Average customer rating:
- A great book
- Technical or NOT technical tips on good sound!
- Definitive Handbook on Learning to do Sound
- Plenty of easily accesible information
- big n, thick
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Live Sound Reinforcement (Mix Pro Audio Series)
Scott Stark
Manufacturer: ArtistPro
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Similar Items:
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The Sound Reinforcement Handbook
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The Live Sound Manual: Getting Great Sound at Every Gig
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Sound Check: The Basics of Sound and Sound Systems
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Guide to Sound Systems for Worship
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Basic Live Sound (The Basic Series)
ASIN: 0918371074 |
Product Description
This reprint of this classic textbook is from MixBooks. Its simple language, detailed illustrations and concrete examples convey the fundamentals of sound reinforcement theory in an intelligent and intelligible manner, making it an invaluable resource for aspiring live sound technicians and musicians alike. Written for novice to intermediate-level users, it outlines all aspects of P.A. system operation and commonly encountered sound system design concerns, with in-depth discussions of microphones, speaker systems, equalizers, mixers, signal processors, crossovers, amplifiers, system wiring and interfaces, indoor and outdoor
Customer Reviews:
A great book.......2007-05-09
This book is fantastic! The author has an incredible ability to explain complex phenomenon in a concise manner that is easy to understand. I learned a great deal from this book.
Technical or NOT technical tips on good sound!.......2007-05-05
I received a copy of this book when I was preparing the curriculum for a college course I taught as an adjunct professor for two years. I believe it gave my students not only a good classroom study book, but also a useful reference book for the "real-world" after graduation! Scott Stark gives great rule-of-thumb knowledge, as well as deeper technical fundamentals behind the knob turning and fader moving decisions that every sound engineer will face at the helm of a live sound reinforcement system, no matter whether for 100 or 100,000 listeners!
Definitive Handbook on Learning to do Sound.......2007-03-15
I've used this book myself and have been referred to it by the best sound guys around. Great for beginners wanting to get a handle on how a sound system works from power amps, pre-amps, microphone differences to why feedback happens and how to stop it, and lots of other practical advice on how to mix live sound. Good for more advanced sound people who want to advance their skills.
Plenty of easily accesible information.......2007-02-03
I am a classically trained musician working as a secondary school teacher, and I bought this book to help me understand how to use amplifiers, PA's, mixing desks etc as I am teaching a 'Live Music' subject. It has plenty of information without getting too technical and is written in an accessible and interesting way. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a basic mathematical and musical understanding of sound.
big n, thick.......2007-01-16
there is alot in here. a lot to read that is... if you are looking for a lengthy breakdown on
what sound waves are made of and how they react... if you want a deep understanding
of what happens in a subwoofer... this could be for you. It has the look and feel of a
course manual... there is a lot to take in.
No quick fix. Very involved. But if that is what you want... its all in here.
Book Description
Ready to unleash the awesome power of Ableton Live 6? As its name suggests, Ableton Live 6 was designed with the live performer in mind, but it goes well beyond that. You can integrate this live performance and studio software into your existing home or professional music studio to produce, compose, DJ, and much more. But how? Ableton Live 6 Power! is the key you need to revolutionize your studio by incorporating Live 6. Written for musicians by a fellow musician who uses Live on a daily basis, this useful guide explores fundamental and advanced Live features, and provides insider tips, tricks, and interviews with Live power users to provide you with a comprehensive overview of the ins and outs of this powerful software. Whether you are a beginner in the digital audio field or a seasoned pro, Ableton Live 6 Power! is the reference you need to take your music to the next level.
Customer Reviews:
Informative and Easy to Read........2007-06-13
Though this is my first book on Live, I've combed my way through several books on computer recording in the past (Reason, Pro Tools). This book is easy to understand, well written, and concise.
After a few chapters, I'm really enjoying Live. Software that I once thought was confusing is now effortless and fun. That's the biggest compliment I can give the authors.
if you like live after this book you will love it.......2007-05-12
this is a very detailed guide and if you want to know all live secrets this book is for you. even if you're not a pro
Book Description
The first overview of the revolutionary advertising techniques and media needed to successfully reach today's consumer.
Twenty years ago an advertiser could reach eighty percent of the American population with just three television commercials. Today it takes 150. Advertising is suffering because of the sheer amount of it, the lack of innovation within traditional advertising formats, and the power that media fragmentation and technology give to consumers to tune out the noise.
The new buzzwords are guerrilla, stealth, ambush, buzz, viral, grassroots, wildfire, and ambient. This book is the first to harness them into an integrated communications approach, as Tom Himpe explains and illustrates:
• the four driving forces for getting close to the consumer: be personal; go where the competition isn't; make the brand invisible; be unpredictable;
• the eight techniques—from consumer involvement to harnessing the power of the senses—for employing these driving forces, illustrated with campaigns from across the world;
• the four types of campaign that make use of this new knowledge. 435 color illustrations.
Book Description
"Automated LightingTechnology, Applications, and Design" is a comprehensive text covering everything you will need to know as a working or aspiring lighting professional about automated lighting fixtures, systems, how they are used and design issues you will face. It is written in clear, easy-to-understand language but includes enough detailed information that the most experienced technician and engineer will appreciate and benefit from reading. Subjects covered include the history of automated lighting, DC and AC electricity, basic electronics, power supplies, digital electronics, electro-mechanical systems, optical systems (including dichroic filters, reflectors, lenses, and more), lamp technology, lighting effects (including color mixing, glass gobos, and more), data distribution systems, DMX, RDM, and ACN. State-of-the-art automated lighting fixtures in various applications including theatre, television, concert/touring, and permanent installations are discussed and special design issues are addressed.
The text is amply illustrated with drawings and pictures. The newest technology in automated lighting--"digital" lighting or pixel-based automated lighting projection--is also covered in detail. This book is the antithesis of a reference manual or user manual. It is entertaining and educational with lots of graphic illustrations and easy-to-understand concepts. Its the most fun you can have without sitting behind a console.
* Numerous examples and illustrations
* Easy to read with little "tech-talk"
* Contains information on the newest lighting technology
* Minimal amount of math reduces the drudgery!
Customer Reviews:
A Great Resource.......2007-01-11
This book is an outstanding resource for anyone involved with Automated Lighting. It covers a wide range of lighting topics, but each with detail and accuracy. A must for anyone just starting to work with autoamtion (especially repairs), but has some great information for old pros as well. While this book has more for technicians than designers, any automation designer may find most of the content useful.
Book Description
From faders to frequencies, microphones to mixing, pink noise to polarity, this is the all-inclusive manual for creating the finest sound for live performances. It applies to the entire range of stage performers and their equipment - solo acoustic guitar and vocal, full-scale band requiring complex amplification, or electronica DJ working multiple turntables. Every aspect of live sound is covered, including: analyzing venue needs, acquiring and managing the ideal sound system, setting up and testing equipment, understanding and applying the theories of acoustics, maintenance, trouble-shooting, and much more. Also features a 15,000-word technical glossary.
Customer Reviews:
The Live Sound Manual.......2007-02-06
A very informative read. I have been involved in bands for 30 years and it shows you can always learn something new..
The Live Sound Manual.......2006-07-06
Great Book with Great Information. I always say if I get 1 useful bit of info. then the purchase was worth it. This book gave more than just 1 bit of useful info!
this guy knows his live sound.......2006-02-22
This book is the end all/be all of live sound. It covers everything you need to know...from what the knobs do, to what rooms have different sound qualities and how to adjust. It's perfect. As a professional touring musician, this is one of the most detailed books I've read on the issue. I highly recommend it.
Useless.......2004-05-12
250 8x11 pages without a single picture, drawing, image, graphic, table, graph or equation. Zero. Not one.
The section on calculating the net impedance of speakers without an equation is hilarious: "This means turning each number on its head, then adding the numbers in this form, then changing the resulting number back to ordinary form."
I bet you have never thought of an XLR connector as "three small round pins/holes forming a triangular pattern inside an 18mm diameter circle."
There is also some questionable information, such as "the gain setting knobs [on an amplifier] should generally be set at maximum..." Never seen that one in print.
Much better choices for an actual book are Davis: "Sound Reinforcement Handbook" and Stark: "Live Sound Reinforcement".
Very well written.......2003-08-06
I bought this and the Live Sound Reinforcement book (Scott Hunter Stark) at the same time. While this one lacks many illustrations, the ones in LSR were really hokey and obviously hadn't been updated in many years (or lacked effort from the start).
This book is well written, and comprehensive. I only found one section in the other book that wasn't explicitly included in this one, and it was covered in the eq section (LSR spells out 'ringing out the room' or finding feedback before it finds you....).
Some diagrams would have been helpful at times, but most of the concepts were explained very well in the text.
Book Description
This comprehensive guide shows you how to integrate a variety of production tools for the Mac OS X platform into all stages of audio production so that you can create and produce music. From single applications to complete suites, you’ll discover the software toolsets that are best for you and then discover how to incorporate them into a coherent workflow. Featuring best practices, real-world examples, and interviews with audio professionals, this book pulls together all the programs and tasks you need.
Customer Reviews:
A serious work.......2007-07-04
Recently I've seen some digital tutorial and books that make me thinking on a precipitated release. Sure this is not the case.
Ignacio.
Like a good friend sitting next to you explaining it all. .......2007-04-28
This is a very smart, yet very un-nerdy treatment of otherwise very technical subjects...The author has a wonderful, down-to-earth writing style. And he's funny, too. It's like having a cool friend sitting next to you explaining it all.
It's an exceptional book, I'm learning a lot from it, and I'm not even a Mac guy. And the book is a lot of bang for the buck....it's almost 600 pages, and the text is smallish (but still readable), so it's as much info as most 800 page books, and all golden.
The author does a podcast too, which is weekly (or so) companion the book. [...]
MWD
Covers a lot of stuff.......2007-04-17
I've been using this book for a couple of weeks now and it's totally got me excited about doing music on my computer again. I know a bit about some of the programs covered in the book (Logic, Reason, Garageband) already, but it gave me more of an idea of how to use those programs more effectively. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about other programs I have been wanting to use. Plus there's just a ton of information about the different software and plugins that are available, some really cool stuff (especially the free stuff). There's also sections that provide "real world scenarios" that I found immensely helpful. These sections gave me ideas of how to use the tools in new ways. The DVD that comes with the book has some great stuff too, freeware, loops, plugins, etc. Super cool.
Overall it has a wealth of information that is relevant to beginners as well as people like me who already have some knowledge of Mac music production. The book is laid out really well and the writing is engaging and well thought out. I can't say enough good stuff about it. I'm sure I will go back to it frequently. Good stuff!
Average customer rating:
- Worth the cost
- The bible for automation and show control industry
- THE Great Show Control Reference!
- Control Systems for Live Entertainment-The title says it all
|
Control Systems for Live Entertainment, Second Edition
John Huntington
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
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Similar Items:
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ASIN: 0240803485 |
Book Description
Control Systems for Live Entertainment provides essential information for technicians, engineers and designers interested in how control systems and computers are used in the live entertainment arena. Specifically covering control for lighting, lasers, sound, video, film projection, stage machinery, animatronics, special effects and pyrotechnics for theatre, concerts, theme parks, themed-retail, cruise ships, museums, corporate and other events.
Drawing on his extensive experience in the field and classroom, author John Huntington clearly explains everything that goes on behind the scenes and inside the machines to bring bold visions to life in real-world settings.
Sections on all major entertainment control standards, methods and protocols, including DMX512, MIDI, MIDI Show Control, Sony 9-Pin, SMPTE Time Code and many others
Basics of control systems, data communications, and networks, including EIA serial standards and Ethernet
System design concepts and case studies featuring realistic problems and practical solutions, with a unique combined focus on computers, art and practice
Customer Reviews:
Worth the cost.......2006-03-28
I had to buy this book for a class I am taking, and it has proven very helpful and useful.
The bible for automation and show control industry.......2001-02-03
A well dog-eared copy of the first edition has been in my tool kit / computer kit for the last couple of years. I have found it a valuable resource. It has helped me on-site more than once. The second edition is more comprehensive and organized. Kudos to John in publishing a great resource fit for the student and experienced professional.
George Tucker- Show Control Engineer- Scharff Wesiberg NYC
THE Great Show Control Reference!.......1997-09-12
John Huntington's book is the THE reference tool in our lighting shop for show control. It has everything you need for the different control languages, in clear and concise formats.It is a must on every theatre technician's bookshelf
Control Systems for Live Entertainment-The title says it all.......1996-09-24
John Huntington's new book, Control Systems for Live
Entertainment, is one of the most useful and informative
books available for anyone interested in theatre technology.
The book covers such technologies as MIDI, DMX512, MediaLink,
MIDI Show Control, and others.
Book Description
Everyone knows that the media surround us, but no one quite understands what this means for our lives. In Media Unlimited, a remarkable and original look at our media-glutted, speed-addicted world, Todd Gitlin makes us stare, as if for the first time, at the biggest picture of all. From video games to elevator music, action movies to reality shows, Gitlin evokes a world of relentless sensation, instant transition, and nonstop stimulus. He shows how all media, all the time fuels celebrity worship, paranoia, and irony; and how attempts to ward off the onrush become occasions for yet more media. Far from signaling a 'new information age,' the media torrent, as Gitlin argues, encourages disposable emotions and casual commitments, and threatens to make democracy a sideshow. Both a startling analysis and a charged polemic, Media Unlimited reveals the unending stream of manufactured images and sounds as a defining feature of our civilization and a perverse culmination of Western hopes for freedom.
Customer Reviews:
Is original media criticism an oxymoron?.......2004-03-30
While reading this book, I had the feeling that the author was making his observations from the perspective of an overgrown teenager, home from school around 3 pm and making puerile rants at the (...) tube, while downing a coke and potato chips. The author, who has said elsewhere that TV has become "our ground of being," borrowing Paul Tillich's phrase, doesn't seem to acknowledge or understand that most American adults work hard for a living and really don't invest a lot of mental effort in watching TV. They're actually busy with making dinner, dealing with their kids, paying the bills, downing a couple of cool ones, and getting up in the morning to do it over again. This is not to disparage the hard working American, but rather to suggest that most people really don't take TV all that seriously, or even pay it much attention. Just because the TV is on, doesn't mean people are watching it, or at least watching it critically. They have more basic needs to attend to. From 1980 to 2002, the time on the job (any job) has increased by about ten hours a week. I don't think information or pseudo information gets through to a culture that is so sleep-deprived. (...) Additionally, Gitlin takes his subject matter entirely too seriously. I mean understanding media was pretty much covered by McLuhan, and, just as A. Whitehead said that all philosophy was a footnote to Plato, one could say the same for McLuhan in relationship to his progenitors. Additionally, Gitlin's perspective's really couldn't be that profound since he seems to be called upon by the media as the academic in residence for news shows. I think it may be time for some producers to cull their rolodexes (or is that palm pilots?) I started this book, believing I would be at least somewhat intellectually challenged, but in the end, the sentences sort of just rolled over me like a syndicated drama series rerun.
Moves at Speed of Light, Goes Nowhere.......2004-03-05
As a fan of Gitlin, I was hoping that he'd give me the bottom line - his bottom line - on the air we breathe today, the same way that brave souls such as Lasch, Marcuse, and Bell have done. But Gitlin isn't brave. He admits, honestly, up front, that he will reach few conclusions, and merely wants to lay out what we face each day on the streets, on TV, and on the net. What follows is a stream-of-consciousness depiction of life today. I want more than that from Gitlin. I want his conclusions, not some lame statement that he hasn't reached any yet. He's not getting any younger. Lots of other fabulous thinkers have failed at this stage of their lives. It's time for his masterpiece - the next book, perhaps.
Gitlin, media studies syllabus standard.......2004-02-09
FYI - before you take in the reveiws below, know that Gitlin is considered advanced reading, and a standard among graduate level coursework in mass media, culture and politics. Consider 2003 version of "The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left".
Needs some spark.......2003-11-30
This book tries to be to academic in its nature and is void of a head-on critique of how the media negatively affects us with constant agitation, violence and sales scams. To name some points. It does explain well some general structural issues in the media.
I heard a great interview with Mr. Gitlin on NPR a couple of years ago which prompted me to buy the book soon after. I was disappointed to read a more or less uncritical analysis of the media structure or how media constantly censors out this type of information "that's [not] fit to print" while distracting everyone with dumb advertisements. Sort of reading an advertisers gung-ho explanation of how interesting advertising is. If you are into the media and how great it is, this is "a great book"...
A Different Twist on Media.......2003-10-21
You read a lot about sex and violence in media and how our society is threatened by our casual acceptance of skin and death. But you don't read too much about the shear volume and pervasiveness of media. You also don't read too much about how media delivers feelings. These feelings we get from media in a way can substitute the feelings we get from action in real life. I love the topic, but did not give five stars because the point of the book never seems to really take off.
Book Description
This book will give Live novices an insight into working methods that otherwise would take months to discover. For the most experienced user it promises a quick catch-up with Live 6's new developments (including complex new performance features, and long-awaited improvements and additions on the production side), and a new perspective on some of Live's more established features.
This book does not duplicate the Live user manual, it expands upon it, and introduces creative concepts, workflow enhancements, and workrounds for common objectives and problems. It also includes interviews with high-profile Live users in a variety of musical genres, passing on their real-world experiences to you.
Although the Live interface is remarkably simple, there's a lot of power under the surface. This book will show you new ways to access that power.
Book Description
An updated and expanded edition of this perennial favorite, tracing the line of composers from Monteverdi to the tonalists of the 1990s. In this new edition, Harold Schonberg offers music lovers a series of fascinating biographical chapters. Music, the author contends, is a continually evolving art, and all geniuses, unique as they are, were influenced by their predecessors. Schonberg discusses the lives and works of the foremost figures in classical music, among them Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, the Schumanns, Copland, and Stravinsky, weaving a fabric rich in detail and anecdote. He also includes the creators of light music, such as Gilbert and Sullivan and the Strausses. Schonberg has extended the volume's coverage to provide informative and clearly written descriptions of the later serialists such as Stockhausen and Carter, the iconoclastic John Cage, the individualistic Messiaen, minimalist composers, the new tonalists, and women composers of all eras, including Mendelssohn Hensel, Chaminade, Smyth, Beach, and Zwilich. Scattered throughout are many changes and additions reflecting musicological findings of the past fifteen years.
Customer Reviews:
A Limiting View of Music History.......2007-08-31
There are a number of books aimed at a general audience which chronicle the lives of the great composers of western classical music. One of the best known is THE LIVES OF THE GREAT COMPOSERS by the late New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg. The 21st-century reader who peruses this book will get some engaging takes on composers of the common practice period. He will also get a glimpse into some outmoded attitudes towards music. Even with its updates since the first edition of 1970, the book shows biases and blind spots common to its author's generation. These biases can be reduced to two factors: a blindness to pre-Bach music, and a repertoire-centered mind-set.
Can anyone imagine a history of painting that begins with, say, Rembrandt and ignores everything that came before? This is similar to what Schonberg does. His is a view of music history centered on the nineteenth century. The pre-Bach period is only lightly sketched in, while he devotes pages upon pages to all manner of romantic composers. The author attempts to justify his non-inclusion of earlier composers: "Their work is simply not heard, by and large, in concert halls around the world...audiences tend to find the music archaic, or lacking in personality, or just plain dull". Schonberg's decision to add a chapter on Monteverdi for the 1996 edition is laudable, but there is still no accounting for the hundred year gap between Monteverdi and Bach -were there no great creators, no strong personalities, in that period? As a result of this neglect, the reader gets no sense of Bach's roots in the German baroque tradition of Biber, Buxtehude, Schuetz, etc; to read Chapter Two, "The Transfiguration of the Baroque", one would think that Bach's achievements came from nowhere. In addition to this time gap, there are examples of clumsy editing where Schonberg simply cut and pasted in some new text for the revised edition but the new text does not make sense with the older text around it (for example, the ending of the chapter on Handel).
Some illuminating quotes about baroque music come in the final chapter of the book - paradoxically, in a discussion on trends in contemporary music. In dubbing minimalist music "New Baroque" (because of its use of repeated patterns), Schonberg shows a colossal ignorance of what the baroque aesthetic means. In the same paragraph we get this gem: "Part of the attraction of Baroque music was that one did not have to think while listening to it. Its excuse for being was that it wrapped the listener in innocuous sound, the busy patterns moving up and down without really ever saying anything." There is a serious problem here: what Schonberg is describing is not "Baroque music"; it is the Italian LATE baroque INSTRUMENTAL music of composers like Vivaldi. Schonberg is pointing towards facile, formulaic compositions, and seems to think (erroneously) that such music is limited to the baroque period. Moreover, this comment is emblematic of the common mentality of Schonberg's generation that confused the late baroque with the entire baroque era and relegated the composers before Bach to the status of primitives who paved the way for the "real masters". Yet Schonberg shows that he is at least partially aware of earlier music. He gives nods towards Purcell and others. How about entire chapters devoted to them?
The second problem with the book is that it has a concert-hall, repertoire-centered view of music. Now, whether a composer is in the active repertoire or not is no measure of greatness, but for Schonberg it is an inordinately important yardstick. He uses it as an excuse to dismiss an important 20th-century creator such as Arthur Honegger in a few curt sentences: "[O]n the whole Honegger has slid from his once-high position, and his music is vanishing fast from the concert halls". Meanwhile, in a transparent P.C. gesture, such a peripheral figure as Dame Ethel Smyth merits two rather detailed paragraphs and even a photo.
To be sure, the book has its good points. Schonberg's writing is lively and often delightful. His views on composers like Chabrier and Vaughan Williams are illuminating and refreshing. And his focus on repertoire impels him to give an interesting chronicle of changing tastes and critical receptions of various composers. But ultimately the cons outweigh the pros. This may have to do with the book's genre itself: I don't think the "lives of the great composers" approach is a good way to learn about music history. It forces you to focus on personalities instead of the whole richness of musical development. The layman who wants a good introduction to music history should look to a book such as Jan Swafford's VINTAGE GUIDE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC, which wraps a traditional "lives of the composers" with discussions of style, theory, and performance practice, rather than Harold Schonberg's antiquated and irrelevant LIVES OF THE GREAT COMPOSERS.
Entertaining...opinionated...absolutely great read........2007-08-28
For two years this was the only book on classical music that I read...
If you can forgive Mr Schonberg for some unfairness towards Mahler and Sibelius, then you will enjoy this book for the: wonderful narration, the jibes (In the intro: "did they think I was mongolian?"), and the strong opinions.
My problems with Mr. Schonberg's book: he condenses some composers into one chapter (Bruckner, Mahler, Reger) after doing a seperate chapter for Hugo Wolf! I felt that Dvorak deserved a chpater unto himself, as did Sibelius.
Ah well, all in all that is no reason to dismiss this good book.
Great Book.......2007-07-01
This is one of my favorite books. It's a great 'chapter a day' book. Great writing, and entertaining anecdotes.
Clear, entertaining and simple style..........2007-04-26
My mother gave me my first copy of this book about twenty years ago when I first started to enjoy "classical" music. It is an invaluable reference and guide to all of our great composers and most of the near-great ones. The wonderful thing about this book is that the chapters can be read in sequence or in random order. Also, unlike many books of this nature, Schonberg doesn't insert a lot of complicated musical theory and passages. He writes in a clear, entertaining and simple style for the everyday person on the street who would like to add some "culture" to his or her life.
The Lives of the Great Composers.......2006-11-10
Excellent reading. Have learned not only about the musical aspects of each composers works, but gained an insight into the minds of musical genius. Recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in classical music.
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