Salut Jean-Yves!
There is a book by Bob Katz - I think his name is - on mastering and
probably mixing.
I've found some synth manuals very helpful concerning synth techniques. A
very nicely written one was the Clavia Nordlead 3's. You should still be able
to download it on
www.clavia.se or
www.nordkeyboards.com. Of course there's a
lot about the synth. But all its controls are directly on the surface, so they
talk about how to use the features. the NL3 is a typical virtual analogue
synth, supporting subtractive and FM synthesis.
There are also some nice tutorials about Linux audio, including at least one
about mastering for loudness by Ron Parker, they can be found here:
http://quicktoots.linuxaudio.org/
Well generally speaking: It's not too disturbing that one piece sounds
different on different systems. It happens to my pieces as well. I found these
few basic tipps helpful:
1. Always remember, that headphones don't reflect that much base. So don't
make your sound too brilliant, when using headphones.
2. when mixing it's a good idea to distribute sounds across the stereo
panorama, especially when they are around the same main frequencies.
3. When deciding on sounds: Perhaps start out with instruments in different
frequency ranges, and try not to use to many instruments with similar
characteristics at the same time.
Very basic Iagree, but helpful for a start.
I hope, this helps a bit.
Best wishes
Julien
--------
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