Books about Acoustic from Amazon.com

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..
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The Hal Leonard Acoustic Guitar Method uses real songs to teach you all the basics of acoustic guitar in the style of The Beatles, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, the Indigo Girls, Robert Johnson, James Taylor and many others. Lessons include: strumming; fingerpicking; using a capo; open tunings; folk, country and bluegrass styles; acoustic blues; acoustic rock; and more. Songs include: Angie * Barely Breathing * Behind Blue Eyes * Building a Mystery * Change the World * Dust in the Wind * Fast Car * Here Comes the Sun * Jack and Diane * Landslide * Leaving on a Jet Plane * Maggie May * More Than Words * Name * You've Got a Friend * Yesterday * and more. In standard notation and tablature..
Price: $10.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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.
Price: $32.82 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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..
Price: $28.53 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Covering both Studio and Producer Editions, Sonar 7 Power! is the seventh edition of the best-selling Sonar Power book series providing detailed training for Cakewalk's Sonar 7 music recording software. Written for both new users and veteran upgraders alike, Sonar 7 Power! walks you through all of the features of the software with step-by-step instructions and exercises. New users will start at the beginning and learn everything they need to know to use Sonar 7 for recording, editing, producing, mixing, and bringing their music to the masses. Upgraders will learn about all the new features in Sonar 7 as well as enhancements to existing features that may affect their current production workflow. New topics covered include: Flexible PRV Tools, PRV Microscope Mode, MIDI Data Lanes, EQ Settings Copy, Step Sequencer, CD Ripping/Burning, Sidechaining, Using External Hardware, Boost 11 Maximizer, Linear Phase EQ, Linear Phase Compressor, Dimension LE, Rapture LE, DropZone, Z3TA+, and more..
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This revised edition features almost 40 new pages and is even easier to follow with the addition of an index and a simplified page and chapter numbering system. New topics covered include: MIDI, Synchronization, and an Appendix on Logarithms..
Price: $21.80 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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.
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The goal of this book is to apply the principles of acoustics to the audio arts. This involves serving as an interpreter of major trends and the literature for students and practitioners in the audio field. Along with covering the more theoretical aspects of acoustics, the book applies the theory to the design of specialized audio spaces such as the home listening room, the control room, and the multi-track-recording studio..
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Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: Seth Shulman closely examines the race to build the first telephone and uncovers potential bombshells with The Telephone Gambit. Although Alexander Graham Bell is widely accepted as the father of the telephone (despite the fact that rival inventor Elisha Gray submitted a similar claim the same day Bell filed his patent), Schulman provides intriguing evidence questioning if the scales were deliberately tipped in Alexander's favor. Was the venerable inventor party to theft from Gray's own research? Or are such accusations merely sour grapes from a bitterly contested legal battle? Fraught with controversy, conspiracy, and possible chicanery, Shulman spins real-life Da Vinci Code drama around one of the most influential inventions of the modern era. --Dave Callanan.
Price: $10.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]