ABSTRACT
Most of the best-known recording engineers learnt their craft by progressing through the ranks of some professional studio or other, carefully observing the work of their elders and betters. These days, however, the network of high-level recording facilities that supported this informal but effective apprenticeship system is a shadow of its former self, and only a lucky few are able to acquire a broad base of recording skills in that way. “With the studio culture disappearing, nobody is learning any more how to record properly,” says Randy Staub. 1 “People buy studio equipment, put it in their house, and immediately think they’re a recording engineer. But a lot of the stuff that I get in to mix has been recorded horrendously.” This book has been my own response to this trend, and I hope it will help provide self-starting engineers with something akin to a “virtual apprenticeship”—a solid foundation of all-purpose recording technique combined with real-world insights from a wide range of top-level professionals.
