I don't wanna give the impression that the original post here is bad or lame or nothin. I'm totally on your side here, and think that this Tech Forum really *is* the book you're asking for. You just have to be interested and motivated enough to invest the time to read through everything like the rest of us do.
I've been talking with the guys in my band about doing a thread here about more or less the whole process we're going through recording our new EP. I think there's some real good information people might enjoy, about how we went about recording using our own specific process with the resources available to us. We've got what I consider to be a mid-tier recording studio, in that it's better than a douchebag with a Mackie and an ADAT in his basement, but it's nowhere near the caliber of a *real* studio like Electrical.
The exact details of the recording process are going to vary widely from one situation to the next (i.e. you've got a Tascam Porta-05 and two SM57's versus you've got a cabinet full of bitchen mics and a 2" tape machine) so there isn't any blueprint that works in all situations, other than to learn your equipment inside out, learn your environment inside out, learn all you can about electricity, electronics, signal flow, acoustics, magnetism, whatever, and apply everything you know in the most scientific-meets-creative way you can.
The reason I want to share all the specifics of the recording we're doing now is because I think there's a lot of stuff that a newbie (or non-veteran for that matter) can ponder. Some stuff worked, some didn't. But opening up the details of the process seems like a great way of sharing info with people who might not yet have access to the kinda spaces or equipment it's taken us so many years to put together. And while the only real way to learn this shit is through personal experience, hearing about other people's ideas can be a good way of sparking one's own creative process.
and that's something I mentioned earlier that I wanna bring up again. science meets creativity. it's *engineering*. that's the bottom line. you gotta mix science and art. and there's no book that will ever do that for anyone. you gotta DIY.
I'm hoping to post that thread in the next couple months. maybe by then you'll have read a bunch of the other threads here, yeah?
I know I did something kinda like this once before, for a recording session I did with my buddy. all the pics and mp3 links in that thread are probably dead now, since my webpage got reset since then. but I remember liking it. Hopefully I'll do it again. maybe other people will too.
:edit:
here is that thread with all the dead links and stuff. in a funny twist of maybe-irony, I'm back out here at Mike's house right now, as of a couple hours ago. this time there'll be no recording though. just drinkin berrs, sitting and smoking on the deck by the pond, and apparently a few holes of *golf* tomorrow. wish me luck.
i wish there was a definitive guide to recording a rock band
11"The bastards have landed"
www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album
www.myspace.com/thechromerobes - now has a couple songs from the new album
