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ALEXANDER MAGAZINE XMAS ISSUE |
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REQ
2001 "CHRISTMAS" ISSUE
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INTERNET
TRAINING PLANS - 2002
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TEACHING MIXING
ON THE NET
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BY BOB DENNIS
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| Way back in the early 70's I got the idea of
distributing multi-track masters of popular songs and customers having
a mini mixing panel where they could mix the music. I thought
there could be a market. After an hour thinking about how the 8
track mixer would be constructed I abandoned the idea. But today
almost every household has a computer, and a complete multitrack
recording and mixing program for the computer is available for as low
as $99. |
| About a year and a half ago I got a different idea
about
distributing multi-track masters of songs on the Internet and students
using a computer program to learn and practice mixing. I know there
should be a market. |
| Mixing is one of the hardest audio skills to master;
usually it takes years of practice to get good. It takes getting
into enough different situations that only come up with mixing
different tunes. After you encounter the situation you have to
try out a solution and, when it doesn't work as planned, try another
solution. If you try and figure out "standard fixes,"
you soon find that
standard fixes don't work on all tunes, and as you mix more and
more you start abandoning the idea of standard
fixes. Then there's the problem of your "great
mix" sounding really "weak" the next day. |
| I've identified at least a dozen things that you would
mentally have to check over to make a rhythm guitar a bit clearer in a
mix. After making all those decisions about the guitar, you'll
probably find that your clear guitar covered up another instrument
that now needs fixing. Fixing this leads to another adjustment
you should make, etc. And for every situation there are several
different kind of things you could do. In an October, 2000 REQ
article entitled, Shaping
Your Mix, I identified eight different ways you could achieve
more vocal presence in a mix. So there are a lot of
decisions to be made in mixing that take the judgment that comes with
experience. |
| In my humble opinion, you can speed up the learning
process for mixing technique by the student seeing a seasoned mixing
engineer mix. As the engineer makes different mixing decisions,
the student starts to get a good sense of what kind of things work
best in different situations. Thus I have formulated a plan for
teaching mixing via the net. I'm asking for your opinion on
these plans and have provided a feedback form so your voice can be heard.
Were also going to be choosing our beta testers from this feedback - a
few of our Internet students that can "try out" our Internet
Mixing training in exchange for feedback. In any case your
feedback is essential in our plans for designing really effective
training modules. |
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INTERNET
MIXING TRAINING PLANS* |
| Projected
release date: February 1, 2002 for beta version -
March 15, 2002 general release date. |
Planned
Resources:
| Downloadable
sound files of each track of a 16 track
production and of the instructor's mix. |
| Step
by step instructions of obtaining the
instructor's mix. |
| Downloadable
sample sound files of how each step changes the
mix. If, for instance, EQ was applied to a
track, you would hear the soloed instrument with
and without the EQ and then the entire
production with and without the EQ. This
is basically what you would listen to if you
were you were doing the mix. |
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Suggested
Uses
| If
the student has a multitrack program, all files
can be downloaded and imported into the
student's program. The student can then
mix using the step by step instructions trying
to duplicate the instructor's mix.
Alternately the student can practice mixing
without the instructions and compare the results
with the instructor's sample mix. |
| Even
without a multitrack program on the computer,
the student can study how the mix was
"built" from scratch by downloading
the mixing samples only. |
| If
the student is a musician or singer, and has the
multitrack program, individual tracks may be
replaced (new vocals, new lead guitar, etc) with
new performances for a custom production of the
tune. (For personal use - not for
release). |
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Series
Release:
| Due
to the amount of server space required for a
lesson, new lessons will replace old mixing
lessons. New lessons are planned as often as
every two months, making about 6 lessons posting
each year. |
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CD
Companion Releases:
| For
a nominal cost (yet to be determined) each of
the mixing lessons will be available on CD to
eliminate download time or to provide access to
past mixing lessons. |
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Cost:
| Web
mixing lessons will be available at no cost to
Alexander MagazineTM subscribers and at a nominal
cost (yet to be determined) for registered
Recording Engineer's Quarterly
students/subscribers |
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*These
plans are not final and subject to change as we receive
feedback on our training system from readers and from
our beta testers. |
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| Help Us Design The Internet Mixing Training
System ... help us with our plans by taking a few minutes and
filling out our feedback form. |
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