Showing posts with label home recording. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home recording. Show all posts

Voice Actor's Guide to Recording at Home and On the Road Review

Voice Actor's Guide to Recording at Home and On the Road
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I was looking for a book to explain how to record one's voice on a home computer. This very practical, easy-to-understand guide to voice-over recording comes through loud and clear, with excellent signal-to-noise ratio. Best of all, these guys "get" direct-to-computer USB recording, mixing software, the Internet, and other modern technologies, integrating them with timeless recording advice gathered in real careers.
Hogan and Fisher tell you what works, and why what you think might work, won't. Rather than showing off their geek-speak chops, they use regular English and even poke fun at the technical lingo in the process of demystifying it. Other home recording books lavish excessive technical verbiage on how to pad your walls. These guys offer practical solutions (including "move") and even show how to make a portable acoustic foam-lined mic box. You will discover exactly what you need to buy -- although the USB-audio-interfaces section is surprisingly short -- and how to use it. They won't tell you exactly what mic to buy, though, and it's for your own good.
Warning: the jokes are abundant, mostly terrible and distracting, especially the comments from "Prunella," whose parenthetic remarks, although they mercifully trail off, are the editorial equivalent of lip smacks. (The full harshness of this comment will be appreciated upon reading the otherwise excellent text.) Failed humor notwithstanding, the tone ends up being warmly self effacing and encouragingly user-oriented. These guys take seriously the job of helping you, including a strong index and glossary, and plenty of URLs.
Chapter 12, Advanced Production Techniques, is alone worth the price of the book. Embedded in an economically worded step-by-step script for editing recordings are the exact frequencies to manipulate to address problems such as thin sound, dull recording, and sibilance. You end up feeling as though you have two buddies in the recording business; telling you every tip they know, and hammering on mistakes that could ruin your project. Don't let the light tone fool you: this is a seriously great book!

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For many years, recording voiceovers was the exclusive domain of commercial studios. Even a simple voice audition meant a trip to a studio, an ad agency, or an agent's office. Today voiceover actors are increasingly producing voice tracks for corporate narration, radio spots, animation, games, and other dialogue projects from their own home studios. Many have learned that to survive in this highly competitive field, they need to learn and master basic home recording production techniques. "The Voice Actor's Guide to Recording at Home and On the Road, Second Edition" shows both aspiring and established voiceover actors how to set up and effectively use their own inexpensive -- but professional-sounding -- personal recording studio to make professional-quality home recordings quickly and easily. Everything is covered to help you get auditions and jobs, from setting up your studio with the right hardware and software, recording at home, and production basics, to promotion, podcasting, and advanced production. This new edition of this bestselling bible for voiceover home recording has been completely updated to cover all the exciting new technology and delivery options currently available.

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An Introduction to Music Technology Review

An Introduction to Music Technology
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I'm using Dan Hosken's book for my "Introduction to Music Technology" course in fall 2010 at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. After much frustration with another text last spring, I was delighted to read Dan's book over the summer. He covers the crucial topics, including basics of acoustics/psychoacoustics, how computers function, digital audio, audio equipment, mixing/composing software, notation software, pedagogical software, sampling, and synthesis. He explains things clearly and includes plenty of figures and photos.
My only criticism is that he spends much time on synthesis and sampling relative to what I cover in an introductory music technology course. I like both topics, but feel that the deeper discussion of them would be better placed in a book on composing computer music rather than an introductory class. Nevertheless, better too much than too little; and so this is a minor issue. I'm very happy with this book.
P.S. I love the cover!

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An Introduction to Music Technology provides a clear and concise overview of the essential elements of music technology for today's musician. It is designed to provide music students with the background necessary to apply technology in their creating, teaching, and performing.This book focuses on five topics that underlie the hardware and software in use today: Sound, Audio, MIDI, Synthesis and Sampling, and Computer Notation and Computer-Assisted Instruction. In addition, there is an appendix that covers necessary computer hardware and software concepts.Features:Thorough explanations of key topics in music technologyContent applicable to all software and hardware, not linked to just one piece of software or gearIn-depth discussion of digital audio topics, such as sampling rates, resolutions, and file formatsExplanations of standard audio plug-ins including dynamics processors, EQs, and delay-based effectsCoverage of synthesis and sampling in software instrumentsPedagogical features, including:Further Reading sections that allow the student to delve deeper into topics of interest- Suggested Activities that can be carried out with a variety of different programs- Key Terms at the end of each chapter- What do I need? chapters covering the types of hardware and software needed in order to put together Audio and MIDI systems- The companion website contains links to audio examples that demonstrate various concepts, step-by-step tutorials, relevant hardware, software, and additional audio and video resources.

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