Understanding and Crafting the Mix

Understanding and Crafting the Mix gives you clear and systematic methods for identifying, evaluating, and shaping the artistic elements in music and audio recording. The exercises throughout help you to develop critical listening and evaluating skills and gain greater control over the quality of your recordings.
William Moylan takes an inside look into a range of popular music, including recordings by The Beatles, offering you insights into making meaningful sound judgements during recording. Sample production sequences and descriptions of the recordist's roles as composer, conductor and performer provides you with a clear view of the entire recording process.
The foreword has graciously been provided by industry legend Rupert Neve.
The book also includes an audio CD featuring exercises, reference materials, examples of mixes and sound qualities, and tracks and instructions for setting up and evaluating playback systems.

Dr. William Moylan is currently Professor of Music and Coordinator of Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. A Leading educator in audio and an active recording engineer and producer for over 20 years, Moylan has worked with leading artists across the full spectrum of jazz, popular and classical genres. His recordings have been released by major and independent record labels and have resulted in wide recognition, including several GRAMMY Award nominations.

"While there have been numerous books published about the various technical and theoretical elements of recording, very few have addressed the more artistic and craft-based aspects of creating the mix.

I enjoyed reading Moylan's book, mainly for the way it presents familiar ideas and concepts in a completely new light, but also because it introduced me to new ways of thinking and new approaches to recording and production. Thoroughly recommended." - Sound on Sound (May 2007)

Praise for previous edition:
'Dr Moylan's methods and techniques for training of the ear for artistic and technical evaluation of sound, and his development of parameters for a common "language" should be adopted by all professionals and aspiring professionals in the field.'
Raul Valery, Valencia Community College

The Elements of Sound and Audio Recording
The Aesthetic and Artistic Elements of Sound in Audio Recordings
The Musical Message and the Listener
Listening and Evaluating Sound for the Audio Professional
A System for Evaluating Sound
Evaluating Pitch in Audio and Music Recordings Evaluating Loudness in Audio and Music Recordings Evaluating Sound Quality
Evaluating the Spatial Elements of Reproduced Sound Complete Evaluations and Understanding Observations Bringing Artistic Judgment to the Recording Process
The Aesthetics of Recording Production
Preliminary Stages: Defining the Materials of the Project
Capturing, Shaping, and Creating the Performance
The Final Artistic Processes and an Overview of Music Production Sequences