Product Details
A Programmer's Guide to Sound

A Programmer's Guide to Sound
By Tim Kientzle

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Product Description

An all-in-one introduction to implementing sound, this guide provides a comprehensive practical resource for programmers. Tim Kientzle, technical editor of Dr. Dobb's Journal, presents the basic principles of sound and sound processing, together with concrete implementation details for a variety of sound file formats and algorithms. The CD-ROM includes royalty-free sound libraries and a rich collection of utilities.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #387325 in Books
  • Published on: 1997-10-27
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 464 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"I just wish this book had been available years ago." -Bobby Prince, composer and sound designer for computer games including Doom and Duke Nukem 3D "This is the kind of book that will stand as one of the defining works in the specialization of audio programming." -Gene Turnbow, senior programmer and game designer for Sound Source Interactive, Inc. "I'm amazed at the breadth and depth of Tim's coverage." -George Wright Information Systems, Loyola College, Maryland

From the Back Cover
Developers who want to add sound technology to their applications will find all the details they need to:

  • access low-level sound services on Win32, Mac OS, and UNIX
  • decompress MPEG, IMA ADPCM, and µ-Law data
  • read from WAVE, VOC, AIFF, and AU file formats
  • play MIDI and MOD music files.

    This book also includes accessible introductions to related topics, such as instrument synthesis, musical tuning, human sound perception, digital filtering, and Fourier Transforms.

    Developers will especially appreciate the emphasis placed on practical details. For every topic, the author provides complete source code to demonstrate the principles involved. The source code from the book compiles into a sample program that reads and plays a wide variety of different sound files on Win32, Mac OS, and UNIX. The CD-ROM includes all 40,000 lines of source code from the book, in addition to project files for popular compilers, sample sound files, and contributed software and related information.

    Whether you are an audio professional who wants to learn more about programming or a computer programmer who wants to know more about implementing audio, this comprehensive resource will be an invaluable reference for years to come.



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    About the Author

    Tim Kientzle has a PhD in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and has developed software for PDAs, embedded systems, and desktop systems. In addition he has taught mathematics, and has written numerous books and magazine articles on software development. Currently he works as a senior technical editor for Dr. Dobb's Journal.

    0201419726AB04062001

    • Customer Reviews

    An introduction with a good c++ framework4
    WHAT THIS BOOK DOES WELL:

    * Explains audio signals, frequency, pitch, and Fourier transforms at a level suitable for anyone who understands trig, and in a highly readable way

    * Explains file formats (WAV, AU, AIFF, MPEG formats, MIDI, MOD formats, etc.), and compression schemes, complete with tested implementation code

    * Explains basic frequency filtering (with code)

    * Implements readable, usable c++

    WHAT'S BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK:

    * In depth DSPs, physics, acoustics, or mathematics

    * More complex transforms, like pitchbending without changing the length, noise reduction, adding reverb, flanging, etc.

    * Highly optimized numerical algorithms

    IN SHORT: if you need an introduction to the subject or just want a royalty-free code base for file format handling, this is an excellent book. If you already know all the basics, you won't learn very much.

    Disappointed that recording is not covered!2
    I am SO disappointed in this book! I am a programmer who wants to record .wav files, and from the title you would think this would get at least cursory coverage! But be warned, this book has NOTHING, absolutely zero, about recording!

    I am keeping the book because of its information on Fourier Transforms, but am back to square one in search of a true programmer's reference book on sound!!

    Amazon, warn your potential buyers, please!

    Good book, bad publisher2
    This book is pretty decent, pretty much what I was expecting, except the publisher, Addison-Wesley, has stopped shipping the book with a CD. Instead there is a note in the book instructing you to go to their website for a downloadable version of the CD.

    Surpise! No downloads available for this title!

    The CD contains all of the code from the book, project files, sample sounds, and code that is not in the book, so in my opinion, the CD contents are pretty necessary.

    So far I have written them several times (very politely) with no response and I've spent hours on the phone trying to get this problem resolved, only to get transferred to four or five people and eventually transferred to a recorded message saying that they "cannot take my call at this time" and to call back.

    So... do not buy this book unless you don't mind not getting the CD.