Mix break down info

[bluedaffy]

Being relatively new to the art of mixing, I often wonder when I hear an instrument in a song on a commercial release what that instrument sounds like on it's own or what types of compression or eq has been applied to get it to sound the way it does. So I thought I would bring this question to the forum to see what others know about this. Are there any websites or video tutorials that break this stuff down in the studio? I know there are multitudes of lessons on youtube and whatnot that give some pointers on how to shape a kick drum or add reverb to a vocal and so on, but this only will teach someone to a degree. Anybody know of a professional mixing engineer that has broken down his method of mixing a song (preferably a well known song) and has made it available for the public. An example of what I'm looking for might be something like John Smith takes you through his process of mixing The White Stripes '7 Nation Army'

My google search results are polluted by the "Learn how to add compression to a drum bus" type of results, so I thought I'd see if one of you have any links you could throw my way. Thanks.

 

[Mr Clean]

I don't know about any tutorials but you could try asking local studios if you could volunteer to help or ask to just sit in and watch and listen while they work. You might get lucky and get a nice person let you in and get first hand experience.

I'm sure other will pipe in soon to offer better advice though and point you in the right direction

 

[Steenamaroo]

There's a series called 'Classic Albums' that goes behind the scenes with the engineer.
Stuff like Nevermind, Paranoid, Rumours etc.

It's not focussed on technical info, but you do get to hear snippets of the multitrack which might be useful.

I'm not sure how the forum feels about this, but google 'multitrack torrent'.
There are Beatles, Queen, Nirvana multitracks kicking about online.

I've only mentioned that because I think there's a thread about the Beatles multitracks on here.
If it's frowned upon, please accept my apology and I'll edit this out.

There's also the 'mix this' section on this forum.
Not exactly commercial releases, but at least it's 'show your workings'.

 

[Justsomeguy]

There's a series called 'Classic Albums' that goes behind the scenes with the engineer.
Stuff like Nevermind, Paranoid, Rumours etc.

It's not focussed on technical info, but you do get to hear snippets of the multitrack which might be useful.

I'm not sure how the forum feels about this, but google 'multitrack torrent'.
There are Beatles, Queen, Nirvana multitracks kicking about online.

I've only mentioned that because I think there's a thread about the Beatles multitracks on here.
If it's frowned upon, please accept my apology and I'll edit this out.

There's also the 'mix this' section on this forum.
Not exactly commercial releases, but at least it's 'show your workings'.

^^^steen has a knack of nailing it^^^ The classic album series is pretty awesome, and although it's not that technically focused as steen said, there are still some very interesting bits and it's quite nice hearing things like the vocals to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" solo'd and then bringing the backing vocals up (which i'd never really appreciated before) and then bringing the rest of the mix back in, or just soloing the bass.

I've seen and played around with some of the multitrack stuff that hit the web purely as an educational adventure (I didn't feel too guilty about it as i found out about them at an educational conference where some guy was doing a demo about mixing tricks although i'm sure it's frowned upon) and to hear things like "Bohemian Rhapsody" as individual tracks is just incredible, especially when you listen to a track in solo and then hear how it sounds with the whole track, and to see how many things have been bounced onto one track! The best bit is the very end of the main vocal track where.... well, i won't spoil it if you find it but it made me laugh for a very long time

 

[bluedaffy]

Thanks for all this, I will go forward with it and see if it helps. Maybe it has to do to with he fact that people interested in the production of an album doesn't comprise a big enough piece of the population to have in-depth books or videos regularly for sale. Then again, maybe the artist (writer/mixer/masterer) doesn't want to give away their secret sauces

 

[mjbphotos]

Also the fact that the producers/engineers doing the actual work don't want to share their secrets or don't have the time or desire to share them.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Damn...who is the guy who has the long running youtube series. VERY well known producer.
He talks through pretty much everything on a noob level, in real sessions.

He might take half an hour on his vocal processes for a song or whatever...

I watched a lot of them; It was more or less all commercial pop.
Any one know?