A good general guide to mixing?

Hello all,
 Simple question....can anyone recommend a good comprehensive and thorough, yet tailored guide to mixing for those who do not have an audio engineering degree? However,something that is not so general such as mixing for dummies...just something that spells out things plainly. I realize its all in the ears, but I do know that there are lots of do's and don'ts as well....please fire away any books, DVD's, etc....thanks as always!
 
David

I'm pretty certain a lot of folks here will concur with this opinion that "Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools" by Izhaki is the best book available on the subject.  It's quite readable, even for a novice, but at the same time it's extremely comprehensive and authoritative.

if you look at the techniques part of the forum.. loads would be mentioned.. people like bob katz etc..

but there is stuff that people give info wise or discuss on that bit of the forum, might be worth a look anyway.               

I'm relatively new to mixing and production in general, so I imagine your knowledge is much more advanced than mine.  Having said that, I have just now read ''Guerilla Home Recording'' by Karl Coryat.  Its a book that deals with home recording in general, but gives some useful information on mixing.  Some of the topics that come to mind:-

- Setting levels and gain staging.
- Thinking about Dynamics, Frequency, and Positioning (Panning) for each sound in the mix.
- Frequency slotting.
- EQ and compression/expansion/limiting/.  Suggested EQ curves and frequency ranges for various instruments.
- Use of effects.
- Stereo field diagrams giving ideas of how to pan, for example, a drum mix (including positioning of reverbs and delays.)
- Routing/ Use of busses.
- How mixing/recording in a home studio will differ from that of a professional studio.

For me this has been extremely valuable in understanding the general concepts of mixing and recording.  Depending on your level of knowledge, this may be too basic for your needs.  But it is an interesting read and well worth checking out IMHO.  YMMV.

Hope this helps,

Andrew

I realize its all in the ears

 
Only if you have perfect ears and equipment you understand completely. A lot of times it's in the levels. Space perception can change with time and listening to your music within an ever changing space can produce different results, so science must step in and the comparison of science and perception must ensue. 

"It's all in the ears" is true, but that doesn't help when you know your results are sounding less good than they should, but you can't figure out how to get there.

The biggest "bang for the buck" in my experience has been realizing that liberal application of frequency cuts can make my mixes sound better, not worse. Each track or submix sounds less good in isolation, but together, you realise you can hear everything better, the mix as a whole sounds better.

I write progressive rock music and my early mixes often sound like mud. So attack those backing tracks:

Guitars: put a high-pass EQ on the electric rhythm guitars and choose the frequency point so that they still sound good in the mix but shed some of that unnecessary bass.

Bass Guitar: Depending on the instrument, I usually cut the very low, then scoop out the mids but leave some top end for fret/clank, if necessary.

Backing Vox: Again, cut the low frequencies out.

Reverbs: I usually use the filter feature of the sonitus reverb so that just the top frequencies are reverberating, adding shimmer but not mud.

Drums: I admit I haven't figure this out yet. Right now I think I just have them mixed too loud in the mix, but that's because i've been working on my drum fills so I want to hear them. I have a lot of "room mike" in the mix and I think I will want to pull that back a bit.

Ok now I'm rambling... basically I just wanted to let you know that playing around with EQ on a per-instrument basis (you are using instrument busses, aren't you?) can really open up a mix.

- Colin

Are there new books that are better updated at this point or are these still valid suggestions?  
  I've been playing & recording mostly 4-8 track all in one machines for 2 decades...  I always felt my ear was good, & when my options were a 2-3 band eq & pan, to mix with.... it is.  Now with som many powerful tools at my disposal I find I know the sound I want but lack the knowledge to get it there.   In other words.... my gear is great,
I suck.  I am suddenly the weakest link in the chain.  I need to read up on mixing & then tackle mastering which I've not tried yet.

Thanks Bob!
Ya know, I fly right into Scranton once or twice a year...  Most of my relatives have moved out of NY city & many now reside in Honesdale.
Small world.

The Why Do Your Recordings Sound Like Ass? thread on the Reaper forums is quite handy

Sticky on this Reaper page:

http://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

It's a great read.

Written by a bloke called 'yep' from these forums. You could do worse than to do a search here for all his posts.

This is the book you want... Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki http://digifreq.com/?IzhakiMixing

+1 The best of the lot, IMO. Badly edited but jampacked with useful information.

I am just looking for a little help & guidance.  A starting point, suggested EQ curves for individual instruments etc.

I always used to struggle on where to start with EQ and then read an article somewhere (can't remember where - sorry) which has proved very useful to me.

Basically on a soloed track I set one band of an EQ with a high Q, max gain and then sweep slowly through the frequency range until I hit a particularly sweet spot or indeed mush. I then turn that band off, zero the gain and reduce the Q and leave the frequency at the spot I've found. I then repeat with the remaining bands starting at the frequency where the last band is parked. So on a typical 4 band EQ I may end up with 2 or 3 sweet spots and 1 or 2 'mushy' spots.

Once I've identified those areas I un-solo the track and then boost the sweet spots and cut the mushy spots until that particular instrument sounds right in the mix. Once you've done that a few times on each instrument you get to know roughly where the sweet and mushy spots are. Of course you can always save them as presets so you have a starting point.

That one technique alone has probably helped me more than any other I've tried. Ultimately it comes down to practice and experience, I've still a long way to go on both counts.

If YEP wrote a book, I'd buy it in a heartbeat

+1 and I'm pretty sure that's who wrote the article I mentioned above.

bitflipper

This is the book you want... Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki http://digifreq.com/?IzhakiMixing

+1 The best of the lot, IMO. Badly edited but jampacked with useful information.

+1000 on Roey Izhaki's Mixing Audio book! I have a copy which gets constant attention. The included DVD of thousands of samples is worth tons for ear training and understanding the book. He has four full song mix histories on the disk too.
 
But please note that the 'badly edited' comment only refers to first printing edition. (Keep hearing this comment.) The text has been proofed, edited, and reprinted. Now on fourth printing. Problems with the text originally were due to Roey's non-native Israeli English which no doubt didn't translate well enough for a technical book. Now reads perfectly well.
 

Frostysnake


Hello all,
 Simple question....can anyone recommend a good comprehensive and thorough, yet tailored guide to mixing for those who do not have an audio engineering degree? However,something that is not so general such as mixing for dummies...just something that spells out things plainly. I realize its all in the ears, but I do know that there are lots of do's and don'ts as well....please fire away any books, DVD's, etc....thanks as always!
 
David

I read two separate gold record mastering engineers diametrically opposed positions on things like compression, etc. and learned over the years of reading articles from the greats of their day that mixing and mastering is an art not a science. Having said that, once someone understands the fundamentals, it's all about doing it...and doing it and doing it.....and redoing it -- you get the idea. Like playing an instrument.

Keep your masters handy. I've found that after a typical recording session, with all the mixing etc, that my ears get fatigued--not physically, but I start to become emotionally fatigued with hearing the exact same track over and over. I have found that after I master something, I may leave it and go onto another project and then come back to the 'finished' project later on and think eeeuuu and remix it all over again. If you ever saw some of my tracks, you would know which ones those were by the (remix) in the title!

Lastly, make sure you have fun and feel the groove, or what's the point (besides maybe money)?