Customer Reviews

Producing Great Sound for Digital Video

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having enjoyed Jay Rose's columns in DV for some years, I was happy to know that he had a book coming out. Jay's style has always been clean and conversational, and his columns filled with good information. I was sort of expecting the book to be a collection of his previous DV articles, but I was happily suprised to find that it was an entirely new work covering the gamut from the physics of sound through the production process and on into how to deal with talent.

Jay provides information in an extremely easy-to-understand manner without being patronizing. The information he provides is practical, do-it-yourself kinda stuff that takes the mystery out of getting great sound. He also provides information on the when and why of making creative choices, which is much needed information for the audio professional. The only problem I have is with the title; this book provides very useful information for independent filmmakers, radio theater producers, and anyone who works with audio as a part of their craft. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to get better sound for any production.

I am convinced that audio is the biggest diference between professional productions and home video. People will "watch" anything, but if the audio is bad the whole project is bad. Jay Rose makes it clear how to get the best sound tracks you can get on video and how to make them better in post production. This book covers everything needed, and the CD is actually filled with useful sound clips. In just a few days I learned what I was doing wrong and how my projects could be much better. I found the book very well written as well. If you produce digital vidio, this book is a must.

This book is a top shelf resource. It is useful to both novices and those with more experience. Starting with the very basics, and that does involve some physics, it works its way through virtually all aspects of sound production for digital video.

Do not be fooled. You are not going to learn much to improve the built in recording that comes with your camera. The author is unapologetic in his broad condemantion of the built-in stuff in terms of both quality and usablility. He goes into the reasons and gives a bit of advice on making the most of what you have but this is not what the book is about. Instead, it is about exactly what the title claims. Unfortunately, this is seldom if ever achieved with the built in stuff.

After going over some of the basics of sound and recording, different types of equipment are described in terms of suitability to task and cost. After that, the actual use of this equipment is considered in a variety of situations. The book is not just concerned with equipment and its use, however. There are chapters on editing and even on the use of prefessional talent. In short, the assumption is that you want to get good quality audio for your video production. The author then describes how to do exactly that in a variety of settings. Unfortuately, doing the job sometimes takes a bit more effort than just pushing the record button on the camera. It also take a bit more money although it does not have to take a great deal more. It depends on what type of sound is needed and how you are going to use it.

If all you want is to catch the background sound in a home video, spend your money on something else. If you want to learn how to get the best possible sound for your particular need and preserve that sound to use with video, you need this book.

Where do I start? In a nutshell, this book *IS* the only book to have on sound if your only buying one. No lie. My background... 20 years ago I used to be the "The Amp Dr" fixing commercial PA systems, amps, etc. I have a much better background on sound than most, I was an electrical engineer after that, designing power supplies, and other analog interfaces to digital equipment. Most of that has been dormant for the last 20 years, but I recently decided to make documentaries, and as two of my first projects deal with music, sound seemed pretty important. I got several books on sound, I figure buy six, one has to be good. You can save your money, this book was the one in six.

Knowing audio but NOT audio for video, one of the most important things I discovered is that a professional quality product (video) can only be made with good sound.. If you think you $2 -$10K pro-sumer camera is going to deliver it with the standard mic turn on "auto level", you're really wrong. Half of good sound is the absence of sound, or at least the absence of unintended sound. Insuring good sound is more work than it sounds, but the quality and impact of what I am shooting now is significantly better than before. Otherwise, its' all like home videos, maybe pretty shots and cleverly edited, but still seems like home videos. It all becomes much clearer after reading this book.

When I picked up this book, it was a mental orgasm. Not only does this guy know his stuff, even more importantly, he knows how to communicate it. The way it was written, I was easily able to skip over the stuff I didn't want to review, and go straight for the meat. It is meaty. Almost EVERYTHING I wanted to know was here. I did end up going back just to see how he explained the basics.. great! One of the things I liked about his style, is some authors will tell you something is bad or wrong, with no explanation.. Jay give you good examples.. the CD recording with the book is worth it's weight in , he give examples of proper recording and bad recording (with explanations). You can actually hear it as oppose to read an explanation and take it on faith. Borrow money if you have too.. but buy it.

My message to Jay:
If you read this Jay, I have a few requests. (1) Don't let this book go out of date. Please do you SNR and distortion measurements on some of the new HD cameras. Given the bit resolution is now even less with HDV (12 bits (HDV) vs 16 bits (DV)), I think dual systems are even more important to cover in greater detail. (2) Update with some of the new digital recorders that are replacing DATs (3) Thanks for a great book!

I've read this book several times, page through it often, recommended it to several people, and I just bought it. I listened to the CD included with the book---very fun, except for the test signals, which are annoying. I know they're useful, but you can't dance to 'em, ha ha.

The book is enjoyable and helpful. The real strength, I think, is that Jay keeps returning to the need to think ahead: a script needs to be scored with music, sound effects and flavors of microphones through mic choice and placement, prior to being shot.

Everybody knows it and nobody does it. Well, from this day forward, I will soundboard my projects. It'll save me money, time and Jay's convinced me it'll be fun.

Denise Ohio

After spending years and years trying to get my recordings to sound the way I wanted them to, Jay Rose showed me how. This is the best book I've ever found on digital audio... and for audio recording in general. He taught me how to set up the gear and use sound absorbing material so I could get a good sound. And how to use equalizers, compressors, and other gear better than I ever imagined possible. Pretty good for a klutz like me! Now my tapes sound better than some of the professional ones! If you record audio, buy this book!

You might have thought, as I did, the digital movie making is about making pictures - "point and shoot" - and that sound is just a by-product. Jay Rose's book will dispell that notion. Producing a good soundtrack is just as important as the visual, requiring art, skill, and technique. But Jay shows you that it is well within your means and ability to become an effective and artful sound producer. Full of fascinating detail and practical wisdom. The book functions both as a comprehensive tutorial and a permanent reference. If you're getting into DV and you buy only one book on sound, this is it....

Jay Rose is an excellent audio engineer and in this book shares knowledge that can only come from years of professional experience. He delivers information on a very difficult topic in an easily accessible manner.

This book is a great resource. As an engineer with years of experience, I can honestly recommend this book to beginners and pros as well. There's a wealth of practical information. I reviewed this book for creative cow (production website) and gave it five stars.

I've often been taken in by large reference books that promise to be a comprehensive guide to a subject, but turn out to be a lot of filler (screen shots of PC applications, or an excuse for the author to give lots of less-than-useful anectodal stories, etc.)

Not so with Jay Rose's 'Producing Great Sound for Digital Video' book. This informative guide covers a lot of ground, including sound theory, equipment explanations and use, and techniques for sound production including NLE tips, audio mixing, mic use etc. The great thing about this book is it is written with the expectation that your sound production values should be professional, but it's still accessible to hobbyists and those on a budget.

While I think novices to the field of sound engineering (like myself) probably benefit most from this work, I think a lot of the material here is useful to the video production community as a whole. I learned a lot from this, great work.

for anyone that wants to have a professional approach to digital video this is a good book.