Customer Reviews

Mix It Like A Record

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Whoa! It's been a long time since I was this dissatisfied with a product! Most of the video is just Charles Dye walking around in different scenic spots spilling pseudo-philosophical garbage at you. I mean, are you really paying this kind of cash to hear a guy tell you to "connect with the emotions in the music" or whatever? I mean, sure, you should connect emotionally with the music, but do I really need to pay a guy to tell me that?

I can't believe how much of the DVD is just this dude talking at me about general ideas like emotion and "freshness". I already understood that doing something fresh means doing something that hasn't been done before. I didn't need to drop this kind of money for Charles Dye to tell me that.

There are some actual concrete mixing tips in here, but if you collected them all together you'd have about a 20 minute DVD. The rest is garbage.

If you get it and like it, that's great. I'm happy that you found something you like. My advice, though, is to buy another product.

Try Multiplatinum Protools or something.

Wow. This is truly bad. I can only imagine how stoned this guy was on his own ego to conceive of shooting footage of himself all over the world blathering on and on. It's a horribly-shot shaky video homage to this geek with money to spend on himself. Oh yeah, and he talks about mixing occasionally, too.

In other words, there may be good info in this, but it's so badly done and with so much fluff that you are far better off spending your money elsewhere. Like the Universal Audio mixing DVDs, where they actually talk about mixing instead of themselves.

I've heard so much great stuff from all levels of the recording industry about this DVD and, like everyone else, I am always looking for new inspiration, ideas and techniques. I may be missing something, but I found this DVD to be long winded, horribly produced & edited and pretty hard to sit through - distracting background music, lame-arsed camera angles and pathetic, cheap visual effects over everything - yuk! I found Charles likeable enough but when reading his script with his hair blow dried all cool and standing somewhere moody and 'interesting' I found it all a bit childish. The song they demo has some horrible faux-english pronounciations which drove me nuts (I'm British) but is a good enough track. But rather than explain how and why he makes mix decisions and overcomes common problems, Charles just shows you what plug-ins he uses and in what order - pretty much what you would expect. I think the key here is that Charles is obviously extremely good at what he does but it's all in his ears and mind - not in some pattern or method you can learn or replicate - which is a hard truth in any creative art. Anyhow, if Charles was a really busy mix engineer he wouldn't need to supplement his income by selling a DIY DVD! Maybe my dry-British take on this DVD is a little unforgiving and cynical but seriously, save your money people - put it towards a nice new microphone!

I was excited about learning more bout mixing using pro tools. Within 10 minutes I was dtarting to get annoyed with all of the video editing effects that was being used a bit too excessively. Also, they would have a different background song playing in between audio editing tips. This video would have been greatly beneficial if it didn't have all of the pointless effects. I'm annoyed and feel like I wasted $100.

Charles Dye does an awesome job of helping you get your feet wet in mixing a tune. If you are looking for a tutorial on how to get quality sounds, ideas, and vibe for the tunes you are mixing, this is an EXCELLENT place to start. Don't by the video just wanting to copy what he does, buy it to be influenced to THINK about what you are mixing and why you would use certain effects/dynamics. Highly recommended. A very enjoyable journey.

Ready to take your beginner mixing skills to the next level? Then this might be the video for you.

First off, I'm not using Pro Tools and hence have not watched the last DVD which is a Pro Tools session. I'm thinking of about moving to Pro Tools though, but I'm pretty happy with Cubase at the moment. And I've been able to use several of his ideas, concepts AND techniques using other plug-ins and Cubase.

The whole video is centered around one rock song not unlike Foo Fighters -with some obvious differences. The song has been recorded in a professional studio and has a lot of tracks. Charles Dye focuses on the mixing and goes through all of the plug-ins used on each track and instrument: Drums (kick - using 4 tracks, snare - 2 tracks, hihat, toms, overheads, room mics), bass, and a several guitar tracks, keyboard and vocal tracks. Automation is handled at the end. The video is quick-paced so you need pay attention! There are some quite neat tricks he's using in there, and unless you're an experienced/professional mixer I'll be surprised if you didn't learn quite a few new ones.

Inbetween session Charles shares his ideas and concepts of mixing. Some are naturally more obvious than others, especially in the beginning. However, I liked some of the ideas, for instance giving each section of the song it's own feeling and sound, or the ideas of comparing it to a movie with characters and building the drama, etc. The concepts are not only fillers in the video, but he actually tries to show you how to employ these concept and ideas in the real mix. The choice of location spots are somewhat cheesy (although refreshing), I'll admit - but don't let that put you you off for getting the message!

On the negative side, apart from the price tag, he may be overusing the number of plug-ins. The recording sounds quite good to begin with and for instance using a split harmonizer, plate, flanger and hall reverb on the same channel sounds like an overkill in my ears. The same goes wth using the tape saturation plug-in on 80-90% of the tracks. On the other hand, there is no way you'll be running all the plug-ins he's using - even if you are using a top-notch quad-core computer.

What did I get out of this long video? I did certainly learn a lot of new techniques that I instantly used on my own mixes. There is so much information here, you'll be going through the video several times. Recommended.

I am a musician that records my own projects at home. I have read many different books and articles on mixing, but always find that the advice is too generalized or hard to imagine in my mind.

This DVD goes step by step through the mix for a single song with examples of how each track is handled and how each plug-in changes the sound. Beyond that, the DVD also has all the ProTools sessions that you can open yourself and work with on your own computer.

I have found the information invaluable and it has really helped me to see how a professional mixer - even one that the "old-timers" don't respect - puts a song together.

Charles Dye has done something here that nobody else has done. He's created a Mixing DVD that talks about concrete mixing concepts, and then talks about more abstract concepts. Yes, it's expensive, but he gives you the tracks to mess with yourself. That is a big deal. Some people say it's overdone and overrated, but in my opinion, he's giving invaluable tips in simple format, to beginners and advanced alike. If you want something less artsy, read an instruction manual. This if for the same type of person that likes Mixerman's "Zen and the Art of Mixing."

Kudos Charles, thanks for taking time to teach patiently and exposing your secrets.

This DVD is perfect for filling in the gaps when you know what you are doing but would really like to see that a pro does the same, whilst definitly picking up some new tips. The fact is if you want to see how a pro mixes a song to sound 'like a record' in great detail then this is what you need.

The people in forums putting it down because of the video effects need to get over it. The effects are amusing and colourful and in no way detract from what the video's goal is. If you are looking for that then watch a Spielberg film.

I found this DVD to be very informative. Charles goes through different effect chains and approaches for mixing.
I've been mixing professionally for a few good years, and I can honestly say I picked up a good number of mixing techniques from this one.
I WOULD NOT recommend it to someone who is just starting out and not familiar with basic terms and the different dynamic-based and time-based processors.