After Friday's post where I shared (most tongue-in-cheekily)Â all my favorite one-star reviews for Step By Step Mixing, I received an email from one of my readers, Jeremiah George, who surprised me with his review of Step By Step Mixing.
I have to say, this is one of the most detailed and thoughtful reviews I've ever got.
Here's what he had to say:
"This is my very first Amazon review, and it's well deserved.
The amount of information in this book is pretty amazing for the price. Bjorgvin did an amazing job even just compiling this amount of information to share with us. He goes pretty in-depth on many important topics for getting a better mix. I read the entire book the day I got it. I'll admit, I got home and tried to put some of what I read into practice and just fought between keeping my track halfway decent and completely ruining it.
I had forgotten about the extra resources.
After about day 3 of failing to properly apply what I had read, I figured there was something I just wasn't getting. At that point, I remembered the extra resources. And I was right! I was missing something. I watched about half of the quick mix video at work before I had to actually do my work, but just that was enough to bridge the gap in my understanding. I would say to read this at your work station so you can apply while you read
and don't try to do it in a day.
I think you'll get far more value out of it that way, based on my experience of reading it in one day. There are some things you may need to revisit, like compression and saturation, if you did not have much knowledge of them before because there is a lot to them when it comes down to it.
The day I watched half of the quick mix video and better understood the knowledge presented, I went home and acceptably (to me) mixed 2 tracks that I had been fighting with for a week. And my level of knowledge I'd say is still very basic with the concepts he presented.
If you seriously want to get on the road to a better mix then grab the book, USE THE RESOURCES, take your time (Rome wasn't built in a day), and practice while you read. If you're confident in your ability to understand and apply knowledge then you can go straight to practicing on your own track.
If you're a little unsure, then I'd recommend practicing on the stems provided in the free resources. Once you start hearing and understanding the changes, then go to your track, visualize the sounds, and try to apply the knowledge to get as close to it as you can. Gauge it and see if it's good to you. If it is, congratulations and keep at it!
Never strive for perfection or you'll never release anything. Just use the book to get it good, start releasing, then use the book to make each one better than the last and you'll be golden.
Thanks a million Bjorgvin!!
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TL;DR The book is amazing! Use the FREE resources, they will help immensely! Let the book get your mixes good to you, release, and continue using the book to make each track better than the last. Bjorgvin is awesome!"
