The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

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Jimmy Douglass (interview appears later in this book): One of the few engineers who can cross genres with both total ease and credibility, Jimmy has done records for artists as varied as Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, the Roots, Ludacris, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Roxy Music, and Rob Thomas. Where at one time most studios had house engineers, the market became predominately made up of freelancers that frequently traveled from studio to studio and project to project, bouncing between different cities (and therefore styles) as easily as flipping the channel on a TV. And then goes the chapters about compression, limiting, EQ, adding effects, and other audio mixing processing.

The secret to processing and enhancing loops, samples and virtual instruments so they leap out a mix The LA style exhibited a somewhat more natural sound, which, although also compressed, is done to a less obvious degree than the New York style. There’s also less effects layering than the London style, but a good bit of delayed reverb is added. Elliot Scheiner: Yeah, they would generally start you as an assistant and I was basically like an assistant to an assistant until I learned what was going on. Obviously the technology was minimal then so you really had to know what mikes to use on what occasions and where to place them and the rest would come at a later date. But the main thing was just how to set up the room for each engineer. Also, while an engineer might have changed studios but remain located in a specific area all his or her working life, it became commonplace for an in-demand engineer to relocate to several major media centers during the course of his career. Because of this movement, a cross-pollination of styles started to blur the distinction between the Big Four in the ‘90s. tape machine, mixing changed forever, and, for better or for worse, it began to evolve into what itaccuracy of the content in this Guide, they assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, Andrew Scheps: You’re never really as aware of your own process as you think you are. I’ll think that I really didn’t do much of anything and then I’ll look at a mix and find that I’m using 50 things on it. This book is the first on our list, and it’s not by accident. It’s very popular among musicians who want to learn mixing as well as among professional mix engineers. It is used in universities as a course book to teach audio engineers, so you can imagine how thorough and deep it is, and at the same time, it’s completely suitable for a novice. Elliot Scheiner: Usually I don’t start out with any reverbs. I’m not one for processing. I’d like to believe that music can survive without reverbs and without delays and without effects. Obviously when it’s called for I’ll use it, but the stuff I do is pretty dry. The 70’s were a pretty dry time and then the 80’s effects became overused. There was just tons of reverb on everything. Today we’re in the age of the DAW, where dynamic automation of virtually every parameter is the norm. This allows mixes to be more intricate than ever, and take more time than ever as a result, but the pinpoint accuracy of every parameter movement during every millisecond of a mix is assured.

as you went along; therefore, after you got the sounds that would fit with each other, all you had to Elliot Scheiner: Not necessarily. In the days when I was working at A&R, we had no remotes on any of our plates there. Phil wanted to make changing them difficult because he tuned them himself and he really didn’t want anybody to screw with them. There would be at least 4 plates in every room. Some of them might be a little shorter than another but generally they were in the 2 to 2 1/2 second area. There was always an analog tape pre-delay, usually at 15 ips, going into the plates. The plates were tuned so brilliantly that it didn’t become a noticeable effect. It was just a part of the instrument or part of the music. You could actually have a fair amount on an instrument and you just wouldn’t notice it. DJ Swivel (interview appears later in this book): Jordan Young, known to many as DJ Swivel, is a Grammy-winning producer, mixer and songwriter who’s worked with with a wide variety of hit-making artists that include Jay-Z, Diddy, Pharrell, Britney Spears, Beyonce, The Chainsmokers, BTS and many more. Jordan also has developed his own line of plugins based on his own unique processing techniques. Nashville has gone through various phases through the years where the mixing style has evolved. At one point in time, the songs were so dependent on the artist that the vocal sat way out in front of the music bed, sometimes almost to the point where they both seemed almost disconnected. However, if you truly want to grow in mixing music and create great mixes, then understanding important concepts, including the physics of acoustics and sound waves, will definitely be worth the effort.What this means is that many mix elements appear at different times during a mix, some for effect and some to change the dynamics of the song. Each new element would be in its own environment and, as a result, would have a different ambient perspective. A perfect example of this would be Hugh Padgham’s work with the Police, or just about anything produced by Trevor Horn, such as Seal or Grace Jones or Yes’s Owner of a Lonely Heart. The Nashville Style Preparation. Live gigs may not even require a rehearsal to learn the songs. The studio mixer requires both system and personal preparation before even a single fader is raised, as you’ll see in Chapter 3, Mix Preparation. Then goes a detailed explanation of stereo imaging and panning, with a separate chapter for immersive sound. great mixers started as assistants, learned by watching and listening to the greats they helped, and The book might be a little hard to understand for a complete beginner in the music industry because of Alex Case’s deep dive into each topic and his in-depth technical knowledge. Some explanations are very scientific, so the book is not a light read.

The Nashville style today has evolved (some might say devolved) from what it was during the ’60s and ’70s to become much more like the modern compressed version of the LA style of the ’70s. Says legendary Nashville engineer/producer Ed Seay: These interviews are contained in Part II of the book. Many of the mixers interviewed in the previous four editions have been re-interviewed, since their mixing methods have changed along with the industry changes. Many started on a console but are now are totally in-the-box. Obviously the idea is to make it work on all systems. You listen on the big speakers, the NS10’s, out in the car, plus your own speakers, then you go home and listen again. This is a lot of work but it’s the only way to go. The demand for more mixing precision brought about console automation, first affecting only the console channel faders and mutes. Now it was possible to reduce the number of humans involved with a mix, since only the console parameters such as EQ and effects sends required manual dexterity.The full title of the book written by producer and audio engineer Steve Savage is Mixing and Mastering in the Box: The Guide to Making Great Mixes and Final Masters on Your Computer. Add additional reverb or delay to an instrument when it gets masked as other instruments are added to the mix. Music-industry veteran Bobby Owsinski is an in-demand producer/engineer working not only with a variety of recording artists, but also on commercials, television, and motion pictures. He is an expert on surround sound music mixing and has worked on surround projects and DVD productions for superstar acts including Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Iron Maiden, the Ramones, and Chicago, among many others. Bobby is also one of the best-selling authors in the music recording industry, with 23 books that are now staples in colleges around the world, including The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, The Recording Engineer's Handbook, How to Make Your Band Sound Great, and Music 4.0: A Survival Guide for Making Music in the Internet Age. Bobby maintains a busy speaking and teaching schedule at schools and industry events around the world. Find him on the web at bobbyowsinski.com, bobbyowsinskiblog.com, and music3point0.com. Since you’re making audio as your business, you’re going to need to develop some connections. If you haven’t networked before, it can be an intimidating process but don’t worry.