Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Recording Illustrated (The Complete Idiot's Guide) [Paperback]

Clayton Walnum (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide | Publication Date: November 4, 2003

More and more people are making their own music...now, a pro offers expert help.

This book, geared toward the rapidly growing number of home recording enthusiasts, offers a step-by-step breakdown of the fundamental concepts and techniques of sound recording, with diagrams and photos illustrating the text.

€ Home recording enthusiasts are a quickly expanding market as audio equipment decreases in price
€ Illustrated format sets this book apart from its competitors
€ Covers more home recording software than competing titles
€ The author is an experienced musician and sound recorder with formal training

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clayton Walnum is an award-winning author who has been playing and recording music for decades. With formal studio training at the Recording Institute of America, he has been a producer and professional musician for nearly 20 years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592571220
• ISBN-13: 978-1592571222
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,200,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very poorly written but some basic info to get you started., March 21, 2005

By 

Russell C Frame - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Recording Illustrated (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Paperback)

I don't usually write reviews but this book was so disappointing I felt obligated to save people some money on its purchase. I really do not expect much from a how-to book but this has to be one of the worst written and edited books I've ever seen.

The author attempts to be funny at least once per paragraph and fails miserably. Humor is a good thing in technical writing to keep people awake buy if he would've cut out his lame jokes the book would be 1/3 smaller and easier to read.

To give you an example of the terrible layout and editing: He spends a couple of pages explaining how hard it is to create a good mic setup for live drums. Then he spends a couple more pages telling you how to use an alternative drum machine output to multiple stereo tracks. So far, so good. Then the next paragraph he starts saying how hard it is to mic live drums and how to use a drum machine...?? What the heck, did they even read this thing before printing it?

So, the writing is terrible and the layout makes it even worse, but there is some limited value in this book. It does explain the basic steps and equipment used in setting up a multi-track home studio with emphasis on using a digital audio workstation (personal computer/laptop) setup as opposed to a stand-alone multi-track recorder. It does explain basic microphone types and their usage along with some of the challenges you'll face when recording different types of instruments. You will only read this book once though as the info is very basic and nothing worth referencing later.

Overall, if you can survive the lame humor it's ok to skim through as a primer on home recording. I personally wouldn't recommend it as a book worth purchasing as there are plenty of others out there and the technical information you'll find you could easily get by spending an hour or two on the Internet or even reading product descriptions in a music store catalog.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book for anyone interested in recording!, January 2, 2004

By 

Alex (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Recording Illustrated (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Paperback)

I have been interested in home recording for a few months now. I wanted to find a book that had good, relevant, up-to-date information on the subjects I wanted to know about. This book matches that criteria perfectly. Written less than two months ago at the time I am writing this review (Jan 2, 2004), there is no outdated information at all.

The best thing about this book, in my opinion, is the fact that as long as you have a relatively powerful computer, you don't need to purchase anything besides the book to get started working with mixing, editing, and mastering recordings. You are given a CD that contains sample sound files and sessions for Pro Tools Free. You will also be told exactly how to download and install this software.

As you progress through the book, you will work on a song called Pro Tools Blues; you will gradually add elements to it as you learn how certain things work with Pro Tools Free. The CD also contains all the files needed to do this, so microphones are not a necessity.

This is a great book. If you ever wanted to learn how to record and mix audio, this is a great beginning resource. I highly recommend it. 5/5.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lives up to its name, May 9, 2004

By 

"gen80p" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Home Recording Illustrated (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Paperback)

This book is great for someone just starting out in home recording, and people more advanced. Clayton Walnum (the author) goes throug everything that is important in a home studio, from setting up your studio, to mixing a great song. Not only is this book easy to read, but it gives you pictures and also examples on the CD-rom that is included with the book. I've bought more expensive books trying to get answers about home recording and none of them were more detailed than this book is. The common idiot would be able to record good quality music on a home studio after reading this book.