Production:

Basic Mixing Course (www.mixingwithmike.com)

Class 2: What is Mixing?

This first official class started with a brief history of mixing. It was explained that originally there was a microphone in the recording room, and the musicians would be placed in various combinations around that microphone. Referencing this, it was discussed that mixing was largely acoustic in nature. In the ‘40’s analog tape came into being, but wasn't really integrated into the recording process until the ‘60’s. 

In the ‘60’s and ‘70’s isolation booths started being used which enabled the use of multiple mics. All the recording was still done in real time, but now there was the ability to control the sounds through faders. This also introduced the use of effects.

The next major innovation was multi-track recording, which enabled for multiple tracks to be recorded simultaneously, which helped solidify the position of the mix engineer. From here the number of tracks expanded, up to 96 track recording, and then from there into Pro Tools. Another big innovation was rotary pots morphing into faders, which allowed for more than one track to be manipulated simultaneously.

From here a major innovation was automation, which is the art of adjusting the mix over the course of the entire piece of music. Along with this came muting, sends, smaller fader automation, and then onto digital music production. From there moving into personal computers allowed for unlimited automation. However, underpinning all of this are basic principles and practices that have come into existence over the course of the history of recording and that are crucial to really understanding mixing and how to do it effectively, and instilling that understanding is what this course is all about. 

Class 3: The Visual Approach to Mixing

This video goes into detail about the role of sight in music production. Sound placement is really perceived in terms of front and back, left and right, up and down, aka the 3d sound field. There is a much deeper connection between sound and sight than we realize, and invoking the sense of sight in our production work is of vital importance to the success of our work as producers.

In the 3d sound we are dealing with the movement of sound from up/down, left/right, and also front/back. This perception is expressed in terms of binaural hearing, which is the ability to perceive sounds in 360 degrees. This understanding starts to invoke the understanding of early reflections, the first sound waves to hit our ears. This comprehension of the 3d sound field is the underlying principle the governs the process of mix engineering, because the art of mixing is actually the art of creating an aural image.

One deeply important consideration is frequency response and frequency ranges. Different ranges ‘sit’ in different heights and distances, and learning to ‘place’ these frequencies correctly in their respective places is very important for creating a clean, beautiful mix image. From this conceptual basis the rest of the art of mixing flows.

The reason that mixing is hard is that it is an art form that requires an admixture of technical knowledge and consistent application of that technical knowledge. It starts from learning the baseline technical skills and concepts, but after that it comes down to consistent work in applying those principles and continually refining them. Here's to it.

Theory:

The Study Of Counterpoint (https://tinyurl.com/ybnr8e3m)

Second Species Work

Continuing on in my journey through second species, today I produced counterpoints over a Lydian Cantus Firmus. All in all I'm much more satisfied with these examples. The last ones were terrible, these are at least passable. I did not have time to properly label everything, but the first two examples are by J.J. Fux, the 18th century composer and music theorist who wrote the book, and the second two are by me. There is no harmonic analysis. There is an mp3 upload of the example shared below. Listen to the mp3 while reading along for best results:

Composition:

Today did not afford any opportunities for working on composition preparations.

Electronic Music Production:

Today's electronic music production session started off on an irritating note. I ended up having to uninstall and reinstall FL Studio, but it now seems to be running better than ever.

Today I went analog and was working on a chord progression for the current piece I am working on. The form of the music is defined in a very specific, non-traditional way, and it was more fitting to sit down with a basic piano patch, staff paper, and pencil. Here is the progression as it stands. Note my impeccable calligraphy. The real test will be if I can actually read my own writing tomorrow: