The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, Second Edition

313 Pages·2006·3.2 MB·English

by  Bobby Owsinski

T H E
Mixing Engineer’s
H A N D B O O K
SS EE CC OO NN DD EE DD II TT II OO NN
by
Bobby Owsinski
The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook: Second Edition
©2006 Bobby Owsinski. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
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Foreword
Welcome to the Second Edition of The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook.
It’s been about 7 years since I wrote the original book, and the record-
ing industry has gone through a paradigm shift. Recording budgets have
decreased signifi cantly, the number of major studio facilities has dropped
to just a handful, and the rise of the digital audio workstation has made
it possible for just about anyone to make a record at home for a minimal
investment.
That’s all the more reason to update this book. Mixing techniques have
evolved and adapted to the digital world, and with fewer studios, there
are also fewer mentors to learn from. There are also many classic tech-
niques that are more useful than ever that I wanted to preserve before they
became lost to rumor and twisted into irrelevance.
So I’ve added a few chapters and interviews and generally updated the
remaining material so that what’s contained herein is more relevant to
today’s mixing.
All that being said, I originally wrote this book probably for the same
reason that you’re reading it: to get better at mixing. I noticed that over the
years, my mixes were somewhat hit or miss. Sometimes they were great,
sometimes okay, and sometimes just plain off the mark. I also noticed that
much of the time my mixes didn’t have the big-time sound that I heard on
the radio. I wanted this sound badly, and I fi gured the only way to get it
was to ask questions of the engineers who knew the secret.
While doing research for this book, I found that a common factor
among most good mixers was that, for the most part, they all had at least
one mentor as a result of coming up through the studio ranks. Most great
mixers started as assistants and learned by watching and listening to the
greats that they helped. They took a little from all of them as a result.
I hadn’t done that, however. Being a musician fi rst and foremost, I
learned to engineer thanks to my early interests in electronics in gen-
eral, and the way the electrons got from my guitar to the speakers of my
amplifi er specifi cally. As I became familiar with the recording studio, I
was quickly offered all sorts of session work, from recording jingles to Big
Band to Jazz to R&B to Hard Rock. However, not wanting to give up being
a musician (which I knew I’d have to do), I never took a proper studio job
to really learn the trade at the hands of the masters. As a result, my record-
ing skills were always pretty good, but my mixing skills were lacking.
Having taught recording for many years at Berklee College of Music,
Trebas Recording Institute, and Nova Institute Multimedia Studies, I
soon realized that there were many others like me who were good but
not great, not because they weren’t capable, but because they didn’t have
the opportunity or access to the methods of the masters. After all, how
often does a George Massenburg or Bruce Swedien record in Lincoln,
Peoria, or Santa Fe? And unfortunately, because there are fewer major
studios left, there’s even less of a chance of that happening today than
there used to be.
In almost all cases, the mixers who I talked to were extremely
forthcoming, answering just about any question, and offering explicit
information as to why and how they work. Professional jealousy just does
not exist in this industry, at least in my experience.
This book started out selfi shly, because it was meant specifi cally to
meet my needs, but it ended up with useful information for you, too. I
hope you will benefi t from it as much as I have.
And yes, my mixes have gotten much, much better.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all the mixers in this book who were kind enough to
give so freely of their time and expertise. Also, a million thanks to
Mike Lawson for being my champion. Without you guys, there would
be no book.
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About the Author
A long-time veteran of the music industry,
Bobby Owsinski has worked as a producer,
recording engineer, guitar and keyboard
player, songwriter, and arranger for a variety
of major and minor recording artists, motion
pictures, and television shows. One of the
fi rst to delve into surround sound music
mixing, he has worked on a range of sur-
round sound projects and DVD productions
for such diverse acts as Elvis, Jimi Hendrix,
The Who, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, The Ramones, and Chicago, among
many, many others.
Currently a principle in the DVD production house Surround
Associates and the content creation companies 2B Media and Fiesta
Red Productions, Bobby has penned several hundred audio-related
articles for a variety of popular industry trade publications. He has also
authored a number of books that are now staples in recording programs
in colleges around the world, including The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook,
The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook,TheRecording Engineer’s Handbook,
in addition to How to Set Up Your Surround Studio DVD.
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Part One: Mixing in Stereo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER 1 Some Background: The Evolution of Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Mixing Styles: LA Versus New York Versus London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The New York Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The LA Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The London Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Other Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 2 The Mechanics of Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Hearing the Final Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Overall Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Tall, Deep, and Wide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Six Elements of a Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
CHAPTER 3 Element 1: Balance—The Mixing Part of Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Arrangement—Where It All Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Arrangement Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Alanis Morissette’s “Thank U” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Garth Brooks’ “Two Pina Coladas” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Rules for Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Limit the Number of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Everything in Its Own Frequency Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Where to Build the Mix From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
What Type of Program Material? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Level-Setting Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
CHAPTER 4 Element 2: Panorama—Placing the Sound in the Soundfi eld . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Phantom Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Three Points of Panoramic Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Center and the Extreme Hard Left and Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Big Mono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Panning Outside the Speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Tricks and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Panning in Dance Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Panning in Mono (Yes, That’s Right!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Panning for Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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Contents
CHAPTER 5 Element 3: Frequency Range—Equalizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
What Are You Trying to Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Magic Frequencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
EQ Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Alternate Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Easy-to-Remember Golden Rules of Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Relationship Between Bass and Drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Tricks and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
General Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
For Snare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
For Drums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
For Kick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
For Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
For Fatter Guitars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
For Vocals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER 6 Element 4: Dimension—Adding Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
EQing Reverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Sonic Layering of Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Calculating the Delay Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Tape-Based Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Re-Amping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
True Tape Flanging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Vintage Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The DAW Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Tricks and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
For Fatter Lead or Background Vocals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
For Out-of-Tune Vocals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
For Electronic Keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
For Fatter Guitars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Tommy Lee “Thunder Drums” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Robot Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Exploding Snare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
CHAPTER 7 Element 5: Dynamics—Compression and Gating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Dynamics Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Limiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
De-Essing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Gating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Why Add Compression? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Compression to Control Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Compression as an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The New York Compression Trick (Parallel Compression) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Compression on Individual Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Compression on the Mix Buss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The SSL Mix Buss Compressor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
ix