Books that somehow relate to techno production

[gedda]

Been looking into getting The Secrets of House Music. It's pricey though! Worth? What am I missing out on it exactly if i miss out on buying it? What type of sound does it endorse? It says fidget, minimal, prog, etc. what about the type of sound subsekt is generally into?

+1 on snoman's book, it's really good.

[arc]

The Art of Mixing by David Gibson is a great book that explains how to visualize your mixdowns in 3D space. I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Mixing-En ... 1931140456



There's also a 2 and a half hour long video if you prefer to watch the book instead of read it.

youtu.be/TEjOdqZFvhY

(posted about this book before but thought I'd mention it again)

[Lost to the Void]

The Art of Mixing by David Gibson is a great book that explains how to visualize your mixdowns in 3D space. I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Mixing-En ... 1931140456



There's also a 2 and a half hour long video if you prefer to watch the book instead of read it.

youtu.be/TEjOdqZFvhY

(posted about this book before but thought I'd mention it again)

That's awesome, I haven't read that book but that is pretty much how I picture my mixes, and how I teach people to visualise their mixes.
It's great to create visual references when mixing.

[arc]

Thinking about my mixdowns like this helped me immensely. I try to make my tracks sound like an environment, like a diorama of sounds.

I even drew up this picture in Illustrator which I print out and sit down and listen to tracks I like in my headphones and try to map out each sound according to where it sits in the mix.

[Evert]

Another vote for Snoman's Dance Music Bible. I bought it after reading about it on Subsekt and I'm glad I did.

Also, cheers for recommending The Art of Mixing by David Gibson, Arc. It seems like a great way to learn how to get a good mix.

[PixelKind]

I just ordered "Mixing Secrets for the small Studio" by Mike Senior. Heard its pretty good too. Will let u guys know once i read it

[nicknack]

[disparate]

^ any good? I've seen a couple of books about synths but never much beyond the usual "this is a saw wave", "a low pass filter removes high frequencies" etc, always felt the need for something a bit more intermediate-level.

Or maybe I just need to keep messing around...

[nicknack]

actually it's more like a chronicle of synth and effects gear. it doesn't go into too much detail on audio synthesis theory. it describes the landmarks in synthesis and who are/were responsible for them and in what synths they first appeared. it also includes a lot of info regarding soft synths. but really the best thing to learn synthesis is to use a modular synth package and build your own patches. it is just so easy to set up if you have a pc. obviously the software route is the most accessible and either reactor or max/msp are good. i'm using max/msp because i found a really good corresponding book. i've gone half the way through it and found it really easy to follow. the book has some foundation stuff as well, like basic wave behaviour and psycho-acoustics. but you really should understand what exponentials and logarithms are. i understand that additive synthesis is the most powerful technique because it gives you full control of the sound waves characteristics but to actually design sounds with this technique you need some pretty advanced maths. i don't want to scare anyone away. anyone whose capable of reading and posting to this forum is certainly capable of getting to that level if that is where they want to be. the problem for me was what are the stepping stones and also i didn't realize that maths is more of a practical subject than theoretical because you spend far more time doing exercises than actually learning concepts. don't get me wrong. it is tough if you're on your own. but i have or had dyslexia and still did it. if you are interested, i could post a basic route for math that will get you understanding fourier theory and convolution. not to sure what else you can do with it. oh there's dsp as well. the other useful theory is wave mechanics or sound waves which you get from a first year physics undergrad course book like 'understanding physics 9e'. FM synthesis has a little theory behind it which is covered in some undergrad electronic communications books but you should also find that info in the book below; a sound design book. subtractive synthesis is the easiest. don't know what else there is. granular?

of course you can completely disregard sound design and just use already existing sounds to make music. i think that's what most people do but i kind of got the feeling you were interested in synth theory. all that said, it is still possible to have a basic understanding of the concepts and just fool around with knobs and buttons and still get interesting sounds but i've gone this route and it seldom results in anything of quality. you should have an understanding of how transients develop over time. like high frequencies at the start of a kick followed by low, etc.

volume 1 is good enough for starters :

Electronic Music and Sound Design: Theory and Practice with Max and MSP vol 1 & 2

[Mattias]

what's "hideously expensive" btw ?
How much do private piano lessons in Finland cost ?
I'm curious.

Some random piano school I checked out some days ago was something like 50€ an hour.

Damn. Free in Sweden for basic tuition, a bit more then free for more advanced tuitions.

[Lost to the Void]

Here is a link to Brian Eno`s Oblique Strategies - Online version (you can also get an app)

The idea, when you are lost with a piece, consult the oblique strategies, apply the strategy that you get.

http://www.oblicard.com/

[oddmyth]

Apparently you can still buy Oblique Strategies as a card set!

Should have never sold my set, but at least I can have a physical deck again if I want.

http://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/obliqu ... egies.html

[Lost to the Void]

That`s probably the cheapest it has been for a while. The last printing was about twice that price.

[oddmyth]

OR even worse

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OBLIQUE-STRATEG ... 35d8951642

[Lost to the Void]

Fuck that. I wonder if anyone will bite?

[nnbveh]

http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_ ... s_id=22615

[serial]

I would also recommend checking some monthly magazines like Computer Music, Music Tech & Future Music

[Críoch]

Good suggestion Serial. I often buy them when there is something interesting in them..

Jut a word of warning though.. The money you spend on those magazines & magazines in general really add up. They're just vehicles for adverts - all magazines. It's money that often can be better spent elsewhere.

But don't get me wrong.. I'll buy them too from time to time.. If I'm travelling or there's something vaguely intriguing in it ; last one I got was the FM with Porc. But there you go.. That interview was literally a carbon copy of the one he did with Attack online blog. The video was pretty much word for word what was covered in the FM issue. I enjoyed it.. But was it worth the price of the magazine... Honestly? Probably not.. But it was great to see something to do with Techno & with a producer that I respect.

But yeah.. Don't buy too many. You'll never look at them again. Probably.

If you are going to buy any go to my favourite magazines . Co.uk & order the Computer Music special editions on bass. Drums, synthesis, effects, delay, reverb , compression.. All of those. Fuck the regular issues. IMO.

[Barfunkel]

I would also recommend checking some monthly magazines like Computer Music, Music Tech & Future Music

Their production articles tend to be quite lite though... It's mostly beginner stuff, like what do the controls on a compressor do. Hardly ever anything indepth about professional stuff.

[Hades]

I would also recommend checking some monthly magazines like Computer Music, Music Tech & Future Music

Their production articles tend to be quite lite though... It's mostly beginner stuff, like what do the controls on a compressor do. Hardly ever anything indepth about professional stuff.

I would go even further and say that 80% (if not 90%) of all youtube (video) tutorials are like that :
scratching the surface, explaining basic stuff that is all explained in the manual for people who are too lazy to read the manual....
Or they show you how to make 1 basic sound with 1 certain synth.
They almost never go indepth into anything, nor do they often explain why you have to use this or that technique.

I know there are good tutorials out there as well, but they are very few and very far between.
And even with some of the amateur guys that I do follow on youtube because they sometimes make proper tutorials,
I have the impression they just need a regular ego-boost by posting yet another totally pointless video.
You watch it and think "dude, that was 20 minutes of nothing, you were more browsing through stuff than actually doing or explaining anything, why the fuck did you even make this video ??".

I am seriously desillusioned by tutorial video's.
I find I usually learn a lot more from spending the same time in the studio than from watching tutorial video's.