The History of Music Production offers an authoritative, concise, and accessible overview of nearly 140 years of production of recorded music. It describes what role the music producer has played in shaping the creation, perception, propagation, business, and use of music, and discusses the future of the music production industry.

The guidance of a skilled music producer will always be a key factor in producing a great recording. In that sense, as Michael Zager points out in his second edition of Music Production: For Producers, Composer, Arrangers, and Students, the job of amusic producer is analogous to that of a film director, polishing work product to its finest sheen. And this is no small matter in an age when the recording industry is undergoing its most radical change in over half a century. Although innate talent and experience are key elements in the success of any music producer, Music Production serves as a roadmap for navigating the continuous changes in the music industry and music production technologies. From dissecting compositions to understanding studio technologies, from coaching vocalists to arranging and orchestration, from musicianship to marketing, advertising to promotion, Music Production takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the world of music production, letting readers keep pace with this rapidly changing profession. The focus of the second edition is on such topics as the expanded role of music supervisors, the introduction of new production techniques, and the inclusion of new terms in music industry contracts. Including new interviews with eminent industry professionals, Music Production is the ideal handbook for the aspiring music production student and music professional.

In this book, veteran music producer Richard James Burgess gives readers the tools they need to understand the complex field of music production. He defines the many roles that fall to the music producer by focusing first on the underlying theory of music production, before offering a second section of practical aspects of the job.

(Technical Reference). More than simply the book of the award-winning DVD set, Art & Science of Sound Recording, the Book takes legendary engineer, producer, and artist Alan Parsons' approaches to sound recording to the next level. In book form, Parsons has the space to include more technical background information, more detailed diagrams, plus a complete set of course notes on each of the 24 topics, from "The Brief History of Recording" to the now-classic "Dealing with Disasters." Written with the DVD's coproducer, musician, and author Julian Colbeck, ASSR, the Book offers readers a classic "big picture" view of modern recording technology in conjunction with an almost encyclopedic list of specific techniques, processes, and equipment. For all its heft and authority authored by a man trained at London's famed Abbey Road studios in the 1970s ASSR, the Book is also written in plain English and is packed with priceless anecdotes from Alan Parsons' own career working with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and countless others. Not just informative, but also highly entertaining and inspirational, ASSR, the Book is the perfect platform on which to build expertise in the art and science of sound recording.

The Creative Electronic Music Producer examines the creative processes of electronic music production, from idea discovery and perception to the power of improvising, editing, effects processing, and sound design. Featuring case studies from across the globe on musical systems and workflows used in the production process, this book highlights how to pursue creative breakthroughs through exploration, trial and error tinkering, recombination, and transformation. The Creative Electronic Music Producer maps production's enchanting pathways in a way that will fascinate and inspire students of electronic music production, professionals already working in the industry, and hobbyists.

What kind of producer do you want to be? - How do you get started? - What's the job description? - Will they still love you tomorrow - Producer managers - How do you deal with the artist, the record company and the artist's manager? - Lawyers - Difficulties and pitfalls - Success and money - What are the timeless ingredients in a hit record? - Frequently asked questions - Is classical, jazz and country production any different from rock, pop and R & B? - Technology rules - The final cut.

In 1915, Thomas Edison proclaimed that he could record a live performance and reproduce it perfectly, shocking audiences who found themselves unable to tell whether what they were hearing was an Edison Diamond Disc or a flesh-and-blood musician. Today, the equation is reversed. Whereas Edison proposed that a real performance could be rebuilt with absolute perfection, Pro Tools and digital samplers now allow musicians and engineers to create the illusion of performances that never were. In between lies a century of sonic exploration into the balance between the real and the represented. Tracing the contours of this history, Greg Milner takes us through the major breakthroughs and glorious failures in the art and science of recording. An American soldier monitoring Nazi radio transmissions stumbles onto the open yet revolutionary secret of magnetic tape. Japanese and Dutch researchers build a first-generation digital audio format and watch as their "compact disc" is marketed by the music industry as the second coming of Edison yet derided as heretical by analog loyalists. The music world becomes addicted to volume in the nineties and fights a self-defeating "loudness war" to get its fix. From Les Paul to Phil Spector to King Tubby, from vinyl to pirated CDs to iPods, Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever pulls apart musical history to answer a crucial question: Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? The answers he uncovers will change the very way we think about music.