Customer Reviews

Audio Anecdotes II: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Digital Audio (Tools, Tips & Techniques for D) (v. 2)

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Like Greenbaum's previous work in this series, this book is packed full of articles on all phases of audio processing and synthesis. It is to the audio processing world what the "Graphics Gems" series is/was to the graphics programming world. Continuing the tradition from the first volume, this volume presents additional processing techniques, explores new areas, and teaches some basic concepts.
The book begins with a section of tips on how to make good recordings in various environments. The next section goes into the technicalities of sound synthesis, more precisely oscillator control and subtractive synthesis. Section 3 is a continuation from Volume 1, in that it continues with a discussion of basic signal processing operators like filters and transforms. A particularly interesting paper in this section is the concluding chapter, on integer arithmetic-based fast Fourier transforms.Section 4 is about spatialization. It doesn't exactly reveal what happens inside your Sennheiser Toltec processor, but it covers the basic ideas. Low-level must-know techniques, such as circular FIFOs and framing, are covered in some detail in section 5. Section 6 presents some popular tools, such as the SoX library,which is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs, and the wonderful synthesis toolkit by Perry Cook which is featured in his own book, "Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications". It was a surprise to see a page on the QED package. QEDesign is an easy-to-use, multi-platform advanced digital filter design package. It is completely menu-driven and user intuitive, affording almost a non-existent start-up and learning curve. it is neither unique nor the best, but it's just a page out of the entire book. Music theory is the topic of section 7. This may be a foreign language for many engineers, as well as a foreign approach. For example, the authors explain what consonance and dissonance are, and how they fit in the sound scale, but there is no discussion of what physically happens, or, to be more precise, what psycho-physically happens. Auditory displays and auditory feedback are central to section 8, on sound design. The final section, section 9, reads almost like a Scientific American article on sounds in nature. It is very instructive. A very useful glossary of audio terminology concludes the book.
I highly recommend this book as a supplemental reference to anyone involved in the fascinating world of audio processing. However,this is really not for recording engineers, as there is much mathematics, signal processing, programming, and even some music theory involved.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
1. Field Recording 1
A Quick Field Recording Primer for the Adventurous Sound Effects Recordist Mike Caviezel 3
Holding on for Dear Life: Recording the Automobile Mike Caviezel 13
A Brief Introduction to Binaural Recording Gordon Hempton Ken Greenebaum 23
2. Synthesis 27
Ambient Synthesis with Random Sound Fields Hesham Fouad 29
Band Limited Oscillators Using Wave Table Synthesis Phil Burk 37
Subtractive Synthesis without Filters John Lazzaro John Wawrzynek 55
3. Signal Processing 65
Finite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 67
Infinite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 79
Replacing Analog Filters with DSP by Using the Bilinear Transform Stuart Allman 93
Floating Point Fast Fourier Transform Hal Chamberlin 101
Fast Fourier Transform Using Integer Math Hal Chamberlin 127
4. Spatialization 141
Spatialization with Stereo Loudspeakers Hesham Fouad 143
Spatialization with Multiple Loudspeakers Ville Pulkki 159
5. Computer Techniques 173
No Need to Shout: Volume Controls and the Digital Sound Convergence Ken Greenebaum 175
Count in Frames! (Not Samples or Bytes) Ken Greenebaum 183
Introduction to the Ring Buffer FIFO Queue Ken Greenebaum 193
Wrapped I/O Ken Greenebaum 209
6. Computer Tools 225
SoX Sound Exchange Library Chris Bagwell 227
The Synthesis ToolKit (STK) in C++ Perry R. Cook Gary Scavone 237
The QEDesign Filter Design Package Chris Bore 255
7. Music Theory 257
Basic Music Theory: Notation, Scales, and Chords Benjamin Tomassetti 259
Basic Music Theory: Rhythm and Meter Benjamin Tomassetti 289
8. Sound Design 303
Designing the Auditory Narrative: A Methodology for Sound Design Maribeth J. Back 305
Sound as Information: An Introduction to Auditory Display Rob Tannen 329
Auditory Feedback for Computer Devices Linda A. Roberts Cynthia A. Sikora 341
9. Nature 361
Brainwave Entrainment through Binaural Sound Jeffrey Thompson 363
Introduction to Bioacoustics Jeffrey Greenebaum 375
Glossary of Audio Terms 395
Contributor Biographies 429
Index

Professonally compiled and deftly co-edited by the team of Ken Greenebaum and Ronen Barzel, Audio Anecdotes II: Tools, Tips, And Techniques For Digital Audio is a handy manual of tips, tricks, and techniques especially for professionals in the digital audio field. Volume two includes a variety of articles by expert authors concerning field recording, signal processing and filters, spatialization, computer techniques such as wrapped I/O and the ring buffer FIFO queue, music theory, sound design, and more. A glossary of audio terms will help those new to the lingo understand the more advanced essays, an index allows for quick and easy research, and an enclosed CD-ROm features demos, source code, and examples. A superb reference, resource, and research tool highly recommended for anyone applying digital sound to computer-created projects, including musicians, game developers, and software producers, Audio Anecdotes II combines expert knowledge and analysis with a straightfoward instructional style for effective communication.