Home Recording Audio: The 10 Best Books for Every Level

Do you want to start recording audio in your home but don’t know where to start?

Those videos, podcasts, or articles about music production are great, but there is something about good literature that makes it indispensable.

Longform content in the chapters enables the writer to fully develop his idea and explore the topics he writes about.

YouTubers can sometimes hold your attention for a moment but sometimes throw information at you so fast that it can overload your senses. It usually doesn’t get more than a few times a day to watch YouTube videos.

Essential books about recording every music producer must read

Never fear! We’ve got you covered with this list of the best books for every level of home sound studio enthusiast or music producer. From absolute beginners to experienced sound engineers, we’ve got a book for you.

So what are you waiting for? Start reading and start recording!

List of 10 Books for Music Producers

Whether you’re in the music industry or want some music production books to satisfy your recording needs, Here’s my list of the best:

Table of Contents

• Essential books about recording every music producer must read
• List of 10 Books for Music Producers
• The Recording Engineer’s Handbook
• The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook
• The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook
• Modern Recording Techniques
• Sound and Recording: Applications and Theory
• Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination
• Mixing with Impact: Learning to Make Musical Choices
• Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science
• Home Recording For Dummies
• Step By Step Mixing: How to Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins
• Final thoughts on Audio Engineering and Music Production Books for a Music Producer

The Recording Engineer’s Handbook

By Bobby Owsinski

The Recording Engineer’s Handbook kicks off a trilogy of audio and music production books covering recording, mixing, and composing techniques and offers comprehensive advice on the best practices in mixing techniques.

It was crucial to cover the trio in this article! Owsinksi explains everything in a clear, simple way. It will give you a good idea of different mixing styles, mixing, EQ, Reverb layers, and more!

Of all the music production books, this one has become a standard in the music business, and this thoroughly updated edition once again provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the art of audio production.

This Handbook is a comprehensive guide to recording techniques used by most musicians and producers in their home studios, written with particular attention to today’s technology and the changing market.

In the first part of the book, you’ll discover everything from how microphones function to specific approaches for recording drums, instruments, vocals, and more.

The second portion of the book contains the accumulated knowledge and down-to-earth, practical guidance from a slew of recording industry legends, including legendary music producer Al Schmitt and all-time greats Eddie Kramer, Frank Filipetti, and many others in the music business.

The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook

By Bobby Owsinski

The second installment in Owsinki’s musical book trilogy is The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook is perfect for any music producer.

Once, the ability to mix music was considered an unteachable skill. The myth that mixing is a black art was debunked for good by the original edition of Bobby Owsinski’s

The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook broke down the craft of mixing into easy-to-understand stages and showed musicians, audio engineers, and producers how to achieve fantastic results in the studio. The book has since become the standard text on mixing for recording courses at colleges and universities worldwide.

The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook, now completely revised, remains the finest, most up-to-date resource for mastering the craft and science of mixing professional-quality mixes.

The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook

By Bobby Owsinski

The last stage in the audio recording process is mastering, which involves fine-tuning the recording’s final mix and preparing it for release and distribution. This edition of Bobby Owsinski’s classic The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook is a much-needed and extensively updated guide to the craft and science of producing well-mastered recordings and music production.

Today’s engineers, music producers, and musicians have many high-quality and low-cost software-based mastering tools at their disposal, but the difficulty is learning to utilize them appropriately.

This new edition is completely reworked and updated to reflect the most up-to-date technology and recent marketplace developments. It covers both the fundamentals and more complex elements of self-mastering and preparing your music production mix for mastering by a professional.

The trilogy of books by Bobby Owsinski might be all you ever need!

Modern Recording Techniques

By David Miles Huber

Modern Recording Techniques by David Miles Huber is the most popular, authoritative book on sound and music production. Modern Recording Techniques is a comprehensive book on the principles and technologies of music production for both beginners and seasoned professional music producers. It’s an essential addition to every audio bookshelf.

This ninth edition has been completely updated, covering the most recent production technologies and an in-depth examination of the DAW, networked audio, MIDI, signal processing, and much more using its familiar and approachable writing style.

Sound and Recording: Applications and Theory

by Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick

Sound and Recording by Francis Rumsey and Tim McCormick is the essential guide for anyone interested in gaining a firm understanding of both theory and industry standards in audio, sound, music production, and recording. This revised and considerably expanded edition includes new information on DAW configuration, effect processing, 3D/immersive audio systems, object-based audio, and VR audio technology.

This book explains the principles of sound, hearing, audio technology, and system. Sound and Recording is an excellent audio engineering textbook for students and a handy pocket reference for professionals. It’s also a good starting point for amateur music producers interested in learning more about the subject.

Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

By Robert Jourdain

Jourdain explores music’s effects on humans and its various response mechanisms. Music brains and ecstasy is an excellent book if you wonder about the physiological reasons why a screaming Oboe can cause a person to cry.

Jourdain dives deeper into neuroscience and physiology to explain why people love music so much. It can also make you more proficient in the art of music production and improve your production skills.

However, keep in mind that knowledge only works when practiced.

Mixing with Impact: Learning to Make Musical Choices

By Wessel Oltheten

In this book, Wessel Oltheten teaches the technical and creative concepts behind mixing in the studio. Whether you’re a home producer, a live club mixer, or an engineer in a major studio, the principles are all about the same.

The same may be said for the problems you encounter with music production: where do you begin? How do you deal with a situation in which all of the various components are interrelated? How do you keep from being sidetracked by the details of your craft? What are some effective techniques for directing your audience’s attention? Why isn’t your mix as good as someone else’s? How can you keep your objectivity when you’re bombarded with the same song a hundred times? What do your speakers have to do with how you perceive sound? What’s the distinction between various compressors?

This book follows a structured approach to address these and other issues, bringing you closer and closer to answering the most essential question of all: how do you tell a tale with sound?

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science

By Bob Katz

The book is the most extensive text in its category, covering every detail on music production, mixing, and mastering between the covers. Bob Katz’s Mastering Audio: Art and Science is a textbook where audio engineers formally commence training.

Become a master of audio.

The last creative step is mastering when producing a record album or singles for a home music server, broadcast, or internet distribution. Mastering Audio breaks down the technical complexities that electronic music producers confront daily in an easy-to-understand, comprehensive manner. Learn new and exciting artistic methods for surround sound.

Thousands of mixing and mastering engineers, musicians, A&R executives have learned to generate excellent sound by reading this famous book.

This program allows for seamless integration of technology and art and is appropriate for students and working professionals. Mastering Audio is your one-stop-shop for all things audio!

Home Recording For Dummies

By Jeff Strong

With a little bit of help, you can produce crystal-clear, studio-quality music from the comfort of your own home. A typical home music production setup might include a pair of studio monitors, a mixer, and an MP3 player.

This book will be your roadmap to establishing high-fidelity audio in any setting. In this essential guide, Jeff Strong, an expert sound engineer, and international bestselling author, explains the science behind recording and producing high-fidelity sound at home.

This book will help you discover how to choose a room that matches your needs and which hardware you’ll require.

It will also instruct you to choose recording software and select the best microphone for the job.

You’ll also learn to record live and virtual instruments, create rhythm tracks and loops, and edit, mix and master your recording.

Step By Step Mixing: How to Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins

By Bjorgvin Benediktsson

This book is a little different than the others because it concentrates on mixing. Mixing can be done with various plug-ins, and in this text, Bjorgvin Benediktsson demonstrates how to get great sound quickly by using only five popular plug-ins.

He also shares his secrets for getting vocals and guitars to sound their best. This is an excellent read for anyone who wants to improve their home recordings.

Final thoughts on Audio Engineering and Music Production Books for a Music Producer

Whether you want to break into the music industry, improve sound quality or produce your beats at home, these audio engineering and music production books should contain all the information you’ll need to improve your music production knowledge.

The best thing is they’re written by music industry sound engineers who know their stuff and have worked in the music business!

If you are looking for a book that tackles sound recording from start to finish, Mastering Audio: Art and Science will be perfect for beginners and professionals in the industry.  

If producing high-fidelity sound is on your radar, then Home Recording For Dummies would be a great place to look first.

We hope you’ll find the perfect audio engineering and music production book for your needs!

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