The Recording Engineer's Handbook [Paperback]

Bobby Owsinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2009

Working as a recording engineer presents challenges from every direction of your project. From using microphones to deciding on EQ settings, choosing outboard gear to understanding how, when and why to process your signal, the seemingly never-ending choices can be very confusing. Professional Audio's bestselling author Bobby Owsinski (The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, The Mastering Engineer's Handbook) takes you into the tracking process for all manner of instruments and vocals-- providing you with the knowledge and skill to make sense of the many choices you have in any given project. From acoustic to electronic instruments, mic placement to EQ settings, everything you need to know to capture professionally recorded audio tracks is in this guide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 401 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 2 edition (January 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159863867X
• ISBN-13: 978-1598638677
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Recording & Sound

More About the Author

A long-time veteran of the music industry, Bobby Owsinski has produced, engineered and composed for records, motion pictures and television shows along the way. Currently a principle in the content creator 2B Media, Bobby has also penned hundreds of articles for many popular industry trade publications and has authored several books that are now staples in recording programs in colleges around the world. A frequent moderator, panelist and program producer of a variety of industry conferences, Bobby has served as the longtime producer of the annual Surround Music Awards, and is one of the executive producers for the "Guitar Universe" and "Desert Island Music" television programs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cohesive and Multi-Faceted, December 13, 2007

By 

Gabriel O. Liberti "Two Windmills" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Recording Engineer's Handbook (Paperback)

I have been engineering recordings for about 5 years and felt this was perfect for someone who already knows the basics about recording and is ready to get into the good stuff. The suggested micing techniques were very helpful and complete and are an excellent resource for when you are not quite getting the sound you want when placing your microphones on a source. The book also recommends which microphone to choose for each application and sometimes gives a reasoning, for instance, why you should pick a ribbon mic over a dynamic in the situation at hand. These tips are very relevant and help you to make better micing decisions on your own in the future. The best feature of this book is that it references many talented and experienced engineers such as Steve Albini and Chuck Ainlay; their helpful side-notes and tips really put these suggestions into perspective and help you to think about recording in the proper manner. I really enjoyed the section written by the "Drum Doctor" because tuning drums and having a kit sound excellent is the most important step in getting a solid drum recording. Overall i would highly recommend this book to anyone who feels they want to broaden the scope of their knowledge about recording or wants to get some new ideas about tracking.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great reference and a good starting point, March 14, 2007

By 

Alejandro F. Orrantia-Rios (El Paso, TX US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Recording Engineer's Handbook (Paperback)

This is a very useful starting point when recording a new instrument for the first time. It gives you in depth details about micing positions with clear pictures to support what the author is writing about.
The author also explains in a brief way the use of everyday studio gear wich along with all the recording techniques reviewed in the other chapters makes this book a must have in any studio, for beginners as a great starting point and for seasoned pros as an alternative and sometimes a challenge to the way they have captured audio and worked in the studio their whole life.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Every Penny, December 26, 2008

By 

srptopdog "friend to Greyhounds" (Philly, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Recording Engineer's Handbook (Paperback)

As a life-long professional musician, having studied with a many teachers both privately and at university, I would claim the goal of any method/instruction book is to allow the student come away with several solid concepts that can be applied effectively over the course of their lifetime - professional or otherwise. No one text can do it all. This books comes close however. It does the job well, and is worth every penny.

For me, the high-points of this text involve microphone design and placement (which is very extensive), followed by a large collection of well-constructed interviews of famous audio engineers, who record (or have recorded) everything from rock, pop, orchestral, opera, string quartets, famous vocalists, Broadway and film.

Perhaps the best thing about this book is it leaves you (it did me) with a burning desire to run to your studio and experiment and try new ideas and concepts.

a minor low point. A page-and-a-half on how to use a compressor limiter is almost irresponsible. The book describes what a comp/limiter can do, but doesn't offer the most basic of concepts for how to do them. This seems incredibly odd to me for a book entitled "The Recording Engineers Handbook!" Compressor limiters are possibly the most abused and misunderstood audio processing device, and why this text does not cover this subject more fully is puzzling. Fortunately, many engineers who are interviewed in this book do elaborate on their use of compression/limiting, so all is not lost.

Also, although this did not apply for my need, anyone looking to learn about engineering and mixing in 5.1 surround will benefit from this book, as their is an entire chapter devoted to this format.

To close, the information presented here is fantastic, and is well worth every penny (IMO, just for the information regarding mic placement techniques) but you will get so much more!