| |
Shop
| |  |
|
Best Sellers
| | Home Guerrilla Home Recording: How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio (No Matter How Weird or Cheap Your Gear Is) | |
|  | |  | | | Guerrilla Home Recording: How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio (No Matter How Weird or Cheap Your Gear Is) | | | | | SKU:
ACAMP_book_usedverygood_0879308346 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Make your small home studio sound huge! Guerrilla Home Recording is a revolutionary approach to getting great sound in a home or project studio. Author Karl Coryat breaks down the process by showing how to think in terms of three simple "dimensions of sound," and then explains step by step how this can help you achieve amazingly clean recordings with maximum impact. Best of all, you don't need the latest pro gear to do it. You'll learn: how to make even the noisiest gear dead quiet * getting instruments to sound crisp and distinct in a mix * making drum programs and sequences sound like they were played live * getting the most out of a limited number of tracks or mixer channels * blending tracks together into a professional-sounding mix * fun projects and exercises to sharpen your ear for sound * and how to avoid the most common mistakes amateur recordists make. | | | |
List Price:
| | |
Our Price:
| $56.65 | |
You Save:
| |
| | |
|
| | Product Details | | Author: | Karl Coryat | | Paperback: | 208 pages | | Publisher: | Backbeat Books | | Publication Date: | December 01, 2004 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0879308346 | | Package Length: | 10.87 inches | | Package Width: | 8.27 inches | | Package Height: | 0.55 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.28 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 27 reviews |
| |
| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 27 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 53 found the following review helpful:
 Advice from a patient friend Feb 08, 2007
By Kuru
The title of this book is somewhat inaccurate, since it doesn't really cover a wide variety of types of studio gear or types of recording. Rather, reading this book is more like spending several hours in the particular studio of one patient, experienced home recordist who is generous with his time in explaining, engagingly, his own set-up and how he uses it.
A problem anyone new to home recording will confront is the feeling of coming in late on the conversation: frustratingly, the manuals for even entry-level gear seem to have been written by engineers (often, Japanese engineers) who assume everyone else has been working with audio recording gear since at least 1950, just like them. And, it is always engineers, not musicians, who write the manuals. Thus, we get instruction on "attenuation" instead of being told how to produce a diminuendo, and we get pots instead of knobs.
A key benefit of this book is that it is written by a musician, and explains what the engineers are talking about in words musicians use.
This is, overall, an outstanding book for any musician assembling a home studio. The author understands, from experience, that no home studio is going to match a pro one, and that understanding how to use ordinary gear is more valuable than spending many thousands of dollars on equipment that won't achieve much benefit outside the environment of one of those pro studios. The author's specific target is a recording that will sound good to a musical listener, while realizing that a home studio will never impress (or fool) a pro sound engineer. Particularly valuable here is his advice on when to stop trying -- e.g., he is right that recording drum sets in a home studio is bound to lead to disappointment, so why spend a few more hundred or thousand dollars on a set of matching drum mikes?
The author plainly came of age in recording well before the digital era. As a result, his recommended set-up is perhaps heavier on hardware, and makes less full use of software, than a brand new set-up would. As an example, he considers a hardware mixer a core piece of equipment, and devotes considerable space to describing work-arounds to deal with the limited connections available on most (affordable) hardware mixers. Whether a hardware mixer is needed anymore if you are using mixing software is an open question (and a good way to start heated arguments on the appropriate forums). Still, understanding how to use a hardware mixer will make using mixing software much easier, since most software products aim to emulate the functions of hardware models.
The book is a nice mix of specific tips, general theory, background explanation, problem-solving, and arcanely entertaining trivia. The more detailed tips tend to be specific to rock recording, so musicians in other genres may get less out of this book. However, at the price there is plenty here to benefit any musician wanting to make home recordings.
I docked one star from my rating out of irritation with small factual inaccuracies (e.g., the author doesn't understand that the panning of a drum set can be affected by whether the drummer is left-handed) and larger limitations (e.g., the author has never learned to record with multiple mikes and therefore never explains how to do this -- his approach is strictly one track at a time.) Again, though, for the money this is a great book to have.
22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 THIS IS THE BOOK FOR HOME RECORDING Mar 11, 2006
By S. DOPIERALA
"Scott D"
I've purchased several books on recording, mixing, etc. and some good, some bad. This book is incredible. Especially for a beginner. I've played in bands for half my life (I'm 30 now) and always relied on studios and occasionally a 4-track recorder. Now that I'm getting into recording and building a studio, on a budget, I have many questions about gear, mixing, what goes where, how this happens . . . Anyway, its like this book read my mind and answered all the questions I had. Some experts might find this book novice but come on read the title. If you're a pro why would you (a) buy this book (b) need to buy a book on the subject at all. For those of us starting out in recording or anyone who still needs advice on the subject, this book is perfect.
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
An Excellent Primer for the Hobbyist Feb 01, 2006
By David A. Thomas
"mi.st.spartan"
This book is excellent. As a musician who spent many years both performing and as a live sound engineer, I've already had a good comprehension of signal paths and equipment prior to reading this book; however, I never had much experience with recording. Recently, I decided to build a home recording/MIDI studio as a hobby. I purchased a handful of books related to home recording, most of which were either too elemental, too specific to a particular piece of gear or software, or loaded with too much theory to be of much use to me. This book hit the nail right on the head.
Karl Coryat's writing style is concise, yet thorough. He uses many examples of some unorthodox and innovative solutions that he developed to solve some common recording problems, without the aid of thousands of dollars worth of pro audio equipment. In addition, his explanations of techniques are generic enough that they can be applied to most equipment types and/or manufacturers. For example, when he explains how a technique would be accomplished in ProTools (the author's weapon of choice), he tells the reader how the same result could be accomplished in other software and/or hardware recording platforms. This was especially useful for me, since I use both Cubase and an 8-track digital recording unit.
My only complaint about this book, and it's a minor complaint, is that the author seemed to cut the "Separation" chapter a little short. The discussion of separation, which is very important to achieving a good sound, is relatively short compared to the remaining chapters. This is not to say that the chapter is not well-written - it is - however, I just feel that the author missed an opportunity to take the reader a step or two further.
I recommend this book to anyone getting into home recording, whether it be digital, analog, or both, or to anyone who records as a hobby and is looking for effective, yet inexpensive, methods to improve the quality of their recordings.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Great basic overview of recording at home Nov 12, 2006
By John Clark
"Composer, pianist, and all-around music nerd"
After reading the first couple of chapters I thought "maybe this book is too basic". After reading further, however, I discovered that I may have overestimated my understanding of the basics of recording. I would guess many home recordists are like me: learning as you go with a "just make it work" attitude. While that helps get projects done it doesn't always use the full potential of my equipment. I thought this book was written in an easily digestible manner and organized to make it a good reference book. If you are building a professional studio this book will certainly be useless. If you have convinced your wife to let you use one of the guest bedrooms as a studio and are debating with her why purchasing a condenser microphone is essential to your development as a human being (and might even end world poverty and war) then this book can be extremely useful. I suspect that I will eventually outgrow this book, but it is a good recording primer, has helped even out my knowledge of recording, and has made me realize that I have much more powerful equipment than I thought I had. I just have to learn how to use it. This book has helped immensely.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Excellent Recording Advice Dec 17, 2005
By Joseph O. Polimeni
After a 10 year hiatus from serious recording, I decided to pick up a book to refresh myself. The problem with learning how to record properly is that a lot of knowledgeable engineers give bad advice. Many are prone to losing perspective, focusing on inconsequential aspects of the recording process. On the other hand, some concepts appear trivial to the novice but are extremely important. Karl Coryat explains complex concepts effectively and provides solid essential advice. This book can be read in a weekend and contains the requisite information to successfully record at home or even in a modest commercial facility.
See all 27 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| |
| |
| |  | |  |
|
Recently Viewed | You may also like ...
|
