A comprehensive listing of order...

[Chris Fallen]

... Is about to be built in this thread.

Okay, I've been playing around with compression, reverb, and other fun tools for a few months now, and I'm finally to the point where I need to sit down and read as much information on them as I can so I can actually understand what I'm doing.

My question is: There is so much information on all of this that it's staggering. I've read through multiple pages on compression and most of it is just the same points made over and over. I want to learn one thing at a time to help my mixes, so what order should I read up on stuff on?

In another thread that I was reading Shailat said:

Read up on

Compresion/Limiting
Reverb
EQ
Panning
Delay
Correct volume placement
Correct orchestration
Correct use of room acoustics


What is your suggested order for these? Does it matter? Should I just pick one at random and read all I can until I understand it or should I read compression and reverb at the same time so I understand why they compliment each other (just an example)? Also, is there an order that I would need to read them in so I understand one better (like would I understand reading about delay more if I already read about reverb)?

That is all for now, I don't know if I made sense.

Christopher

 

[littledog]

Doesn't matter much in which order you eat your peas, potatoes, meat, or salad. It's all a matter of personal preference, and it all ends up mixed up in the same place anyway.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Yep, They are all important. I guess if you wanted to start recording and learn their use in the usual order they would be used in a project you could organize it like this:

Tracking-
Room acoustics
Mic placement and technique
Performance techniques for recording
Possible EQ (usually just bass roll off)
Orchestration and arrangement

Mixing-
Relative volume levels
Panning
Submixing and Bussing
Effects Processing/plugins and hardware effects loops (reverb, delay, flanger etc)
Dynamics Processing (Compression, limiting, expansion)
EQ

Mastering-
Sample rate conversion
Bit rate conversion
Dithering
Dynamics Processing to an entire piece
EQ'ing an entire piece

All of these processess are interrelated and a mistake in an earlier stage will have a big impact on later stages. Often as a newbie you wont even realize your mistake until a later step and then you have to go back and fix it by retracking or remixing.

It also helps to have a big picture of what your song is going to sound like so you know where to cut corners and when to do certain processes that can be used in any of the stages.

Most importantly don't get too bogged down in all the theory. I promise no matter how much you read your first projects are going to sound like shit. The best way to learn is to just jump in and do it. Just plan on redoing a lot of your work as you learn more down the road.

A good way to practice is to pick a couple of cover songs so you dont get too bogged down in creative issues and you can concentrate on the engineering side. It also helps to have somebody else doing the performance. Recording yourself is much more difficult and time consuming.