Home recording for musicians for dummies
(Book)

Introduction

pt. 1: Getting started With home recording : Understanding home recording: Examining the anatomy of a home studio, Getting a glimpse into the recording process, Making sense of mixing, Adding the final touches ; Mastering your mixes

Getting the right gear: Determining your home studio needs, Detailing your digital options, Computer-based digital recording systems, Studio-in-a-box systems, Mobile-device recording, Stand-alone Recorders, Examining analog goodies, Exploring sample setups ; Getting connected: Setting up your studio: Understanding analog connections, Delving into digital connections, Sampling some studio setups, Working efficiently, Optimizing your room

pt. 2: Recording 101 : Meet the mixer: Meeting the many mixers, Understanding mixer basics ; MIDI And Electronic Instruments: Meeting MIDI: Gearing up for MIDI ; Understanding microphones: Meeting the many microphone types, Assessing your microphone needs, Deciding how many microphones and what kind, Finding the right mic for the situation, Partnering mics with preamps, Considering compressors, Analyzing some microphone accessories, Caring for your microphones

pt. 3: Getting ready to record : Getting a great source sound: Making sense of the signal chain, Setting optimal signal levels, Understanding pre and post levels, Getting a great guitar sound, Creating a killer keyboard sound, Making the most of microphones ; Taking a look at microphone techniques: Singling out spot miking, Detailing distant miking, Assessing ambient miking, Selecting stereo miking, Creating miking combinations ; Miking your instruments: Getting a great lead vocal sound:, Getting good backup vocals, Examining electric guitar miking, Exploring electric bass miking, Miking accoustic guitars and similar instruments, Maneuvering horns mics, Placing mics for a piano, Setting up mics for strings, Digging into drum set miking, Getting your hands on hand drums, Perfecting percussion miking.

pt. 4: Laying track : Starting to record : Multitrack recording: Understanding multitracking, Getting ready to record, Saving your work, Sharing files with others ; Recording audio: Performing your first take, Punching in and out, Exploring overdubbing, Submixing, Bouncing, Keeping track of your tracks ; Recording and editing MIDI data: Synchronizing your devices, Sequencing, Saving your data, Transferring data using MIDI

pt. 5: Turning your tracks into a finished song : Editing your performance: Understanding digital editing, Finding the section you want to edit, Editing to improve the sound of a performance, Creating a performance that never happened, Discovering other ways to use editing ; Mixing your music : Understanding mixing, Getting started mixing your song, Exploring equalization, Equalizing your tracks, Using the stereo field, Adjusting levels: enhancing the emotion of the song, Automation: riding the faders, Tuning your ears ; Dialing in signal processors: Connecting effects, Controlling loudness and softness with dynamics processors, Adding ambiance with effects processors, Simulating effects ; Mastering your music: Demystifying mastering, Getting ready to master, Paying a pro or doing it yourself, Hiring a professional mastering engineer, Mastering your music yourself, Preparing for distribution ; Creating your finished product: Getting into CD recording, Purchasing CD-Rs, Recording your music to CD-R, Making multiple copies, Understanding downloadable music files, Creating MP3 files: Pressing vinyl

pt. 6: The part of tens : Ten (or so) ways to distribute and promote your music: Marketing yourself, Setting up your music website, Putting your music on a music host site, Engaging in social media networking, Offering free downloads, Selling downloads, Licensing your music, Streaming audio, Podcasting, Selling your CDs, Connecting with an Email newsletter ; Ten invaluable recording tips: Using an analog tape deck, Layering our drum beats, Decorating your room, Setting a tempo map, Listening to your mix in mono, Doubling and tripling your tracks, Tapping the input of your mixer, Overdubbing live drums, Pressing record, even during a rehearsal, Leaving the humanity in your tracks.