Can anyone reccomend a good forums where i can work with others on perfecting my skills (or at least getting some). Ie bouncing ideas and tracks around to see what people think?

Your there already.

Of course, the spelling leaves a little to be desired... but this is the place.

Hahaha - yeah the your/you're thing drives me nuts.

can anyone recommend a good spelling forum

just kidding, sorry im an IT techy and ive become a bit lazy checking my spelling, as you guys are very sensative to this matter ill double check from now on

Anyhow thanks for mentioning that, i just feel so rubbish at mixing at the moment and Ive heard a lot of work (i do click the signatures for myspace etc) and im really impressed it puts my work to shame

You can try gearslutz (www.gearslutz.com) but be prepared for brutal honesty and some d***heads.

The WOmb can be good too. (http://thewombforums.com/)

To be honest...screw forums. Crack a bottle of Jim Beam Black, and kick back with some of your favorite tunes. Make notes...what instruments in what ranges...what do you notice about the tone. If it's drums, hit your samples along with it...guitar, play along...

I mean, beyond some really basic stuff about signal flow and gain staging, it's ALL your ears. And don't forget, assume everything on forums is suspect anyway. I could really suck...I know someone, whose name I won't mention, who writes for various recording mags--after many years of reading his words, I heard his music. It blew. Sounded bad. Bad content. Yuck. I chuckle everytime I see one of his articles now.

BUT...singal flow and gain staging...you can get that all over, but it's admittedly trickier to learn signal flow when it's all "virtual" and you have apps that propose to do things automagically for you.

I don't envy people getting into recording in a mixerless age.

I've always liked mixposure.com (formerly imusicscene.com , formerly guitaristworks.com ) Wish they would quit changing the name though. They give you a nice page to upload your stuff to. Must be original though, no covers.

ok thanks everyone.

By gain stages I presume (as I would look at this outside first) that this is to do with keeping impedances correct, getting plenty of signal into the box etc. I was taught at college music technology (i learnt some stuff on a Yamaha o2r)

We also had a big MCI desk, the same one used to record Robbie Williams Millenium on, and some nice Joe meeks. Problem was it was being buitld when I was there and guess what! It was only really finished when I left. I did get chance to play with it, but I was just too incompetant at the time.

So you see I have had this background, and I only really got into it seriously just after the degree when I wanted to take it to a more serious level.

Some mistakes I can't let go of are serious compression.. ie slam the hell out of everything, I look at what others do and its so much more subtle. When to use a limiter other than a compressor.. they both seem to do a similar sort of thing to my ears, and when I apply suggested setting I don't notice a difference (well ok only slight but how the am i going to know if its gonna work at those levels?) Of course I have started to realise thats lots of slamming kills the air of a track.

I agree that the majority of books and DVD's are no help compared to a real engineer.

I live in a rural country City of Hereford in the UK and Im not in the best area but its where i am now and I gotta do the best I can here.

(PS I know what you mean about some of the writers in magazines, I have seen some work and not been that impressed but occasional writers).