Audio Mashup Construction Kit: ExtremeTech [Paperback]

Jordan "DJ Earworm" Roseman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471771953 | ISBN-13: 978-0471771951 | Publication Date: June 21, 2006

HERE ARE SOME SOUND IDEAS.

Wonder what would happen if the Big Band sound crashed into heavy metal? Or what the offspring of a balladeer and a rapper might sound like? How about smooth jazz and acid rock? Stop wondering-this book will take you there. You'll explore hardware and software choices first and select what you need; then you'll sample a little music theory. After that, it's step by step to the big mashup. Do what sounds good.

How to mix & mash.

Cool stuff you'll learn:

• How to use mashup construction software
• Basics of songwriting and music theory
• Insider tips on selecting your songs
• How to get your tracks in key and in sync
• Ways to extract vocals from full songs
• Tricks for arranging your mashup for maximum impact
• How to polish up your mashup with mastering and effects
• Rendering, distribution, and legal considerations

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

HERE ARE SOME SOUND IDEAS.

Wonder what would happen if the Big Band sound crashed into heavy metal? Or what the offspring of a balladeer and a rapper might sound like? How about smooth jazz and acid rock? Stop wondering-this book will take you there. You'll explore hardware and software choices first and select what you need; then you'll sample a little music theory. After that, it's step by step to the big mashup. Do what sounds good.

How to mix & mash.

Cool stuff you'll learn:

• How to use mashup construction software
• Basics of songwriting and music theory
• Insider tips on selecting your songs
• How to get your tracks in key and in sync
• Ways to extract vocals from full songs
• Tricks for arranging your mashup for maximum impact
• How to polish up your mashup with mastering and effects
• Rendering, distribution, and legal considerations

About the Author

Jordan Roseman aka DJ Earworm, was born into a family of musicians and raised in Eastern Iowa. He earned degrees in music theory and computer science before gravitating toward the West coast. Having developed as a songwriter, music producer, and pianist, and inspired by mashups heard during a stay in London in the early 2000’s, he switched gears toward mashup creation, finding the format able to satisfy his hunger for various genres of music. His productions include wide-ranging genres such as electro, rock, 80’s,Top 40, and even country, blended together into a style that has earned him a global reputation. Most days, he can be heard blasting music out of an artist-filled Victorian mansion in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco or deejaying at wild parties and underground events.

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (June 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471771953
• ISBN-13: 978-0471771951
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on Mashup creation! 3.75 stars ;-), August 23, 2007

By 

Cy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Audio Mashup Construction Kit: ExtremeTech (Paperback)

This is a good book by a fairly accomplished Mashup creator. If you haven't heard of Mashups then you've been missing something wonderful. Mashups when created by talented musicians/djs who understand music theory and beat matching are wonderful. Bad mashups are horrible to listen to. This book takes you a long way to making great mashups and I very much liked the chapter on choosing songs (even though I already understand musical keys and tempos). The Excel spreadsheet templates and key matching templates were helpful and great musical refreshers which helped me create my own database of songs to mashup from my collection.

DJ Earworm's chapter on choosing songs was great - and the freeware tONaRT and aufTAKT (which you can throw a WAV file at and have it auto-detect the musical key and tempo in beats per minute) on the book's CD were awesome finds almost worth the price of the book themselves and they're great time savers in choosing tunes to mashup!

The only thing not making this book great is that it too heavily focuses on the specific software Acid Pro. I actually may not have purchased it if I knew that initially - though I'm glad I got it anyway. I just use other softwave like Sonar and Audition and Sound Forge so the pages on Acid specific stuff I just skimmed over. Even though it used Acid as an example, there was plenty to sink your teeth into in this book. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to create decent mashups!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book on Mashups (and Remixing, too), February 27, 2010

By 

Michael Burns (Metro Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Audio Mashup Construction Kit: ExtremeTech (Paperback)

This is a good book, and I've wanted to write a review for quite a while now.

To address the "It dosen't support Mac" folks, well that's true -- but realize that the author is really teaching you concepts here, and those concepts will translate to any computer and any software that you're using to do your mashups and remixes. If you want somebody to hold your hand and walk you through everything, then you won't make it very far in music or the music business.

Having said that, I feel this book is excellent, especially chapters 7 thorough 10. You can not only apply this to mashups, but remixing as well, and coverage of subjects like 'unmixing' I've never seen anywhere else.

If you're just now getting into making mashups and remixing, pick up this book. At the current price, it's an excellent tutorial and you'll learn some things here you won't see in other places or books.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for those starting out and DJs looking for new horizons., August 21, 2009

By 

Glen McBride "djglenmcbride.com" (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Audio Mashup Construction Kit: ExtremeTech (Paperback)

First off if you're a Mac user, then as they say, there's nothing to see here - move along. That said if you're a PC user or don't care either way then you'll get something out of this book.
Yes it pretty much a book that focuses exclusively on Sony Acid, but what's wrong with that? Acid is probably one of the best known packages for PC and is certainly a good jumping off point for those entering the Mashup/Remix domain for the first time.

The book does assume a certain working knowledge of Acid, so if you've never ever laid hands on Acid, I suggest before getting too deep into this book that you get some fundamental experience on Acid then come back to this book.

Overall I found the book easy to follow and it gets done what needs to be done. Those with remix/mashup experience already will probably not rate this book that highly however if you're learning or want to refresh and get another perspective, then this book will serve you well.