Console Confessions


Book Description

(Book). Compiled from industry leader EQ magazine, Console Confessions gathers first-person stories from the top names in music production. All aspects of recording are covered, from creative concepts to choosing equipment and on to project mastering. Celebrities from both in front of and behind the board talk candidly about their art and some offer step-by-step instructions on attaining their legendary sounds. Sections covering personal style, technical aspects, and history offer a rare glimpse into the specifics of how each individual producer or artist achieves his vision. Les Paul, Jimmy Bowen, Herbie Hancock, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Ric Ocasek, Lou Reed, Jeff Lynne, Jimmy Jam, and Rush's Alex Lifeson are among the hit-makers featured.




Recording Secrets for the Small Studio


Book Description

In this new edition, discover how to achieve commercial-grade recordings, even in the smallest studios, by applying power-user techniques from the world’s most successful producers. Recording Secrets for the Small Studio is based on the backroom strategies of more than 250 famous names. This thorough and down-to-earth guide leads you through a logical sequence of practical tasks to build your live-room skills progressively from the ground up, with user-friendly explanations that introduce technical concepts on a strictly need-to-know basis. On the way, you’ll unravel the mysteries of many specialist studio tactics and gain the confidence to tackle a full range of real-world recording situations. Specifically designed for small-studio enthusiasts, this book provides an intensive training course for those who want a fast track to releasing quality results, while the chapter summaries, assignments, and extensive online resources are perfect for school and college use. Learn the fundamental principles of mic technique that you can apply in any recording scenario – and how to avoid those rookie mistakes that all too often compromise the sonics of lower-budget productions. Explore advanced techniques which help industry insiders maintain their competitive edge even under the most adverse conditions: creative phase manipulation, improvised acoustics tweaks, inventive monitoring workarounds, and subtle psychological tricks. Find out where you don’t need to spend money, as well as how to make a limited budget really count. Make the best use of limited equipment and session time, especially in situations where you’re engineering and producing single-handed. Pick up tricks and tips from celebrated engineers and producers across the stylistic spectrum, including Steve Albini, Neal Avron, Roy Thomas Baker, Joe Barresi, Howard Benson, Tchad Blake, T-Bone Burnett, Geoff Emerick, Brian Eno, Paul Epworth, Shawn Everett, Humberto Gatica, Imogen Heap, Ross Hogarth, Trevor Horn, Rodney Jerkins, Leslie Ann Jones, Eddie Kramer, Jacquire King, Daniel Lanois, Sylvia Massy, Alan Meyerson, Justin Niebank, Gary Paczosa, Tony Platt, Jack Joseph Puig, David Reitzas, Bob Rock, Laura Sisk, Fraser T Smith, Young Guru, and many more. Now extensively expanded and updated, with new sections on contact mics, software instruments, squash mics, and ensemble depth distortion.




Coproduction


Book Description

Coproduction is dedicated specifically to the study of an emerging field in music production musicology. It explores the limits of what this field might be, from the workings of a few individuals producing music together in the studio, to vast contributions of whole societies producing popular music. Taking a wide-ranging approach to examining the field, Coproduction looks through multiple formats including essays, interviews, and case studies, with analysis and commentary of coproduction experiences at Abbey Road studios. It does so by examining multiple disciplines from social science and coproduction in mental health, to philosophy and mathematics. At its extremes (which is the extreme middle and not the blunt ‘cutting edge’) the authors attempt to produce every song in their development of an all-encompassing pop music concept, peculiarly called Toast theory. In attempting to unite the pragmatic collaborative patterns of Vera John-Steiner with philosophical postmodernist concepts of connection, Coproduction has something to offer readers interested in the traditional workings of teams of producers, as well as those seeking to understand the wider philosophy of collaboration in music production.




Confessions


Book Description

"Rousseau may be said to have founded the romantic movement. The great ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, which inspired the French Revolution, were first formulated by him. He was one of the first thinkers to emphasize the importance of emotion and feeling in human affairs." - Bertrand Russell A new translation into English from the original manuscripts of Rousseau's classic and influential Les Confessions (The Confessions). This is an autobiographical work published in 1790, after his death. Here Rousseau writes about his life, his thoughts, and his experiences, revealing his innermost thoughts and feelings. The book is notable for its frankness and honesty, and for its exploration of the nature of selfhood and identity. His confessions is a romantic masterpiece of self-analysis, and a profound exploration of the nature of subjective experience. He argues that the Cartesian self is not a fixed and immutable entity, but dynamic and evolving.




The Art of Music Production


Book Description

The Art of Music Production is the first book to comprehensively analyze and describe the role of the music producer in creating successful music recordings. Now in its fourth edition, it is the definitive guide to the art and business of music production. Author and producer Richard James Burgess distills this complex field by defining the distinct roles of a music producer.The first part of the book outlines the underlying theory of the art of music production. The second focuses on the job's practical aspects, including training, getting into the business, and--most importantly--the musical, financial, and interpersonal relationships producers have with artists and their labels. The book is packed with insights from successful music producers, ranging from the beginnings of recorded sound to today's chart-toppers and across genre lines. It features many revealing anecdotes, encompassing both the daily and overarching career-related challenges that a producer faces. Burgess addresses the changes in the nature of music production brought about by technology and, in particular, the millennial shift that has occurred with digital recording and distribution. His lifelong experience in the recording industry as a studio musician, artist, composer, producer, manager, and marketer, combined with his extensive academic research in the field, brings a unique breadth and depth of understanding to the topic.




The Confessions


Book Description

Widely regarded as the first modern autobiography, The Confessions is an astonishing work of acute psychological insight. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) argued passionately against the inequality he believed to be intrinsic to civilized society. In his Confessions he relives the first fifty-three years of his radical life with vivid immediacy - from his earliest years, where we can see the source of his belief in the innocence of childhood, through the development of his philosophical and political ideas, his struggle against the French authorities and exile from France following the publication of Émile. Depicting a life of adventure, persecution, paranoia, and brilliant achievement, The Confessions is a landmark work by one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment, which was a direct influence upon the work of Proust, Goethe and Tolstoy among others.




The Theology of Augustine's Confessions


Book Description

This study of Augustine's Confessions presents his testimony of conversion as an antidote to modern culture's tendency toward disbelief.




Modern Records, Maverick Methods


Book Description

From the Fairlight CMI through MIDI to the digital audio workstations at the turn of the millennium, Modern Records, Maverick Methods examines a critical period in commercial popular music record production: the transformative digital age from the late 1970s until 2000. Drawing on a discography of more than 300 recordings across pop, rock, hip hop, dance and alternative musics from artists such as the Beastie Boys, Madonna, U2 and Fatboy Slim, and extensive and exclusive ethnographic work with many world-renowned recordists, Modern Records presents a fresh and insightful new perspective on one of the most significant eras in commercial music record production. The book traces the development of significant music technologies through the 1980s and 1990s, revealing how changing attitudes and innovative techniques of recording personnel reimagined recording processes and, finally, exemplifies the impact of these technologies and techniques via six comprehensive tech-processual analyses. This meticulously researched and timely book reveals the complexity of recordists' responses to a technological landscape in flux.




Dawn of the DAW


Book Description

Dawn ot the DAW tells the story of how the dividing line between the traditional roles of musicians and recording studio personnel (producers, recording engineers, mixing engineers, technicians, etc.) has eroded throughout the latter half of the twentieth century to the present. Whereas those equally adept in music and technology such as Raymond Scott and Les Paul were exceptions to their eras, the millennial music maker is ensconced in a world in which the symbiosis of music and technology is commonplace. As audio production skills such as recording, editing, and mixing are increasingly co-opted by musicians teaching themselves in their do-it-yourself (DIY) recording studios, conventions of how music production is taught and practiced are remixed to reflect this reality. Dawn of the DAW first examines DIY recording practices within the context of recording history from the late nineteenth century to the present. Second, Dawn of the DAW discusses the concept of "the studio as musical instrument" and the role of the producer, detailing how these constructs have evolved throughout the history of recorded music in tandem. Third, Dawn of the DAW details current practices of DIY recording--how recording technologies are incorporated into music making, and how they are learned by DIY studio users in the musically--chic borough of Brooklyn. Finally, Dawn of the DAW examines the broader trends heard throughout, summarizing the different models of learning and approaches to music making. Dawn of the DAW concludes by discussing the ramifications of these new directions for the field of music education.




The Architecture and Geography of Sound Studios


Book Description

This is a book about sound studios, focusing on their architectural and geographical aspects. It explores how music is materialized under specific spatial and technological conditions and the myths associated with this process. Through ten in-depth studies, it examines the design, evolution and current function of sound studios amidst economic and technological shifts in the music industry. Traditional studios are in flux between the past and future. The industry, while steeped in romanticism and nostalgia, also embraces forward-driven pragmatism and an extensive reuse culture, encompassing heritage audio, building materials and existing buildings. A surprisingly diverse architectural heritage, the most significant feature is the host building, the framework around the studio capsule. Many traditional studios adapt to digitalization with hybrid solutions, reflecting a shift toward smaller, more versatile spaces. In a time when recordings in theory can happen anywhere, destination studios must excel to attract clients, balancing historical legacies with diversification. Although they may be easy to deconstruct, many of the myths endure, sustaining ideas of landmark recordings, unique locations and distinct remnants of sonic heritage. Courtesy of their capacity to keep the past alive in the present, traditional sound studios are best described as museums that work. This book aims to reach scholars and students with an interest in history, theory and preservation, as well as practicing architects and architectural students who wish to find out more about the relationship between sound and space, acoustic design and retrofitting of historical buildings into specialized functions. It also aims to reach practicing musicians, producers, music students and music scholars.