Reading material to get started.

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:12 pm

Hey all I'm Dave.

I'm just about to embark on a massive career change and study Audio Engineering, Production and Post Production, in Manchester UK. My head is spinning with ideas for projects and interesting ways of recording things, nor can I wait to get my hands on the Neve desk in the main studio, but that will have to wait a year as I have to go through the basics first.

I stumbled across the site whilst doing some research into jobs that might be out there once I qualify and thought I'd join the forum and get to know a you all and to pick your brains. So here goes first question, reading material.

I've picked up a copy of Modern Recording Techniques 6th ED by David Miles Huber and Robert E. Runstein and this is for a novice a really interesting read. I have gone through Amazon and drawn up a list of other publications I think I'd like to read, can you guys and gals give me your opinion on this list or recommend some alternatives?

1. Practical Recording Techniques - Bruce Bartlett
2. Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools - Roey Izhaki
3. The Recording Engineers Handbook - Bobby Owsinski
4. The Mixing Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owsinski
5. The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Mixing and Mastering Audio Recordings - Bill Gibson
6. Hal Leonard Recording Method (Complete Series) - Bill Gibson
7. On Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring - Fred Karlin
8. Sounds and Scores: Practical Guide to Professional Orchestration - Henry Mancini

Ok the latter is a must in my eyes purely because of the author and because I do want to get into orchestration and arranging for film.

Won't keep you with my ramblings any more but thanks for your help in advance.

Dave

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:21 pm

http://recording.org/books/ I found this with metacrawler.com Smile

This forum is a wealth of information, the problem seems to be that it isn't as easy to get to as the "I want it now" mind is willing to wait for. (mine included Wink

Starting at the top of a thread of interest can yield so much helpful things from the people here and those that have long since been removed from the fray.

I read once that searching on a particular topic is better than searching the whole site. Reasonable and seems to work, but often the topic may not exist...so a broader search is the answer.

You can also do an Advanced search either from google or metacrawler or clusty.com and use recording.org as the host/domain.

Good luck.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:40 am

Look into Howard M. Tramane's Audio Cyclopedia. You can easily get through it in a year on the toilet. Be careful of the section on Poly Cylindrical Diffusers as it could make you fall off your throne? I don't think the Queen would like that? Somewhere in there he also mentions 3M's attempt at noise reduction through "Dyna-Track". Now when you read that you better be on the throne or you might live to regret it?

Dyn-O Tracker
Ms. Remy Ann David

PS
if folks don't remember what that was, I'll tell you.

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:42 am

hello again, Dave.

:wave:

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:41 am

again?

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:42 am

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owsinski I found very useful.
It has a wealth of information organized very well. It's readable, not just a reference book.

Also "Mastering Audio" by Bob Katz is good.

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 2:54 pm

Space wrote:

again?

He's already had my suggestions on another forum, including Bobby and Bob. Laughing

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:07 pm

At least I know I'm suggesting books other people think are good as well. Smile

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:33 pm

The Bob Katz is rapidly becoming the bible of the audio world. It should be on every engineer's shelf, whather masterer or not.

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:05 pm

hackenslash wrote:

Space wrote:

again?

He's already had my suggestions on another forum, including Bobby and Bob. :lol:

I see.

The op may have an aversion to what I refer to as
the "because I said so because he said so" mentality often perceived when others offer information freely gleaned from the Internet that most likely made it's maiden voyage from someone of authority.

This may or may not be true in this case...but it is a phenomenon that happens with regularity.

How do I know it happens?

Because I said so :)

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