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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Massey brings legends to your living room, November 6, 2000
This review is from: Behind the Glass - Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits (Softcover) (Paperback)
When I first saw BEHIND THE GLASS, by Howard Massey, I began turning its pages immediately. Publisher Miller-Freeman, it seems to me, has sort of seized the initiative in releasing great new music-industry titles that appeal to the targeted up-and-coming musician as well as veteran industry observers, teachers, and researchers. Author Howard Massey presents his material in interview format, sometimes with individual U.S. and British engineers and producers, and sometimes in a group setting (East coast panel, West coast panel, for example). He obviously has both great access to and an easygoing credibility with hit-making engineers and producers, because the questions are good, the answers are candid, complete, and casual. (If I sound vague about Massey, it's because I haven't bumped into him and the book contains no "about the author" blurb, a disappointing omission.) The book is being marketed briskly to college and trade-school recording programs, so--will this book teach you recording? No, you must still learn the basics from a good class setting, or a mentor, or in a self-directed experience with a different class of book than this (Runstein, Wadhams, and Woram are among the classic recording-text authors). But don't think I'm diminishing the value of this new book: it reads fast, and Massey brings all these legendary names into your living room, making them acquaintances, colleagues, friends--sharing shoptalk, suggesting both general methods and personal trade-mark techniques. Here's a bit of detail I gleaned from Behind the Glass: I bought James Taylor's Hourglass CD in Cape Town, South Africa a couple of years ago on a day when I needed to hear some mellow American music, and found myself entranced with the recording quality. I made a mental note to associate those great rich sounds with engineer Frank Filipetti. Later that same year Hourglass won a grammy as best recorded album-no surprise to me-but I honestly had no idea, until reading Massey's interview of Filipetti, that Hourglass was essentially recorded on hastily-assembled project studio gear on Martha's Vineyard. My respect for Filipetti went from huge to immense. Behind the Glass is excellent for prospective engineers or producers, for teachers of recording, or anyone with technical insight who is involved or interested in the recent history of pop music production. Ron Simpson, School of Music, Brigham Young University. Author of MASTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource, but how does it rate for up-and-comings...?, January 5, 2001
This review is from: Behind the Glass - Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits (Softcover) (Paperback)
The other really good reviews tell you what you want to know about the logistics of the book. I want to talk about whether or not an up-and-coming musician/producer/composer can use the book in their daily work and professional lives to any useful extent. My quick answer is absolutely. It's chockful of great interviews with unquestionable legends in the field. We always hear about the artists and get these clunky, chopped up interviews in magazines with them about what it took to make the record ("I had a dream", "My contract was about up", "It's an homage to field mice", etc.), but we rarely get such an in-depth look at who REALLY makes these artists SOUND they way they do. There's a ton of stuff about the gear they use, how they use it and why they use it. The slant of the book is a little high-end, which is understandable, considering the professional level of the producers we're talking about here, so the average joe in their bedroom or basement studio may find the discussions about $10,000 microphones a bit overwhelming and useless, but the theories about how they're used and what environments (an aspect of recording SADLY bypassed by big and small name studios alike) they're striving to create are invaluable, and can be applied everywhere. If you're an aspiring artist, get it because it will tell you where the lines are in your working relationships with these people, and help you help yourself instead of looking at the studio clock with 6 more tracks you'd like to lay. If you're a session musician, you'll probably find it useful when the discussions turn to getting good sounds out of your instruments in various environments. And if you're an aspiring producer, you HAVE to get it. It's your guide through ego, business and the nature of what you wish to do.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Learning From The Masters, October 15, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Behind the Glass - Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits (Softcover) (Paperback)
If you're a musician, an aspiring engineer/producer or are into any aspect of audio, you'll find this book absolutely fascinating. The author obviously knows his stuff (he's a producer and engineer himself, and a well-known writer in EQ magazine), and by asking probing and detailed questions, Massey has managed to get the world's top record producers to spill the beans about every aspect of how they make hit records, and he's also successfully captured the essence of their personalities. Each of the big names in the business -- George Martin, Brian Wilson, Alan Parsons, Phil Ramone, Arif Mardin, George Massenburg, even the usually reticent Geoff Emerick (who engineered Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road) get a full chapter, and there are two absolutely hilarious panel discussions as well. Equal time is given to top American and English producers, and I especially liked the section called "Young Guns," in which younger, up-and-coming producers (like Walter Afanasieff, Chuck Ainlay, Danny Saber and Sylvia Massy) get a chance to present their views. All in all, this is a truly exceptional, eminently readable book. If you've got a son, daughter, nephew or niece who's into music, this will make the perfect stocking stuffer.
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