Customer Reviews

Eargle's The Microphone Book, Second Edition: From Mono to Stereo to Surround - A Guide to Microphone Design and Application

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

 

 

This book seems to cover whatever one can think about when it comes to microphones and how they work. The only reason I don't give this book 5 stars is that it's not too easy to use as a reference when in a studio situation, as it is very technical. But if you are thinking about setting up a studio, and need to read up on microphones before setting up your shopping cart, this book is it

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disappointed in focal. that brand used to ensure high qualty. apparently no mas.
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this could have been a good book for a high school or a trade school class or
good for home hobbyist to learn the basics of mikes
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best summary that i have found for the design and construction of mikes
but since have recently found some other mike books that i hope will be as good
probably even better.

info is not adequate to design them ,but enough to understand why the design choices were made.

the mike factoids are summarised with a minimum of useless formula derivation.

the math is minimal, and the physics only alluded to.
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i would recommend other books for the *use* of mikes and recording.
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book has too many errors where text and pictures do not agree or are very confusing.

lots of references to see some CD that is not in the index and not included with the book. WTF!!! did the previous edition have a cd that got removed??

too many pictures are confusing and hard to understand even reading with the text slowly.

pictures are too often after teh reference. they should be before they are used or on the same visible pages.
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i would like more about mikes and less on using mikes.

plenty of books cover the stereo miking techniques better;
as well as recording in general.
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the book is a little dated.

but a more pertinent complaint is that it is superficial.
indeed, it is not a how to design text, it is an it is what it is
and how does it work tome with no real elaboration beyond the basics.

apparently there is now a 3rd edition that adds surround sound info. i wonder if it now included the CD or deleted those references ??

i would still prefer more about mikes and less on usage which is well covered by many other sources.

there are many excellent surround sound references on the web.
do not buy another book like this for that info.
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you should know how to use a mike, which mike, and why after reading it.

but you are several graduate acoustic classes away from designing a mike,
andor even modifying one meaningfully as is so popular by some wannabe pro audio folks.
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for what i got, the *used* price was a bit high. the new price would be totally unacceptable!

i do have several other how to use mike books, and one more about mikes themselves, with detailed info still to read. they cant be worse.

this book did teach me something that i did not know [and i am quite familiar with mikes in general and experienced with using mike and the various techniques for stereo] and was useful so maybe it is worth 1.5 - 2 stars. but the problems with diagrams and non existent references to some unnnamed CD with examples was too much to take today so i give this only 1 star because of the problems.
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It's a great practical book without much scientific content, however. I find it is quite good to quickly grasp an overview on the topic.

This book goes indepth with the mathamatics and schematis of microphones. Highly recommended for everyone who wants to know more. I found the book to be a little dry and a little over my head in terms of some of the math, but I gained usefull knowledge on mechanics and abstract principals. Read it.

Really an amazing collection. Yes, it is technical---but I think the book can satisfy a varied number of people, on a lot of levels. Whether to understand how microphones work, or work better---to know how better to use microphones--or just interested in microphone history, this book is a rare find.

The book was exactly was was required for class, and arrived in great condition. Exactly as advertised on the web page.

I found the book covered information on the types of microphones, the performace specifications and use of microphones in general. Half of the book was on instillation and studio placement.
I was looking for a design book to help me solve signal to noise problems,distortion and gain. I was hoping to find examples of low noise amplifier designs, filters and bias information for the different types of microphones. I expected the book to be written at an electrical engineering level. It was not. Instead, when it covered this information it would refer to how "the engineer would have designed the microphone to perfomer like this..." I found the book very disappointing.

Very good about microphones' design and usage (Sorry, I am bad at reviews, just wanted to give five stars).

Like speaking with a doctor, not a fun book, very very interesting information done boring.