Customer Reviews

Audio Made Easy: (Or How to Be a Sound Engineer Without Really Trying)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are either a beginner or intermediate sound tech, this is an excellent book. It starts off basic and then moves on into more advanced concepts such as complex gain-staging and equalizing. It is an excellent book for the casual sound engineer who has never had any formal training and is equally applicable to both live sound reinforcement and recording. It is simply the most informative yet concise introduction to Pro Audio I have ever seen.

Imagine a successful audio engineer who speaks in laymans terms with great illustrations and a sense of humor and you pretty much have this book by Ira White. This is the perfect introduction to live audio and recording whether at home, in a theater, church, or larger venue. Highly recommend.

I use this book to train sound people for our church. It won't give you the gift of being able to hear subtle differences in music, or teach you the all the science behind sound systems. It will teach you how a sound system works, what all the terms mean, and what you need to know to set up your own system and run it well enough to get you going. It won't scare people away like most of the other books designed for serious students making this a career.

This is an extremely helpful book, filled with the information you need to get started in the world of audio engineering. Author Ira White uses colorful analogies and a good sense of humor to get the message through. This, and the P.A. Bible by EV have been the two most helpful books I have read. Highly recommended.

It seems that "made easy" in the title refers to how brief and shallow the author has covered much of the topics in this book. There are a few gems but not enough to justify using it to teach beginners about sound systems. The author also bumps into some very technical topics after just a few pages of introduction (which has too much tongue-in-cheek humor).
Need I say it- I was disappointed!

I've run sound at church and play in a Christian rock band, but I never quite grasped the concepts of sound design and how the equipment works until I read this book. I may not be able to walk into Carnegie hall and EQ the room as well as a seasoned pro, but I understand the basics: how Ohm's law works and why it's important, what channel inserts do, and why sometimes there's a fourth dial on a 3-band EQ. White has a good sense of humor and kept me laughing through most of the book. That's more than I can say about most technical manuals.

This book is great for anyone wanting to know more about audio engineering. The book is informative and to the point. Most importantly, the author does not talk down to the reader, and never loses the reader as he covers the most important areas of the subject. I highly suggest this book as a great, practical guide, especially for students, being novice or intermediate.

I bought this book in Austin about 5 years ago. read it back to cover several times and acyually had a few questions. I emailed Mr. White a few years back & he kindly got back to me in a pinch with some helpful advice. I have just finished my second solo CD ("Barstool Blues", on London-Based OCHRE RECORDS, due out late June 2004) and apllied many of the things i learned from his book to my record. I even gave him AND HIS BOOK props in the CD booklet. One of the best (and cheapest) investments i ever made, by far. And i'd recommend it to anyone, be it a novice or George Martin. (ok, maybe not Geroge Martin, but you know what i mean.)

I'm an audio engineer, as well as a musician and vocalist, operating a small audio consulting and training business since 1994. Many of the people I work with have little or no background in audio, and little technical knowledge.
I recently purchased this book for a church vocal group whom I had helped to purchase a PA system; one of their wives would eventually function as their sound person. As I went through the book, I made some handy notes in the margins, to help explain what the author had glossed over so quickly. After over an hour of this (just working on the sections dealing with EQing, gain staging, and mic choices & etiquette - what little there was on these things), I finally gave up. Instead, I loaned them a copy of Rudy Trubitt's book ("Live Sound For Musicians"), to get them started. It may not be the best (although I like it alot), but atleast it defines some of the terms beginners will need to understand before they learn more about sound systems - something this book mostly fails to do.
All in all, the title is extremely misleading. This is a very simplified approach to audio systems - if you're ALREADY a well trained audio tech or an engineer; it is definitely NOT for beginners. Even the tips would be unusable to most sound students, because (IMHO) the text is written poorly, and uses too many undefined technical terms. A suggestion: add a glossary for all the technical terms used, written in layman's language, not tech-talk. Then have a copy-editor with technical knowledge of audio systems go over the text, so that it explains things in a more understandable fashion for new students - the target audience.
Another suggestion: start with Rudy Trubitt's books ("Live Sound For Musicians" or "Mackie Compact Mixers"), with "The Sound Reinforcement Handbook" (put out by the audio engineers at Yamaha Pro Audio; it's "The Bible" for sound systems) to define the technical terms. Some (or all) of these books should be available at your local library.

Easy to read, great for the average musician who wants to enhance or troubleshoot the bands sound.