Learning the fundamentals of any enterprise is a necessary stepping-stone to more advanced study and implementation of skills. This book provides the stepping-stone to the world of audio and audio recording, introducing the basic principles, technology, techniques, and aesthetics of sound.
This book’s content has been kept as generic as possible, in order to facilitate a general understanding of sound production and to better complement the book’s purpose as a basic introduction to the world of audio. Each chapter concludes with a list of its main points. Key terms are identified in bold italic and defined in the Glossary. More than two hundred and forty illustrations visually reinforce principles, technical concepts, and production techniques.
Chapter 1, “Behavior of Sound,” introduces the physical behavior of sound and its relationship to our psychophysical perception of sound stimuli.
Chapter 2, “The Ear and Hearing,” details the characteristics of the human ear; the importance of healthy hearing, especially to the audio professional; and ways to guard against hearing loss.
Chapter 3, “Perception of Sound,” develops material in Chapter 1 related to the objective behavior of received sound and its subjective effect on human response.
Chapter 4, “Studio and Control Room Design,” discusses the acoustic and psychoa-coustic considerations that affect studio and control construction.
Chapter 5, “Monitoring,” deals with the relationship between loudspeaker selection and control room monitoring in stereo and surround-sound. A section on headphones is also included.
Chapter 6, “Microphones,” introduces their principles, characteristics, types, and accessories.
Chapter 7, “Microphone Techniques,” applies how various types of microphones are positioned in relation to speakers, vocalists, musical instruments, and music ensembles. Content includes stereo and surround-sound microphone arrays.
Chapter 8, “Mixers, Consoles, and Control Surfaces,” covers their signal flow and design. Patching and console automation are also discussed.
Chapter 9, “Recording,” deals with basic digital theory; removable and fixed digital recording systems; Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI); and digital audio networking.
Chapter 10, “Synchronization and Transfers,” covers these fundamental aspects of production and postproduction.
Chapter 11, “Signal Processors,” addresses the general principles of signal processors— stand-alone and plug-ins—and their effects on sound.
Chapter 12, “Editing,” describes the techniques of digital editing. Content includes transitions; general editing guidelines; organizing the edit tracks; and the aesthetic considerations that apply to editing speech, dialogue, music, and sound effects.
Chapter 13, “Mixing,” covers its general purposes; aesthetic considerations; mixing for radio, picture, and music; recordkeeping; metering; and evaluation.
Chapter 14, “Internet Audio,” deals with sound quality on the Internet, online collaborative recording, podcasting, and producing for mobile media.
Chapter 15, “Influences of Sound on Meaning,” brings together the variety of ways in which sound in nonverbal speech, sound effects, and music, and overall sound design, affect meaning.