Reddit mentions of The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, Second Edition
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Reddit mentions: 22
We found 22 Reddit mentions of The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, Second Edition. Here are the top ones.
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9 Ways this 10 Ways List makes me cringe:
Layer your snaresEDM snares are crisp, snappy, and/or sizzly. Do you really want your snare to punch? Layer your snares, sure, but do it for the right reasons. Add some white noise. It won't help the punch, but it'll help that snare cut through anything.Layer your kicksLayering kicks is a great idea, sometimes, but using one kick for its click and another for its bass doesn't equate to more punchiness. It just means you have independent control of each part of the "kick" sound. Layer your kicks to gain control rather than losing it in a game of trial-and-error/mix-and-match. Don't layer just for the sake of layering.EQ your snaresOf course you EQ your snares, but this article sounds like the author just read and copied Bobby's book without considering context. EQ your snare to make it sizzle, snap, or crack. Boosting the low-mids is appropriate for some music, but more often than not in EDM you'll be cutting the bottom out of your snares pretty hard, including the 250Hz range. And again, do you really want your snare to punch?EQ your kicksOf course you EQ you kicks, but offering up the same kind of generic book advice isn't appropriate for synthesized kicks used in EDM. Also, it's a lot more effective to cut out unwanted frequencies than trying to boost what's missing. (If something is missing, that's when you start thinking about layering.)Be sparing with reverb!This has almost nothing to do with punchiness, and if you're putting so much reverb in your tracks that it does affect a drum's punch, you've got bigger problems to worry about...Compress!Again, yes, you should compress your drums, and compressing your drums can make them punchy, but the article still doesn't get it quite right. The most common way to use compression to get more punch is to mix dry and heavily compressed tracks of the same source (aka New York compression.) The author must have skipped that chapter.Try adding synthsHey, you know what would add something to your song? Adding something to your song! Maybe you could add some sounds, too! Surely that will make your drums punchy.Don’t use low quality samplesWell, duh, but this is still shitty advice. Rather than talk about tangibles like bit-depth, sample rate, file type, or any other tangible aspect of a sample's quality, he makes a completely unqualified critique of a specific DAW's default samples as an excuse for his own shortcomings as a "producer". (Who wrote this shit, anyway? Fucking Guy Fawkes? No one proud enough to put their name on it, I guess.)Turn everything else downThis is, most importantly, the dumbest of all the suggestions in this article. In dance music, the drums may rule, but (aside from the kick) the drums are small. They're EQd and compressed and phased to maximize perceived volume and presence while taking up the least amount of headroom, allowing room for the instruments that require more headroom and bandwidth to achieve the same perceived loudness. Besides, even if you turn everything else down and the drums sound louder, loudness and punchiness are not the same thing.While there are some excellent books on the subject and plenty of online media, I would say the best place to start is wikipedia just to familiarize yourself with the field, the basic process, and some of the lingo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiomixing%28recorded_music%29
From there you can move on to more comprehensive materials, such as this online multimedia audio course, or hard copy educational materials such as The Recording Engineer's Handbook or The Mixing Engineer's Handbook
Getting some mixing software would also be helpful. If you have a Mac, garageband is actual not a bad place to start for getting the basics of multitrack recording and mixing down. Otherwise, Reaper is basically the lowest cost fully featured Digital Audio Workstation on the market.
If you don't have the gear to start doing recordings yourself, you can always seek out recording stems to practice mixing with. If you don't mind industrial music, Nine Inch Nails provides their fans with multitrack versions of many of their songs for remixing purposes. See the remix section of nin.com. You'll need to register, but its free. Once you have the multitrack recordings, you can import them into your DAW and use them to practice balancing the mix, experiment with EQ, compression, panning, and what not.
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!
EDIT: added lowest available prices on Amazon, shipping (which may or may not be free) not included
This and this are the best books I've found. Lots of info on eq, compression, effects, mic placement, etc.
This Book helped me alot. http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second-Edition/dp/1598632515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334848899&sr=8-1
Great to read. Very good ideas how to find your workflow. cool Interviews with other Mixing Engineers. And it is cheap. There is also a book on mastering from the guy
The mastering engineers handbook
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598634496
The mixing engineers handbook
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598632515
Highly approve. Read them about 10 years ago and they are amazing. They also have been updated since I believe.
I agree that nothing beats learning hands on but knowing the concepts behind your mixing decisions can go a long way, especially if you're first starting out. I'm not sure what type of music you're mixing but I highly recommend [The Mixing Engineers Handbook] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598632515?pc_redir=1395118285&robot_redir=1). It was required for some of the classes I took in school for audio production and is really great for learning the fundamentals. It has a great section on EQ as well as over 100 pages of interviews with successful engineers that have worked with a lot of big name artists. Lots of tips and tricks to learn as you progress. It's a keeper. Another good one that approaches mixing a little differently is [Zen and the Art of Mixing] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BFUNZ74/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1395520967&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40). Also you should check out this [Awesome EQ Chart] (http://musicwithoutlabels.com/tags/eq-chart/).
It's a bit sparse. For the most part, you only have one or two tracks going at once, so there's not all that much to listen to. 1:30 to 2:00 is the exception, and this is where the song gets a bit interesting. Unfortunately, that's two thirds of the way through the song. That's way too long.
Your problem, and this trumps any others you may have at the moment, is that your song is poorly structured in two ways. It has badly defined sections, and its sound is sparse and missing some essential parts.
Generally, most songs are structured this way:
Intro
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Verse
Chorus
Outro
Some songs have more parts or less, others may have them in a different order, but this is a good starting point. Each part should have a musical idea that makes it distinct. Your song feels almost entirely intro until about 1:15 or so. You then get a verse/chorus at about 1:30, the song starts to get interesting, but then it ends at 2:02. Thirty second outro. With 2:00 of intro/outro, and :30 of actual meat, your song is very imbalanced. Each of the parts above should be roughly the same length. If each is, say, thirty seconds (which at ~120 bpm is around 16 bars), you have a 3:30 long song. Perfect radio length.
Now, when you're writing a part, you need to make sure the sound is properly filled out. Most of your song is only one or two instruments at once, which is pretty boring. Keep in mind that a full sound has five different parts. Parts in parts!
Note this next part is paraphrased from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook:
Foundation - The rhythm section. Usually the bass and drums, but can also include rhythm guitar or keys if they're playing about the same musical figure. As the name implies, the rest of the sound is built off of these instruments. If the rhythm section is done poorly, the rest of the sound is going to suffer along with it. Even for songs without a strong bass beat, they still need something that emphasizes where the downbeat of a bar is.
Pad - A pad is a long sustaining note or chord. This can be provided by synths, guitar power chords, orchestral string sections, etc. The pad provides weight and meat to the sound, gives the listener something to bite into, if you will.
Rhythm - Rhythm is any instrument that plays counter to the foundation. For instance, if the foundation is emphasizing beats 1 and 3, the rhythm guitar might emphasize beats 2 and 4. This provides motion and excitement to the track.
Lead - The lead vocal, lead instrument, or solo.
Fills - Fills generally occur in the spaces between lead lines, and can help transition between one section of the song and the next.
As with the song parts above, not all songs follow this pattern religiously, but it makes a solid starting point.
For Recording: http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Home-Recording-Second-Edition/dp/1423454464
For Mixing: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second-Edition/dp/1598632515
I recommend both of these books highly, and they are worth buying. But if you look, you can find pdf versions available on the web.
It's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. Sorry, should have included that in the initial post.
From memory, I believe that is The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski.
Another staple read about this is Mastering Audio: The art and the science by Bob Katz
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second-Edition/dp/1598632515
In my opinion, this is one of the best books you can read. It breaks down the elements of the mix in technical terms, but still easy to understand, while also providing anecdotes from long time pros.
This was a text book of mine when I was going to school for audio engineering and I have kept re-reading it since.
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Second/dp/1598632515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311177016&sr=8-1
I have that one, I've found tons of useful info in it for mixing.
Regarding room treatment, I've found the best option is to just Google info about home studio acoustic treatment since you will find more tips from people in the same situation you are. I'm sure there are some good books but the ones I read speak more to people building a proper studio. Unless you are looking to drop thousands on properly treating your room, its not going to be perfect, so you may benefit more by seeing what other people are doing.
Again, ideally you want to prevent parallel, flat surfaces. Depending on the size of the room, a "standing wave" will form, it is a certain wavelength that re-inforces itself when bouncing between the surfaces, it messes up what frequencies are truly standing out.
The more "blockier" types of defusers will help dissipate lower, mid range frequencies while cloth and foam will help absorb higher frequencies.
My wife won't allow the absorption panels or defusers so I do the best I can by keeping the room full of furniture and stuff that act as natural absorption. It is FAR from perfect but I actually get a surprisingly decent sound in the room.
If you are using crap studio monitors then that will probably be your weakest link anyway. If you are using Yamaha NS-10's then you better have a really well treated room. So consider the studio monitors too in relation to your room.
Go to Gearslutz.com if you haven't yet. TONS of people with home project studios working with all kinds of music. You will find an infinite source of info there.
There is second edition of this book. Pretty up-to time stuff.
Yeah that's a great one, this one is also full of amazing knowledge and interviews. Also, check out Pensado's place podcast!
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
Here's a few I would recommend.
That would be enough to get you started. Some are a bit expensive but do a google search for alternatives.
Also, these are great.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recording-Engineers-Handbook-Second/dp/159863867X
and
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Bobby-Owsinski/dp/1598632515/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_2/261-3776436-3604719?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1598632515&pd_rd_r=7e9bcf1c-538a-43fc-ad66-9465d23bb515&pd_rd_w=oThLj&pd_rd_wg=We2mC&pf_rd_p=e44592b5-e56d-44c2-a4f9-dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=QJKJYAKNV6DM92M141MF&psc=1&refRID=QJKJYAKNV6DM92M141MF
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.
Owsinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook is what was recommended to me for mixing... I was told "read it cover to cover twice, and then keep it handy for when you run into trouble."
Books I have read that helped me, loosely in the order I read them: