Welcome to the August 2014 edition of Mixing Secrets News, keeping
you up to date
with ongoing developments to the 'Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio' free
online mixing resources at http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-intro.htm
-- although,
as it turns out, for the last time.
Because it's all change this month!
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NEWS HEADLINES
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* New Book: 'Recording Secrets For The Small Studio'
* Truckloads of new free recording-related resources!
* "Mixing Secrets News is dead... Long live Small-studio Secrets News!"
* Wot, no new multitracks?!
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RECORDING SECRETS FOR THE SMALL STUDIO
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Yes, you read that right -- the new book I've been working on for the last 18
months has finally reached the light of day:
Recording Secrets For The Small Studio!
Now I'm sure you're all wondering how I came up with such an extraordinarily
original title for book number two, but leaving that aside... I'm
pretty excited
about this new release, and hope some of you will be too!
As with 'Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio', it's a step-by-step primer
designed to teach you how to achieve pro-level results in a small studio, but
this time focusing on the tracking stage rather than mixdown. It's based on
documented studio techniques from more than 200 of the world's top
engineers and
producers, but the information has once again been adapted specifically for
those people working under the usual small-studio restrictions of limited
budget, domestic acoustics, and too little session time. The text
leads you all
the way from simple line-signal recording all the way to complex multimic
large-ensemble setups, dealing with all aspects of mic technique and session
mechanics -- as well as covering in depth many important topics that
have so far
only been skated over in print.
For more details and a full contents listing, check out
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/RecordingSecrets.htm. For a sneak preview, try the
'Read Inside' feature at Amazon.com.
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NEW FREE 'RECORDING SECRETS' RESOURCE PAGES!
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And, of course, the arrival of a new book also means... the perfect excuse for
creating bucketloads of new free resources! :) As with the 'Mixing Secrets'
pages, these new goodies are accessible to anyone, whether they've bought the
book or not, and include:
* More than 300 audio demonstrations relating directly to topics discussed in
the book. Want to hear eight all-time classic acoustic-guitar mics on three
different instruments? Or get an idea of the spill levels you'll get
when trying
different loudspeaker-monitoring approaches? Or compare the sound of spot mics
with/without time-alignment? Or discover how changing the angle of
an XY stereo
pair skews the balance, tone, and depth of sources across the soundstage? Or
find out if the 'pencil trick' actually works?! All those
demonstrations are now
available, as well as plenty more...
* The 'Recording Secrets' Library Of Mic Positions, a new long-term project of
mine containing carefully multimiked instrument recordings which allow you to
quickly and easily compare the sound of dozens of different mic positions --
with the same model of mic! I've already put together pages for
acoustic guitar,
electric guitar, grand piano, and snare drum (more than 200
comparison files!),
and upright piano and kick drum are already waiting in the wings for
the coming
months. As with the multitrack library, it's my aim to continually expand this
resource on a rolling basis to incorporate as wide a range of instruments as
possible, so I'll keep you all posted with developments as I go. In the
meantime, check out what's already there and let me know how it hits you:
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/rs-lmp.htm
* Preformatted backing-track packages for overdubbing practice. Some potential
readers of the book won't be comfortable building whole projects
from scratch at
the outset, so I've generated some simple backing stems (based on some of the
more popular multitrack-library projects) for them to practice overdubbing
against, complete with cue sheets, tempo/key indications, and lyrics.
* Various supporting PDF documents (Origami miking-angle templates, anyone?),
and lots of links to affordable software/hardware and further reading.
For more details, and to explore the resources for yourself, head over to
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/rs-intro.htm. As usual, feel free to let me know
what you think of the new resources, and whether there are things
you'd like to
see included that I've not thought of yet.
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I DUB THEE "SMALL-STUDIO SECRETS NEWS"
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Now that my free resources have expanded to incorporate loads of
recording-related gubbins, I figured it was time to rename this newsletter so
that I don't have to start cluttering up people's inboxes with two separate
mails. So, ahem...
"The Mixing Secrets News mailing list is dead...
Long live the Small-studio Secrets News mailing list!"
So if you've had to manually prevent your email program from filtering this
mail-out, then be aware that next month's missive will have a different title,
although it'll probably still arrive from the same email address.
As part of this brand restructuring (Sorry. I'll go wash my mouth out...) I've
decided to discontinue the regular "Top Ten Multitracks Last Month" segment of
the newsletter. Over the past few months I've been increasingly concerned that
web-bot activity has been tampering with my site's download
statistics, and that
the list isn't therefore a fair representation of people's interest in the
material. I may, however, launch a new top-ten list in future using some more
representative measure -- perhaps a tally of which projects have had
most mixes
posted in the Discussion Zone.
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WOT, NO NEW MULTITRACKS?!
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Unfortunately, I've been so busy sorting out the 'Recording Secrets' web
resources this month that I've not had the opportunity to upload any new
multitracks. However, I already have new material poised for
formatting/upload,
so be assured that normal service should resume as of next month...
...in the all-new Small-studio Secrets News! :)
Till then!
Cheers,
Mike Senior.
