Veteran audio engineer Bobby Owsinski has just released “The Music Mixing Workbook,” providing hands-on exercises teaching the elements that make a mix sound great as well as things to avoid along the way.
Owsinski is the author of numerous audio reference texts, including the acclaimed “Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” (a standard reference book for mixing in schools around the world). This latest book is designed to meet the needs of anyone relatively new to or confused about the once mysterious process of mixing multiple music elements together.
It provides 175 different exercises covering operations needed to complete a modern professional-sounding mix, complete with tips and tricks that come directly from A-list pro mixers. The exercises can be used with any DAW application or hardware console, and on any genre of music. Most of the exercises are built around professionally recorded tracks offering a wide variety of mix elements that are available for free download. Topics covered in the book include:
• DAW vs. console channel signal flow
• Basic monitoring setup to optimize your playback environment
• Balancing mix elements using a never-miss technique
• Panning techniques for various mix elements
• Multiple EQ strategies for powerful and distinct tracks
• Compression, gates, and saturators and how to use them
• Reverb, delay and modulation effects and how to layer them like the pros
• Master mix techniques, and more
“Over the more than 20 years that the ‘Mixing Engineer’s Handbook’ has been available, I’ve received numerous requests for more detailed hands-on mixing training that goes beyond that book,” Owsinski says. “I believe these exercises will help anyone to better understand the music mixing process and learn how to create higher quality mixes faster than ever before no matter what style of music or DAW they work on.”
“The Music Mixing Workbook” can be purchased on Amazon and the Apple iBooks store. Distribution to colleges and universities is through Ingram and Kortext. A table of contents and book excerpts can be found here.
