Customer Reviews

DirectX Audio Exposed: Interactive Audio Development

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not much in here about DirectSound so it's slightly misnamed, but this book serves well as a long overdue, comprehensive tutorial on Microsoft's rather arcane interactive music playback and authoring system, DirectMusic, that ships as part of the DirectX API's.

DirectMusic is probably so little-known because when one first looks at it from either the content or the development side it's a little bit like stumbling into a secret treasure trove, complete with gaping bottomless pits and monsters, with no map, no light and no idea how far down the rabbit hole you have to go to learn your way around. This book provides both a map and a torch, but you'll still have to do the legwork to learn your way around.

If you still get lost, at least the accompanying CD provides you with a very cool demo of some DirectMusic by King Crimson (somehow that's no surprise given their avant garde tendencies these past three decades) to help pass the time spent studying your map and exploring the trackless caverns of this extremely complex, but potentially revolutionary musical technology.

Lots of good information for game programming, but nothing useful for general audio programming with Direct Sound. Judging from what I had read about the book, I thought there would be more meat in it on the Direct Sound interface, but there wasn't. There is lots in it if you are doing games and will have sound that you just need to playback, but if you need to do any audio processing with Direct Sound, that isn't in the book. It could really have benefitted from some interface documentation (perhaps an in an appendix) and a bit more low level stuff, especially on effects processing.

Compared to DirectX graphics, Directx Audio gets little spotlight. DirectX programming is known to be complex. This book does a good job in making DirectX (audio) more accessible to beginners.
Here is my rating on the Content (5=Best):

Accuracy: (4.5/5) So far, I have found minor ommissions in the text. However, the sample code is good enough.
Coverage (4/5)The book, as some other reviews pointed out, focuses more on directmusic than direct audio programming. Maybe its just me, but I was expecting more programmer-oriented text. I only found 50% of the book applicable to my programming work.
If you are considering buying this book, please check the table of contents. The direct music part is useful if you are considering composing music and/or need some basic understanding of computer sound.
Completeness (3/5). This is by no means a complete reference for directx. Keep the SDK documentation handy.
The author also fails to explain at times the rationale behind chosing the particular parameters values for various function calls. Expect to do some googling if you plan to understand the code insideo out.
Style (5/5): The author's explaination is very clear and concise. A beginner to directx should have no trouble following the text.
Overall: 5/5 if you have never touched directx before. 4/5 if you have previous experience with directx programming. You are better off with premier's game audio programming book.

If you want to gain all the benefits and sophistication that DirectMusic provides, this book is a must. Also included is a marvelous CDROM containing several very well thought out sample sound programs (both source and executables) that illustrate many of the chapters' concepts in real-time. Definitely take them for a drive.

For programmers, I found this book to be packed with information on using both the DirectMusic API, and the very powerful (and free) DirectMusic Producer tool, which lets you view, edit, play, and drill down into DirectMusic files/projects. Understanding the Producer tool through this book will give you a much better understanding of the API and the architecture.

The CDROM contains several VC++ projects you will find absolutely essential if you are writing your own applications. All the source code is included and is very clean, and the programs are cleverly devised and illustrate key points very clearly.

This book contains a lot of information, but if you want to learn how to create dynamic music with this kind of audio quality and sophistication, this is by far the best resource I have found.

The concept and application of game audio today has become increasingly complex and unfortunately, there are not many books available on the subject. The use of DirectX is one of the more popular methods of solving many game audio issues and this book, DirectX 9 Audio Exposed, couldn't come at a better time. Written by the many experts at Microsoft who develop and use DirectX and edited by an incredibly knowledgeable game audio advocate, this is a must have book, not only on the subject of DirectX but for anyone interested in creating, producing and implementing game audio. The subject is covered completely, from concept to fruition with some interesting case studies along the way. Whether you are hoping to become more educated on the use of DirectX or game audio in general, this is a highly informative book which is well worth the money. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Two thumbs up!

This book is an excellent resource for composers, sound designers and audio programmers who are focused on developing and creating interactive and adaptive audio for games. Regardless if you are utilizing Microsoft's DirectMusic Producer, you will find the techniques and strategies for creating interactive music extremely valuable and useful no matter what development tool you use.

Don't be intimidated by the wealth of knowledge and years of expertise from the authors. The straight forward creative and analytical approach to presenting the concepts in this book make it very well rounded for all readers. The case studies are particularly valuable in that they provide real-world applications of creating interactive and adaptive audio for the top games.

As a music composer for games, I highly recommend this book to both those who are currently developing audio content and to those aspiring to create audio for games.

This is great book on learning direct x audio. Lots of examples and good information.

T IS THE BESTSD BOOK . ***** I RECCOMENDS IT I CAN USE DMP FINALLY!