The Dance Music Manual: Tools, toys and techniques [Paperback]

I figured I was making a good bet - I was after a one-stop, A-to-Z reference (being tired of searching the net and magazine shelves). I certainly haven't been disappointed I can say!

This book is crammed with over 500 pages of inspiration, revelation and education, and there's no large font tricks "stealing" space either... This book is COMPLETE!

If you want to get deep into controlling sine waves, sawtooth and triangle oscillators etc... to create your own unique synth sounds, it's there! (On the CD you can hear how the author creates virtually every instrument of a drum-kit from sine waves, white and pink noise, filter cut-offs etc... cool stuff!).

If you want to know how to get that phat sub bass sound, but not have it swamp everything else in the mix, it's there.

If you want to know ALL about the art of mixing, it's there... down to the last frequency!

The book goes on to reveal all the tricks used in creating many of the effects we hear used in todays dance tracks and tells how to achieve them. (BTW, dance music could be "misleading", it covers all the genres from Ambience, Trip Hop, Hip Hop to Techno and dissects them all)

There's a passage on mixing for vinyl (records) for playing in clubs which I can't wait to use since I've fallen foul of this too when I managed to blag a DJ friend of mine into playing a track we'd done - The sound was crazy all-over-the-place. The bass was rumbling, had no definition and the higher frequencies were "washy"... deeply embarrassing, now I know why!

It's not just about the studio and composing side of things though: What I also found interesting was the glimpse into the machinations of the music business world from the unusual perspective of, "the faceless man behind the desk" - Afterall, established sound engineers at this level of the industry get to see new and old, famous and non-famous bands every week. The advice given to us wannabe artists in the book therefore, it seems, comes from someone who's witnessed most extremes without needing to "suffer" (or enjoy too I suppose as well!) the fickle business of the conveyor-belt-artist-promotion treadmill we see too often today...

...what I'm saying is, if an artist had wrote this book, it would've been influenced greatly by their success, failures, contracts etc... alone. A sound engineer is in a position to see and hear of the wider business picture and it comes across in the book - Don't get me wrong, there ain't no kiss 'n tell stories here, oh no!

In summary, I've only scratched the surface here. I have to think VERY hard before parting with over £20 for a book but I can honestly see this book becomming a lifetime companion (apart from the chapter looking at software and hardware which will obviously date). No more wasted hours searching the internet and archive mags, it's all here.

Oh BTW, the accompanying CD has "before and after" demonstrations of the examples discussed in the book... very illuminating.

Well impressed - An investment!

I finally took the plunge after reading some of the other reviews - and I have to say, although I consider myself extremely adept around the studio, there is plenty of good stuff in this book well beyond the boring basics of how a mixing desk works.

Plenty of stuff about sound shaping, creative uses of compression and effects, plus an excellent disection of typical dance music genres, including tips on how to get the right sound out of your gear for each genre.

This book does contain some padding (what is the website section meant to be about... completely pointless!), but I'd say well over 50% of this book is great stuff which will inspire and empower you to improve the sound of your tracks immenseley.

The section on mastering is essential reading, as it truly does contain information from an industry professional which you would have to pay good money for at one of those lame midi-school type places.

You will not regret this purchase, unless you are already Sasha or Oakenfold.

If your willing to read it all, you will learn so much, and your music will change alot. It teaches you everything, all about different genres, bit of music thoery, basic acoustics, equipment and software, mixing, mastering, website designing and alot more!

The CD rom tutorial is good also.

Im so glad i bought this book. Its Excellent.