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Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior
On the recommendation of @theconnactic, I picked up this book. I would highly recommend it. There is so much to know and understand about mixing, and most of the stuff I have read presents a plethora of info, that is almost impossible to remember. This book takes you through his process, beginning to end. Once you have your tracks recorded, you can follow through the process in the book with all the detail in a sensible order, and not feel like you have missed 45 things.
I have spent too much time twiddling knobs desperately hoping for an outcome, this is a huge step in the right direction. I also picked up his recording book, I like the mixing one so much, be going through it next. But first things, I'm redoing the mix on my last piece, following the process.
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By coincidence, I'm about 150 pages into the same book. Fabulous read...great when it reinforces the things you do know. For things you dont know, the author lays out really systematic processes for adding them to your workflow. Interestingly, Mr Senior views structuring the song as a key focus of the mixer (for folks mixing our own music that might be a given, but i didnt think that would apply to pro's mixing other people's tunes), and he has some really useful advice on how to balance diff parts of a song. Sort of wish I'd read it a couple of years ago, but still incredibly valuable in removing fog.
For sure. Good for the beginner, or someone who has been doing it for a while. I don't think I've ever seen it explained as an end to end process like that.
I have it. Got it awhile ago, still haven't made it all the way through. Tons and tons of emphasis on how to set up your studio space and the right kind of monitors to get. Well, that ain't happening for me, but I guess it was good to realize that ya gotta pay attention to what you're listening on-- makes sense, has helped a little, but I will never ever have the ability to do a fraction of what he says is the bare minimum, and that kinda blows.
Not a lot of practical tips for me on how to make my mix suck less, he doesn't really spell it out for dummies like me. (I was hoping for "first, ya do this, then, ya do that, finally, ya do a, b, and c, and that's what ya do, ya dummy."). But I still like the book cause maybe like 60% of it didn't go completely over my head. And 60% ain't bad. (Other 40% was technobabble that made my eyes glaze over).
Did you get to the parts on setting up the mix, uses of compression, eq? I read the part about monitors and the studio, understanding that I can't do anything about that. It was more of the process of the mix that was of value. Going through his process.
I used to mix on monitor speakers and in a room I knew really well. I spent lots of time in it listening to other music and then mixing my own. It certainly made for my best, most consistent mixes that way. Once I had to move out into a place that I could not easily set up monitors in I had a heck of a time figuring out a method/system. Eventually I found just getting a good pair of closed back monitor headphones that I could listen to while commuting and bring to work for listening to lots of different music during the day enabled me to get to know the hadphones really well and then make somewhat decent mixes with them on the weekend. I of course still miss the room and the monitor speakers but find not all is lost and there is still lots of value to be gleaned from the other chapters in books like this.
Yes, I was despairing for a while as well. But, it is what it is. He actually makes the case that you do have to listen on multiple environments - a crappy stereo, mono, in the car, on earbuds. Which is all something we've heard before, but it takes the sting out of not having the perfect room.
I'm going to miss the Subie when the time comes, due primarily to its role in mastering. It is my oracle. Nothing else exposes the imbalances like it does.
Actual practical knowledge would help, too, though, so maybe I'll check this out.
I read that years ago. I highly recommend that awesome book too.
One interesting (and heartening) part was that Mr Senior reckons you can get a good mix on headphones....it just takes a lot longer and needs more comparisons along the way via your b, c & d monitoring options (if headphones are your 'a' option) to find imbalances (he's all about balance)
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One cool bit of advice he had was that plugins should be used mainly on tracks that dont sit in the mix...i.e if it sits well, leave it alone. He also rates phase problems on a track as potentially useful i.e a guitar track with weird phasing can often pop out quite nicely in the mix with just minor level and pan adjustments.
Yes, that's what I got from it too, that a good mix is possible without the room. I also like the thought process; if it sits okay, don't mess with it, and if it does sit okay, it doesn't matter what it sounds like by itself, or what else is going on. I like the approach laid out; try to get it to sit well with the faders, then try compression, then try eq, etc. It's logical. Of course, still need ears.
Yes, the earbud, car, TV speaker test are all very good to do. Equally important also is learning how these sound by listening to a range of music on them.
Additional, online resources from Mr. Senior:
http://cambridge-mt.com/ms-intro.htm
Of particular interest is the multi-track download library, where you can download full tracks to practice on; though, probably better suited for the desk/laptop environment, where you have more disk space, since they can be quite large.
Anyway, lots of good stuff there.