Hal Leonard Releases Bobby Owsinski's The Drum Recording Handbook & How To Make Your Band Sound Great

How To Make Your Band Sound Great By Bobby Owsinski

It's one thing for musicians to learn to master their instruments, but that's just the beginning. Learning to play together well in a band is a whole separate skill—and one that's equally essential. Aside from coping with internal conflicts and the physical rigors that playing takes on your body, there are the countless issues of sound, arrangement, stage presence, and dynamics that must be addressed in order to get the desired level of fist-pumping action every band strives to achieve.

After years in the studio as musician, producer, and engineer working with everyone from Billy Gibbons and Mick Taylor to Jackson Browne and Eddie Kramer, author Bobby Owsinski shares the secrets of how to make your band sound great. By adopting the same tips and tricks employed by these top-bill stars, Owsinski aims to make you tighter, more dynamic, improve your recordings, and make your live shows exciting and memorable.

Owsinski focuses on both the band as a whole and each individual player in particular, and he offers vital information essential to bands in any genre of music. Owsinski covers everything from playing more dynamically, playing at different volume levels while still achieving the same intensity, and improving your stage presence to writing better songs, building your set for maximum impact, playing with backing tracks, stage lighting tips, builds and turnaround, and eliminating feedback.

The book also includes a 60-minute DVD where Owsinski gives in-depth analysis and step-by-step guidance to an actual working band. See all these concepts put to use in a real-world situation. Whether you are a weekend enthusiast, a consistently gigging professional musician—or anywhere in between—following these tips will be sure to improve your band's overall sound and style.

The Drum Recording Handbook By Bobby Owsinski and Dennis Moody

Drums are the rock-solid foundation that any band's recordings are built on. It has often been said that a drummer can make or break a band, and a muddled mix or poorly recorded kit can kill an otherwise stellar song. Thundering like Bonzo, taking a trip around the kit like Neil Peart, or capturing the nuance of a player like Max Roach on record can be elusive, but with the right skills and knowledge, even a budding home-engineer can achieve it.

With decades of experience between them, authors Bobby Owsinski and Dennis Moody have worked with the biggest drummers in the business, and they have perfected the numerous tips and tricks essential to getting a great drum sound down on tape—or hard drive. Now they reveal the secrets of great drum sound in this one-stop, step-by-step manual no engineer should be without.

If you think you need a lot of high-end equipment to get great drum recordings think again. The Drum Recording Handbook uncovers the secrets of amazing drum sounds that you can record yourself, even with inexpensive gear. Before even setting up a microphone, the authors tackle the ins and outs of drum construction and tuning and give you advice on what to do to make the kit sound better. Mic-ing techniques, room treatments, and the best ways to avoid phase cancellation are addressed. The book also includes exclusive interviews with Bernie Dresel, Johnny Hernandez, Ricky Lawson, Brian MacLeod, and Dave Weckl, who offer expert session advice.

The Drum Recording Handbook includes an instructional DVD with tips on mic placement for every piece of the kit as well as a tutorial on proper mixing techniques and an interview on tuning with Mike White, one of Los Angeles's top session drummers.