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Audio Postproduction for Digital Video

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Audio Postproduction for Digital Video
By Jay Rose
Review by Pi Ware

Don't listen to the title. It's bigger than the title. The "Digital Video" part of Audio Postproduction for Digital Video restricts the scope of this classic Jay Rose text. Rose's book goes far beyond DV, in fact, it starts with an explanation of what sound is on the molecular level and then takes you not just through audio postproduction for TV, but to techniques specific to movie production, techniques that are entirely independent of the format you originate on. Audio Postproduction for Digital Video is top-notch. It's an excellent, text-book quality manual, a soup-to-nuts guide on how to deal with sound in postproduction.

Jay Rose never gives you solutions that are applicable only to specific Digital Audio Workstations, he arms you with knowledge you can use in any platform or program. The book is an education in sound and, together with the numerous photos and diagrams (and Rose's good sense of humor), it's a liberation from the dry prose of most manuals on postproduction.

Rose teaches you from the ground up what sound is, what good sound is, and how to make bad sound better. He doesn't just stop at good writing, however, he illustrates important points with an audio CD included in the back of the book. Together with the CD, the text guides you through importing audio into the computer, editing dialogue, Do It Yourself Foley and ADR, working with filters, noise reduction techniques, pitch and time changes, the sound mix, and even, if you're so inclined, designing, constructing and wiring your own postproduction audio facility.

Though postproduction changes with every new advance in technology, Audio Postproduction for Digital Video stays current by focusing on strategy, not software. Rose avoids giving specific keystroke instructions in specific programs, but instead explains common solutions to common problems using common tools. As he says in his introduction, "You should be able to use these pages for a long time."

Anyone considering directing a short or feature, anyone who wants to be even nominally involved in the sound design of their film, and, of course, anyone interested in working in audio postproduction, would do extremely well to pick up a copy of this classic Jay Rose text.

This is an exceptional book: clear, comprehensive, and full of the kind of information you need to edit professional-quality DV sound on your desktop. Written by a Clio and Emmy-award winning sound editor, it takes you step-by-step through the postproduction process. Included are chapters on acoustics, monitoring, wiring, sync, ADR, voice over, music editing, and effects. Especially helpful is the 77-track audio CD, which includes diagnostics to help you evaluate your speakers and examples that let you hear the techniques discussed in the book. There's also a glossary, index, and generous graphics. The first chapter is a troubleshooting guide that refers readers to sections that contain the fixes ("wind noises," for example, are addressed in filtering, dialog editing, and ADR). Perhaps best of all is Jay Rose's real-world approach to his subject--this book is like spending a few hours in his studio while he patiently explains how to achieve the sound you hear in your head. I ordered this book to help solve some specific problems in editing a short film; I'll keep it within reach of my editing station to help shape the next one.

I decided to buy this book because I had used the forum on the DV.com website for information before, and Jay Rose's comments there had proven to be spot-on and well-informed.
This book contains a thorough examination of all the factors which contribute to the quality of post-production audio. The level of information includes the spectrum from basic to advanced, but through Mr. Rose's clear explanations the advanced information should not go over the heads of the reader.

This book has lots of good information for both the new editor and the experienced. Jays techniques for dialogue editing are through and every time I read this section something new shows up.

His method for audio centric ADR makes it available to more folks (many people can't do traditional ADR). It is quick and as easy as ADR gets.

He has a very good section for cutting music to video and over all does an outstanding job of explaining the audio post process.

If every one would read this book and follow the advice there would not be so many videos with poorly edited audio out there.

This book is simply the best book on post-production audio out there. I have over a decade of experience mixing live sound and some formal training in post production, but Rose gets to the real nuts and bolts of the day-to-day sweetening of sound that I was able to apply his ideas the same day I read a chapter on EQ. I have read so many books on sound where authors get into all the details, but fail to give hands on practical advice. Rose has two unique things going for him in this book: the included CD that gives A/B comparisons of various audio sweetening and processing techniques and the cookbook format at the end of each chapter. Try any one of these "recipes" and you will instantly get results and be able to solve various problems and massively improve your soundtrack.
He gets technical in spots going into the physics of sound, studio design, and other minutia but the non-geeks you can usually skip these sections and side-bars. For those who just want to fix things they can jump to the end of each chapter and use the cookbook/troubleshooting sections. I can't recommend this book enough. If you are serious about filmmaking, you can't be without this book.

This book in fantastic. The author's voice and style make this not only easy to read but a joy to read as well. There are little tips and tidbits in each chapter that will make a good audio guy great and a great audio guy better. I recommend this book to anyone in the audio post world.

Jay Rose is no stranger to recording sound, and no one is better at passing along clear information about the craft and art of doing so than he.

Examples, stories, tips, and screen shots interspersed through the book all serve to demonstrate that Jay knows his stuff. His experience is that of someone who "lived through it" when it comes to analog sound, the conversion to digital sound, fully digital sound, and that no man's land of having to manage in-between analog and digital.

I am fortunate that I learned much of this myself through trial and error, yet the book still taught me much more.

Wish this had been written about 30 years ago. I'd have learned all that so much more easily.

I was impressed from the beginning with the content of this book. It has been a great help in my recent graduate projects. This is one I will keep on the shelf for reference.