Sound for Digital Video

Nothing gives away a low budget film project like the sound. With the bounds that digital technology has taken, the only thing lacking in quality audio is knowledge. The author in this book gives it to you straight. What's more, he has worked on many Hollywood movies and has the credibility to go along with it.

This is a pretty good "bridge" book for those who have no knowledge of sound and its importance in film/video and those who have some. I have yet to utilize the cd that came with it, but the chapters are lucid and easy to follow.

Target audience: Anyone involved in audio for video, from the rank amateur to theexperienced professional.As a video shooter, you are most concerned with your picture. But as we move from SD toHD, the quality of your soundtracks should follow suit. Video has never been more capableof delivering high quality sound and picture, yet today's soundtracks are getting worseinstead of better. Why? Partly because DV equipment has made video accessible to morepeople at lower cost. While there's nothing wrong with low cost gear, unless you really knowhow to handle your audio with the equipment you have, you'll end up with some truly awfulsound. But even expensive top of the line Pro gear can record bad audio, and does so often,and with great precision! So what can you do to ensure the best quality sound for yourvideo?Enter "Sound for Digital Video" by Tomlinson Holman. Simply put, every question aboutsound for DV, from microphones through recording, to editing and release audio formats iscovered. Yet, surprisingly, the principles are highly approachable by even the most non-technical reader. In fact, Mr. Holman has adopted a unique "Director's Cut" section withinchapters, intended to serve those, like Directors, who have limited time but need to digestthe key points quickly and with complete lucidity. The book is, in fact, quite easy toassimilate by someone who picks it up, but is in the middle of a production! Mr. Holmandirects those readers to what chapter to read FIRST, to glean the critical essentials, as well ashow to use the "Director's Cut" sections.But don't think it's only for the beginner or the time-limited. There is enough detail andscientific information contained that even a seasoned pro will find it an essential referencework. There is enough contained in each chapter to merit several readings, even by thosewith careers in audio. The beauty of the book is that it can serve such a wide audience withuseful information, without alienating the extremes.For those with more time, or more need to create a highly polished and effective soundtrack,the book delves into the real nuts and bolts of audio as it applies to digital video. Forexample, if you had to record dialog from a shout to a whisper, what do you need to know toaccomplish it? What microphone would be best (the answer might surprise you!), should youplug the mic into your camera directly, or use a mixer? What can you do in post productionto make your dynamic range sound larger than it is? Would using a compressor help you orhurt you, and when should it be used or avoided?The basics are completely explored: What type of mic should you use for a given type ofrecording circumstance? How can you use both channels of your camera to best advantage?Avoiding overload is covered more thoroughly than I've ever seen it before, and yet in ahighly understandable way.In today's competitive market, everyone needs some kind of "edge". After reading only aportion of this book (for example, on avoiding overload) you become equipped to producesoundtracks that can sound better than many very high profile producers. For example, werecently heard a track on a PBS TV show that, if the recordist had understood "avoidingoverload" in this book, the track would have contained clean and understandable dialog. Asit was, it was so overloaded as to be barely intelligible. So simply reading this book can giveyou the understanding to record better audio than National Geographic! How's that forReturn on Investment?Then there's the included CD. It's a collection of demo and illustration tracks to be used asexamples for material in the book, but is also a collection of audio tools that can be used forcalibration and testing. The demo material illustrates sonic characteristics not easilydescribed in words, like good and bad bump edits, and how to solve editing problems.There a group of Sound Process Demo tracks that demonstrate filers, limiting andcompression and numerous other audio processes. The demo tracks have descriptivenarration. There's also a standard leader track (30 seconds of tone plus "2-pop") that youcan use on the head of your project. All together, there are 23 tracks."Sound for Digital Video" is as enlightening as it is pleasurable to read. No one involved inDV production, pro or amateur, should be without this book. Recommended withouthesitation or reservation!

I highly recommend this book for the amateur and more advanced since it contains a lot of information that many of us either forgot, or never knew. It contains a chock full of tips and techniques that aids with sound editing that worked better than I had expected. The book comes with a cd that has samples of great sound editing works for reference.

Essentialy, it is a great book: very well written with every piece of important information for working sound for video. The part on post-production is better than the initial one on sound recording. It is not a book for someone looking into learning the basics on sound for video, though. Some prior knowledge is required, I think.

I've read many books on sound post. This book is excellent. It full of tips and techniques throughout, especially on sound editing, the cd provided has good examples of sound edits. Highly recommended.

Dieses Buch ist ein absolutes Muss für Filmemacher, die mehr aus ihren Filmen herausholen möchten. Da Sounddesign im Film gerade in Deutschland oft übersehen wird, merken viele gar nicht, was für eine Arbeit in den Filmton gesteckt werden muss.Dieses Buch zeigt von A bis Z wirklich alles, was man für professionellen Sound braucht, von der Auswahl des Equipments bis zu einer umfangreichen Liste von Anregungen für eigene Soundeffekte.Hier lernt man wirklich ausführlich, das wir 50% des Filmerlebnisses dem Ton zu verdanken sind.Für Profis und Filminteressierte also... ein must-have.

its okay