Using Your Portable Studio

If you know nothing or very little about recording, thie is THE book to get. Psychedelic Tunesmith asked the appropriate question: were you thinking of getting another book? What I particularly like about this book is that McIan writes for an audience with a severly limited budget. There are many magazines and books that write about recording as if their readers have thousands of dollars to spare. Secondly, McIan teaches recording from a conceptual standpoint. In other words, he teaches from the stance that the idea of recording is an old princple and all technologies are forms of this principle: capture the sound waves on an impressionable medium; to retrieve the archive, reverse the process There is an emphasis on cassette-tape portable studios but I think that has to do more with when the book was published. Even those working with digital mediums can benefit from this. Besides, years from now, digital mediums will be discussed as a dated, old-fashioned technology. McIan constantly stresses that you should do the best with what you can get your hands on and that knowledge can often compensate for mediocre equipment. If you only have enough money to buy one book on recording, this is the one to buy.

I have a lot of experience in live sound but just about zilch in recording. This book has helped me in such ways that it has even improved on my live sound by making you think about what you're doing before you do it, ie., micing acoustic instruments or setting up for an 'unplugged' session with vocals to different ways to mic a piano. I would recomend this book to anyone who want to learn more about recording. Whether at home doing it, or at the pro studio on the other side of the console, this book can answer some questions before you start. As far as some thinking that this book is dated, not everybody can afford to fork out $1000 or $2000 dollars for a decent digital console/hard disc system. I can't. I still have and use and original TASCAM 488 Portastudio, that came very reasonable by the way, so the sections on portable studios is very helpfull to me. Overall, I give it five stars. If you want to record at home for fun or for yourself, this is a must read!

Anyone interested in engineering and producing their own recording will find a wealth of information regarding techiniques and implementations for microphone, guitar, bass, keyboards, midi drum kits....including how to develop a "true" mix.Concepts provided within are ideas you will only hear from someone who has lived it!! This book is a great resource to help you start your projects armmed with knowledge and understanding of key studio practices.

As I read Peter's book, I found all I needed and wanted to know,was in the book. It quenched my all of thirst for knowledge for home recording.

From the get go, McIan schools you on the complete fundamentals/theory of recording. It's an excellent how-to book for anyone looking to record music either professionaly or as a hobbie The recipes in the back are worth it alone!