I'd join...great idea.

yes please.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=29283

long but valuable read

I'm not much of a joiner, but I like the idea. I enjoy ripping apart my own work and occasionally lend an ear to others in an effort to provide (allegedly) constructive criticism. I'm terrible at recording/mixing/mastering, so I could stand to learn a lot providing the people in the forum are willing to work together and share information freely.

Awesome idea, indeed. ;-)

Most of what I know (damn little, admittedly) I learned from cockos in conjunction with REAPER.

Many have tried to explain Soft Knee compression to me, but nobody has gotten through to me yet.

@Ken - that's a huge thread, and I'm not going to have a chance to read it all now...lol...but I'll postulate that there's a wealth of value in that. Are you suggesting, tho', that that would be better than having our own mixing group?

Or was that your first contribution to the group? :D

I agree that anytime someone has a mixing question they could go do research externally, and that there are tons of great resources out there, but that's not what I'm proposing.

I'm suggesting this would be a group to say "here's a mix I'm working on [insert link]. Everyone, including stone deaf drummers are claiming I'm scooping the hell outta the mids, yet I'm not using any eq. Does anyone else hear that, and what can I do to fix it?". In other words, something very specific to what we are doing here on kompoz, and something that with the feedback and help of people here can enable the person working on the mix to improve it, and at the same time build a cache of knowledge here for folks who may not know of gearslutz, etc.

(I'm going to have to go thru that thread....may take me weeks, tho'.)

Yeah it is, just look at posts by Yep, they are worth it for as much time as you can spare over time. I just read a little bit at a time and it added up. Some have taken his posts and made a pdf which are linked in the thread somewhere.

The big things I got out of it are don't skimp on monitors (but you don't have to have $1kUSD each or more either) , treat your listening space acoustically with bass traps etc (which I need to do) and learn the basics. Don't always keep looking at plugins as solutions.

I like the idea of this group where people can discuss/work on specific mixes and generalize. I am in for as little as I can offer.

This was the idea of the recording and engineering group. The projects section was intended to be a listening room where we could share all ideas about the mix... from tracking to mixing to mastering.

What keeps happening is self-promoters post their projects there... which I delete if there's no reference in the discussion section.

I'm all for a new group, but at risk of creating one where the function exists, feel free to use the Recording and Engineering room for these types of discussions. THEY'RE ALL RELATED. Cheers.

Bill, I think it's an awesome idea and I would not worry about overlap with other groups. In my experience, I observe more discussion about mixing in project comments than any other issue (except for Aardvarks & pizza, but we'll deal with that separately).

So I think it's a great idea. I happen to love mixing as much as I love playing. Count me in.

EDIT NOTE: I wrote this prior to seeing Rick's post (above). I guess I was one finger typing when Rick posted :)

I am in favor of a dedicated place to deal with mixing. If it can be worked into the R&E group, that would be great. But, since not a lot of mixing discussions are occurring in the R&E group, a dedicated Mixing Group may get the tribe re-focused.

One thing I don't like is the discussions section in the groups. It's frankly useless since it's not threaded. Nor searchable. I'm sorry to be harsh, but there it is. I'd like to see the forums extended to support the groups themselves.

I completely agree, Bill. The groups would be better in a layout somewhat similar to the forums (which could also use an update). The current configuration is highly unappealing and not even worth digging for anything, regardless of how useful the information may be.

Agreed, Bill. It would be greatly improved if it was searchable and the group owner could manage the message order, organize topics and publish "stickies". The current structure is pretty chaotic.

At one point I was seeing so many mixing related questions that I looked into forming a group that offered a structural, weekly, lesson type approach to mixing but the group format here just is not conducive to organizing something like that.

Definitely count me in. I need all the help I can get!

I would join

There's also a group called "The Critic" where members can submit a mix for critique - but it hasn't attracted much action. Maybe it has the "wrong" name? The R&E group already contains a wealth of info on mixing and mastering and already has dealt with "mixing" issues. Maybe there's a better solution somewhere for keeping this topic of interest under the same roof otherwise it will be a bit of a chore to search all over Kompoz for info on mixing. Just my 2c.

I suppose I just am not finding what I want from any of the existing groups in this regard. I am not looking for a place to post up a mix when it's done and get critique (I expect to get the critique from within the project).

I'm looking for a place where without needing to feel insecure and with ego aside people can say "here's my mix, and it's not popping. what can I do?" and people will help get that mix working for that person - w/o jumping in on the proj unless asked, or in some way making that person feel insecure.

I'm looking for a place where Jim can say "hey - check out this nifty trick I discovered" and post up how he did something and I can learn from that.

I'm not interested in what hardware is best for a recording platform, etc. Not because that info isn't valuable, but because I'm not looking to buy right now, and that information is well covered in the excellent R&E group.

I am interested in mixing, very specifically, as a subject for a group.

And while I hear folks say there are other alternatives, I can say that I've only seen one post to any of the groups that deals with the kinda of thing I'm interested in having in a group. And that's in around 10 months or so since I joined.

This is not to slam the groups - there's a ton if great info in the mastering group, and in the R&E group, and in the logic DAW group (I can't speak for the others).

But this may just be me - so bring on the feedback! :)

As you mentioned, I experienced the benefit of having a long and detailed Q & A with some very well knowledge audio mixers. I learned quite a bit, but it was the encouragement that helped more than anything. There are many articles and forums throughout the internet, but kompoz has its own vibe. The guys were able to see that what I was really asking was "is it reasonable to think I can mix?" I wasn't bombarded with people stepping in to show how much they know about the craft. I really felt like everyone was interested in answering my questions, rather than posturing for each other.

I've done lots of research outside of kompoz and I found some very useful info, but if I want a human element, I look here first.

Start the group and include clear guidelines for participation in the group description, not a warning against what not to do, but rather a mission statement. Then blog it. New groups disappear as fast as new projects. It'll fall flat if the word doesn't get out.

Hopefully, threaded forums are coming. . . and maybe mod power to some of the larger groups can be offered to long standing and trusted group founders.

Do it, Bill. Press the history eraser button! >:D

lol...I love that button!

I gotta think more about the discussions part. I pestered Raf about this and offered to help integrate something like phpbb if we want a new discussions engine.

I feel very strongly that for this to be a help for folks we need threaded discussions ala a forum section.

Hell yes, with sticky too.

Yeah - the site is a great one in so many ways. But, like anything, there's room for incremental improvements and I think this is one area (along with my personal horse to beat, searching) that can have huge upside in the user experience.

I know there's been thought and planning going into this, of course.

You know, I'd love to see a "roadmap" for the future put up. Something that shows what the roll out of features can be expected to look like. Not necessarily something tied down by date, but showing what's coming in some order. But that's off topic. Not that that's ever stopped me in other posts...

I personally find the groups difficult to navigate around in.

What about creating a project and call it "listening post" or "mix review' and anyone can post their mixes for scrutiny in there.

I was thinking about doing the same thing for songwriters who have works that are not quite ready to be projects yet.

I think Rab notes there's a group called "Critic" that you can post your mixes in for that, although that may be oriented more towards completed mixes.

I'm really more after a interactive forum than a traditional kompoz group, to be honest; but one specific to kompoz versus a forum on gearslutz or whatever.

I'm like Joe and sometimes find it hard to navigate around the groups - and a lot of "stuff" slips under my radar generally as the site becomes more complex. My own "worry" was more to do with me being lazy and having a preference for all mixing discussion areas to be interlinked in some way. So, that aside, I'd say start the mixing group, Bill. I can see more positives than negatives if the remit is clearly defined :o)

You guys are all right on about the issue of missing things.

This is why I keep thinking I want to have this be more like a forum section.

Hmm....

Well, it's a done deal:

Mixing