Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals Book/CD Review

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(More customer reviews)This book contains some clear and self explanatory audio exercises. I hate to acknowledge that most of the exercises could have already been performed by using a 'free' (computer) tone generator to explore the different frequency ranges. Beware, it will require time to learn to listen properly. I was very wrong to believe that by listening to the contents once, I was set. I would suggest to make copies of use a separate sheet of paper to answers the exercises. This way you can repeat it, over and over. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in improving his/her audio listening skills.

*PROS:
-Good and helpful exercises
-Nice correlation between the audio exercises and the freq. graphs on the book.
-If you have no patience to play with a tone generator, this book is well suited for you.

*CONS
-The CD without the book or the book without the CD become useless.
-You need to read the book while you listen to the CD.
-The CD is in fact an MP3-CD, so you may not play it anywhere you want.
-I have the impression that the book is kind of expensive. Many of the exercises can already be performed by anyone using a (free) tone generator.
- The book is kind of bulky to take it anywhere.

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Product Description:
Audio productions are made or broken by the quality of the recording engineer's ears. The ability to properly discern sounds, identify subtle problems, and act accordingly to apply the necessary fix makes all the difference in the quality of the final tracks and master. The good news is that these crucial skills can be learned.The ability to instantly identify frequencies, hear hidden distortions, and instinctively reconcile conflicts in the EQ of instruments, audio elements, vocals and more are traits of those who have mastered the art of audio production. The best engineers have trained their ears to immediately recognize audio problems that the consumer and those new to recording arts would likely not hear, but that, if left unresolved, would result in an amateurish final product. For more than two decades, students of F. Alton Everest's Critical Listening and Auditory Perception courses have rapidly developed these skills by using the intense lessons found in this book and on the CD. Unfortunately the books and CDs included with the course were usually too expensive for aspiring engineers to purchase and were often available only in colleges, universities, or school libraries. Now for the first time these indispensable training sessions are available with this release of Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals. Through hundreds of illustrations and an accompanying disc containing high-resolution MP3 files with nearly five hours of narration of the entire course, you can acquire the audio discernment skills of a seasoned recording engineer by studying this course at your own pace, in your own home.

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Keep the Peace! The Musicians Guide to Sound Proofing (Softcover) (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book is fine for what it is aimed at: people who want to have a recording facility in a residential building.
However, if you do a lot of music and want detailed information about the minimum soundproofing specs in an apartment building about to be built (so you don't end up at war with neighbors)this isn't the book."Noise control manual for Residential Buildings" by David A. Harris is heavy going, but certainly presents the complexity of the issues in a professional manner.

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Every musician could benefit from having a soundproof place to practice their art. Keep the Peace! provides practical suggestions for creating just such a space. So if you're a guitarist who'd like to unplug the headphones from your Rockman and crank up that Boogie, or if you're a drummer who'd like to work on a new lick but it's past your daughter's bedtime, or if your band is on a first-name basis with the local police because of your neighbor's complaints, then this book is DEFINITELY for you.

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On the Sensations of Tone Review

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(More customer reviews)Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone became an almost instant classic in the study of hearing when it was published in 1863.It combined the physics, physiology and psychological aspects of hearing in an attempt to explainthe origins of musical harmony and dissonance.Though not easy reading, itis accessible to the non-specialist.However it also provides an importanthistorical resource for the specialist and helps one to understand theorigins of so much of contemporary hearing research.Indeed, in many waysHelmholtz reads more like a contemporary than a long-past founding father. The appendices provided by the translator are helpful as well.Finally,the inexpensive paperback edition from Dover makes this book an excellentbargain.

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This masterly treatment of classical acoustics embodies the great physicist's lifetime of research, and presents his vast knowledge of the field in a clear, easy-to-follow account. Among the topics explored: physical phenomena, the physiology of hearing, the relation of musical phenomena to physics, and historical aspects of musical sound.

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Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics: Second, Revised Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I studied with Dr. Benade, taking his course in musical acoustics, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, some years ago.Dr. Benade was a brilliant and dedicated scientist in the area of musical acoustics, but he was highly opinionated and sometimes inflexible.He refused to accept, for example, that flutes could produce "whisper tones", a standard 20th Century player's/composer's technique which I have used many times in my compositions (and can perform myself on the flute).
Nonetheless, this book is a very important book to read and own if you are interested in the fundamentals of the acoustics of musical instruments (not performing spaces as other reviewers have pointed out).This book was the text which Benade used to teach his courses.Add this to your collection of musical acoustics books...and be sure to include "Horns Strings and Harmony", Benade's earlier book, as well as the book by John Pierce and of course the book by Helmholtz.

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Product Description:
Landmark book by leading expert, hailed for its astonishingly clear, delightfully readable explication of everything acoustical important to music-making. "Comprehensive...rigorous...well-organized ...will surely be the text of choice."-American Scientist. "Recommended for music lovers and audiophiles"-Stereo Review. Over 300 illustrations. Examples, experiments and questions conclude each chapter.

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Live Sound Practice and Theory (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)No doubt about it, Mark Amundson is an audio god among us mere mortals, I just cant help feeling that a lot of this material has been re-hashed from his FOH articles, and he could have given us who are so hungry for his knowledge and insight a fresher bit of info to pull from.

Albeit, he does 'fess up to this at the beginning of the book--you just have to buy it first!

None the less, it is an excellent refresher and a must-read for newbies, so over all it doesn't disappoint.

I'm a 15+ year audio vet, 9 with IATSE and I certainly won't be asking for a return.

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Product Description:
Troubleshooting tips from a seasoned sound engineer. Real live sounds engineers swim in a reality of time pressure, troubleshooting, non-technical individuals and limitations of money. This book provides practical advice pulled from the articles the author wrote for the live sound industry leading magazine Front of House. Topics include equipment storage and handing, speaker positioning, speaker and amp matching, power distribution, signal processing, handling wireless mics, and other daily operational topics that are important to national touring crew technicians and engineers.

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Treatise on Harmony Review

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(More customer reviews)The importance of this work in the history of music would be hard to overestimate.While later music theorists and analysts, such as Schenker, find this emphasis on chords to be destructive to the horizontal considerations that make a great work hold together, this work has influence so many people that even those that do not even know his name but talk about root position chords and their inversions are invoking his concepts without realizing the source.

No, this is not a textbook for students.It is a treatise that explains in depth aspects of music that Rameau felt important and that he felt were essential for him to impart to other musicians.Composers of all stripes have consulted this work as have performers.Rameau has great authority because he was also a significant (if not great) composer.

The translation is quite good and easy to read.The concepts are not hard, but it helps to understand aspects of Baroque music such as figured bass and the types of pieces that were important in that era.Some grounding in species counterpoint would also make things easier, but is not absolutely necessary.

This book is really something all serious musicians need to know.You can take from it what you want for your own musical practice, but it really is not possible to consider yourself musically informed without knowing this work directly.

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One of most important books in Western music. Detailed explanation of principles of diatonic harmonic theory. New 1971 translation by Philip Gossett of 1722 edition. Many musical examples.

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Acoustic Design for the Home Studio (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)There are a lot of books on setting up and working in a home studio - very few on treating the frequency response - fewer on doing it on the cheap using the room you have.This is such a book.The case studies are useful and after seeing a few, a pattern emerges and the mystique falls away and you realize that its not such a black art and you can do it yourself using various inexpensive materials.I definitely found this to be a great reasource for getting my room response under control while spending just a couple hundred dollars.

This book is a gem.

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Product Description:
With the advances in digital technology, musicians can now produce their own music at home. Over the years the gear has gotten much better, and musicians have learned a great deal about recording. So why do so many musicians and engineers have difficulty getting truly professional-sounding results? One reason? Acoustics. If the room you're working in has poor acoustics, it will be extremely difficult -- if not impossible -- to produce excellent results. You can't capture a true sound if the microphones don't hear the instruments and vocals correctly. You have to be able to hear what's truly going on with your tracks to make the proper decisions about editing, equalizing, processing, and mixing them. Acoustics can be a complex, math-laden science, but treating a room to make it sound great and function optimally as a recording studio needn't be difficult nor require hours in front of a calculator or computer screen. Improving a studio's acoustics can be simple and inexpensive -- all you need is some guidance. Acoustic Design for the Home Studio focuses on creating a greatsounding home or project studio in an existing room. It teaches the basic principles of acoustics that affect you in your home or project studio and how to solve any acoustical problems you may have without laying out much (or any) money. Whether you're converting abedroom, a garage, a basement, or a corner of the living room, this book will help you improve the sound of the environment in which you're making music.The principles are easy to understand and the materials used for treating a room are readily available. Diagrams and photos of actual rooms created with the designs are included to illustrate concepts. Whether you want to pursue a no-cost solution, use "off -the-shelf" acoustic materials, or even splurgewith an unlimited budget, you'll learn how to put your room together easily and effectively.

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Home Recording For Musicians - Revised (Music Sales America) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's a bit dated now, but Anderton's book is still a valuable referenceand tutorial for the would-be home recoder- a description that probablyincludesnearly every musician today. The book is a bit short on thelatest in computerized system, digital recording and MIDI, but it's solidon the fundamentals of microphone use, acoustics and mixing. A must-have.

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The revised edition of the home-studio owner's bible. Up-to-date information on how to make good, clean, professional-sounding demos using affordable equipment. Covers tape decks, microphones, and midi recording; noise reduction; computers in the studio; how to mix; mastering and assembling; and more.

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Music, Physics and Engineering Review

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(More customer reviews)The science of musical sound has evolved a great deal since 1966 when the second edition of 'Music, Physics and Engineering' was first published.However, this historical work can be of value to musical engineers even intoday's fast changing technological world.
The author, Harry F. Olson wasstaff vice president of the acoustical and electromechanical researchdepartment of RCA laboratories.The thorough science reported in this bookwas perhaps instrumental in the development of the RCA Mark II ElectronicMusic Synthesizer of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic MusicCenter.
Chapters such as: Sound Waves, Musical Terminology, MusicalScales, Resonators and Radiators, Musical Instruments, Characteristics ofMusical Instruments and Properties of Music have much to teach those withan engineering background about the science of music.
This book has beenextraordinarily useful to me in seeking to design sound events in softwarewith nothing other than a 'C' compiler and some audio file format specsheets to work with.It is a great read for the aspiring musical engineer.

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This extraordinarily comprehensive text, requiring no special background in physics, math or music, discusses the nature of sound waves, musical instruments, musical notation, acoustic materials, elements of sound reproduction systems-from the telephone to stereo sound systems-and electronic music. "Very thorough, and full of well-presented facts."-Musical Times. 376 figures.

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Science and Music Review

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(More customer reviews)Although I'm personally a fan of Helmholtz's somewhat dated On the Sensations of Tone, "Science and Music" is in my collection because it condenses the essential physics (and a little bit of the biology) underlying music. Right from the elementary definitions of pitch/frequency/period, Sir James Jeans covers the theory of vibrations, the characteristics of strings & pipes, harmony & discord (including Helmholtz's theory of dissonance) - with a quick tour of [intonational] temperaments, and other miscellaneous topics.

The serious reader is probably better off digesting Helmholtz's detailed classic which could, however, prove to be a tedious read for the more casual reader. "Science and Music" instead presents a 'high-school' overview of the physics behind music. The non-technical way in which this book conveys its ideas also allows easy access for those students of music who have a minimal exposure to physics.

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Product Description:
The distinguished British physicist describes the scientific principles of musical sound in a precise, but non-technical way that will engage both amateur and serious musician. Topics include the development of human hearing, general properties of sound curves, transmission and reproduction of sound curves, methods of producing sound, its quality, and harmony and discord. 75 illustrations.

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