This 279-page book is filled with some of the most useful information about modern recording that I have seen. The author Bill Gibson is well informed. He has an easy to understand writing style and has written a book that can be used again and again as a reference book. Whether you work your way through all of the S.M.A.R.T. Guides or simply focus on this one, you'll be on the right track to improving your technical and artistic skills. Included with this book is a DVD that has 50 audio and 20 video examples of some of the material outlined on the book. As an engineer and studio owner, I found this book explained in detail many of the gray areas of modern recording in a comprehensive way. I also gained valuable information about lossless and lossy forms of data compression as well as transmission and playback formats (including AES/EBU, S/PDIF, SDIF-1, SDIF-2, SMDI, MADI and DASH). Other topics include analog vs. digital recording, the physical properties of sound, and digital theory. In a technological world that is changing fast, I found this to be a book that I would recommend to any engineer that would like to brush up on modern digital terminology. Once I cracked open this book, I found it hard to put down. I kept coming back to read and process the information delivered by Gibson. His writing style cuts right to the core of the topics he covers.
($39.99 MSRP; www.billgibsonmusic.com)
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