Unlock Your Creative Potential: Master the Art and Science of Audio Production with the Third Edition of Mastering Audio

o young: Very deserving it's reputation, a must for any serious musician/audio engineer.

United Kingdom on Apr 09, 2023

Amit: When ever I got bored i sharpen audio concepts refresh

India on Aug 01, 2022

Mucka C: Bob shares his wealth of knowledge which is invaluable to an ambitious sound engineer. Make sure you have top of the range decks in order to achieve his results.

United Kingdom on Nov 03, 2021

Aaron B.: I don't want to crap on the book for what it's not, but I do wish the ad/referral I saw for it was more specific that it's more about how the author does his job as a music mastering engineer, and not about the science of waveforms and samples. The book is written for professional music engineers, and it is very well written for them. But I'm a voice actor and armchair engineer, so much of the book was over my head and irrelevant. For what I'm after, I'm hoping Steiglitz's 'A Digital Signal Processing Primer' will hit the mark. I should have read the description more closely before buying, but I feel the title and cover could have been misleading.

United States on Oct 02, 2020

Rehu: I respect Bob Katz as an engineer. I respect the vast knowledge that he has in this field. Reading this book was like reading a technical manual for an appliance in Japanese when you don't speak Japanese. I was slowed down by jargon that is so obscure that some of it doesn't even show up on Google. 90% of the information in this book is purely academic and will do nothing to improve your practical skills as a mastering engineer. It's pedantic as heck. This is not a beginner, intermediate or advanced book. This is a book for accomplished mastering engineers that have learned all of the basics already and want to up their game another 5%. If one is looking to learn mastering and has limited time, one should tune into the many informative YouTube channels that deal with this subject and provide real-time / real world demonstrations. They will make much more rapid progress than they will decoding this book one painful page at a time. I'm proud I got through it, but I read and absorbed it only for bragging rights. My college Physics and Medicinal Chemistry textbooks were light reading by comparison. While this third edition has a post 2010 release, and Bob has embraced the digital...

United States on Apr 24, 2020

Amazon Customer: There is no doubt this is a great book for a seasoned professional with lots of money to spend on realizing the technical goals in this book. For a home studio guy, this is either inspiring or depressing. On one hand, it's a roadmap to achieving the highest levels of audio quality. It's clear that Mr Katz is a serious, dedicated, accomplished professional. On the other hand it's an implicit message that you simply can't afford the hardware to achieve a "professional" result. Hardware aside, the book will probably help you with some of the deeper technical options within your DAW. For example, dithering is very well explained.

Canada on Sep 25, 2018

Ron: Bob's Technical and artistic as well as unselfish expertise, knowledge and wisdom , makes this book a unique and invaluable book that has a depth no other in the field has shared or written. Most mastering engineers would never release their knowledge and years of experience that will eventually vanish and most will never know, realized or learn.

If you are serious about Mastering, this is a must to own and buy. It will move you ahead in time in many aspects about the career and open your mind to what you might learn in 20+ years in the profession. This book encompasses 30+ years of solid experience nowhere to be found.

Simply a fact.

United States on May 05, 2018

R. M. Leith: An excellent book with clear technical details and practical guidance on the mastering process. There is everything from ear-training, tips on plug-in use, the use of outboard electronics, the industry standard software and the reasons for using it. The author explains what the effect of outboard units, lossy and un-lossy file compression and bit-rate have on his perception of quality.

It is full of advice on how the mixing process feeds into the mastering and on to the pressing/streaming service together with the best practice for everything from documentation of masters and mastering, the preparation of masters for the various pressing and streaming services and the backing up and archiving of master files.

If you suspected that mastering was achieved by the careful application of smoke, mirrors and snake-oil then this book will put you right. It might also save you some embarrassment when you send off your latest home studio mix.

United Kingdom on Sep 16, 2017

Polymorphorism: The Good:
The third chapter: "A Day in the Life..." is a very good start on what I expected and hoped for from this book.
Bob Katz (real name?) also has a good handle on the science (sic) of mastering, which essentially would be the engineering side. He knows what mastering engineers do, and he knows what all of the equipment does.
The list of software and hardware (those 10 or so pages) are a handy reference to how some good equipment should function and often, why.

The Bad:
Unfortunately, this is where the book starts to fall short for me. In no particular order of grievance:
The book is more bland exposition of technical jargon than any guide for aspiring Mastering Engineers, or someone looking to master their own music. There is no real talk of what the art behind mastering entails, save the oft-repeated phrase "use your ears". The book is in serious need of an editor - the organization, juxtaposition of opinion and guidelines, and the occasional vernacular should have been stripped and cleaned up.

The Ugly:
Bob is almost certainly harmless and has no bad intentions, but is correspondingly likely clueless to the impression he leaves. He is uber...

United States on Jan 26, 2016

SurvivorSurvivor: Ok. The author is a "somebody" in the world of high-end audio. I recognized his name from articles appearing in Stereophile magazine, most recently in the January 2015 issue. He knows more about the recording process than most anyone. He communicates his ideas very well, but, most importantly, he address the most relevant subjects and issues.

This is a great book for an audiophile to read because it examines the details of source origination -- the recording process -- and relates it directly to the playback process. The chapters on mastering are must reading, especially the discussion of loudness, monitor quality, and monitor setup. Oh, and don't forget the chapter on jitter. This term is thrown around in audio equipment analysis as if everyone knows what it is. The discussion is so confusing elsewhere, one might be thinking it has something to do with insects dancing inside a USB cable (jitterbugs). Read what Katz has to say. Very informative.

I loved the book, and will keep it as a reference. Too bad it didn't come with a hard cover, or a better cover. The cover paper is really cheap quality, but I won't subtract a star for that.

United States on Dec 29, 2014