Customer Reviews
Much more than Quick Mastering Tips - By: Gordon W. Craig, 05 Jul 2007 
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs & got this bookin the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try & do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes & question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high & has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope & limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch & encouraging you to LISTEN before & after pluggingin the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art & insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last stepin production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art & Science of Audio.
A must buy - By: Teknoize, 14 Dec 2006 If your serious about music & want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead.
One of the few authoritative books about audio - By: Borja Marcos, 27 Aug 2004 The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, & there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD!
This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific & rigurous, without a single exception.
And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, & the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better.
Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, writtenin a lively style, & very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible - By: Ralf Kleemann, 31 Jan 2004 The degreein which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level & lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experiencein the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, allin all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer & you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision isin the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering. - By: Mr. P. D. Maunder, 10 Jan 2004 If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals & processes involvedin mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interestedin mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely & is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
