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There are a lot of little noises that can sneak in between phrases. These extra noises are not noticed while the vocalist is singing but you don’t want to hear bleed from headphones, rustling paper, or any other distractions in between. It is quite common in the home recording studio world to put a noise gate on vocal tracks to eliminate these types of problems. Tuning a noise gate to correct this can be a time consuming process which is prone to creating one or two unnatural sounding words here and there. I prefer a more natural sounding approach. Show me how to do it »

The Line 6 POD X3 has the ability to function as two fully loaded and independent POD XT units. You can use your POD X3 to process two input sources and maintain individual control over the outputs. Here are a few basic and advanced examples of how to set up your X3 for this type of processing. Show me how to process two inputs »

Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools price check

UPDATE: This book is now available. A new book on mixing techniques is coming out in January 2008. The press release on the book makes it look like a potentially valuable resource. The book promises to cover techniques from basic to advanced and should appeal to home recording enthusiasts as well as studio professionals. The book comes with a DVD of audio examples including four full mixes to play with. The mixes are rock, hip hop, techno, and drum and bass. These mixes are used in examples and tutorials throughout the book.

Quick review:

This book covers a lot of higher level concepts without as much rubber meets the road type advice. A large portion of the book is devoted to talking about tools (as the title implies) with an entire chapter devoted to describing the function of controls found on a typical mixer. This book is absolutely recommended to beginners, but has pockets of information that can be enjoyed by more experienced mixers looking to hone their chops a bit. One of the greatest aspects of the included DVD is the library of sound clips demonstrating critical listening.

More books about mixing

I have always thought it was important to choose your first vocal mic carefully. After you build your home studio mic collection you may find a number of mics in your cabinet which could all work wonders on a vocal recording. Once you have the luxury of multiple mics at your disposal it can be quite a bit of fun selecting the mic that most complements your vocalist’s voice. This article will show you an effective way to quickly make a mic selection. Show me more about vocal mics

The Tone Monster mixing section is off to a good start with an article on series compression of vocal tracks. Series compression is a technique where you use multiple compressors, one after another, to achieve higher gain reduction without the pumping that can typically be associated with extreme compression. Check out the technique in the new article about taming vocals with series compression.