Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Advice from a patient friend, February 8, 2007
The title of this book is somewhat inaccurate, since it doesn't really cover a wide variety of types of studio gear or types of recording. Rather, reading this book is more like spending several hours in the particular studio of one patient, experienced home recordist who is generous with his time in explaining, engagingly, his own set-up and how he uses it.
A problem anyone new to home recording will confront is the feeling of coming in late on the conversation: frustratingly, the manuals for even entry-level gear seem to have been written by engineers (often, Japanese engineers) who assume everyone else has been working with audio recording gear since at least 1950, just like them. And, it is always engineers, not musicians, who write the manuals. Thus, we get instruction on "attenuation" instead of being told how to produce a diminuendo, and we get pots instead of knobs.
A key benefit of this book is that it is written by a musician, and explains what the engineers are talking about in words musicians use.
This is, overall, an outstanding book for any musician assembling a home studio. The author understands, from experience, that no home studio is going to match a pro one, and that understanding how to use ordinary gear is more valuable than spending many thousands of dollars on equipment that won't achieve much benefit outside the environment of one of those pro studios. The author's specific target is a recording that will sound good to a musical listener, while realizing that a home studio will never impress (or fool) a pro sound engineer. Particularly valuable here is his advice on when to stop trying -- e.g., he is right that recording drum sets in a home studio is bound to lead to disappointment, so why spend a few more hundred or thousand dollars on a set of matching drum mikes?
The author plainly came of age in recording well before the digital era. As a result, his recommended set-up is perhaps heavier on hardware, and makes less full use of software, than a brand new set-up would. As an example, he considers a hardware mixer a core piece of equipment, and devotes considerable space to describing work-arounds to deal with the limited connections available on most (affordable) hardware mixers. Whether a hardware mixer is needed anymore if you are using mixing software is an open question (and a good way to start heated arguments on the appropriate forums). Still, understanding how to use a hardware mixer will make using mixing software much easier, since most software products aim to emulate the functions of hardware models.
The book is a nice mix of specific tips, general theory, background explanation, problem-solving, and arcanely entertaining trivia. The more detailed tips tend to be specific to rock recording, so musicians in other genres may get less out of this book. However, at the price there is plenty here to benefit any musician wanting to make home recordings.
I docked one star from my rating out of irritation with small factual inaccuracies (e.g., the author doesn't understand that the panning of a drum set can be affected by whether the drummer is left-handed) and larger limitations (e.g., the author has never learned to record with multiple mikes and therefore never explains how to do this -- his approach is strictly one track at a time.) Again, though, for the money this is a great book to have.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS THE BOOK FOR HOME RECORDING, March 10, 2006
I've purchased several books on recording, mixing, etc. and some good, some bad. This book is incredible. Especially for a beginner. I've played in bands for half my life (I'm 30 now) and always relied on studios and occasionally a 4-track recorder. Now that I'm getting into recording and building a studio, on a budget, I have many questions about gear, mixing, what goes where, how this happens . . . Anyway, its like this book read my mind and answered all the questions I had. Some experts might find this book novice but come on read the title. If you're a pro why would you (a) buy this book (b) need to buy a book on the subject at all. For those of us starting out in recording or anyone who still needs advice on the subject, this book is perfect.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Primer for the Hobbyist, February 1, 2006
This book is excellent. As a musician who spent many years both performing and as a live sound engineer, I've already had a good comprehension of signal paths and equipment prior to reading this book; however, I never had much experience with recording. Recently, I decided to build a home recording/MIDI studio as a hobby. I purchased a handful of books related to home recording, most of which were either too elemental, too specific to a particular piece of gear or software, or loaded with too much theory to be of much use to me. This book hit the nail right on the head.
Karl Coryat's writing style is concise, yet thorough. He uses many examples of some unorthodox and innovative solutions that he developed to solve some common recording problems, without the aid of thousands of dollars worth of pro audio equipment. In addition, his explanations of techniques are generic enough that they can be applied to most equipment types and/or manufacturers. For example, when he explains how a technique would be accomplished in ProTools (the author's weapon of choice), he tells the reader how the same result could be accomplished in other software and/or hardware recording platforms. This was especially useful for me, since I use both Cubase and an 8-track digital recording unit.
My only complaint about this book, and it's a minor complaint, is that the author seemed to cut the "Separation" chapter a little short. The discussion of separation, which is very important to achieving a good sound, is relatively short compared to the remaining chapters. This is not to say that the chapter is not well-written - it is - however, I just feel that the author missed an opportunity to take the reader a step or two further.
I recommend this book to anyone getting into home recording, whether it be digital, analog, or both, or to anyone who records as a hobby and is looking for effective, yet inexpensive, methods to improve the quality of their recordings.
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