(Revised and updated June 2022)
When it comes to books about mixing, we think you can doubtlessly check ‘Mixing Audio’ by Roey Izhaki, and ‘Zen and the art of mixing’ by Mixerman. These are two positions that you may choose blindly.
The former is a pretty broad coverage of mixing and tools used for.
The latter requires some experience and wider perspective. Mixerman goes way beyond just technical stuff (art and music in particular are naturally beyond that!).
However, even if you’re relatively inexperienced, it’s certainly worth reading and getting back to it later on, once your skills grow. There’s super useful information out there, that gets more and more sense along with progress being made.
Check ‘Understanding Audio: Getting the Most Out of Your Project or Professional Recording Studio’ by Thompson Daniel.
A lot of people today (and that’s really A LOT!) overlook these very first steps and miss audio fundamentals. This is what’s being hugely manifested on some recorded and mixed material.
With book like this you may fill in the gaps and simply make better audio choices/decisions.
So, first things first. Build strong audio foundation. Then go to next steps respectively.
There are some books by Bob Katz of course, and Jonathan Wyner. They (or should we say: mastering in general) require however, at least thorough understanding of each of the above areas. In particular- on how audio (analog/digital) works in details + critical listening skills worked out at least at mid level.
These are prerequisites. They’re necessary to get idea of what/when mastering engineer is doing and most importantly- why!
Mastering engineers work on pretty subtleties and tiny details. To get to this level you need for example to get a grasp of compression in the mix context and when/why it falls apart. Getting there on this particular aspect takes years (and closer to 10 than to 5, even under supervision!). This is something that can’t be just accelerated in any way, as it’s pretty unintuitive (like some other audio topics, namely the ‘phase’ one, and so on).
Please note, we do not try to discourage you by any means. We try to help you set proper expectations.
On top of that you need to practice, practice, practice and then practice.
…as a potential career or so, you need to also learn effectively.
In order to make it so, you will need to have somebody to challenge you and provide viable feedback that can be verifiable. Important note: please don’t confuse that with frivolous opinions what a lot of people do these days all over the internet.
They’re good as a support of all of the above. Yet, be careful. They have intrinsic issue with showing very small part of the picture, usually with lots of assumptions and specific context. People way too often think that’s the bigger one, applying to everything, always the same way.
The good and often overlooked part of good tutorials is that you’re able to listen to final, un-mastered mix (or just one of its versions). That’s sometimes refreshing and something that can’t be overrated!
People are today spoiled by a lot of over compressed, over saturated mastered/re-mastered stuff and use them as references. That’s yet another reason why mixes come out also often as over processed.
There’s also a lot of misleading information. Or information potentially easy to get interpreted mistakenly!
That’s another reason why it’s particularly important to build strong foundation first. Then make no shortcuts. Then have somebody to revise/assess what you do and how.
To pre-empt some questions- yes, we run coaching program! Please contact us using our contact form for coaching slots availability. Or drop us an email: coaching@sonicsciencelab.com
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