The Mixing Engineer's Handbook

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Welcome to the fifth edition of The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. There are a lot of changes and updates in this edition as I’ve done my best to adapt it to the latest trends in the world of mixing.

that they usually all had at least one mentor as a result of coming up through the studio ranks. Most

In the 20 years since I wrote the original book, the recording industry and mixing itself has undergone a huge shift. While the First and Second Editions were clearly in the age of the commercial studio centered around huge recording consoles, Edition Three saw the shift towards home recording. Edition Four saw mixers clearly mixing in-the-box (meaning in a digital audio workstation app), and now with Edition Five we see the home studio has fully matured with worldwide hits being made even on simple recording setups in a bedroom.

Andy Johns needs no introduction because we’ve been listening to the music that he’s been involved in for most of our lives. With credits like Led Zeppelin, Free, Traffic, Blind Faith, The Rolling Stones and most recently Van Halen (to name just a few), Andy has set a standard that most mixers are still trying to live up to. While doing research for the original version of this book, I found that a common factor among most great mixers was that they usually all had at least one mentor as a result of coming up through the studio ranks. Most of the mixers of my era (admittedly considered classic now) started as assistants, learned by watching and listening to the greats they helped, and had taken a little from all of them as a result. Andrew Scheps: You’re never really as aware of your own process as you think you are. I’ll think that I really didn’t do much of anything and then I’ll look at a mix and find that I’m using 50 things on it. What this means is that many mix elements appear at different times during a mix, some for effect and some to change the dynamics of the song. Each new element would be in its own environment and, as a result, would have a different ambient perspective. A perfect example of this would be Hugh Padgham’s work with the Police, or just about anything produced by Trevor Horn, such as Seal or Grace Jones or Yes’s Owner of a Lonely Heart. The Nashville Style Obviously the idea is to make it work on all systems. You listen on the big speakers, the NS10’s, out in the car, plus your own speakers, then you go home and listen again. This is a lot of work but it’s the only way to go.

This is a classic book, so if you are in music production and must choose one book for mixing, this is it. It is not too hard for a complete novice, it will give you practical advice on step-by-step mixing, giving you a solid foundation in mixing and explaining the very basic concepts. tape machine, mixing changed forever, and, for better or for worse, it began to evolve into what it That said, the mixing styles of today can be traced to four major styles from the past, where most mixes took place: New York, Los Angeles, London, and Nashville. If you listen to records from the ’80s and ’90s, you can distinctly hear each one. The New York Style The required skill set. For live mixing, the skill set requires that you know how to mix in an ever-changing acoustic environment and have a basic instrument/vocal balance technique. The studio requires your hearing to be more nuanced with a different reference point as to what sounds good or bad and how it will translate to other speakers outside the studio, plus you need a greater knowledge of what the gear and plugins are capable of.

Dull And Uninteresting Sounds— Generic, dated or frequently-heard sounds are used. There’s a difference between using something because it’s hip and new and using it because everyone else is using it.classic to alternative to jazz to classical to R&B to EDM to Latin to rap to orchestral to country), All the more reason to update this book. Mixing techniques evolved and adapted to the digital world quite a while ago now, but with fewer studios, there are also fewer mentors to learn from. That said, the classic mixing techniques are still more useful than ever, since the basics of balance, equalization, compression, and effects never go out of style regardless of the gear, music genre or release format that they’re used on. With some old school guys, they’re still making the same kind of records, but I’m making young records and they’re being made totally different. All the things we’re talking about I identify with because I was there, but they don’t exist any more. Jimmy Douglass (interview appears later in this book): One of the few engineers who can cross genres with both total ease and credibility, Jimmy has done records for artists as varied as Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, the Roots, Ludacris, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Roxy Music, and Rob Thomas.

With his work having achieved tremendous commercial success, Elliot Scheiner has also attained something far more elusive in the music business – the unanimous respect of his peers. Indeed, if you want a mix that’s not only a work of art, but a piece of soul that exactly translates the artist’s intentions, then Elliot’s your man. With a shelf full of industry awards (seven Grammys, an Emmy, four Surround Music Awards, the Surround Pioneer and Tech Awards Hall Of Fame and too many total award nominations to count) from The Eagles, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, John Fogerty, Van Morrison, Toto, Queen, Faith Hill, Lenny Kravitz, Natalie Cole, the Doobie Brothers, Aerosmith, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and many, many others, Elliot has long been recognized for his pristine mixes. Mixing in the box had another big effect on the music business though. With album-project budgets dropping to the point where they almost matched the price of buying a full DAW setup, many mixers were suddenly faced with the scenario of We can either pay for you or for the studio, but not both. This forced many top mixers to move their base of operations from a commercial studio into a studio inside their homes. However, the best teachers for you will still be your love for music, your perseverance and desire to achieve your goals, your inspiration, trial and error, and lots of mixing work. Trust professionals with your song Elliot Scheiner: Not necessarily. In the days when I was working at A&R, we had no remotes on any of our plates there. Phil wanted to make changing them difficult because he tuned them himself and he really didn’t want anybody to screw with them. There would be at least 4 plates in every room. Some of them might be a little shorter than another but generally they were in the 2 to 2 1/2 second area. There was always an analog tape pre-delay, usually at 15 ips, going into the plates. The plates were tuned so brilliantly that it didn’t become a noticeable effect. It was just a part of the instrument or part of the music. You could actually have a fair amount on an instrument and you just wouldn’t notice it.In an effort to contrast these two different experiences, let’s move from the most evident differences to those that are, shall we say, a bit more subtle. accuracy of the content in this Guide, they assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, Essentially, what you’re trying to accomplish is to make sure that all the frequencies are properly represented. Usually that means that all of the sparkly, tinkly highs and fat, powerful lows are there. Sometimes some mids need to be cut or other frequencies need to be added, but regardless what you add or subtract, Clarity is what you aim for. Again, experience with elements that sound good really helps as a reference point. I actually mixed in the box for years in this same room. I had a [Digidesign] ProControl in here and that was great. In fact, there are some things that I mixed in the box that I listen to now and go, “Wow, that sounds really good.†I don’t have any philosophical differences with mixing one way or the other way. It’s more of once you have the console, as much of a drag as it is to document everything, it’s such a joy to mix on it. When I’m mixing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s coming off tape or Pro Tools, it’s just faders and speakers and that’s it. I love that because sometimes mixing in the box makes you so precise that you then fix things that don’t really need fixing. I like the sloppiness of doing it on the console. So the first edition of the book started out very selfishly, as it was meant specifically to meet my