The Professional Audio Mixing Blueprint by Horace Ward — book cover
A new book by Horace Ward

Everything 40-plus years behind the desk taught me about mixing, in one book.

The Professional Audio Mixing Blueprint is the whole decision-based system I run on every session, laid out over twelve chapters. It goes from monitoring setup and gain staging through compression, EQ and automation, right up to the protocol pro engineers actually follow before they export a mix. You won't find vague theory or plugin worship in there, just the framework that gets the job done.

The book's out now on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

12
Chapters
40
Pages
40+
Years of experience
Every
DAW supported
"Mixing is not a theory problem. It's a listening skill. This book is organised around decisions, not plugins – when to turn knobs, why to turn them, and equally important, when to leave them alone."
From the introduction

What's in the book

Four of the chapters are up on this site as free articles, written out in full with no paywall. The book ties them all together with the figures, the diagrams and the complete framework that runs from one chapter to the next.

01
Monitoring & Translation
02
Gain Staging, Balance & Phase
03
EQ as a Clarity Tool
04
Compression for Consistency
05
Reverb, Delay & Stereo Width
06
Automation, Mix Bus & Mastering Prep
07
Listening, Psychoacoustics & Ear Care
08
Modulation, Saturation & FX
09
Mixing for the Song – Genre & Context
10
Application Casebook: Kick, Bass & Vocal
11
Diagnosing Common Mix Failures
12
The Path Forward

Grab a copy

The full edition has all 12 chapters and every last figure and diagram, and you can pick it up on Amazon right now.

Get it on Amazon →