Great place for mixing tips!

[wodinlord]

Check out the womb. http://thewombforums.com/A great forum where pros mostly cuss and discuss recording and mixing techniques. As usual, you will find as many different opinions as posters, but there is a lot of useful info for you to sift through.This is a site hosted by Mixerman, an engineer who wrote a daily diary during the recording of an anonymous band a couple of years back that is the funniest and most insightful account of working with bands, record companies and producers ever created. As I read it, I swore he had been at all my sessions! LOL! Also, a good amount of useful tips mixed in. You can find most of the diaries online. Ifyou like it, you can order a book copy of the whole thing. It is must reading for anyone wanting to be involved in this business and highly entertaining, as well. Many of you are probably familiar with it, but if not, check it out!Wodinlord

[ciskokidd]

Hey Wodinlord,This is a great resource. I quickly went through a few posts and found some tidbits that made a lot of sense.There are some tutorials in there that would help a great deal for beginners.Thanks for the link!Cisko

[andreh]

There is some great info on that site/forum, but there's a vendetta-strong anti-Pro Tools air about the place. If you can get past the VERY opinionated nature of many of the posters and moderators [which admittedly exist on just about every forum], there's a lot to learn.Also check out gearslutz.com.André

[milfus]

yeah, im a pt banner wearing guy, full chest emblem kickin, hahaha, i have known about the womb for awhile, but i generally steer clear, if I do get stuck for answers though, its one of the ones ill check last (mainly because of a personal bias based on there personal bias, not due to a lack of content)

[wodinlord]

Glad someone found it somewhat useful. I hadn't been there since a while after the Mixerman Chronicles ended, but surfed by there yesterday and thought it might help some. If you have been at this for a while it probably won't have much too earth-shattering, but lots of good stuff for people working their way into it.Pro Tools got a bad rap a few versions ago, because their midi programming and such was way behind other platforms like Nuendo, Performer, Cubase, etc. When I first switched to PT, I HATED the midi side of it, but a few years and several improvements later, I don't think anything touches it for an all around platform. (IMHO IMHO IMHO) I had to get a version of Performer recently to resurrect some old tunes from a few years back and it drove me crazy. I used to know it so well, I could tell you how to use it over the phone by memory, but it is so clunky and slow compared to PT. At least it seems that way to me now. PT has gotten so much more intuitive and logical and the midi stuff is much more flexible and faster to work with than it use to be. The new elastic time element in 7.4 is also wonderful. Some engineers swear by other systems and some others are cheaper to get into, but PT has definitely become the 800 pound gorilla of the recording industry. However, everyone likes best what they know best.(I sense a Cubase user response coming any minute now)P.S. Hey Milfus, look - a point of agreement! LOLEnjoy,Wodinlord

[milfus]

yeah imho, you are right on, i love pt, my main argument for pro tools, maybe the best onemastering pt, can get you a job.<---periodhaha, yeah i was blown away too, i was like, me and wood agreed! call satan, see if his ac finally kicked on, haha, nah, its all in fun, in reality, altho i really dont agree with alot of what you say specificly, generally you are dead on, you are just the mind side of it, and im the zen side, you train your brain for stats and procedures and stuff, i train my ears for the exact tones and and textures, but ultimately, we are like two steps away from being the same dude, haha.im just one of those old school pink noisers, if that helps with where im coming from, you know our clan, im sure.

[wodinlord]

Actually Milf,We may be closer than that. I am a "musician" engineer, not a "engineer" engineer. Definitely not a numbers and techniques guy. LOL I have always been kind of a dirty engineer that likes things a little gritty and rough. I do lots of things that would make a prissy engineer cringe. I never went to a recording school. I learned in the studio by doing it everyday. I pretty much believe that there really are no hard and fast rules, only good general guidelines. Like everything else creative, an inherent amount of God given talent is necessary to be really good at this and nothing but experience can really develop you. You can know all the technique in the world and still suck at this. However, in a general forum like this where there are a fair amount of people in a developmental stage that don't do this everyday for a living, I tend to throw out the good general guidelines that are somewhat universal. If it helps someone, great. After that, everyone has to decide which of those work for them and develop their own style and way of working. Breaking "the rules" is part of developing your own style. There is no "one way" of doing anything in recording or music, just the way that works for you. Ask 10 engineers the best way to mic a drum kit and you'll get 12 answers. But, you have to learn to walk before you begin to run. You can decide to play guitar backwards, upside down and behind your head if you want. But you still have to learn how to tune it first.P.S. I am not a Zen guy, though. I prefer to actually string the bow, grab a quiver full of arrows and begin firing wildly all over the place while I figure out how to use the thing.Peace,WodinlordBTW I enjoy our little talks

[milfus]

well theres no one way to do anything EXCEPT, keep the producer from touching your knobs, hahaha,yeah I tend to piss off engineers most times, cause I kind of sit there and shut my eyes, and then Ill move a mic like 3 inches, do an eq notch, and drop the fader like a db, and itll fall right into the mix, and most times i get that "lucky shot" look, that and i can spend 5 minutes listening to pink noise, and then mic EVERYTHING in the right spot, I am told its pretty infuriating, but a real veteran engineer I was under for a long time, ran ear drills with me for like 6-8 hours a day while we wherent doing anything, and showed me how to use pink noise and mic placement, and it just stuck, so now even other engineers will accuse me of using voodoo when i assist.

[wodinlord]

When I am working as a producer I always get along great with my engineer, because its me. It works out better that way. But, if my assistant ever started running pink noise around me, I would hire myself as the assistant too. LOLWodinlord.

[milfus]

well i mean, i get results, so they cant really burn me at the stake, haha, but they sure want to, lemme tell ya