The Art of Mixing (Mix Pro Audio Series) (Paperback)

by David Gibson (Author), George Petersen (Author) "When I did my first album, the mix sounded great but the band and the song weren't that hot..." (more)
Key Phrases: panned completely left, phase cancelation, predelay time, Apparent Volume Level, Pink Floyd, Mix Visual (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In explaining the aesthetic side of what makes a great mix, he introduces a framework that will help you understand everything that an engineer does. Once you know what can be done, you have the power to be truly creative all on your own.

About the Author
David Gibson has engineered and produced albums in a wide range of styles of music – acoustic rock, jazz, rock, new age, heavy metal, rap, hip-hop, and electronica. He has been teaching, engineering, and producing groups in major 24-track studios since 1982 and is the founder of Globe Institute of Recording and Production in San Francisco. Gibson has also done recording for James Brown’s band, Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominos), the Atlanta Rhythm Section, and Hank William’s Jr.’s band, as well as having worked with members of the Doobie Brothers, Lacy J. Dalton’s band, Herbie Hancock’s band, and It’s a Beautiful Day. Gibson is also the inventor of the patented “Virtual Mixer” mixing plug-in which uses 3D visuals to control a mix. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Artistpro; 1 edition (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918371171
• ISBN-13: 978-9282802106
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #840,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Left me with more than somewhat to be desired, May 23, 2000

By	Jason Perry (NYC) - See all my reviews

I will agree with most of the reviews that this book's images helped in conveying stereo field information, however, I have two problems with this book:

1) The images are exremely redundant and take up half of the already slim 124 pages (where does the publisher get 144 from?)

2) The book's content does not justify the price.

Contrary to someone elses comment, I found the book to be exremely lacking in the area of compression. On the other hand, it did have some useful info on equalization settings.

46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth The Money, July 27, 2002

By	TOL (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

...What I will say is that the advice given in this book is, in no way, worth the price if the book. The information is far too basic and is presented over and over again until the reader is completely turned-off by the whole concept. In short, we are asked to visually represent a mix in terms of volume, panning, and frequency. This is done with a basic X-Y-Z axis and a series of colored spheres representing the different instruments. That covers about 5 pages. Throughout the rest of the book , we are hit with what seems like hundreeds of these same graphs, each representing examples of different mixes. The problem is, they do not teach us anything other than "every mix is different". To me, that's just not enough.

In short, the basic theory is good, but it is more geared toward a magazine article than to an entire book. By making the concept into a book, we are presented with a lot of over-priced fluff which, in reality, detracts from the fact that the basic theory makes sense...

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for entry/mid-level recording audiophiles., July 14, 1999

By A Customer

When I recieved the book I began to glance through the pages. Four hours later, I finally put it down, complete with highlighting items I thought were important. That night, I mixed and mastered my latest composition and compared it to a previous mix I "thought" was good. Day and night.

This book has no pork...only the necessary items to raise your mixing abilities to a semi-pro level. And it does so in a wonderful graphical form unlike the countless "engineering" books I've poured through (and I've got an engineering degree). Make no mistake, you need to know the numbers, but the perspective Gibson provides is worth every penny!