Customer Reviews

Professional Microphone Techniques (Mix Pro Audio Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Who would think a book on mics would be a page-turner? But this one was. It has a clear and unaffected style. The book covers both professional and affordable (my kind) mics, describing the attributes, pros and cons of different types, and techniques of placement to get a desired effect. The CD that comes with it demonstrates different mics and mic placements on a number of different instruments. A valuable reference for anybody who records.

I expected more from a book titled "Professional Microphone Techiques". This book would be usefull for someone just starting to record music, but if you have even a modest level of experience with mics and mic techniques don't look here for any insights. Topics include basic mic types, 3:1 rule, prox effect, freq. response, an almost too expansive list of suggested mic positions of various insturments, eq suggestions, basic compression uses. CD included with the book is a nice touch.

The "ultimate guide"?
Hardly.
One could summarize all the advice in this book with one sentence "put a microphone 6-8" in front of it; or perhaps further away".
No attempt is made to suggest, for example, why one might choose one offered position over another. No attempt is made to explain different techniques for different styles of music and recording. And most important, no attribution is given as to what record we might turn to for example of a particular approach. It's as if the examples given are the only options; and choosing between those options is unimportant, as no guidance is offered.
It's hard to believe anyone gains anything he didn't already know from this book.
Perhaps more than a paragraph on bass would be useful instead of endless pages of instruments ("put a microphone 6-8" in front of it") that one might encounter once every 10 years. And if I did encounter a hammered dulcimer, for example? I'd probably make a guess on my own and put a microphone 6-8" in front of it.

I have not yet bought this book, yet a cursory look through some key pages via the "search inside this book" feature reveals that pretty much all of the claims made in nothingreally's negative review are false. I just wanted to urge those of you who are interested in this book, but are turned off by such negative reviews, to use the "search inside" feature and see for yourself.

For example:
1) The advice is much more deep and varied than "6-8 inches, perhaps more." Look at the section for acoustic guitar, for instance. There are miking positions described all over the guitar, even under it and behind it.
2) There is plenty of information to suggest why to use one position over another. In the previous example, the book describes the effect every position has on the quality of the sound, noise pickup, and sometimes even the effect on the performer.
3) It's true there's no examples of records that use particular approaches (how is the author supposed to know this, anyway?), but nothingreally must have missed the CD that comes supplied with the book which demonstrates every single example position described in the book. Not only do you get examples of the sounds, but this emphasizes point number 2 by letting you decide which position would work for you.
4) The examples given are not presented as the only options, and the book constantly urges the reader to experiment and try variations. Guidance for variations is presented not only along with the instruments, but also in the form of basics and fundamental guideline chapters.
5) There is more than one paragraph for the bass. In fact, about a page for the acoustic (upright) bass, and a litle over a page including a diagram for the electric bass (ie, miking the amp plus DI). One can also go to the electric guitar section for more amp miking advice.
6) And guess what, the hammered dulcimer section does *not* suggest to put the mic 6-8 inches in front of it. Go see for yourself.

This was all easily verified by actually looking at the book for a few minutes. I urge every other interested amazon customer to do the same, and to all but ignore nothingreally's misleading review.

The book is extremely popular, too popular. Deeper insight like SMPTE reviews would have given me a better knowledge. However the enclosed CD with samples is worth the money alone. I would have appreciated that they had used the microphones they really wanted to demonstrate.

Hey, nothing replaces the value of time spent in a professional facility with an experienced engineer, but this book is useful when you've never had the opportunity to mic something like a bagpipe and you need some guidelines to get satisfying results quicker.

Additionally, there are other nuggets like the section on how to kill RF in mic signals... Sure, some of this info is available online but having it all put together in a logically presented title is valuable.

I really don't think the negative reviews are fair. No offence, but if you guys are so adept then what the heck would you need a book for?


Peace

a good mix of old and new school mic placement techniques. not a lot of information for me personally, but a handy reference just to see how somebody else might approach a situation.

First, I would like to ask studioslave a question regarding his review of this book: In which part of it did you find information that isn't relevant to the professional recording industry? I've been recording professionally for more than 20 years and found the information to be very accurate and have seen most of the suggested mic techniques in use by professionals almost daily. If you didn't learn anything new from it and needed something more comprehensive or technical that's fine... but just say that... don't mislead others by suggesting that it isn't a book that's suited for "professionals" when that simply isn't true. This is an excellent book written by an excellent author and it's worth every penny. Now beat it kid... ya bother me.

I am just geting started in home studio recording and I found the information in this book to be VERY valuable. It is so much more than "just put a mic 6"-8" in front of it and hit record". There are very useful starting points in placing mic's and in mic selection but ultimatly it is up to you to experiment and find what sounds good to you and your project.

This is a great book which explains details of types of microphones, their purpose, why an audio engineer might need a particular type of microphone, how XLR cable is wired and how to use them. really great and easy to read quickly