1 Good Book for Beginners
This book is what "Home Recording for Dummies" should be. It gives a very good overview of the components of a modern amateur recording studio. I would recommend it over anything in the "Idiot's" or "Dummies" series by far. Excellent color pictures and diagrams, well layed-out information, equipment and software recommendations, recording techniques, and price guides are all excellent reasons to buy this book.
The only reason I gave it 4/5 was because the book has a little difficulty tying all the pieces of a home studio together into one package. While the book gave excellent descriptions of the components of a home studio, it didn't tie them together extremely well.
The book deals almost exclusively with computer-based recording, with slight mention to tape-based recording. It's unbiased between Mac and PC, but the software recommendations are dated to 2004/2005. However, most everything else in this book should be good information to have for years to come.
2 I love this book!
I was shopping around in Borders yesterday, looking for a book about microphone techniques, and I came across The Billboard Illustrated Home Recording Handbook. As I flipped through it - I found that this was more than just a wealth of information - it was going to be my companion for years to come!
It's visual friendly - many photographs, screen-captures, etc..
which is what I totally love.
the book itself is very comprehensive - any idiot can read and understand it.
and it not only addressed my microphone issue, but it tapped into a thousand other topics that peaked my interest!
SO definetly recommend this book - its wellllllllllllll worth it.
3 Best of the available batch in 2005
I took a look around my local Borders recently. Most of the books were about analog mixing. The most recent coverage was early Pro Tools. This book had the best coverage of recent technology. Plus it was good at explaining the fundamentals in an easy to understand way. Definitely good coverage for home rock and hip-hop recording and mixing. If I could fault it for anything it's that the depth of the exposition is scanty in places. The book could use some more detail in a second version.
