Best books for mixing?

[MadAnthony81]

thank you for all the replys. very sic-

[_leras]

Guys.....I have seen and read alot on mixing but nothing is as grounded as the YEP thread. ' why do your recordings sound like ass'. It is now available somewhere on the net and as been condensed for better reading. No disrespect to any author but this was dialog between folk who wanted info and someone will experience and an elequent way of expressing them self.

Hmmmm come to think of it ....it deals more in tracking than mixing..
Still a great read.

stash.reaper.fm/3107/wdyrsla_061709.pdf

That's a lot of pages, and yeah, maybe a bit more recording focused. Seems to have some pretty good common sense information though.

[pkrason]

I’ve read a bunch over the years. My favorites are probably Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki and Behind the Glass by Howard Massey. Izhaki’s book is literally an all-encompassing everything regarding standard protocols for recording and mixing. It discusses compression and whatnot, but it’s strength is not going into crazy detail on anything unfortunately. What it does best is a little of everything.

[DaveClark]

I’ve read a bunch over the years. My favorites are probably Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki and Behind the Glass by Howard Massey.

I also like the book by Ishaki, the one published in 2008 by Taylor & Francis. (I don't have access to more recent editions.) This book gives more of what may loosely be called the "philosophy" of mixing (i.e. the goals of mixing audio) accompanied by examples of how one might accomplish various tasks. Some of the available literature seems to push the idea that there are secret formulas or magical values of various parameters that produce successful mixes. Mixing is an art that utilizes technical knowledge to the advantage of an artist. There is no Holy Grail. As is true for any art, the artist needs to learn what tools are available, what the purpose(s) of a tool may be, then practice, practice, practice.

Though the plugins mentioned in this version are obviously dated, enough information is provided by Izhaki to make the points clear enough for comprehension.

[carterwrote]

Thanks for sharing! It's always great to hear about resources that cut through the noise and really deliver practical advice. I’ll definitely check out the YEP thread you mentioned — sounds like a solid read, especially for improving the tracking side of things. Tracking and mixing go hand in hand, so having a deeper understanding of tracking techniques can make a huge difference when it comes to achieving a better mix.

If you're looking for other books specifically on mixing, I’d recommend “Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio” by Mike Senior or “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” by Bobby Owsinski. Both offer some great insights and real-world techniques that can help level up your mixes.