Product Description

Build a home studio to fit any budget

Explore equipment and techniques for making top–notch recordings at home

You′ve picked a perfect time to start recording! From PC–based to studio–in–a–box, today′s equipment lets you put together a professional quality CD right at home, if you know how to use it. This guide covers everything from microphone placement to multitracking and mastering, helping you choose the right tools and use them like a pro.

Discover how to:

• Create a studio around your budget
• Direct signal flow to maximize your sound
• Apply the best microphone techniques
• Use compressors and limiters properly
• Build a space for optimum mixing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91738 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
Build a home studio to fit any budget

Explore equipment and techniques for making top–notch recordings at home

You′ve picked a perfect time to start recording! From PC–based to studio–in–a–box, today′s equipment lets you put together a professional quality CD right at home, if you know how to use it. This guide covers everything from microphone placement to multitracking and mastering, helping you choose the right tools and use them like a pro.

Discover how to

• Create a studio around your budget
• Direct signal flow to maximize your sound
• Apply the best microphone techniques
• Use compressors and limiters properly
• Build a space for optimum mixing

About the Author
Jeff Strong is the author of seven books including Pro Tools All–in–One Desk Reference For Dummies and PC Recording Studios For Dummies. Jeff is also the Director of the REI Institute, a MusicMedicine research organization and therapy provider. Jeff graduated from the Percussion Institute of Technology at the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles in 1983 and has either worked in or owned a recording studio since 1985. Every week, he records dozens of custom client CDs using the equipment and techniques found in the pages of this book. He has also released ten commercially available CDs, four of which can be found at www.reiinstitute.com.

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended
A wonderfully clear and practical guide to making the most of your home recording and getting the best possible result. It is suitable for complete novices, like myself (I didn't have a clue about different sorts of mics, nor know what EQ or compression was, I just wanted to know why my recording of my violin sounded like a particularly nasty saw grating). On the other hand, I wouldn't call it superficial either. I particularly like the way the book starts with an overview of all the steps to go through until the finished product is achieved, and only then goes through each of the steps in detail. This is great for the beginner, but you can always skip it if that is known to you. For me it helped both keep in mind the process as whole and its ultimate aim, as well as clarify why I was being asked to learn something hideously technical I didn't really want to bother with. In short, I didn't lose sight of the wood for the trees. (Oh, and the violin actually sounds like a violin now, although I have still to get to grips with adjusting the EQ for it to improve it still more. I am currently studying that chapter).

Good but some problems
I bought this book a few weeks ago expecting that it would have been substantially updated since the previous edition that I also own. This was not the case though. In particular, as I have now got to the stage when I have a few tracks finished, I was interested in the recommended websites for MP3 hosting and Cd distribution, but none of the links seem to work and several of the recommended sites (Ampcast.com, iuma.com, vitaminic.com)seem to have closed down a long time ago. One even has a closure notice dated 2005! This was a big disapointment to me as I only bought the new edition in the hope of getting more up-to-date information.

Other than this annoyance, the book is just as good as the older edition, and I have found it very informative, and helpful. I particularly like the fact that although much of the focus is on DAW computer software recording, Studio In A Box (SIAB) based studios are praised and explained well (though once again the list and descriptions of popular models seems very out-of-date). I use a Boss BR600 (see my review elsewhere on Amazon) and find that although it is not specifically mentioned in this book, most of the recording, mixing and mastering principles explained are very relevant.

Descriptions and explanations about microphones, mixers, effects, eq, etc. are excellent. Oddly, studio monitor speakers are only superficially explained, and I could have done with some more information and advice about monitors when I was trying to decide which ones to buy. In the end I chose largely by guess work, but seem to have done alright on my very low budget as I bought Behringer MS20 monitors through Amazon (see my review elsewhere on Amazon).

If you are new to home recording, or are muddling along using only the instructions/help that came with your recording software/equipment/SIAB, and some magazine articles, or like me you are struggling with the transition from analogue to digital, I am sure that this book, will be very useful to you.

In fairness, this edition was published in 2005, but the speed with which products, software and internet information changes these days requires a faster response from publishers who should keep a record of described products and services to be regularly checked and updated. Smaller but more frequent print runs, or on demand printing are the answers to this problem, and some publishers are embracing such an approach. I really hope that when/if there is a 3rd edition, the product and web information is substantially updated. Overall it is still a good book, but it has temporal problems.