Sinopsis
Welcome to the third edition of The
Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. In the six years since I wrote the second
edition and the 13 years since I wrote the original book, the recording industry
has truly undergone a huge paradigm shift. Recording budgets have decreased
significantly, the number of major studio facilities has dropped to just a
handful in each major media center, and the rise of the digital audio
workstation has made it possible for just about anyone to make a record at home
for a minimal investment.
All the more reason to update this book. Mixing techniques
have evolved and adapted to the digital world, and with fewer studios, there are
also fewer mentors to learn from. That said, the classic mixing techniques are
more useful than ever, since the basics of balance, equalization, compression,
and effects never go out of style.
My main goal has always been to preserve these techniques
before they’re lost to rumor or twisted into irrelevance. Where once these
skills were handed down from engineer to assistant, that whole master-apprentice
information exchange has almost faded into oblivion, which is all the more
reason to have a single repository of techniques.
For the third edition, I’ve added a number of chapters and
interviews, updated the interviews from the previous editions, and generally
adapted the remaining material so that what’s contained herein is much more
relevant to today’s DAW-based mixing. Since the majority of readers will be
working at home in their personal studio, I’ve put a special emphasis on how the
pros use their DAWs, as well as how they adapt their large-console techniques to
the home studio.
Just so you know, the reason why I originally wrote the first
edition of this book is probably the same reason why you’re reading it: to get
better at what I do. I noticed that my mixes were somewhat hit or miss.
Sometimes they were great, sometimes just okay, and sometimes just plain off the
mark. I also noticed that much of the time my mixes didn’t have the big-time
sound that I heard on the radio. I wanted this sound badly, and the only way I
knew how to get it consistently was to ask questions of the engineers who
already knew the secret.
While doing research for this book, I found that a common
factor among most great mixers was that they usually all had at least one mentor
as a result of coming up through the studio ranks. Most great mixers started as
assistants, learned by watching and listening to the greats they helped, and had
taken a little from all of them as a result.
I didn’t do that, however. Being a musician first and
foremost, I learned to engineer thanks to my early interests in electronics,
which came from wanting to know how the electrons got from my guitar to the
speakers of my amplifier. As I became familiar with the recording studio, I was
lucky to be offered all sorts of varied session work, from recording jingles to
big band to jazz to R&B to hard rock, but since I never wanted to give up
being a musician (which I knew I’d have to do), I never took a proper studio job
as an assistant to really learn the trade at the hands of the masters. As a
result, my recording skills were always pretty good, but my mixing skills were
lacking.
I soon realized that there were many others like me who were
good but not great, not because they weren’t capable, but because they didn’t
have the opportunity or access to the methods of the masters. After all, how
often does a George Massenburg or Bruce Swedien record in Lincoln, Peoria, Santa
Fe, or even smaller towns like Minersville, Millersburg, or Avondale? And
unfortunately, because there are fewer real commercial studios left, there’s
even less of a chance of that happening today than ever before. Not only that,
the vast majority of musicians (who inevitably end up as engineers in some
capacity) operate in their personal studio anyway.
So the first edition of the book started out very
selfishly, as it was meant specifically to meet my needs, but it ended up for
you as well. I hope you will benefit from it as much as I have.
And yes, my mixes have gotten much, much better.
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