Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Sound On Sound Presents...) 1st Edition

After producing for 10+ years, I wanted to get better at my mixing skills. I can't believe how much I learned form this book. Mixing aside, it talks about good composition and production fundamentals that I had never even though about. His language is plain and straightforward. He suggests plenty of free and cheap solutions as well. Many books I've read, discuss tricks that are completely inaccessible to people who don't have 15k+ worth of gear and engineering school under their belt.

This book is truly a game changer. If you're like me and thinking you can build a home studio that comes somewhat close to a professional environment, buy this book as it will save you a lot of time and money trying to cut through the industry hype to figure out what you need to move forward. The first four chapters alone detailing nearfield monitoring setups with ported vs non ported are worth their weight in gold alone. My mixes and mastering have jumped leaps and bounds after reading and putting into practical approach the lessons taught in this book.

This book is amazing. There’s a lot of advanced techniques; however, this book can be benificial for the beginner! The author covers and stresses the importance of the initial ground work prior to starting a mix-this information alone is worth getting this book. The writing style of the author is great and funny at times. Highly recommend for anyone looking for those lil secrets that make a good mix stand out.

This is by far the best book I've read on mixing. I have read a couple of other books on mixing and mastering and hundreds of magazine articles on the subject. Mike Senior tells you not only what problems to look for but gives you multiple detailed solutions for fixing them! A lot of other books will go into long winded descriptions of the problems you may face, but rarely explain them in a way as easy to understand and most often they don't give you clear instruction on how to fix them. And, other resources are often DAW specific whereas Mike Senior gives you the tools regardless of the DAW you're working in.Let me tell what this book is not. It's not a manual for recording. This book assumes that you already have your project recorded (often from the perspective that you're working on someone else's project) and that you're ready to start mixing. It does not discuss proper micing technique, effects during recording, or basically anything to do with the recording process. This book also does not cover mastering in any form. Senior goes to great lengths to explain exactly how to get a commercially viable mix completed that's ready for mastering. Look elsewhere to learn about mastering.This book was a pleasure to read. While there is no lack of specific technical explanation, Mike Senior keeps it at a minimum for need to know topics only. Actually most of the technical jargon will be during the first 80 pages when he is explaining why it is so important for your monitoring environment to be up to par. But, I wouldn't recommend skipping over the beginning even if you think you know all about having the proper treatment for your mixing room. There is tons of excellent info in this section and Mike even calls it the most important part of his book. Otherwise, he often tries to throw in a few jokes and some witty banter to help keep it light. And, all of his advice is backed up by quotes from some of the top names in the recording industry.I'd like to mention that Senior also recommends a bunch of free plugins that can help you achieve the results he is. So, don't think that this is going to be a lesson in "you don't have the cash to get the gear necessary to get the job done."Seriously, if you've read my entire review then you're ready to click add to cart and check out. You can forgo reading any other source about mixing. Everything you need to know is right in this book. From monitoring, to timing and pitch, arrangement editing, and every type of plugin processing. Honestly, I didn't know there were so many different uses for reverb.FYI: I've been home recording, mixing, and mastering as an enthusiast for over 15 yrs. From techno to hip hop, and now rock with a live 6-piece band. We record 20 tracks simultaneously in our home bedroom studio. Since finishing this book my mixes are already 10x better than before and I've barely scratched the surface on implementing the techniques detailed in this book.

After mixing and mastering a couple CDs with rather trivial arrangements of just 2 instruments, I thought I was ready to jump into something more complex with songs consisting of 6-10 tracks. Little did I know I was in over my head. I started reading this book just as I was starting the project and am thankful I did. I've been scanning the various chapters and then going into detail where I found big holes in my knowledge. This project is coming along fairly well now, even knowing I'm probably going to find sections of the book that will make me want to go back and redo things that I've already done. For me, with my (limited) prior experience, this book is at exactly the right level for me to understand and make immediate application to my current project. It may not be as great for someone who has zero experience in mixing, but I highly recommend it to anyone with a basic idea about mixing and needing good, practical advice on how to improve quickly.

This book is extremely helpful and well rounded. I spent years muscling my way through a DAW learning the elements of mixing the hard way. This book is very well structured to bypass some of those hard lessons. It still requires some background and sweats having been put into some basic sound engineering, but for those folks who are prepared, this is a very good place to mine for information. I have read through several books in this genre and this one stands above the others.

As a mature 'student' wanting to cement my existing knowledge of the mixing process, as well as explore the yawning gaps in that knowledge and develop a consistent workflow, I found this book to be almost perfect.I'll get the few (minor) niggles out the way first - and these are repeated in my review of Mike Senior's other book, Recording Secrets for the Small Studio. You should read that book as well - in fact, read it first, as it is focused on the capture of material. Get that right and you're in a much better place when it comes to the mix.Firstly, in the niggle list - the speech bubble call outs are not useful (to me, anyway) as they are no more than verbatim lifts from the text. Fine if the text consists of sprawling passages with no breaks, but this book is usefully broken down into short, titled sections, so the need for those additional highlight bubbles is minimal and they become a distraction. More useful might have been something like another short comment from a respected producer/engineer/artist on the subject being discussed.Secondly, the larger secondary text boxes are often annoyingly placed, such that they unnecessarily interrupt the flow of reading a section or require you to turn back to a previous page to read them. It might make for an interesting layout, but it gets annoying. To be honest, in most cases I couldn't see a reason for the passages to be treated as supplementary text boxes as the topics often deserved inclusion in the main text.Finally on the minor niggle front, the quality of the graphics was up to Focal Press's usual standard - variable. I don't get how a thirty quid book can't offer consistently high quality images and illustrations. Screenshots, as always, look the worst.So, those weeny complaints aside, in pretty much every regard I found the book to be brilliantly structured, clearly written (with enough humour to raise a smile in some of the drier sections) and with an excellent progress from one chapter to the next. It is pretty much laid out like an all-purpose mixing session workflow sequence, starting with prepping the material, moving on through balancing, compression, EQ, and so on. It's crammed with useful tips from Mike and from respected producers and engineers.The book exposed huge gaps in my knowledge and some terrible practices I had developed over the years. The arguments for and against doing things in a certain way were clear and compelling and made total sense, often backed up with comments from the industry experts. It was interesting to compare this with a lot of other free and commercially available mixing training to see how many seemingly elementary mistakes many other people are making. It made me feel a little better about my naivety! In fairness, the 'rules' are made to be followed, bent, broken or ignored as appropriate for the situation at hand, and the end result - the final mix - is the final proof of the pudding. So, for example, while Mike promotes using EQ in the first instance to CUT rather than BOOST to balance a track in the mix, he also goes on to say that there are times when doing the opposite might work better for your desired result. I doubt that people like Brian Eno or Tony Visconti slavishly followed all the rules in the studio. Of course not. While I am sure these pioneer producers have a solid understanding of the 'correct' way to do things, they took those rules and wrapped their own experimentation and fearlessness around them to come up with something different. As a basis for developing your own techniques, or simply as a standard guide to straightforward, logical mixing, either way this book is a fantastic source.I have read it once, cover to cover, and now plan to go through it again with a specific mix on my desk, applying Mike's logic and workflow. I'm rarely excited about reading the same book twice - especially back to back - but on this occasion I am raring to go. I don't think I will pick up another book on mixing for a while, but I will buy a few masterclass style video tutorials to supplement this. It will be interesting to watch these given the solid understanding I now have of the mixing process.

If you're like me and relatively new to audio & midi mixing, this book is invaluable. I've read several books on the subject and what I really wanted to know was the practical process of putting together a selection of audio and midi tracks to create a quality sound. I got into mixing because two friends and I occasionally play together and we thought it would be great to have some record of our sessions. So armed with a couple of Zoom R series recorders and Cubase 6.5, I decided to "get stuck in".Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio gives me all I want to know from a practical point of view and while the importance of creating a good recording and mixing environment is stated in some detail, the majority of the book focuses on getting your hands dirty and actually mixing. The chapters are presented in a logical order, similar to how you would approach a real-life mixing session and for this reason, it is recommended that the book is read through in this order but once read, it's easy to dip in and out of sections for a refresher due to the excellent index and sensible chapter and section numbering. There is a reference section at the back covering producers and mixing engineers (from whom a lot of the specifics have been gathered) and details of books and magazines which have supplied quotes from these people.For those of us on relatively limited budgets (and who isn't these days!), the author points you in the direction of the many free plug-ins available on the Internet to supplement whatever your chosen DAW has - and he doesn't make the mistake of concentrating on any particular DAW either so the text is quite generic. Also, many parts of the book refer to procedures, tips & tricks that I've not come across in other books or magazine; for example, setting the mixer faders to aroun 0dB and using pre-gain controls (either part of the DAW or 3rd party plug-ins) to adjust the gain of each channel. This way you get to use the mixer fader where it is most sensitive.Mike Senior writes with a very easy and understandable style and does not beat you about the head with lots of numbers and equations; he also has a nice line in humour which does not get in the way of putting the subject over. The only other book that I can see me refering back to on this subject is Roey Izhaki's "Mixing Audio", which treats the subject in a more technical manner.Excellent value for money and the usual great service from Amazon!So, in a nutshell, "Mixing Secrets" is a winner in my opinion and should be the first book on the subject to be read if your just starting out.

Mixing Secrets is a fantastic book full of detail that will help any home studio enthusiast no matter what your skills or gear are like.The book is broken down into key areas, all as comprehensive as the last. It covers proper monitoring and mix prep in the first hundred pages. Room acoustics, monitors, headphones, mix referencing, proper use of high pass filters, tuning and timing, comping and arranging; all are laid bare here. Seems like a lot of text until you really understand the issues being discussed.The next section of the book looks at building a mix using the tools most people would think about like faders, compression, EQ. Finally it looks at the “sweeteners”, reverb, delays, automation, etc. In each section you are guided carefully through basic principles into more advanced techniques. Mr Senior provides an excellent strategy and step by step process to help build a solid mix. As the book progresses there is an acknowledgement that this is structured in order to facilitate understanding rather than be a hard and fast process. I feel as though it is something I would stick with for a long time, though, as my mixing skills have increased hugely in the few months I've had this book. Understanding your mix in terms of the song's message and gearing up your mixing decisions to enhance the song seems to be the message. That might sound obvious until you appreciate the extent to which all our mixing decisions can influence the process.Well written and presented, despite being a huge subject, the content remains accessible. Personally, I think of this as a permanent reference tool rather than a quick read. I would advise everyone to do the end of chapter assignments. I have made quicker progress doing this and can honestly say I understand what and why I'm doing things now. It's one of those books that reveals new layers as you learn more. However, the real beauty of this book is that the Mr Senior clearly understands the home studio and the short cuts we will take when mixing tracks. He tackles these directly and offers great explanations for everything in his book.To support the book the author has a website that is ridiculously comprehensive. Book assignments are linked directly to the web content. Examples of effects and techniques abound. There is even a library of songs, broken down into individual tracks. These are free to download and practice everything that is in the book.If you have questions you are encouraged to use the online forums or contact the author directly via e-mail. I have contacted Mr Senior with a really tricky question and he responded with great advice that has given me much more understanding of the detail already laid out in his book. In this brief e-mail exchange I felt like he is really passionate about his books but also about the people using them. He was very supportive and encouraging in his responses.Seriously, buy this book. While you are filling your Amazon basket, take a look at another book, Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. It's the same high quality, same author, only spotlighting recording techniques as the title suggests.

This is a fantastic, thorough, well-written book that provides a good balance between technical detail and practical application. I write and produce music at home and fumbling around with different settings and plugins has always given me some kind of end result but I was never able to be consistent with it. I wanted something to help me get serious about mixing and properly improve my skills. I've used many different resources including books, YouTube channels etc. but none really compare to this.Senior gives the reader a really engaging way to plan out and work through their mixing tasks, whatever type of setup they have and whatever kind of music they're dealing with. There are copious examples that help you understand a given situation better, often referring to interviews and writings of professional mixing engineers and producers to illustrate the point. An excellent feature is how he summarises each chapter with straightforward bullet points, to hammer home the key points (very useful if you're drowning in terminology and not sure what to do next) and even better, he offers assignments relating to the theme of each chapter that you can apply to your own mixing workflow.There are loads of good illustrations of equipment, settings, plugins, frequency graphs, etc. to relate to your own setup. He explains the purpose of different gear and mixing processes clearly, and also takes care to describe some of the pitfalls you might encounter on the way. Anything he doesn't have space for in the book he offers links to on a dedicated website.I'm excited to get into the "studio" (read "box room"), start a new mixing project from scratch and put Senior's guidance into practice. This is something to return to again and again.

Just the free sample of the book in Kindle will help you with your music production. The book is incredible. It completely bypasses the professionals and talks directly to the musician trying to get a much better sound on a tight budget. The tips have helped me set up my home studio so it is at least as good as any professional studio from my point of view. It taught me how to get the most out of everything, my software, my equipment, my monitors, my headphones.... it even has tips how to better use your ears. Get this book and dip into to it before you start your next track. You will soon feel confident that you are on your way to making completely professional sounding music, and it will make your gear sound like you spent 10 times as much!