Customer Reviews

Audio Mashup Construction Kit: ExtremeTech

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

The Mashup Construction Kit is an insightful look into the world of mashup creations. For beginners in the world of mixing & mashing, DJ Earworm does a wonderful job keeping the material simple - at times, too simple - so you should have no problem with this book.

For intermediate to advanced audio enthusiasts, this book may not have much to offer beyond a look at how DJ Earworm goes about constructing mashups - not necessarily a bad thing.

The book includes a brief history of remixing (neat), some background music theory (a waste of time since people either already know it or will not understand it), and tons of how-to's for Sony ACID and a little bit of information on using Adobe Audition.

For the most part, the book seemed like a commercial for ACID. Earworm didn't consider any other software and sorta left Mac people out in the cold.

Why the 4-stars? Because while this book came across as very "basic," the insight into how someone as accomplished and skilled as DJ Earworm goes about creating mashups is very helpful. Sometimes it all seems so elusive until you actually "see" it done - then it all makes sense.

For those interested in creating mashups and who have a basic to intermediate understanding of mixing, mastering, music theory, etc., I highly recommend this book.

Maybe not so much for the intermediate to advanced folks out there.

San Francisco mashup producer DJ Earworm has written the definitive book on mashup creation. Not only is this an exhaustive tome on how to create your own mashups - written by an acclaimed master of the craft - it's also (in the first chapter) a bit of a history lesson of the artform itself. Not only does this book meticulously delve into the how's and what's of mashup mixing and production, but also the why's.

It explains (in GREAT detail) all aspects of mashup creation -- which, as any music producer knows, IS a "computer" thing (which apparently one of the 1-star reviewers does NOT understand). Mediocre, one-dimensional mashups can easily be made with two turntables. But well-crafted mashups -- like those of DJ Earworm -- are the result of meticulous production and construction using computer software ... which is why this book was released under the Extreme Tech label.

True, the book is PC-biased, so if you're a Mac user, you are unfortunately out of luck with 80% of the tips and tricks in this book. But if you want learn how to make mashups with Sony Acid (one of the two best pieces of software for mashup creation, the other being Ableton Live), then this is definitely the book you've been looking for.

Item arrived as scheduled and as described. I am very satisfied with my order and would definitely order from amazon.com again.

Have Not Read All Of It Still Going To Read The Book I Have Don The First Chapter So Far Good Book A+

What a DJ'S dream wonderful wonderful wonderful!!!! This guide is to good for words and this cat's music is a must have for everyone......Love on you ALWAYS !!!!2 DJ earworm......Please keep the great work that you are doing it just knocks me out....DJ Coo Ley

I was a little misled at first I was thinking that this would give you different options on what computer software to use to create mash-ups/remixes, but the author very much favors Sony's Acid. It is basically a how to for Sony's Acid music editing software. The author goes very deep into music producing theory which at times was a little over my head but I found the book to be very useful and helpful. Whether or not the purpose of the book was to make people go out and purchase Sony's Acid I don't know. But I can say that I did end up buying the program and am very satisfied with it and this book.

Great book for anyone who wants to learn to make Mahsups. If you havent seen the autohors work search up Dj Earworm, his music is pretty good and he knows what hes talking about.
This book was very helpful and for anyone who has a Mac its best to have one of bolth a Mac and a PC like em for situations like this...Sony Acid only runs on Windows and your going to need it