Home Recording for Beginners
- ISBN13: 9781598638813
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
This book guides beginners step-by-step, through the fundamentals of home recording, using the computer as the recording medium. The emphasis is on practical instruction, delivered over the course of 30 lessons in easy-to-understand language and logical sequence and with real examples for the reader to try out. Essential technical knowledge and theory are introduced and explained along the way as it becomes relevant and necessary. It also takes the reader through wh… More >>
Popularity: 1% [?]
this book is rather thin and has big type so you pay dearly for the content
and
it comes bundled with a cd with software that i will never use
and you probably wont either once you finish reading teh book
which was used to justify the high price.
is it me or is every book with a cd overpriced and short on content?
and a lot of the content is leading questions that you are told to research on the web. hey! that is why i bought a book — i didnt want to research this myself.
on the plus side, it had some good advice that could save me enough to pay for the book and then some. chapters 3 and 4 are what i expected to find more of and in more detail. at least this one had something useful — the other related books i read so far had even less. expand chapters 3 4 & 5 and you could have a good book if you omit chapter2.
it has some good advice that will save you too. start small with an amateur setup and learn what you are doing. then you will know enough to better spend on the expensive more advanced amateur gear. if you are not filthy rich forget about every buying a pro set up.
now you dont have to buy the book. that was the big value content item.
if, and only if, you are willing to use the DAW software the book is written around , then this might be a ten star book for you. for me it was an expensive lesson in impulse buying. i got something , hence the two stars. you might rate it zero or ten. not many folks going to fall in the middle range though.
the best part of the book is a series of guided lessons that “force” you to go through the software and learn the basics (assuming you read the book and do the exercises). the concepts will carry over to more standard DAW software but you will then still have to learn the specifics of the software you want to use. why not learn on the software you will always use?
using the lessons as a guide with *your* preferred software would be a good way to get started in an organised way. that could have been shown in one good magazine article or a good booklet not a $35 book that is smallish and tells me to research the missing stuff from the web. if you want to use it to guide your software learning effort then borrow it from the library and take notes on the lesson sequences and topics to try yourself.
it has a decent glossary which other books lack (think home recording for musicians). but it could have been more complete. yet many online glossarys have less. so this is a plus factor.
i did not find the errors and annoyances (except for the DAW included) that other such books have. and it had fewer holes and mistakes (actual holes — not just thin coverage) than other books i read so far.
full disclosure: i was a member of the AES and have a degree in ee and recorded music using analog tape decks in the past. i wanted a quick intro to the modern use of PCs and software to record digitally , edit, etc. after many years away so i can do this for fun at home.
this book helped a little, but it was another unsatisfactory attempt for me. i got more from reading the tips at the various sellers websites.
one problem is that this area is very big and many people have different interests. but too many of the books go off into esoteric areas of little value or drill way too deep on one specific topic. the coverage is erratic and random not focused on beginners. i dont want to be a carpenter and build a room or even a baffle. i dont want to learn oddball software. when will someone just put out a complete book that specifically explains all the hardware and software options for the home recordist and gives guidance in selecting what fits our needs.
after that i can read advanced books as appropriate.
leave the pro recording tips for a book on producing. leave the pro studio tips for the garage workshop crowd who wants to do woodworking.
leave the oddball solutions alone and concentrate on PC based home recording.
if you have no discipline and will use this DAW software then the book may be worthwhile. for most of us keep looking for something better.
and if you find one let me knwo. i may have to write one once i learn everything the hard way.
Rating: 2 / 5
I enjoyed this book both as a refresher on home recording, as well as an introduction to REAPER. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get into home recording and serious podcasting.
Rating: 4 / 5
Geoffrey Francis has a definite talent for explaining matters according to the level he addresses them to. This book, built up on 30 lessons, is above all a solid grounding in what digital home recording involves, and a guideline how to progress further, in a very understandable and honest way. No marketing tricks such as “you’ll be fine in no time, etc.”.
Also, this book does not refer to expensive equipment, but to software anybody can afford in order to first achieve a good basic knowledge. It also comes along with a CD with sample files for the projects in the book, and a fully 30 days functional version of REAPER, a fantastic DAW that absolutely plays in the same league as Cubase, Cakewalk, Ableton, etc. After 30 days, if you decide to carry on, you can get a licence for US$ 60.– only for private users, and US$ 225.– for commercial use. This selling-procedure is based on trust in the honesty of people, and I do hope that the makers of REAPER won’t be deceived. You can clearly feel that behind the DAW and the manual/book there are no marketing people involved in the first place, but idealists and music lovers.
In the meantime, I have started to like REAPER so much that it has become my definite DAW. The manual has been written by Geoffrey Francis, too, and it is – of course on a higher level – of the same excellent quality as this book. In fact, I have never encountered such a good and clear manual before.
But, coming back to this book, it is not only aimed at beginners, as the title might suggest. Myself for example was the kind of person who only knew partial bits from here and from there about (digital) recording, thus lacking a solid base and a guideline how to progress further. This book put all in the right order and showed me the importance of knowing what I do instead of plodding along blindfolded or working by the principle of randomness. Now I have also ordered the other books of G. Francis, which will take me to a higher level.
To finish up, I must say that I have read many basic books on the subject of (digital) recording so far, but only two have met my expectations fully: This one and the one by Karl Coryat called “Guerilla Home Recording”.
I have never written such a review before, but in this case it was my pleasure to do so.
Rating: 5 / 5
As an experienced musician who has always struggled over getting to grips with recording software I found this book a very useful resource.
What for me was especially useful was the 30 day introduction course. It helped me to see how the pieces fit together (something that in the past I have found baffling) and on which areas I need to concentrate.
It hasn’t taught me everything I’ll ever need to know, but to be fair, the book never says it would. What it has done more than anything else is to give me a confident base from which to grow.
Rating: 5 / 5
As a musician with 20+ yrs experience and a person who has done numerous self and studio produced demos, I found digital audio recording a bit of a hurdle.
I was used to pushing buttons, turning knobs, flipping switches, and plugging in cables, so not having that to work with was a bigger issue than I ever thought. I was under the impression that not having that stuff to deal with would make it easier, boy was I wrong.
Like others I was looking for that ONE tutorial or book that would make it all make sense, well here’s the best one available. I’ve spent plenty on tutorials “dummie/idiot” guides and the like. None took it from the beginning and made it usable like this one. A bit of the early stuff was quick to get thru but I attribute that to at least learning something from those other guides and apps. I also went thru a few DAWs trying to find one that worked. One that had the interface of a bunch of equipment that I was familiar with, and (virtual) cables that moved, then y the time I wrote a few backing tracks and wanted to record some guitar and vocals, I found out I couldn’t. It wasn’t even possible with this particular program, and it was recommended to me on a couple of music forum “experts”.
My point of all this being, I tried a bunch of stuff, and this was the first to take and connect the dots for me. Which by the way it’s set up, I would believe was the goal. And I was able to take some of the things I learned “real world” and how to apply/transfer them into the digital realm. I do use the same app/DAW that comes with it, but that’s because it works for me, but Having previously used others I’m sure if you know how to use the basic commands/tools all the knowledge lessons could be applied to whatever you choose to use.
It took me awhile to find this, so I hope this helps others get there quicker and cheaper than I did.
Rating: 5 / 5