Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

the dance music manual try's to cover a lot of ground in one book, which is both its strength and its weakness, it covers areas as diverse as music theory to publishing and promotion. its a great book if your looking for a gate way to dance music production in general, but if your looking for a genre specific book then its not for you. an example of this would be the chapters on specific dance genres which other reviewers have been critical of. they are an overview of the general components of each genre and in my reading are not meant to be definitive, but rather give the reader a basic insight. also, its worth pointing out that music (especially dance music) is in flux from year to year, so trying to define a genre is always going to be subject to changing currents.from a personal point of view the booked served as an induction in to the wider world of music theory and production, introducing me to topics like synthesis, midi, sampling and recording. each of these topics are obviously detailed more thoroughly in specific literature, but as i pointed out in the case of the genres i don't think the book is meant to be an exhaustive account of each subject.I think the people who will benefit from this book the most are those who fall under the category of "bedroom producer", who has access through a digital audio work station to the means of making music but is limited by knowledge. the dance music manual opens up the door to this knowledge and sets a good foundation for a comprehensive understanding of music production and related topics.

I learnt more practical music theory in the first week of owning this book than I did in two years of a music diploma. Rick has a wonderfully no nonsense approach and of course relates everything back to the electronic producer, something texts such as Sound On Sound sometimes neglect.As for the actual hands on side of production, this book covers most of everything to some level of detail. If you've been at electronic music production for a while now, most if not everything in this book will be familiar, so if you are looking for some new game changing piece of information then you wont find it here. If however a compressor is still a tad daunting to set up then this could well be the explanation that makes it click. Again Rick's writing style cuts straight to the point.One part I particularly like is the practical sound design chapter. Running through the different sounds is a great introduction to synthesis; both an insight into how it works as well as into how a few classic sounds are made.

It's tough to rate this book fairly...On the plus side, it's an ambitious attempt to cover the whole spectrum of dance music production (in fact a lot of the book will be suitable in general for any electronic music production). He does a decent job of explaining all the way from music theory through to the fundamentals of digital music, and then sound design and music production for trance/dubstep/ambient, and a few other music styles. So there's no shortage of interesting content and information. However, there are definitely sections where it's superficial. I question whether three chapters on music theory is really going to be more than a starter for anyone - there's plenty of details left out and he skips very quickly through some fundamental concepts. The price of having so much material in one book.A very definite downside though, it's absolutely riddled with little mistakes, which is surprising given that this is the third edition, so you'd think a lot of stuff would have been fixed up by now. There are many grammatical mistakes, enough illogical sentences to be noticeable, and the author has clearly lost the battle with the humble apostrophe. A few errors here and there wouldn't be a big deal, but holy cow, there are mistakes on every page. (In fact - it got so annoying for me that if the author sends me a copy I'd be more than happy to send it back with corrections.)So - the content is good, if ambitious, but the text itself is downright annoying to read after a while. If you can survive the latter, it's worth buying.

This is a really comprehensive book, with everything you need to know about EDM, from the basics to advanced. The great thing too is that after the "component" chapters, there's chapters each on a range of styles: drum n bass, techno, house etc, with clear deconstructions of the style, and great examples of how to build them up. The diagrams could be clearer (for example midi drum patterns), but they're readable. The publisher or printer's fault - not the author. I upgraded from the last edition and it was worth the upgrade, lost of additional info and improved structure.This and my Cubase manual are the only 2 references that I have permanently to hand.

This book explains in great detail how to create dance music. It is clear and at times it is compelling. I feel that it flows easily from topic to topic. I am a complete novice to dance music and it's production but I feel this book takes you from the start with very little knowledge to helping you build a clear understanding of how dance music is produced. Thank you Rick Snoman for inspiring me and giving me the courage to even believe that I can understand this topic.

This is a perfect manual for the subject in question. Highly informative and inspiring. I have read quite a few books on the subject to date and no others have come close to earning the accolade of "Authoritative Textbook" than this one has. Please don't take that as meaning that this work is a dry read - it certainly isn't.If I had to limit myself to one reference book as a musician interested in this musical genre - then this would be it.

El libro me parece muy completo ya que aborda los temas importantes en cuanto a creación de música, teoría musical y cómo funcionan las herramientas que se utilizan para la producción de música. Muy recomendado.

Un livre très bien fait, j'ai beaucoup appris avec cet ouvrage...surtout quand YouTube n'avait pas tout ces tutos....c'est riche d'enseignements...

This is one of those books you absolutely want a physical copy of. Been making music for a year and I still come back and reference it. Despite some small typos this thing is well thought out and has some great information

il libro è un concentrato di concetti essenziali che spaziano dalle attrezzature di uno studio di registrazione, alla struttura della musica fino ai fondamenti della teoria musicale. è IL libro da cui partire se si vuole entrare nel mondo della produzione musicale e si cerca una infarinatura generale sui principali argomenti. adatto anche a chi non ha nessuna conoscenza in materia.linguaggio semplice e comprensibile, ricco di esempi praticifortemente consigliato

Fue una grata sorpresa, recibir este completo libro, el autor tiene mucho conocimientos acerca del tema, que complementa de manera ordenada y didáctica.