The Music Mixing Workbook: Exercises To Help You Learn How To Mix On Any DAW

by Bobby Owsinski

If you’re new to mixing and aren’t sure what to do, or your mixes aren’t anywhere near where you’d like them to be, then The Music Mixing Workbook is exactly what you need. Written by Bobby Owsinski, the author of the award winning and highly acclaimed Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (the standard reference book for mixing in schools around the world), the Music Mixing Workbook features hands-on exercises that teach you all the things that make a mix sound great, as well as all the things to avoid along the way.Designed to meet the needs of anyone relatively new to or confused about the once mysterious process of mixing audio, the book features 175 different exercises covering every operation needed to complete a modern sounding professional mix with tips and tricks that come directly from the A-list pro mixers.The easy-to-grasp exercises can be used with any DAW application or hardware console, and any genre of music.Topics covered • DAW vs. console channel signal flow • Basic monitoring setup to optimize your playback environment • Balancing mix elements using a never-miss technique • Panning techniques for various mix elements • Multiple EQ strategies for powerful and distinct tracks • Compression, gates, and saturators and how to use them • Reverb, delay and modulation effects and how to layer them like the pros • Master mix techniques, and much moreAlthough the reader can use the Workbook with any current mixes they may be working on, most of the exercises are built around professionally recorded tracks that are available to download for free.The Music Mixing Workbook is meant to work in conjunction with Bobby’s popular Mixing Engineer’s Handbook to provide the practical training behind the many concepts involved with mixing.

260 pages, Paperback

Published January 18, 2021

Reviews

[Steve Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Companion

This book is a great companion to Bobby Owsinski’s “The Mixing Engineer's Handbook: 5th Edition”.
I have never trusted some of the YouTubers who offer mixing advice, particularly when they offer conflicting and bad techniques. Whereas Bobby teaches both from his own experience and from interviews with other seasoned professional sound engineers.
My honest opinion is that the Music Mixing Workbook is best used with Mixing Engineer’s Handbook mentioned for the sake of good continuity. However, it’s your choice and you will still get a lot from the exercises contained in this book as a standalone.
That being said, Bobby does have a methodical teaching approach and thankfully uses easy to follow instructions for the exercises. He has even given a link to tracks that you can download and use for practice.
You need to have at least a working knowledge of tools such as Equalisers, Compressors and FX plugins (all explained in The Mixing Engineer's Handbook: 5th Edition) to get the best out of the exercises, but I’m certain that you’ll have plenty of “eureka” moments as you work through the book.
Take your time, don’t rush it because you’re bound to miss something important if you do.
Stay safe, stay well and happy mixing.

[matthew spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a workbook

Its a workbook and the songs you're supposed to work on I couldn't find nor can I imagine how to get them into my DAW. Its an interesting read but its alot of hands on technical instruction that you use with a daw but again where are the songs to download? I guess you can use your own songs though. I really didn't like this book that much. I don't have the time to follow all the directions in it.

[Rick Jackofsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth and well-written explanation of multitrack recording techniques and effects.