Preface to the Fourth Edition
The fourth edition is published ten years after Sound and Recording was first published, which is hard to believe. The book has been adopted widely by students and tutors on audio courses around the world. In that time audio technology and techniques have changed in some domains but not in others. All the original principles still apply but the emphasis has gradually changed from predominantly analogue to quite strongly digital, although many studios still use analogue mixers and multitrack tape recorders for a range of purposes and we do not feel that the death-knell of analogue recording has yet been sounded. Readers of earlier editions will notice that the chapter on record players has finally been reduced in size and relegated to an appendix. While we continue to believe that information about the LP should remain in the literature as the format lingers on, it is perhaps time to remove it from the main part of the book.
In this edition a new chapter on surround sound has been added, complemented by a reworked chapter preceding it that is now called ‘two-channel stereo’. Surround sound was touched upon in the previous edition but a complete chapter reflects the increased activity in this field with the coming of new multichannel consumer replay formats.
The chapter on auditory perception has been reworked to include greater detail on spatial perception and the digital audio chapter has been updated to include DVD-A and SACD, with information about Direct Stream Digital (DSD), the MiniDisc, computer-based editing systems and their operation. Chapter 5 on loudspeakers now includes information about distributed-mode loudspeakers (DML) and a substantial section on directivity and the various techniques used to control it. Finally a glossary of terms has now been provided, with some additional material that supports the main text.