Audio Engineering 101: A Beginner's Guide to Music Production

by Tim Dittmar

Audio Engineering 101, Second Edition is a real world guide for starting out in the recording industry. If you have the dream, the ideas, the music, and the creativity, but don't know where to start, then this book is for you! Straight from an author with first-hand experience, this popular book is filled with practical advice on how to navigate the recording world that will help you succeed in the exciting, but tough and confusing, music industry. This book covers all you need to know about the recording process, from the characteristics of sound, to a guide on microphones, to analog versus digital recording. Dittmar covers all the equipment, studio acoustics, the principals of EQ/compression, music examples to work from, and often overlooked topics such as internships, people skills, and insider tips on how to succeed in the industry. This new edition offers full technology updates, an expanded section on job opportunities, plus a new section on educational programs that offer credentials. The book comes with a full suite of companion audio, video, and instructor materials. The book includes QR codes so you can upload from anywhere!

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

244 pages, ebook

First published December 5, 2011

Reviews

[Chris Craddock · Rating 4 out of 5]

99 Reasons to Read Audio Engineering 101, February 20, 2012

By the title, Audio Engineering 101, you know that Timothy A. Dittmar's book is going to cover that basics of Audio Engineering. Anytime you see that 101, as any community college student knows, you know it is going to be a rudimentary primer. Kind of Audio Engineering for Dummies. Some of the stuff is pretty basic, and I just kind of skimmed over it. Advice for interns, like not to tell clients how awful they sound, and don't sit around texting while rolling your eyes, etc., etc., etc..

But there is a lot of practical information and explanation of audio concepts like compression, noise gates, EQ, phlanging, and phase. I really like the microphone guide which shows various types and brands of microphones along with graphs of frequency response: Cascade Fat Head, Small-Diaphragm Condenser, Neumann U 87, or the ubiquitous Shure SM58. One chapter is a round table where questions are posed to a group of recording engineers like, what mic would you take with you on a desert island? There is a website where you can go and download audio clips that illustrate the concepts being discussed.

All in all, this is a handy book with a lot of good information that would be of interest to anyone interested in home recording or a career in audio engineering.

[Jason Keisling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I added this book to my shelf in 2018 and I likely would have found it valuable if I’d read it at the time. After finally getting around to reading it, I found it to be a bit too basic for my level. If you're already familiar with concepts like EQ, compression, DI, and buses, this book may not offer much new information. However, it’s called *Audio Engineering 101* for a reason—it's clearly aimed at beginners, and the content is solid for that audience. Had I read this 5 or 6 years ago, I likely would have found it very helpful. Given its purpose and the quality of the information, I’d rate it five stars for beginners. But for anyone with a basic understanding of music production, it’s probably not necessary.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this to help me better understand my new audio equipment for my podcast and online courses. Definitely focuses more on audio for bands but great background on how sound works and terminology. If you're looking for a step by step guide on setting up your equipment this ain't it, but you should read it if you actually want to understand everything (which you should).

[Topher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. I'm sure this is a great book for music production, but I'm a podcaster trying to figure out a 5 mic panel recorded live. It was nearly useless outside of some mic placement tips when we didn't have 5 mics for the group. There's very little information about vocal equipment, and most of the book was about setting up instruments. If you're recording podcasts or solo vocals, it's not so helpful.

[Samara Zadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good introductory book into audio, for anyone looking to start a podcast or get a better understanding on how audio works. This is the book for you. It explains in simple terms the basics of theory and explain explains practical uses. If you don’t have time to read a textbook, this is definitely a good read.

[Troy Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for building a strong foundation

This book is great for understanding the basics and building the foundation that you need to excel as an audio engineer. Allows for a good base to be built upon and allows any young engineer to know what they need to improve on.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an incredible book about audio for beginners, many tips and advices from professional Audio Engineers.

[Emmanuel C. Jean-Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and friendly contents

Recommended for audio production and recording engineers who want to invest time in music, mixing, and mastering. A lot of details.

[Sally Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book which helped me to understand more about audio engineering.

[Speranta]

It is a good starter for understanding some basic concepts for sure

[NALA. · Rating 5 out of 5]

help me with my dream career!

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

So back in 2008 I was leaving high school and bought a blue yeti with a simple mixer. I wasn't particularly great at recording my voice. I used freeware stuff to equalize my voice and it sounded a hell of a lot better than others I heard speaking over the voips we used back then.

In 2019 I'm looking at getting back into using a dynamic microphone to record my voice and using hardware this time to make my voice sound good before it hits the computer. I have some friends who record audiobooks for archive.org and I'm looking at doing that as well. Along with streaming on twitch. Due to slow internet speeds the best way to stand out is still having good audio as a huge number of users are still on their phone.

This book reads a lot like a o'reilly book but for audio engineering. Clearly Tim is well seasoned audio engineer because he manages to pack 4 to 5 explanations of each concept in bit sized chunks on a single paragraph ranging from actual engineering concepts to more heady feel based arguments that clearly proliferate the profession.

I could have used an entire book on chapter 5 the microphone guide.

[Atul Shukla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice starter for audio aspirants.. :)

[Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

It`s good book to get a basic knowledge in audio engineering and also not bad resource of info about microphones.

[Manoj]

important