The Recording Engineer's Handbook

This was educational and enjoyable, though it took me a while to get through. It's very readable, but the sheer quantity of information makes it dense.

I learned a lot here. One thing I learned is that I don't want to be a recording engineer. But I also learned a lot not only about miking techniques, which the bulk of the book is concerned with, but also about instruments in general, including ones that I play and thought I knew well.

The first section is about general microphone theory, miking techniques, models, etc. The second section has specific advice for miking a wide variety of instruments, including one or two I've never heard of, and I've been playing music for over thirty years. The third section is interviews with very famous recording engineers — like, if you know much about the field, you'll know a lot of these names. I barely know it at all and even I know some of them.

I didn't expect to be into the interviews, but I was. There's an array of perspectives, from people who like to use a ton of mics and record everything and process the hell out of the sound to people who really just want to set up a few mics and call it a day.

One MAJOR takeaway for me: I listen to quite a bit of punk, the scene for which has a thing for authenticity and tends to distrust post-processing. But really, there's no such thing as a “true” studio sound. Absolutely every record's sound reflects deliberate choices in how it was recorded; you have to make those choices one way or another, and your choice will change the sound from the way it would sound if you'd made a different choice.

While I rated this highly, I can only recommend it if you're interested in the nitty-gritty of the topic. It's quite good, but a general-interest book it is not.