Mix Smart

Mix Smart

AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDONNEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO

SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYOFocal press is an imprint of Elsevier

Pro Audio Tips for Your Multitrack Mix

Alexander U. Case

Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK

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Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

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Printed in China

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For my brother Charles, the avid concertgoer, omnivorous record listener, passionate guitar player, and resourceful recordist whose rock-star success in his day job has never interfered with instilling a love of music in the next generation. How cool is that?

Dedication

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................... xvii PREFACE ............................................................................................... xix

CHAPTER 1 The Mix Mindset .................................................................. 1 1.1 Musical Balance ........................................................................... 1

1.1.1 The Mix Arrangement .......................................................... 1 1.1.2 Level ................................................................................... 3 1.1.3 Panning ............................................................................... 5

Stability .............................................................................. 5 Audibility ............................................................................. 5 Sound stage ........................................................................ 7 Equal opportunity panning ................................................... 8

1.1.4 Mute ................................................................................... 8 1.2 Mental Balance ............................................................................ 9 1.3 Mix Smart .................................................................................. 11

1.3.1 Creative Vision with Technical Expertise ............................ 12 1.3.2 Production Motivations ...................................................... 14

CHAPTER 2 Approaching Your First Mix ................................................. 15 2.1 Mix Room Setup ......................................................................... 15 2.2 Mixer Setup ............................................................................... 18

2.2.1 Global Effects .................................................................... 18 2.2.2 Special Effects .................................................................. 19 2.2.3 Specific Effects ................................................................. 21 2.2.4 Hearing Effects .................................................................. 21

Solo .................................................................................. 21 Looping ............................................................................. 22

2.3 A Basic Mix Approach ................................................................ 22 2.3.1 Balance ............................................................................ 22 2.3.2 Drums ............................................................................... 25 2.3.3 Bass ................................................................................. 27 2.3.4 Rhythm Guitars ................................................................. 28 2.3.5 Samples and Loops ............................................................ 29 2.3.6 Lead Vocal ........................................................................ 30

Contents

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2.3.7 Background Vocals ............................................................ 31 2.3.8 Lead Guitar ....................................................................... 31 2.3.9 The Whole Mix .................................................................. 32

2.4 Summary .................................................................................... 33

CHAPTER 3 Equalization ....................................................................... 35 3.1 Tools for Spectral Modification .................................................... 36

3.1.1 Parametric EQ ................................................................... 36 Frequency select ............................................................... 36 Cut/Boost ........................................................................ 36 Q ...................................................................................... 37

3.1.2 Multiband EQ .................................................................... 37 3.1.3 Semiparametric EQ ............................................................ 38 3.1.4 Program EQ ....................................................................... 40 3.1.5 Graphic EQ ........................................................................ 40 3.1.6 Which Is Best? .................................................................. 41 3.1.7 Shelving EQ ....................................................................... 42 3.1.8 Filters ............................................................................... 43

3.2 Technique .................................................................................. 44 3.2.1 Non-EQ Equalization ........................................................... 44 3.2.2 Patching and Plugging In ................................................... 46 3.2.3 Boost, Search, and Set ...................................................... 46 3.2.4 Anticipate ......................................................................... 46 3.2.5 Improve ............................................................................. 47

3.3 Mix Strategies: EQ ..................................................................... 48 3.3.1 Fix .................................................................................... 48

Rumble ............................................................................. 49 Hum and Buzz .................................................................... 50 Pops and Wind .................................................................. 51 Proximity .......................................................................... 52 Hiss .................................................................................. 52 General Fixes .................................................................... 53

3.3.2 Fit .................................................................................... 54 Complementary Cuts and Boosts ....................................... 54 Seizing the Spectral Opportunity ........................................ 57

3.3.3 Feature ............................................................................. 57 Voice ................................................................................ 59 Snare Drum ....................................................................... 60 Kick/Bass Drum ................................................................ 60 Electric Guitar ................................................................... 62

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Acoustic Guitar ................................................................. 64 Electric Bass Guitar ........................................................... 64 Piano ................................................................................ 65

3.4 Summary .................................................................................... 66

CHAPTER 4 Distortion .......................................................................... 67 4.1 Distortion of Amplitude ............................................................... 67

4.1.1 Harmonic Distortion .......................................................... 69 Hard clipping ..................................................................... 70 Soft clipping ...................................................................... 72

4.1.2 Intermodulation Distortion ................................................. 73 4.2 Distortion Devices ...................................................................... 74 4.3 Mix Strategies: Distortion ........................................................... 75

4.3.1 The Fix .............................................................................. 76 Prevention ......................................................................... 76 Camouflage ....................................................................... 76

4.3.2 The Fit ............................................................................. 77 Allocating Spectrum .......................................................... 77 Contrast ............................................................................ 77

4.3.3 The Feature ....................................................................... 77 Instinctive Appeal .............................................................. 78 Getting Noticed ................................................................. 78 Exceeding expectations ..................................................... 79

4.4 Summary .................................................................................... 79

CHAPTER 5 Compression and Limiting ................................................... 81 5.1 Narrowing Dynamic Range .......................................................... 82 5.2 Patching and Parameters ............................................................ 83

5.2.1 Patching and Plugging In ................................................... 83 Insert ................................................................................ 83 Parallel compression ......................................................... 83

5.2.2 Threshold .......................................................................... 84 5.2.3 Ratio ................................................................................. 84 5.2.4 Attack .............................................................................. 85 5.2.5 Release ............................................................................. 86 5.2.6 Makeup Gain ..................................................................... 86 5.2.7 Options and Features ......................................................... 86

Auto ................................................................................. 86 Knee ................................................................................. 87 Look ahead ....................................................................... 88

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5.2.8 Caution ............................................................................. 88 Numerical nonsense .......................................................... 89 Parameter interdependence ............................................... 89 Program dependence ......................................................... 89 Pumping and breathing ...................................................... 90

5.2.9 User Interface ................................................................... 91 Parameter shortcomings .................................................... 91 Multiband compressors ..................................................... 92 Envelope manipulators ....................................................... 93

5.3 Technologies .............................................................................. 93 5.3.1 Tube Compressors ............................................................. 94 5.3.2 Optical Compressors ......................................................... 94 5.3.3 FET and VCA Compressors ................................................. 95 5.3.4 PWM Compressors ............................................................ 95 5.3.5 Digital Compressors .......................................................... 95

5.4 Mix Strategies: Compression and Limiting ................................... 97 5.4.1 The Fix .............................................................................. 97

Safety compression ........................................................... 97 Peak limiting ..................................................................... 98 Overcome noise ................................................................. 99 De-essing ........................................................................ 100

5.4.2 The Fit ............................................................................ 102 Loudness ........................................................................ 102 Improve intelligibility and articulation ............................... 105 Smooth performance ....................................................... 106 Reshaping amplitude envelope ......................................... 108

5.4.3 The Feature ..................................................................... 110 Ambience and artifacts .................................................... 110 Timbre ............................................................................ 111 Distortion ........................................................................ 112

5.5 Learning to Hear Compression .................................................. 113 5.5.1 A Learned Skill ................................................................ 113 5.5.2 Imitation ......................................................................... 115 5.5.3 Multiple Personalities ...................................................... 116

5.6 Summary .................................................................................. 116

CHAPTER 6 Expansion and Gating ....................................................... 119 6.1 Increasing Dynamic Range ........................................................ 119 6.2 Patching and Parameters .......................................................... 121

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6.2.1 Patching and Plugging In ................................................. 121 Insert .............................................................................. 122 Parallel expansion ........................................................... 122

6.2.2 Threshold ........................................................................ 122 6.2.3 Slope .............................................................................. 123 6.2.4 Attack ............................................................................ 124 6.2.5 Release, Fade, or Decay ................................................... 124 6.2.6 Hold ................................................................................ 125 6.2.7 Range ............................................................................. 126

6.3 Mix Strategies: Expansion and Gating ....................................... 126 6.3.1 The Fix ............................................................................ 126

Expansion ....................................................................... 126 Noise gating .................................................................... 127

6.3.2 The Fit ............................................................................ 129 Gating through editing ..................................................... 129 Gating ............................................................................. 130 Keyed gating ................................................................... 131 Reshaping amplitude envelope ......................................... 135 Ducking .......................................................................... 135

6.3.3 The Feature ..................................................................... 137 Ambience and artifacts .................................................... 137 Timbre ............................................................................ 137 Envelope following ........................................................... 137 Tremolo ........................................................................... 138

6.4 Summary .................................................................................. 140

CHAPTER 7 Delay ............................................................................... 141 7.1 Parameters .............................................................................. 142

7.1.1 Basic Controls ................................................................. 142 Delay time ....................................................................... 143 Regeneration ................................................................... 143 Low-pass filter ................................................................. 144 Polarity reverse ............................................................... 144

7.1.2 Modulation ...................................................................... 144 7.1.3 Delay Time ...................................................................... 148

Long delay ....................................................................... 148 Short delay ...................................................................... 149 Constructive and destructive interference ...................... 149 Comb filter .................................................................... 153

Medium delay .................................................................. 156

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7.2 Mix Strategies: Delay ............................................................... 156 7.2.1 The Fix ............................................................................ 156

To comb filter, or not to comb filter, that is the mix move ........................................................................ 156

7.2.2 The Fit ............................................................................ 160 Groove ............................................................................ 160 Support ........................................................................... 161

7.2.3 The Feature ..................................................................... 161 Echo ............................................................................... 161 Tuning by ear ............................................................... 164 Tuning through math .................................................... 164 Musical delay time ....................................................... 165 Slap ................................................................................ 170 Emphasis ........................................................................ 172 Flanger ........................................................................... 173 Double-tracking ............................................................... 175 Chorus ............................................................................ 177

7.3 Summary .................................................................................. 177

CHAPTER 8 Pitch Shift ....................................................................... 179 8.1 Parameters .............................................................................. 180 8.2 Mix Strategies: Pitch Shifting ................................................... 182

8.2.1 The Fix ............................................................................ 182 Pitch Correction .............................................................. 182

8.2.2 The Fit ............................................................................ 184 Spreader ......................................................................... 184 Thickener ........................................................................ 185 Layers ............................................................................. 186

8.2.3 The Feature ..................................................................... 186 Leslie .............................................................................. 186 Big shift .......................................................................... 187 Harmony, counterpoint, and dissonance ............................ 188 Stop tape ........................................................................ 189 Start tape ....................................................................... 189 The perfection aesthetic .................................................. 189 Quantized pitch ............................................................... 190

8.3 Summary .................................................................................. 191

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CHAPTER 9 Reverb ............................................................................. 193 9.1 Patching and Parameters .......................................................... 194

9.1.1 Patching and Plugging In ................................................. 194 9.1.2 Reverb Time (RT 60 ) .......................................................... 195 9.1.3 Bass Ratio (BR) .............................................................. 195 9.1.4 Predelay .......................................................................... 196 9.1.5 Reference Values ............................................................. 196

9.2 Devices .................................................................................... 198 9.2.1 Room Tracks ................................................................... 198 9.2.2 Chambers ........................................................................ 198 9.2.3 Springs ........................................................................... 201 9.2.4 Plates ............................................................................. 201 9.2.5 Digital Reverb ................................................................. 202

9.3 Mix Strategies: Reverb ............................................................. 203 9.3.1 The Fix ............................................................................ 203

Close microphone compensation ...................................... 203 The clean ending ............................................................. 204

9.3.2 The Fit ............................................................................ 204 Spatial contrasts ............................................................. 204 Distance ......................................................................... 205 Width .............................................................................. 206 Duration .......................................................................... 207 Ensemble ........................................................................ 207

9.3.3 The Feature ..................................................................... 208 Liveness .......................................................................... 209 Simulating a space .......................................................... 210 Fabricating a space ......................................................... 211 Timbre through reverb ...................................................... 212 Texture through reverb ..................................................... 213 Scene change ................................................................. 214 Extreme reverb ................................................................ 214 Feature the reverb ........................................................... 215 Gated reverb ................................................................... 215 Reverse reverb ................................................................ 217 Regenerative reverb ........................................................ 219 Dynamic reverberant systems .......................................... 220

9.4 Summary .................................................................................. 222

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CHAPTER 10 Future-Proof Mix Skills ..................................................... 223 10.1 Strategies, Not Recipes .......................................................... 223 10.2 Lifelong Learning .................................................................... 224

10.2.1 Capability versus Ability ................................................. 225 10.2.2 Artistic Maturity ............................................................ 226 10.2.3 Technical Mastery ......................................................... 226

10.3 The Case Credo ...................................................................... 227 10.3.1 Honor the Art ................................................................ 227 10.3.2 Stay Balanced ............................................................... 227 10.3.3 Attention: Front and Center ........................................... 228 10.3.4 Look Both Ways Before You Mix the Track ...................... 228 10.3.5 Get Louder, Without the Fader ........................................ 229 10.3.6 Contrasts Communicate Clearly ..................................... 229 10.3.7 Change Is Emphasis ...................................................... 229 10.3.8 Perfection Is a Cruel Distraction .................................... 230 10.3.9 Limits Are Opportunities ................................................ 230 10.3.10 None of the Above ....................................................... 231

APPENDIX A: Plugging In ...................................................................... 233 A.1 Parallel Processing ................................................................... 233 A.2 Serial Processing ..................................................................... 233 A.3 Effects Sends ........................................................................... 235

A.3.1 Prefader Sends ............................................................... 236 A.3.2 Postfader Sends .............................................................. 237

A.4 Inserts ..................................................................................... 238 A.5 Hybrid Parallel Effects .............................................................. 238

A.5.1 Insert Send Only ............................................................. 239 A.5.2 Prefader Effects Send ...................................................... 240

A.6 Latency .................................................................................... 240 A.7 Computer Resources ................................................................ 241 A.8 Offline Processing .................................................................... 242

APPENDIX B: Audio Signals .................................................................. 243 B.1 Medium ................................................................................... 243 B.2 Amplitude versus Time ............................................................. 244

B.2.1 Amplitude Confusions ...................................................... 245 B.2.2 Time Implications ........................................................... 246

B.3 Amplitude versus Distance ....................................................... 247 B.4 Amplitude versus Frequency ..................................................... 248

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B.5 Complex Waves ........................................................................ 250 B.5.1 Square Waves ................................................................. 251 B.5.2 Sawtooth Waves ............................................................. 252 B.5.3 Triangle Waves ................................................................ 255

B.6 Decibel .................................................................................... 255 B.6.1 Logarithm ....................................................................... 257 B.6.2 Ratios ............................................................................ 259 B.6.3 References ..................................................................... 263 B.6.4 Zero Decibels ................................................................. 265 B.6.5 Negative Decibels ........................................................... 265

B.7 Dynamic Range ........................................................................ 266

APPENDIX C: Mix Automation ............................................................... 269 C.1 Unautomated Mixing ................................................................ 269 C.2 Automated Mixing .................................................................... 270

C.2.1 Faders and Cuts Automation ........................................... 270 Alternative signal path .................................................... 271 Automated send ............................................................. 272 MIDI equivalents ............................................................. 272 Automated comps ........................................................... 272 Printed mix moves .......................................................... 274

C.2.2 Everything Automation .................................................... 274 C.2.3 Snapshot Automation ...................................................... 275

C.3 Mix Modes ............................................................................... 275 C.3.1 Write or Read ................................................................. 275 C.3.2 Write: Absolute or Relative .............................................. 276

C.4 Automation Strategies .............................................................. 278 C.4.1 Balance .......................................................................... 278 C.4.2 Effects ............................................................................ 278 C.4.3 Cuts ............................................................................... 278 C.4.4 Rides .............................................................................. 279 C.4.5 Tweaks and Special Effects ............................................. 279

C.5 Playing the Mixer ..................................................................... 280 C.5.1 Practice ......................................................................... 280 C.5.2 User Interface ................................................................. 280

Moving faders ................................................................. 281 VCA faders ..................................................................... 282 Software faders .............................................................. 283

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C.6 Advice and Warnings ................................................................ 284 C.6.1 Master the Gear .............................................................. 284 C.6.2 Not Too Soon .................................................................. 284 C.6.3 Save Often ...................................................................... 285

C.7 Summary ................................................................................. 285

APPENDIX D: Listening List ................................................................... 287 D.1 Reference Recordings ............................................................... 287 D.2 Mix Icons ................................................................................. 288 D.3 Selected Discography ............................................................... 289

INDEX .................................................................................................. 295

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The reader should know that if—and let's just leave it at if , shall we?—if your author were a disorganized, long-winded, distracted, typagrafickle error, um, typographical error–generating machine, this book hits the shelves beautiful and organized only because of the essential skill, patience, care, commitment, and professionalism of Catharine Steers, Kate Iannotti, and—especially— Carlin Reagan, at Focal Press. Deadlines for this title grew increasingly specific, so that by the end, they were telling me the month, date, time, and time zone the next deliverable was due. I have no idea why … thanks, Catharine, Kate, and Carlin.

Nicholas LaPenn's beautiful and fun, yet always accurate and informative drawings are enduring and were so well-loved when published in Sound FX—Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects (Focal Press, 2007) that we reuse the relevant ones here, about 75 of them! He makes the figures a welcome study break from the text, but we still learn while daydreaming and enjoying his work. I admire that he—an audio engineer and musician—has such a good eye.

Jim Anderson brought to this book his decades of experience working at the top of this field, plus his wisdom as an audio educator, in many ways. He performed a detailed technical review of the manuscript, offering many valuable sugges-tions. I fear that when he agreed to it, he thought Mix Smart was some sort of bartender's guide. When he discovered its true content, he still read on. He's also been a generous colleague, always willing to talk shop at a level of detail that reveals both his talent as an engineer and his commitment as an educator.

My cohorts at the University of Massachusetts Lowell—Will Moylan, John Shirley, Bill Carman, Paul Angelli, and Alan Williams—steadily advance my knowledge of sound recording through the work they do, the art they create, and the collaborations we have in the halls, classrooms, and studios at school. They've no doubt long suspected this, but let's admit it officially: I am always skimming their expertise.

My graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell forever increase the pace of my lifelong learning—restoring Edison wax, decoding the soul of Stax, recording stunning tracks, and pushing every mix to the max. It's my good fortune to be included in their culture of intellectual curiosity, constant musicality, and a contagious commitment to hard work and high quality.

Acknowledgments

xviii Acknowledgments

I am indebted to my many colleagues at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) who provide a home for the essential research, dialog, and healthy debate about audio. The countless interactions with the luminaries in our field through committees, tutorials, workshops, conferences, and the casual conversations in between has been essential to my professional development. I am particularly grateful to AES movers-and-shakers Jim Anderson (again), Roger Furness, Bill McQuaide, Steve Johnson, John Krivit, and Dave Greenspan, whose hard work make the AES invaluable to those who actively participate.

My parents, Dolores and Joe, bought me a fixer-upper car before I could drive. We worked on it so hard that by the time I had a license, I also had great respect for the machine. This is typical of how they raised me. What a lucky kid, to get a car from the git -go! But they provided it with an eye on mastery. How does a son thank someone for that? I am spoiled by them to this day, but—through their care and wisdom—I am not spoiled rotten. Right, Mom?

My best beloved bride Amy connects me with two of my favorite, most missed students—Patricia and Stan.

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Preface

You wanna mix?

You gotta get smart!

Engineers take the achievements of scientists and find ways to use them, to do things with them, and to make things from them. Wielding science to engineer new works of art is one of our species' highest achievements. Glad to have you joining in on the fun.

Mix engineers must create music based on a deep knowledge of the informing disciplines: music, acoustics, electrical engineering, computer science, and digi-tal signal processing, and—to a lesser extent—psychology, philosophy, business, game theory, and a little dream interpretation and pain management consulting helps. This call to action—this need to act, commit to, and create something in a world governed by a rich set of rules, theories, properties, laws, and equations from many related fields—separates the engineer from the scientist and the mix engineer from the mere recordist. It isn't easy.

In fact, it is such a difficult endeavor that many who attempt it fail. Only the most talented, most visionary, most committed, most inspired, most driven, best educated, hardest working, most creative people succeed. If you want to mix at a professional level and to make the sort of music that holds its own with your favorite records, films, games, and concerts of all time, you must not take the task lightly. There is much to learn. There are many disciplines to master. Doing so enables your mix finally to be an expression of you—a creative expres-sion that builds on a collaboration between and among those who compose, those who perform, and those who know how to play the studio as a musical instrument.

You've probably heard the uninspired monotony that comes from some kid assaulting a piano or guitar with uninspired, untrained, two-finger noodling. You've also heard what happens when a hard-working prodigy spends time with an instrument—practicing, studying, exploring, and jamming. We hear the difference.

Same thing goes for mixing.

It is such a complicated process that it overwhelms many. It can't be learned in a day. It can't be learned in a week. Come to think of it, it's been more than two decades and I'm still learning. The temptation to cut corners seduces many. We live in a time in which the tools for sound recording are so capable that many can achieve mediocre results. Just owning the gear, reading the manuals, and

xx Preface

browsing the Web makes average audio available to all. But excellence belongs only to the most passionate—those willing to practice, study, explore, and jam. People will hear the difference.

Mixing isn't just having the tools and toys; it's really knowing how to use them in service of the art. We have to get beyond the manual and beyond the web chatter. When a musician takes a solo, they aren't repeating what they read about and talked about, they are creating . When a musician mixes, they aren't imitating setting by setting what they heard others did; they are too are creating .

In addition to the musicality of the effort, there is a necessary, very practical side to mixing. It's not all grand gestures, special effects, and ear candy. Mix engineers probably spend most of their time solving problems. Our mixes sound great when we learn to spot and know how to solve the myriad little rubs, clunky bits of conflict, and those occasional, fundamental failings that will dog the tracks we are asked to mix. We don't blindly/deafly repeat settings from past mixes in today's mix. But we do solve some of the same problems we've seen/heard in recent projects, tailoring the mix gestures as needed to address this problem in this project.

Our final mix is achieved incrementally, based on thousands of individual deci-sions we'll make along the way. Some are creative. Most are corrective. Each one represents a slight change in direction for the final mix. Each one contributes to the final sound of the mix. To be a great mixer, you have to get most of these decisions right, most of the time.

This book tries to up your odds. We study the core tools of the mix studio in enough detail that we can truly master them beyond anything the user manual tells us and get so comfortable with them that we can work fast without mental distraction, and then mix! No top-secret settings are revealed here, because none exist. Be suspicious of anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. Offered here are organizing principles and highly focused strategies for navigating the infinite possibilities presented to us with each mix.

When you get to work on Chapters 3 through 9 , studying key effects one at a time, you'll see a common way of organizing the mix. Every signal processor has multiple applications. Any given device might have been invented for one purpose, but the day after they made the first one, somebody on some session found other interesting possibilities. We categorize and prioritize all the options by recognizing three alliterative mix motivations.

THE FIX Problems arise. Some might have been anticipated. Some are surprises. Some could have been fixed by the performer; others by the tracking engineer. Some are big; some are small. Some are frequent; some are rare. But as mix engineer, the buck stops here. Whatever went wrong, it stops with us. We seek out prob-lems in need of fixing, and we fix them.

xxi Preface

THE FIT Multitrack mixing offers something of a jigsaw puzzle. Some number of audio components must be made to fit together so that they make sense to a listener wearing ear buds on the train, streaming through traffic in the car, holding down the couch watching TV, clicking about on their laptop, or relaxing with pop-corn in a surround-sound cinema. Squeezing more than 100 tracks of audio into a few loudspeakers, frankly, is doomed from the start. We dedicate careful thought, critical listening, and countless signal processes to getting the tracks to fit in and around each other, falling into place as a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts whole.

THE FEATURE With the tactics of fixing and fitting implemented, we then get to the more expressive part of the mixing craft: we massage mangle, decorate, deteriorate, emphasize, synthesize, and in all ways refine the sounds for artistic impact. We use our mixing studio to feature any aspect of any signal that we think benefits the production.

Along the way, we flag four notable moments:

The loudspeaker icon flags moments in the text when having an actual listen would be helpful. It indicates that you might want to take the book with you to the studio and find similar examples in your projects.

The play button encourages you to do exactly that. Go to the studio and try out these specific session suggestions.

Of course the whole book is a tip. Your author has made sure of it. But small moments of insight in which a memorable take-away thought has been offered are flagged by this lightbulb.

History repeats itself—in world events, and in our own mixes. This exclamation point tries to warn us so that we learn from past mistakes (hopefully the mistakes of others).

Alex U. Case Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 2011