The Hello-Thread: Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself 👋

Ive found it hard to find stuff about mixing that allows me to learn at home at my own pace...

Seriously? I just Googled "mixing and mastering courses" and got hit after hit of courses consisting of on-demand videos + downloadable materials. Who is even able to offer in-person mixing courses in the US right now? It's all virtual at the moment, and some of those virtualized classes are at your own pace.

sounds like correspondence courses from my youth.... learn to be an architectural draftsman from home with this easy 4 week certificate program! YOU are an artist, unlock your gift with an exciting course from Pyramid Transglobal, send your check or money order to...

in ym day there were actual studios you could call and beg to intern at.... failingthat you went to someone with a minor dance hit and slaved for him and then parleyed that into an assistant/receptionist gig somewhere more commercial.. I liked the apprentice system a lot, I learned more that way, even by seeing what NOT to do LOL Books helped but for isntance I'll never forget the first time I tried to set up overhead mics myself on a paying session.... ah the mockery, there are thigns books don't teach as well as hands on screwing it up with a boss who will tease you about it for months on end

Ive found it hard to find stuff about mixing that allows me to learn at home at my own pace...

Seriously? I just Googled "mixing and mastering courses" and got hit after hit of courses consisting of on-demand videos + downloadable materials. Who is even able to offer in-person mixing courses in the US right now? It's all virtual at the moment, and some of those virtualized classes are at your own pace.

sounds like correspondence courses from my youth.... learn to be an architectural draftsman from home with this easy 4 week certificate program! YOU are an artist, unlock your gift with an exciting course from Pyramid Transglobal, send your check or money order to...

Ha! "Can you draw this turtle?"

in ym day there were actual studios you could call and beg to intern at.... failingthat you went to someone with a minor dance hit and slaved for him and then parleyed that into an assistant/receptionist gig somewhere more commercial.. I liked the apprentice system a lot, I learned more that way, even by seeing what NOT to do LOL Books helped but for isntance I'll never forget the first time I tried to set up overhead mics myself on a paying session.... ah the mockery, there are thigns books don't teach as well as hands on screwing it up with a boss who will tease you about it for months on end

I took that approach to break into video editing in LA the late 90s... it was the way of our people back then. But is Ajaik even looking to record live singers and instruments, or is it all hardware synths and ITB sounds? Good to be well-rounded and skilled enough to handle any potential situation, but if one already has a full-time career in another field and is just looking to mix and master their own electronic instrumentals...

Ha! "Can you draw this turtle?"

that's what I was thinking of! catch the alan moore reference though?

it was the way of our people back then. But is Ajaik even looking to record live singers and instruments, or is it all hardware synths and ITB sounds?

same skillset.... once it hits the input it voltage baby... and knowing about recording live singer and instruments helps you as a mixer and depth and width to your DI signals, it gets you outta your comfort zone and gets you thinking about phase relationships etc that really help you when making itneresting mixes.Everythign electronic today is so bright and flat and this is why! its not essential to learn all aspects of recording to do DI and ITB at a certain level in certain genres like really tacky genric EDM I guess, but a real education in all aspects of recording will put you where you wanna be because "more knowings makes more betterz at the everything music"

why get lucky when you can get confident? why master one angle of the mix and flog it to death like a deadmaus when you can master all the tools and techniques and apply them to problems where they're not the obvious solution?

EDIT: my internship was all DI, or mostly apart from the odd vocalist, techno guy as a teacher.... but eh kew how to put up mics and adjust gain staging man.... and I did a lot of running cable at my enxt gig, but shortly following that I worked for a jazz head with a small studio and location recording business. The studio was scrappy at best then but the location biz was jumpin' so I added my gear to his collection and was the location guy for gypsy music, jazz combos, school big bands, choirs, acapella madrigals in tin roofed churches.... gospel church music, rock bands in auralexed bar basements, DJs in clubs with with additional feed of vintage synths and drums machines and on and on and on.... different challenges every gig, limited setup and break down with the remote rig, sometimes I'd be doing FOH at the same time, usuually my mic positions were checked with headphones while setting up.... long stereo extnsion cables a must, broke them regularly!.... soundcheck? a number of jazz clients didn't 'believe in them' and just came up nd you better be rolling, you checked during the first number and hoped it nothing went wrong! You do that for a few years and the force will be strong with you! Then I went to some more elgit studios and did less and less location work but those skills and my speed and my sense that "this can or can't be used in the mix as is but the problems if corrected will or won't be correctable without artifacts.... or if I can't correct them they could be a highlight f the mix, like the loud crappy hihats in raw power!" That wasn't a sentence, but it helped, even on DI stuff, even when Iw as just doing virtual everthing on my laptop at lunch after I got fed up with politics, diplomacy and non-paying clients and got a day job to support my family!

Speed and decision making I learned.... much fear I sense in guys who only learned ITB with VSTs! undo? afraid they are. Fear leads to 1dB fader moves. Nonlinear they are, mmmm! Factional and 1dB fader moves are inaudible outside the upper reach of the fader and fader creep leads to the digital clipping or overcompressed stereo bus.... a dark path the undo button leads you down.

and everyone needs to lay off the presets, even as a starting point.... me and my buddy are going to do a gag show about rpesets where we pose as old soviet era soundmen extolling presets "You need to make the guitar sounds like the guitar? you get the waves SSL channel and look in menus for "guitar" and then you have guitar! Is easy! In Russia when we learn, remember Yuri? we need EQ so week before the mix we cue in the line for the EQ. Then days later we get the EQ box. We plug in to the board and sound goes in but it doesn't come out! So we open box and its empty. No circuit! So we see note inside and it tell us where to cue up or EQ circuit to put in EQ box! You sue the plugin, they very good, SSL very popular in capitalist west so you get the SSL and you hit guitar and it makes the decadent british guitar sound. Is good!"

Ha! "Can you draw this turtle?"

that's what I was thinking of! catch the alan moore reference though?

I didn't, sadly... but isn't it Pyramid Transnational, not Transglobal?

(I don't think I would have caught it either way, though I love me some Watchmen)

Ha! "Can you draw this turtle?"

that's what I was thinking of! catch the alan moore reference though?

I didn't, sadly... but isn't it Pyramid Transnational, not Transglobal?

(I don't think I would have caught it either way, though I love me some Watchmen)

I'm pretty sure it was transglobal in the comic, but I could be old.... its been awhile

Now... as to which of these are worth the time to watch, which is what you're probably asking anyway: that's a great question I don't have an answer to.

Bingo. It’s a bit like picking a DAW - you guys seem to use several because one doesn’t seem to cover All The Things. (I wish someone would write the definitive comparative guide to DAWs)

That said, in my personal experience, Software Engineers have a better handle on how to push themselves through learning new things than the population at-large.

There’s always new shit to learn in tech to just stay relevant 😉

You've probably had to learn a few different languages and new design patterns, etc over the course of your career.

At this point I’m not an expert on any specific language because years ago I realized it was more important to cultivate the ability to understand and learn fast whatever I need to build stuff, so yeah I’ve probably used a dozen languages and various frameworks but I’ve become more of a generalist the past decade. The pace in tech is simply too fast to become and stay an expert in any specific thing. And yeah, I realize that sounds worse than it actually is.

1. Use whatever approach to learning new things has worked best for you thus far, and ignore anyone who insists you deviate too far from that.

2. Prioritize advice from artists and mix engineers who are directly-responsible for tracks you personally love, tracks you'd be happy to use as mix reference tracks for you own work... and take any advice from anyone else, especially internet people with no tracks posted (like me) with a grain of salt. ;)

Sounds reasonable though what works for me has evolved over the past year. I have never thought of YouTube as a source of great learning material for anything for example, but I’ve learned a lot about synths and modular gear over the past year by watching. I’ve always loved books but have grown to really hate dry books so books have become tricky. Depends very much on the style. I’ve started looking at the many online courses that have sprung up over the past few years but those are a mixed bag.

(I don't think I would have caught it either way, though I love me some Watchmen)

Read the graphic novel in my teens but what I really loved about the recent TV series was the great work Reznor et al did on the soundtrack (movie, TV and game soundtracks are kinda my thing).

Read the graphic novel in my teens but what I really loved about the recent TV series was the great work Reznor et al did on the soundtrack (movie, TV and game soundtracks are kinda my thing).

that sound track was pure gold, especially nun with a motherfucking gun

Bingo. It’s a bit like picking a DAW - you guys seem to use several because one doesn’t seem to cover All The Things. (I wish someone would write the definitive comparative guide to DAWs)

good thought, will attempt

I produce electronic music from '80,

I don't remember 1980, I was young , like 1, but I was there.... it was a while ago....how do you get the music to go back to 80 and then return to 2021? flux capacitors in your console ? ever have it get lost in the wild west and the cowboys hear it emanating from the plains ang say "what in tarhootin'?! A ding dang doo!"

that sound track was pure gold, especially nun with a motherfucking gun

Was just listening to it. Again. I kinda obsessed on it when it came out. Still trying to figure how they got certain sounds...

that sound track was pure gold, especially nun with a motherfucking gun

Was just listening to it. Again. I kinda obsessed on it when it came out. Still trying to figure how they got certain sounds...

When I watched the first episode, and heard that track, by the time the guitars kicked in, I remember thinking "oh man, this composer is biting off Reznor SO HARD! The nerve of this person!"

Then the credits rolled... :🤦:

It feels like Reznor & Ross score half of all prestige films/shows these days, but they really sound like they're having fun on Watchmen... as if that show needed any other reasons to be great...

the soundtrack for Mank was the jam, all period music in the style of Bernard Herman....

I loved the movie too, but I;m a film buff, i lvoe Kane, I love Orson and I love that script.... it invented a whole investigative flashback style that's the most immitated film format... you don't get to quentin without it

the soundtrack for Mank was the jam, all period music in the style of Bernard Herman....

I loved the movie too, but I;m a film buff, i lvoe Kane, I love Orson and I love that script.... it invented a whole investigative flashback style that's the most immitated film format... you don't get to quentin without it

I really appreciated Mank. Great point re: score. Mank inspired me to go back and re-watch Kane, which I hadn't really seen start to finish in like 20 years. Unbelievable that it's a movie directed by and starring a 25 year old playing all phases of someone's life...and quite effectively at that. THEN I watched The Other Side of the Wind... and finally, my Welles itch was scratched... for now... I'm lucky Transformers: The Movie wasn't streaming that day, or I might have really gone nuts. :D

the other side of the wind was epic.... I love John Huston.... ever see "Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" ???

on Herman scores, I decided to wtch Depalma's sisters yesterday and Heman's score still kills it.... he id like vertigo and day the earth stood still at the same time with a weird orchestra and a moog modular! plus watching it again I relize that the seen in Kill Bill where Elle Driver is in the nurses outfit with the split screen and all the pit instruments and whistling is SO 70s Depalma/Herman. Rza nailed that part with the split screen

the other side of the wind was epic.... I love John Huston.... ever see "Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" ???

Nope. Didn't realize that was a Milius script. Might have to check that out.

on Herman scores, I decided to wtch Depalma's sisters yesterday and Heman's score still kills it.... he id like vertigo and day the earth stood still at the same time with a weird orchestra and a moog modular! plus watching it again I relize that the seen in Kill Bill where Elle Driver is in the nurses outfit with the split screen and all the pit instruments and whistling is SO 70s Depalma/Herman. Rza nailed that part with the split screen

Phantom of the Paradise is currently the earliest DePalma I've seen, but I love that goofy movie, and my love for Bernard Herman runs deep. I'll have to check out Sisters.

its like rear window meets frenzy on speed...

I thought I read some not so kind words about deadmau5 awhile back in this thread, but I came across his MasterClass and wondered if it was useful - anyone taken it ?