Newbie Resources: Recommend Books / Materials

B

BORNintoMUSIC

New member
Wassup people!

I've been an amateur audio engineer for the past 2 years. Recording my band primarily, and then a few small things in between. I've learned a TON about engineering but yet I am still so far away from creating a "quality" mix.

I came to these forums based on a review pertaining to Charles Dye - Mix it like a record. It got a great review from the gentlemen that purchased it and from a quite a number of people on the internet - so I'm probably going to purchase it.

Can anyone recommend good materials for beginning to intermediate level engineers? Perhaps even some delving into the realm of "expert/professional"?

I've heard this is an excellent book:

http://www.mixingwithyourmind.com/

but dives into the professional realm - on top of that from a philosophical perspective. Has anyone read this book?


Thanks in advanced!

Brandon
 
When I was where you are now, I started collecting the books. I read 'em. Learned a few things, mostly got frustrated with 'em......collecting dust now.

Best advice I got during that same period:

1-[from a gold record producer] "Record something every day, and in a few years you'll know everything you need to know."

2- [from a film/audio instructor at a recording school...when I considered $30,000/year tuition to go there] "Save your money: make recordings and play with them...just play....that's how you learn."

I pass it along to you.

Get your books from the library...free...and you can return 'em when you discover how little help they are...without someone to explain and demonstrate the content and language of the digital dirty-talk. Law and physics books are easier to understand.

As far as mixing skill: you can collect all the advice and information. But you won't 'hear' what the advice is telling you. You discover that yourself..over time...through brain-train, ear-train. That takes 'record every day'. Have a project going constantly. That'll have you mixing once every one to three weeks. "Play." That's where you learn!

I haven't cracked a book or browsed a recording mag for over a year. Never took much of value from it. I learned more in two private sessions with an accomplished recordist, working at his console, than I could have learned from books in a decade, though.

Don't tell GregL I've been here posting rambling essays: he'll make fun of me more...
 
The usefulness or not of books is a non-starter of an argument; it completely depends upon the reader. I know people who are actually PROUD of the fact that they are 50 years old and haven't picked up anything more than a TV Guide since high school. I also know people who have 2 or 3 books that they are heavily into simultaneously every day and have been like that virtually every day of the year for the entire adult lives. There are geniuses and idiots in both groups (though there are more idiots in the non-readers ;)).

It's just like the argument about school; it depends upon the student. There are just some people who legitimately just cannot get much out of a teacher/student relationship (which is what you have with a book a well) and *have* to figure things out themselves. There are others who can muddle around on their own for years and not get anywhere unless/until they have someone explain and guide them either through mentorship or through teaching materials.

Most people, including the best people, know how to put the two together. One will never learn about gain structure, Ohm's Law, parametric sweeps, proper acoustic treatment, etc. etc. etc. just by experimenting on their own, and if they do, it'll take them years to trip across an Intro101 principle they shuold have otherwise learned in the first few weeks. OTOH, they'll never *fully* understand parametric sweeps, acoustic treatment, etc. unless/until they do it and hear the results for themselves.

So to the OP: If, of course, you have a history of not getting much out of books, then any book will be a waste of money. If you work well with books, however, then they can be an excellent investment, in which case what I would recommend for starters:

"Critical Listening Skills" by F. Alton Everest
"Practical Pecording Techniques" by Bruce and Jenny Bartlett
"Mixing Audio" by Roey Izhaki
"Understanding Audio" by Daniel Thompson

There are plenty more. Check out out www.independentrecording.net and click on the "Studio Reference Book Catalog" where you can browse relevant book titles broken down into 9 different categories.

But books or no books, jeff is right that they will never replace hands-on experience.

G.
 
Last edited:
Damn Glen, you always know how to say it best!

You know, the fact that you're interested in reading books tells me logically that you are probably the type of person that WILL gain something from reading them. I have taught myself about recording through reading reading reading, then doing doing doing. The reading definitely pointed me in the right direction on a lot of things though. Especially when understanding compressors, limiters, frequency recognition exercises, and room acoustics.

Try not to dive in too far though. You could read through 3 or 4 pages of a book that will take you in reality a month to fully grasp in practice. Take one idea at a time. Read up about it, then get your hands on something and try to apply that specific knowledge. Once you feel you undestand it, move on to the next subject.
 
Oh yeah, and go to Borders or Barnes and Noble with a pen and some paper. Take notes, leave, don't buy the books. You'll find that the few books they DO have are actually full of good knowledge, at least for acoustics. This was my approach to learning how to do things. Not that my way works for anyone, even myself!!@!


1) Understand sound. How it moves through air, how it is perceived by the human ear and brain, how it reflects off surfaces...

2) Understand how to listen to music or sound and pick it apart. This is why the guitar sounds like ___, this is how they mic'd the vocals, whatever....

3) Understand how to make a recording sound the way you want it to sound using the tools you have available. Yes, that means learning what your tools do, and how to use each control.

4) Understand that even though it now sounds great to you, it still sounds like shit everywhere else. Learn how to make it sound the way you like it when it's played back outside your studio.

5) Learn how to make this a profitable venture and don't wind up like the majority of this forum's users.
 
89gtsleeper said:
Try not to dive in too far though. You could read through 3 or 4 pages of a book that will take you in reality a month to fully grasp in practice.
...
Oh yeah, and go to Borders or Barnes and Noble with a pen and some paper. Take notes, leave, don't buy the books.
Click to expand...
Seeing as how you made some excellent points here that I left out of my post, I'd say that I didn't say it as good as I could have ;).

I particularly agree with the Borders/B&N idea. Buy yourself a coffee or something in their cafe and sit down ad see what books work for you and what ones don't. Consider the coffee as payment for using their resources for study. It's a great way to figure out which book(s) seem to talk to you the best - like monitors and bowling alley bowling balls, everybody has their own favorites.

I have noticed lately, unfortunately, that the bookstores in my area don't seem to keep as good of a selection in stock as they did just a year ago. The (bleep)ing Internet combined with the ADHD generation has been hurting book sales all over the place, and they seem to be trimming or modifying their inventories to keep costs down. But there's still a few to be found if you hit the right shop in the right neighborhood.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
So to the OP: If, of course, you have a history of not getting much out of books, then any book will be a waste of money. If you work well with books, however, then they can be an excellent investment, in which case what I would recommend for starters:

"Critical Listening Skills" by F. Alton Everest
"Practical Pecording Techniques" by Bruce and Jenny Bartlett
"Mixing Audio" by Roey Izhaki
"Understanding Audio" by Daniel Thompson

There are plenty more. Check out out www.independentrecording.net and click on the "Studio Reference Book Catalog" where you can browse relevant book titles broken down into 9 different categories.

But books or no books, jeff is right that they will never replace hands-on experience.

G.
Click to expand...

Fantastic! This is excellent advice and I appreciate everyone's time writing all of this out. Over the past 2 years most of my "knowledge" has come from playing around in Cubase. There were definitely a few things I wish I picked up from books instead of learning it so late into recording - such as dampening the snare drum with some tape or store bought moon gel pads.

Now what I'm having trouble with most is acoustic treatment and isolating sounds. Primarily because of where I'm recording. It's cramped and all 5 of us have to play with the drummer in the same room. I've purchased an HP60 (Presonus Headphone Splitter) - which has helped, but I still have problems isolating the drums from sound wave refractions. But I digress...


I always have some type of project going in Cubase and I use it every day. And I have definitely learned to user compressors/gates more efficiently. EQing is still my downfall though... I try taking a parametric band and exaggerating the dbs, but I still can't seem to EQ properly.

Anyways, I will certainly look into the material provided, and will take the advice to mind.

Thank you again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top