Audio 101

[MrMert]

Hello everyone
I have been interested in music technologies for an average of 2 years, I have been doing both music production, recording and mixing. I want to have all the details about sound and music technologies, I don't want to have a subject I skipped, I created a programme of my own, but I would like to get ideas from you. I would like to get a list of topics, research list suggestions from you, from must-know topics to side details. It can be a book suggestion, it can be an article suggestion. There may also be websites where I can find articles written about this subject. Apart from what I have written, I would be very happy if you can help me with important details that I have not thought of, thanks in advance

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Hello everyone
I have been interested in music technologies for an average of 2 years, I have been doing both music production, recording and mixing. I want to have all the details about sound and music technologies, I don't want to have a subject I skipped, I created a programme of my own, but I would like to get ideas from you. I would like to get a list of topics, research list suggestions from you, from must-know topics to side details. It can be a book suggestion, it can be an article suggestion. There may also be websites where I can find articles written about this subject. Apart from what I have written, I would be very happy if you can help me with important details that I have not thought of, thanks in advance

Welcome to ASR! It's always great when people are interested in learning more

It would help to know a little bit about what interests you most; is it production and recording, acoustics, electronics etc?

Also, do you enjoy mathematics? Answering this lets us know how much you want to delve into theory and some practice.

 

[MrMert]

Welcome to ASR! It's always great when people are interested in learning more

It would help to know a little bit about what interests you most; is it production and recording, acoustics, electronics etc?

Also, do you enjoy mathematics? Answering this lets us know how much you want to delve into theory and some practice.

Thanks, the areas I like to deal with; sound recording, sound mixing, arrangement, mastering
I think the only subject I am not interested in in terms of sound and music technologies is acoustics, acoustic calculations. I like mathematics as long as it is related to sound, I would like to know exactly which subjects of mathematics knowledge will be useful to me (logarithm etc.). Thanks in advance

 

[Apesbrain]

Most people mistakenly believe that there are close parallels between digital audio and digital photography. We intuitively understand how more pixels means higher resolution images and assume the same must be true of "more/bigger" samples and audio. When you study digital signal theory, however, it becomes clear that's not the way it works at all. Start by understanding this and you'll avoid being drawn into many myths and meaningless arguments.

 

[MrMert]

Most people mistakenly believe that there are close parallels between digital audio and digital photography. We intuitively understand how more pixels means higher resolution images and assume the same must be true of "more/bigger" samples and audio. When you study digital signal theory, however, it becomes clear that's not the way it works at all. Start by understanding this and you'll avoid being drawn into many myths and meaningless arguments.

I don't quite understand what you mean. Do you mean don't care too much about the quality of the equipment? If so, I would like to state that I have been dealing with it for a certain period of time and I am already waiting for different people to give answers about what is the path from the basics of this business to professionalism, except for my own research.

 

[EERecordist]

You might start with Handbook for Sound Engineers by Glen Ballou. Once you understand all that, you could read up on digital audio. The Audio Engineering Society is a great resource including local meetings in some cities.

Generally books with "handbook" in the title are encyclopedic. There used to be a Handbook of Audio Engineering. Most libraries can borrow books from other libraries. University libraries sometimes have subscriptions to academic journals like the Audio Engineering Society. It is a good idea to read a business of music book.

 

[kemmler3D]

Good book for learning about audio production: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-second-dp-0262044919/dp/0262044919/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Was one of the major textbooks when I took a Music Technology minor, has been updated since. Very comprehensive.

 

[Doodski]

I like mathematics as long as it is related to sound, I would like to know exactly which subjects of mathematics knowledge will be useful to me (logarithm etc.).

Yes, to all of the above. In particular you need a very very basic understanding of the complex number system (polar coordinates) and then we can quickly bring you up to speed. We won't be calculating phase angles and adding sine waves together etc but to understand the operation of a phasor and how it spins around would suffice very very well.

Khan Academy

www.khanacademy.org

 

[Berwhale]

Recommended reading for new comers and inquisitive minds.

Just a thought , I know we have our technical articles section but how about a recommended reading list for both online content and physical books for new members to read and acquaint themselves with if they so desire. The point being to encourage or to further encourage self education rather...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DVDdoug]

Do you mean don't care too much about the quality of the equipment?

For the most part, digital audio has already exceeded human hearing. You usually can't hear the difference between a high resolution recording and a copy down-sampled to "CD quality" (in a proper blind listening test). Even MP3 (lossy compression) can often sound identical to the uncompressed original (depending on the bitrate and other variables) or you may have to listen very carefully to hear the difference. (There are highly-compressed low-bitrate MP3s that sound bad!)

Audio is "different" than photo or video but my imperfect analogy is that audio is like watching your regular TV across a football field. You won't be able to tell the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray, and maybe even VHS, because the resolution is better than your eyes at that distance.

In general electronics is very good and often better than human hearing.

Speakers (including the room acoustics) and headphones are the "weak link". Or if you are playing vinyl records, they are worse than human hearing.

The Audacity website has a gentle introduction to how digital audio works.

Audiophoolery is an article about what is and isn't important in audio reproduction. Ethan Winer, the author of Audiophoolery also wrote a book that covers many audio-related topics (I don't have it but I may buy it).

Here are a few mastering links I've collected:

Here is a collection of mastering links:

Izotope - Ozone Mastering Guide (2022 -This is written for Ozone but most of it can apply no matter what tools you are using.)
REAPER Forum - Discussion of a particular mastering job (2008 The mastering discussion starts at post #8)

Mastered For iTunes (2012)
Audio Mastering (Bob Katz)


I used to subscribe to Recording Magazine (even though I don't do much recording) but it got somewhat repetitive, and I got bored with the mostly-useless product reviews

 

[Berwhale]

TECH TALKS: How Accurate Reference Monitoring Can End the “Circle of Confusion”

In a special edition of Tech Talks, we’re speaking with Dr. Sean Olive, a member of the Board of Governors and past President of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) as well as Research Fellow, Acoustics at HARMAN Professional Solutions. Dr. Olive, who holds a Ph.D. in Sound Recording from McGill...

pro.harman.com