Guerrilla Home Recording : How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio

“Guerrilla Home Recording : How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio (no matter how weird and cheap your gear is)” by Karl Coryat
$14.92 at Amazon

I’ve seen this book advertised on the Amazon ad at the left of this blog(am I the only one looking at that thing?) and finally gave in and bought it. Here’s a quick review in case anyone else was wondering about the book.

Some of the main concepts that Coryat hits upon are:
1) Mix as you go. Make some decisions as you track regarding effects, level, panning, etc.
2) Use drum samples, not live drums. Live drums are just too hard to record well in a home studio. He has tips on making drum samples sound more “human.”
3) Pay attention to dynamics, frequency, and panning for each track/instrument.

Beyond these basic themes, each of which he explores in detail, there’s a lot of step by step practical advice for getting the tools you’ll need to make good home recordings, and how to use them. Rather than focus on specific brands or pieces of gear, he gives a broader idea of what you need. For example, he discusses the plusses and minuses of various types of EQs, and what type to get if you don’t have one.

The first part of the book is very very basic. I wish I’d had this book when I first started with my 4-track back in the 80’s, it would have saved me a lot of learning the hard way. Although much of what he discusses applies regardless what type of set up you currently have, some of it is focused on analog recording. I think most home recordists at this point are using some sort of digital solution. Fortunately, he spends a good deal of time on digital recording basics as well.

Many of the concepts he goes over are treated in a very practical way, even though he’s explaining fairly technical stuff. In particular, I thought he did a good job of explaining gain staging, an important concept that many home recordists either aren’t aware of or don’t understand. His treatment of other technical concepts is equally clear. He does a good job explaining bit rate and sampling rate in digital recording, and how compression and expansion can be used and how they affect the sound. Again, this is stuff I’ve read in many other books, but I think this is the simplest explanation I’ve seen.

Although much of the book was a little too basic for where I’m at right now after 20 years of home recording, I think anyone relatively new to it would benefit greatly from reading Guerrilla Home Recording. He takes you from the very beginning of the recording process to the end, including basic mastering. Even an old goat like me picked up a few helpful ideas I hadn’t thought about before. It was also a good review of the basics of recording sound well under less than optimal circumstances. All in all, I’m glad I read it and hope to put some of Coryat’s ideas into practice on my next recording.

Feel free to post your questions here. If anyone else has read the book, what did you think. Finally, feel free to post your own guerrilla home recording tips.