Reddit mentions of Modern Recording Techniques (Audio Engineering Society Presents)

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.

Get yourself a minor in mechanical (or possibly even seismic if your school offers it). Opens up anything dealing with transducers or how sound waves behave in a medium within a space.

Maybe pick yourself up a copy of Modern Recording Techniques to get a feel for what's going on hardware wise in the field. If you want to do more with the actual acoustics side of it, then grab Master Handbook of Acoustics. As a former EE major (I split before I graduated), I've also found Practical Electronics for Inventors handy to have around, even if only as a quick reference for things. Even has some theoretical refreshers in there if memory serves me correct.

If you find that you want to get into working with instrument amplification, then I'd recommend picking up Ultimate Bench Warrior since, to my understanding, tube circuits aren't really dealt with at the university level anymore.

Hope at least something in here is helpful.

It's been over a decade since that class, so I don't recall what texts were used. If I remember correctly, Modern Recording Techniques contained a lot of this information.

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!

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.

Modern Recording Techniques - David Miles Huber

The sidebar has allot of great information for beginners.
I'm also fond of Alan Parsons ASSR program, and you can't go wrong with a read through Modern Recording Techniques.