Recommendations for a book or threads on tracking/mixing/mastering? (noob alert)

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sentinel72

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May 14, 2009
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Howdy,

I looked at some various stickies. Didnt really find what I'm looking for.

I've been fiddling around with this home recording business for a bit now. And its very apparent that I need some education from the ground up. Can anyone recommend a book or some thread/tips/websites/tutorials that go through the nuts and bolts of this stuff?

I know a little bit. Enough to put songs together at home on my own with midi drum tracks and what not, but when I read about different tracking/mixing tips I often get lost in all the talk of plugins and diff things. (most recently the waves ssl stuff) I just dont have an understanding on when/where/how a lot of this stuff gets used.

Its a tough situation to explain, hopefully I'm making sense to someone reading this.

If anyone can recommend a book or something that goes through the workflow from laying down tracks to mixing down to master I'm sure that would be helpful.


I'm not looking for the answers on how to do the BEST recording out there. Just an explanation of the steps and where lots of these pieces fall into place.
 
in my experience: less is usually more, especially when it comes to plugins. Don't try to learn too much at the beginning or the amount of information will overpower you. Get the sound good at the source, learn the basics of recording, don't track too hot, learn to use eq and compressor and you will most likely get better in less then a year.
 
right.

The importance of laying down a good track. Not attempting to fix it in the mix, eq by taking away not adding (whenever possible) etc, I've been reading this stuff for a while now.

But where does the compressor go? And how do you use one?

Thats the stuff I'm talking about.

The basic stuff that you always end up using, compressor, limiter, eq, I dont know when and where it gets used.
 
I dont have any specifics.

From what I gather a compressor is a tool used to manage audio for particular tracks. To keep things in a particular range for the duration of its use.

Here is what I know.

Track everything as best sounding as you can.

Adjust the volumes and panning to the most desireable results.

Mix down.

Thats only going to get me so far.... I (we all, really) read a lot of "use this tool here" & "do this to this" to get more professional sounding results.

The trouble is, I dont know what any of that stuff is/does. I realize and am 1000000% ok with it not applying to me. If thats the case. I'd just like to get some knowledge under my belt of what all this "stuff" is even for.

If all there was to do was track it, adjust levels and panning, and mix it down then these DAW progs would be $20 and have about 90% less buttons.
 
The most basic rule is that if there is nothing wrong with it, don't fix it. Takes you quite far. I usually use only the highpass filter on the EQ on every channel because the low end keeps making a build up that eats a lot of headroom from the bass and the kick, but otherwise I might not do any processing, if the soundsource doesn't require it.

The basic use of a compressor is that you use it when you want something to be more constant in volume (like vocals) and to tame sound sources that work a lot with low frequency energy like a bass or a kickdrum, because they take the most headroom. You can use it also to shape more percussive sounds, but that is a whole new store. When to use it is usually that you use it either before or after EQ. Both have their advantages and both have their disadvantages.

Limiter is just basically a compressor with a really high ratio (like 60:1) and fast attack and it is mainly used to protect hardware from clipping, so it should be second last in the master bus, followed by a frequency analyzer
 
The most basic rule is that if there is nothing wrong with it, don't fix it. Takes you quite far. I usually use only the highpass filter on the EQ on every channel because the low end keeps making a build up that eats a lot of headroom from the bass and the kick, but otherwise I might not do any processing, if the soundsource doesn't require it.

The basic use of a compressor is that you use it when you want something to be more constant in volume (like vocals) and to tame sound sources that work a lot with low frequency energy like a bass or a kickdrum, because they take the most headroom. You use it either before or after EQ. Both have their advantages and both have their disadvantages.

Limiter is just basically a compressor with a really high ratio (like 60:1) and fast attack and it is mainly used to protect hardware from clipping, so it should be second last in the master bus, followed by a frequency analyzer
Click to expand...

This is why I'm hoping there is some good textbooks or something our there.

As I read this, the following comes to mind:

What is a highpass filter?
How it is used?
What is headroom?
"Taming sound sources" - What does this mean? How do I know I need to compress something?
Frequency Analyzer? - What is that for? What am I looking for as I analyze it?

This kind of thing cant really be learned/explained in a setting like this... Whats really needed is a step by step tutorial. "Today were going to record a band..." Thats what I'm hoping to find.
 
Here is an example:

I’ve read about the issue of making space for both the kick drum and bass guitar.

And the stuff that gets mentioned in these types of articles varies from EQ, Filters, Sidechaining, Compression, and more.

OK, so lets pretend I was about to record a band that has a drummer and a bassist. And I have a DAW with controls or plugins for the above mentioned things.

Now what? It wont just magically happen. You gotta know what the hell to listen for. And how to treat each track to get the ideal results at the end.
 
sentinel72 said:
This is why I'm hoping there is some good textbooks or something our there.

As I read this, the following comes to mind:

What is a highpass filter?
How it is used?
What is headroom?
"Taming sound sources" - What does this mean? How do I know I need to compress something?
Frequency Analyzer? - What is that for? What am I looking for as I analyze it?

This kind of thing cant really be learned/explained in a setting like this... Whats really needed is a step by step tutorial. "Today were going to record a band..." Thats what I'm hoping to find.
Click to expand...


The red part in the picture is highpass filter. It cuts the low end. The light blue line in the background is frequency analyzer. It shows what frequencies are active in the signal.
Logicworkshop_01.jpg


If your bass player is really inconstant with his playing volume, going like quiet medium quiet LOUD SUPERLOUD quiet quiet medium LOUD quiet LOUD LOUD quiet SUPERLOUD quiet medium medium with his playing, the aim of the compressor is to make it go like medium medium medium medium medium medium medium medium medium medium... or similiar.

And headroom explained by wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headroom_(audio_signal_processing)
 
And does ANYTHING get done in the tracking stage besides properly placing the mic and hitting record?

Besides level adjustment.

Is everything else done AFTER the take is recorded? Or is there EQing and compression done on the fly too? Limiting? Gating?

yeah, noob stuff.
 
Thanks Vespiz, I'll get on that asap!

The red part in the picture is highpass filter. It cuts the low end. The light blue line in the background is frequency analyzer. It shows what frequencies are active in the signal.
Click to expand...

I see. So now that I can see the frwquencies that are in my recording then what? Am I supposed to have a specific amount of each or something? What is the analyzer supposed to be telling me? I figured this was personal preference. Hip hop vs metal vs country vs opera would all look pretty differently wouldnt they? But that isnt wrong is it?
 
Ahj, is that an EQ plugin or something built-in in some DAW? Looks really nice

sentinel72 said:
Thanks Vespiz, I'll get on that asap!



I see. So now that I can see the frwquencies that are in my recording then what? Am I supposed to have a specific amount of each or something? What is the analyzer supposed to be telling me? I figured this was personal preference. Hip hop vs metal vs country vs opera would all look pretty differently wouldnt they? But that isnt wrong is it?
Click to expand...

Suppose something you recorded is sounding too middly (is that the word? I mean, excess of middles) and you know that but you can't quite figure out which frequencies to tame by ear, well the analizer might be usefull then. For example, suppose the previous case is in the screenshot that ahjteam posted. You might want to try cutting out some dBs between 1200 and 4650, like, I don't know, at 2000 for example.
 
what would do wonders is a video tutorial with a lot of before and after stuff.

Here is what the band laid down in tracking.

Here is what we get afterwards. (with at least 3 diff examples for stylistic differences)

Here is what we did to get it there.
 
sentinel72 said:
what would do wonders is a video tutorial with a lot of before and after stuff.

Here is what the band laid down in tracking.

Here is what we get afterwards. (with at least 3 diff examples for stylistic differences)

Here is what we did to get it there.
Click to expand...
Well, I don't think anyone has the time or will to do something like that, but it would be a very useful tutorial for many of us, specially when speaking about guitar tones
 
Well, I don't think anyone has the time or will to do something like that
Click to expand...

Not for free. I know I wouldnt if I had the knowledge.

But a set of tutorial videos or something for sale... I dont mind spending some money to learn this stuff.
 
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