Basic Digital Recording

Rating:
Summary: It's good, but don't recommend it to a total newbie
Review: Basic Digital Recording is essentially useful. I learned things I didn't know before, and it helped me solve a problem I was having, as well as another I hadn't recognized yet! It's important for me to establish this book's utility right from the start, because most of this review is going to focus on its shortcomings, the reasons for my having given it only a three-star rating. There are two general weaknesses: there are some gaps, and it's not graded. First, the gaps. The biggest omission occurs in the chapter on music software - there's lots about midi, but nary a mention of programs like Cakewalk, Cubase, Vegas, Cool Edit, etc - the software that anyone *not* using midi needs to know about. A beginner would get badly misled by this. When it comes to plug-ins, it talks about VST, but neglects to mention Direct-X, which are hugely useful and popular. Also, the book suffers from a lack of an index, and although there's a glossary, it is sometimes insufficient, not covering technical terms used in the book. Finally there's a less-than-useful British bias to it: it mentions sospubs.co, for instance, but none of the excellent US-based homerecording and professional recording websites. What's the internet for, if not easy access to international sites? As for it not being graded: it's not a course that takes you from zero knowledge to putting together your first demo in 100 graded steps and stages, making it a bit difficult to learn from sometimes. The first chapter, for instance, is very offputting, defining digital audio terms and equipment. If what you were trying to do was get a digital project studio started, you'd still be wondering where to start when you were on page 40 - it probably would have done better to start with the second chapter which covers different recording systems. And despite going to great lengths to define concepts and equipment, the book assumes some prior knowledge of audio recording. Sometimes it reminds me a bit of the all-too-common equipment manual which seems incomprehensible until you finally learn how to use the gear. I'm going to stop at this point, because I don't want to trash the book - that's why I gave it three stars, after all. It's useful, and I learned things from it, so I should sound more grateful perhaps. But I can't help thinking that as the 'basic' digital recording book which it claims to be, it could have been more user-friendly, especially with the beginner in mind.

Rating:
Summary: It's good, but don't recommend it to a total newbie
Review: Basic Digital Recording is essentially useful. I learned things I didn't know before, and it helped me solve a problem I was having, as well as another I hadn't recognized yet! It's important for me to establish this book's utility right from the start, because most of this review is going to focus on its shortcomings, the reasons for my having given it only a three-star rating. There are two general weaknesses: there are some gaps, and it's not graded. First, the gaps. The biggest omission occurs in the chapter on music software - there's lots about midi, but nary a mention of programs like Cakewalk, Cubase, Vegas, Cool Edit, etc - the software that anyone *not* using midi needs to know about. A beginner would get badly misled by this. When it comes to plug-ins, it talks about VST, but neglects to mention Direct-X, which are hugely useful and popular. Also, the book suffers from a lack of an index, and although there's a glossary, it is sometimes insufficient, not covering technical terms used in the book. Finally there's a less-than-useful British bias to it: it mentions sospubs.co, for instance, but none of the excellent US-based homerecording and professional recording websites. What's the internet for, if not easy access to international sites? As for it not being graded: it's not a course that takes you from zero knowledge to putting together your first demo in 100 graded steps and stages, making it a bit difficult to learn from sometimes. The first chapter, for instance, is very offputting, defining digital audio terms and equipment. If what you were trying to do was get a digital project studio started, you'd still be wondering where to start when you were on page 40 - it probably would have done better to start with the second chapter which covers different recording systems. And despite going to great lengths to define concepts and equipment, the book assumes some prior knowledge of audio recording. Sometimes it reminds me a bit of the all-too-common equipment manual which seems incomprehensible until you finally learn how to use the gear. I'm going to stop at this point, because I don't want to trash the book - that's why I gave it three stars, after all. It's useful, and I learned things from it, so I should sound more grateful perhaps. But I can't help thinking that as the 'basic' digital recording book which it claims to be, it could have been more user-friendly, especially with the beginner in mind.

Rating:
Summary: question to paulfer
Review: Hey paulfer, what book would you recommend for a complete newbie that wanted to get started with multi-track recording?

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: This book is a very quick read, and touches on the most general concepts of digital recording. It packs a lot of information for such a tiny volume (it's only slightly bigger than your wallet), but unfortunately this doesn't leave room for much detail. At best, this book would make a handy quick-reference to keep in your back pocket during recording sessions. But as others here have noted, this is not a book to recommend for newbies who really want to get their feet wet in the fast-moving world of digital recording.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Technical Information
Review: This book provides a good starting point for learning about digital recording. It has a few general chapters on digital music and recording systems and then becomes more specific when discussing soundcard studios, music computers and software and how to create an album.

I was completely behind the trend of digital music, but this book caught me up quickly.