Digital Audio Explained by Nika Aldritch. Nika was one of Sweetwater's top salespeople 'till about a year ago when he left to go to school for <ahem> entertainment law. He was my salesman for several years. Very bright guy. This book addresses the most common aspects of digital audio in clear, plain language. Besides the basics, there are detailed in-depth explanations of some more esoteric processes that I (and I'd guess many users) understand only insofar as what we hear as a result. E.g., A/D conversion, dithering, pitch and time shifting, etc. There are also chapters on the human ear, noise, and digital audio myths. He includes hundreds of graphs and charts which make concepts I've read about but never quite grasped (e.g. "adding noise") suddenly completely clear. Not included are anything about mic placement, studio design, or any of the usual things one finds in most "Home recording for dummies" books. Not that Nika wasn't into that - he knew a LOT for a salesman - but because it's not what this particular book is about. It fills a gap in my library, anyway. I have no other books like it. I think it's easily understandable by any reasonably intelligent person lacking a formal engineering or computer science education. Anyone who picks it up is going to have a head for this stuff anyway, more or less. As far as I know it's only available from Sweetwater. FWIW I have no affiliation with Sweetwater at all, other than as a customer once in a while.
Should be an interesting read, considering the guys who build the high-end digital gear don't always see eye to eye on the practical applications of digital gear, eg internal vs. external clock sources or which sample rate is best.
>>Nika was one of Sweetwater's top salespeople 'till about a year ago when he left to go to school for <ahem> entertainment law<< A likely story.
+1 on the book :AOK I don't know how Nika managed to pick up what seems to be an unlimited amount of knowledge about gear, but he's proven himself over and over again. I would have feared that his text would be over everyone's heads, but it's not. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy.
I think it's his way of covering his embarrasment about his real goal: producing hip-hop commercials.
