Just some crazy idea I had....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tekker
  • Start date Start date
Tekker

Tekker

New member
Now, I've got this all planned out in my head, so lets just hope that I can write it out as cool as it sounds in my head. Ok, here goes...I was wondering if maybe sonusman, Harvey, Bruce, John (whenever he gets back), or some other big time recording guru (sorry if I left anyone out) would be interested in maybe teaching a mixing/mastering class (kinda like Harvey's "Microphones 101" class). And because everyone always says that it's hard to give help to someone on mixing, applying effects and what not, because every situation is different. Like when someone asks "what effect should I use on this instrument?" it's pretty much impossible to give a setting without hearing it (And yes I know, "that's what the mixing clinic's for", but I'm getting to that). Any way, the point of all that babbling was I think it would be a great idea to have someone with a nice (or semi-nice) recording studio, record several tracks (guitar, vocals, backing vocals, bass, drums, keys, ect...), and record them straight no effects/EQ (maybe compression if needed to get a good hot signal while tracking) and then post a high quality MP3 of each individual track on the web so that everyone can download them. But if your current recording software doesn't allow you to open MP3s you can download a demo of Cool Edit 2000 (or a MP3 to .wav converter, but I don't know of any offhand), and then convert the MP3s to .wav files and import them into your current recording software.

Now comes the fun part....
After you import all the different tracks we can have our designated "teacher" (or teachers) run us through the basics of mixing and dare I say...."mastering" (there I said it :D) and also give us the do's and don'ts when mixing, and just pretty much run it like a classroom (with "assignments" and "homework" :eek:). Or we could just have a "free-for-all" and give everyone some time to make our own mix, add EQ, effects, compression, and whatever else our little heart desires. Then when you think you got a good mix finished you can post it on an MP3 page for others to hear and criticize/praise. And because everyone would be mixing the "same instruments", you could measure yourself up against (and get help from) the guys that really know their stuff. Also, you can also write down every little thing that you do so that others can give advice and like "Ok, this is where you went wrong…or, instead of doing that, try this instead…and, this is what I did there...ect...". Then take the advice, make the changes, and re-post your mix again, and again, and again, and so on until it's "perfect" (or at least "nearly prefect")....

But actually I think doing both would be a good idea; first let everyone mess around and see how we measure up against the "big boys" (and girls) and each other, then have our teacher(s) run us through the mixing (and mastering?) process maybe touching on some of the mistakes us beginners made along the way.

Well it's just a thought, but if anyone's interested I would really like to see this "crazy idea" work out. I think this would be absolutely priceless to a LOT of people (myself included) to get this kind of hands on training from people that are well respected in the music field. Harvey has given us some really great techniques to get the good sounds with mic selection/placement, now we need to know what to do with those great sounds once we get them, so I think a Mixing/Mastering class would be awesome...

I'm really interested in hearing what all of you think, and if you would be interested in trying to set something like this up, and also how to work out all of the details. :)

-tkr


(Sorry for the long post, I guess I kinda got into it a little to much) :o
 
I'm working on something like that - not ready yet - and not so formal as "a mixing class" - but will be along those lines - for educational example purposes.......

I will post more details when ready (it's going slower than I thought, I'm very busy these days!)

Bruce
 
would be great! I'm definitely looking forward to that!

David
 
I do recording/mixing teaching at my home studio, but thats in the UK. but if anyone in the UK wants some teaching, mail me! hehe.
 
forgot to mention, once the lessons progress, you can come to the main studio and learn stuff like using analog multitrack,using pro tools,d8b's and more:-). might start something up on the internet, some teaching thing,if time allows.
 
yo tekker,

that is a tight idea. I am totally in support of it.

As you were saying it, a mix like sjoko2's song came into my head. You know, maybe a total of eight tracks done with a basic loop.

Anyhow, I am all for it. I do hope that somebody does it real soon.

MAybe shailat could set it up like he did with the drums article.
 
CyanJaguar said:
MAybe shailat could set it up like he did with the drums article.

I have no problem setting up tracks for people to download.

It's a very positive idea only.........
A whole mixing class is very complexed via the internet.

Think about a teacher downloading the so called "homework" the size of 3m times 10 people....30 meg ! and then marking them all and then again downloading 30 Megs and so on......
Who ever does that must have a very fast ! conection to the web and loooooooads of free time on his hands.

I did something alike this with a member from the BBS on his drum kit and we went through over 20 samples to reach a reasonable sound. This wasn't as simple as I thought it would be.
Not to mention my ever so slow modem......

If you can break the idea down to something smaller and more focused, I'm sure somebody can help out... I hear Sjoko has tons of free time :)
 
Actually, the homework thing was sort of a joke, (I just had to throw it in there, since I was talking about classes). :D I know it would be a lot of downloading which is also a good reason for having more than one person "teaching the class". That way you could divide the downloading between you, (and other people I'm sure would also jump in and help out with ideas too).

But the main thing behind the teaching thing I think would be to have someone kind of run us through the mixing/mastering process and then when people have questions/problems following it, THEN have them post the MP3s (but maybe just a small section where their having the problems or just to get an idea of how to help them). But most of you guys are REALLY good at explaining things in an easy to understand sorta way, so I'm pretty confident that there wouldn't really be that many problems (so hopefully not a whole lotta downloads).

Then maybe in another forum (because I imagine that both of these would get to be quite long on their own, like Harvey's thread) there can be just the free-for-all where everyone compares there mixes to each others and can also get help and ideas that way too.

So I don't think that the "class" idea is that far-fetched, it may take a bit of work, but I think a lot of people (includeing myself) could really benifite alot from something like this, (and if I knew what I was doing I'd gladly help out, but I don't think I could pay any of you enough to come to one of my mixing classes) :D and even if it did take a while (working around all your busy schedules) to get to everybody it would definitly be worth the wait IMO. :)

-tkr
 
Last edited:
I think it would be great, if it were possible for the "pros" to open up some of their spare time for a class.

I am always open to learning, and to constructive criticism.

Plus, in the future I would always be open to share my "learned" information with other individuals. :)
 
Shalait...what if we made it worth your while? If you were to ask for a mere $5 from anyone who wanted to download the tracks, it could really be worth it, and ANYONE could afford it. Even $10 wouldn't be unreasonable. PayPal would be your gateway. I know I'D do it that way.

Just my 2 cents....

Isaiah
 
Oops. When I posted this other thread I hadn't read this one here. I had a similar idea. Sorry, I didn't mean to step on your toes, Tekker. :) I think you have a good idea.

Jim
 
I will agree to post a single song on the following conditions.


1. Dragon agrees to us using his site even though payment is
invovled.

2. Anybody can download the full tracks (I estimate over 12 )
for $15 as a single one time payment and then donates to
HR.com $3 every month for a full year via the Tip Jar.
I WILL NOT be makeing ANY money on this. Quite the
opposite......... If that needs explaning , I will.

3. I cant download "homework" via my modem (slooooow).
I can receive CD's via snail mail and down load small segments
of MP3's every now and then.

4. I need help!. Somebody else is going to have to give me a hand
My current schedule is now killing me softly causing me to lose
my hair and whats left is going grey. Better to have at least 2
more people to help out. I cant do this by myself.

5. S8-N goes to Church and redeems himself
 
Shailat, i mght possibly be able to help.

erm, i have a professional studio in the UK (have a home studio too). umm, have mixed for a lot of signed bands here, latest work is available on the net but it's very loooow quality as the mp3 was encoded at a bad rate (and its not final mix).

i could help now and again if it's too much load of you. i dont want money.
 
Maybe it's possible to split this thing up by software type?

Cakewalk, Cool Edit, Cubase, Vegas, etc. This way there's no need for a lot of uploading and downloading of big .wav or .mp3 files. Everyone can keep a local copy of the original tracks and just transfer the .xyz file settings of their particular software package. These files are usually not much more than 100kB or so. You can limit the FX to a few basic ones that everyone should have and maybe turn off any functions which aren't backwardly compatible to older software versions. And if you keep everything loop based the original tracks don't have to be that large either.

Not only could this be a natural way of dividing up the work load on the teachers, but seeing the file settings will make it more clear exactly what each student did.

barefoot
 
Longwave....if you can take a few people then great.

Well barefoot...I know only ProTools and some Logic audio (but own a very old version).

The original files would have to be downloaded no matter what.
 
i can take care of some cubase users, worked on cubase for midi since the atari days! still use the bloody atari aswell:-0

but ive got cubase vst32 which should have no compatibility probs with other versions.

cant really do much with pro tools, it's in the other studio which doesn't help when i dont have the screen infront of me. so loks like Shailat could be more the person. i only really use it for vocals anyway.
 
Back
Top