Recording - December 2012 - 63

Eargle’s Microphone Book. From Mono to Stereo to Surround. A Guide to Microphone Design and Application.
Third edition updated by Ray A.Rayburn. 466 pages, illustrated B/W, paperback. Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business, 2012. ISBN 978-0-240-82075-0. $54.95; www.focalpress.com

John Eargle has been the go-to author for microphone knowledge ever since his 1981 Microphone Handbook. Eargle published the first edition of the Microphone Book in 2001, and revised it in 2004. Eargle passed away in 2007, and Ray A. Rayburn was tasked by the publishers to prepare this third edition. It retains the short history of the microphone and the bulk of the other, mostly timeless, information from the previous editions. Rayburn adds much about digital technologies, new microphone types and models including wireless, interfacing, effects of humidity and temperature on microphones, and even new information that has come to light about some classic microphones. This book is jampacked with technical diagrams and scientific formulas, some of which may pose a challenge to the casual microphone user; but Eargle lucidly outlines the concepts behind the science, making this book rewarding reading for the recording musician.

iTunes Music. Mastering High Resolution Audio Delivery. Produce Great Sounding Music with Mastered for iTunes.
By Bob Katz, with foreword by Bob Ludwig. 135 pages, illustrated (color), paperback. Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business, 2013. ISBN 978-0-415-65685-6. $29.95; www.focalpress.com

This is a must-have book for anyone who produces audio that may end up on iTunes. The once incompatible terms of “high-resolution audio” and “iTunes delivery” are no longer an oxymoron, due to Apple Computer’s new Mastered for iTunes initiative, introduced in early 2012. Renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig had a major hand in this significant development, and he introduces his foreword as follows: “Today, there are hundreds of Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) titles and, for online music files, MFiT will be the standard from now on. It is 100% based on solid science as you will learn in the chapters of this book, but in this Foreword, you’ll hear the ”untold” story of how Mastered for iTunes came about”. Equally renowned mastering engineer Bob Katz then proceeds to outline the insider tips and tricks you need when preparing your MFiT submissions for iTunes. For the first time, record labels and producers are encouraged to deliver audio materials to iTunes in a high-resolution format, which can produce better-sounding masters. As he did in his other, much more extensive “classic” book Mastering Audio, Katz manages to include a wealth of useful information beyond the immediate topic at hand, which makes this slim tome doubly valuable. It is not often that you can read about a paradigm shift from those who collaborated to bring it about. Support materials can be found at Katz’s website at www.digido.com/itunes. Highly recommended.

Welcome to the Music Business
By Gregory J. Gordon, Tess Taylor, Steffen Franz, Paul Terry. 235 pages, illustrated (color), large paperback with DVD. Published by Alfred Music Publishing, 2011. ISBN 0-7390-7195-5. $39.99; www.alfred.com

This is one of nine volumes in the Pyramind Training Series, put together by Pyramind Studios, a production and training facility in San Francisco. This volume is one of three in the series’ subgroup “Cash Flow—Achieving Success in the Audio Industry”. The first section does a good job describing realistically what jobs the music and audio industry offers, enabling readers to assess their own strengths and weaknesses and aspirations before taking the plunge. Subsequent sections offer solid career advice and take the reader into the thick of business facts and industry numbers, right down to financial planning and a Business Plan Primer, supported by PDF and Excel documents on the accompanying DVD. Valuable materials for anyone considering taking their avocation beyond the status of a hobby.

Recording Studio Design
Third edition, by Philip Newell. 798 pages, illustrated B/W, paperback. Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business, 2012. ISBN 978-0-240-52240-1. $89.95; www.focalpress.com

Newell aims this in-depth volume at the professional designer of first-rate commercial studios. If that sounds intimidating to a home recordist—Newell also has published a book entitled Project Studios— A more Professional Approach, that sells for around $60 and up (used/remaindered), keeping its value even though it came out quite a few years ago. The book under review is, as its steep price indicates, an exhaustive treatise of the fundamental requirements of premises for professional recording, with scientific background information on sound, decibels, hearing, isolation, room acoustics, design concepts including items like ventilation and mains power supplies. From there the author moves on to room responses, loudspeakers and monitoring, cabling and analog interfacing, and he includes a chapter on a mobile control room. The back of the book is taken up by extensive measurement results, including graphic displays of measurement results of 38 professional monitors, “to emphasise the degree of difference in the responses”: Plots of on-axis responses, step functions, and waterfalls. A glossary completes the volume. For the technically and scientifically inclined reader.
RECORDING December 2012

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Recording - December 2012

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