but honestly I have been fooled by the stock original MBOX pres. You're not a true engineer till you have fiddled with a non functioning micpre and thought "that sounds better" lol.

compressers- plug in compressors are great. which is why i suggest spending the money on the preamp. however it never hurts to have a hardware tube compressor/limiter handy. I recommend the ART VLA II.

plugins- trident EQ, fairchild 660, old timer, PSP vintage warmer, 1176, LA2A, smack!, MC77, there are a TON of good plug ins to choose from.

headphone monitoring? Not to sure about that one, Headphones are for performing only. I have the 80 dollar sonys for clients. ,they come with a nice bag to store them in. I don't mix with headphones( thats a whole can of worms dealing with psychoacoustics)

drum mics- shure makes good durable kits, I see them in use all over the place. CAD aren't to bad either. don't go cheap..but don't go overboard either. Approach it like preamps, go with a trusted brand name, they're selling a set of mics specifically for drums, kinda hard to fuck that up right? (IMO its more important to have a good room.)
this kind of reminds me of a joke.

how many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
none. they have machines for that now. just throwing it out there.

computer and software- I say go protools. but thats all i know, i was certified in 2002 and havent had a need for anything else. I have never been in a studio that wasnt using it, there are a couple in nashvile that use sonar...well, that was a few years ago.

I am not here to shit on mac. but i have used both in the industry throuought the years and they both perform fine. The last studio I was at used a quadcore w 4 gigs on XP with PT8 and never had so much as a hiccup, recording 24 tracks at once @ 24/96. I take the policy of if it isnt broken, don't fix it. I also have a person issue with avid, I refuse to upgrade to 9 or 10 because they allow any interface to be used...except there older ones. bullshit.

Trust me on this one...the client isnt going to give a shit what OS you are using until it your computer crashes. if you load up your computer with tons of cracked plugins and have poor organization and maintenance, its gonna take a shit on you.

further reading- this is probably the most important advice i can give you. read a little bit and get a total understanding on what everything does, because there is a lot of bullshit in this field.

http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Audio-Series/dp/0872887235

http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=pd_sim_b_10

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348852030&sr=1-1&keywords=room+acoustic+music

http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Glass-Record-Producers-Softcover/dp/0879306149/ref=pd_sim_b_24

good luck

Well I guess my first question should have been if you're mixing on a computer DAW software or a physical mixer. The concept is exactly the same, but the general levels are a little different.

But just to quickly hit on things, mastering is the step between mixing a track and printing a track to a CD (or releasing it digitally). Basically what happens during mastering is the volume is brought back up to an appropriate level (among several other things, but we'll keep it simple for now), and since you left plenty of headroom, which is the amount of room you have between where the volume is set at and max volume, you have plenty of room to play around with. Mastering takes the track as a whole, processes it as a single track, unlike mixing where you're processing each individual channel. It's much more uniform and the end results are beyond anything that could be done mixing alone, and you're absolutely right about making sure it sounds good on multiple platforms. Honestly whether or not you do it yourself is a personal preference. Personally I don't master my own tracks because its really more technical than creative, and its a perfect time to have an unbiased, profession ear polish it to work on all the different platforms. However, it costs money, and if you're just starting out, you may have to do it yourself. Which is fine, because its a chance to learn what actually goes on so you can learn to mix better to prepare for it.

Faders are those sliders that move up and down and control volume.

Artifacts are basically just unintentional, unpleasant sounds introduced to the mix. The main one is clipping. Its basically when the volume of a channel hits its max. In the digital format, the sound hits a brick wall and imparts this awful popping noise. On physical mixers, it would overdrive the circuit and distort the sound, which can be a good thing, but in the digital realm, it never is. Thats why headroom is so important. Also it give you plenty of space to push volumes up and down. If you grab every fader and just start pushing them up, then what happens when you need to boost a channel just a little more to have it stand out? You can't because theres no more room to do it.

Alot of it is fairly technical, but it s pretty straight forward and easy to learn. If it's something you're serious about, I would highly recommend Mixing Audio and read it like its the bible. It's easy to follow, and will be the best investment you could make in yourself as a producer.

At the end of the day though, don't sweat things too much, and have plenty of fun :)

Books I have read that helped me, loosely in the order I read them:

• Practical Recording Techniques By Bartlett and Bartlett. This is a more "general case" audio recording text, about sound and recording. It's less focused on the EDM trope of people doing everything on their computers, as it talks a lot about outboard processing, microphones, and such, but I think that sort of thing is actually quite helpful to know.
  
  
• Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook by Fred Welsh. This is an overview of subtractive synthesis which goes into quite useful depth on what's going on and what you can do with it, with lots of diagrams and such. In particular he goes over using oscilloscope and sepectrum analyzer plugins to see what's actually going on with your waveform. The second half of the book is a "cookbook" full of "recipes" that are basically presets written down on paper. If you're quite comfortable with synthesis you don't need much of what it has to offer, but I thought it was great.
  
  
• The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski. This is all about mixing. I feel like a lot of what this book offers tends to come up online as a lot of it sounded familiar when I read it, but it's still a solid text.
  
  
• The Daily Adventures of Mixerman by Mixerman. This book is pure fucking comedy - it's a series of diary entries by a supposedly respectable mixer in LA, mixing the worst band he's ever seen. It's generally understood to be fictional, but it's very entertaining and it actually goes into a lot of detail about why certain audio decisions are made, and because of this serves as a surprisingly good primer on how such a studio is run. But mostly, it's hilarious. You can read a few chapters here.
  
  
• Zen and the Art of Mixing, also by Mixerman. This one isn't fiction, or funny, but it's the same author brain-dumping all about mixing, going into the depth that I wished he did in The Daily Adventures. If you already understand the technical tools in mixing, this book is all about what goes through his head when he's mixing, and I found it to be just incredibly helpful. The author is very opinionated about some things, but he makes this very obvious.
  
  
• The Dance Music Manual By Rick Snoman. This one comes up every time someone asks for a good book on dance music. I have only skimmed it, but from what I've gathered it's all about electronic styles and is aimed squarely at the sort of person who reads this sub. I really need to read through it entirely so I can say this for sure, but a number of people have told me if you want to learn dance music and only read one book, this would be a pretty good one.
  

Hi there!

I've been producing Electronic Music as a hobby for almost 10 years.

Here's a quick guide to help you get started:

1.
you will need a DAW (Digita Audio Workstation), this is your tool and work environment in which you will create and mix your beats.

Depending on if you are on Windows or Mac you have a few different options.

FL Studio - This is the DAW I started producing in, back in version 8.something. It is widely considered one of the best starter DAW's because of the very intuitive user interface and HUGE library of native samples and plugins. FL Studio is sometimes looked down upon by some producers, who don't seem to take it seriously as a professional DAW. In my experience these producers often lack experience themselves, FL is a great DAW and in the end it is what you do with the tool that matters ;).

• some famous producers that use FL: Avicii (rip), Martin Garrix, Camo and Krooked, Benga, Spor/Feed Me, ...
  
  Ableton Live - This is the DAW I currently use, I switched from FL to Ableton for the simple reason that it was easier to collaborate with a friend of mine who also used Ableton at the time. I feel that FL Studio's native plugins and instruments are a bit better than Ableton's, but I personally like Ableton's interface and workflow better than FL's.
  
  What is very specific about Ableton is the "Live Session mode", where you can arrange your sounds and loops in groups that you can trigger live with a midi controller, which is very handy for live performances (obviously) but also often used as a song writing tool, especially in hip-hop and futurebeat genres. - famous artists that use Ableton: Skrillex, Flume, Netsky, Dada Life, ...
  
  These are the two DAW's I have personal experience with, but there are other options as well: Steinberg Cubase, PreSonus Studio One, Apple Logic Pro, and many more. Best to do your own research and download a few trial versions to see which one you like best.
  
  2. After you decided on a DAW and "legally" obtained one, it's time to start making music. By that I mean "time to start making very shit music that you will look back on with huge cringe a few years from now" because that's exactly what it is like.
  
  I don't mean this in a discouraging way, on the contrary! It takes loads of time and effort before you'll start noticing you're improving. One of the most important things to keep in mind is to be self-critical and open to criticism. Don't assume you know better when you're just starting out, be an empty cup because it's impossible to fill one that's already full.
  
  Here's a very inspiring monologue on the subject by Ira Glass
  
  3. Tutorials and books. Here are some books and tutorials that helped me out a lot, and hopefully will help you too!
  
  books:
  Mastering Audio: The Art and Science - Bob Katz widely considered to be the producer's bible.
  
  The Mixing Engineers Handbook - Bobby Owsinski
  
  tutorials:
  
  Sadowick's ultimate Ableton Guide a full beginner to intermediate guide of Ableton Live, purely for this tutorial series alone I'd reccommend using Ableton. It's very comprehensive. Sadowick also has lots of other very useful tutorials on his channel, but is currently on hiatus because of his battle with cancer :(
  
  SeamlessR this entire channel is gold. Seamless uses FL Studio but what he teaches is applicable to most DAW's. Lots of great tutorials on synthesis, mostly Drum and Bass focused but very interesting.
  
  ADSR Tutorials very informative tutorials ranging from mixing to synthesis. Often about House and Techno, but most techniques are really applicable to every genre.
  
  ____
  
  -
  if you start with these you'll come a long way, if you have any questions; pm me.
  -
  
  EDIT here are some subreddits you might be interested in as well:
  
  /r/makinghiphop
  
  /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers
  
  /r/edmproduction
  
  
  
  

Oh wowzers.

So starting with your gear:

• I don't see any sort of system processor or even basic crossover. How are you getting the right frequencies to the tops versus the subs? That also leads to the fact that you've already blown one of the tops. That's part of Ye Olde School of Hard Knocks - "Back In The Day," like before the Internet, that's how people learned about their system- blow something up? Learn to re-cone, and then figure out why it happened to avoid it in the future.
  
  
• As noted re the vintage of the mixer. An entry level digital board would have served you better.
  
  
• Can't comment on the "various performing & recording mics" without knowing just what you have. Did you get any DI boxes?
  
  >All the speakers are beautiful wooden cabinets, handmade, w/ high quality neodymium tweeters, JBL parts, etc.
  
  "handmade" means proprietary- they won't meet riders (if you ever encounter one) for the most part. More importantly- they'll be frowned upon because there's no consistent specs that an engineer could look up. I'm not saying they won't work in the long run, but start setting aside money now for a replacement plan. On the same thread, you're going to need to learn about the specs of your PA to set appropriate limiters to protect your speakers going forward.
  
  > Still working on monitors, looking at active EVs at the moment.
  
  Having monitors (if you're looking to provide for bands) is going to be vital. Ideally, they're all the same, but as you grow into this... you might start with two and then add two more once you have money coming in.
  
  > Though part of me is worried about more equipment when I haven’t started recouping investment on what I have yet.
  
  At the same time, if you don't have a "full package," it's going to be harder to recoup ANY of your investment. I'm going to be blunt here: No wedges? Home made boxes? A bit outdated mixer? If there's another option for a provider in your area that does have these things under control, that's who is going to get the business. If you're not getting the business, there won't be a cash flow to allow you to get the things you need to complete your package.
  
  Story time! Couple friends of mine were big into the EDM scene in the area, back ca. 2000-2004 or so. Decent JBL SR-X rig. Now, they weren't getting it out enough to really be viable, but that's not really the point of my story. What happened to them is that one show, they blew out one of the 18" cones. Since they hadn't been charging enough to be setting aside cash for repairs, they didn't have the money to repair it. Because of this, two things happened: They had to charge a bit less going forward because they didn't have all of the capabilities that they previously had, and they had to run their remaining subs a bit harder to compensate. I think they eventually blew at least one more sub-- and the downward spiral continued.
  
  Education Opportunity: Start with the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It's dated in that it doesn't cover a lot of more recent developments with types of equipment, but the underlying theory and principles of live sound haven't changed. This will help you to learn gain staging, setting limiters, and really how your gear is doing what it's doing.
  
  Building a Business Plan
  
  So to be candid, this step should have been completed prior to buying ANYTHING. Without a solid plan of how to move forward, you find yourself wasting money on things that don't fit the plan. Believe me, I've been there. My shop has piles of stuff that were purchased in the "early years" that aren't in use now, and most likely won't be used ever again. I have a couple things that were purchased and have never been used on a show; I "thought" they were needed, but they weren't. [We also have a collection of randomly mis-matched cases. That makes a truck pack really challenging, but that's just something I never realised was a thing early on.]
  
  > already been running into issues w/ lots of friends wanting free/discounted use. And my own confusion about whether to focus on renting or producing my own events
  
  Being "the person with speakers" is always attractive to people who want them for free. :-) As for the second part, I think you're a ways off from producing your own (people paying for tickets to attend) events. Being a "promoter" is really something that takes a lot of work to make profitable, and to be blunt, you don't want to also be worrying about the sound at the same time.
  
  > (I think the answer short term is renting w/ a contracted sound guy).
  
  Hiring a sound tech is going to eat into your profits. At the moment, you need to be able to "bank" as much of your event income as possible. So, that's where it's going to be vital that you learn how to best deploy your limited resources. As you grow, and either the events are complicated enough that you need an assistant, or you have a second rig and you need them both deployed at the same time, that's when you'll bring in another person.
  
  This whole situation may seem daunting, but you can do this. Learn about the specs and capabilities of your rig. Figure out how you blew that top (did you kill the whole thing, or just the HF or LF of the top?), and implement protection into your system. And then learn how to repair the damage- those skills will help you in the future, if you can recone a speaker instead of needing to pay someone else to do that!
  
  Feel free to reach out with specific questions, or post "I'm confused!" threads here, and we'll help the best we can.
  
  -Ray

As a pseudo-musician/sound engineer here's a couple of tips I learned over the years.

• Avoid being a gear head. It's great to get all the latest and greatest equipment but it really isn't necessary to make great music. A simple pro-audio card for your computer, a small mixer (12-16channel), and a couple of SM57/SM58 mics will give the power to make great music.
  
  
• Try and bring as much of your own gear to live shows with extra back up cables. Don't depend on the venue to have it. Nothing worse than showing at 5-7pm for a 9pm door open scrambling to find a music store that's still open over a bad cable.
  
  
• Learn some audio engineering and sound reinforcement. It helps in creating a dialog between you and production studios and live gig engineers. If I ever had to recommend a book it would be Yamaha's Sound Reinforcement Handbook
  
  
• Keep detailed notes about the songs you create including settings, equipment used, etc. It saves a lot of time trying to reverse engineer a song if you try and recreate in a studio or on different gear.
  
  
• Utilize the internet for creating connections other musicians to create music and collaborate. You can even get feedback by doing live 'jam' sessions on sites like ustream.com or justin.tv
  
  
• Learn the basics of copyright law and contract law if you plan to get signed and/or go public with your music.
  
  
• Your live performances should focus on the performance. Don't worry about recreating you studio songs exactly. People come to your show to be entertained and less about hearing the music.
  
  Lastly, have fun. Learn to accept your mistakes. Even the best bands in the world don't replicate their album songs exactly for many reasons most of which is because you can't and it detracts from the energy of the performance.
  
  I hope that helps

So first step to improvement is self examination. As long as you are hungry and looking for ways to improve it's going to happen with practice. All things considered you are doing pretty well for doing this one year and not having a background in music(saying your self taught is I guess what this means) is. So right now what is the difference between you and most people on soundcloud. Frankly not much. But out of let's say 1000 people who are at the level where you are how many say, "Yeah what I got is pretty good" compare to yourself who says "Alright, what I got is fair but how do I take it further". There are people out there better than you but if you are hungry and want to learn you will eventually pass them.

Now regarding your product. Beats are fine. If you were collabing with someone who wanted a simple beat for them to burn on its fine. But fine doesn't cut it with so many people out there. You need to learn how to use equalization, compression, filtering, delay, reverb. These are just as important as what you compose. You have a vision right? You hear other people's beats that you want to get close to. The more you learn the dynamics and effects the better your will be. And yeah when it's appropriate automate your tracks man. Not to a point where you step all over an artist but enough to engage the listener. Rule of four, if something doesn't change in four measures people check out.

I highly recommend this book for someone like yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240815807/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1466480159&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=small+studio+mixing

Lastly yeah you should be collaborating. You will touch base with people who are ahead of you now but like yourself there's always someone trying to come up. The more you practice w people the better. Keep at it man. You will get better it's just part of the process.

Regarding speakers for your studio, you don't need the huge hi-fi speakers that big studios have, they use those mainly to flatter artists and industry reps. For mixing, you should get a set of speakers with a relatively flat frequency response that spotlights the midrange and has low distortion. The Avatone Mix Cube is good for this. You only really need one because a lot of mixing is in mono. The Yamaha NS10s are also good (these are more expensive and are pretty standard in most studios. The thing about these speakers is not that they sound good, but that, on first listen, you'd probably think they sound bad; they highlight problems in your mix.

I imagine if you're doing hip-hop a lot of your listeners will listen on headphones so it's useful to do some mixing on headphones (you might do mono mixing on your nearfield and work out panning and stereo stuff on headphones, for example), so get two good pairs of studio headphones-one for you, and one for people you record (unless you're building this to record yourself, although if people know you have this cool studio they might want to get in on the action and it'd be good to be prepared for that if it does happen-you might also want to record a feature on your track or something).

Get a DAW and know it back and forth. I would say for your purposes, unless you're already well-versed in Pro Tools or already have a copy of it, don't get Pro Tools-there's a huge learning curve and it's by far the most expensive. Reaper has a free demo that you can use indefinitely and FL Studio and Audacity are free. Ableton is what most producers use but it's not really made for tracking or mixing, so what some people do is they produce in Ableton and bounce the track to another DAW to mix.

Microphone-wise, ideally for vocals you want a large-diaphragm condenser. A small-diaphragm will work too but LDCs are standard. You can record on a dynamic mic but they usually need a lot more gain which might mean more noise and you'll need to be handy at mixing to get the sound you want out of a dynamic mic.

If you're investing in a big project like this, read a lot and know what you're doing. This book will get you started on mixing techniques and the basics. This one is a must, it starts out with some chapters on how to acoustically treat the room you're working in which even though it isn't glamorous or fun is totally vital to a good studio.

edit: new mix! please take a look at this one: https://soundcloud.com/pali_m/candied-sprites-1 (electronic dream pop)

• For the main synth I sidechained the reverb to the original track (bring closer to front of soundstage, not as lost when listening back on mobile)
  
  
• Bussed and compressed the drums separately
  
  
• Sub bass
  
  
• Other msc. automation.
  
  Most importantly though is I figured out I've been sitting too close to my monitors! I've been super frustrated trying to figure out why when I bounce the track the low end is SO much more prevalent and muddy, and it's because I haven't been hearing it properly at all. Standing outside your door to listen to your mix is also really helpful. Bought "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" and have been learning tons. Very nice to finally have a single resource to work from.
  
  Still not totally up to par but would love your guys' thoughts on how to make it better.
  
  __.
  
  
  Hey fam, would love your thoughts on this guy: https://soundcloud.com/pali_m/candied-sprites
  
  Electronic dream pop, saccharine dancey refrain to sate your sweet tooth. Just an exercise to work on structure and comp techniques sorta, but I'd really appreciate some input on how to make it better, especially the mix.
  
  Will do my best to return feedback in kind.

So... your only technique in mixing is moving your faders?

I don't want to sound rude, but that's not enough to get your mix to sound good. It's only going to get you a starting balance.

I'm not going to write a book here, but I'd like to give you a short overview of what concepts an average mixing process comprises of (in a nutshell and NOT comprehensive,... there's enough information out there to learn about each topic).

• Editing: check phase if you're layering instruments/recording stuff with more than one mic, clean up your tracks,...
  
• Gain staging (that's - more or less - what you're describing)
  
• Equalizing tracks
  
• Compressing tracks
  
• Panning tracks
  
• Transient shaping
  
• Sweetening the mix (room tone reverb, delay, saturation, ...)
  
  Seriously, educate yourself on mixing and your sound will get an enormous boost. There's a ton of resources out there, including some of my favorites:
  
  
• Mixing secrets for the small studio
  
• Mixing audio - concepts practices & tools
  
• Zen & the art of mixing
  
• shameless plug, but I've started a video series on mixing as well, maybe you'll find it useful: Start To Mix
  
  With regards to mastering, I would really consider sending your mix to an external mastering engineer. You will get a much better result, not only because these people specialise in what they can do, but a second pair of ears is always a good idea.
  
  Hope you find this useful & best of luck!

This question can best be answered by reading about mastering and how it's done. I recommend you check out books like Owsinski's The Audio Mastering Handbook. Here is a directly relevant quote from it:

>Mastering is the process of turning a collection of
songs into a record by making them sound like they
belong together in tone, volume, and timing (spacing
between songs).

> Mastering is not a set of tools or a device that music is run through and automatically comes out mastered (despite what the adverts for these types of so-called “mastering devices” say). It’s an art form that, when done conscientiously in its highest form, mostly relies on an individual’s skill, experience with various genres of music, and good taste.

This tends to break down if you're only mastering a single track, say for a dubplate, but even 12" releases have two to six tracks that need to be stylistically and sonically married.

Hopefully this also hints at why it's a good idea to have someone else master your music. An experienced mastering engineer is similar to an experienced violinist — yes, you may be a great composer-violinist, but you're not as good as a true virtuoso like Itzhak Perlman. The nuance of interpretation that such a player can impart to your music is likely beyond anything that you're capable of or initially intended.

Of course if you feel like you can handle it and you have a vision that must be carried through the mastering stage, go for it. There's really no reason why you can't master your own material, just reasons why you probably shouldn't.

Try designing some sounds for an open source game (like minecraft or something). Some games will be easier to edit than others but it's probably in your best interest to learn a bit of programming with the way that indie gaming is developing (people tend to wear more than one hat) - but I know that for minecraft you can simply replace an ogg file with a new ogg and that's that.

Here's a really cool book about mixing audio. It focuses on mixing live instruments but it comprehensively covers the fundamental ways in which every VST works and how best to use it. It's a good read and taught me a lot about sound design.

Also, you cannot go wrong with a decent pair of monitors and a decent preamp. 500 bucks is probably the minimum that I'd recommend spending on these items but having a truly honest pair of speakers goes a very, very long way.

I have spent some time in mastering studios, and I can try to shed some light on this to the best of my knowledge. As a precursor, master recordings usually exist on stereo analog tape whose mix has been bounced from the multitrack mix. That is, until you get somewhere into the 90's when elements started to be recorded either partially or fully in digital. That's why on eariler era CD's, you'll sometimes see "A/A/D" or "D/D/D" etc. on the back of CDs to signify whether it was recorded, mixed, or mastered via digital or analog means.

• Mastering for the listening format: If an album was originally mastered for vinyl and/or cassette tape, then it would benefit from a remaster for digital formats, since the digital mastering process is very different from analog formats. Digital audio always has a very specific top threshold or "clipping" point (sometimes measured as 0dB full scale) and so it can give a mastering engineer the ability to push the compression and limiting (which can be a good or bad thing depending on the techniques used and your opinion on the digital "loudness wars"). I was fascinated to learn that an improper vinyl master can create a physical groove too big and cause the needle to skip.
  
  
• A/D (Analog to Digital) conversion: The quality of conversion has come a long way over the past 20-30 years, and so it's not uncommon that an album may have been digitally transferred for CD replication back in the 90's, but could sound much better through more modern converters. The A/D conversion process has a huge effect on sound quality.
  
  
• Overall sonic "enhancement": This usually comes down to EQ and compression techniques. Mastering engineers may utilize both analog equalizers (for broader tone shaping purposes), or more "surgical" digital equalizers to both enhance and/or clean up the sound more than earlier masters. This may also involve some form of noise reduction. More mix-specific qualities like reverb and other effects are usually not touched.
  
  Generally speaking, I have found that a remaster sounds cleaner and brighter, which I think is a combination of both the improved conversion, and processing to fit our modern sensibilities, since today's listeners are more used to a slightly "louder" (more compressed/ peak limited) sound, as well as added openness to the high end of mixes.
  
  Edit: For further reading, this book by Bob Katz is a bible on the process of mastering.
  

My understanding of music theory is rudimentary but that a huge chunk of it is expressed in terms of ratios/intervals. It tends to stay within the musical scale, but since you can directly map that to frequencies it's all ultimately frequency ratios.

I'm not sure how much music theory you could derive from the direction of physics however, as a lot of it seems to depend on what we perceive as harmonious or dissonant. Why we like certain specific ratios and whether that's determined by something fundamentally physical is a super interesting question imo. I hope someone else can reply and shed light.

If you'd like a book on acoustics, that covers the physics of how speakers/instruments rooms and perception interact, Dr Floyd Toole wrote a great one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reproduction-Psychoacoustics-Loudspeakers-Engineering/dp/0240520092

I'm relatively new to the mixing game, started a few years ago in college and started back up now that I have a house and room to mix again, and those two resources were my favorites especially when I started learning.

First, you might not need all the info, but I highly recommend Mike Seniors book "Mixing secrets for the small studio". It's around $20, but totally worth it:

https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807

The most important parts are:

A. he helps you get started on getting a good sounding room and speakers, which you need at least some of or you won't know what sounds good.

B. he goes through a mix step by step. Pros probably don't need that rigid of a format for going through a mix, but as a beginner, it's a great way to know what you should be listening for. It also keeps you from spending hours just messing around with no idea where you're headed, which is what I wasted too much time on early on.

One other resources helpful for beginners, if you wanna watch a lot of videos, is the Recording Revolution youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/recordingrevolution Most of his content is aimed towards new mixers, and he routinely does new series where he'll go through a mix step by step and show you how he does it, often using just stock plugins. While you might not follow everything he does (Sometimes he gets a little mix bus heavy, which I don't think is the best way to start for beginners) but his explanations on how plugins work is usually sound.

Anyway, lots of other great tips on this already, just thought I'd add my 2 cents.

You don't really grasp the concept.

>Any room will sound better with a better speaker, as a general rule

Learn anything about acoustics and you'll swiftly learn this is not the case. This shouldn't been to be explained. Context matters. Speakers need to be suited to their environments.

>In what way would a better speaker sound worse than a bad speaker in any given room?

All your saying here is a better speaker is better... Nobody is denying this. My argument is that after having spend a certain threshold on a good setup, you will almost never feel significant progress to your 'endgame' spending much more, no matter your gear. Acoustics quickly becomes your issue to solve, and it's the hardest one as you can't just buy it. It's not hard to create a flat speaker, it's not hard to create a low distortion amplifier, we live in 2019, a close-to-perfect setup is achievable for under £5k.

>I have a terrible room (almost square, small, hardwood floors, couch, curtains) and I still haven't hit a wall with what I can get by buying better speakers.

Sorry to say this, but you likely just don't have a good ear for these things. A lot of rooms can be nullified by just turning the speakers up to a point where you're just hearing the shape of your room as a tuned box and not really hearing many reflections. Sounding Different =/= Sounding Better.

As connoisseurs for sound - especially when chasing 'endgame' as is our topic here. We're looking for a few key elements - a consistent, flat frequency response with no harsh inconstant peaks, we want to be able to hear stereo separation with minimal phasing of sound.

That last part matters the most, minimal phasing. suboptimal rooms make phasing a huge problem. It's something an expert audio engineer understands how to look out for, and is often those with little acoustics knowledge have no idea exists, or what to even look out for if it does.

All I'm trying to say in my post, is that it's easy to get chased up into the gear for your true audio 'endgame', when really doing so will never net you the results you truly are looking for - unless you've never heard a perfectly acoustically treated room.

My best piece of advice for anyone is to go and listen to a non-environment room, or a non-reflection zone room, it's an experience that will completely change your mind, especially when you get to A/B between different speaker arrays.

>You seem to have strong opinions on room treatment, why not start a thread or offer up some advice/rooms you've worked on to educate people here?

Honestly, the best advise I can give anyone here is to read 'The Book' on speaker placement. It goes against a lot of what people believe, especially in a hi-fi context of acoustics.

Audiophiles just seem to care too much about the gear opposed to how it actually sounds, there are some relatively dogshit speakers (compared to their contemporaries) this sub recommends just because they're expensive. Most acoustics posts on this sub and any hifi forum get buried. Although if I do see some demand for it I may actually compile something someday.

TL;DR: After a certain point, speaker quality really doesn't get much better, and acoustics rapidly takes over in honing your perfect setup. Different does not equal better, and in a good enough room, a lot of the time a vastly more expensive speaker will not perform better.

I'm always recommending this book here: Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio. By far the most helpful resource I've come across for mixing. Great layout, written by a guy who knows his shit and includes relevant quotes from other top professionals, and funny at times. It basically covers everything starting from room acoustics and treatment, and then on to mixing from the ground up. A little textbooky but I enjoy the technical drivel.

SOS magazine is another great resource and for more than just mixing. I think their archives are down atm because they're building a new site, but once that's back up they have a ridiculous amount of pro tips and reviews for free. Mike Senior who wrote Mixing Secrets is also a frequent contributor to this site/mag.

None of that above is hip-hop focused, but applies to all genres. I used to always look for any videos or interviews with Da Beatminerz since they were one of my favorite production crews growing up. Same thing with El-P, Pete Rock, DJ Shadow, Dan The Automator, etc. Sometimes at shows they'd have cool trinkets for sale; I remember picking up this video on CD of Qbert that showed a glimpse into the life of a touring DJ which was pretty inspirational to me.

Well, I'm sitting here loading 23 dvd's of my new sample library, so I have some time to write :)

First of all I'm going to cite ITB gain staging honestly in digital you don't have to gain stage unless your effects plugins have an assumed range... slate (which does make input level assumptions) really hammered this home to me on the first project I did.

Gain staging is boring and takes a bit of time (and you have to revisit it if of you put in lots of piano or fortissimo sections after you set it initially), but it makes the mix go a lot faster. It also solves the issue of "crap this VST patch is way loud!"


I use live, so track routing may be specific to that.

Source (either audio, or instrument) -> sonalksis freeg to bring source to -18db RMS -> slate vtm -> slate vcc channel -> (optional side chain compression) -> (optional instrument compression, like to make a snare sound different)-> (optional effects like reverb or eq) -> output routed to a bus or group


bus or group -> slate vcc bus -> compressor for that instrument type / group (like FG-Grey for drums, FG-Red for synths) -> hybrid static/dynamic EQ here (which is really a mutliband compressor/expander)

bus or group always also goes to a dummy track (with no output) that has an instance of MMultiAnalyzer on it (for finding collisions and/or relative loudness of the groups). I do this on a dummy track so you can see the level after the output of the groups or bus's fader, ie, what the level is going into the master channel.

when mixing I first set the loudness within a group, and the ride the faders/automate levels among groups to balance the mix.

master chain
freeG-> slate vtm -> slate vcc -> MAutoDynamicEQ -> compressor 1 (usually slate fg-mu) set to barely move the needle off of -1db -> compressor 2 (usually fg-red) -> very fast compressor (built in or stillwell the rocket) at 1.5 ratio ~-9db to -12db threshold (for the fast stuff, think of it as the knee before the limiter) -> ozone (limiting and dithering only, with no gain and -0.30 for target) -> MLoudnessAnalyzer (for LUFS EBU R128 loudness for final mix check)

So to answer your question, since I almost always do my main compression via glue / bus compression on a group or bus, I would eq on the individual channel, before the compressor, if I considered it "part of changing the noise of that instrument." Compression for "make it fit in the mix and make it louder" is always handled on a bus, and The Glue compressor as well as VBC are really good for that -- a lot of people don't seem to know that's what "the glue" is made for.

Also, yes, that's three compressors in a row on the master chain. The reason is for the reaction speed differences, and coloration.

I don't use a limiter for the final gain stage, it's just there to prevent clipping. I try not to let the limiter hit more than 1.5 or 2db -- at 3db or more it's definitely hurting the mix even with IRC III or Elephant

I think you can see this all in action on a project here:

https://blend.io/project/540cfff496123d1970002907

Books I can't recommend enough:

Bob Katz
Mike Senior
Rick Snoman


TL;DR There's more than one way to do it, but after I read some books I tried a new way (to me) that I used on my most recent project and thought it was great for producing a nice loud (but not sausage) master.

My PC is high end though, on my older pc I couldn't run all this stuff at the same time.

Don't make the mistake I did and just start buying gear. Sure, having all this fancy stuff is wonderful, but having just the stuff you need, and knowing how to use it is way better.

I cut my teeth working local amateur-professional theatre. It was a wonderful way to start and while I don't work with that theatre anymore, I will occasionally drop by and lend a hand on shows, etc.

The other thing you could do is fire off some emails to rental companies asking for work experience. A spare pair of hands around the shop is always useful and you can learn a lot.

Alternatively, if you have a vague understanding of audio already is reading this book. It's a bit wordy, but it explains very well all the concepts you'll need to understand. I'd advise reading it cover-to-cover, you'll probably have to set aside some afternoons.

Whatever you do, good luck! This is an awesome industry to be in, and your enthusiasm will take you far.

Do you have much of a science background and/or are you willing to read some interesting papers? If your interest is in the speaker to room interface (as mine is), I would love to point you towards some great books and articles.

I can post a longer list later or PM you, but I would definitely suggest starting with Floyd Toole's book, Sound Reproduction. It is definitely not perfect, there are statements he makes that deserve real pushback, but nevertheless it is definitely a "must-read".

This is called psychoacoustics. Simply put, it is the framework for looking at specs. There are definitely issues that are not resolved (like any science), but I think starting with a book like Toole's is a good way to get into it.

I'd also read Linkwitz's website and Geddes' book. JBL and Sean Olive (their head of research) publish a great blog. Getting access to the AES library is not cheap, but may be worth it to you.

I have a few recommendations for you to get you started:

1. This book: Music Theory for The Computer Musician , it's a great way to start off if you're unfamiliar with music theory. It gives you the basics and foundation of theory and while showing you how to apply it to various DAWs. It's a fairly easy read and there are quizzes and a CD with examples from the lessons. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
   
   
2. Here are some good subreddits:
   /r/edmproduction/
   /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/
   /r/abletonlive/
   
   
3. As others have mentioned, there are no shortage of resources online. There's tons of Youtube videos and forums where you can find tutorials.
   
   
4. I also recommend listening/reading up on different types of EDM to give yourself a better understanding of what differentiates each genre. For example, check out the "House Music" wiki. Look at the description and try to understand what the "elements" of House music are: Rhythm structure, characteristic sounds, etc.. Do that for the genres you like first, and then venture to others you may not be familiar with.
   
   
5. Lastly, if you're serious about it, stick with it. Just like anything, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. Also, keep in mind it's not a cheap hobby or easy (time wise). You can do a lot of basic stuff with you Macbook and Logic (or whatever DAW you prefer) to get yourself started. I would hold off buying much hardware until you are comfortable with basics. If anything I would start off with some headphone and speaker monitors. (the links are to what I'm using and recommend to get started).
   
   
   I hope at least some of that is helpful...Good luck with everything!

I build a similar room a number of years ago for playing and recording drums. If your clearance allows for it, you will get the most isolation using a 'room within a room' design like /u/Bolockablama said. If you can build a box that everything will fit inside comfortably that does not attach to the surrounding structure it will be easier to contain.

It will also help to add as much mass to your walls and ceiling. Using two layers of drywall instead of one will help, adding rigid insulation like Roxul will help a lot. There are products like resilient channels and Green Glue that work to help decouple drywall from other layers of drywall and the studs behind it as well which will all help keep sound contained.

I had a lot of help perusing the 'Studio Building' threads on Gearslutz as well. I've also heard great things about Rod Gervais's book.

Once your room is built, your on to room treatment!

bad advice so far imo. You shouldn't try to learn something by randomly messing about until you eventual 'learn' it. Learn theory by reading books written on theory. Start with the basic conceptual stuff like what melody and harmony is and why it works the way it does. Learn your ABCs: major and minor scales, modes. How to build chords, Scale degrees and intervals. the cycle of fifths. The consonant < > Dissonant spectrum and how it relates to melody and harmony e.t.c.

THEN you can 'mess about', but in a structured way and explore the stuff you're learning as you learn it. Simply knowing scales is the equivalent of being able to say "hello" "yes" "no" "my name is" e.t.c. You've really got to get into the underlying relationships of intervals and harmony to begin getting a grasp of how to apply meaning (emotion/rhetoric/feeling) to your music.

the books by Michael Hewitt are a decent start as they apply this stuff in a computer music context. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034

later down the line you can get into more complicated stuff like diatonic harmony, classical form, post tonal theory e.t.c.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Form-Functions-Instrumental-Beethoven/dp/019514399X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195336674/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=masschairevio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0195336674

It all depends on how far you want to go with it and ultimately how much control and scope you want to have. A lot of EDM producers are relatively theoretically mute. But it doesn't stop them from making decent music within the practice/genre they're versed in (but that's a different conversation a little outside the scope of your question ;) )

Also, study your favorite tracks, use what knowledge you have to deconstruct music you like, copy the chord progressions, arrangements, mimic timbre, vibe and theme e.t.c. Get familiar with the nuts and bolts of what makes the music you like sound so good to you, and then apply that general orientation in a creative manner to your own workflow.

Hope this helped!

Awesome dude! I'm a huge Seven Lions fan, as well as Mitis. Any melodic dubstep really. It sounds like you have found your taste, and a style that you truly love. Now just focus on developing your way of turning that taste into something you're proud of.

Pick something that you feel you need a lot of improvement and work on that. If you're making melodic music I would focus on just that.... melodic stuff. Learn music theory. Buy this book

This book is what really helped me understand music. I am still learning new things everyday about theory. If you wanna make anything like Mitis or Seven Lions you will heavily benefit from theory. Both of those dudes have a solid understanding of music theory and the basic foundations of a song.

Send me that link dude!

> You are wildly incorrect. Never before has a compression plugin been too fast for the sampling rate. A compressor would have to have an attack time of 0.00002267573 seconds for this to even make sense.

Compressors multiply the incoming signal by a time-varying gain signal; the total bandwidth of the ideal output signal is approximately the sum of the two. So if you have an input signal at 10kHz, any compression gain signal with a bandwidth over 12.05kHz will alias without additional oversampling in the compressor plugin, which not all plugin manufacturers implement. For any attack time below 1 millisecond, a 12.05kHz-bandlimited approximation of the compressor gain signal will look pretty terrible, but without bandlimiting of the gain signal, you'll get aliasing. Hence, the need for oversampling.

> Furthermore, there is plenty anti-aliasing filters built into DAWs and converters to prevent just the type of distortion you describe.

Anti-aliasing filters are used to prevent aliasing when you start from a higher sampling rate, whether that's infinity (analog) or for an oversampled signal. I don't see how building them into the DAW or an ADC/DAC do anything for the aliasing that occurs inside a plugin.

> You get no advantage bouncing at a higher sampling rate if your plugins over-sample.

And I heartily agree with you on this as can be seen in my original reply. Unfortunately, not all plugins over-sample.

> You have a very incorrect view of how digital audio functions. I highly recommend this book:
> https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371
> It goes into great detail about just how this sort of things work.

Thanks for the recommendation, but for the basics of digital audio, I instead recommend Oppenheim and Schafer's Discrete-Time Signal Processing for the mathematical theory as well as JOS's series of digital audio processing online books for more application-oriented concepts.

If you are looking to do sound I would definitely pick up a copy of Yamaha's Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It is a super helpful book for giving you a basic knowledge of systems, how they work and how to make them work for you. It is somewhat out of date but is still super useful. The Audio Dictionary is also a very helpful resource.

Also make sure to get a very good knowledge of power and electrical theory. I'm always amazed at how lost a lot of audio engineers/sound designers seem to be when it comes to power. It is an extremely important part of what we have to do.

A few books to consider:

Backstage Handbook. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.

Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed. This one is... well... it helped me to understand some things about physics. Not all of it is relevant, and you'll have to draw some conclusions yourself as to how it all applies to audio engineering. At the very least, it's a great introduction to subatomic physics for people who aren't great with math. YMMV, but I found that a basic understanding of what sound waves actually do goes a LONG way. From there you can discern certain things like how ambient temperature and humidity will affect your mix.

The Business of Audio Engineering. Worth the price of admission, despite grammatical errors.

Mixing Engineer's Handbook. Might be worth it. Interviews with established recording engineers. Has some interesting info. Only the first half of the book is really worth reading, though.

Mixing Audio. Relevant information. Could almost act as a textbook.

That will at least get you started. I know that you're looking more for the mixing side of things, and that's great, but trust me on this. You will want to know as much as you can about all facets of theatrical/concert/special event work. THAT'S how you really get gigs.

First of all, you have to decide what you want the focus of the track to be on. You talk about bass a lot, so I guess that's your focus. So start by lowering all faders to the bottom (start with silence).

>When mixing, what are my goals to get my levels at?

Skip to the main part of your song, a part where everything is playing. Raise the fader on your bass channel so that it peaks at about -12dB on your Master channel meter. Now, without looking at any meters, raise the fader of your next most important channel (in EDM, usually the kick) until it sounds good alongside the bass. Then do the same with the next most important channel until all three sound good together and repeat until you've raised all faders by whatever amount.

By the time you're done, you will probably be peaking at -6dB. Don't worry if you aren't, so long as you're not clipping.

Not every part of your song will fit into this mix, but it's a pretty good place to start. Now you get busy with automation in parts like your intro/outro and breakdowns.

>To make my track professional sounding, I'm using a spectrum analyzer, so what do I want the shape of all the levels to be?

Forget about the spectrum analyser. They have their uses, but real men mix with their ears. Professionals mix with their ears. Stop worrying about the numbers (so long as you're not clipping!)

>Is bass supposed to be higher than the rest because it's perceived as lower?

Not necessarily. You might find that your bass fader is higher than the rest, but that's because you made it your focus. It would be different if you were making a rock track, where the guitar or vocals would be the focus of the mix.

>How do I get things like my lead to stand out without squashing hats and other sounds?

We call this "separation," and you do it with EQ. If your leads are interfering with your hats, chances are that they are sharing some of the same frequencies. What you have to do with EQ is separate the frequencies of each channel so that they don't clash. This is where you would use that spectrum analyser, at least until you develop a good sense of frequency with your ears alone. Solo the hats and look at where they peak on the spectrum. Now cut that frequency from your lead with EQ. Don't go nuts, a cut of 5-6dB is more than enough. Now do the same in reverse - look at where the lead peaks and cut that from the hats. The two tracks should now play nicely together without clashing.

By the way, I'm of the opinion that with EDM, where the producer is in full control of the sound design of all the elements of a track, if you need to drastically EQ any track, then it's better to just rethink the sound selection. Why bother trying to force a lead to fit a hi-hat when you have many GB of other hi-hats on your hard drive, or when you have a synth with total control of the frequencies in your lead? It's true, you can't polish a turd, and you can't make two polished turds look good together either.

>Often I test it in my car with a subwoofer and my levels for bass are low but I'm already almost clipping.

It's probably just that other channels have bass information that doesn't need to be there, leaving no room for your actual bass. Since you're now mixing to focus on your bass, this should be less of a problem. To go along with what I was saying about frequency separation it's common to just high-pass filter every channel to about 120Hz except the bass and kick, so that they are the only thing heard in that whole frequency band (which is what your subs are playing).

>I just need like an in depth text resource

My recommendations are The Art of Mixing and Mastering Audio.

omg it's fate! hello fellow duck <33

1. there are some awesome books if you want to start learning about mixing and mastering:
   
   Audio Engineering 101
   
   Mastering Audio, The Art and the Science
   
   Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
   
   ​
   
   those are a great place to start! the weird thing about mixing and mastering is that it's simultaneously complicated and very, very simple - in my experience the strongest engineers often use the most basic tools, they just have a very in-depth understanding of how they work and how to wield them effectively. don't get frustrated if it's not easy right away - i have been producing and engineering for a really really freaking long time and i am JUST starting to feel super confident with mixing and mastering. it takes dedication and patience but it is soooooo rewarding! you should totally do it!
   
   
2. i got to go to australia on my first international headline tour last year and it was SO COOL
   
   
3. well my favorite kind of dog is all dogs, but also my dogs because theyre my babies. i have a 100 lb staffy/great dane mix who lives with me in LA, and a 13 lb chihuahua/terrier/potato mix who lives with my dad in san francisco

Music theory is kind of interactive since you should play the notes and listen while learning scales and chords. So you can use a book but you can also learn most of the stuff online.

This site is great for learning music theory from the ground of. Those a step-by-step tutorials and are just nice to start with:

https://www.musictheory.net/lessons

If you're looking for tips to actually write and compose melodies, this is a more abstract but still nice guide:

http://www.haydockmusic.com/composing_tips/writing_melodies.html

Experimentation is always the key. You need some theory yes, but more importantly you should play your keyboard and listen to the notes/chords and find out what sounds nice.

If I would have to recommend a book, this is piece here is old but still gold:

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/

One thing I'd advise is that while Benchmark is honest, they sometimes straddle and exaggerate a bit at times. Some papers/resources I suggest:

• GedLee has a lot of whitepapers that are worth reading.
  
  
• Floyd Toole's Book is a great resource for engineering and acoustics - but does cost money.
  
  
• Princeton 3D3A has some really cool projects and measurements that might be useful.
  
  
• Soundstage provides pretty solid measurements
  
  
• Zaphaudio provides some insight into DIY design.
  
  
• Sean Olive's Blog has information on tons of topics relating to the improvement and reproduction of audio based on engineering and testing.
  
  I'm sure I will think of more as time goes on. I also tend to reference white papers from trusted authors and organizations known for being experts in their fields when doing research on specific subjects.

Agreed, compression is going to be a huge part of it. Be gentle with it though. When I was first starting out I would over-compress the master track hoping to get a louder result, but I just wound up losing all the dynamics of my tracks. I would also recommend EQing. I personally prefer to EQ everything, but I'm sure there are numerous exceptions to this. Still, set a frequency range for each instrument and then sculpt out its place in the mix. You may find that you get a louder or fatter sounding snare just by hi-passing at around 500hz and hiking the gain around 2k-3k. As /u/dick_beverson said, a book on mixing is recommended. Even if you don't read it cover-to-cover, it's always good to have on hand for reference. I was assigned Modern Recording Techniques for a class in the past and I wound up keeping the book afterwards. There's still tons of information in there that I haven't taken the time to absorb. Highly recommend it.

Def want acoustic Treatments for sure. I've stumbled across some pretty crazy deals on Ebay from time to time. Upgrade your monitoring next and get a small sub. Try to get monitors and subs that are the same series, as they are often built to work together and have easy cutoff switches that end/start at the others frequencies. Something like this is ideal for a great price: https://www.ebay.com/i/182475564279?chn=ps&dispItem=1

Avoid monitors that are ported in the front (i.e. rokit krk's). If you want bass traps, make your own. Just goolge the process. Keep in mind a bed is already and excellent bass trap, if there is one in your room. Generally want monitors at ear level. This book is a wealth of information on this topic and many others. Maybe check it out as well: https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501967590&sr=8-1&keywords=mixing+secrets+for+the+small+studio

Good luck with everything! Enjoy yourself!

There are lots of good articles and videos on the concepts involved in mixing and mastering (maybe too many, it can start to feel a little overwhelming lol). Here are a couple of links that are short intros into the topics... and yes, mixing and mastering are two completely different things.
Mixdowns
Mastering
More stuff here from the same writer: http://innerportalstudio.com/guides/

There's a fantastic book called Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science by Bob Katz. He's pretty much the High Anointed Guru on the topic. I think you could find it as PDF, most likely from shady sources, but this is something you will want by your side as a physical book. Probably WAY more detailed than you'll need right now, but what I found helpful was going through it, coming across a concept I wasn't familiar with, and doing some research on that topic. The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski is also very detailed, excellent, and highly rated. I think you can find it in PDF as well, but again this is something you'll probably want on your desk. And I really recommend buying any book to support the authors!

For engineering concepts, and a great general reference on sound systems and how they work, the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook

For sound system design, the best reference is Bob McCarthy's Sound Systems: Design and Optimization

For another great book that discusses both system design as well as artistic sound design, John Leondard's Theatre Sound is top notch.

Shannon Slaton's Mixing a Musical: Broadway Theatrical Sound Techniques is a great picture of how the "big shows" are run.

For a beginner's guide to sound, the [http://www.soundcraft.com/support/gtm_booklet.aspx](Soundcraft Guide to Mixing) is a good primer: not as technically dense as the Yamaha book.

There are others out there, these are my favorite.

Yeah, sidechain compression kick/ bass is a topic that is probably the most discussed one on youtube :D

I recommend you to spend some time with this book. Taught me a lot! It’s rather for mixing engineers than for producers. But as we are our own mixing engineers, we should know all of that stuff that’s in there! That book could be much more expensive imo.

1. Kick EQ:
   
   First, lo-cut (HPF) the kick. Start with 18 dB per octave slope at 30 Hz.
   
   Some people recommend to scoop out the frequency bands which are mostly prominent "on the other side".
   E.g. Kick bell cut at 30-60 Hz, Bass bell cut at 60-100 Hz.
   Well, I think that’s an old technique which has been used in the past in the analogue world for acoustic drums and electric bass guitars. We can use gazillions compressors and EQ’s ITB and sidechain everything with everything, so why limit ourselves?
   I follow Mike Senior’s advice: Always high/ low pass first! If you can high/low pass it, don’t use bell cuts/ boosts.
   
   
2. Bass Ducking-Compressor:
   
   Start with these compressor settings for the sidechain ducking, but don't necessarily stick to them,
   and adjust later to taste:
   
   High(est) Ratio your compressor provides, fastest attack (it's ducking, so we don't give a shit about transients here), release adapted to your songs 16 th (maybe 32 th, depends on the kick you use) note tempo, so the “coming back” of the bass fits in the “groove”
   
   http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/tools/delay-time-calculator.htm
   
   I start with a gain reduction of - 9dB, sometimes more, sometimes less. Adjust until the bass is kind of just the “tail” of the kick. Make it tight.
   
   Now turn up your monitors or sub (or make a car stereo check). Is there a sort of rumbling/ wobbling -> adjust the lo-cut of your kick and/ or increase the gain reduction. Don’t do the kick EQ adjustment in solo mode! Your kick might sound really terrible in solo mode, but if that’s the EQ setting you need for the kick/ bass combination, then that’s the setting you need.
   
   If you have parts where the kick plays without the bass, like intro or something, and the sound is just too thin, then automate the EQ’s lo-cut, so the lo-cut only is active during the bass included parts.
   
   Hope that helps. Get creative!

Read the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook

The Sound Reinforcement Handbook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NBtDDbV6TBG8X

It has all the fundamentals you need to work with live sound.

You’ll do well to find someone who already knows how things work and shadow them on some gigs, preferably in different venues, indoor and out. Church sound can be a good place to start, but remember that any installed system has already been set up and configured so things go pretty easy.

If you play an instrument, get out there and play as much as you can, so you understand how it feels on stage and can relate to the musicians you’re running sound for.

Good luck!

Modern Recording Techniques for actual audio. Professor was a wealth of information, so we used a lot of handouts, but he did give us a recommended reading list:

Assistant Engineer's Handbook

Mastering Audio

Master Handbook of Acoustics

personally, i found having a copy of Practical Electronics for Inventors laying around super useful, as it explains circuits and what different diagram symbols mean and how to build basic circuits - awesome if for some reason you need to troubleshoot a piece of gear or you're just curious about what's going on under the hood

Not really a tip/trick, but something that really helped me was reading Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio."

https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807

That books does an excellent job of breaking down the process, and the purpose of different tools. Once you really know what FL's different plugins are meant for, and how to use them, making music will become much easier/faster. I really recommend reading through that book to familiarize yourself with all the powerful tools you have, I promise you that your music will improve dramatically after utilizing all the knowledge and skills presented in that book!!

Sorry if that's not necessarily what you're looking for mate, but it's something I feel will really help get you where you want to be!

Awesome advise from everyone and they are right on. Find a place to hang out, get to know folks and network, work hard and listen. I would add that you might grab a good reference source. Online is obviously a fantastic resource but it can be a pain to learn something when you don't know what to look for or ask yet. I would suggest the rather outdated but still totally relevant Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook It doesn't keep up with our digital world, but has the absolute fundamentals of acoustics, how a system is put together and basics of how things work. It'll be a great primer and stepping stone to know what questions to ask online/mentor, and is advanced enough that you'll probably reference it from time to time throughout your career. Also, since a lot of the digital workflow stems from the analogue world, referencing this book can help make sense of why we do some of the things that we do. Anyway it's on Amazon for like $25. Easy Christmas present. :)

The Sound Reinforcement Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_PPNywbKYBB7BP

First off, don't worry about not being able to get into a post high-school audio program. If you're serious about doing it and can pay the tuition, you're in. I'd recommend checking local community colleges first, as they generally teach all or most of the same things as audio trade schools at a fraction of the price, and many offer degree programs - That said, very few people in this industry care about degrees or certifications if you can do the job (and are hard-working and easy to get along with), but a formal education is still a good idea. With any school, you will get out of it what you put into it.

A lot also depends on what you eventually want to do as a career (freelance, work in larger studio, mastering, post, etc.) but the best thing you can do is start getting hands-on experience and work to familiarize yourself with basic audio knowledge and recording techniques. This is not a career for people who sit around and wait for things to happen, so dig in, and best of luck!

You should do some reading before buying anything. To be frank, most of the people on this subreddit know very little about microphones. Here's a book I've learned from, and a book I suggest to some of my students.

You will get lots of recommendations for SM57s here. SM57s are versatile and useful microphones. However, if you only own a small number of microphones, then they aren't the right choice for you.

SM57s are what are called dynamic microphones. These microphones are not very sensitive, and they change the recorded sound significantly. They also suffer from what is called the proximity effect. The advantage of dynamic mikes like SM57s is that they are indestructible, and they don't require phantom power. For these reasons, they are often used in live situations (because they can take a lot of dbs without distorting), and they are often used as snare mikes. They are terrific for those purposes.

As studio mikes, they should be one of your last options (in most cases). If they're all you have, then you can make them work ...

But in my opinion, if you only have two mikes, then you should have a pair of large diaphragm condenser mikes. The most popular, affordable, and common large diaphragm condenser is the AT2020, although if you have more money, my favorite versatile large diaphragm condenser is the KSM32.

Now, why a large diaphragm condenser rather than a dynamic mike like the SM57/58?

The main reason is frequency response. Condenser mikes exhibit much closer to a flat (natural) frequency response. This means that they capture sounds more accurately. Dynamic mikes, on the other hand, color the sound significantly, rolling off both high frequencies and low frequencies.

This means that condenser microphones are more versatile. They can be used in more situations, and in more pickup patterns. Ultimately, this is why, if you only have two microphones, they should be two of the same large diaphragm condensers (preferably a matched pair).

For example, say you are recording an album for a band. They want to mix live tracks and studio tracks. With only two microphones, how can you record a live show for any type of band?

The answer is, you use a coincident pair placed in the audience at the show. This technique will work great with two condensers, but won't work at all with two dynamic mikes.

Next, say you want to record vocals. To do this with an SM57/58, the vocalist has to be aware of the proximity effect (the sound gets too bassy when the singer gets close), and you will have to use EQ to fix the strange frequency response of those mikes (which is good enough in a live situation). This task is much simpler with a large diaphragm condenser.

I could go on, but I am getting tired of typing. You will get a lot of uninformed responses to this question. I urge you to consider what I have said, and buy two large diaphragm condensers like AT2020s.

tldr: Two AT2020s and an Onyx Blackjack would be my suggestion. Total = $200 for mikes + $150 for interface = $350

(I think one AT2020 and the interface might be good enough for you to start with)

Music theory:

Start from the basic videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w

Rick Beato's channel is also decent.



Cheap and everything explained clearly.

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-3E-Idiots-Guides/dp/1465451676/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1465451676&pd_rd_r=GF5SHDNNXVSHYD85SBMA&pd_rd_w=N6uHQ&pd_rd_wg=baHRW&psc=1&refRID=GF5SHDNNXVSHYD85SBMA

Or print the lessons of this site:

http://openmusictheory.com/contents.html



Mixing: MixbusTV ; recordingrevolution

https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0240815807&pd_rd_r=71AA09DB5BSM6697CVWQ&pd_rd_w=fruKp&pd_rd_wg=JTmnE&psc=1&refRID=71AA09DB5BSM6697CVWQ&dpID=51eoJadnMbL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail


Edm production tips: type "Lessons of KSHMR" - it's uploaded by a used named Splice (which is an audio samples related site)

Future music magazine: in the studio / Steinberg sessions


Tons of free vsts: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/

http://vst4free.com/

Recommended DAW is Reaper (60 USD), because it's the most stable, the cheapest and has the most options and custom skins, so you can replicate any other DAW's key commands/mouse modifiers and skins, while having cheaper and more stable DAW - the only negative is that it doesn't include synths and samples, only fx plugins.

Reaper tutorials (around 340 videos )
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq297H7Ca98HlB5mVFHGSsQ

Free samples:

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-music-samples-download-loops-hits-and-multis-627820

Paid samples:

https://www.loopmasters.com/

https://splice.com/

Recommended payed synths:

Serum (CPU killer, so don't buy it, if you don't have a good computer) or Massive for dubstep. These 2 are easy to learn and there are tons of presets for them - free and paid.

For non-dubstep anything goes as long you know what you do. You may like Syntmaster - tons of presets, cheap (100 usd) and many synthesis modes (but is very ugly and cluttered GUI). But whatever, the sounds are great (there are also cutdown versions of it, so care). The synths with that many different synthesis modes are usually way more expensive (200-500 or more USD)- but like I said, Synthmaster has pretty bad UI; still, it's a steal for that price.

At some point you will probably want NI Kontakt, because of 3rd party soundbanks, but better buy it in a Komplete bundle - it's cheaper.

Nexus is OK, if you are after some of the latest soundbanks (and they are super expensive). Factory sounds are overused and somewhat dated, so it's not worth it, if you don't get any of the latest expansions.

• Check out r/audioengineering - they have a weekly "no dumb questions" thread especially for beginners, and a weekly "gear" thread. They're a great source of information.
  
• All of the other suggestions for mbox, focusrite, etc. are great. Me, I live in the protools world, so I would suggest an mbox.
  
• Here are some suggestions for mics:
  
  • Shure SM57 - workhorse dynamic mic. Also sounds great with the windscreen attachment. Could be found on ebay for less, still in good shape. Durable, reliable mic.
    
  • AT2020 - large diaghragm condenser.
    
  • AKG P-170 - small diaghragm condenser.
    
• Great book on home studios
  
• Great book on mixing for the home studio
  
  Have fun and good luck!

I think that era of sound engineering being a black art that is passed down from master to apprentice is pretty much gone, at least reserved for a very small elite.

As much as you and I will never get the chance to learn from a master in a big studio, we now have very similar technology to them, at least to the point of just making a decent sounding recording.

There are definitely a lot of young producers emerging from their bedrooms now and challenging the establishment.

Checkout Flume for instance, he produced his debut on a laptop, and he just got a Grammy. So that whole professional industry is in the middle of a major disruption, just like the whole music industry.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, but my mixes have a basic level of cohesion, competitive loudness, and they sound OK on different speakers.

If you don't feel like your mixes are cutting it, I'd definitely recommend working through a book (the other one that comes up a lot is The Mixing Engineers Handbook I've worked through that one too ) or go YouTube if you prefer, just make sure that you are working through a start to finish introduction. That is key to me, that you learn all the basic techniques as a whole set of tools, and apply them together. I thought I had worked out as much as I could from the internet too, but I had a lot to learn, and still do.

Also make sure you are constantly comparing your mixes to commercial mixes you like, on your system. Get a set of reference tracks, and run them alongside your mix and A/B them. That is one technique everyone recommends and you learn so much that way.

Mixing Secrety by Mike Senior did a great job for me. It covers neaery every topic, goes into depth without getting too technical and it's amusingly written.

I also like Bob Katz's book, but I was honestly only able to understand what he was talking about after I had some basics covered. If you've got no clue whatsoever I'd spare it for later.

Dave Pensado's Into the lair helped me to become more creative and act more freely.

I've also watched dozens of YouTube-videos on various topics, since there isn't that one way to do it right, but many roads lead to Rome.

Anyways there is no way around just getting started, after you understood what all the different processors can do for you.

Here is a big library of multitracks compiled by Mike Senior, which you can use to practice.

And never forget the most important component: fun. ;)

The first and best thing with making music in general, regardless of DAW, instruments, medium etc. is to first have a basic understanding of music, how it works and music theory. I yet to read it myself as I have had theory training elsewhere, but Michael Hewitt's Music Theory for Computer Musicians is a book I have heard many people swear by to learn theory from. You may be able to borrow it from your local library or something too. Understanding scales, chords etc. from the get go, will be your compass for making music as you go. Now, many people will say 'you don't need as much theory' in music production, but they use music theory without even knowing it, they pick up the pieces unknowingly along the way. You can do that, but it's learning the hard way; isn't it better to have the compass at the beginning then to build it on the way?

Now that that's out of the way, find a basic FL Studio series tutorial to understand how the program works from basics to more advanced. Play along as you go, moving and tweaking things as you learn. Once you understand, start making something everyday. It can be a 4 bar loop, it's okay. The thing is, no matter how hard you try, you're not going to make good music at first. To get to the good stuff, you need to go through the crap. And the fastest way to learn is to do it everyday, without fail. And when you do this, maybe focus on something different every week. For example, the music I make this week is going to focus on learning Serum, or the music I make this week is focusing on how to mix using volume faders, or the next week will be using reverb to create depth in a mix etc. Focus on one thing at a time but still make music. Immerse yourself in the culture of production so that you constantly learn and do.

Hope that helped. :)

If you haven't made much music in the past, I would recommend learning how to DJ while also studying the principles of audio synthesis and music theory.

DJing is a really good way of understanding what elements of a tune make it danceable and exciting - particularly as far as rhythm and harmony are concerned. Digital music production requires a pretty solid understanding of not just computer software but also a few fundamentals, including the physics of sound, the science behind audio synthesis, and then technique things such as editing, signal flow, etc.

A few books I would recommend for getting started are The Computer Music Tutorial and Musicmathics. As far as mixing and mastering is concerned, which are other essential aspects of the production process, I would recommend checking out Robert Katz's Mastering Audio.

Psychoacoustical considerations are probably what most blatantly separate the men from the boys. My recommended starter for this is Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound by Perry Cook, who is a professor of Computer Music at Princeton.

EDIT: Also, if you don't already, start listening to and appreciating classical music - particularly stuff made after the Renaissance - in order to get an understanding of the emotional impact things such as dynamics and voicing have on the listening experience. Electronic music heavily borrows from the classical music tradition in this context. Digital music production essentially makes you a computerized Mozart, in that you can control dozens of musical voices, but with even more micromanagement potential than the typical classical music conductor can offer. You will not have a complete understanding of these musical concepts from pop/rock music alone, or even from more 'sophisticated' musical practices such as jazz.

As most will say, get the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and maybe this one as well for some updates and information regarding installed systems.


These two might be a bit heavy if you are just getting started but I would consider them must haves for your library.



-If you want to get started in Live Sound, better start at the basics.



-Bob's book has tons of information on interaction between multiple loudspeakers and the surrounding environment as well as electro-acoustics.

Hope these help, and have fun!

I think that this is a pretty interesting question. What it comes down to for me is this: what am I aiming to get out of this mix? Once you start to realize that it's balance; how things fit together, where they fit on the frequency spectrum, how to fit them there, what pieces contribute to which parts of the listener experience with regards to feelings etc. Once you start to figure all that out, then you start to understand how each of the tools in your kit help you to achieve that balance; subtractive EQ to create more space for other instruments, additive EQ to create tones and flavors and make things stand out more, compression to help thin things out or make them louder, reverb and other effects to give things a sense of space and dimensionality, and even using EQ or compression to do that as well, not to mention using those faders and panning and so on.

TL;DR the more you know about what it is you're trying to do and how each tool can get you there, the easier it will be.

Live sound is such a hands on industry, I imagine it would be near impossible to base an entire degree around it. SAE Sydney do an intensive 7 week course based almost entirely around live sound. This is as good as you're going to get in actual live sound.


In my opinion the only real way to gain knowledge in this field is to get out there and do it. If after 15 years you still don't have the knowledge you need to teach, perhaps you need to figure out what you're lacking and seek it out yourself.... If it's the actual physics part, you can study acoustics at Sydney or NSW uni's . If it's the electrical side of things you can do an electrical engineering at any branch of NSW Tafe.

Otherwise just fill in the gaps yourself by reading books such as the Yamaha Live Sound Reinforcement Handbook.

As I've already stated though, it's not really a skill that can be taught in a classroom... You have to get out there and train your ears as to what sounds good in a particular environment, how to problem solve fast and efficiently under pressure, how to pick a particular frequency if it is feeding back, how all varieties of mixing console work, what the difference between a group and a VCA is, proper gain structure, how to set compression and gates effectively, how to deal with band and management politics, how to keep your cables from getting wrecked, how to repair things on the job, how to tune a PA... The list goes on and on, and honestly these are things that you can be shown, but can only truly start to master by getting out there and figuring it out for yourself.


Good luck.

Good points overall, but the big gap in my opinion is that we do not understand the science of sound reproduction as it relates to perception. We understand a lot (e.g. read stuff by O'Toole, Winer, Linkwitz, etc.) but there are pretty big gaps too. A good example is how to optimize reflections and other interactions, e.g. compare open baffle designs with line arrays with active cancellation like in the Kii Three.

For more detail, check out Linkwitz's long list of "frontiers" in practical sound reproduction that are not well understood:
http://www.linkwitzlab.com/frontiers.htm

You could try this book. Might be the best is if you got some music lessons on piano. You don't need to learn to play Rachmaninoff but having somebody to show you proper techniques is going to be helpful. Since you will be paying for it out of your own pocket you are likely going to be more motivated to practice and to continue. Once you have the basics down you can then start to pick up other bits and pieces from other people on YT, friends or what have you. If you're interested in more sort of classical Detroit techno then you would want to look into learn some jazz and gospel for more complex chords. Of course its possible to make techno with out learning any theory and there are many who have done so but you will likely get there faster with it.

That's a very vague question because I don't know the type of music you're doing, or the type of sound you're trying to achieve. I don't understand what you mean by "spark the sound back up..." but I assume you mean that compression is making your sounds quieter. You need to compensate for the loss in level by turning the gain up after compression.

I would suggest reading a few books on mixing and music production. http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Audio-Concepts-Practices-Tools/dp/0240520688 is a good place to start.
Before you even start compression and eq, it's more important to record your sounds through the best equipment you can afford and focus on the balance and relationship between instruments. Compression and EQ is meant to correct or alter the sound due to poor recording or performance. Of course, there are tricks and these things are applied creatively to make your production compete with what you hear on the radio ... but i would basically have to teach a whole class on the subject and unless you have something more specific, I wouldn't even know where to begin.
there are no rules. Generally, main elements are panned center (bass, kick, snare, vocals, etc) and build your panning around that. like I said, there are no rules and I really have no idea the type of sound you're trying to achieve. keep at it and read read read as much as you can on the subject (from a reliable source). You can get better by practice and constantly A/Bing your work against work you admire. Once you learn the terminology and what compression is actually there to do .. you'll find it's much easier.

Don't really know any good "production" books, but this book on mixing is fantastic http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z. I hear very nice things about the Dance Music Manual, so thats worth checking out. You should also get a book on your DAW. Never underestimate the value of understanding what your software can do. It'll save you a lot of endless google searches when you need to get something done. :)

I think one of the best ways to get better is to watch youtube videos. Specifically for me I have enjoyed Produce like a pro with Warren Huart
https://www.youtube.com/user/WarrenHuartRecording/

Also check out any videos from people who show the before and after sounds of their mixes. It is a good way to hear what they changed and sometimes they show and explain their thought process. I think it is important to remember that mixing is full of objective and subjective decisions and you have to find what works for you.

Another couple of things I did that really helped my mixing is I bought the Slate everything bundle and it comes with a short mixing class, that along with this book by Mike Senior have really improved the sound of my mixes
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807

Quick note though I'd still consider myself a beginner and there could be better resources and advice out there but feel free to ask anything I would try to help!

I can sum it up in a joke my friend told me once:

"How do you make a small fortune with a recording studio? Start with a large one."

But seriously. Do not go to college to become an audio engineer. If it is something you like to do, buy yourself some recording gear and start recording yourself and bands. Do some for free, once you get good at it, start charging for it.

Make these three books your education:
Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki -http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Audio-Concepts-Practices-Tools/dp/0240520688

Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski - http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second/dp/1598632515/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346257656&sr=1-1&keywords=mixing+engineers+handbook

Mastering Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski - http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Engineers-Handbook-Audio/dp/1598634496/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346258717&sr=1-1&keywords=mastering+engineers+handbook

Read every last word of these books until they are burned into your brain. Then send me some of your money for giving you such great advice and saving you the ridiculous expense of audio engineer school. A theoretical and technical fundamental knowledge is important, which you will get from these books, but it won't mean shit unless you actually put it to use and get experience recording and mixing people! Good luck!

For mixing, as already mentioned: Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Owsinski), Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Mike Senior) and also Mixing Audio (Roey Izhaki).

For mastering: Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Bob Katz)

And here are some great books that are not strictly about mixing, but which are very insightful about music production in general:

• Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (Geoff Emerick). The story of The Beatles's main engineer during their studio era (1966-1969), fascinating stuff.
  
  
• Recording Unhinged: Creative and Unconventional Music Recording Techniques (Sylvia Massy). If you are not familiar with this awesome lady, look her up.
  
  
• Behind the Glass - Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits (Howard Massey). A collection of interviews with some of the best record producers.

I watched this video - the music is cheesy sorry - a few months back and applied the advice. After hunting down the free VST counterparts to the plug-ins used in the video, I tried the techniques out and feel that I have had some success with my amateur mastering techniques. I know I will never master as well as Bob Katz like this, but considering this technique is free the results seems pretty solid.

Speaking of Bob Katz if you want to really dive deep into the art of mastering this book is really nice on the whole topic.

I don't know of bass-specific books, but bass pedals are just guitar pedals tweaked in some cases to preserve or work with lower frequencies. A few choices:

• This older book by Craig Anderton has some good information, although I'm not sure that all of the projects are feasible: Electronics Projects for Musicians
  
• If you are less interested in building, then Dave Hunter's Guitar Effects Pedals may be worth a look.
  
• And lastly, there is the The Stompbox Cookbook, which contains both some theory and practical stuff. It is pretty expensive though.
  
  There are also quite a few online resources. Many of these might be deeper into the weeds than you want, as they will have schematics, lists of components, and building instructions. Google will be your friend in this area. There's a PDF on this page that might be a good intro to this sort of thing, as it designed for a first-time builder.

• PropellerheadSW YouTube channel has a ton of stuff to watch.
  
  
• Groove3 has excellent tutorials, but they cost money. You get access to everything for $15 per month which is a pretty good deal.
  
  
• There are also book series like "Ignite" and "Power" that cover Reason. Any book on Reason 6 will be directly applicable to Reason 7.
  
  
• And finally there is an excellent book called Modern Recording Techniques that covers the ins and outs (and they WHY that you are wondering about)

I recommend looking into some books on production. There is so much more information crammed into the better books than you will find in a week's of searching forums and youtube tutorials. For books on mixing, I say you can't go wrong with Bobby Owinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook or Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studioand for general production I recommend Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual just be sure to get the latest edition, it includes chapters that cover everything from basic theory the popular genres (trance, dubstep, DnB, Techno, House, and Ambient/Chillout), it covers the electronics and science of acoustics, MIDI, DAW's and everything that come's along with them (instruments, effects, samplers, etc) and promoting and distributing your music. I can't say enough about this book and what a great way it was for me to see the "big picture" of what was ahead of me when I was starting out.

1. It's already been said. I will say it again. Syntorial.
   
2. I'm sure that once this post circulates a little more, there will be more people making recommendations, but in the meantime, here's an article on 10 headphones that are good for music production. The keys are flat frequency response and comfort.
   
3. Also already been said, but Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual is a good place to start regarding comprehensive coverage of the concepts you need to know. Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is also good, as are Bobby Owsinski's books and Mixerman's books.

So this is what you learn:
-How to create an 808 Kick
-How to arrange a track
-How to create a "lush sparkling mix"
-How to use reverb
-How to create a build up
-Basic sound design
-How to use distortion and compression

NOPE. Not for $40.
For mixing: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427666706&sr=8-1&keywords=small+studio+mixing

Sound design, arranging, etc.: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427666724&sr=8-1&keywords=dance+music+manual

The first book I linked to is literally the bible of mixing. It's a truly great resource. The second is a great cursory overview of music theory, sound design, and several aspects of the big electronic genres: arrangements, keys, percussion. It even tells you settings for synthesizing kicks in each genre it covers.

Not all of these are in our core training/ required knowledge, or related to our day to day functions as a university A/V department, but They are all available to my team for knowledge building and professional development. Additionally , and our job ladder includes Infocomm certifications, so the library is a little biased towards infocomm resources at the moment.
Books I use are

• [Master Handbook of Acoustics](
  http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328)
  
• CTS exam guide
  
• sound reinforcement handbook
  
• a/v best practices
  
• Sound system engineering
  
• show networks and control systems
  
• television production handbook
  
• tcp/ip illustrated vols 1-3
  
• PMBOK
  
• network wiring
  
• entertainment electricity
  
• sys admin
  
  just ordered digital video and hd
  based on a recommendation in r/videoengineering
  
  infocomm's audio and visual systems design, essentials of the av industry, av best practices, AV installation hand book
  
  
  white papers/ online training from extron, JBL, Dalite, surgeX, bluejeanscable, and others. (out of the office and do not have the exact list and links with me
  
  
  
  
  

Specific to this, you can study tonal harmony, what constitutes a major and minor scale, including natural, harmonic and melodic minor, and studying the circle of fifths and it's reasoning, including understanding what relative minors are, and how keys relate due to their construction.

https://www.musictheory.net/
google-fu
search related forums

If you'd like to get a foundational understanding of music theory that's friendly to people who aren't classically trained, this is the book I'd recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467063989&sr=8-1&keywords=music+theory+for+computer+musicians

Alternatively, just watch this video a bunch. He gives you some nice bare bones practical use of the circle of 5ths, that you can apply right now.

I recommend reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I asked this very question myself on /reasoners a while back and someone suggested it to me(thanks whoever you were). Gives you a really good foundation on the more technical aspects of mixing and the theory behind certain mixing practices. Kinda a dry read but push through it.

I'd also like to second that mixing is not really so much about loudness but rather making your mix sound balanced both in the volume of individual tracks and the areas of the eq spectrum in which they occupy. Loudness is typically achieved as a result of this and also mastering after your mix sounds the way you like it.

Also, it helps to compare your own mix to a song or artist that you like the sound of and want to imitate from a mix standpoint.

It takes time but you will get it figured out. Just keep at it.

Awesome article. Thanks, very clearly written.

If anyone needs more info on gain staging, read the SOS article link he provided.

Below is link if you missed it. I recommend reading the article above first, as it does a good job summarizing the topic.

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/gain-staging-your-daw-software

Also see - Bob Katz

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371

Short question, with a very long answer....
Yes, mastering tracks can give you that "luster", and can definitely make your tracks louder. The first thing to understand is that signal level by no means is the only factor that contributes to loudness.

Loudness is relative - if everything is loud, then nothing is. Leaving dynamics in your track can make it sound louder than just compressing the hell out of it.

The frequency response of the human ear is level dependent. You need to check your mix at listening levels appropriate to where you mix will be heard (I've worked with one (well known) mastering engineer who works at levels I found way too high for comfort).

You'll need to learn exactly what the parameters on a compressor do. Do you really know what the attack and release times do? Not just what it says in a textbook - what their effects sound like. Set aside periods of "ear training" time. Put a compressor on your track, set up a fairly strong compression. Pick a parameter, and slowly change it. Listen to the effect it has. Write a couple of notes describing the effect (not because you'll be reading it back - writing it down will help you make a definite decision on what you're hearing, and helps you remember it).

Once you've developed your ear, try comparing different compressors (don't remember if Logic Express 8 gives you circuit type with the compressor, but if it does, start with this). A/B their effect.
(If you can't tell the difference, don't start investing in third party plugins! - Not that expensive plugins don't have their advantages, but you can spend a fortune on all the Waves, McDSP and Isotope plugins you want - if you don't have the ear, you'll just have an expensive crappily mastered track).

Then it's time to look at the tricks:
Could you set up a multi-stage compression? (where the compression ratio changes with signal level)
Do you know why to parallel compress? (where you have a compressed and an uncompressed copy of the signal (which often sum to then feed another compression stage)
Multiband compression is very common when mastering. (This is where you have a separate compression stage for each frequency range - e.g. if you use a broadband compression, and you have loads of bass dynamics, this will cause the other frequencies to pump up and down, giving a "breathing" effect (then again, this is a desired effect in some electronic tracks). Multiband compression is designed to avoid this.)

Whole books can (and have) been written on this. I'd recommend investing in http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240805453 - (I'd recommend this book to any engineer, regardless of experience). This will be a much better investment than a plugin at this stage.

I'll have a word with the lecturer that runs the summer Mixing and Mastering course, get him to add a few words, but that should be enough to get you started.

This book by Bob Katz is a great reference. Honestly, I learned my process from sitting with a pro (Michael Romanowski, protege of Paul Stubblebine).

Doing the technical shit to prep a CD for duplication isn't amazingly difficult, really the key is to keep your limiter output at -.3 dB, and make sure your tracks don't get more than -3db of gain reduction through the transients and loudest parts of your track.

The art of mastering itself takes a light touch, great ears, and an excellent frequency recognition, which comes in time and with practice. A visual frequency analyzer can help, but I said recently, shouldn't be a crutch, never mix/EQ with your eyes, only your ears.

Check that book out though, its a great read, Katz can write a really informative book.

Do you know your way through Ableton already or are you looking to learn more about the in's and out's of Ableton?

If you know how to use Ableton already, I highly recommend spending more time delving into music theory over DAW tutorials (especially if you are producing deep house which has more complex chord structures). I bought the following book off Amazon and was happy with what I learned off music theory (allow the beginning starts off a little slow if you have been producing for awhile):

https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1537349050&sr=8-2&keywords=music+theory+electronic

If you are wanting to learn more about the in's and out's of Ableton, I'd recommend saving some money and looking up tutorials on YouTube on how to accomplish what you are looking to do. If you have any questions regarding Ableton plugins, there is likely a YouTube tutorial on it for free.

Some advanced and very in-depth mixing resources:

• Mike Senior's book- Mixing Secrets
  
  
• Dave Pensado's Youtube channel- Pensado's Place.
  
  
  Mike Senior was Editor for Sound On Sound magazine's "Mix Rescue" column, where you could listen to mixes submitted by readers. Mike fixes the mix, and give his reasoning to why he makes each change that he does. Great concept, great articles.
  
  Dave Pensado is just a class act. You have to love the guy. Grammy awarded, and a great teacher. His interviews with other professionals are always a blast, but for very in-depth technical discussions, go watch his "Into the Lair" segments. You won't be disappointed.
  
  
  I realize that these two resources are not EDM centric, but the fundamentals are rock solid and you'll be able to use them wherever you go.

Ok. That is much more manageable!

As far as dry, academic sources go, the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook covers a ton. It covers the physical aspects of making and treating a studio, along with a million other things.

For software, your best bet is just to cover the big ones (protools, logic, cubase, studio one, reaper etc.). Honestly, I wouldn't really spend much time on this besides saying that they can all pretty much do anything you need them to, and it is mainly an issue of user preference.

Pensando's Place and The Recording Revolution have been great sources for me as far as actual production techniques. There are some lectures on youtube by Steve Albini that are pretty awesome, too. Really- recording and producing goes from a science to an art at a certain point, so your paper will likely have two sides to it: the stuff everyone 'agrees' on, and the stuff where an engineer breaks with the conventional wisdom to do something their own way.

Not to belabor the point, but sound engineering is about as broad a term as 'painting' is, and you will find people who do it have as much or as little in common with each other as painters do.

As long as you approach it as a combination of art and science, you should be able to do a decent job. Just look up some lectures by reputable engineers, compare & contrast.

I've read, and enjoyed, Izotopes guide. Their Guide To Mastering is also a great flyby for basic mastering.

Anyone who wants a real in depth look, I recommend "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687642&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1598632515&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0FHN1BXAFDMJ7D69KB5X

Enjoyable read, and certainly taught me a tremendous amount.

Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals and the The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Mixing And Mastering Audio Recordings are excellent for beginners, particularly because they come with an audio CD and DVD respectively to aid in the learning process. After going through those two books thoroughly I would strongly suggest you always keep a copy of Modern Recording Techniques by your side for reference. When you're ready and willing to read fairly advanced literature on the subject you should look in to a book like Acoustics, which explores the physics of sound, although it's no longer being published I'm sure there are several similar books available.

Personally, I wouldn't go to school for this stuff unless I just had difficulty learning it outside of school. Maybe if you could do it for $1-2k and walk away debt free. Instead, take that $2k, do some bargain hunting, and you can get all of the software and equipment that you need to begin building experience right now. And even at that, you can go really low budget on a few fronts and still get the hands-on experience.

A couple of good books for you to check out are the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. Together they'll cost you about $50 at Amazon.

For electronic music itself, I don't know of a good book, haven't having read any, but you can learn a lot just by reading the manuals for apps like Live and Reason, Reaper, etc. They're very well written.

Most of the major DAWs (digital audio workstations) also have a number of beginner to advanced video series available, and quite honestly, the concepts overlap quite a bit. A synth is a synth, and learning how to use one "brand" should give some ideas on other similar instruments.

this, this and this are said to be pretty good and are on my "to buy" list as well. Just took a short look at one of them at a friend's house a while ago and seems to be pretty well written.
Also: AFAIK written by a redditor. ;)

Ableton is practically MADE for looping! I'd recommend checking out a some youtube videos in the first instance. As for books, you'd be surprised at how great the documentation for music software is, take a look at the Ableton Manual. For everything else I highly recommend Huber's "Modern Recording Techniques", it covers a wealth of topics in just enough detail.

I thought this one was pretty good. Talks in depth about various mixing techniques, EQing certain instruments, and where instruments should sit in mixes. It’s honestly not anything you won’t find online but as one consolidated book it’s pretty good.

Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Sound On Sound Presents...) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240815807/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XiQIAbC62CP9N

For recording, I'd strongly recommend the books Recording Secrets for the Small Studio and Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior. They cover everything you need to know in a simple, readable format. I'd also recommend browsing the archives of Sound on Sound Magazine. It has been the leading music tech magazine since 1987 and the archives are a treasury of knowledge.

For guitar pedals, I'd recommend the YouTube channel That Pedal Show. It's a weekly series all about pedals and amps. The presenters really know their stuff - Mick is editor-in-chief at Guitarist magazine and Dan is a professional guitarist who builds pedalboards for some of the best players in the world. Their videos show off some of the best gear in the world, but they also cover really basic topics like how to power your pedals, what order to put your pedals in and how many watts your amp should be.

Mastering is a mysterious art form that takes practice and a good ear to be able to do well. The only plugins I would recommend for doing this you've already tried so I doubt you're gonna get anything better. A few things you could try though is mixing the track at a higher volume before using ozone or an L2 on the track or make a new session in your DAW import your mixed track on one channel and then a commercial track on another that is at the volume you want your track to be and then tweak the settings on the L2 or Ozone while doing an a/b comparison with the commercial track to try and get it sounding similar.

If you want to learn more about mastering though this is a fantastic book on the subject.

For mixing: The Mixing Engineer's Handbook is my favourite resource for learning the mix engineer's craft. Also many people recommend Mixing With Your Mind, but I can't claim to have read it.

For tracking: The same author of the Mixing Engineer's Handbook has one on tracking which is also quite good. I learned tracking as an apprentice, so I have read very little in the way of published books on this topic, but for guitars specifically some person archived the posts of a person named Slipperman here which I've found to be a valuable resource for information and entertainment(!).

In general: Get yourself a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, and read it cover to cover, twice. It is an absolute building block of audio engineering and probably the best single resource I can suggest for the theory and practice of audio engineering and sound reinforcement.

Wow, ALL of these replies are gold :)

I'm reading [this book]
(https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807) about mixing, and it has some nifty ideas for arrangement as well. It says when you think about your mix in parts (be it verse, chorus, bridge etc. or otherwise) you might want to think about what instrument you want to be the focus of a part and make sure it shines through and any other competitive instrument makes way for the focus one, esp. if they are in the same frequency range. This seems like a "duh" idea but often times we are not that conscious in our decisions. The writer also mentions the ear can process only 3 things at a time, so it makes sense to choose our battles wisely in each part of the song :) Here's the full quote from Jack Joseph Puig in the book: "You have to consider the fact that the ear can process only three things at once. When you get to the fourth thing, the attention drops away somewhere.”

Edit: Added quote.

Electronic Projects for Musicians by Craig Anderton is great if you want to learn some pedal basics!

https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023

He has some other books that are also pretty awesome for getting your feet wet.

I've been reading through Mixing Secrets for the Home Studio by Mike Senior and I love it. Definitely recommend it to anyone looking to improve their mixing chops!

I've been reading Music Theory for Computer Musicians and I really like it so far. It's pretty easy to follow and it has sound clips and exercises at the end of each chapter to help reinforce the lessons.

Here's a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1598635034

Sorry to be that guy, but you should be relying on your ears, not your eyes, to judge the loudness of a track.

If you need visual aids, you should get a loudness level meter, such as iZotope Insight, Waves Level Meter, or the free MLoudnessAnalyzer. For most music, a target of -16LUFS is standard, however, many pop albums hit -9LUFS.

If you want to read up more on it, the best book, IMO, is Bob Katz's "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science".
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371

I'm kind of late to the party, but when I was doing live sound for a local church and was mixing everything between simple prayer meetings to live bands, I personally found the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook to be my best friend. I am actually quite surprised that no one mentioned it.

This book is an awesome resource when starting out. I've read through probably 6 times and I still pick up something new every read through. Also, take everything you read on forums like gearslutz with a huge grain of salt. There are many audiophiles out there that don't know any hard sciences, and for some reason try their damnedest to convince people to believe in their myths. Also also, audio is subjective, do what sounds good.

Wouldn't hurt to give producing a shot. Having good studio vibe is important for engineers or anyone who works any job in a studio setting. Producing other people's music is a fast track to learning that. Not to mention building a good network. You could get a crack at mixing the artists track to which is great practice.

If I remember correctly the books that head the most impact for me were:

http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Listening-Skills-Audio-Professionals/dp/1598630237

http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Audio-2e-Roey-Izhaki/dp/0240522222

http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Glass-Record-Producers-Softcover/dp/0879306149

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371 is a pretty good resource. But the best way to learn is working together with someone who knows the tools and uses them well.

Go forth and finde thine answers in this holy book bestowed onto mankind by the great Floyd Toole:
https://www.amazon.de/Sound-Reproduction-Acoustics-Psychoacoustics-Loudspeakers/dp/0240520092

The short version is:
For measurement we use anechoic rooms (to measure the speaker and the speaker alone, not the influence of the room).
The goal was and has been to make the speaker appear linear in this measurement.
Frequencies where the wavelengths are larger than the loudspeaker (low frequencies) are radiated equally in all directions.
Frequencies with wavelengths smaller than the loudspeaker (high frequencies) are basically radiated only forward.
That's one of the reasons why the low-frequency woofers uses a lot more energy than the high-frequency tweeters - because in order to achieve a flat measurement in an anechoic room, the woofer must put a lot more energy into the system (because it radiates in all directions) whereas the tweeter radiates all of its energy forward.
Then the recording studio buys this speaker and places it in the control room, and starts recording and mixing bands.
When the finished song leaves the studio, it is mixed in a way that it sounds "perfect" when played over the speakers that were placed in the control room.
With good speakers (with controlled radiation patterns) it naturally happens that the resulting frequency response of the system is linear but tilted, so when you want to hear the song the way the engineer decided it sounded good, you have to reproduce this frequency response at home.

LOL.

It's all good =)

The ?tag=blahblah-20 thing is the affiliate part.

Here's the clean link: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008

A rule of thumb is that mastering will makes wonders on a good mix and ruin a bad one.
The science of mastering as described from Bob Katz in his book , takes only minimal effort to make a usually good mix to sound great in almost every setup, from moms radio to high end system.

While he clearly states that the received matterial isn’t always perfect (sometimes even from very good professional engineers) there are few tricks to help with that. Unfortunately distortion isn’t one of them. Despite the evolution of music technology today.
If something can help you here is Izotope RX7.

If you want a stellar result you have and should re-record, if you believe in your track. I think it’s one way, in the other hand if you just want it for you and your fiends there some restoration that can be done to help given the size of distortion but I strongly advice you against. It’s always a bad image for what you do even if you have to present it to your friends.

We can only talk in general if we don’t hear what’s the amount of distortion, because in my experience it’s always more than that. (Usually squashed elements that sounds lifeless and a lot more “amateurities”).

BYOC and General Guitar Gadgets kits are a great start to learn how to solder and assemble. Electronic Projects for Musicians is a good book and Jack Orman's website, muzique is an incredible resource. Electrosmash is also awesome in their analysis of various famous circuits. I still reference that site every once in a while.

I always recommend this book - it has lots of info on how to set up your space for best acoustics:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143545717X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Although having just gone through this process in my own basement, my advice would be (assuming you are building this yourself) to make it easy on yourself when possible. Things like keeping 16" 2x4 spacing, and using complete pieces of drywall where it makes sense will save you a lot of grief.

I cant tell you what recording software is right for you, cheapguitars link is a good place to start off looking. Id also check out kvr.com for hosts and plugins, they have as comprehensive a list of audio software as any you will find online, and their forums are a great learning resource.

As for music theory, id recomend this book if you have any interest in doing more than just record electronically.

Thanks. Would an online course suffice?How about something like this: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-music-theory-berkleex-oharm100x

Regards to books , I'll definitely give that one a check . Not sure if you've come across : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034

Or Hook-theory(http://www.hooktheory.com/)

Would you recommend giving these a shot aswell?

Mixing BootCamp.
http://bobbyowsinski.com/Audio_Mixing_Bootcamp.html

zen and the art of mixing
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Mixing-Mixerman/dp/1423491505

also (zen and the art of producing)

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Producing-Mixerman/dp/1458402886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368676901&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+producing


the daily adventures of mixerman
http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Adventures-Mixerman/dp/0879309458/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368676951&sr=1-1&keywords=the+adventures+of+mixerman

bobby owinsky (has many great books)

hal leonard recording method is great (series of books)

Just to act as devil's advocate here - I would recommend at least balancing this guy's work out with some of the more standard texts on mixing (listed below). I checked out this video a while back and was a little weirded out by his approach, which often steps into pseudoscientific territory. If you go to the author's company website, you'll see some dubious claims and suggestions about mixing techniques:

-"There are archetypal frequencies that have been used since the beginning of time to affect us."

-"As shown by the research of Alfred Tomatis, every frequency is a nutrient."

-"Tuning A to 432 hertz vs. 440 has been proven to resonate better with the resonant frequency of our cells - Tuning concert pitch to more auspicious frequencies makes the music go deeper."

-"High Frequencies activate the mind; Low Frequencies calm the body."

-"When you relate to frequencies based on ancient Chakra energies, the way you "feel" the balance of frequencies in a mix in a whole different way that goes through your whole body instead of just your mind. "

I'm sure the guy's mixes sound great - and he seems to have been a successful mixing engineer - but I personally wanted nothing to do with this guy. There are other "holistic" approaches to mixing (like Mike Stavrou's Mixing with your Mind) that work without having as much of a "snake oil" flavor to them. But as always, if this guy's approach works for you and you can look past his quirks, then I suppose it's a good resource.


Other resources: Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, Roey Izhaki's Mixing Audio, Bobby Owsinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

Hey,

I had the same question very recently and realized that I just need to learn some of music theory, not sure how deep I'm going to dig into it, but so my resources so far:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/
  
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1302D94F247600CD
  
  Some of the videos from youtube, together with relevant chapters fromthe book already helped me understanding some of music theory basics I never happened to learn before.
  
  Next planned books, if I'll keep on being interested:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1435456726/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Composition-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598638610/
  
  Hope that helps!

your low-mids to mids as well as highs are lacking. as in you need either better samples to fill out those frequency ranges or you need to eq your stuff better. along with that your sub is lacking any real presence (in terms of the kick and the bass). you can solve this by distorting/compressing/eqing your kick/bass. another problem is stereo placement -- try using the haas effect as well as panning your instruments well.


you've been producing for four years but haven't done much mixing/mastering and your track reflects that. look into buying this book and watch this video as well, i highly recommend this one.

Solid job with the intro to mastering there, I just have a couple things to add from my perspective. A great book that I learned much of the basics from is Mastering Audio if you want to focus on learning some of the science and art behind mastering.

WRT software I personally use Har-Bal for my initial analysis and surgical frequency adjustments, and I highly recommend the Waves plugins for good quality effects, including LinMB, MaxxBass, and L3.

Here you go, these are arranged according to their importance:

1. Basic music-theory knowledge: http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
   
2. A workstation that you feel comfortable with. Most of them has a demo, so grab one and stick with it (you'll find tons of tutorials on each one on Youtube, just learn the basics like writing/exporting midi, assigning effects on audio/midi tracks, rendering).
   
3. Grab a free synthesizer and learn basics of using a synth (attack, sustain, waves, oscillators): http://reverb.com/news/synth-basics-101
   
4. Compressors: http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-beginners-guide-to-compression--audio-953
   
5. Equalization: http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-basics-of-equalization--audio-16587
   
   These will get you on track, then you can dive more into complex synthesizers, start buying some loops and manipulate them to be unique, read more about compression (because it's an endless topic), start making collaborations, mixing, mastering (limiters, multi-band compressors and stereo-imaging).

Buy and study this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Bobby-Owsinski/dp/128542087X

It is WELL worth the money and you will continually use it as a reference. The information will take your recordings to a totally new level. All of Owsinski's books are great, but this one is specifically for what you are looking to do.

There is so much that goes into getting great sounds and recordings that is far beyond would I could type out in a single day.

Yes definitely follow this advice.

Mastering is the process that makes all the songs in your album sound like they belong together. You use EQ, compression, limiting (and possibly other effects a la reverb and delay) to make them sound part of a cohesive whole.

Be wary of advice that says you've got to hard limit stuff too, especially if your music is going to a lossy bitrate compression destination like YouTube or iTunes. Lossy file formats like .mp3, .aac, and .wma do not take well at all to slammed tracks.

I recommend reading 'The Mastering Engineer's Handbook' by Bobby Owsinski. Its an interesting read about the history of mastering and examines the processes of mastering for vinyl, CD, digital delivery, television, movies, etc... There's loads of interviews with world-renowned mastering engineers too that will be sure to set you on the right path. Owsinski's other two books, 'The Recording Engineer's Handbook' and 'The Mixing Engineer's Handbook' are also great tools for the independent musician and/or novice audio engineer.

Like all things audio, you have to listen. If your ears are telling you something is wrong, then something is wrong. Also, listen on many different sources. Put your work on a CD and listen in your car or at work or in shitty mp3 on crappy earbuds! The people buying your record will be listening in all of those situations so you might as well know what they are going to hear!

I guess my last piece of advice would be that if you're not mastering on an expensive stereo system—and I do mean very expensive, like $20,000 per channel kinds of expensive—you should probably be filtering high and low frequencies. If your system can't reproduce low end (less than 50-80 Hz) or high end (greater than 16-18 kHz) accurately, then you must include a high-pass filter and a low pass filter before you start doing anything else in the mastering process. The reason mastering engineers and facilities are so expensive is because they can hear things that you can't; both because of their experience and ear training as well as their equipment and signal path.

To add on to this comment I highly recommend reading this book and it's free too. You'll have a undergrad or even graduate understanding of how digital signals work...http://www.dspguide.com/ and definitely buy this book if you want to expand upon it...it's the bible of audio engineering: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
This is hands down the most comprehensive guide I've come across and it's taught me everything I know. If you post on /r/edmproduction this will be the first guide they recommend. If you can't afford that then here is a free guide that is also very good. https://gumroad.com/l/tldrmusic

I realize you said mixing, and this is for mastering, but I figured it might be relevant as well. By Bob Katz http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371

A pdf is easy to find online, or you can support by buying the paperback

If you are to write something that has any melodic content, you need to know the basics of music theory.
Buy this book!
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
I was blessed to read on this sub 3 years ago someone recommended this book!
It takes a few weeks to read on and off and will teach you ALL you need to know about the Theory! Plain and simple!
Cheers!

A good primer if you have the inclination to learn about how subwoofers work in a room and why you should use 4.

Dr. Toole uses 4 10's in his own personal system and he's one of the most respected people in the field.

https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks/episodes/14

​

His book is excellent. It's a heavy read though.

https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reproduction-Psychoacoustics-Loudspeakers-Engineering/dp/0240520092

Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki:
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Audio-2e-Roey-Izhaki/dp/0240522222

It has an excellent description of how a mixer works, and is a great reference for the various types of processors you'll use to mix a track. Highly recommended, I keep coming back to this.

It is absolutely possible to treat ducting and, in fact, studios and theaters typically even have extra requirements for cooling based on the extra heat they produce from people and equipments.

But... that's not something that can be easily discussed in a reddit post since the details absolutely matter.

Some generic tips, though:

1. Non-rigid ducting works far better than the rigid type
   
2. Long lengths with S-curves robs the sound of its strength over time
   
3. No straight runs between rooms
   
   If you want to read up on this, then this book Home Recording Studio : Build it Like the Pros has an extensive chapter on just the ducting requirements.
   
   

Learn your DAW, the built-in ableton tutorials are an excellent place to start. Then start learning from the masters. These books are pretty good.
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second-Edition/dp/1598632515/ref=pd_sim_b_4

I'd recommend Mike Senior's book, Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. This will be the most straightforward and efficient approach. The book is fantastic. On top of that, I would start reading SoundOnSound magazine, which has regular articles on mixing (often by Mike Senior himself).

Youtube videos can work, but you'll save yourself a lot of time by simply having a tell-all book.

This book is really great for mixing. Currently making my way through it. It is very dense and thorough


This book has been recommended to me a lot for mastering. A very good producer told me this was the standard for wanting to learn proper mastering techniques. I haven’t read it yet

I highly recommend you get a copy of Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. It's a fantastic book that carefully explains what you're trying to accomplish when you mix and how to do it.

Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms is a superb book (the author is well known in the industry). Very detailed, very factual and all about how you'll hear the music in a room. Tons of data and graphs from studies and measurements. Deliciously, also has details on how the specs of a product can be manipulated. You can see a shorter paper by the same author at Loudspeakers and Rooms for Sound
Reproduction—A Scientific Review.


Master Handbook of Acoustics is also good.

> for example, instead of learning note names, I associated notes with fingerings on whatever instrument I was playing

There's literally nothing wrong with it especially if your instrument has an isomorphic layout.

Actually, isomorphic layouts allow you represend things in a very clear and intuitive way:

http://www.thecipher.com/Janko_scales.gif
http://www.thecipher.com/Janko_sevenths.gif

> how to form a basic chord

By chaining thirds. If you want to get an inversion, move the bottom note one octave higher. Octave equivalence is a powerful concept, use it.

> I guess I'm looking for moral support just as much as constructive advice

Read MTfCM. This is a great introduction book into music theory. Every concept is clearly explained, and showed not only in notes, but also on keyboard, tablature and piano roll.

If you love music, and can pay attention to what its supposed to sound like; that's all you really need.

I highly recommend the Sound Reinforcement Handbook to all beginners.

There's not much to add, everyone's already told it like it is. Might i recommend the absolutely wonderful and informative book "Music Theory For Computer Musicians" by Michael Hewit?

On a semi-related note, how did you make that video for your song?

Have you read Mastering Audio by Bob Katz?

This would be the best place to start learning about mastering, in my opinion: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

For videos, Streaky's channel on YouTube is the best I've seen (although I don't necessarily agree with 100% of his opinions): https://www.youtube.com/user/StreakyMasteringTV

The Recording Engineers Handbook is like the industry standard as far as books on the subject go. Every engineer should have a copy. It’s packed with super useful info.

This..absolutely. I wouldn't dump 40k into pro studio gear though.. get a bunch of smaller pa systems and gear that you can rent out easier, splash out a bit on a nice mid level console and a few select bits of high quality outboard gear to practice recording on. You'll make money and develop contacts, and if you do it right, you'll have enough profit after awhile to afford the school of your choice if that's still what you want. Also, if you haven't already, buy this. It'll teach you basic fundamentals so you don't waste time learning bad habits on your own. Audio recording is one of those 'learn all the rules then break them' things. If it sounds good, you did it right.

I'm not referencing any specific material, I'm talking in general terms regarding absorption through the use of porous materials.

When using a porous absorber (of which a textile carpet, textile drapes, and slabs of mineral wool are examples of), the bandwidth of its absorption is dictated by the thickness of the material. A sound wave is at peak pressure at one quarter the wavelength, so this will define the low threshold of where the absorbing material will be effective with regards to its thickness.

If we take the 250 Hz frequency example again:

The wavelength of a 250 Hz sine is:

λ = c / f = 344 m/s / 250 Hz = 1.376 m

...and a quarter of that wavelength (to find the wave's pressure peak) is:

1.376 m / 4 = 0.34 m

So a 34 cm thick carpet will absorb from 250 Hz and up. The exact degree of absorption and the Q-factor depends on the material itself, but the roll-off frequency is determined by the thickness.

All this stuff is detailed in Everest & Pohlmann's Master Handbook of Acoustics, which I heartily recommend for anyone who's interested in the science of acoustics.

I have read that and personally didn't take a whole lot away from it. For mixing I would recommend Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. For theory I would look into this, or maybe jazz stuff depending on your style, e.g. The Jazz Theory Book.

There are a whole lot of free resources that are worth checking out too, like Pensado's Place, r/musictheory , Pro Audio Files, Freejazzlessons.com, SeamlessR, etc.

You have rolled the high pass up to 335Hz @ 12dB per octave. Good, Let's get that whole low end spectrum out of there!

Next, you have a 9dB cut at 300hZ, just in case that roll off to 355hz didn't cover it all.

You are, at this point, either mic'ing Darth Vader ,Marsellus Wallace, or a Moog but want none of that "Anything below 1kHz" spectrum. You have taken the rumble, the low end, the woofy and the honky-ness out of their voice.

Next you have a couple of notch filters at a 6 & 9dB reduction with a tight Q, probably to stop feedback. I'd imagine you pulled these back this far to make sure you had no feedback problems. I'd bet -3dB would work just fine. If it is for tone shaping and not feedback problems, you really aren't hearing that result due to the tight Q.

Lastly, you have a 9dB boost, 9 friction' Decibels! Holy hell, does this guy sing in to a pillow as a pop filter? 9 dB's, maybe a little bit of overkill. Oh who am I kidding, 9dB's of gain is total overkill or your mic is a piece of crap.

I could try to explain to you why you are most likely having to gain up the mic, why were pushing the fader to +8, just trying to get it in to the mix but what I'd really love to explain is how you ruined the phase of this signal. I'd also imagine that if you had 3 more sets of PEQ that they would also be fully engaged, knocking out more pesky frequencies.

Maybe your FOH / Monitors graph is all pulled out or not being used at all, I could see either happening here.

Problems I see:

• You are trying too hard with this channel, you really are!
  
  
• Over EQ'd to say the least
  
  
• Signal is shot to hell
  
  
• or your mic sucks.
  
  Solutions:
  
  
• Just go back to flat at this point
  
  
• OK, HPF to maybe 100-120Hz
  
  
• Notch out 350-400hz, medium Q, maybe 2-3dB
  
  
• Don't turn it up until it feeds back and try to fix it, turn it up, if it feeds back, just turn it down a little.
  
  This is my recommendation, my junior engineers have the same situations pop up. Less really is more…usually.
  
  Recommended Reading
  
  
• Sound System Engineering
  
  
• Sound Systems: Design and Optimization
  
  
• The Sound Reinforcement Handbook
  
  The first two are text books to say the least, you will read them, not really understand them, read them again, catch a little bit, put them away, read them again and slowly start understanding it. I have had these books for years and get as much from them each time as a good novel. The third book is super simple but still awesome essential information.
  
  TLDR
  Start over, Turn it down.
  
  Yeah, this is a TLDR, but you really need to read some of this every now and then. Your ears fool your brain, and so can your eyes.
  
  

I've heard good things about this one as well, but the Amundson and McCarthy are great starts.

Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008

Shure has a bunch of great webinars online: http://www.shure.com/americas/support/training/materials
and Extron has a lot of stuff:
http://www.extron.com/technology/technology.aspx?techid=1&tabid=0&tab=training&s=th07

"CTS Certified Technology Specialist Exam Guide" would probably be a good resource for them, as well.