May 2007

Book Review: The Insider Audio Bathroom Reader
by Matt Houghton

For a music book, the title of this one certainly stands out from the crowd, and its approach is equally refreshing. This book is apparently intended to be read in the bathroom, because you can dip in and out of it, digesting small sections at a time. However, if I limited myself to that usage, I'd spend years in the bathroom, as I found I couldn't put it down!

Paul D Lehrman is a multi-talented guy: musician, composer, film-maker, music technologist and, most importantly here, a writer. The Insider Audio Bathroom Reader is a collection of a decade's worth of his musings on the industry in the pages of Mix magazine, covering a period of massive change and significant world events. At times you wonder where he's heading, but at the end of each article, you find yourself feeling that little bit more enlightened about music and often life more generally. His style is distinctive and he travels along some delightful tangents. As with the best books, you're not just enjoying the author's opinions but feel as though you're being taken inside his head and are seeing the world from his perspective. There's plenty of humour (including one of the best collections of guitarist/ drummer/ vocalist/ [insert other musician here] jokes I've seen.

But it's not all lighthearted: the book is designed both to entertain and to educate, and there are some excellent factual articles exploring issues such as aural health, as well as various practical tips. He also explores many of the big issues facing the music business: the endemic nature of post-modernism in modern pop music, or the 'loudness wars' in mastering, for example. He also takes time out to reflect on 9/11 and other non-audio issues that seemed to touch him personally, such as the passing of Douglas Adams.

Dry, satirical and beautifully crafted, this refreshing book reveals Lehrman to be something of a Swift of the audio world and the fruits of his decade's labour form one of the best books I've read in a long time. If you ever feel as though you're being suffocated by a huge, commercial, inaccessible audio industry, this book will soon help you put the world to rights. I can't recommend it highly enough!

Reviews:

Make room in your bathroom's magazine rack for this one...
By Scott B. Metcalfe (Director, Music Production and Technology, The Hartt School, University of Hartford ), January 3, 2007

For more than a decade Paul Lehrman has become a fixture in the field of audio and music technology. His monthly column in Mix magazine has become a must-read for many audio professionals, myself included. When I first heard about the book I thought: What could possibly be in there that I haven't seen already? Turns out quite a bit! Other than the months in recent years that, regrettably, I've missed the column, and those in Paul's earlier days with Mix that I wasn't the regular reader that I would later become, the book also contains articles that were never published -- some that were a bit too "colorful" for a family oriented magazine such as Mix, unabridged versions of articles that were "abridged" for publication, and music jokes you can file away for those lulls during recording sessions.

The bite-sized articles are perfect for those of us without a lot of time for pleasure reading. If you have read Mix over the past decade you will enjoy revisiting some of Paul's best work and even, perhaps, be inspired by some of the topics Paul himself clearly gets excited about. My personal favorite—which I didn't immediately recall reading in Mix—is the article from May of 1999 written after attending a lecture given by Sir George Martin at Berklee.

I recommend this book to anyone working in the music technology or audio production fields. Every studio lounge needs to have a copy on the coffee table! And every bathroom, well...you know.

Not just for the bathroom!,
By W. Holab (Brooklyn, NY), November 9, 2006

I was truly surprised by this book, both by the breadth of subjects that Lehrman covers and how much insight he brings to the topics. Since he writes for Mix Magazine I thought the book would be a bit heavy on tech talk relating to pro audio. There is a fair amount of coverage in that area, but also some wonderful gems like an interview with Tom Lehrer, an article about George Martin, and objective discussions about digital downloading and the problems associated with the ever-changing landscape that seems to have brought down giant retailers like Tower Records. A lot of time and care went into writing these essays and the book is a must-read for anyone who works or is interested in music, technology, or likes jokes about musicians that really make you groan!