can someone explain to me >producing >mixing >mastering

Producers are usually involved in the composition of the song, i.e writing the melodies and the chord progressions. Many singer/songwriters, and today even bands will have a number of producers write music for them to sing over.

Mixing and Engineering refer to the same thing, although engingeering could also refer to mastering to. A mixing engineer is responsible for the technical processes involved. The recording and mixing process are important to how a song will sound when completed. There are many skills and tricks to getting the best recording possible, and once everything is recorded, it sounds pretty ass by itself, so an engineeer will use a number of mixing tools, such as adjusting levels, using EQ and compression, and other effects like reverb and delay to make your song sonically pleasing. They aren't involved in the composition at all.

cont. (because this website is fucking abysmal and thought my post was spam)

A mastering enginer is a very specialised occupancy. Basically their job is to create a master copy of your song that can be printed on CD or Vinyl, with minimal amounts of errors. For example, an analog master will need to be converted to digital for mp3s and cds, this is handled by a mastering engineerr. He/ she will also deal specifically with the overall volumme of the song.

File: Screen Shot 2017-04-26 at 14.14.32.png (39KB, 308x266px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 308x266px

yeah I have more to say but...nice one hiro

Very informative. I'm not OP but thanks anon. I learned something I never knew I wanted the answer to.

File: 1299812486201.jpg (171KB, 839x1708px) Image search: [Google]

171KB, 839x1708px

>>72422722
Bring back m00t

>>72422749
I guess I'll make one more stab at writing this without being flagged as spam.

A mixing engineer will typically mix the song at a relatively low volume, allowing for 'headroom'. This is basically like a volume budget for the mastering engineer to use very expensive gear to raise the overall level of the song without destroying the dynamic range, or hitting the ceiling of a limiter

In other words, the mixer arranges each channel to be accurate relative to each other, but quiet overall. Then the whole thing is brought up with specific software

>>72422302
sure, person without google or wikipedia,
producing, realizing the artist's vision. It can be relatively easy or very difficult.
mixing, balancing and sequencing multiple tracks for each song
mastering, adapts the final product to other media
engineering, the recording of the source material

Which is most important varies. There is plenty of home studio equipment that allows one to do their mastering and mixing. Many artists can self-produce. Mastering has almost become a lost art, especially analog, since so many artists sell online digital, but is making a comeback with the resurgence of vinyl.

Maybe the most notoriously bad album for engineering is The Stooges' Raw Power. Iggy really made a mess of it. The Velvet Underground and Nico is another. Led Zeppelin II is notorious for all the awkward splicing and sub-par recording locations.

As far as what makes good mastering. That's sort of subjective. I would recommend almost any disc that was remastered at MSFL (mobile fidelity sound labs) or SACD's. A few standouts I can think of are:
REM's Murmur (for the acoustic sound)
David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars (for the quiet-to-loud dynamic)
Steely Dan's Aja (for perfect flat reference)
Boston's s/t debut (for over-the top brightness)
Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow (for the amazing separation of the instruments)
Brian Eno's 1st 3 albums or The Beatles last 4 are considered pinnacles of their era for their attention to all phases (though the Beatles had some sloppy splicing).
Phil Spector and Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boy) were both famous for their production prowess and vision.

You may want to decide on your own reference music. The most important quality is accuracy and clarity. If the source is clear and the recording equipment is flat, that makes it much easier for the producer, mixer, and mastering engineer.

Thanks for the easy question. Feel free to ask more.

>>72422722
it's because you said the word master and then the word channel, it trips the spam filter for some reason

>>72422668
>Mixing and Engineering refer to the same thing
not entirely, engineering also refers to the physical setup of all the recording equipment (mic placement, setting levels, etc)

As for training your ear, it can be hard cause at the end of the day it's subjective. There's a reason the loudness wars exist, it's because a lot of people actually enjoy the sound of compressed noise with no dynamic range. You CAN train your ear to hear the difference between those though, so you can make your mind up from there.

>Example of 'well' mixed song, dynamic range intact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0HVAlyzqcI

>Example of 'brick wall' mixing, very loud and heavy, no dynamic range

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc2kqR1OXqc

>>72422847
>The Velvet Underground and Nico
i think it works really well

>>72422964
Have you heard the 1st pressing or a later remaster?

>>72423006
i don't know

>>72423028
All 3 of the albums I listed as sub-par recording have remastered versions that covered many original flaws. Raw Power was pretty much impossible to improve, but people have tried.

Both Led Zep II and VUwN have MSFL versions that are very nice.

>>72422302
knobs on the mixers can be a number of things. the faders are volume controls for each channel, and each channel will usually have some amount of EQ parameters (3 band, aka bass, mid, treble), as well as fx send/aux sends. engineers typically run fx sends out into a patch bay which connects them to all the outboard effects they want to use (compressors, eq, reverb, delay) and are then sent back via effects return input in the affected channel. I'm actually not entirely sure how they end up integrating all of this into a DAW, but they'll probably end up doing much more in a DAW than they will on the consoles because plugins are getting better and cheaper
>>72422810
I always thought those mastering want to hit limiters to an extent. especially with everyone wanting things to be extremely loud and compressed.