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Modern Recording Techniques
The Barnes & Noble Review
With digital technology, virtually anyone can get their hands on professional-quality recording tools, do their own recordings, even build their own studios. But to do it well, you need familiarity with a wide array of equipment and techniques. This book covers them all. It delivers practical (and occasionally passionate) advice on everything from studio acoustics to jitter, miking drum sets to producing surround sound.
With digital technology, virtually anyone can get their hands on professional-quality recording tools, do their own recordings, even build their own studios. But to do it well, you need familiarity with a wide array of equipment and techniques. This book covers them all. It delivers practical (and occasionally passionate) advice on everything from studio acoustics to jitter, miking drum sets to producing surround sound.
The authors take you inside the modern studio, from its physical layout to the recording process and participants roles. After a surprisingly useful primer on sound and hearing, they turn to equipment: mikes, digital audio (and when to use analog tape instead); MIDI, amps, consoles, speakers, and more. You ll find in-depth, practical guidance on synchronization, noise reduction, mastering, manufacturing CDs -- really, just about any facet of recording you re interested in. Bill Camarda, from the July 2005 href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/newslet... Only
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
110 people are currently reading
640 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 18, 2009
This book is too wince-inducing to read, mostly due to its unnecessarily dumbed-down tone, its heavy reliance on meaningless wordy phrases ("In recent years"; "one of the more common complaints that some people have"), overwhelming number of typos and grammatical errors, and constant passive voice ("the following methods can be tried"). However, it contains a lot of useful information for novices.
January 24, 2012
Great book for novices to recording. Gives you some basic techniques for mic placement, goes through the nitty gritty technical details about sound. Overall though, it gives the reader the confidence in the basics to do what really makes recording great: having fun with improvising and thinking outside the box. Once you know what the "box" is, then you can have fun working outside it!
January 9, 2023
For 30-40 years, 'Modern Recording Techniques' has remained a "101" reference textbook for audio/music curriculums at colleges, universities, media/design trade schools, and group audio engineering courses/certs at commercial recording studios. These days it feels pretty broad and thin and easily surpassed by other books which will remain relevant to the reader over a long period of time.
The current version actively in print is the 9th edition. I actually purchased this newest edition out of curiosity as to how newer topics are summarized and folded into the legacy material. After it arrived, I found an old 5th edition copy I didn't even know I had! A common discovery it seems: a plethora of used copies of past editions are always in circulation. Many more exist forgotten in closets, basements, those eternally unexamined bookshelves found in former childhood bedrooms back at an adult's parents' house. All curriculums of study have their own niche books like this, like '70s Thomas Michener paperbacks—books which end up as bric-a-brac signifiers of their bygone age. It's not (as in this case) that the material is not longer effective, but the formatting and approach and perspective and how it was crafted to meet needs in the context of its time.
It's a useful guide for beginners, with a reasonably complete summary tour of the background and fundamentals of the audio engineering field. It's a broad map to the standards and tools and basics of the trade, but it's light on any particular topical information; a succession of snapshots of concepts and subjects the serious student will be researching for themselves. These days it probably would find better use with hobbyists (DIY home recording musicians, podcasters) looking for a survey of the historical late 20th century field. Again, it's prevalent and affordable used.
The sincere audio acolyte should spend their money on a handful of choice texts that will serve as reference guides for decades on various portions of the field (and then some), for example: Master Handbook of Acoustics, Digital Audio Explained, the Focal Press books for recording/mixing in the home/small/project studio, Sound Design for the Stage, Karen Collins on video game sound, free floating pdfs of Yamaha's classics on Sound Reinforcement and FM Synthesis, etc. As for new standards of data and publishing and so on, it's difficult to say if any printed material currently covers it since things are changing continuously, but I continue to browse for this myself.
The current version actively in print is the 9th edition. I actually purchased this newest edition out of curiosity as to how newer topics are summarized and folded into the legacy material. After it arrived, I found an old 5th edition copy I didn't even know I had! A common discovery it seems: a plethora of used copies of past editions are always in circulation. Many more exist forgotten in closets, basements, those eternally unexamined bookshelves found in former childhood bedrooms back at an adult's parents' house. All curriculums of study have their own niche books like this, like '70s Thomas Michener paperbacks—books which end up as bric-a-brac signifiers of their bygone age. It's not (as in this case) that the material is not longer effective, but the formatting and approach and perspective and how it was crafted to meet needs in the context of its time.
It's a useful guide for beginners, with a reasonably complete summary tour of the background and fundamentals of the audio engineering field. It's a broad map to the standards and tools and basics of the trade, but it's light on any particular topical information; a succession of snapshots of concepts and subjects the serious student will be researching for themselves. These days it probably would find better use with hobbyists (DIY home recording musicians, podcasters) looking for a survey of the historical late 20th century field. Again, it's prevalent and affordable used.
The sincere audio acolyte should spend their money on a handful of choice texts that will serve as reference guides for decades on various portions of the field (and then some), for example: Master Handbook of Acoustics, Digital Audio Explained, the Focal Press books for recording/mixing in the home/small/project studio, Sound Design for the Stage, Karen Collins on video game sound, free floating pdfs of Yamaha's classics on Sound Reinforcement and FM Synthesis, etc. As for new standards of data and publishing and so on, it's difficult to say if any printed material currently covers it since things are changing continuously, but I continue to browse for this myself.
May 3, 2020
Think of an equalizer as a “frequency discriminating amplifier”. Think of a compressor as an “automatic fader”. The audio spectrum is divided into four frequency bands: Low (20 to 200Hz, low-mid (200-1000 Hz) high –mid (1,000 to 5,000 Hz and high 5,000 to 20,000 Hz). The fundamentals of most instrument notes are found from 200- to 1000-Hz. From 5,000 Hz and higher you are dealing with the instruments harmonics. Most instruments can be tweaked in two or three Hz locations. Do your mix below 85 dB, many producers do because mixing at high levels endangers the mix (bass and treble shy) when played back at low levels. “In air, sound travels at 1130 feet per second.” Reverb delay/decay time = the time it takes a reverberant sound to decay 60 dB. The “three to one distance rule” to maintain “phase integrity”: “For every unit of distance between a mic and its source, a nearby mic (or multiple mics) should be separated by at least three times that distance.” Halving the distance from your mic to sound source increases sound by 6 dB, doubling the distance decreases it by 6 dB. Turn something up 10 dB and it will sound twice as loud although you’ve increased the signal’s level 10-fold.
Think of condenser mics as capacitor mics because they store a charge on an electrostatic principle not an electromagnetic principle like an SM57. The mic diaphragm’s capacitance changes with differences in sound pressure which varies the distance between a moveable diagram and the fixed back plate. Phantom power supplies a positive DC supply voltage of +48V equally through both pins 2 and 3. Remember that cardioid pattern on a mic is named after being shaped like a heart. Note your preamp’s variable impedance control (like on the front panel of a Tree Audio Branch) to properly match the preamp to the design characteristics of the mic design. Mic impedances are measured in ohms. Any one of your mics could be wired out of phase – all of your equipment has to be phase tested. Don’t hesitate to add distant room mics (on separate tracks) to help make things sometimes less “in your face”. Recording drums, to avoid phase problems, make sure your overheads are equidistant from the kick drum. On DAWs name tracks BEFORE you press record. Find your DAWs notepad for including recording info needed later. Think of sometimes recording a MIDI track in addition to an audio track. You might need to do edits or sound changes that MIDI could have done easily. Pages 300-202 chart all the Controller ID numbers (2 is for breath, 4 is for foot, 10 is pan, etc.). Don’t forget your power lines and audio lines have to be kept separate from each other for less noise. Effect sends are used to “augment a signal” i.e. add delay, reverb - to “send” a mix of multiple channel signals to an effect then sending the combination to the monitor. You use an “insert” for only augmenting a specific single channel.
You may need to do a final mix compression. Bear in mind, many of the best engineers (like Bruce Swedien and Allen Sides) record EVERYTHING in stereo to get it more “live sounding.” Try running your kick drum into a noise gate to use the kick to “key” an oscillator mixed in to fatten it up. Delays 15- to 35-ms range is doubling. Beyond 35- to 40-ms, “the listener will begin to perceive the sound as being a discrete echo.” Fast Fourier Transform noise reduction can be used to remove noise, coughs and distractions from less than pristine important recordings. Hitting the 0 button with a slash through it on a console will phase-reverse a preamp’s outputs. Make sure one’s monitors are in phase, otherwise one speaker moves in while the other moves out and your sound will suck. Use a mono signal through both speakers, a polarity tester or a volt-ohm meter to check that. To register your copyright, go to: http://copyright.gov.eco They are particularly looking for songs that rhyme “true” w/ “blue” or “you” and that vamp on one chord while the “composer” reads out of an on-screen rhyming dictionary.
Your musical project: Keep the vocals the central focus of the song. Record your practices to get used to being under the gun. Start work on your artwork. Copyright it. Your recorded songs aren’t safe unless it’s backed up in three locations. In the end, this very good book reminds you, that “trial and error” and your ears will be your best friends so get to work and think first about mic selection and placement and not EQ and fixing stuff done wrong.
Think of condenser mics as capacitor mics because they store a charge on an electrostatic principle not an electromagnetic principle like an SM57. The mic diaphragm’s capacitance changes with differences in sound pressure which varies the distance between a moveable diagram and the fixed back plate. Phantom power supplies a positive DC supply voltage of +48V equally through both pins 2 and 3. Remember that cardioid pattern on a mic is named after being shaped like a heart. Note your preamp’s variable impedance control (like on the front panel of a Tree Audio Branch) to properly match the preamp to the design characteristics of the mic design. Mic impedances are measured in ohms. Any one of your mics could be wired out of phase – all of your equipment has to be phase tested. Don’t hesitate to add distant room mics (on separate tracks) to help make things sometimes less “in your face”. Recording drums, to avoid phase problems, make sure your overheads are equidistant from the kick drum. On DAWs name tracks BEFORE you press record. Find your DAWs notepad for including recording info needed later. Think of sometimes recording a MIDI track in addition to an audio track. You might need to do edits or sound changes that MIDI could have done easily. Pages 300-202 chart all the Controller ID numbers (2 is for breath, 4 is for foot, 10 is pan, etc.). Don’t forget your power lines and audio lines have to be kept separate from each other for less noise. Effect sends are used to “augment a signal” i.e. add delay, reverb - to “send” a mix of multiple channel signals to an effect then sending the combination to the monitor. You use an “insert” for only augmenting a specific single channel.
You may need to do a final mix compression. Bear in mind, many of the best engineers (like Bruce Swedien and Allen Sides) record EVERYTHING in stereo to get it more “live sounding.” Try running your kick drum into a noise gate to use the kick to “key” an oscillator mixed in to fatten it up. Delays 15- to 35-ms range is doubling. Beyond 35- to 40-ms, “the listener will begin to perceive the sound as being a discrete echo.” Fast Fourier Transform noise reduction can be used to remove noise, coughs and distractions from less than pristine important recordings. Hitting the 0 button with a slash through it on a console will phase-reverse a preamp’s outputs. Make sure one’s monitors are in phase, otherwise one speaker moves in while the other moves out and your sound will suck. Use a mono signal through both speakers, a polarity tester or a volt-ohm meter to check that. To register your copyright, go to: http://copyright.gov.eco They are particularly looking for songs that rhyme “true” w/ “blue” or “you” and that vamp on one chord while the “composer” reads out of an on-screen rhyming dictionary.
Your musical project: Keep the vocals the central focus of the song. Record your practices to get used to being under the gun. Start work on your artwork. Copyright it. Your recorded songs aren’t safe unless it’s backed up in three locations. In the end, this very good book reminds you, that “trial and error” and your ears will be your best friends so get to work and think first about mic selection and placement and not EQ and fixing stuff done wrong.
July 1, 2018
Very thorough and competent walk through the realms of recording. Will use this for reference for a long time I bet.
July 24, 2014
This book is full of a LOT of information. Some of it is redundant, but I think that's better than being sparse; it allows you to have the information at your fingertips when you're looking up a particular thing you wish to understand better. Frankly, this book is best as a reference, unless you're a producer, rather than a read-through (I'm a musician and have limited self-production skills, so a lot of this book is WAY over my head).
That being said, the most valuable chapter for me was probably the last, which gives splendid legal and financial advice. WOW. I'm pretty sure I would've had to hire someone to tell me the stuff I learned about being a self-employed musician. Some of it I knew from my own research, but the rest is really amazing. This is a book I will definitely reference as I continue to grow and learn more about my craft in the future. It includes data about every aspect of recording, instrument type.
My major criticism is that the writing isn't very creative (I know, I know; it's non-fiction and educational. But, I don't think that it needs to be boring) and some of its examples are not actually that helpful, which was a bit disappointing. Basically, there are some gaps if you're not trained as a producer already that need to be filled. The text is very dense with math, but not practical use. As a musician and someone who enjoys math, I could understand the math fine, but I couldn't make the leap to how it impacted music even with the sound samples. But, I'm sure one could make the extra effort to make their own samples and use the things indicated and find out more about what's happening with the sound. :) So, there's that. But, I could have done that anyway without the book, so . . . that's why it's 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, very nice to have. :)
That being said, the most valuable chapter for me was probably the last, which gives splendid legal and financial advice. WOW. I'm pretty sure I would've had to hire someone to tell me the stuff I learned about being a self-employed musician. Some of it I knew from my own research, but the rest is really amazing. This is a book I will definitely reference as I continue to grow and learn more about my craft in the future. It includes data about every aspect of recording, instrument type.
My major criticism is that the writing isn't very creative (I know, I know; it's non-fiction and educational. But, I don't think that it needs to be boring) and some of its examples are not actually that helpful, which was a bit disappointing. Basically, there are some gaps if you're not trained as a producer already that need to be filled. The text is very dense with math, but not practical use. As a musician and someone who enjoys math, I could understand the math fine, but I couldn't make the leap to how it impacted music even with the sound samples. But, I'm sure one could make the extra effort to make their own samples and use the things indicated and find out more about what's happening with the sound. :) So, there's that. But, I could have done that anyway without the book, so . . . that's why it's 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, very nice to have. :)
September 21, 2012
this book has a pretty good , historcal opening , about the germans & a neat picture of bing Crosby with his eight , alot of good information in there as well , picked it up for a class , & use it as a refrence ever since !
June 12, 2020
This one could seem a bit superficial to the advanced technician, but for the curious musician and the recording student, it's a whole bible. No fat, just essential information wisely categorized. Definitely keeping it nearby forever.
July 6, 2024
Required reading for audio engineers.
The first edition of this book was published 50 years ago in 1974. Back then I was tooling around with a custom built bike rack that carried my Sony TC-??? that had two monitor speakers and weighed about 50 pounds along with storage for mikes, cables and a very bare bones aux mixer. It cost more than the first car that I bought several years later. I did record some garage bands and other stuff but I liked my gigs to last more than a few hours, so I eventually stopped.
If you are recording, mixing or distributing audio, especially music, and plan on or have a studio, you need this book. I read the 10th edition, published in 2024, it covers all the modern goodies as well as the older stuff.
The first edition of this book was published 50 years ago in 1974. Back then I was tooling around with a custom built bike rack that carried my Sony TC-??? that had two monitor speakers and weighed about 50 pounds along with storage for mikes, cables and a very bare bones aux mixer. It cost more than the first car that I bought several years later. I did record some garage bands and other stuff but I liked my gigs to last more than a few hours, so I eventually stopped.
If you are recording, mixing or distributing audio, especially music, and plan on or have a studio, you need this book. I read the 10th edition, published in 2024, it covers all the modern goodies as well as the older stuff.
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December 22, 2023This was a great book on Recording. A lot to get through for sure though.. I like to follow this mixing engineer for tips and tricks as well.
November 20, 2017
Great and invaluable tome for recording featuring many sections and subjects covered. Perhaps not the most in-depth book out there but good for a quick and basic understanding of things.
July 10, 2020
Audio recording Text book. Very good for that. All the important stuff is there and well explained. I used it when studying Sound Engineering in the late 80s. It still holds up of course.
May 22, 2022
If I could just rate the content it probably deserves a 3. But the writing style is SO bad that it makes me want to quit music altogether when I read it.
July 19, 2022
Comprehensive overview of everything related to audio engineering and music production. A great reference and guide to beginning working in the field
March 17, 2025
This book saved my marriage.
Easily recommend to anyone who even slightly values their life.
Easily recommend to anyone who even slightly values their life.
January 31, 2016
A comprehensive and thorough review of audio production. I found the book mostly engaging and able to keep me interested in the material. There were a few parts that I didn't understand but the onus may be on me for that.
March 2, 2015
This should really be titled 'an absolute beginners guide...', it's really high level and contains so much waffle I think those 600 pages could easily be condensed into 200. Useful if you've never even tried tried recording yet.
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October 15, 2007ooh. this one is going to take awhile to read.
May 25, 2009
Very technical but helpful.
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January 10, 2013Awesome.
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August 25, 2014621.389 R943m 2014
June 21, 2025
Could have done with tighter editing and fact checking, but it's comprehensive and the authors clearly know what they're talking about. Essential if you're interesting in music and audio production.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews