Sound Engineering Explained, 2nd Edition

Table of contents

1. Front Cover
2. Half Title
3. Title Page
4. Copyright
5. Contents
6. Preface
7. Acknowledgements
8. About this book
9. 1 Sound waves
   1. Part 1
   2. What are sound waves?
   3. Frequency
   4. Wavelength
   5. Amplitude
   6. The velocity of sound waves
   7. Velocity, frequency and wavelength
   8. Sound waves and obstacles
   9. The bending of sound waves (diffraction)
   10. Units used in sound
   11. Sound intensity and the effect of distance
   12. Decibels
   13. Part 2
   14. The velocity of sound waves
   15. Units
   16. Decibels
10. 2 Hearing and the nature of sound
    1. Part 1
    2. The response of the ear
    3. Loudness. The dB(A)
    4. Musical pitch
    5. Musical quality (‘timbre’)
    6. The brain's perception of sound
    7. Part 2
    8. Pitch
    9. Frequency ranges in music
    10. ‘False bass’
11. 3 Basic acoustics
    1. Part 1
    2. Sound isolation
    3. Internal acoustics
    4. Part 2
    5. Sound isolation
    6. Sound absorption
12. 4 Microphones
    1. Part 1
    2. Microphone transducers
    3. Polar responses
    4. ‘Boundary’ microphones
    5. Personal microphones
    6. Radio microphones (‘wireless microphones’)
    7. Part 2
    8. Electrostatic microphones
    9. Production of the different polar responses
    10. Sensitivities of microphones
    11. Phantom power
    12. Balanced wiring
    13. Radio microphone data
13. 5 Using microphones
    1. Objectives and problems in recording
    2. Specific applications of microphones
14. 6 Monitoring
    1. Part 1
    2. Technical monitoring
    3. Aural monitoring
    4. Listening tests
    5. Part 2
    6. Reference voltages in audio signals
    7. PPMs and VU meter readings
    8. Helmholtz resonators
    9. Loudspeaker power
    10. Loudspeaker cables
    11. Professional and domestic standards
15. 7 Stereo
    1. Part 1
    2. How stereo works
    3. Methods of producing inter-channel differences
    4. Terminology
    5. Stereo listening
    6. Stereo loudspeaker matching
    7. Phase
    8. Part 2
    9. Microphone techniques for stereo
    10. Headphones for stereo monitoring
16. 8 Sound mixers
    1. Part 1
    2. Terminology
    3. The basic channel
    4. Important features of any mixer
    5. Output stage
    6. Part 2
    7. Inputs and connections
    8. Equalization
    9. Public Address and Foldback (PA and FB)
    10. Talkback
17. 9 Controlling levels
    1. Manual control of levels
    2. Electronic level control
    3. Noise gates
18. 10 Digital audio
    1. Part 1
    2. Historical
    3. Basic principles
    4. Other applications of digital audio
    5. MIDI
    6. Data compression
    7. Additional terminology
    8. Part 2
    9. Compact discs
    10. Error correction
    11. Cleaning CDs
    12. Cost of CD players
    13. NICAM
    14. A little more about error correction
19. 11 Recording
    1. Part 1 – Recording devices and systems
    2. Analogue recording
    3. The fundamentals of magnetic recording
    4. Cassette quality
    5. Noise reduction
    6. Head and tape cleanliness
    7. Digital recording
    8. DAT
    9. MiniDisc®
    10. Solid state recording
    11. MP3
    12. Part 2 – Editing
    13. Why edit?
    14. Practicalities
    15. Editing tape
    16. Digital tape editing
    17. MiniDisc editing
20. 12 Public address
    1. Part 1
    2. Outdoor PA
    3. Indoor PA
    4. Part 2
    5. Howl-rounds
    6. 100-volt systems
21. 13 Music and sound effects
    1. Music
    2. Sound effects
22. 14 Safety
    1. Electrical safety
    2. Noise and hearing
    3. ‘Mechanical’ safety
    4. Fire
23. Copyright
24. Miscellaneous data
25. Further reading
26. Answers
27. Index