Ok, I have been to johns website, which I found very informative. I am the stereotype of "budget home studio". I am running a DAW in a windows environment...I really know nothing about engineering, but as most of us types start, we are knob twisters and stop when it sounds good to us. This is fine for the average home produced demo I realize, but I do want to create a final product that COULD go to CD, or be viewed as better than "noob"

I have been studying, reading and in turn trying and experimenting with these ideas that I have read about. I am doing some desktop composition, I am creating ambient/space+industrial style instrumental pieces. I have been creating music for about twelve years now, but now that I actually have some equipment to create a real product, no longer using my 4track...I want to make nice mixes, but now I am starting to become curious, and here is my question.

What is the process, in steps?

I record my instrument tracks, or sequence my midi tracks. Ok...that part is done. Now I have this raw material, all center panned. What do I do with it from this point?

Now I see things on "mixdown" however, I would like to make it clear that I will be doing everything from my computer. So, in this instance...having the sessions material in its raw state, what would my next step be?

At this point, what I HAVE been doing is: recording, adding my effects in, putting EQs and comps later in the insert line...and then after all that is tweaked, I will put a MB comp > EQ > master reverb > limiter in the master buss, and export it as a WAV file. It seems more logical to me to be able to have control at the individual track level...which is why I do it this way.

I ultimately want to master the product, and with my thirst for knowledge, *I* want to do this...because I like to have control over my final product, but I dont know what steps I have to do to get there.

My material is @ 24/48k. Ok...so in my mind...from what I have read...it seems like I would mix my product, level, pan etc. Now, I have some plugins for "mastering" EQs, MB comps and things of that nature. Can I master in my DAW? Or do I mix it down to WAV format and THEN master it?

I guess I am unclear as what the process is.

I have been looking at Peak Pro 6 as a mastering solution, only because of the meters/visual feedback as well as the plugin tools.

I hope this all seems clear...I just really want to know if I should mix+master in my DAW, or record > mix > export > re-import > master.

Thanks in advance, and I hope you are still awake after this long post.

I wouldn't normally send you to another web site, but in this case, you're looking for literally volumes of information that most people gather over years of practical experience.

So -

www.tweakheadz.com might at least be a good place to start.

thanks john

I frequent his site actually...I think through six degrees of seperation, that is how I managed to find studio forums, haha.

I know its a lot...I wanted an overview, I know that is kind of like saying "How does quantum physics work?"

thanks