I found an old (relatively – it was 2008 – OK, not so old) post from des over at Hometracked that has some great, and still very relevant and true advice for mixing music. The article is in the form of answering what he perceived to be 7 common questions from amateur mix engineers. My take on it though, is that these are more the types of question that might come from beginners to mixing music rather than “amateurs.” That last term does not say “ignorance” to me, but rather someone who is not doing something for a living. An amateur in any field can have every bit as much expertise as a pro, the only difference being that they don’t do it for a living. Heck, Bobby Jones is renowned for being one of the greatest golfers that ever lived, and he was officially an amateur golfer.
OK, enough about semantics. Des answers the kind of questions I remember asking when I was just starting out in recording. Things like “what is the best microphone to use?” (high-end “desert island” mics the U87 and C12 were mentioned:)), or “how can I make my recordings sound like Foo Fighters or any other famous musician or group?” Actually that last one is ironic since I totally plan to record a cover of a Foo Fighters song and post here about how to do it. Whether it actually sounds enough like the original will be a matter of what each person thinks. I did this recently with the song That Thing You Do! from the movie of the same name. Check that out here.
Anyway, check out Des article here.
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