Front Matter
Audio Engineering 101
Audio Engineering 101
A Beginner's Guide to Music Production
Timothy A. Dittmar
AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Copyright
Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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2012 Timothy A. Dittmar. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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ISBN: 978-0-240-81915-0
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to my mom, Jane Dittmar. She encouraged me to be whatever I had passion to be, while inspiring me to create a back-up plan in case my rock drum fantasies never transpired.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to:
Geoffrey Schulman for getting me into this teaching mess and seeing me as more than a longhaired rock drummer. Without being gently nudged into becoming a professor and getting a real job, this book would probably not exist.
Anderson Bracht for providing inspiring illustrations that kept me smiling.
Catharine Steers, Focal Press, and Elsevier for believing in my book.
Carlin Reagan for making me appear somewhat intelligent and providing mad editing skills.
Terri Dittmar for her feedback, editing, musical contributions, patience, friendship, and years of love and support.
Fred Remmert for teaching me that first lesson and many other audio engineering basics.
All my audio engineering friends who contributed their time and ideas: Meason Wiley, Kurtis Machler, John Harvey, Mary Podio, Andre Moran, and Pete Johnson.
Andrew Miller for producing the Audio Engineering 101 demonstration videos.
Landry Gideon for being the talent in the Audio Engineering 101 videos.
My former students who were the guinea pigs for much of the material in the book.
All the audio engineers who contributed to the FAQs section. Much appreciation!
Kathleen Maus and Jack Dittmar for letting me steal your 45s to broadcast K-TIM.
Dave Dittmar for letting me play in his band when I was 10 years old, teaching me the basics of electronics, and how to work a PA.
Susan Dittmar for helping kick-start my audio engineering career. Without her, I wouldn't be writing this book.
About the Author
When I was in high school, my mom asked me, Tim, what do you want to do with your life? I believe I said something like, play drums and surf. My mom was pretty cool about the whole thing, but I knew my ambitions did little to impress her. Soon after graduating high school, I enrolled at a local college. There I discovered I could obtain a degree in a field related to my interests, Radio TV Production. I loved music, but the idea of recording and working with musicians for a living seemed to be an unattainable dream! I moved to Austin, TX, in the late 80s to play drums and complete my Radio-TV-Film (RTF) degree at The University of Texas. I soon found myself at Cedar Creek Recording studio playing drums on a new wave demo. It was my first experience in a commercial recording studio and I was blown away. The 2 tape machine, the array of mics, the recording console, and the reverb! Oh, the Lexicon 224 reverb on my snare. I was hooked. That first night in the studio I was so wound up and boisterous that the engineer actually told me to shut up. The engineer's comments taught me the first lesson in studio etiquette. Don't talk, listen! Even with this reprimand, I was given the opportunity to become an intern at CCR and spent the next ten years engineering records.
Looking back, while I had only a basic foundation in recording, I remember feeling technically inept. I had to rely on a variety of strengths to compensate for my lack of technical expertise. Some of these strengths included showing up on time and having a good attitude and a willingness to listen. I was also very self-motivated and driven, had decent people skills, and was willing to struggle and work hard for little money while learning the craft. I also knew a few bands and musicians, and could bring in potential business. It took years before my technical skill level matched these intangible strengths. My point is, if you are a beginner, do not be discouraged. We all have to start somewhere.
Preface
Audio engineering is layered with many disciplines such as acoustics, physics, technology, art, psychology, electronics, and music. Each layer provides a new set of questions, answers, theories, and concepts. You soon realize that you will never know it all. This guide encompasses many aspects of audio engineering and includes a dose of reality. This is a hard business, but if you are willing to put forth the time and effort, you may end up with a job you love.
The goal of this book is to explain audio engineering and music production in an easy-to-understand guide. After ten years of teaching Audio Engineering courses at Austin Community College, two years of lecturing at The University of Texas, and twenty-five years of engineering and producing records, I decided to create a guide that draws on the lessons and experiences that have proved to be successful with both students and clients. As a Professor, I have unique insight into a beginner's ability to retain technical information. Many audio engineering books are simply too overwhelming for those being introduced to recording and music production. This is a recurring point made by many students and is one of the inspirations for this book.
