Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science

click here for more details, find new or used items	Bob Katz Our price £28.49 (£29.99) New from £18.34 Used from £25.28 Pages: 352 (Paperback) ISBN: 0240808371 Pub: Focal Press Pub date: 2007-11-11 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5501

Reader Reviews:

Much more than Quick Mastering Tips (2/2 people found this helpful)

I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.

The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and 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 step in 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 and Science of Audio.

A must buy (1/2 people found this helpful)

If your serious about music and 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 (19/20 people found this helpful)

The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and 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 and 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, and 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, written in a lively style, and very interesting.

Detailed Mastering Bible (17/17 people found this helpful)

The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and 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 experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)

The best book on mastering. (9/11 people found this helpful)

If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!

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