Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio - Additional Resources

Can I use my mixes/masters of these multitrack projects as part of a portfolio to publicise my own mixing/mastering services?

That kind of usage is not permitted under the terms I agreed with the library contributors, so you’d have to contact the artist/producer in question directly to ask for permission. (There are contact URLs alongside almost all the library listings. Where no contact URL is provided, it’s because the contributor of that multitrack has chosen not to invite further contact, which therefore means you can’t use mixes of their work for your own commercial publicity purposes.) The artists and producers concerned are generally a very amenable bunch, so I’d personally expect most of them would be more than happy to give permission – after all, you’ll effectively be publicising their music for them.

Can I use these multitracks to produce video tutorials?

On the basis that such usage is educational, this shouldn’t be a problem, as long as the tutorial is entirely not-for-profit. However, if you’re charging anyone to view the tutorial, or if the tutorial itself is ‘monetized’ in any way (perhaps by including adverts or other promotional devices), then please contact the relevant multitrack contributors directly for permission.

Can I use these multitracks as part of a research project?

While I’m inclined to feel that this does fall within the general spirit of ’educational use’, it hasn’t been specifically agreed with contributors to the library. So please contact the relevant contributors directly to agree proper terms of usage in this case, especially if your research is for commercial purposes.

Can these multitracks be used for mix-off competitions?

Yes – just as long as the competition isn’t part of some commercial venture. Most normal forum-based mix-offs are fine, it’s only things like official manufacturer/publisher-led mixing competitions that fall significantly outside the ’educational purposes’ I agreed with the library contributors. If you’re in any doubt, though, do please contact the relevant multitrack contributor directly via the web link accompanying their library listing – again, the contributors are all reasonable people, and may well appreciate the additional exposure of featuring in a commercial competition. Bear in mind, too, that the artist in question may be eager to hear and comment on the different mixes, so dropping them a line to let them know that a mix-off is in progress would probably be appreciated anyway! 🙂 One further note: to link to a specific multitrack in the library, please click the artist name in the library listings to copy the direct link (which should look something like “https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#MultitrackName" in your browser), not the raw URL of the ZIP archive, otherwise I may inadvertently break your link while I’m renaming, reorganising, or rehosting the files day to day.

May I use these multitracks for classroom assignments and audio demonstrations within a formal teaching context?

Absolutely. Providing useful classroom materials for teachers was one of the primary reasons I set up the resource in the first place. If you have any problems using the multitracks within your own school/college environment, please do let me know so that I can make the library as user-friendly and accessible as possible for educators. The only proviso is that you aren’t premitted to package these multitracks into any kind of commercial teaching product (such an instructional DVD for sale, say) – for that kind of use, please contact the relevant multitrack contributors directly for permission. I’d also advise against stock-piling downloaded multitrack ZIPs on your own local school/college server, simply because I do repair/improve these archive files from time to time in response to feedback from library users.

The ZIP file I downloaded is corrupted! What can I do about it?

If one of the ZIP files appears to be corrupted, then your download is probably incomplete, in which case you’ll usually find that the filesize shown in your operating system is substantially different from the filesize stated in the library listing. Some people’s network connections aren’t very reliable with such large files. If the problem persists, try using a download manager such as the freeware JDownloader or InBasic’s Turbo Download Manager add-on for Mozilla’s open-source Firefox web-browser. Some downloaders can resume interrupted downloads from where they left off, so one of those may be a good bet if you’re planning on downloading a large number of the multitracks. If these measures don’t work, though, do please let me know so that I can repair any truly corrupted files.