Sound Advice: The Musician's Guide to the Recording Studio

I highly recommend Wayne Wadham's book no matter what your level of expertise. This covers the frequencies of instruments, microphone techniques, mixing, and much more really well. What I especially love, however, is how Wadham approaches recording from a very creative point of view each step of the way. Also, he frequently puts in comments by other noted engineers, some of which contradict his own approaches, a sign of a good, confident teacher (he developed this book for Berklee School of Music in Boston). Given that this book was written in 1990, it does not cover a lot about recording on computers. If you are looking for Pro Tools/DAW techniques, look elsewhere. However, if you want philosophies, practical approaches and creative uses when using microphones, tracking, and mixing, this is a fantastic book. We keep it around for reference here at Blueberry Buddha Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and some of my clients ask to borrow it occasionally.

This is probably the best book I've read on audio engineering, I refer to it often. The accompanying CD is also a great way to really 'hear' what Wadhams is talking about by breaking mixes down to their components. Sound Advice covers detailed aspects for recording some of the most common pop/jazz instruments. The level of detail is thorough, covering everything from sound wave physics to exact EQ values, but dont be put off, the book is very readable. Written for the intermediate to experienced engineer. Excellent!