Practical Recording Techniques, Fourth Edition: The step-by-step approach to professional audio recording [Print + CD] [Paperback]

Bruce Bartlett (Author), Jenny Bartlett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0240806859 | ISBN-13: 978-0240806853 | Publication Date: August 15, 2005 | Edition: 4

Practical Recording Techniques is a hands-on practical guide for all aspects of recording, ideal for beginning and intermediate recording engineers, producers, musicians and audio enthusiasts. Filled with tips and shortcuts, this book offers advice on equipping a home studio (both low-budget and advanced), with suggestions for set-up, acoustics, choosing monitor speakers, and preventing hum. This best-selling guide also tells how to judge recordings and improve them to produce maximum results. Two extensive glossaries clearly explain audio jargon and sound-quality descriptions.

NEW material includes:

* Extensive coverage of digital recording technology and techniques, including computer DAWs and optimizing them for best performance
* Extra coverage of the basics, such as speed of sound, inverse square law, sound-wave interference, reflection and diffusion
* Comprehensive look at all types of microphones, including live-vocal, digital and headworn mics
* A detailed instrument frequency range chart

Also new to this edition is an accompanying audio CD (Mac and PC compatible), which will enable you to actually hear the effects and techniques described in the book.

* This bestselling guide to recording covers the latest digital techniques for professional and home studios, as well as recording on location
* Includes a CD packed with audio clips to enhance the text
* Fully revised and updated, this edition also includes essential information on computer recording

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is crammed full of everything you need to know to get started with professional recording...Overall this is a good general guide that could be useful to have on the shelf." - Future Music

"This book is indispensable." - Stills Audio Motion

"This book takes you through the basics very well and its real strong point is that it shares numerous nuggets gleaned from experience to do with all sorts of little things that become quite big things when you're faced with a problem." - www.mstation.org

"It is packed with well-illustrated graphics and pictures and gives extensive guidance on everything from studio and location recording techniques through to publishing your sounds on the web."
James Eade, Lighting and Sound International

Book Description

A hands-on, practical guide for anyone interested in recording their own music - in the studio or on location - digital or analog.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 632 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 4 edition (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240806859
• ISBN-13: 978-0240806853
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars VERY basic stuff, May 18, 2007

By 

Randall M. Coppinger (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Practical Recording Techniques, Fourth Edition: The step-by-step approach to professional audio recording (Paperback)

For what it is, this book does a good job of introducing newbies to audio production. It claims to be for intermediate recordists too, but that is a stretch. If you have any experience recording anything at all, this book will probably not be very helpful. There is a section near the end that mentions some newer microphone arrays for recording in surround. To me this seems too advanced for beginners, but does not offer enough detail for veterans to really implement. I was disappointed in this book for being so utterly basic, but that could be terrific for other readers who need to be walked through the process setp-by-step.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good intro to music recording, but nothing extraordinary, February 11, 2007

By 

Summers Henderson - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practical Recording Techniques, Fourth Edition: The step-by-step approach to professional audio recording (Paperback)

I'm in the middle of reading this book for an audio production course. It was the assigned text, and while it's not as expensive as many textbooks these days, it's also not a very well produced book. There are no photos, only illustrations that look like they were done on an Apple IIci. The writing is clear, though they repeat information about several topics. My biggest complaint is that it focuses on music recording, while I'm interested in other genres of audio. The authors don't ever acknowledge that you would want to recording something besides music. If you want to learn about music recording and want a very practical approach, this book is a good introduction. But I wish it considered theoretical questions beyond the merely practical.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference, August 18, 2006

By 

A. Vonhaden "Fromell" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Recording Techniques, Fourth Edition: The step-by-step approach to professional audio recording (Paperback)

This book is somewhat dull to read straight through. It includes alot of details that may not be relevant and gives alot of examples that may be completely useless to the reader. Many concepts and passages are repeated throughout the book. That being said, the book makes for an excellent reference for many circumstances. From studio microphone techniques to recording live events, this book gives in-depth details and offers more than just one suggestion for all situations. It also includes a 4 page sound glossary and a nearly 50 page general glossary. This is a great buy for any non-professional recording studio.