Download PDF Mixing Engineer's Handbook, 3rd Edition By Boby Owsinski

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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