What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[SteveB]

An update on the previous book: The recording of Dark Side Of The Moon at Abbey Road. Forget Punk. If the Suits in charge of the Record Companies in the 1970s had known what was coming technologically in a few short years, (i.e. This Forum, its Hardware and Adherents), then they really would have sh*t themselves!!

On my Riches-Procuring jaunts this week, I'm taking the following book with me. It was a little after my time musically, but I'm always open to another's interpretation of their musical development.

[hooper]

Guerrilla Home Recording by Karl Coryat

1/3 of of it will not apply to my situation because it referrs to equipment that I will never own.  Of the remaining 2/3rds of it, I already knew half. Part of the half I already knew, I had temporarily forgotten.   So, was it worth the read? YES.  I've got maybe about 6 'how to' books on home recording and none of them are the complete package.  There are so many little tricks of the trade to put into the bag of tricks and it seems that you just can't get them all at one place. So, yeah. It was worth $9.99US for a used copy from Amazon.

Before that I just finished reading the Civil War trilogy  (Gods and Generals/Killer Angles/The Last Full Measure)by Micheal and Jeff Saara and then the prequil to all that on the Mexican war (Gone for a Soldier).  More than a typical history book, these historical novels explore the hero personalities of these events.... Ordinary people who found themselves caught up in extraordinary circimstances. The interest coincided with a road trip that Judy and I took this Spring up through the historic Shenendoah Valley and visited the battlefield at Gettysburg.

[Oldrottenhead]

Guerrilla Home Recording

you should be writing your own book ken.

[Migs]

The Sages


The first paragraph made me hate my parents for not investing $10k with George Soros in 1969.  By 2000, that $10K was worth $43 million.

[Davo]

Im gonna read Cash this week.  Johnnys always amazed me.

[Tony W]

Guerrilla Home Recording

you should be writing your own book ken.

Make a DVD instead I have difficulty reading for content.

[SteveB]

My previous Book-Read: The Modfather - My Life With Paul Weller. Yep, definitely worth a turn. In these days of bookshops full of shelves bending under a great-pile of Sh*t-Lit -(Some people dignify the genre with Misery-Lit), but it quickly became one of who could heap the most sh*t into as few pages as possible yet still make money, it's nice to see that 'Normal' childhoods are still written about; and one where music is played out as Backdrop to the Protagonist growing into a Teenager/Adult. Recommended.

This week on my Crust-Earning travels, I'm taking the following: A history of the LP-to-the-iPod. Should prove fascinating.

[SteveB]

Yep the book above ^^^^ was worth a read, esp when you now have the irony of old-style record shops full of LPs and vinyl geeks. What goes around, comes around, eh?

Now dipping into this below, the story of troubled-genius Joe Meek.
Don't know where you lot live, but around here, every half-wit who's able to burp into a microphone is heralded as a comedy genius. But it does appear that Mr Meek really was the genuine article. (A genius, that is). A lot of the effects that we now take for granted, esp on these BR-machines, phasing and various echoes etc seem to have been directly influenced by Joe's pioneering work in the 1950s & 60s. I bought the book on the back of purchasing the recently-released DVD Telstar (which I haven't yet watched), and so will let you know how it all turns out. (Well, tragically, as it happens. But I won't spoil the story).

[hooper]

'Here, There and Everywhere.... My Life Recording the music of The Beatles'
 by Geoff Emmerick.

It helps to be smart, talented, dedicated and energetic. Being incredibly lucky doesn't hurt either!  When he was barely 16 years old Geoff Emmercik began his first day on the job as an apprentice sound engineer at EMI studio in London, on Abby Road.  Just so happened on that same day a fellow named Brian Epstein brought his little four-piece band into the studio for their first sound test with George Martin producing.  And the rest is history...

Geoff quickly rose up the ranks to become a full-fledged sound Engineer at EMI and won his first Grammy for best engineered album of the year for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.  He would go on to win 3 more Grammys.

The book contains lots of eyewitness accounts of Beatle recording sessions along with thoughts and comments from the sound engineer's perspective.  He provided a lot of the technical savy and how-to solutions that were employed to pull off the ideas that the Beatles (and George Martin) came up with.

It's especially interesting for a home recordist to hear Geoff telling about how they had to bounce (they called it 'rendering') from the four track tape machine to another 4-track machine in order to free up more tracks. Most of the time in the early days they were mixing to mono so a bounce would free up 3 empty tracks.

Read this book along with 'All You Need Is Ears' by George Martin and you will feel like you've got a pretty good sense of what went on in those magical days at Abby Road.


Hooper


     

[Oldrottenhead]

I bought the book on the back of purchasing the recently-released DVD Telstar (which I haven't yet watched), and so will let you know how it all turns out. (Well, tragically, as it happens. But I won't spoil the story).

the movie is great, i know what i am looking for in the library now.