My New Favorite Book

[AndrewHutchinson]

I've mentioned this a few times, and if I've been gushing, tell me to shut up, but, I just finished "Make Mine Music" by Bruce Swedien, and it's a great, inspiring book. He offers a lot of good advice as well as a wealth of history and great stories about his career. He re-taught me a lot about stereo mic technique and mixing in general, and he offers all of us hope for the future of our trade. Check it out!

[Sultan of Swing]

Thanks. I'm ready for a good read. I'd heard of Bruce's book but forgotten about it, so thanks again for bringing it up. I think he's originally from Minnesota, which is where I live, so that's cool too.

[Jeff Shapiro]

Definititely will check it out...has anyone checked out the Geoff Emerick book, Here There and Everywhere? It was a little undergunned technically but I still dug it. Some anecdotes that could be considered for crazy recording techniques thread

[AudioDog]

I just read the Bruce Swedien book about Recording Michael Jackson. I think Make Music Mine seems a lot more interesting though. The Geoff Emerick book is good. Now I´m going to read All you need is ears by George Martin. Has anyone here read it ?

[Sandyrb]

I got a lot out of "Mixmasters" by Maureen Droney. It was a good read and there were lots of tricks of the trade discussed.

Cheers,

[Benny Grotto]

I'm readin' "Studio Stories" by David Simons at the moment; it's a book on the NYC recording scene. I'm only about 40 pages in, but so far, it's really flippin' good.

David Simons has a really engaging sense of language, an obvious passion for sound, and some interesting insights into the historical and cultural contributions made by New York City and all its musical entities, plus some cool thoughts on the effects of technology on the economics of recording.

[Dan]

I recently finished "The Foley Grail" by Vanessa Ament. The writing style was more choppy than I'd prefer, but I liked that it focused on the aesthetics of performing, recording, mixing foley rather than giving 12 different ways to mic a footstep.

-Dan.

[Sandyrb]

I've just read today that there's a biography of John Barry coming out. It's called "John Barry; The Man With The Midas Touch" by Leonard / Walker / Bramley. Count me in for that one - Barry's one of my favorite composers ever.

Talking of Barry, anyone else here ever heard the speech in the instrument track of "From Russia With Love"? Very few people ever perceive that. I use it to test our fledgling engineers' listening skills. :) Anyway that's another story for another thread.

Cheers,

[Zachg]

The Daily Adventures of Mixerman... that was a funny read! I didn't learn to much about recording, but there are some cool tricks in there. (duckung TB mics, etc)

I've started reading Modern Recording techniques, so far it seems pretty good, but there is a fair bit of math stuff in the early chapters, but I have learnt a fair bit so far.
I'll check out some of these books to when I get the chance.

[ween1989]

TapeOp books 1 and 2 are both filled with interviews with lesser known engineers. And Ween. Buy them both after you sign up for your free mag. subscription.

[Seaneman]

Clearly not a technical book about recording per se, but a must read for anyone in the creative arts. I found it life changing, and have passed my copy off to anyone who needs a lift. Basically his diary over a year, you will not know how much you are "not" doing or trying till you see what's possible. Covers studio time with bands like U2, James, Bowie and on and on. Plus general discussion of the creative process and his "oblique strategies" for problem solving. Amazing inspiration. It's out of print, but you can find it on Amazon pretty easily.

typo in the title,,, it's "a year" (with swollen appendices)