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
) 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" 
). 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)
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
) 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" ). 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)
. might start something up on the internet, some teaching thing,if time allows.
