Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Sound On Sound Presents...)

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And if you're not already an experienced engineer, much of the advice and terminology may go over your head, particularly towards the latter chapters of the book. Vintage King co-founder Michael Nehra shares some of his love, knowledge, and practical advice for diving into the world of vintage audio gear, and then takes us behind the scenes for a walk through. So, how are we supposed to get a release quality mix done, if we don’t even know where to start with the two most important effects? Discover how to achieve release-quality mixes even in the smallest studios by applying power-user techniques from the world's most successful producers. He takes a complicated, non-intuitive, subjective, and non-linear process and gets the student through it as if it were simple, obvious, linear, and objective, all the while providing the student with the necessary caveats to understand where the process has been simplified to make it easier to learn.

The reader is expected to have a basic level of underpinning knowledge about the fundamentals of sound, audio equipment, signal levels, production workflows and so on, although there are excellent additional resources on the dedicated web site (see below) to help if some of these aspects are unfamiliar. Mike Senior gives the novice the fundamental information necessary to understand and execute all basic mixing tasks as well as many advanced mixing ones. The main meat of the book is contained in Part 3, where eight chapters cover the nitty‑gritty of compression, equalisation, side‑chains and the fundamental art of balancing. Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is a 'must have' for me that I wil re-read from time to time and I cannot recommend it more. The 340‑page book contains 20 chapters grouped into four main sections covering hearing and listening, mix preparation, balancing, and sweetening.Different producers are going to have different preferences, technology is going to change over time, and it's not Mike Senior's fault I'm not British! He really covers the different uses of that effect, and the five different aspects of it you’ll looking at with the effect. Since 2007 he has transformed dozens of amateur productions for Sound On Sound magazine's popular 'Mix Rescue' column, proving time and again that you can achieve commercial-grade results with affordable gear -- once you know how! In fact the book is filled with so much great stuff, it's a book that one can read again and again and that can be used as a handy manual during any mixing project. On the way, you’ll unravel the mysteries of every type of mix processing, from simple EQ and compression through to advanced spectral dynamics and ‘fairy dust’ effects.

Although there definitely is some very good info on those subjects in this book, he gives you absolutely NO idea how to apply those effects to any individual instrument. I recommend this book all the time to audio professionals who are looking for a good resource for their students, and I recommend it to any hearty bootstrapping project studio operator who wants to make the best use of his time and money while laying a strong foundation for his future development.I FOUND AN EXCELLENT "MUST HAVE" for anyone pursuing music recording and mixing as a career and life-long hobby. On the way, you'll unravel the mysteries of every type of mix processing, from simple EQ and compression through to advanced spectral dynamics and 'fairy dust' effects. I would imagine most of our readers are familiar with the Mellotron, a tape-playing keyboard that became popular in the late '60s on songs like The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever. And though there's plenty of information to soak up, Mike has made it very easy to navigate your way through the book and to find the relevant information you need quickly and easily.

Part 1 of Mixing Secrets begins with a detailed discussion across four chapters on how to choose and use nearfield monitoring, including understanding and working around the limitations of budget equipment, optimising the listening environment, and 'self calibration' using commercial music reference material. This is a very well written book covering many issues faced by someone who wants to take his/her audio mixing to the next level. Appropriate audio material can be downloaded from a dedicated section of Mike's own company web site ( www. He includes quotes from many heavy-weight producers and engineers, and also mentions songs which demonstrate the techniques he's discussed.The most useful, up-to-date and comprehensive book I've read on the labyrinthine subject of mixing music. The book is very readable, in Mike's familiar, approachable and often humorous style, and with plenty of illustrations, all of which maintain the interest from cover to cover. Secondly, although he states the book is a “step by step primer” some information is so conspicuously absent, I was shocked.

If you’re brand new to the mixing side of things, then indeed this whole book could contain hundreds of secrets. Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours sold over 40 million copies, topped charts around the world, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year. This book tells you in more specific detail how to do that well and how to use listening in mono as a check for phasing problems. The step-by-step breakdown, full of explanations and background in an easy-to-understand language was amazing and allowed me to complete my first mix successfully, even with no previous experience.After a few solid chapters on monitor selection and room treatment, the book deconstructs mixing into a linear process (acknowledging that in reality, no mix process is linear), that starts at a coarse level, then works its way to fine details: setting up sessions; getting basic balances; EQ and compression basics and advanced techniques; bus compression; automation and rides. For a person with a limited budget who is willing to put in the time to work through Mike’s lesson plan, Mixing Secrets is an invaluable resource. I have no such ambition; I simply want to make some half-way decent sounding recordings of my own vocals.