This open access book provides a concise explanation of the fundamentals and background of the surround sound recording and playback technology Ambisonics. It equips readers with the psychoacoustical, signal processing, acoustical, and mathematical knowledge needed to understand the inner workings of modern processing utilities, special equipment for recording, manipulation, and reproduction in the higher-order Ambisonic format. The book comes with various practical examples based on free software tools and open scientific data for reproducible research. The book’s introductory section offers a perspective on Ambisonics spanning from the origins of coincident recordings in the 1930s to the Ambisonic concepts of the 1970s, as well as classical ways of applying Ambisonics in first-order coincident sound scene recording and reproduction that have been practiced since the 1980s. As, from time to time, the underlying mathematics become quite involved, but should be comprehensive without sacrificing readability, the book includes an extensive mathematical appendix. The book offers readers a deeper understanding of Ambisonic technologies, and will especially benefit scientists, audio-system and audio-recording engineers. In the advanced sections of the book, fundamentals and modern techniques as higher-order Ambisonic decoding, 3D audio effects, and higher-order recording are explained. Those techniques are shown to be suitable to supply audience areas ranging from studio-sized to hundreds of listeners, or headphone-based playback, regardless whether it is live, interactive, or studio-produced 3D audio material.

Do you want to learn everything you need to know to be a fantastic video game music composer? The Game Music Handbook is for you. This book takes readers on a journey through many of the greatest video game soundscapes to date, discussing key concepts and technical practices for how to create top-level game scores. It organizes game scoring techniques into an applicable methodology that gives readers a clear picture of how to design interactive elements, conceive and create a score, and implement it into the game. Readers will gain a solid understanding of the core techniques for composing video game music, the conceptual differences that separate it from other compositional fields, as well as many advanced techniques and topics essential to excellent game music scoring. These topics include using music to design emotional arc for nonlinear timelines, the relationship between music and sound design, music and immersion, discussion of the player's interaction with audio, and more. For beginning composers, this book makes the learning process as clear as possible. However, it also offers invaluable information for intermediate to advanced readers. It includes discussion of game state and its effect on player interaction, a composer-centric lesson on programming, as well as information on how to work with version control, visual programming languages, procedural audio, and more. It also offers indispensable knowledge about advanced reactive music concepts, scoring for emergent games, music for VR, and other important topics. Overall, this book explores the practical application of player and music interaction through the examination of various techniques employed in games throughout video game history to enhance immersion, emphasize emotion, and create compelling interactive experiences.

Gain in-depth knowledge of Premiere Pro, and learn how the software “thinks.” You'll acquire new skills that will help you choose the best workflow for your project, and simplify and accelerate your video editing process. Learn how you can edit a lot faster with smarter workflows that automate several steps in the editing process. You'll also see how custom settings, presets, keyboard shortcuts and templates saves hours of work. By tailoring the software to your needs you save clicks on just about every task. With many traditional jobs now being done by one person, its important to understand audio smoothing, color grading, motion graphics, and advanced editing techniques. You’ll learn these skills and disciplines and see how they'll enhance your project's workflow. All the authors are professional editors and want to know exactly how to cut your film as fast as possible with top quality output. There is invaluable information in The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro that’s not available anywhere else – not even in Adobe’s own manuals. What You'll Learn Edit faster, no matter what the project Understand the technical stuff, like timeline settings, render codecs, color subsampling, export settings, effect controls and monitor settings Know when to send your clips to other Adobe software, and how to treat them there. Master the Premiere Pro timeline, even stacks of timelines, and edit, trim and adjust with ease Who This Book Is For Video journalists (and everyone else) will learn how to edit faster and get home in time for dinner. Bloggers will learn how to make their online video and audio “pop”. Film cutters will learn how to organize, rough cut and fine tune huge amounts of material effectively and how to output for digital cinema. Experienced video editors will learn how to deal with multi-track audio and to work faster in every step of the edit. Marketing people who edit video for social media and web pages will learn simpler ways to make a faster cut. Teachers in media studies will understand the logic in Premiere Pro, and be better prepared for teaching video editing.

Spatial sound is an enhanced and immersive set of audio techniques which provides sound in three-dimensional virtual space. This comprehensive handbook sets out the basic principles and methods with a representative group of applications: sound field and spatial hearing; principles and analytic methods of various spatial sound systems, including two-channel stereophonic sound, and multichannel horizontal and spatial surround sound; ambisonics; wavefield synthesis; binaural playback and virtual auditory display; recording and synthesis, and storage and transmission of spatial sound signals; and objective and subjective evaluation. Applications range from cinemas to small mobile devices. The only book to review spatial sound principles and applications extensively Covers the whole field of spatial sound The book suits researchers, graduate students, and specialist engineers in acoustics, audio, and signal processing.

This easy-to-read reference, designed for those at an early stage in their careers, provides an introduction to the principles of sound, perception, audio technology and systems. Key facts are presented in self-contained fact files.

This book provides a true A to Z of recorded sound, from its inception to the present day, outlining how technologies, techniques, and social attitudes have changed things, noting what is good and what is less good. The author starts by discussing the physics of sound generation and propagation. He then moves on to outline the history of recorded sound and early techniques and technologies, such as the rise of multi-channel tape recorders and their impact on recorded sound. He goes on to debate live sound versus recorded sound and why there is a difference, particularly with classical music. Other topics covered are the sound of real instruments and how that sound is produced and how to record it; microphone techniques and true stereo sound; digital workstations, sampling, and digital media; and music reproduction in the home and how it has changed. The author wraps up the book by discussing where we should be headed for both popular and classical music recording and reproduction, the role of the Audio Engineer in the 21st century, and a brief look at technology today and where it is headed. This book is ideal for anyone interested in recorded sound. “[Julian Ashbourn] strives for perfection and reaches it through his recordings... His deep knowledge of both technology and music is extensive and it is with great pleasure that I see he is passing this on for the benefit of others. I have no doubt that this book will be highly valued by many in the music industry, as it will be by me.” -- Claudio Di Meo, Composer, Pianist and Principal Conductor of The Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hemel Symphony Orchestra and The Lumina Choir

Immersive Sound: The Art and Science of Binaural and Multi-Channel Audio provides a comprehensive guide to multi-channel sound. With contributions from leading recording engineers, researchers, and industry experts, Immersive Sound includes an in-depth description of the physics and psychoacoustics of spatial audio as well as practical applications. Chapters include the history of 3D sound, binaural reproduction over headphones and loudspeakers, stereo, surround sound, height channels, object-based audio, soundfield (ambisonics), wavefield synthesis, and multi-channel mixing techniques. Knowledge of the development, theory, and practice of spatial and multi-channel sound is essential to those advancing the research and applications in the rapidly evolving fields of 3D sound recording, augmented and virtual reality, gaming, film sound, music production, and post-production.