Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science

This is a terrific book if you know what you're getting. Want to know what top mastering pros worry about? This book will tell you. Want to know what the mixdown engineer should worry about and what should be done when mastering? That's here. Want to know what jitter is, what signal levels are appropriate for various purposes, this book will tell you why as well as how. Want to know how a professional builds and tunes his or her multi-hundred thousand dollar studio, that's here too. This book will not directly tell you how to build a $1500 studio, how to pick a cheap microphone like an SM58, or how to do a quick and dirty job of mastering your home recordings.So why would anyone other than a pro read this book? Even if you're an advanced amateur, you might want to know things like: why you shouldn't use too much compression in your recordings, why your MP3s shouldn't max out on peak level, what jitter is and how you'd know the difference between a good and a mediocre A/D converter.This book is very readable, but it does go into some fairly serious technical analysis of signal processing. If math scares you, then there are some sections you'll want to skim.Overall, one of the best books on audio I've read (and I am very much an amateur, albeit with a background in physics and in software). I read it from cover to cover, thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a ton. No, I won't be able to afford most of the equipment that he discusses, but I've learned a lot about the capabilities and limitations of the cheaper signal chains that I do get to use.

This is the first time I've ever written a review for a product, ever. But Bob Katz's booking on audio is absolutely necessary for anyone interested in the field of audio. It should be mentioned that it is a technically heavy book, with plenty of audio related jargon. So some intermediate knowledge will definitely benefit you for reading it. Personally I've been recording and mixing for the last five or so years, accumulating education from trial and error and online before buying "Mastering Audio". When I did however, it's as if the wool had finally been pulled off from over my eyes. This book is the authority I've been looking for.Now the emphasis is on mastering, but personally I think this book serves the whole spectrum of folks involved with audio. Not only is it a solid window into the often ambiguous world of mastering, but I think it serves engineers at any level of the process – including recording, mixing. It's clear footing of the available processes to you if you want to do your own mastering. And it makes you understand how to submit a quality mix. The chapters on calibrating your VU to DBFS, the K-System, Sample Rates, Bit Rates, Dither, and everything else are invaluable.The only caveat I do have is this is not a book with tips or tricks to achieve great masters. There is no sample session of a song to be mastered that Bob walks you through. If you're for a checklist of operations to use on your own mixes, you're going to be a bit disappointed. If you ever wondered what the heck goes on in realm of mastering, and want to further round out your audio education, this is worth every penny.

A better title for this book would be "Why You Should Hire A Professional Mastering Engineer." Katz spends 300 pages describing the work and tools of a mastering engineer, but only about 10 making any attempt to teach the reader how to actually use those tools in a mastering context.It's true that no one can say "here are the adjustments your mix needs" without hearing it first.However, a great mastering book would help us understand what we should be listening for, and how we might respond. For example, he could give a list of common mastering problems and possible solutions, such as "If your mix is deficient in A, you'll notice quality B when you listen to it. To fix that, try C or D. The reason compressor attack settings for this adjustment generally range between E and F is that around E you may start noticing effect G on slow-tempo material, and around F it can start taking on an undesirable H quality. The goal of this processing is that you'll hear J. If you process too heavily, you'll cause K to happen, meaning you'll hear qualities L and M in your mix."Katz does this in exactly one section of the book, and it's fantastically helpful: pages 133-135 describe how to use parallel compression as a mastering tool, giving two starting points for compressor settings and describing what effect each is helpful in producing. He's a big proponent of this method (which hadn't occurred to me to use in a mastering context) and even raises the possibility of subtle tone adjustments using a multiband compressor to do parallel compression.Unfortunately, the rest of the book is mostly useless to people like me with a good deal of recording and mixing experience but no formal training in mastering. Most of the chapters here should be called things like "Cool Gear I Have And You Don't," "The Basics Of Mixing (That You Already Know)," "You Don't Really Want to Have to Deal with P/Q Code, Do You?" and "The Loudness Wars Are Bad."I hope Focal Press will consider pushing Katz for a more useful third edition, one that would be a more worthy companion piece to their really outstanding Mixing Audio (by Roey Izhaki).

Couldn't resist a little Metallica there!!As for the book itself, it's an easy to read handbook with clear presentation that manages to communicate to the less-physics-minded like myself. I disagree with Mr AJ Grant above, in that the book can be used by anyone with a DAW and app (Logic, Nuendo, Pro Tools etc.). You needn't have outboard gear to master your music. And, in fact, the principles within this book can help you:1. master at home and get (at least) reasonable results2. know what to look for when hiring mastering servicesFor #2, that's the price of the book saved, and a lot of tears and disappointment down the road.

I needed this book to understand why some recordings sound very badly, what are the main qualities of good recorded sound. Why hypercompression is so widely used by some producers. We organized some experiments to understand what kind of sound quality listener prefers on live concerts. For us surprisingly - preferable sound level was statistically about 85 dBA, no dependence of age, gender, music experience, music style. This book helped me to organize my experiments. Of course it's very good learning material for sound engineers and producers.

Super book - bit techy, but re reads do prove illuminating.Will get you started - though time at the desk is the only proper way to learn audio - you think the Lee Scratch Perry's of the world had this amount of physics in their heads? Course not - they still made great records though!

ll the detail you might need - and perhaps more - from the authoratative but likeable Bob Katz. Unlike some audio reference books, it neither skips the difficult bits, nor seeks to patronise or counfound the reader. The author's passion for his subject is clear. Some aspects of audio technology move on quickly, but this manual should prove a useful reference for some time.

Bob is the man. I interned with him last summer. He really knows his stuff. I owe a lot to this man, he's taught me all I know. If you want to learn about professional audio, read this. Also check out his book, iTunes Music.