Written by an award-winning, highly respected professional, Mastering Audio gives you a thorough introduction to the unique procedures and technical issues involved in mastering.
Suitable for all levels of students and professionals, it is ideal for anyone who wants to increase their mastery of digital and analog audio: musicians, producers, A&R, mastering, recording, and mixing engineers.
Fully updated to cover the latest technologies, Mastering Audio discusses audio philosophy and art: sequencing, levelling, processing; how to make a record album radio-ready; and mixing as it relates to mastering. Divided into five parts, the book begins with the basics--monitoring, mastering techniques, useful tutorials, and the fundamentals of dithering and decibels--then moves on to more advanced concepts, such as jitter and clocking, monitor calibration, and multi channel audio, miking, and acoustics. Leading-edge audio concepts are explained in an easy-to-grasp style.
Including practical tips and real-world experiences, Bob Katz explains the technical detail of the subject in his informative and humorous style.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"If you record, you need this book. Arguably the most clearly written single source of essential audio information available, Katz populates its 335 very readable pages with fascinating insights, expert testimony, myth-debunking facts, practical techniques, and strong opinions. Ostensibly about mastering, this book goes way beyond its primary subject and covers so much critical information that it should be required reading for anyone who presses 'Record.'"--GuitarPlayer.com
About the Author
Bob Katz played the B flat clarinet from the age of 10, and his lifelong love of sound and music led him to become a professional recording, mixing and mastering engineer (since 1971). Three of his recordings have garnered the GrammyT award and many others have been lauded in publications such as Stereo Review, Audio, and Stereophile. He has written over one hundred articles for audio and computer publications, and is an inventor and manufacturer with processors and support gear in use at mastering studios worldwide. His most recent patent-pending inventions, the K-Stereo and K-Surround Processors, fill a missing link in the mastering and post- production pantheon. He has been a workshops, facilities and section chairman of the AES and has given lectures in several countries. Currently, Bob runs Digital Domain Studios just north of Orlando, Florida.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By IH
Format:Paperback
Background: I'm an amateur/enthusiast hobbyist who plays multiple instruments and records in home studio.
I was very excited reading the reviews and immediately got a copy of this book. Now that I have owned it for several years, and finished reading multiple times, I concluded the following:
- The author has absolutely extensive experience.
- However, the book truly feels just like a dump of the author's notes over the years. Just various items, high level, and low level, mixed together. Does not seem to have a good structure that's useful for the reader.
- This is not for beginners, as it is nowhere near systematically explaining how to "master audio". A beginner would finish the book confused, gaining almost no new skill.
- This is not for intermediate engineers, as it sometimes assumes you know nothing, but in other places it talks about details that would only amuse absolute pros with decades of experience.
- This is not for advanced engineers, since I'm guessing they would already know those few techniques mentioned in the book.
How is it useful for people learning to master, to show exotic audio processing devices, describing each in 1-2 sentences? Most readers wouldn't use them anyway.
And... the kicker: The book feels like it doesn't want *me* to master audio, that I should leave the task to a professional mastering engineer, because it thinks I will not do a good job.
One target audience that might benefit from this book is people who already got the required mastering training/school from somewhere else, and want to hear stories from a pro.
Honestly: I got a lot more useful, real, practical mastering knowledge by reading my mastering software user manual than this book.
I was very excited reading the reviews and immediately got a copy of this book. Now that I have owned it for several years, and finished reading multiple times, I concluded the following:
- The author has absolutely extensive experience.
- However, the book truly feels just like a dump of the author's notes over the years. Just various items, high level, and low level, mixed together. Does not seem to have a good structure that's useful for the reader.
- This is not for beginners, as it is nowhere near systematically explaining how to "master audio". A beginner would finish the book confused, gaining almost no new skill.
- This is not for intermediate engineers, as it sometimes assumes you know nothing, but in other places it talks about details that would only amuse absolute pros with decades of experience.
- This is not for advanced engineers, since I'm guessing they would already know those few techniques mentioned in the book.
How is it useful for people learning to master, to show exotic audio processing devices, describing each in 1-2 sentences? Most readers wouldn't use them anyway.
And... the kicker: The book feels like it doesn't want *me* to master audio, that I should leave the task to a professional mastering engineer, because it thinks I will not do a good job.
One target audience that might benefit from this book is people who already got the required mastering training/school from somewhere else, and want to hear stories from a pro.
Honestly: I got a lot more useful, real, practical mastering knowledge by reading my mastering software user manual than this book.
40 of 46 people found the following review helpful
By Scot
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A better title for this book would be "Why You Should Hire A Professional Mastering Engineer." Katz spends 300 pages describing the work and tools of a mastering engineer, but only about 10 making any attempt to teach the reader how to actually use those tools in a mastering context.
It's true that no one can say "here are the adjustments your mix needs" without hearing it first.
However, a great mastering book would help us understand what we should be listening for, and how we might respond. For example, he could give a list of common mastering problems and possible solutions, such as "If your mix is deficient in A, you'll notice quality B when you listen to it. To fix that, try C or D. The reason compressor attack settings for this adjustment generally range between E and F is that around E you may start noticing effect G on slow-tempo material, and around F it can start taking on an undesirable H quality. The goal of this processing is that you'll hear J. If you process too heavily, you'll cause K to happen, meaning you'll hear qualities L and M in your mix."
Katz does this in exactly one section of the book, and it's fantastically helpful: pages 133-135 describe how to use parallel compression as a mastering tool, giving two starting points for compressor settings and describing what effect each is helpful in producing. He's a big proponent of this method (which hadn't occurred to me to use in a mastering context) and even raises the possibility of subtle tone adjustments using a multiband compressor to do parallel compression.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book is mostly useless to people like me with a good deal of recording and mixing experience but no formal training in mastering. Most of the chapters here should be called things like "Cool Gear I Have And You Don't," "The Basics Of Mixing (That You Already Know)," "You Don't Really Want to Have to Deal with P/Q Code, Do You?" and "The Loudness Wars Are Bad."
I hope Focal Press will consider pushing Katz for a more useful third edition, one that would be a more worthy companion piece to their really outstanding Mixing Audio (by Roey Izhaki).
It's true that no one can say "here are the adjustments your mix needs" without hearing it first.
However, a great mastering book would help us understand what we should be listening for, and how we might respond. For example, he could give a list of common mastering problems and possible solutions, such as "If your mix is deficient in A, you'll notice quality B when you listen to it. To fix that, try C or D. The reason compressor attack settings for this adjustment generally range between E and F is that around E you may start noticing effect G on slow-tempo material, and around F it can start taking on an undesirable H quality. The goal of this processing is that you'll hear J. If you process too heavily, you'll cause K to happen, meaning you'll hear qualities L and M in your mix."
Katz does this in exactly one section of the book, and it's fantastically helpful: pages 133-135 describe how to use parallel compression as a mastering tool, giving two starting points for compressor settings and describing what effect each is helpful in producing. He's a big proponent of this method (which hadn't occurred to me to use in a mastering context) and even raises the possibility of subtle tone adjustments using a multiband compressor to do parallel compression.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book is mostly useless to people like me with a good deal of recording and mixing experience but no formal training in mastering. Most of the chapters here should be called things like "Cool Gear I Have And You Don't," "The Basics Of Mixing (That You Already Know)," "You Don't Really Want to Have to Deal with P/Q Code, Do You?" and "The Loudness Wars Are Bad."
I hope Focal Press will consider pushing Katz for a more useful third edition, one that would be a more worthy companion piece to their really outstanding Mixing Audio (by Roey Izhaki).
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By POX
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm a home recording artist/engineer. I bought this book to get some tips on improving my mastering of my home recordings. I did find the chapters on dynamics processing helpful....other than that this book was a bit beyond me. He talks about expensive outboard equipment and plug-ins and very technical audio theory. A lot of his teaching is too expensive or impractical for my needs. This is definitely geared to the professional mastering engineer. I did gain greater appreciation for mastering engineers and their expertise.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be Required Reading
This is the first time I've ever written a review for a product, ever. But Bob Katz's booking on audio is absolutely necessary for anyone interested in the field of audio. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Chris Vandeviver
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing!!!
Great topics not only mastering audio, but great insights to help "find" what to hear, and search for. Read more
Published 1 month ago by luciano marcos nogara
4.0 out of 5 stars
it's great!!
It's an absolutely great book!! If some parts were a little less tech-talk and more "non technician" friendly, people like me could benefit even more by it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by George Galanos
5.0 out of 5 stars
Purchased as a gift, and the recipient was thrilled
I purchased this as a gift for my son who is an audio engineer. He was thrilled to get it as he says the author is the top guy in this field.
Published 2 months ago by K. Holloway
1.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing About How To Master!!!
This book tells you what mastering is, what equipment is used, but basically NOTHING about how to actually master music. How to master a song like the pros. Read more
Published 4 months ago by MiRose
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bob is a real Guru of audio
There are no many books on audio mastering, but I think this is definitely the one who teaches in more detail the key points of mastering and not only the use of software... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Reinhold Sagastume Salguero
3.0 out of 5 stars
ok
if you like books!! then this one is great....its more of a text book!! so being able to open it to grab ideas from it... doesn't really work!! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Seth A. Eubanks
3.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't include the frequency chart
Yeah, the book is great, but I wish it would have included the frequency chart it said it came with. Everybody else in my class got one, except for me. Read more
Published 8 months ago by alyak72
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring
Sound is my passion! I am a full time sound professional and I was looking for advise to begin on the world of mastering. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Juan M Ruiz
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book for anyone interested in audio engineering
this is a must read for anyone involved in any kind sound mangling and/or audio engineering.
don't think it's just for Mastering Engineers, as it's very well put information... Read more
don't think it's just for Mastering Engineers, as it's very well put information... Read more
Published 13 months ago by red mastering studio
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