Customer Reviews

Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book contains some clear and self explanatory audio exercises. I hate to acknowledge that most of the exercises could have already been performed by using a 'free' (computer) tone generator to explore the different frequency ranges. Beware, it will require time to learn to listen properly. I was very wrong to believe that by listening to the contents once, I was set. I would suggest to make copies of use a separate sheet of paper to answers the exercises. This way you can repeat it, over and over. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in improving his/her audio listening skills.

*PROS:
-Good and helpful exercises
-Nice correlation between the audio exercises and the freq. graphs on the book.
-If you have no patience to play with a tone generator, this book is well suited for you.

*CONS
-The CD without the book or the book without the CD become useless.
-You need to read the book while you listen to the CD.
-The CD is in fact an MP3-CD, so you may not play it anywhere you want.
-I have the impression that the book is kind of expensive. Many of the exercises can already be performed by anyone using a (free) tone generator.
- The book is kind of bulky to take it anywhere.

This book is acutally a compilation of two of Alton Everests ear training books. The first, Critical listening skills, plays different frequencies, amplitudes, bands, filters, amount of total harmonic distorion, and revervbs. Then you are forced to recognize changes within these different areas. These are crucial ear training skills for anyone trying to break into the world of audio. It's not somehting you can go through once and leave. The book should become part of a routine of ear training.

The second book, Auditory perception, discusses issues relating to the differences between how sound occurs and how we actually perceive it. Another valuable tool for understanding how sound works.

Aparantly this book has been around for a long time but was, until this edition, only available in very expensive editions that were catering toward institutions. This is done by puting the 6 cd's onto 1 mp3 cd. This is my one complaint about this book, that people trying to become audio pros shouldn't use compromised quality files when training there ears. That is why I use the cd's as a guide and for the projects that require more acurate listening I use a tone generator in my DAW to recreate the sounds at a higher quality.

All in all an excellent tool that has, in a short time, already proven very helpfull.

I am currently a student in mediaproduction and not too apt in the field of audio. Often I would come across examples in my textbooks on problems concerning EQ, audio levels, sounds masking eachother comb filter effect etc. My biggest problem is that I do not know what I should listen for. I haven't finished this book yet, but I still feel confident enough about in order to praise it in a review. This book is very good. Nice examples on the CD and very helpful. I do not know how useful it is for audio professionals, but for a student I think it is awesome.

In my first review I wrote that I thought the CD was sloppily made. In fact there was no trouble with the tracks, but since I did not realize that the CD contained mp3's rather than ordinary CD tracks my player read track 10 as track 2. Well, I dont know if I would trust mp3's as a listening reference (even if they have a very hight quality). I wish they could have used CD quality Wave files on a DVD instead. Still a helpful book, though.

It's actually kind of neat that someone wrote a book with exercises for gaining a certain skill in the music industry. This is rare, really rare. But these are WAY WAY basic skills. These are as entry level as it gets. If you are hard of hearing though and still insist on a career in audio tweeking, this might just be the book for you. It is hard to criticize this book because it is so thorough and actually does target some listening skills. But I'm thinking the word "Critical" (in the title) should instead say "very very very BASIC (but critical)listening skills". It is a somewhat short book. But I'm tempted to recommend it if you're sure you want to go full time into the mixing or audio tweeking profession, not just learn home recording skills. If you're just looking to improve your home based hobby of mixing audio, I really think this book will sit on the shelf and grow old and lonely.

This book starts out by saying that the maestro on the podium, the recording engineer, and the experienced music critic have suffieiently trained ears to judge if the sound quality of music is acceptable. The beginning student may well have ears that are just as good, perhaps even better, than these professionals. The student can hear, but doesn't know how to listen.

This book is on listening. It is based on the courses the author developed to teach listening. The first half of the book is on the training the ears to detecting the changes in sound frequency, level, band limitations, irregularities, distortion, noise, etc. The second part is more on the psychoacoustics, the human auditory system. Of particular interest in this section is the understanding of the part that perception plays in the hearing of sounds.

The CD included with the book contains some eighteen lectures that essentially make up a course in listening.

This book is based on and expanded from previous books from the author. These earlier books have long been out of print and difficult to find. This new edition has been updated and priced at a price anyone can afford.

The ability of the audio engineer to identify frequencies, hear hidden distortions and reconcile conflicts can make or break a career; but how can such skills be taught? Critical Listening Skills For Audio Professionals is one sure method for gaining expertise: it pairs an audio cd of high-resolution MP3 files containing nearly five hours of narration of the entire course with a text identifying critical listening skills. Students of the author's courses have tested and developed their own skills on the area based on the contents here, but the price tag is affordable enough for non-college aspiring pros to benefit from. A top pick for both students and aspiring audio engineers.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Listen carefully !
If you are a Sound Engineer and you dont have a copy of this book, your
missing out on a lot.

This book is all about you and your EAR and how you perceive sound,
your expensive mixers and gadgets are of no use if you dont know
how to listen to the sound criticaly and deftly turn those nobs and slide those sliders on your mixers !

This book/cd is amazing. With specific exercises to help you identify frequency ranges, shelving and hi/lo pass filters, thd and lots more. College level work book and exercises to get you thinking about your audio from a solid foundation.
I wish I'd found this book 15 years ago! Excellent. Highly recommended to anyone looking to get into recording/audio as a hobby or career.

i love it!!
This book is all about
develope your skills in order to make better determinations
about EQ,Comp,Reverb,etc./..

You have this natural skills in your brain
but you have to develope it steep by steep
this book is amazing for that!!!

This is a reissue of two earlier publications from a distant era. An old school approach to ear training. The Psychoacoustic section is quite informative. My suggestion would be to pick it up - used.
There are some DVD-Rom software items out there. "Audio wizard pro ear trainning" is a neat little program if you can get past the "turbined, genie in a bottle" thing going on.