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[AdamC]

Hi, first post here, great forum, heard about it from watching Dave Pensado's show.  I'm an intermediate engineer (mainly musician) working on upping my skills lately. Was just rereading Katz's Mastering Audio and decided I could use a few more general reference books to have around my project studio to flip through when need be.  Specifically, a really good Pro Tools guide that's got cool ideas and different approaches along with all the standard how-to stuff.  And, a couple good books on recording and engineering.

Here's a few I was looking at getting:

The Musician's Guide to Pro Tools
by John Keane  (anyone know if this is still helpful and relevent for PT9?)

Zen and the Art of Mixing
by Mixerman (saw this reviewed in the last Tape Op and went to check it out, looks like some good stuff in there)

Waves Plug-Ins Workshop: Mixing by the Bundle
by Barry Wood (looks like the only book of its kind)

The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, Second Edition
by Bobby Owsinski

Mixing Secrets for the small studio
by Mike Senior

The Recording Engineer's Handbook
by Bobby Owsinski

That's the pile I was looking at, would love to hear from anybody who has/likes/dislikes any of these or even better if you have other stand-bys that you'd recommend.

Thanks!
Adam Cotton

[meverylame]

Its not exactly a studio book but Daniel Lanois's "Soul Mining" was a good read.

[AdamC]

cool yeah I love his stuff, the book looks great, I threw it on my Amazon list, thanks!

[amarshism]

Zen and the art of mixing isn't really a technical book but rather an anecdotal/philosophical approach to mixing. I found it a good read but there's nothing really there if you're looking to get your pt chops up. Mm hardly uses pt to much facility anyways afaik from his books, seems more a tape guy with pt as his storage (I'm not saying he can't/doesn't know how). The daily adventures of mixerman is a great read although again purely anecdotal, and will remind you why you're getting into, at times, one of the most frustrating industries. If you're on a desert island it might serve you well to remind you of the hell you escaped lol.

[Bob Olhsson]

I think Zen is the best book I've seen on how to approach mixing. Unless you are a MIDI/piano-roll freak, using a DAW is no different than working analog. Zen teaches where the goalposts are. There are many ways to kick the ball but you always need to determine which will work best in a particular situation. Beware of formulas, it's really never going to be the same twice.

Pro Tools is a recording Erector Set. There is no "best" way to do anything other than finding the best for a particular situation. You need to define point A and point B in terms of production and mixing goals and then configure Pro Tools in a way that will get you from A to B. I'd suggest working with the manual to learn how to route things and working with the Session Templates that come with the program. The AIR user's blog http://www.airusersblog.com/ has good demos as does the Avid web site.

PT9 is similar to PT8 except for a new track output routing feature that first appeared in PTHD 8.1 and may not be in any books. One to look into is: http://shop.avid.com/store/product.do?product=324141988268448

[Andrew Sweeney]

My vote for a desert island studio book would be "Mixing With Your Mind" by Michael Stavrou. He worked at AiR studios in London for 10 years.

Esoteric and practical at the same time:

www.mixingwithyourmind.com

[Jim Williams]

Music, Physics and Engineering by Harry Olsen is a classic. A must read for any AE.

Audio Opamp Applications, 3rd edition by Walt Jung is another.

That way you can learn more than how to twist knobs, like fix them when they break. Understanding the circuits you use is essential in mastering their capabilities.

[Cass Anawaty]

All of Bobby O's books are great.

[Waltz Mastering]

Not a "how to book" but "Recording The Beatles" is a book that I found engaging.
I think there are many things in that book that can be learned and applied in the modern studio environment.

[fossiltooth]

"Mix Masters" by Maureen Droney is a great. Both volumes of the TapeOp book are great essential. I have over twenty of these types of books on my shelf. The Droney and TapeOp books are the ones I recommend most.

[Bob Olhsson]

I honestly believe that you can get ten times as much out of the interview books after you've read Zen to gain a basic understanding of popular music recording philosophy. Most "how to" books (and recording classes) are painfully out of date by the time they are written. I've been learning new techniques every day for over 40 years. I was lucky enough to have been taught what is in Zen by people having 20-30 years of experience. It's way more than just some guy's opinion.

[rosshogarth]

I think that Lao Tzu , The Tao Te Ching is THE desert island book of books
audio or not
clear you mind
create inner peace
and you can do anything !

http://www.amazon.com/Ching-25th-Anniversary-English-Mandarin-Chinese/dp/0679776192

[chai t]

Acoustics and the performance of music by jurgen Meyer is a fun read. Like a more friendly version of Harry Olson's tome.

[arlen thompson]

I'd take the Handbook for Sound Engineers - http://www.amazon.ca/Handbook-Sound-Engineers-Glen-Ballou/dp/0240809696

So much great material...

[luis Markson]

My vote for a desert island studio book would be "Mixing With Your Mind" by Michael Stavrou. He worked at AiR studios in London for 10 years.

Esoteric and practical at the same time:

www.mixingwithyourmind.com

I'll second that.

An awesome approach to compression.