Hello!

Let's share what books are you reading (composition, mixing, mastering...)

I'm Reading

Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools

 

I'm reading software manuals rather than books

 

Same here. Some manuals can be super extensive!

 

I'm reading now The Recording Revolution blog. This guy, Graham, he is very wise and even though some of his advices are very simple, they are also very deep, going to the basics and teaching also a nice mixing & recording philosophy. Huge fan!!!

 

You won't be too surprised to hear that right now I am reading

 

Reading Every thing I find about compressors. Including manuals.

 

I read on a need-to-know basis, otherwise you just get bogged down and sidetracked

 

Get yourself a WA76 you won't be disappointed It pays to knock off the peaks before you hit the AD converters.

 

Regarding audio books, I haven't read much, except Bob Katz's "Mastering Audio" and "Mastering Engineer's Handbook" by Bobby Owsinski, years ago [~10]. I do read a white paper or two here and there, because I'm really interested in "stuff" like DSP processing, digital audio, analog audio... white papers and manuals are great... when you know "stuff" in the first place. Reading a book on any subject is just a beginning, an introduction to the knowledge you still haven't mastered , yet, until you put it into practice. Reading a book on the subject saves you from having to learn the subject from the scratch, though.

Otherwise, I read classic books and modern books equally, but I tend to like the classics more. Mostly Sci-Fi, Fiction, Philosophy and Politics. Project Gutenberg website is a great source for the former and I'm currently reading "The Country of the Blind" by H. G. Wells [ http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11870 ]. Great author! ["Time Machine" anybody? http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35 ] His books are far more cunningly political and philosophical than one might think. His views on the world are also far more radical-left than one might think and that's why I love his work so much. This is a great article about the works of H. G. Wells - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42221 These old books are far better source of general knowledge than the modern ones, I think, because history definitely repeats itself - people tend to repeat the errors all the time... unless we're speaking pure science, of course, as science learns from its errors.

Cheers!

 

I don't believe a musician or engineer should wear too many hats. You are probably biased towards being a creator or your forte is on the technical side of things. If you excel at either then you can afford to pay/ignore the other, as you will make way more money in the long run. The music business is very competitive, so focus on your strengths and buy in everything else that you need

Obviously an understanding of the overall process will come in handy, but don't go overboard. For example, as a musician I could write a thousand songs in the time it would take me to get to a professional level of proficiency in the mastering process (it's complicated and expensive to set up properly), and nowadays you can get very good value online from highly experience mastering engineers who have all the right (expensive!) equipment.

 

I am and have been into mastering more than anything else, Zenarcist. My equipment is absolutely not too shabby, either. However, I'm also into live recording and mixing. Hell, I even assemble and sell computers to studios! Even though I absolutely agree that one should focus on your strengths and that would be best, in these hard times it's really hard to depend on just one source of income, unfortunately. Everybody I know does it, too. Sad but true. However, it depends on the situation. If you're Bob Katz you don't need to do anything else but mastering. That is, if you get enough income from one source, then great!

Having said that, if I was to choose one thing to focus on it would be mastering. *yes* But since I also like to make music, I have to know how to make a good mix. It all just kinda fits into place, together for me... computers, mixing, mastering. One cannot exist without the other these days, unless you have some kind of a big project on your hands and you can spend money on people who are specialised in the certain field. I see less and less projects like that. But it's also nothing peculiar, it's the sign of [bad] times and the audio industry just keeps going under. However, I'm not worried as I'm too small to be worried. I can always just sell and maintain computers if need be. Just recently I've taken up Linux because Windows bore me to death... I'm a bit of a hyperactive and very curious person, you know? And VERY technical, yes. *yes*

Cheers!

 

I'm with you man, but nowadays people are mastering individual tracks for next to nothing with top end equipment. To me it makes sense to pick one or the other. Another example, I compose and make demo tracks at home, but if I need professional vocals or live drums I go to a studio, it's just not worth the expense of kitting out the necessary environment at home. The end result is I can produce release ready recordings (obviously mastered outside ) in a cost effective manner.

 

Yes, nowadays you can get decent mastering for peanuts. I should know that. That's exactly why I have to do other things, too. Thankfully, I started as a computer technician, then had a band and an analog studio and I learned how to mix long time ago [90s], too, so you can see how it all fits nicely into a place for me.

 

I read almost everything and almost everything of today sounds boring...seams that most things are fore newbees and I have to test a lot, sounds like gold mining
I am doing the Rob Papens dvds and its good to review some points.

 

today, i are mostly reading the wrapper from some bananas ( interesting facts about chimps) plus trying to finish the wild cheep chase by murakami and re-reading tiger! tiger! by alfred bester..classic... and loads and loads of internet snippets and manuals for ableton live and discovery pro synth

 

The Holy Bible - KJV.

 

nothing. and stop looking over my shoulder!