Adobe Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book

Book Description

The most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Audition 2.0!

Classroom in a Book, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. Classroom in a Book offers what no other book or training program does--an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.

Adobe Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book contains thirteen lessons and a bonus CD with lesson files. The book covers the basics of learning Adobe Audition, and countless tips and techniques to help you quickly become an Audition expert. You'll learn how to work and edit in a multitrack mixing environment, create audio effects and original soundtracks with loops, restore poor-quality audio, export to CD and MP3, and more. You'll also learn about Audition 2.0's new features, including low-latency mixing with unlimited tracks, ASIO support, audible scrubbing, analog-modeled Multiband Compressor, recordable parameter automation with external hardware support, and more. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you.

Customer Reviews:

Lots to learn in Auditon 2.......2007-03-09

A great book and cd of data. Because of not the greatest help files and no tutorials that came with Audition 2.0 this program while very powerful can be quite intimidatiing. Classroom in a book is very helpful in getting started and learning how to use the program.

. . . for the cautious.......2007-02-18

Could be considered a waste of time by many who are more experienced with applications of this sort. The difficult part is sticking to the tutorials and not wandering off on your own. Everything covered here can be accessed via the help files and user guide. Adobe might want to consider putting a little more effort into features such as a midi sequencer than reiterating itself.

EXASPERATING BUT INDISPENSIBLE.......2006-09-21

Above all, make sure the version of Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book IS FOR YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM. Also understand that you must have the program to make sense of the manual.

Classroom in a Book is a good guide, but it has two omissions.

Anyone is in their rights to expect that a guide of this sort would have at least a few passages about live recording---but there is exactly one passing sentence in the entire manual about live recording. In Multitrack View the tracks have a panel wherein (among a great many other virtual dials and buttons and such) there is an "M" button, a "S" button, and an "R" button. "M" is for mute, which is explained more than once (even more than twice over the course of the book). "S" is for "Solo", which is also explained to its death over and over again. But as for the "R" button there is only one sentence regarding it.

"R" is "Armed for Record".

Now, maybe someone with a background in audio-editing software knows full well what "Armed for Record" means. Even for a rank beginner like me it wasn't that hard to figure out, I'll admit, but still for a book to go on and on about the other two buttons and to just mention the third term without any further comment seems to me a fundamental lapse. In my case it made for the beginning of a series of exasperating stumbles.

Going at it blind, I simply clicked on "R" and got a message informing me that the best recording was achieved by switching to ASIO. I knew that ASIO meant "Audio Stream In/Out" and had something to do with the new sound card that I had installed. The old sound card that had originally come with the computer was still in there, but apparently from what the message said I would only get mediocre results if I didn't switch by going to Edit and clicking on Audio Hardware Set-Up and following instructions from there on. Needless to say, this was easily done, and in seconds I had switched the program to my new audio card, which any intermediate or advanced user would have known to do from the get-go. Why install the card and not make sure the program was set to it? Ordinarily I would not even admit to anybody that I had to be told to do this; it's embarrassing; but still Audition is a very involved program; there's a lot to learn; and I was just very new to this whole business.

Anyway, I switched, and that should have been the end of it, but sadly the minute I switched my "R" buttons went gray and became inoperable! What's that? Maybe there's no problem on a Mac; I wouldn't know. All I know is that I'm a Windows XP Home Edition guy as I write this; and I lost my "R" buttons!

To say this upset me and got me mad is an understatement. The next morning I was in a better frame of mind and logically went over the steps and saw that there was a pattern to what was happening. For some reason switching to ASIO will gray out the "R" buttons, but if you close the program and go back to it you'll have your "R" buttons back and still be in ASIO.

It's that simple, but there's no mention of it in the book.

Of course, "Armed for Record" must be followed up by clicking on the circular red button on what is called the "Transport Panel" at the bottom of the screen. You're left to guess this, but anyone who has operated a ghetto blaster or a VCR knows what that red circle is; but still it would nice for Adobe to spell this out for us intimidated newbies.

The other big omission gets back to the same lapse as the other one. The book does not bother to point out that switching to ASIO in Multitrack View will not carry over to Edit View. It may not seem like a big deal, but I freaked out when my stuff sounded so weak in Edit View. I couldn't figure it out. The louder I got it in Edit View the more obnoxiously deafening it became in Multitrack View because the two "views" were coming at me through two entirely different sound cards!

Finally I realized what the problem was. Duh . . .

On the positive side in the last analysis it's actually very nice that the two windows can have different settings to let me know how the same file will sound on different computers. My thing with this will be podcasting, and podcasting is about posting on the Net, so one should be aiming at a happy medium that accommodates ordinary cards and quality cards alike. I'm getting better and better at it. The quality will never be a sound stage level thing, but I'm fast approaching the same smoothness of an FM radio commercial.

So go with this book, yes, but keep my comments in mind as you go.

Average customer rating:

Great starting point for studying the intersection of science and sound
Fascinating

Musical Acoustics
Donald E. Hall
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0534377289

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Great starting point for studying the intersection of science and sound.......2006-12-09

This book is an excellent starting place for someone who wants a somewhat quantitative treatment of the science of sound as it relates to music, but does not have the advanced math background necessary to digest something like "The Physics of Musical Instruments". The chapters and sections in this third edition are the same as in the previous edition, however some changes have been made to the content. The book is updated with more current references to the end-of-chapter bibliographies, and there is some new material, especially in areas affected by the personal computer's role in the digital processing of sound.

The author provides an integrated understanding of three major areas: the production of sound by various sources, the propagation of sound from source to listener, and the perception of sound by the human brain.
For easier reading, each chapter starts with an introductory section that sets up the chapter. There are also summaries and lists of symbols, terms, and relations highlighting the most important terms and quantitative expressions in each chapter. There are realistic and interesting exercise sets containing both qualitative and quantitative questions for each chapter, with most chapters containing 20-25 exercises. There are also projects included that provide out-of-class assignments that generally require students to do research. There are approximately three of these in each chapter. Finally, several new photographs have been added to this third edition, particularly of the inner ear structure and of the vocal cords in motion.

Like the previous reviewer, I make a habit of purchasing and reading several textbooks a year, and sometimes I am very disappointed and sometimes I am not. This is one of those purchases that I found most worthwhile. If you are interested in the intersection of math, acoustics, perception, and musical instruments I highly recommend it. A math background up to the level of algebra and geometry should be sufficient to understand the quantitative portions of the book. The table of contents is as follows:

1. THE NATURE OF SOUND.
Acoustics and Music. Organizing Our Study of Sound. The Physical Nature of Sound. The Speed of Sound. Pressure and Sound Amplitude.
2. WAVES AND VIBRATIONS.
The Time Element in Sound. Waveforms. Functional Relations. Simple Harmonic Oscillation. Work, Energy, and Resonance.
3. SOURCES OF SOUND.
Classifying Sound Sources. Percussion Instruments. String Instruments. Wind Instruments. Source Size. Sound from the Natural Environment.
4. SOUND PROPAGATION.
Reflection and Refraction. Diffraction. Outdoor Music. The Doppler Effect. Interference and Beats.
5. SOUND INTENSITY AND ITS MEASUREMENT.
Amplitude, Energy, and Intensity. Sound Level and the Decibel Scale. The Inverse-Square Law. Environmental Noise. Combined Sound Levels and Interference.
6. THE HUMAN EAR AND ITS RESPONSE.
The Mechanism of the Human Ear. Limits of Audibility and Discrimination. Characteristics of Steady Single Tones. Loudness and Intensity. Pitch and Frequency. Pitch and Loudness Together. Timbre and Instrument Recognition.
7. ELEMENTAL INGREDIENTS OF MUSIC.
Organizing Musical Events in Time. Melody and Harmony. Scales and Intervals. The Harmonic Series.
8. SOUND SPECTRA AND ELECTRONIC SYNTHESIS.
Prototype Steady Tones. Periodic Waves and Fourier Spectra. Modulated Tones. Electronic and Computer Music.
9. PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS AND NATURAL MODES.
Searching for Simplicity. Coupled Pendulums. Natural Modes and Their Frequencies. Tuning Forks and Xylophone Bars. Drums, Cymbals, and Bells. Striking Points and Vibration Recipes. Damped Vibrations.
10. PIANO AND GUITAR STRINGS.
Natural Modes of a Thin String. Vibration Recipes for Plucked Strings. Vibration Recipes for the Piano. Piano Scaling and Tuning.
11. THE BOWED STRING.
Violin Construction. Bowing and String Vibrations. Resonance. Sound Radiation from String Instruments.
12. BLOWN PIPES AND FLUTES.
Air Column Vibrations. Fluid Jets and Edgetones. Organ Flue Pipes. Organ Registration and Design. Fingerholes and Recorders. The Transverse Flute.
13. BLOWN REED INSTRUMENTS.
Organ Reed Pipes. The Reed Woodwinds. The Brass Family. Playable Notes and Harmonic Spectra. Radiation.
14. THE HUMAN VOICE.
The Vocal Apparatus. Sound Production. Formants. Special Characteristics of the Singing Voice.
15. ROOM ACOUSTICS.
General Criteria for Room Acoustics. Reverberation Time. Reverberation Calculation. Reverberant Sound Levels. Sound Reinforcement. Spatial Perception.
16. SOUND REPRODUCTION.
Electric and Magnetic Concepts. Transducers. Microphones. Amplifiers. Recording. Loudspeakers. Multiphonic Sound Reproduction.
17. THE EAR REVISITED.
Types of Pitch Judgment. Pitch Perception Mechanisms. Modern Pitch Perception Theory. Critical Bands. Combination Tones. Loudness and Masking. Timbre.
18. HARMONIC INTERVALS AND TUNING.
Interval Perception. Intervals and the Harmonic Series. Musical Scales. The Impossibility of Perfect Tuning. Tuning and Temperament.
19. STRUCTURE IN MUSIC.
Melodies and Modes. Chords and Harmonic Progressions. Consonance and Dissonance. Musical Forms and Styles.
20. EPILOGUE: SCIENCE AND ESTHETICS.
APPENDIX A. WRITTEN MUSIC.
APPENDIX B. THE METRIC SYSTEM.
Units for Physical Measurements. Scientific Notation and Computation.
APPENDIX G. GLOSSARY.
APPENDIX H. HINTS AND ANSWERS TO SELECTED EXERCISES.
Index.
The Chromatic Scale; The Chromatic Series Slider.

Fascinating.......2003-04-25

This book is a thorough overview of physics behind music. In the first part of the book, Hall lays the foundation with an investigation into waves, sound propagation, sound measurement, and the human ear. The middle third of the book takes up families of instruments, and how they work to create musical sounds. The last part of the book investigates room acoustics, sound reproduction, and the perception of intervals, tunings, and musical structure. Each chapter includes references and suggestions for further reading, numerous mathematical exercises for practicing the concepts covered in the chapter, and a list of potential projects for further investigation. The book includes a glossary and answers to selected problems, as well as an index.

I read quite a few textbooks for work and occasionally just for interest's sake, but this one really stands out. After reading the first few chapters, I found myself wishing I could sit in on Hall's lectures. His style is intensely personal, and his explanations are incredibly clear. I'll admit that sometimes my eyes glossed over while slogging through some of the numbers and charts, but it was mainly my fault for not being a more active reader. In order to get the most from this book, you really need to read it with calculator in hand, or better yet, an Excel spreadsheet open, ready to try out the numbers and scenarios that Hall provides us with. Nevertheless, the math is kept quite simple- -no calculus; if you can do algebra, you should be able to get through the book.

Book Description

We experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening. We can navigate a room in the dark, and "hear" the emptiness of a house without furniture. Our experience of music in a concert hall depends on whether we sit in the front row or under the balcony. The unique acoustics of religious spaces acquire symbolic meaning. Social relationships are strongly influenced by the way that space changes sound. In Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter examine auditory spatial awareness: experiencing space by attentive listening. Every environment has an aural architecture.

The audible attributes of physical space have always contributed to the fabric of human culture, as demonstrated by prehistoric multimedia cave paintings, classical Greek open-air theaters, Gothic cathedrals, acoustic geography of French villages, modern music reproduction, and virtual spaces in home theaters. Auditory spatial awareness is a prism that reveals a culture's attitudes toward hearing and space. Some listeners can learn to "see" objects with their ears, but even without training, we can all hear spatial geometry such as an open door or low ceiling.

Integrating contributions from a wide range of disciplines--including architecture, music, acoustics, evolution, anthropology, cognitive psychology, audio engineering, and many others--Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? establishes the concepts and language of aural architecture. These concepts provide an interdisciplinary guide for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of how space enhances our well-being. Aural architecture is not the exclusive domain of specialists. Accidentally or intentionally, we all function as aural architects.

Customer Reviews:

An interim review..........2007-06-14

A very engaging, wide-ranging look at the aural environment from many perspectives: cultural, historical, architectural, physical, sociological, political and more. The authors explore many of the deep and often times not-so-obvious connections and influences in an unusual, informative and refreshingly multi-disciplinary approach. Even though covered topics are broad in scope and complexity, the book is written in an easy and engaging conversational style that is neither academically stodgy nor technically overwhelming. But neither does it attempt to simplify the subject into shallow triviality.

Unlike many modern-day science popularizations, this book is not a simple distillation of some lofty academic field. Rather it is at once the introductory text, the major body of research and a pointer to even wider exploration of the a heretofore under-explored and under-appreciated topic. There's plenty of new and useful material here for the professional practitioner in a number of disciplines. At the same time, the entire book is accessible to the casual reader, the neophyte. No chapter or paragraph need be avoided by any reader: all are carried along with the narrative: none are left behind.

Personally, I have read book in out-of-order pieces as my busy schedule allows, without the feeling that I really should have read it in a more disciplined fashion. Rather than having to read other sections out of sheer necessity, I've gone back to fill in the holes more out of curiosity and interest.

If you want to understand the intimate connection between humans and the aural space they live in, there is no better place to find it than this book. If you're looking for a new model of understanding of a complex topic through an truly broad, interdisciplinary approach, this book is the best model I know of.

It's difficult to recommend it to highly.

Spaces Speak - review.......2007-06-12

Very interesting and new thinking about that sound around. Recommend for sound engineers, acoustic design architects, musicians and people who love music and/or are interested in the aural spaces abounding. Do you like John Cage, Terry Riley, ee cummings? Can you sing the sound of one _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?

Average customer rating:

excellent resource book
A Seminal Work
Good Work
A Landmark Book in the History of Musical Sounds

Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale
William A. Sethares
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

ASIN: 1852337974

Book Description

The only things truly universal in music are those that are based on biological and/or perceptual facts. Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale focuses on perceptions of consonance and dissonance, which are defined in the Harvard Dictionary of Music: "Consonance is used to describe the agreeable effect produced by certain intervals as against the disagreeable effect produced others. Consonance and dissonance are the very foundation of harmonic music... consonance represents the element of smoothness and repose, while dissonance represents the no less important elements of roughness and irregularity.” Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale begins by asking (and answering) the question: How can we build a device to measure consonance and dissonance? The remainder of the book describes the impact of such a "dissonance meter” on music theory, on synthesizer design, on the construction of musical scales and tunings, on the design of musical instruments, and introduces related compositional techniques and new methods of musicological analyses. This new and greatly revised edition of William Sethares' classic book includes an attached CD-ROM that contains over three hours of sound examples that demonstrate the ideas in action, as well as computer programs that enable readers to conduct their own explorations. A new chapter contains a detailed explanation of how the software works. It incorporates several important simplifications over the full presentation in the current Chapter 7 in order to allow it to function in real time. Another new chapter describes the various ways that the software can be used. New sections throughout the book bring it up to date with the current state of the subject. Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale offers a unique analysis of the relationship between the structure of sound and the structure of scale and will be useful to musicians and composers who use inharmonic tones and sounds. This includes a large percentage of people composing and performing with modern musical synthesizers. It will be of use to arrangers, musicologists, and others interested in musical analysis. Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale provides a unique approach to working with environmental sounds, and there are clear applications for the use of inharmonic sounds in film scoring. The book will also be of interest to engineers and others interested in the design of audio devices such as musical synthesizers, special effects devices, and keyboards.

Customer Reviews:

excellent resource book.......2006-11-11

I am glad I found this book researching material for my dissertation on music and new technology. A unique book!

A Seminal Work.......2004-12-18

Decades from now, this book will be seen as a seminal work -- a book that opened up spacious new frontiers to musical exploration and dramatically changed the sound of the world's popular music.

All previous analyses of music started and ended with the "harmonic series" -- the pattern of partials that is produced by virating strings, for example. The musical scale, tuning, and instruments of Western music have all evolved to maximize their "fit" with this pattern of partials.

But electronic music synthesis frees musicians from the restrictions of the harmonic series. This begs the question: can emotionally-satisfying music be made with inharmonic timbres? If so, how? What, exactly, is the relationship between tuning, timbre, spectrum, and scale?

By clarifying this relationship, Sethares lays the foundation for a "Grand Unified Theory" of music. That Grand Unified Theory has not yet been created -- which means that YOU can help design it; YOU can write its seminal works; YOU can perform music that's like nothing ever heard before, and yet which resonates as emotionally as the very best works of the Common Practice Era.

YOU can be the Beethoven of the 21st century -- but first, you have to BUY THIS BOOK. :-)

Good Work.......2000-10-01

The other review is over-enthusiastic. Hardly an example of unbiased scientific inquiry, the author basically sets out to prove something and does so without searching for contradictory evidence. As a result, we get a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Very interesting, never-the-less.

Reader's should be warned that this is *not* an introductory text, and that it is not an overview of the area of tunings.

Additionally, it is interesting that the word 'timbre' is in the title, as there is not one iota of original perceptual research here...and timbre is a preceptual phenomenon.

A Landmark Book in the History of Musical Sounds.......1998-01-08

While experimenting with musical instruments and sounds, the author observed a new relationship between the timbre of sounds and the tunings in which sounds are played. In an effort to understand this relationship the author hypothesized a mechanism for relating spectrum to scale. He then went to the heart of the matter, figured it all out, and proved the hypothesis. All of this and much more are clearly presented in Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale (TTSS).

TTSS is written so as to be comprehensible to a wide readership. It was a pleasure reading this informative and stunning book. In places it is even entertaining as the author's sense of humor shows through. The book should eventually find its way into many libraries (public, private, and institutional) because it contains new and important original contributions to many areas of music.

There are 345 pages divided into 13 sections and 6 short appendices. There is an extensive bibliography, a discography, an index, and an accompanying Compact Disk containing 33 sound examples. All sound examples are explained in the book, and they provide convincing support for the author's premises.

A succinctly written Prelude tells what Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale is all about. I found myself looking forward to learning more about the ideas outlined here. You'll find yourself anxious to learn where a particular concept will lead. The author has a knack for gradually building up an idea to its climax while keeping the reader involved, and this is rare amongst books where new ideas are being presented.

The book begins, in Section 1, with a challenge to current thinking concerning the consonance of musical octaves. A new idea is presented and its validity demonstrated using audio examples on the accompanying CD. ... Superb demonstration!... Section 1 also introduces a unique and practical method of quantifying the tonal consonance of any musical sound. The next four sections are entitled respectively: The Science of Sound, Musical Scales, Consonance and Dissonance of Harmonic Sounds, and Related Spectra and Scales. These sections taught me much about musical sounds and concepts. They are well written and include many informative figures, and they provide descriptions of more unique audio examples on the CD.

The Science of Sound section addresses the issue: what is sound? This leads into clear discussions of relevant terms. The reader is taken on a fascinating journey into timbre, pitch, scales, tunings, spectral analysis, beats and consonance. After reading about Musical Scales, you'll feel like an expert, and gain an appreciation of scales since the time of Pythagoras. You'll understand the profound influence they have had over the centuries in defining musics of an era.

The next section on Consonance and Dissonance provides a historical perspective of the way in which these terms have been used, and then focuses on Sensory Consonance. This has the unique property, amongst consonance/dissonance concepts, of being quantifiable in a scientific sense. It is here that one discovers a fundamental connection between the consonance works of Helmholtz 1877, Plomp & Levett 1965 and Partch 1974, which leads to a reasonably complete understanding of sensory consonance. The plot thickens as the connection between sensory consonance and musical scales unfolds. This connection is then transformed into practice as the author creates new and unique songs, A Bell, A Rock and A Crystal. It is amazing to observe musical passages created in this way.

The following section, Adaptive Tunings, describes the author's algorithms for tuning in real time, or , as is sometimes described, how to "tune on the fly". Once again, the accompanying CD provides adaptively tuned musical passages verifying algorithmic predictions. It seems that music is about to expand its domain of musical sounds in a significant way. Read the book to find out why and how this is happening.

The book contains much, much more. There is a section on Gamelans, a theory for 10 TET, dissonance curve computer programs, sensory consonance score of a Scarlatti sonata, analysis and synthesis of harmonic and non-harmonic sounds. Fourier Transform analysis and limitations, dissonance surfaces for chords, and a well thought out final section: Speculation, Interpretation, Conclusion.

I believe the author also recognized a basic limitation of Western music, and again went to the heart of the problem, figured it all out, and then proved his point. The result of these efforts is this exceptional book.

Book Description

In this book, David Temperley addresses a fundamental question about music cognition: how do we extract basic kinds of musical information, such as meter, phrase structure, counterpoint, pitch spelling, harmony, and key from music as we hear it? Taking a computational approach, Temperley develops models for generating these aspects of musical structure. The models he proposes are based on preference rules, which are criteria for evaluating a possible structural analysis of a piece of music. A preference rule system evaluates many possible interpretations and chooses the one that best satisfies the rules.

After an introductory chapter, Temperley presents preference rule systems for generating six basic kinds of musical structure: meter, phrase structure, contrapuntal structure, harmony, and key, as well as pitch spelling (the labeling of pitch events with spellings such as A flat or G sharp). He suggests that preference rule systems not only show how musical structures are inferred, but also shed light on other aspects of music. He substantiates this claim with discussions of musical ambiguity, retrospective revision, expectation, and music outside the Western canon (rock and traditional African music). He proposes a framework for the description of musical styles based on preference rule systems and explores the relevance of preference rule systems to higher-level aspects of music, such as musical schemata, narrative and drama, and musical tension.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book attempts to quantify music understanding.......2006-03-23

Music cognition is an interdisciplinary field that aspires to account for the underlying mental processes that occur when people listen to music. The author presents a computational theory of music cognition that is deeply influenced by "A Generatve Theory of Tonal Music". As in GTTM, the author of this book tries to explain the cognition of common-practice music by a system that generates structural descriptions from musical "surfaces". The author's theory consists of a number of preference rule systems each containing well-formedness rules that define a class of structural descriptions and also preference rules that specify an optimal structural description for a given input. The preference rule systems are presented for six aspects of musical structure: metre, phrasing, counterpoint, harmony, key, and pitch spelling. The author then presents his theory as computer programs that take piano-roll representations of music as inputs and extract information about structure according to his models. The author then evaluates his computer models using objective tests. For example, he tested his metre program on a group of 46 excerpts from a theory workbook, comparing the output of the program with the scores of the excerpts.
This book is a worthy heir to "A Generative Theory of Tonal Music" that avoids its failings via computer implementation and objective, quantitative testing. The breadth and depth of the book is impressive. The author convincingly argues that the preference rule approach can be used not only to explain aspects of musical listening, but also features of musical style perception, composition, and performance. He also makes a good effort to apply his theory to musical styles other than common practice music, such as rock music and traditional African music.
The book has a few weaknesses. For example, the notion that pitch spelling is used to determine harmony and key seems to be the reverse of what happens in perception. Also, the author's melodic phrase structure model is under-developed and ad hoc. Finally, the author does not compare the performance of his resulting models with that of other systems. In spite of these weaknesses, the book is required reading for anyone who is interested in computational music analysis and cognition. The reader should already be well-versed in music theory and also have an understanding of computer programming and dynamic programming techniques in particular to get the most from this book.
The author's computer programs are written in C and are freely available on the web. You can find them by typing "The Melisma Music Analyzer" into Google and selecting the first web address in the list. I notice Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here for the purpose of completeness:
1 Introduction 1
PART I SIX PREFERENCE RULE SYSTEMS 21
2 Metrical Structure 23
3 Melodic Phrase Structure 55
4 Contrapuntal Structure 85
5 Pitch Spelling and the Tonal-Pitch-Class Representation 115
6 Harmonic Structure 137
7 Key Structure 167
PART II EXTENSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 203
8 Revision, Ambiguity, and Expectation 205
9 Meter, Harmony, and Tonality in Rock 237
10 Meter and Grouping in African Music 265
11 Style, Composition, and Performance 291
12 Functions of the Infrastructure 325
Appendix: List of Rules 357
Notes 361
References 381
Author Index 393
Subject Index 397

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics: Second, Revised Edition

Average customer rating:

The best book I have seen
Just about everything
Excellent Introduction to Musical Acoustics
An Outstanding Book, Designed to Make You Think
Misleading and completely worthless book

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics: Second, Revised Edition
Arthur H. Benade
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 048626484X

Book Description

Landmark book by leading expert, hailed for its astonishingly clear, delightfully readable explication of everything acoustical important to music-making. "Comprehensive...rigorous...well-organized...will surely be the text of choice." — American Scientist. "Recommended for music lovers and audiophiles" — Stereo Review. Over 300 illustrations. Examples, experiments and questions conclude each chapter.

Customer Reviews:

The best book I have seen.......2007-08-09

The best book on this topic that I have seen. Benade is a master of writing clearly and giving great examples that help the reader to visualize or imagine why sound is acting the way it does. I am using it in my quest to design a new kind of guitar, and it is extremely helpful. I also have Horns String and Harmony by Benade. He is a nuclear physicist with a penchant for audio, and I am glad he beat his weapons into flutes.

Just about everything.......2007-05-15

This book is close to exhaustive and can be an excellent addition to any reference library.

Excellent Introduction to Musical Acoustics.......2006-12-01

This book is an excellent introduction to the topic. Benade explains the subject assuming that the reader has no background in science (good for musicians) and no background in music (good for scientists). He writes the book as if he's translating a mathematical proof into plain English. Benade starts from scratch (even the notion of pitch is considered alien) and builds wonderfully intuitive understandings. Yes, this is an old book, so if you are NOT new to this field (and not afraid of math) then you'd be more interested in one of the Rossing books. But on the plus side, because the book was written before Benade had access to modern laboratory techniques, the "experiments" described in the book are all simple to understand and can be done at home. Unlike the Rossing books (which I also highly recommend), Benade's book does not read like a textbook or a reference source. It is very easy-to-read, so you can actually benefit from just sitting down and reading it (though Benade does provide problems at the end of the chapter for the dedicated reader).

In response to one of the unfavorable reviews posted, I do not find any fault with Benade when he states (p. 66) that "lopping off the higher frequency ... harmonics does not alter the perceived pitch of the sound." In fact, this statement comes right after an in-depth explanation of how the higher frequency partials DETERMINE the pitch for INHARMONIC sounds (e.g. chimes and bells). Perhaps the reviewer was confused by Benade's terminology. As explained on p. 63, Benade uses the word "partial" generically to describe higher frequency components. Benade reserves the term "harmonics" for partials that have whole-number relationships.

I wouldn't use this work as a college textbook, but I would certainly add it to the students' list of additional recommended references.

An Outstanding Book, Designed to Make You Think.......2004-08-03

While Benade's first book, "Horns Strings and Harmony", has some errors which he himself later acknowledged, "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics" is one of the seminal books in the field. That doesn't mean that it is perfect in every respect, but it introduces a broad range of concepts in musical acoustics without the use of advanced mathematics, in a writing style that will appeal to the musician in addition to the scientist. The fine details of his theories regarding psychoacoustics, particularly pitch perception, have been challenged. But his general concepts are well accepted, and he presents them in a way that makes the reader think. His descriptions of experimental techniques (which generally aren't very complicated) have inspired me and others to repeat his experiments. Sometimes, results don't agree - that's when you have to think. Psychoacoustics relies on neurology and psychology, two sciences that, despite much brilliant work over the last 100 years, are still in their infancy. So, you can't judge his theories on psychoacoustics in the same light as his description of wave propagation, room modes, and perturbation functions in clarinets.

As a musician and an engineer, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how music and physics intersect. This is not the book to answer all your questions - it is the book to get you started on asking the right questions.

Misleading and completely worthless book.......2002-05-28

I bought this book ...in hope to get some help in explaining basics of musical acoustics to my college-age kids in a systematic, organized manner. What a disappointment!

In page 56 the author lists "Measured Values of Components of a Set of Guitar Strings".
One would expect a discussion about string inharmonicity as an explanation why partials of different strings have different frequencies while having the same fundamental' frequency. An utterly important and well known phenomenon is "responsible" for correct musical instruments recognition and perception is completely avoided in the text. Moreover, in the page 66 we found that "It is easy to verify ... that lopping off the higher frequency members of ...harmonics does not alter the perceived pitch of the sound". This statement is simply wrong: it is an established fact that the spectrum of the sound DOES affect the perceived pith. On the page 194 another treasure left me wondering what the author meant by "Compact, small, solid objects act somewhat as new sources of sound that originate new impulses of modified shape whenever an impulse is incident upon them". Here's more of the same amusing kind on the page 574:
"Brass instruments, particularly French horns, often "talk" to one another, so that the sound radiated by one of them enters the bell of its neighbor and thence joins in at the player's lips to influence the regime of oscillation." Tell this to a brass player!

Book Description

This comprehensive introduction to software synthesis techniques and programming is intended for students, researchers, musicians, sound artists and enthusiasts in the field of music technology.

The art of sound synthesis is as important for the electronic musician as the art of orchestration is important for symphonic music composers. Those who wish to create their own virtual orchestra of electronic instruments and produce original sounds will find this book invaluable. It examines a variety of synthesis techniques and illustrates how to turn a personal computer into a powerful and flexible sound synthesiser. The book also discusses a number of ongoing developments that may play an important role in the future of electronic music making.

Previously published as Computer Sound Synthesis for the Electronic Musician, this second edition features a foreword by Jean-Claude Risset and provides new information on:

· the latest directions in digital sound representation
· advances in physical modelling techniques
· granular and pulsar synthesis
· PSOLA technique
· humanoid voice synthesis
· artificial intelligence
· evolutionary computing

The accompanying CD-ROM contains examples, complementary tutorials and a number of synthesis systems for PC and Macintosh platforms, ranging from low level synthesis programming languages to graphic front-ends for instrument and sound design. These include fully working packages, demonstration versions of commercial software and experimental programs from top research centres in Europe, North and South America.

* Increase your understanding of the major computer synthesis techniques with this accessibly written introduction

* Discover the latest developments and future direction of the field

* Try out a range of synthesis software for free - available on the accompanying CD-ROM

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic introduction to sound synthesis.......2003-10-26

As a musician with no experience of computer programming I found this book an ideal introductory text. It encouraged me to try out synthesis programming for myself and create new sounds beyond the presets that come with commercial products. Highly recommended.

Too broad, some misconceptions.......2003-10-09

I was first impressed with Eduardo Miranda's book "Computer Sound Design" but as I read more, I realized that this ambitious survey of sound synthesis over-generalizes and even criticizes mature well-accepted techniques. Admittedly, the scope of the book is vast, but I can't help feel that the approach to most topics is far too cursory for the book to be more than a reference to other works.

I was very disappointed with chapter 3, "Spectrum Modelling Approaches" as it not only was a terse white-wash of spectral synthesis techniques, there were multiple instances of unfounded criticism for the rich field of spectral signal processing and its growing constituency of pracitioners. It would have been much more effective for Miranda to simply admit his lack of expertise in the area without providing false unfounded judgements.

Most welcome and very helpful.......2003-05-21

The book is designed to be very practical. It can serve as an introduction, but also as a clarification and reminder for the already experienced reader. The author provides the support necessary for finding one's own path in an extremely clear fashion, so that every step appears simple. The choice of topics includes important and neatly classified methods for sound modelling. At the end, the book ventures towards "the cutting edge" - applying artificial intelligence techniques and evolutionary computing for sound design, and taking into account the implications of parallel computing for sound synthesis: the author is himself conducting research in these promising fields, at the new frontier of computer music. The CD-ROM provides useful software as well as tutorials and examples.

Doing one's own thing with digital sound technology requires some effort indeed: but this effort is necessary to take advantage of vast potential resources in an original, personal and musical fashion, and this book should help in this worthwhile endeavor. I believe that Computer Sound Design - Synthesis Techniques and Programming" will play a useful role in the diffusion of knowledge and know-how on software synthesis, and greatly facilitate the approach of digital sound design.

Good source of new ideas.......2003-05-20

This is a great book. As a student of music technology, I found it most useful to support my course work. It is great for taking a more in-depth look at specific techniques and systems that are not covered in class. I particularly like the granular synthesis section and the variety of software provided on the CD-ROM.

Excellent book!.......2003-05-19

This is an excellent book and I found it ideal as a text book for sound synthesis courses. It covers a wide range of different synthesis techniques and the concepts are clearly explained with examples and useful diagrams. What I found most positive in this book is that it does not focus on any one system in particular (ie, it's not a user guide for a specific software). Rather, it surveys of a number of systems - commercial and public domain - including unusual ones for physical modelling such as Praat and CORDIS. Also there is a chapter of more advanced synthesis techniques using genetic algorithms and artificial intelligence, which makes it a nice addition to the norm. I only wished the book was longer, with more in-depth discussion on some of the many interesting examples. The CD-ROM has useful additional materials and tutorials.

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Still could be helpful
From the Father of the Mark II

Music, Physics and Engineering
Harry F. Olson
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Applied | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0486217698

Book Description

This extraordinarily comprehensive text, requiring no special background in physics, math or music, discusses the nature of sound waves, musical instruments, musical notation, acoustic materials, elements of sound reproduction systems — from the telephone to stereo sound systems — and electronic music. "Very thorough, and full of well-presented facts." — Musical Times. Includes 376 figures.

Customer Reviews:

Still could be helpful.......2003-07-13

Although this book was first published over 50 years ago, there are still many parts of it that can still be read profitably, due mostly to the fact that musical theory and the physics of musical instruments does not change with time. I read the book years ago to get some ideas for physics demonstrations in the classroom, and it was of great assistance in that regard. Those readers who intend to specialize in musical engineering would still find it a useful supplement to more modern treatments. The audio CD of course was not known at the time of publication, nor even the 8-track tape, but the development of both of these technologies was dependent on what came before them, and so a perusal of this book will allow insight into more contemporary technologies. The book also is one of the first to emphasize the psychological factors that must be taken into account when developing a technology for sound reproduction. The author in fact emphasizes the need for paying attention to the psychological factors in the preface to the second edition of the book. With the incredible advances in sound reproduction that have taken place since this book was written, one can appreciate his comments even more. One can only give thanks to the ingenuity of the sound and musical engineers both in the author's time and now for giving the listener an incredibly rich and satisfying auditory experience.

From the Father of the Mark II.......2000-05-10

The science of musical sound has evolved a great deal since 1966 when the second edition of 'Music, Physics and Engineering' was first published. However, this historical work can be of value to musical engineers even in today's fast changing technological world.

The author, Harry F. Olson was staff vice president of the acoustical and electromechanical research department of RCA laboratories. The thorough science reported in this book was perhaps instrumental in the development of the RCA Mark II Electronic Music Synthesizer of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

Chapters such as: Sound Waves, Musical Terminology, Musical Scales, Resonators and Radiators, Musical Instruments, Characteristics of Musical Instruments and Properties of Music have much to teach those with an engineering background about the science of music.

This book has been extraordinarily useful to me in seeking to design sound events in software with nothing other than a 'C' compiler and some audio file format spec sheets to work with. It is a great read for the aspiring musical engineer.

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Rhythm and Transforms
William A. Sethares
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Accessories:

Wind Turbines: Fundamentals, Technologies, Application, Economics

Micromachined Thin-Film Sensors for SOI-CMOS Co-Integration

ASIN: 1846286395

Book Description

People quite naturally identify the rhythmic structure of music as they tap their feet and sway in time with the beat. Underlying such mundane motions is an act of cognition that is not easily reproduced in a computer program or automated by machine. Rhythm and Transforms asks (and answers) the question: How can we build a device that can "tap its foot" along with the music? The result is a tool for detecting and measuring the temporal aspects of a musical performance: the periodicities, the regularities (and irregularities), the beat, the rhythm. The impact of such a "rhythm meter" on music theory and on the design of sound processing electronics such as musical synthesizers, drum machines, and special effects devices is described. The "rhythm meter" provides a concrete basis for a discussion of the relationship between the cognitive processing of temporal information and the mathematical techniques used to describe and understand regularities in data.

Rhythm and Transforms will be of interest to engineers and others interested in the design of audio devices such as musical synthesizers, special effects devices, drum machines, and electronic keyboards. It will be useful to musicians and composers who exploit computer-based tools in the creation and the recording process. It will be of use to arrangers, musicologists, and others interested in musical analysis. Rhythm and Transforms provides a unique approach to working with environmental sounds, and there are clear applications to the synchronization of audio with video (i.e., film scoring). Finally, the target audience also includes those interested in the way the ear works, and how this influences the types of sound patterns we like to listen to.

Accompanying the text of Rhythm and Transforms is a CD containing a wide range of audio examples that convincingly demonstrate the book’s ideas. In addition, the inclusion of a suite of programs (a Matlab® "toolbox") will allow readers to reproduce many of the of these ideas’ results.

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