Customer Reviews

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Mix Pro Audio Series)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Are you looking for a "magic book" that tells you exactly how to set your EQ, compressor, or reverb for every situation? The bad news is, that book does not exist, and even if it did, it would surely render hideous results. There are far too many variables involved in recording, mixing and mastering even one single genre of music for any one formula to always work. The good news is that The Mixing Engineer's Handbook offers something even smarter: fundamental information that can be used in a wide variety of applications (just generally making the reader a smarter mixer) wrapped in copious straight-from-the-horse's-mouth tips and tricks from a bevy of the top names in mixing from virtually every genre. The book has enough "hard fact" charts, like the "magic frequencies" of numerous instruments and the forumlae for determining BPM and translating that into ms for delays and reverbs, to name only a few, that I found myself making photocopies of numerous pages to keep next to my mixing board for quick reference. But beyond that, the book offers so much general and ultimately FLEXIBLE advice that I find myself getting smarter about mixing just reading it. Rather than telling a reader how to always start a mix, for example, Owsinski offers five suggestions for logical places to start a mix (drums, bass, etc.) then offers a handful of single-paragraph suggestions by top mixers in various genres to support one idea or another, leaving it to the reader to decide which makes most sense for his/her work. It is the very fact that these suggestions by the pros are often contradictory that really gives a reader a broad perspective, leaving it to the reader to decide with which pro they align their own work most closely. In addition, there is an entire section devoted to detailed interviews with these same mixmasters, which amounts to getting a chance to pick the brains of the tops in the industry. I've tried numerous books on this topic, and this is the ONLY one that I find myself revisiting again and again, both as a reference at the mixer and also as casual reading away from the gear to expand my knowledge. The more advanced engineer will find this book lacking in details; one would need to look elsewhere for extremely micro-level discussions of the function of EQs, compressors, etc. That level of detail is usually only addressed in books devoted exclusively to that one piece of gear. This book, instead, provides the beginning/intermediate mixer -- the home and project studio guy -- an outstanding knowledge base from which to take his/her mixes to the next level.

This book takes you through the six (6) steps on how to succeed with a great mix. * Balance - the volume level relationship between musical elements * Frequency Range - having all frequencies properly represented * Panaorama - placing a musical element in the sound field * Dimension - adding ambience to a musical elememt * Interest - making the mix special

Within each step the author also has put in comments from famous producers like Bruce Swedien, David Sussman, George Massenburg, Joe Chiccarelli and more covering the actual topic. A good thing because you get the feeling that the methods in the book also has a practical use and that they work. And they do! Each step has it's own chapter and is filled with tips and tricks both from the author and the producers.

A chapter explaining the basics of mixing in surround is included in the book too. Though the author is not going into any depths it's good to get started on the topic. Some links to websites about surround mixing are there so maybe there will be more in future releases of this book.

At the end of the book there is a chapter with exclusive interviews with 20! top producers. The interview questions are connected to the 6 steps you learned earlier in the book so it is a very good finish. The questions can be like "Where do you build your mix from?", Do you use a lot of compression?", What's is your approach to panning?", "Do you have any listening tricks?" and lots of others.

Well, what can I say. I have improved my mixing skill a lot by reading this book. It is so great because you know other people are doing successful hitmusic using the methods described in this book. You don't get anything for free without practice but you know you are on the right track! I don't give it five stars, just 4 because I feel that a CD-rom with audio examples connected to the book would be awesome here! Maybe in the future? I seriously recommend this book!

Johan Salomonsson, Sweden Email: cwd@swipnet.se

It is not a real "handbook" in the traditional sense of the word (i.e. a handbook used by mixing engineers), but rather conceptual ideas that point out the key elements of mixing for the beginner.

The reality of this book is that the content is based on a series of pretty informative interviews that are transcribed verbatum in 2nd half of the book. The first half of the book is the author's summary of the usable data culled from the interviews, and presented in a organized fashion.

The 6 aspects covered (that comprise a good mix) should certainly help beginners start thinking about mixing in ways that don't ordinarily occur to beginners. In essence, what this book does best is to tap into the experience of very experienced engineers, and then present "what the experts do" in various scenarios.

There are NOT so much specifics as there are general guidlines. It is not so much "step-by-step instructions" or "hard reference" as it is a "starting point." There ARE useful things like where to start the mix from, and tables that show where to find the EQ frequencies that effect different instruments--for example, to bring out the slap sound on a bass guitar. Further guidlines suggest, which effects and settings (in broad terms) to use to emphasize/de emphasize other aspecs.

I'm a beginner, and it has been a good resource for me.

"Mixing Engineer's Handbook" teaches what the engineer greats of various genres do to get great mixes. It has really helped me understand different approaches to mixing, as well as taught quite a few nice tips and tricks. I learned a lot from it, even though I have been recording and mixing professionally for over 10 years. In my bookshelf there are a LOT of books abour recording and mixing, and this one clearly stands out as the best. Another good book I'd like to recommend is "Professional Microphone Techniques", which also features a a nice chapter on EQing. The interviews have also been a great help when making purchase decisions for new studio gear.

This book is really about the things that top mix engineers say they pay attention to most in mixing. It gives the reader insight into the ideas that have moulded their thinking, and listening skills. Equipment lists are supplied, but there is not a lot of discussion about how to set up the gear in detail. This is a good thing, because a book can not deliver the kind of understanding that listening to recordings can give. You can easily get the CDs that are discussed to hear what each mix engineer is talking about. There is more than enough information to duplicate some of the best mixes ever made if you want to.

If you are constantly searching the net, or magazines for mix trix, and you want the best collection of these tricks available, stuff people hang out in studios for months, or years to acquire, then this book is for you.

Upon deeper inspection of the contents of this book, I had to change my review. I am finding this book absolutely phenomenal.
I thought at first that there were too many interviews (nearly half the book) and not enough real tips and guidelines. I was wrong. The first half of the book gives some good starting points and tips (EQ settings, Compression ratios/settings, mixing in effects etc...) What I have found to be almost more valuable are the interviews. They are full of tips and "here's how I achieve this sound" type of comments.

This is only my second day I've really been digging in to this book and applying it to my work. I've already seen drastic improvements. I wish I had found this book when it first came out! This is cetainly not the end all solution to every recording question you may have, but I have found this book to be worth every cent I spent on it.

This book does not tell you specific mechanics of how to do a mix: after all, that's the signature of the engineer. Rather, it explains the mechanics of the tools you'll be using to do your mixes. In addition, it's filled with interviews with a variety of top-notch engineers in a variety of different musical genres. You'll find that the insight that they provide will become invaluable when applied to those genres in which they specialize. Lots of tips and tricks reside in these pages as well as a variety of methods whether they are considered to be generally acceptable techniques or not. Covers a wide scope and provides a good knowledge base for the beginner/intermediate without bias to particular techniques.

I've been working as a full time professional music producer and recording/mixing engineer for over 12 years now, and non-professionally for much longer than that.

I got this book as a Christmas present this last Christmas (2004), and was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned from it!

Much of this I had already learned from experience, but this book verbalized and put a method behind what I had already instinctively figured out, plus expanded upon it and taught me many new ideas that I'll be trying out on future projects for myself and my studio clients.

Just the section on song "elements" will be something that I'll be referring to many of my young and inexperienced clients who insist on filling up every little bit of breathing space in their songs with useless noodling and fills that detract from the song and make it harder to get a good mix.

While there is no such thing as a formula for mixing, as every song and every track is different, this books comes as close as possible to giving you an outline of a formula and enough great ideas to give you a good starting point.

On top of that, you get comments along the way from many top professional mixing engineers emphasizing the key points and adding their own techniques and experience. Then, in the second half of the book, you get complete interviews with the pros who reveal many of their tricks and techniques that help them achieve a certain sound.

This book definitely makes my relatively short list of "Required Reading" books for Music-And-Technology. It's helpful for anyone from the beginning engineer to pros like myself who have already been doing this for a while. Even non-engineer musicians can benefit from the knowledge in this book as it will help them not only understand the mixing process better, but help them to write better song arrangements that will allow their mixes to be even better in the end.

Real world advice from a working professional. Actually, many working professionals... the book draws heavily from a couple dozen interviews of some of pro audio's heavy hitters (advice from Bruce Swedien and George Massenberg is always welcome!). Lots of different approaches to common problems and tasks, all specific enough to be of real help. I bought this book 2 weeks ago, and it has already helped me create better sounding mixes.

This book offerred useful information, however, I would have liked it to have had a little more in-depth information about the various techniques listed & a little more of a technical slant. It was very easy reading & geared to the musician who wants to remove some of the mystery behind mixing techniques.