Product Description

Electronic music and sound recording was truly reborn with the emergence of personal computing. Now, making music on a computer is getting easier and less expensive. New and improved compression algorithms allow for bandwidth-friendly transfer of audio over the Internet. "The Complete Guide to Digital Audio" covers all aspects of digital audio: hardware and software, sampling and recording, mixing and mastering, MIDI and sequencing, and much more. You'll learn: * Jargon busters on all the digital audio terms you need to know * Production tips and secrets from some of the world's top sound engineers * A tour of the major software package and tools * Insider views on audio in computer games * Full-color detailed illustrations * Advice from some of the leading authorities

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1380181 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Author Chris Middleton is a freelance journalist and musician. As a Feature writer, he was one of the first to cover emerging technologies on the internet, in music, film, video and publishing, for publications including The Guardian, Personal Computer World and the BBC. He has recorded original soundtracks for video projects and scores for award-winning short films. Chris Middleton lives in Brighton.

Customer Reviews

Too many bells and whistles
This book has lots of good information. Unfortunately, it has lots more too, most of which is really annoying and distracting. The problems with this book are this:
1. The page layout is extremely overdone. Every page has several graphics, most of them adding nothing to the book. The text is not put down in a logical format, so it is really easy to get lost. The paragraphs jump around on the page, the text size changes more or less randomly, and some graphics are placed on top of text!
2. The author tried to be clever, so the book is filled with really stupid puns that get old really quickly.
3. In some instances he defines/describes really common terms that most people probably know (such as velocity), while at other times complex terms or jargon are left undefined (e.g., Brownian Motion).
4. The final editor missed lots of mistakes. In chapter one alone I have come across "See pages xx to xx" twice! It literally says "xx", but these do not exist, meaning that they forgot to add in the actual pages before they published the book!

Like I said before, the book has some good information, but way too much extra stuff. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the author has a really good command over the material, but the publishing company/editors did an aweful, unprofessional job with the manuscript. Thus, to save yourself some frustration (and the cost of buying a full-color book that could be half the size and black-and-white), you should choose a different book.

Not recommended for beginners
This book has lots of pretty pictures and is good for getting a general overview of the digital audio world. The problem is that the writting is filled with so much jargon that a beginner can get really lost. Some of the terminology needs some more clarification. Because of that, I can only give this 2 stars.

Highly entertaining all-in guide to music and sound
This book certainly attempts a lot! The history of recorded sound all the way through to a glimpse at the future, via some of the main desktop music and audio production packages for Mac and PC.

If you're a beginner (or just interested like me) I'd really recommend it. Unlike many books on this topic which are dull instruction manuals, or essays by geeks, this book is also a good read! Funny in places, and often controversial (especially about licensing and piracy stuff!).

There's loads of pictures, interviews with sound engineers at Peter Gabriel's studio, Adult, Dat Politics, a games audio guy, and a whole bunch else. There's a few omissions and minor quibbles, but it's fun, erudite, and very colourfully illustrated.