Product Description

Put this graphical cookbook of techniques to work in producing great audio with Sound Forge. Carefully detailed screenshots and step-by-step directions illustrate how to use this powerful software in a concise, time-efficient way. Beginning with a review of the fundamental concepts, you get a complete guide to the audio production and post-production process with specific recipes for the most common challenges including getting rid of background noise, breaking large files into smaller chunks, and mixing music and voice together. Whatever your media — radio, TV, music, video, animation, Web design, and multimedia — you will find recipes that will suit your needs: with professional tips and techniques for efficient workflow and polish along the way.

As a learning tool or a handy reference — this guide is packed with useful, accessible information for novice and experienced users alike; from technical information not found in the manual, to creative suggestions for producing better projects. Some of the topics discussed:

- Basic editing and recording techniques - Advanced editing, effects, file conversions, mixing, and recording - Editing music - Fixing and sweetening - Restoration to solve severe noise problems - Finishing secrets - Mastering for CDs

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374280 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Jeffrey P. Fisher provides audio, video, music, writing, training, and media production services. He also writes about music, sound, and video for print and the Web. He teaches digital audio production at the College of DuPage Multimedia Arts department, and co-hosts forums on Sound Forge and Vegas on Digital Media Net. His latest music CD, Atmospherics, and music library, Melomania, showcase his musical talent. Jeffrey has authored five music and sound industry books, including, Moneymaking Music, Profiting from Your Music and Sound Project Studio, Ruthless Self-Promotion in the Music Industry, and How to Make Money Scoring Soundtracks and Jingles.

Customer Reviews

An idex would have helped...
This is a horrible reference book! There is no index and the table of contents is not at all detailed so it is really difficult to find the section you need. Even when I have found the section I needed, it hasn't been as detailed as I would have liked. In addition, there are a number of pages that are in the wrong order in the front part of the book (around the second chapter). This book could have used some more work before going to press.

Instant nothing
While the Sonic Foundry manuals have usually been sparse in details, this "instant" book comes with even less info.

If you need a book to hold your hand and explain things like:
Custom Workspace... You can choose the toolbars you want to see. Choose View.Toolbars (that's it), then this may be the book for you. But then the manual will tell you more than that.

For the Spectrum Analysis Tools there are just barely 100 words
to cover the entire subject.

My copy is on the way back. No more CMP Books for me.

Instant Sound Forge makes you productive Instantly!
I've used Sony Sound Forge for minor fixing up of audio (EQ, normalize, compress) but I felt that I never really learned the application that well. (I just didn't have the time) I don't like to read so I'm really turned off by those "bible" books that go into tons of background detail. I looked forward to the Instant Sound Forge book because the VASST Instant Series is very concise and task oriented and I wasn't let down. Granted there was a lot of information I already knew in this book, but there were also a couple of gems that made it worth the money for me.

The book has already paid for itself in just the Restoration chapter alone. Jeffrey explains how to reduce excessive room ambience with specific settings that are easy to follow. I had a video that was recorded in a church that had way too much room ambience. Using Jeffrey's technique I was able to lessen the severity of the reverberant room and clean up the audio significantly.

I also liked Jeffrey's suggestions on how to process files that are going to be compressed as MP3's to get the most quality out of the MP3 encoder. It's little details like this, and how to process spoken word, and other finishing secrets that you only figure out after years of using a program that Jeffrey shares with you in this book. Even beginner tips like making sure you edit at zero crossings are helpful in not getting clicks when you loop audio.

This is a great book for someone who needs to get up to speed quickly with Sound Forge. It's very easy reading and I was able to apply the techniques I'd learned quickly. If you are looking for a book that is "Everything you wanted to know about Sound Forge", then this isn't the book for you. But that's not the purpose of the Instant Series. If you just want to get productive quickly with Sony Sound Forge I feel this book will get you there.