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I'm trying to help a fellow PG'er get his feet wet in understanding basics of audio and signal processing.
My problem is twofold in being helpful:
1. I've mixed live sound since I was about 16 years old - I'm now in my 40's. I can't even remember how I learned the practical side of things.
2. I'm an engineer and have gone through engineering courses on and off since I was about that same age including graduate level digital signal processing classes, with all of the Laplace and z transforms and bode plots you can shake a stick at. My mind immediately goes there when trying to explain things.
So when someone asks; what's a high-pass filter? Or what does multi-band compression do? In my mind, it's kind of bog-standard stuff, but there has to be a nice book that summarizes this without obliterating the reader with geek-talk and differential equations.
I have found a couple on Amazon.com, like one by this guy: Roey Izhaki, which when looking at the available table of contents, index contents and some sample pages, might just be the answer.
But who here has an opinion? There's a fellow PG'er that could use some help. Looked at Audiominds.com on Mixing, and even there, it kind of assumes a certain base level of understanding.
-Scott
-Scott
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Ray Thigpens tutorial has helped many pg members.. more of a 'how to' than a 'why to' though. Link to thread- http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=284721&an=0&page=5
Last edited by rharv; 12/20/10 01:01 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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try homerecording.about.com.I believe it has a "basics for beginners"Cheers Frankie
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About 5 or 6 years ago, Recording Magazine ran a 36 part series of articles (1 article a month for 3 years!) that was called ""The Compleat Recording Musician." The focus was to take someone from "ground zero" (no nothing at all) and educate them. At the time my head was swimming with terminology that was literally was a foreign language, concepts that I didn't understand but a desire to learn. I subscribed to the magazine so that I wouldn't miss an issue. It was the most valuable information that I had come across. So I looked at the Recording Magazine's web site to see if anyone could access these articles and what I found was that John Shirley (the original author) is currently doing an updated version of this series on the web site (this time a 36 part, bi-weekly series). Anyone can access it. There are 16 parts already posted so you're friend would have a great place to start their education. Hope this helps...here's a link: [url= http://www.recordingmag.com/?do=resources&cat=113&page=2]The Compleat Recording Musician[/url]
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Scott,
I recently downloaded Reaper and have been working my way through the users' manual and doing all the examples using the "All through the night.rpp" file. Much of what you are asking is covered in that manual. Since it's possible to get a fully functional version of Reaper (and the manual) for free, it might be worth suggesting this.
In addition, I purchased a pdf version of "ReaMix - Breaking The Barriers" from the Reaper web page. This was the BEST $15 that I've ever spent. It homes in on exactly what you mention and more. I've just been reading my way through "corrective eq" which explicitly talks about the different types of parametric filter.
Working my way through these pdf files and, most importantly, practicing the suggestions given has enhanced my knowledge heaps. It's slow going because there's a lot to cover but the rewards have been brilliant.
Regards,
Noel
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I bought this full course some years ago and it was very good. It's some money and it's far from all you'll need to get a grip on everything, but it is a useful part of the learning process. The product- http://www.moultonlabs.com/full/product02/To buy- http://www.recordingmag.com/category/77.htmlNow, the best way is to sit at a mixing board and/or at one of the many fine Daws out there and just dive in with simple projects. Twist dials, listen, twist some more. Learning what a dial on an eq or comp or limiter is just isn't enough. You have to twist said dials, make the audio sound like crap, and bring it back, to learn what all this stuff is and how it works. Hands on is often the best and cheapest way to get up to speed. Good luck. Dan
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Scott,
Harvey Gerst put a link to his Mixing & Mastering document a year or so ago. I can recall a few forum members saying that they had saved it. Perhaps someone can help you out with a copy.
Cheers,
Keith
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I know what you are going through, Scott.
Thinking back 4 or so decades to the time when I was first getting my feet wet in the sound reproduction game, there were of course *many* terminologies and concepts that were impossible to understand. As an impetulant youth, the wrong concept that I could somehow bypass the amount of time, study and practice needed to become proficient at the thing, a natural happenstance with being human, fools most of us into thinking that we can somehow bypass key conepts and still "get lucky" at our attempts to record music.
All that will only mean that it will take the noob longer than necessary to become adept in the care and feeding of sound reproduction equipments.
There is also a rather personal side to all of this. The fact is that there are some of us who are wired to "get into" the physics, the eletronics and the concepts involved - and there are likely many more of us who will not be able to get ourselves to do that.
However, the ability to have these wonderful and relatively inexpensive tools we have today, due to the digital revolution and home computers has put many people into the position where they either will have to "bite the bullet" and start in on learning these things, or at least find someone to work with who is willing to do so.
There are plenty of resources available for learning these concepts, more than ever before and many of them free online, etc.
However, if you find that you are of the type of personality whose eyes start to glaze over and mind starts to wander when confronted with explanations of the deciBel, the SPL, the sonic frequency spectrum, Hz and "Cycles per Second" references, talk of Octaves, Filter Slopes, Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release, the thing likely can look pretty darn imposing to you.
At that point all I can offer is that it takes TIME to learn how to do anything that is worth doing.
"The Physics of Music" -- there's a great old book by that name and now there are plenty of online resources available if you wish to do a websearch.
Start out in bite sized chunks that you can handle and try to understand each key concept before moving on. Don't expect to master those concepts the first time through. Do expect to understand it better by and by, if you continue to work with these things.
--Mac
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Physics of Music - never had a copy but many of my colleagues at the GM Noise & Vibration Center did. I've used it recently as a reference (local Pikes Peak Library has it) for an article I wrote for the Canadian Hearing Report on Helmholtz Resonance (should be out this month).
I'm trying to help out this person who seems to be interested to really start to dig in and understand what's going on with the whole recording, editing, mixing, mastering process.
I sent him to the venerable Studio Buddy, which I found very helpful years ago, but even in that thing, it expects the reader to understand what is going on with concepts like compression, filter slopes, etc.
The link that Tom Shannon put up several posts above - that seems like a good starting point - complete with audio examples.
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Actually, I once found Helmholtz' work to be really clarifying for me at one point in my quest. The fact that he accomplished what he did at a time before electricity was being exploited really got me to thinking about the subject in a different way.
The old example of the medieval "oscilloscope" in which a glass tube filled with cork bits and covered at each end with a vibratable membrane, with the cork bits grouping in the basic shape of a sound waveform is one demonstration that I've found to be very valuable and interesting as well to the student.
Another great hands on experiment is demonstrating the beats inherent in mixing waves of differing frequencies. That, of course, goes on to show how one can prove the tuning of any musical note without need for any modern electronic tuners, etc. I've used it to demonstrate how the creted wave of two notes that are not quite in tune with each other leads to cancellation and less energy. You can use the aforementioned 'scope to further drive the point home.
And using varied lengths of cardboard tubing to demonstrate resonance is yet another.
I have also attached a piece of ordinary string or thread to the speaker cone with a dab of adhesive, then held the string out in the horizontal in front of the cone while driving it with a sinewave oscillator and amplifier. When the student can SEE the wave and nodes on the string...
--Mac
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"However, if you find that you are of the type of personality whose eyes start to glaze over and mind starts to wander when confronted with explanations of the deciBel, the SPL, the sonic frequency spectrum, Hz and "Cycles per Second" references, talk of Octaves, Filter Slopes, Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release, the thing likely can look pretty darn imposing to you."
Mac my eyes are starting to glaze over just looking at this portion of your post lol Frankie
AMD Athlon 7550 dual core
processor 2.51 ghz
1 87 gb ram
windows 7 Ultimate
yamaha rev 500 effects
tacam DP-24 DAW
Samson Resolv NF monitors
Yamaha PSR-620 Keyboard
Fender semi accoustic guitar
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Ive just remembered this site http://www.tweakheadz.com give it a try Im certainly going to.Frankie
AMD Athlon 7550 dual core
processor 2.51 ghz
1 87 gb ram
windows 7 Ultimate
yamaha rev 500 effects
tacam DP-24 DAW
Samson Resolv NF monitors
Yamaha PSR-620 Keyboard
Fender semi accoustic guitar
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