Acoustics & Sound

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

The author of the New York Times bestseller and Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist This Is Your Brain on Music tunes us in to six evolutionary musical forms that brought about the evolution of human culture.

An unprecedented blend of science and art, Daniel Levitin's debut, This Is Your Brain on Music, delighted readers with an exuberant guide to the neural impulses behind those songs that make our heart swell. Now he showcases his daring theory of "six songs," illuminating how the brain evolved to play and listen to music in six fundamental forms—for knowledge, friendship, religion, joy, comfort, and love. Preserving the emotional history of our lives and of our species, from its very beginning music was also allied to dance, as the structure of the brain confirms; developing this neurological observation, Levitin shows how music and dance enabled the social bonding and friendship necessary for human culture and society to evolve.

Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitin's sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell, and David Byrne, along with classical musicians and conductors, historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The result is a brilliant revelation of the prehistoric yet elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at a wedding or cheer at a concert—or tune out quietly with an iPod.

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:
• How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
• Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
• That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
• How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our heads

And, taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This Is Your Brain on Music is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.

Audio in Media

In AUDIO IN MEDIA, Eighth Edition, Stanley Alten-internationally recognized as a scholar and expert in the area of audio production-continues to provide students with an introduction to the basic techniques and principles needed for today's audio production in media. The clear and current illustrations and photos and student-friendly writing in Alten's market-leading text have helped professors effectively teach this technically-based course to thousands of introductory audio production students. Comprehensive, technically accurate, and up-to-date, the text covers informational, perceptual, and aesthetic aspects of sound as they apply to each stage of the production process-from planning to post-production.

Mastering Audio, Second Edition: The art and the science

Written by an award winning, highly respected professional, Mastering Audio gives you a thorough introduction to the unique procedures and technical issues involved in mastering.

Suitable for all levels of students and professionals, it is ideal for anyone who wants to increase their mastery of digital and analog audio: musicians, producers, A&R, mastering, recording and mixing engineers.

Fully updated to cover the latest technologies, Mastering Audio discusses audio philosophy and art: sequencing, leveling, processing; how to make a record album radio-ready; mixing as it reltes to mstering. Divided into 5 parts, the book begins with the basics - monitoring, mastering techniques, useful tutorials and the fundamentals of dithering and decibels and moves on to more advanced concepts - jitter and clocking, monitor collaboration as well as multi channel audio, miking and acoustics. Leading-edge audio concepts are explained in an easy-to-grasp holistic style.

Including practical tips and real world experiences, Bob Katz explains the technical detail of the subject in his informative and humorous style.

* Written by a well respected engineer who has engineered albums which have won the Grammy
* Provides you with information on the latest techniques and processes used in mastering
* Covers equipment, training and the business of mastering and answers all the frequently asked questions

The Sound Reinforcement Handbook

Sound reinforcement is the use of audio amplification systems. This book is the first and only book of its kind to cover all aspects of designing and using such systems for public address and musical performance. The book features information on both the audio theory involved and the practical applications of that theory, explaining everything from microphones to loudspeakers. The Whirlwind pcDI is the first direct box designed to interface your unbalanced stereo line sources with professional balanced low impedance equipment. This unit contains two separate DIs - input your signals with one 3.5mm (1/8 inch) mini TRS stereo jack or two sets of color coded RCA phono type in and through jacks. Output is via corresponding color coded XLRs.

Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals

Audio productions are made or broken by the quality of the recording engineer's ears. The ability to properly discern sounds, identify subtle problems, and act accordingly to apply the necessary fix makes all the difference in the quality of the final tracks and master. The good news is that these crucial skills can be learned. The ability to instantly identify frequencies, hear hidden distortions, and instinctively reconcile conflicts in the EQ of instruments, audio elements, vocals and more are traits of those who have mastered the art of audio production. The best engineers have trained their ears to immediately recognize audio problems that the consumer and those new to recording arts would likely not hear, but that, if left unresolved, would result in an amateurish final product. For more than two decades, students of F. Alton Everest's Critical Listening and Auditory Perception courses have rapidly developed these skills by using the intense lessons found in this book and on the CD. Unfortunately the books and CDs included with the course were usually too expensive for aspiring engineers to purchase and were often available only in colleges, universities, or school libraries. Now for the first time these indispensable training sessions are available with this release of Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals. Through hundreds of illustrations and an accompanying disc containing high-resolution MP3 files with nearly five hours of narration of the entire course, you can acquire the audio discernment skills of a seasoned recording engineer by studying this course at your own pace, in your own home.

Designing a Digital Portfolio (VOICES)

It isn't easy finding a job these days and for those working in the creative fields like graphic design, illustration, photography, filmmaking, and music, a digital portfolio is just the shiny object you need to catch the attention of a prospective employer. But you can't just slap a few files on a CD and call it a night. As Cynthia Baron points out in Designing a Digital Portfolio--a thorough guide to digital portfolios--your first impression is critical and good preparation will pay off.

The books begins with soul-searching: what work are you hoping to get, who's your audience, what style of presentation should you choose, and what technology--Zip, CD, DVD? Effective portfolios from various fields are analyzed, for example, one for an industrial designer or a flash animation artist. If you happen to do both or are otherwise a jack-of-all-trades, Baron outlines your strategy for targeting your audience and deciding how to focus your presentation.

There're several great chapters on prepping your work, collecting it (do you have your process materials, like pencil sketches?), digitizing the non-digital and cleaning it up (like stitching together scans or effective cropping), nitty-gritty items like optimizing and encoding (crucial if you don't want your future boss frustrated by large files), and dealing with that neglected cousin of the visually creative: good written content.

Next, the book considers delivery (for example, Web versus a portable portfolio on CD or DVD), a presentation metaphor (for example, gallery or diary), and the navigational master plan. The chapter on copyrights and attribution are worth the cover price alone. (For example, do you know who owns the artwork you just created for that latest brochure? Do you know how to present a large project on which you worked as part of a team?)

Throughout the book, Baron profiles some stellar examples of digital portfolios, most of which are viewable online, for example, illustrator Michael Bartalos's Web site at bartalos.com. And the appendices offer even more resources to help and inspire you. --Angelynn Grant

The world has gone digital--which means that a paper portfolio is no longer good enough. These days, as a creative professional, you're expected to be able to show your work on demand--whether that means emailing it to a client, displaying it on a Web site, or delivering it on CD or DVD. This book shows you how. Using a combination of step-by-step instructions and inspiring examples, veteran author Cynthia Baron takes you through the entire process of designing a digital portfolio--from developing a concept and choosing a medium, to scanning work created with traditional materials; optimizing digitized art; repurposing digital material; creating a portfolio Web site, CD, or DVD; producing a portable portfolio; and avoiding technical pitfalls when digitizing, organizing, and delivering the final product. You'll also find loads of insights from the professionals who evaluate artist portfolios everyday--agency heads, art directors, and designers--plus handy checklists, a run-down of dos and don'ts, case studies, and tips.

Musical Acoustics

Musical acoustics presents a unique opportunity to see science and art working together. This book is a balanced presentation of all aspects of musical acoustics. It explains how our ears and brains interpret musical events, and connects traditional physical analyses to musical reality. The purpose of the book is two fold: (1) To help readers use simple physical concepts as tools for understanding how music works, and (2) To use readers' interest in music to motivate the study and appreciation of scientific methods. Any given chapter will challenge readers with several points that are not obvious on the first reading. Starred sections are optional and are not a prerequisite to later sections.

Sound for Film and Television, Second Edition (Book & CD-ROM)

Sound for Film and Television, Second Edition provides a thorough introduction to the fascinating field of recording, editing, mixing, and exhibiting film and television sound. It strikes a fine balance between aesthetic and technical content, combining theory and practice to approach sound as both an art and a science, as no other text has before. This edition includes new information on digital techniques as they have arisen in the industry, and expanded coverage of sound editing and design.


Written by one of Hollywood's leading sound experts, Sound for Film and Television, Second Edition provides a solid grounding in all aspects of the sound process. Basic principles are presented with illustrations demonstrating how they affect the day-to-day activities on a film or television set, in the editing room, and in the mix room.

*The only text to present sound design as both an art and a science

*Accompanying audio CD contains examples demonstrating key concepts

*Bridges the gap between production books and design engineering books

Introduction To Sound: Acoustics for the Hearing and Speech Sciences (Singular Textbook Series)

This powerful text continues with the same fundamental aim as the previous two editions to not present, but to teach the fundamental concepts of acoustics to students in the speech-language and hearing science. In addition to relocating revised practice problems and answers to a newly created Course Notes and Workbook for Introduction to Sound, the third edition also introduces new features.