By Bruce Fries, Marty Fries
First Edition
April 2005
Pages: 374
ISBN 10: 0-596-00856-2 |
ISBN 13: 9780596008567
(Average of 2 Customer Reviews)
Join the digital audio revolution! Whether it's downloading music, ripping CDs, organizing, finding, and creating higher quality music files, buying music players and accessories, or constructing a home stereo system, Digital Audio Essentials helps you get it done. For music enthusiasts, digital archivists, amateur musicians, and anyone who likes a good groove.
Full Description
Featured customer reviews
Old Analog Guy recommends this book, April 04 2008
For an old analog guy like me, I found understanding digital audio specs a little bewildering at first. And that is true despite an (old) electrical engineering degree.
I can't (easily) find specs on digital audio hardware like the old specs: frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio, total harmonic distortion, intermodulation distortion . . . . Well . . . you get the idea. Instead, I found specs like sample rate, bit rate, etc.
This book, Digital Audio Essentials, is just that: essential for any audiophile/sterophile/surround-soundphile, etc. Please note, however, that the first section of 3 chapters is an excellent introduction to digital audio for the novice computer user.
For me, the heart of the book is Part III (The Nuts and Bolts of Digital Audio) and Part IV (Capturing and Editing Audio).
Chapter 8 (the first Part III chapter), has some very basic information on digitizing audio signals--information that is not new to me. However, what is especially helpful are the specification comparisons (e.g., dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio) between digital and analog audio. There is also very helpful information on formats and sound quality in chapters 9 and 10.
Part IV starts with chapter 11, Recording and Ripping. There may be a few more people left in the world like me who are not familiar with the terminology. Ripping? Well . . . now I understand the language. Even more important in this chapter is the discussion of file sizes (see p. 192). there are also lots of tips on setting up hardware and software (and on various software application capabilities) in this chapter.
And, for those who are "addicted" to their portable MP3 players, consider this question: What is the best bit rate for the highest sound quality? Check out pages 210 to 211 for the answer.
Do you have old LP's or tapes that you want to convert to CD's or MP3's? If so, chapters 13 (Editing Audio) and 14 (Digitizing Your Records and Tapes) are "must reading" for satisfactory results.
There is more, including a chapter on Setting Up an Internet Radio Station and a chapter on Digital Audio and Copyright Laws (also a "must read" chapter).
This Old Analog Guy (the acronym = OAG and is pronounced "ogre") highly recommends this book
Correction, October 23 2006
I searched the internet for digital audio files and chapter 11. A digital Audio Primer page displayed. According to my calculations this information needs to be corrected:
Table 3
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11.025 | 8 | 1 | 88,200 | 616,000
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616,000 needs to be 661,500 unless there is information missing required for proper calculation.
Media reviews
"If you want to know how to work with older media and convert it into the digital age on whatever platform you desire, these guys have it down pat. Believe me, you won’t feel left out as they discuss the pros and cons regarding iTunes, Media Jukebox, Musicmatch and other software applications, or even adding a hard drive (other than an iPod) to your mode of transportation. I give these two authors a high 5 for showing us how to ride the audio waves from the past into the future."
--Robert Pritchett, MacCompanion.com, June 2005
"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 CDs, 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."
--Todd Hawley, Amazon.com, May 2005
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."
--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review, July 2005
