Customer Reviews

Digital Audio Essentials

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Like just about everything else, music, radio, and sound are being swept into the digital revolution. Consider the current and recent cultural rages - the iPod, MP3s, podcasting, satellite radio - which all are digitally-based.

Bruce Fries and Marty Fries, in a new book from O'Reilly Media, Inc., "Digital Audio Essentials", describe what is happening now with digital sound, how and why digital formats and transmissions are replacing analog versions, and how consumers and music fans can use and experiment with digital sound and music. In addition, they explain how best not to be subject to a Summons from the recording industry for improper activities with digital music. Downloaders and file-sharers take note!

The authors are technology consultants, with specializations in digital sound. They very broadly cover nearly all aspects of the transformation from analog to digital sound. In five parts and seventeen chapters, this book provides a historical perspective on the technological developments propelling the digital sound revolution, comprehensive coverage about the acquiring, listening to, creating, editing, playing, streaming, organizing, and sharing digital compositions, and mixes in a heavy scoop of material of the evolving rights, duties, and responsibilities arising from the legal system regarding usages of the new technology. I presume the heavy publicity about the recording industry's crackdown on music file-sharing has created a sense of seriousness about this business.

There is a large amount of information being provided in this book about nearly all aspects of digital sound. The topics are covered generally and broadly, without great depth and are written to be easily understood by primarily digital sound novices. Consider the book a primer for listeners, creators, and users of digital sound. For nearly all aspects of the digital transformation, the authors provide some background and history of the changes, some light scientific material about digital technology and the physics of sound, handfuls of helpful tutorials on the use of some of the most popular software applications, and provide some hardware and software purchase/recommendations, while steadily throughout noting the legalities of each aspect.

The software discussions encompass both Mac and PC applications and a number of sections detail enough about programs like iTunes, Music Match, and Media Jukebox, to allow one to create playlists, burn them to CDs or DVDs, and make MP3 files. The discussions about hardware include speaker selections, soundcards, cabling and connector types, as well as how to select a suitable portable music player and accessories.

The most practical material covers how to choose an online music retailer or subscription service, and what features to most consider in purchasing a portable music player and, in Chapter 14, details how to digitalize your record and tape collections. There is guidance on how to even improve sound quality using sound editors to control hiss and noise, and crackle and pops.

I was intrigued by the chapter on setting up your own internet radio station, which appears to be surprisingly easy. The authors note the existence of commercial hosting services and software packages which make things as easy as they can get for a novice internet DJ.

The final chapter is entirely about copyright law and includes, among other things, nine examples of how one can go afoul of the laws of copyright. There is a quick guide to prevailing U.S. copyright laws for your study and a useful glossary of digital sound terms.

I've made a spot on my bookshelf for Digital Audio Essentials from O'Reilly Publishing. Bruce and Marty Fries are authors par excellance. Rarely will you encounter the fine points of audio so eloquently expressed. I've read several books about digital audio. Typically, as the author attempts an failed explanation I find myself thinking, "Boy, if I didn't already fully understand that concept, I'd be totally stumped!"

Although I have several years of experience with analog and digital audio, I gained many insights from this book. It provided countless clarifications, a host of resources, and it resolved many of my "never fully answered" questions!

O'Reilly's Digital Audio Essentials should prove helpful for beginners too; however it's a probably a better fit for those already at an intermediate level with audio. At times the authors use lots of music/audio vocabulary, so Digital Audio Essentials might be a bit of a stretch for complete beginners. Otherwise I found it perfectly paced: it presents topics in an orderly and logical manner, it expertly escorts you to considerable depths, and most terms are clearly defined as they're introduced.

The book reveals facts oft' overlooked ... and I especially like its knack for clairvoyantly addressing questions that arise in the back of your mind. For instance, when it says, `Never attempt to remove dust from a vinyl LP with a dry brush,' it explains that rubbing a dry brush on your LP charges the vinyl with enough static electricity to suck the dust right back to its surface-with a grip tighter than before! (And to make matters worse, previously disinterested airborne dust now finds your LP distinctly attractive!)

Digital Audio Essentials is 340 pages in all. I've read several chapters fully and browsed most of the others.

Music digitization is a topic of continuing interest for many DVMUG members. To help convey the quality and depth of Digital Audio Essentials, I'll provide summary of chapter 14, which is all about digitizing.

Digitizing Your Records and Tapes contains 23 pages of articulate and up-to-date audio wisdom. It's packed with information vital for anyone new to digitizing music; this information is equally valuable to those interested in improving their workflow and the quality of their audio projects.

It begins with an interesting, detailed, historical account of the evolution of analog recording: i.e. Edison's cylinders, the Gramophone turntable, shellac and vinyl records, and tape. It discusses the original analog audio format wars (yes, those began long before VHS vs. BetaMax) and it chronicles the eventual rise of the 33 RPM LP ... and the once ubiquitous cassette.

The remaining 20 pages cover various digitizing topics. There's lots of thoughtful, sage advice and a list of things to know. Tips on preparing for analog recording: cleaning vinyl, choosing of turntable and stylus, demagnetizing tape playback heads. There also a discussion of noise reduction (when to apply) and a survey of methods for saving your work as individual tracks.

To avoid redundancy, the authors refer the reader to chapters 9 11 and 13, Digital Audio Format, Recording and Ripping, and Editing Audio. These provide a detailed introduction to hard disk recording, audio interfaces, editing principles, and editing software.

Other chapters include: an overview of music on computers, software audio players, music on the web, Internet radio, podcasts, etc. There's a three chapter section that introduces audio terminology and concepts, file formats, and there's a four chapter section on capturing and editing audio. (Chapter 14, jusst reviewed, is one of those.

This book is so good I almost hate to point out a couple of issues, but I found three in chapter 14.

1) The reader is told that they must remain nearby and attentive when recording from vinyl, so they can manually stop Peak - otherwise it will haplessly fill your entire hard drive with the sound the phonograph needle endlessly orbiting the LP's final groove. (Peak is made by bias-inc.com)

Actually, Peak has a built-in timer. Just set it for the play time of your analog recording ... plus a minute extra so it doesn't accidentally cut off too early. Then you can start recording and attend to other affairs. When you return, Peak will have captured a complete side of the recording and stepped automatically out of record mode.

For the record (pun retained), you may traumatize your stylus if you leave it circling the LP's the final groove for long ... I heard this is the case So after all, perhaps it's wise to stay nearby when recording from vinyl. However, when digitizing cassettes and the like with Peak, there's no need to baby-sit. Set the timer and go.

2) The authors advise us to record an entire side of an LP or cassette into a single audio file. I agree, this far more convenient than performing a "record-stop-save" scenario for each song. Plus there are significant advantages in keeping "album related" audio within a single file. For one, it's easy to apply operations to all tracks! You can more easily "master" your material because you can switch between tracks and audition them.

A "digitized album side" is a large audio file that contains several individual songs. However, if burned to a CD, or played in iTunes, it will behave like a single track that contains several songs. The book acknowledges this and provides a number of methods for manually splitting the file into "regions." It mentions automatic splitting methods as well.

However the authors erroneously state that, if you want individual tracks, you must save each region to a separate file. This approach works, that's true, but it's time consuming, and it overlooks a great feature in Peak called PlayLists.

A Peak playlist is simply a collection of regions.

You can burn CDs directly from Peak's PlayList window. Additionally you can customize the playback order of the regions you've defined, omit various regions, setgain, and set gaps between tracks. Using V-Box (a provided plug-in) you can add effects such as equalization, reverb, and noise reduction ... all on a "per track" basis!

Then you can burn your play list directly to a CD, with effects if you wish. Alternately, with a single click you can export a series of individual files to the audio file format of your choice: Wav, AIFF, MP3. You can also save to JAM image file. You can always "bounce" the effects to make them permanent.

Yet none of these actions effect your original digital recording! In digital audio terms, this is called non destructive manipulation. Therein lies the beauty of Playlists - they handle all these effects and choices on the fly. And you can create multiple Playlists that you can use with a single audio document, essentially remastering the original.

3) The only other omission I encountered pertained to stereo system hookup. On stereo systems or music players without "line out" or "record out," you can run a cable from the headphone jack to the input of your audio interface or sound card. Granted, this routes the signal through the headphone amp, which may generate some noise, so if you have a line-level output or "record out," use it. In a pinch remember that you can tap the signal from any headphone jack. If the signal is too hot, simply lower your stereo system's or audio player's volume, or lower the input volume on your audio interface.

4) Assuredly, Recording and Ripping (chapter 11) was an overly ambitious undertaking, resulting in fairly a weak presentation. But then, how could anyone do justice to such a broad topic in just 13 pages? I don't doubt the author's opinions, rather I wish they'd provided a few more scenarios. That would have added a sense of the vast range of possibilities. On the other hand Chapter 13, Editing Audio, is a shining example of how much ground good authors can quickly cover.
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I highly recommend this title for its overall clarity, its friendly non-nonsense tone, and the wealth of information presented.

John Blasquez
www.singingwood.com

Every now and then you find a reference text that just seems to get it right. This is one of them. The authors cover the subject broadly, and at a reasonable and consistent level of depth. Unlike other books that simply cover the obvious, this book anticipates and answers the questions that one needs to get started and become self-sufficient with digital audio. It covers some of the more esoteric elements as well. Musicians and engineers should look elsewhere or expect to supplement this book with specialized material. However, the average PC user who understands Windows and MS Office well enough, but wants to get going with PC-based music and the like will be really happy with this book. You don't need another one. In addition, it is very well written - clear and succinct. A favorite of mine and a benchmark for "help book" writers.

Here is a book that covers virtually everything you want and/or need to know about audio on your computers. Whether it's saving songs from your own records, tapes, and/or CD's, to editing songs, creating brand new digital files, sharing audio files, or even the risks of downloading mp3 from the net, this book covers it. Bruce and Marty Fries who wrote the MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook back in 2001 have written another excellent book about the digital music revolution.

The book starts off with general information about digital audio, what type of computer hardware you should have to record audio, and how to hook up your stereo to your computer. It then discusses how to organize and play music, what kinds of music you can find on the web, Internet radio and "portable ways" to listen to digital audio. There are also chapters on "capturing" and editing audio, sharing and distributing music, as well as a chapter on copyright laws. Both authors were very thorough in the topics they covered. There were some sections I skimmed over, that I plan to refer to again in the near future when I start saving some of my own records and CD's to digital audio.

This is an excellent guide to the "digital audio world."

This is a fine walkthrough of the basics of audio playback and production. It covers the different audio formats, the mechanics of audio playback and recording and does it with effective use of graphics and some fine writing. Unfortunately it stops just short of podcasting, which is where I think a number of readers will be looking for.

There is some fine coverage of the legal issues involved on both the production and the consumption side of the fence. I'm pleased with this book. It's an easy and informative read.

Bruce and Marty Fries' Digital Audio Essentials shows how to legally download and share music, how to hook a PC or Mac to a home stereo, how to record music to hard drive: virtually every facet of the latest technology being used to capture and edit music. Newcomers in particular will appreciate clear explanations of digital audio features, tutorials which are easy to follow, and both hardware and software recommendations.

This book assumes nothing and starts with the very basics of digital audio. From an examination of system requirements, performance factors, and external interfaces it moves the reader along to how to connect your computer to your stereo including the good and bad features of different interfaces.

Of course, once the hardware has been selected and configured correctly the next obvious place to go is to examine the software and that is exactly what Bruce and Marty Fries do. They cover ways to organize your music, get music off the web, using Internet radio, using portable digital audio players, and many other ways to get the most out of your system.

In the more technical sections of the book the authors examine things like audio formats, recording, ripping, editing, digitizing records and tapes, burning CDs and CVDs and fixing various common programs. They even include a section on making your own Internet Radio Station.

This is the basically the essentials of what a novice to intermediate fan of digital audio needs to know. The most advanced portion of the book is on using a waveform program to remove the hiss and pop of a bad recording. It does not cover advanced topics like mixing, combining, and using multiple tracks. Digital Audio Essentials is highly recommended for the novice to intermediate digital audio fan and just recommended to the more advanced user. It is, after all, only intended to be an essentials book and not an advanced treatise and it succeeds well at achieving that goal.

The authors furnish a good introduction to the main aspects of actively using digital audio. By this, I mean more than merely listening to it. The book is directed not to an audio professional, but to someone who comes at this as a layman. Hence the general discussion about sound waves and recording this in a digital manner. What you should appreciate is that once stored as digital data, a whole panoply of software techniques are available to be used on it. Your special effects, as it were.

The book skims lightly over the various digital audio formats. Just enough explanation for a broad understanding. Other chapters then take you into using common audio packages and the burning of CDs and DVDs. A full run-through.

All of this should be readily understandable.

Digital Audio Essentials
Reviewed by Steven Fuhrman
The User's Group Network, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, Southern California

(...)
Bruce and Marty Fries did a good job in writing this book in a fashion that is easily understood by this music fan who knew nothing about how recording techniques work. It is very well organized and caters to a wide audience from computer users who are learning new things they can do with their computer to seasoned musicians who can utilize the technology to gain widespread recognition of their art. Although most of the information is useful, the "Computer Basics" portion of Chapter 2 is very rudimentary and I believe that it should be assumed that someone working with digital audio would already know this very basic computer information.

One might argue that this book is too complete, as it spends a good amount of time explaining the devices used for digital audio, how to purchase and manage your music and the various hardware and software devices used. It really doesn't start to get technical until you reach Chapter 8, which describes what digital audio actually is and how it differs from analog audio.

Although I found the book to be easy to understand even in the technical aspects, I did not get to the topic that I was interested in until Chapter 14, entitled "Digitizing Your Records and Tapes". Since "ripping" CDs is a fairly straight forward task that takes about five minutes to understand, with the exception of knowing which format and bit-rate to rip the CDs to, one would not expect so much time to be spent on these basic concepts.

If you have any interest in streaming your digital music collection to the Internet, you will find Chapter 16 entitled "Setting Up an Internet Radio Station" which gives you all of the information on how the technology works and what you'll need in order to setup your own Internet radio station. Coincidentally, O'Reilly has made this chapter available on their website at (...)

If you are a relatively new computer user and wish to learn more about your computer as well as how to bring your audio library to the digital frontier, this book is definitely for you. However, if you are looking for a book that gets to the "meat and potatoes" of digital audio, you will have to wade through a lot of information that would be irrelevant and may wish to look elsewhere.

I didn't learn much from this book, and I don't think it was just me. I'm afraid it is one of those books written by knowledgeable people for a general audience, without much understanding of who are in that audience or what they might want to know.

Example: "Rumble is very low-frequency noise caused by acoustic feedback, tone arm resonance, motor vibration, and other problems in a turntable." How many readers need to know what "rumble" means but already know about "acoustic feedback" and "tone arm resonance"? And what are they meant to do with the information? The discussion ends there.

Sorry to have to contradict the generally good reviews. I notice, though, that they are mainly from other wizards who think somebody might benefit from the book -- not from people who actually have.