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Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio Mike Senior Amsterdam • Boston • Heidelberg • London • New York • Oxford • Paris San Diego • San Francisco • Singapore • Sydney • Tokyo Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier FocalPress is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK © 2011 Mike Senior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions. This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein). Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Senior, Mike. Mixing secrets for the small studio / Mike Senior. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-240-81580-0 (pbk.) 1. Sound—Recording and reproducing. 2. High-fidelity sound systems. 3. Sound studios. I. Title. TK7881.4.S465 2011 621.38993—dc22 2010045009 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-240-81580-0 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com 11 12 13 14 15 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America To my parents. This page intentionally left blank Contents v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................ix PART 1 l Hearing and Listening .................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 Using Nearfield Monitors .....................................................3 CHAPTER 2 Supplementary Monitoring .................................................31 CHAPTER 3 Low-End Damage Limitation ...............................................47 CHAPTER 4 From Subjective Impressions to Objective Results ..............57 PART 2 l Mix Preparation ........................................ 79 CHAPTER 5 Essential Groundwork ........................................................81 CHAPTER 6 Timing and Tuning Adjustments .........................................89 CHAPTER 7 Comping and Arrangement ..............................................107 PART 3 l Balance .................................................. 117 CHAPTER 8 Building the Raw Balance ................................................119 CHAPTER 9 Compressing for a Reason ...............................................143 CHAPTER 10 Beyond Compression .......................................................163 CHAPTER 11 Equalizing for a Reason ...................................................171 CHAPTER 12 Beyond EQ ......................................................................191 CHAPTER 13 Frequency-Selective Dynamics .........................................203 CHAPTER 14 The Power of Side Chains ................................................219 CHAPTER 15 Toward Fluent Balancing..................................................225 PART 4 l Sweetening to Taste ............................... 229 CHAPTER 16 Mixing with Reverb .........................................................231 CHAPTER 17 Mixing with Delays ..........................................................255 CHAPTER 18 Stereo Enhancements .........................................261 CHAPTER 19 Buss Compression, Automation, and Endgame..................273 CHAPTER 20 Conclusion ......................................................................301 APPENDIX 1 Who’s Who: Selected Discography ...................................303 APPENDIX 2 Quote References............................................................321 APPENDIX 3 Picture Credits ................................................................329 INDEX ..................................................................................................331 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments vii This book has been in the works a long time, and many people have lent their support during its creation. First of all, I’d like to thank all those who peppered me with questions at the Cambridge Music Technology masterclass sessions, thereby sowing the seeds of this book, and also the many readers of Sound on Sound magazine whose numerous “Mix Rescue” submissions and questions have clarified my thinking. In addition, I’d like specifically to thank all the interviewers who have done an immense service to us all by shedding so much light on top-level studio prac- tice: Michael Barbiero, Matt Bell, Bill Bruce, Richard Buskin, Dan Daley, Tom Doyle, Maureen Droney, Tom Flint, Keith Hatschek, Sam Inglis, Dave Lockwood, Howard Massey, Bobby Owsinski, Andrea Robinson, and Paul Tingen. Paul Tingen deserves special praise for his dogged pursuit of the hottest current hit- makers for Sound on Sound’s “Inside Track” series. I’m grateful as well to Russ Elevado, Roey Izhaki, Roger Nichols, and Mike Stavrou for their own insightful writing on the subject of mixdown. Many thanks are also owed to Philip Newell, Keith Holland, and Julius Newell for permission to reproduce the results of their superb NS10M research paper; to Phil Ward for alerting me to the perils of speaker porting; and to Roberto Détrée and Mastermix Studios in Munich for allowing me to photograph their speakers. In developing this text for publication, I have been assisted a great deal by Matt Houghton and Geoff Smith, whose well-informed and in-depth feedback has been invaluable. Thanks also to everyone in the editorial department at Sound on Sound for generously offering so much help and useful advice. I’m also very grateful to the team at Focal Press for their patience and expertise in bring- ing this project to fruition: Catharine Steers, Carlin Reagan, Melissa Sandford, Laura Aberle, and Graham Smith. Above all, I’d like to thank my wonderful wife, Ute, for her unwavering love and support, as well as for taking on the worst proofreading and referencing tasks so graciously. I’d be lost without you, my love. And thank you Lotte and Lara too—yes, Papa’s finished being boring now. This page intentionally left blank Introduction ix WHAT You’ll LEARN FROM THIS BOOK This book will teach you how to achieve release-quality mixes on a budget within a typical small-studio environment by applying power-user techniques from the world’s most successful producers. Using these same methods, I’ve car- ried out dozens of mix makeovers for Sound on Sound magazine’s popular “Mix Rescue” series, working on mass-market gear in various home, project, and col- lege studios. If you head over to www.soundonsound.com, you can find before/ after audio comparisons for every one of these remixes, and this book is a one-stop guide to pulling off these kinds of night-and-day transformations for yourself. WHAT YOU Won’t LEARN This book will not teach you how to operate any specific brand of studio gear—that’s what equipment manuals are for! The information here is delib- erately “platform neutral,” so that you can make just as much use of it whether you’re on Cubase, Digital Performer, Live, Logic, Pro Tools, Reaper, Reason, Sonar, or any other software platform. And although I’ve made the assump- tion that the majority of cost-conscious mix engineers will now be working in software, my advice also applies equally well to hardware setups, give or take a patch cord or two. Indeed, my own background is in computerless environ- ments, so I know from experience that equally good results are attainable there. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ALREADY Although I’ve done my best to make this book friendly to studio newbies, there is nonetheless some basic background knowledge that you’ll need to understand to get the best out of what I’ll be writing about. In particular, I’m assuming that the reader already understands something about these topics: n The fundamental physics, measurement, and perception of sound: amplitude, decibels, and loudness; frequency, Hertz, and pitch; sine waves and the har- monic series; frequency response measurements n Studio setup and session workflow: transmission/storage methods for sound (electrical, magnetic, digital); the basic principles of mics, DIs, audio cables,