Hello ! I have been working on mixing my own album project for a while, and have been on the lookout for any pro audio/mixing information I could find. I was very excited to see one of the masters make available a course on the subject, and I would like to know if I could use ASSR as a complete source of information to learn from.
In other words, does this material stand on its own ? Can I use this and only this to learn how to mix better, or will I need to use other learning resources ?
Also, will mastering be covered as well ? Thanks in advance for your replies.
Yes and no if of course the answer to your question! This series is certainly a 'complete' course in sound recording but whether that's all you need is up to you, your interests, time, budget etc. Although the mixing section itself is 50 minutes long, many of the other sections - EQ, reverb, delay, noises gates, monitoring, etc - relate to processes or techniques you use when mixing.
In this series Alan balances personal advice with general rules and accepted practices. As I'm sure you have already discovered, though, recording does have a large helping of personal taste in it. If things sound good to you then by and large you're doing it right! What this series will do is fill in gaps in your knowledge, and either give you the confidence to know that things you have been doing are 'right' or 'OK' or present you with other approaches you could try.
The only aspect of recording that is not covered in this series is mastering. There are some good mastering videos out there; indeed the person who mastered Alan's latest song you can see being recorded and mixed in this series has his own mastering DVD that you can find on the KEYFAX.com website.
Good luck on your journey!
I see... so will I learn about things like gain staging and the use of 31 band eq's as well ? I have issues with this in my mixes (noise, distortion, clipping) - if the series is "complete" I would be keenly interested. If it is an introduction that leads to more... hmm, dunno.
Thank you for letting me know about the other DVD. I will certainly look at that.
The series absolutely looks at recording levels (in the digital world), EQ, and all the source material and how best it should be recorded and treated, yes. The series is as 'complete' as any series could possibly be (in 10 hours!). That said, learning about recording is a bit like painting the Golden Gate bridge, or gardening: it's an endeavor that doesn't really have an actual finish line.
So, while it is complete, this is not to say it will either cover everything you could ever want to know, or will be the last piece of advice/instruction you'll ever want to hear. No such product, or even 3-year course exists!
If you read a lot of the posts on the forums you should be able to get a pretty good idea as to whether the series covers what you are looking for. Of course you can (also) simply stream of download one Section and 'risk' $1.99 or $4.99. One view of/or one Section will not give you the experience or insight you are looking for but it may help you decide whether to pick up the whole series or not. I don't think you would ever remotely feel your purchase - at any level - was not worth your investment but you're perfectly sensible in trying to make sure it's right for you before you commit.
Tutorials, books and video series are all good for guidance and reference, however the best way to learn is through experience, and that learning process never stops. Every mix is different and every recorded track needs its own treatment to work within the mix.