TAXI.com

We could break this down into parts, possibly, but three books you gotta have, if you're gonna record and mix world-class music, are The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, by Gary Davis & Ralph Jones, (AKA the Soundperson's Bible) Mastering Audio; The Art & The Science, 3rd Edition, by Bob Katz, and Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio, by Mike Senior.

If you intend to make music for picture, I'd also recommend Dean Kripphaene's "Demystifying The Cue" and Robin Frederick's Shortcuts To Writing For TV And Film.

If you're new to the industry and its machinations, you'll want Donald Passman's book and Frederick Dannen's Hit Men, and maybe also Moses Avalon's Confessions Of A Record Producer.

And by this point, if you've read all of the above, you'll realize the money is in publishing, so Randall Wixen's Plain & Simple Guide To Music Publishing should also be on your list. Good luck.

Great list! I have at least one in each category except the publishing one.

Recording Secrets for the Small Studio is a goldmine of info for someone that doesn't want to dive into mathematical equations, like me. I'm probably halfway done with it right now.

Paulie wrote:Recording Secrets for the Small Studio is a goldmine of info for someone that doesn't want to dive into mathematical equations, like me. I'm probably halfway done with it right now.

Tons of dead-on advice in that one; it's almost embarrassing how often Mike Senior agrees with me. LOL It's presented in a logical order though, not piecemeal as in forum posts. The Yamaha thing has some maths involved, but it's incredibly useful bedrock for you to build a career on; when you hear something's out of whack at a show or concert, you'll know why it's out. Too bad there isn't an associated website with audio examples and tutorials, like in Recording Secrets.

The Randall Wixen one is a slim volume, covering mostly just the basics, but it's written in clear, plain English and not lawyerese.

There's a really great and comprehensive (to the point of exhaustive; 1100-plus pages) tome on music licensing written by father & son ML attorneys, but...it's over $800. (no, I haven't read it, but it's the definitive resource, particularly if you wanna pursue music licensing law as a career) I wonder if there's a Kindle version, and whether I'll ever recall the name of the danged thing...

For the middle ground, the one on publishing that's nearing the top of my wish list is this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073909 ... _pd_nS_ttl

I've also heard good things about this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/061572 ... _rd_i=4507 and for a bonus, you might meet Fett at the Rally, and you could maybe bend his ear a bit. Don't know if you'd need both that and Mixing Secrets, as I haven't read it, but the title's promising and a number of non-performing Taxi folks of my acquaintance rely on him for production duties. Like Ronan Chris Murphy, he runs a well-respected recording seminar.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/128542 ... _rd_i=4507 This guy has a very popular Vlog on all things audio. (I wonder if Dave Pensado has a book out, yet?)

This one, I just came across, and it would appear uniquely suited for Taxi folk, but again, I can't vouch for the accuracy/efficacy. I may pick up a copy for review. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0793595614/ref ... 9SALUZB55S

Of course I'll have to add this one; no other book is so tightly focused on making money with music, the Taxi way: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Producti ... eve+barden

And of course, this new entry: https://www.amazon.com/Recording-Secret ... all+studio

Wow... this thread is three years old. Since my last post back then I've added a Books page to my web site. Lots of great stuff in this list:

http://yopauliemusic.com/books.html

I loved Paul Schaffer's book; it was very entertaining.

I have about 3 of those books already. Gonna add 'Mixing Secrets' next.

A book that I've found useful is The Musicians Guide To Licensing Music by Darren Wilsey. It's Pretty good.

DT