Mixing Insight

[davekershaw]

May 9, 2008, 9:10am, devin wrote:example, if I really like the guitar sound from James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" (does anyone not like that tone)Aw Devin, now yer talkin'.I watched him in concert on tv a few nights ago.I love that song, and "You've got a Friend"What a voice and guitar, and a great bloke too!

[ggalen]

Devin,Great idea about playing commercial mixes we like before and during a session to "tune up our ears and perceptions"!Thanks for passing it along.I will use it for my CDs and Taxi submissions.

[Mark Kaufman]

Where can I buy a good mono button?

[ggalen]

May 9, 2008, 10:06am, lyle wrote:Where can I buy a good mono button?LOL! Good one.

[ernstinen]

May 9, 2008, 10:06am, lyle wrote:Where can I buy a good mono button?Here's a USB version that you push if your mix sounds like crap:Ern

[ernstinen]

May 9, 2008, 9:10am, devin wrote:Some folks can attend a formal school and really soak it up...others prefer to be the mad scientist in the basement re-discovering it all for themselves. (I'm closer to the basement type).Ya know, The Beatles were more the "mad scientist" types themselves. They viewed recording as an art. But the engineers at EMI actually WERE scientists! They were so trained and indoctrinated in electrical engineering, they LITERALLY wore white lab jackets in the studio. Seriously! There was ONE way to record, and if they didn't follow the scientific protocol, they got written up and chastised. --- So the Beatles didn't buy the restrictions. They would say "What would it sound like if you cranked the treble on the guitar track all the way up?" The engineers would reply "No, we can't do that. It's not done that way." Beatles: "Why not? Just TRY it!" And the fight would go on and on until the Beatles had some leverage to FORCE some changes.Another thing they fought over was the depth of the bass in the mix. They'd say "We DEMAND to know why the bass on the Motown records sounds so much better and louder than on OUR records." The engineers would give the rote answer that the stylus would jump out of the vinyl grooves. "Then why doesn't it jump out of the Motown records' grooves, huh?" "Uh, well, we were trained not to do it like that."Then Paul switched to a Rickenbacker bass, and they came up with the idea of using a 15" bass speaker as a microphone, rewiring it, and miking the bass cabinet with it. Voila! Deep, rich bass.So, IMHO, the FUN of the art of recording is in the experimenting. You can't get that out of a book.Ern

[davekershaw]

May 9, 2008, 10:36am, ernstinen wrote:So, IMHO, the FUN of the art of recording is in the experimenting. You can't get that out of a book.Ern Yes Ern, wouldn't it have been great to sit in on a Beatles recording session, especially around '66 - '69.No-one could believe what they were doing.I heard David Crosby the other night saying they would bring something like Paperback Writer out, and he just felt like giving in!A funny thing I remember hearing was that during the recording of "I Want You (she's so heavy)", at the point where John Lennon really lets rip and screams, you can hear voices right after the scream. Someone's theory was that Lennon's voice had gone way into the red, and the voice was an engineer complaining! Can you imagine anyone doing that to John Lennon!!

[allends]

May 9, 2008, 10:16am, ernstinen wrote:Here's a USB version that you push if your mix sounds like crap:Ern,You're simply the BEST with these goofy pictures! Thanks,Allen

[milfus]

I dunno, I think everyone learns different, like I SUCKED at school, then I learned I was a kt learner, so I would just have to physically do what I was learning, and then I was fine. I think learning, and passing a class, are two different things though, you have to lend your perception to your teachers in the class, but on the outset, what you ultimately do with the knowledge is unrestricted. It is about lateral application of what you take in.

[mewman]

HI GlenThanks for starting this great thread. Lots of good stuff in here! I recently perused a music engineering book that my girlfriend brought home for me (she's a librarian) and included in it was an analysis of the mixing strategies used in the recordings of the Beatles. There were copies of charts used by the engineers on which they mapped out the placement of the different instruments in the frequency field, as well as the strategies used with the reverb settings to place the instruments either in front of or in back of the mix. I was aware of using the stereo field to help bring out each instrument, but using different reverb settings to place instruments up front or further back was a revelation for me. Another thing I recently became aware of was the importance of adding a dB meter to my toy box. I have powered monitors (M-Audio BX5a's) and quickly realized that I needed a way to calibrate the volume settings. I had also read in a book that mixing with sustained volumes of over 85 dB resulted in certain frequencies becoming stunned in your ears to the point where you are no longer capable of hearing the full spectrum of sound. On a lark, I took the meter to a gig and measured the sound level. It was over 100 dB! Suffice to say I now wear ear plugs! I try to mix at around 60 dB. I also find, like a few of you mentioned, that walking around my apartement reveals interesting things about my mixes. So many tricks...so little time! Thanks everyone, for all this great stuff!Mewman