Top Audio Mastering Books

Buy Book On Audio Mastering

We have selected some of the best books on audio mastering, These books will give you a lot of information and foresight into the world of Audio Mastering. Whether you just want a bit of knowledge about audio mastering or if you want to start learning to do it yourself, these books are probably the best you will find around.

Soon we will also be putting some book lists together about other subjects including Audio Mixing, Live Mixing, Audio Production & Music Theory. So keep a look out!

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science – Bob Katz (Third Edition)

In an easy-to-grasp, holistic manner Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, Third Edition unravels the technical mysteries that regularly challenge audio engineers. Including practical tips and real world experiences, Bob Katz explains the technical detail of the subject in his informative and humorous style. Completely reorganised to focus on workflow, this third edition details mastering by providing a step-by-step approach to the process. First covering practical techniques and basic theory, this industry classic also addresses advanced theory and practice. The book’s new approach is especially suitable to accompany a one- or two-term course in audio and mastering.

Completely rewritten and organised to address changes that will continue to influence the audio world, this third edition includes several new chapters addressing the influence of loudness measurement and assessment and provides explanation of how mastering engineers must integrate loudness measurement and PLR assessment in their mastering techniques.

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, Third Edition also includes the newest approaches to equalisation, monitor response measurement and correction, the psychoacoustics of clipping, an extended discussion of restoration and noise reduction techniques, an extended set of listening examples, and an updated chapter on surround mastering including coverage of Pure Audio BluRay.

Audio Mastering: Essential Practices – Jonathan Wyner

Improve the sound of your recordings. Mastering is the art of optimizing recorded sound, finding the ideal volume levels and tonal quality, and insuring data integrity necessary to produce a professional quality duplication and distribution ready master. This book introduces the techniques and tools of audio mastering, suitable for commercial and home/project studio environments. Technical discussions address gear, studio setup, methodologies, goals, and other considerations for making tracks sound their best, individually and in relationship to other tracks. The accompanying recording has audio examples that support two detailed case studies where readers can follow a mastering engineer’s manipulations step by step.

Complete Audio Mastering: Practical Techniques – Waddell

Learn the art of professional audio mastering
“Gebre Waddell covers this all-important subject in greater depth than has ever been done in a book.” — Dave Collins, mastering engineer for The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jurassic Park, Soundgarden, War, Ben Harper, and others

“Gebre provides students and educators with all the practical advice and hands-on tools they need to be successful.” — Jeffrey Rabhan, Chair of the New York University Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music

Written by a professional mastering engineer, this detailed guide reveals world-class methods for delivering broadcast-ready masters. In Complete Audio Mastering: Practical Techniques, Gebre Waddell of Stonebridge Mastering explains every step in the process, from room and gear configuration to distribution of the final product. Find out how to put the final sheen on your mixes, work with DAWs, tweak loudness, use equalizers and compressors, and handle sequencing and fades. You’ll also get tips for starting and running your own mastering studio.

Features full coverage of:

• Mastering concepts and equipment
• Room setup and speaker placement
• Session workflow and organization
• DAWs and audio interfaces
• Analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters
• Loudness optimization and dynamics
• Digital and analog EQs and filters
• Professional compressors and limiters
• Fades, crossfades, spacing, and sequencing
• Red Book CD, WAV, MP3, and DDP formats

Includes insights from the world’s foremost experts in audio mastering, including:

• Robin Schmidt of 24-96 Mastering
• Scott Hull of Masterdisk
• Jaakko Viitalähde of Virtalähde Mastering
• Dave Hill of Crane Song, Ltd., and Dave Hill Designs
• Brad Blackwood of Euphonic Masters
• Pieter Stenekes of Sonoris Software
• Cornelius Gould of Omnia Audio
• Jeff Powell, Grammy award–winning engineer; direct vinyl transfer engineer; engineer for Stevie Ray Vaughn, Bob Dylan, and others
• David A. Hoatson of Lynx Studio Technology, Inc.

Mixing and Mastering in the Box: The Guide to Making Great Mixes and Final Masters on Your Computer – Steve Savage

Mixing and mastering, the two final steps in the complex process of sound engineering, require both artistic finesse and technical facility. Even the slightest difference in the way a sound is processed can lead to a shift in the overall aesthetic of a piece, and so sound engineers must work towards an understanding of sound engineering that is particularly oriented towards the artistic and aesthetic. In order to create effective mixes, a sound engineer must maintain a distinct set of artistic goals while drawing on an in-depth understanding of the software involved in the process. Creating final masters requires specialised aural skills and a similarly advanced understanding of the software in order to fine-tune the product with respect to these goals. Mixing and Mastering in the Box addresses the practical and technological necessities of these two final steps without neglecting the creative process that is integral to the creation of high-quality recordings. Savage focuses primarily on creating mixes and masters in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), or “in the box,” currently a popular platform in the field of sound engineering due to the creative advantages and advanced technological capabilities it offers to its users. However, much of the information presented in Mixing and Mastering in the Box is also applicable to analog mixing gear or a hybrid system of digital and analog tools. This book, which features over one hundred illustrations and a comprehensive companion website, is ideal for beginning or intermediate students in sound engineering with a focus on DAW, recording artists who do their own mixing and mastering, or musicians who wish to be better informed when collaborating on mixes and masters.

iTunes Music: Mastering High Resolution Audio Delivery: Produce Great Sounding Music with Mastered for iTunes – Bob Katz

Apple’s exciting new Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) initiative, introduced in early 2012, introduces new possibilities for delivering high-quality audio. For the first time, record labels and program producers are encouraged to deliver audio materials to iTunes in a high resolution format, which can produce better-sounding masters.

In iTunes Music, author and world-class mastering engineer Bob Katz starts out with the basics, surveys the recent past, and brings you quickly up to the present—where the current state of digital audio is bleak. Katz explains the evolution of standards for dynamic range through the present and with implications for the future. He details the new methods that Apple is developing to accept high resolution audio and shows step by step how audio engineers and producers can take advantage of them.
This book is designed for all those dealing with sound, from sound engineers to music industry executives and musicians—and those aspiring to all these roles. This book will help you understand the issues around delivering high-quality environment and get all your facts straight for when you encounter resistance to good sound.

Topics covered include:

• Contrasting the production of CD albums with iTunes albums
• High Resolution audio
• Dithering
• Distortion (and how to avoid it)
• Lossy Coding
• Loudness Metering
• Sound Check and how it affects our production techniques
• Apple’s tools for Mastered for iTunes

Foreword by renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig.