Digital Audio Essentials

Book description

Join the digital audio revolution! Tens of millions of users are embracing digital music, and with Digital Audio Essentials, you can, too. Nearly every personal computer built in the last few years contains a CD-burning drive; MP3 and other portable player sales dominate the consumer electronics industry; and new networkable stereo equipment lets you use your digital music collection to power your home entertainment system. Whether it's downloading music, ripping CDs, organizing, finding, and creating higher quality music files, buying music players and accessories, or constructing a home stereo system, Digital Audio Essentials helps you do get it done. An indispensable reference for music enthusiasts, digital archivists, amateur musicians, and anyone who likes a good groove, Digital Audio Essentials helps you avoid time-consuming, costly trial and error in downloading audio files, burning CDs, converting analog music to digital form, publishing music to and streaming from the Web, setting up home stereo configurations, and creating your own MP3 and other audio files. The book--for both Mac and PC users--includes reliable hardware and software recommendations, tutorials, resources, and file sharing, and it even explains the basics of the DMCA and intellectual property law. You may (or may not) already know the basics of ripping CDs or downloading music, but Fries will show you so much more--including advice on the multitude of MP3 players on the market, stereo options, file formats, quality determinations, and the legalities of it all. Both a timely, entertaining guide and an enduring reference, this is the digital audio handbook you need to make the most of your expanding digital music collection.

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Table of contents

  1. Special Upgrade Offer
  2. About the Authors
  3. Introduction
    1. The Evolution of Digital Audio
    2. About This Book
    3. Who This Book Is For
    4. Organization of This Book
    5. Programs and Operating Systems
    6. Conventions Used in This Book
    7. How to Contact O’Reilly
    8. Acknowledgments
  4. I. Going Digital
    1. 1. Digital Audio and the Computer
      1. Music and the PC
      2. The Digital Music Revolution
        1. Freedom from the Machine
        2. A wakeup call
        3. The industry fights back
        4. Too little, too late?
    2. 2. The Right System for the Job
      1. System Requirements for Digital Audio
      2. Computer Basics
        1. Processor
        2. RAM
        3. Disk space
        4. Checking available disk space
        5. Operating system
        6. Software
        7. Player programs
        8. Jukebox programs
      3. Factors That Affect Performance
        1. Processor power
        2. PC processor upgrades
        3. Mac processor upgrades
        4. Memory
        5. Virtual memory
        6. Upgrading your RAM
        7. Hard disk drives
        8. Drive interface
        9. Hard drive specs
        10. Disk fragmentation
        11. Upgrading your hard drive
      4. Optical Drives (CD and DVD)
        1. CD drives
        2. DVD drives
        3. Purchasing a CD or DVD drive
      5. External Interfaces
        1. USB
        2. FireWire
      6. Sound Cards and Speakers
        1. Sound cards
        2. Purchasing a sound card
        3. External audio devices
        4. Speakers
        5. Purchasing computer speakers
    3. 3. Connect Your Computer to Your Stereo
      1. Connection Basics
        1. Inputs and outputs
        2. Signal levels
          1. Line level
          2. Low level
          3. Speaker levels
      2. Sound Card Connectors
      3. Stereo Receiver Connectors
      4. Direct Cable Connections
        1. Analog connections
        2. Digital connections
      5. Selecting the Right Cables
        1. Shielding
        2. Capacitance
      6. USB and FireWire
      7. Wireless Connections
      8. Network Audio
        1. Digital media receivers
          1. Server software
          2. Connection
          3. Display
          4. Internet radio integration
  5. II. Listening to Digital Music
    1. 4. Organizing and Playing Music
      1. Getting Music onto Your Computer
        1. Digital audio formats
        2. Downloading music
        3. Converting your existing music collection
        4. Importing songs
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
      2. Organizing Your Music
        1. Sorting
        2. Searching
        3. Browsing
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
      3. Playing Music
        1. Player controls
      4. Playlists
        1. Creating and editing playlists
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        2. Automatically generated playlists
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
          4. MoodLogic
      5. Turn Up the Volume
        1. Windows volume
        2. Mac volume
        3. Minimizing noise
      6. File Type Associations
        1. Reclaiming file type associations
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
      7. Customize Your Jukebox
        1. Skins
        2. Crossfading
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
        3. Automatic volume adjustment
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        4. Visualization
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        5. Remote controls
    2. 5. Music on the Web
      1. Online Music Choices
        1. Records, tapes, and CDs
        2. Downloadable music
        3. Streaming audio
      2. The Evolution of Online Music
        1. Napster arrives
        2. Online music stores
        3. Music selection
        4. Format wars
          1. File formats
      3. Understanding Digital Rights Management
        1. Microsoft’s DRM system for WMA
        2. Apple’s Fairplay DRM
          1. Deauthorizing a computer
      4. Online Music Services
        1. Choosing an online music service
        2. iTunes Music Store
        3. eMusic
        4. Napster 2.0
        5. Rhapsody
        6. Other online music services
      5. Music on the Fringe
        1. CDbaby
        2. Amazon.com’s free downloads
        3. GarageBand.com
        4. IUMA
        5. Weedshare
        6. MusicRebellion
      6. File Sharing
        1. FTP sites
        2. Web sites
        3. Internet Relay Chat
        4. Newsgroups
        5. Centralized peer-to-peer
        6. Distributed peer-to-peer
          1. Supernodes
          2. Spoofing and hash codes
          3. Magnet links
          4. Gateway servers
        7. Popular peer-to-peer networks
      7. The War over P2P
        1. Avoiding legal trouble
    3. 6. Listening to Internet Radio
      1. Broadcast Radio
        1. The status quo
        2. Digital radio
        3. Enter Internet radio
      2. How Internet Radio Works
        1. Webcasters
          1. Niche stations
          2. Aggregators
          3. Simulcasters
        2. Programming
        3. Drawbacks
          1. Sound quality
          2. Overall capacity
      3. Software for Internet Radio
      4. Tuning In
        1. Listening with your jukebox program
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
      5. Internet Radio Services
        1. LAUNCHcast
        2. Live365
          1. Signup
          2. Station listings
          3. Playing a station
          4. Presets
          5. Rating songs and stations
          6. Purchasing music
        3. Radio@Netscape
        4. vTuner
        5. Web-Radio
    4. 7. Music on the Move
      1. From Rio to iPod and Beyond
      2. Portable Digital Audio Players
        1. Flash memory players
          1. CompactFlash
          2. SmartMedia
          3. Secure Digital
          4. Memory Stick
        2. Hard disk players
        3. Dual-mode CD players
      3. Purchasing a Player: What to Look For
        1. Supported formats and DRM
        2. Storage capacity
        3. Software support
        4. Inputs and outputs
        5. Recording capability
        6. Sound quality
      4. Getting Music onto the Player
        1. Synchronization
        2. Manual copying
        3. A few tips
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        4. Transfer troubles?
          1. Verify compatibility
          2. Verify your connection
          3. Update your software
          4. Update your player’s firmware
          5. Use the program included with the player
          6. Contact technical support
      5. Digital Audio for Your Car
        1. MP3 CD player/receivers
        2. Hard drive–based digital music car players
        3. Portable player car kits
          1. Mounting and charging
          2. Connecting the player
  6. III. The Nuts and Bolts of Digital Audio
    1. 8. Understanding Digital Audio
      1. Sound Waves
        1. How we perceive sound
        2. How sound is measured
        3. Frequency
      2. Analog Audio
        1. Analog recording and playback
        2. Analog audio signals
      3. Digital Audio
        1. Sampling
          1. Sampling rate
          2. Resolution
          3. Quantization
        2. Clipping
        3. Bit-rates
        4. Dynamic range
        5. Signal-to-noise ratio
        6. Advantages of digital audio
          1. Wider dynamic range
          2. Better resistance to noise
          3. Perfect, fast copies
          4. Error correction
          5. Improved durability
      4. Compression
        1. Lossless compression
        2. Lossy compression
      5. File Sizes
        1. Controlling file sizes
          1. Uncompressed audio
          2. Compressed audio
    2. 9. Digital Audio Formats
      1. Formats and Standards
        1. Standards
        2. Encoding
        3. File types and file formats
          1. Headers and metadata
      2. Lossless Formats
        1. PCM
        2. APE
        3. FLAC
        4. LPAC
        5. MLP
      3. Lossy Formats
        1. DPCM and ADPCM
        2. Ogg Vorbis
        3. MPEG Audio
        4. MPEG-based formats
          1. Liquid Audio
          2. Musepack
        5. Proprietary formats
          1. ATRAC
          2. Dolby Digital (formerly AC-3)
          3. QuickTime
          4. RealAudio
          5. Windows Media Audio
      4. High-Resolution Formats
        1. DVD-Audio
          1. Compatibility
          2. Playing time
        2. Super Audio CD
          1. Direct Stream Digital
          2. Playing time
          3. SACD versus DVD-Audio
    3. 10. MPEG Audio
      1. The MPEG Committee
        1. MPEG standards
          1. MPEG-1
          2. MPEG-2
          3. MPEG-4
          4. MPEG-7
      2. Types of MPEG Audio
        1. MPEG Layers
          1. Layer-I
          2. Layer-II
          3. Layer-III
        2. MPEG-AAC
        3. Compatibility
      3. Perceptual Encoding
        1. Sub-bands
        2. Minimum audible threshold
        3. Masking effects
        4. Reservoir of bits
        5. Stereo modes
          1. Simple stereo
          2. Joint stereo
          3. Intensity stereo
        6. Huffman coding
        7. Bit-rates
        8. Resolution
      4. Embedded Data
        1. ID3 tags
          1. ID3 Version 1.1
          2. ID3 Version 2
      5. Sound Quality
        1. Variables that affect sound quality
  7. IV. Capturing and Editing Audio
    1. 11. Recording and Ripping
      1. Hard Disk Recording
        1. Recording software
          1. Free and built-in programs
          2. Full-featured programs
          3. Jukebox programs
          4. Specialty programs
      2. Inside Your Sound Card
        1. The signal path
          1. Digital sources
          2. Analog sources
        2. The system mixer
        3. Windows volume control
          1. Playback control
          2. Recording control
        4. Mac volume control
      3. The Recording Process
        1. Making the right connection
        2. Setting audio parameters
        3. Selecting the source
        4. Setting the recording level
        5. Recording
        6. Editing the recording
        7. Saving your recording
        8. Minimizing noise
      4. Recording with a Jukebox Program
        1. Media Jukebox
          1. Automatic track splitting
        2. Musicmatch
      5. Ripping
        1. Ripping software
        2. The CD drive
        3. Jitter
          1. Jitter correction
        4. Ripping with your jukebox program
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        5. Successful ripping
        6. Analog ripping
    2. 12. Make Your Own MP3 Files
      1. Different Paths to MP3
      2. Encoding
        1. Bit-rates
          1. Constant bit-rate encoding
          2. Variable bit-rate encoding
      3. Controlling Sound Quality
        1. Select the best bit-rate
      4. Creating MP3s with Your Jukebox Program
        1. General process
        2. iTunes
          1. Setup
          2. Processing
        3. Media Jukebox
          1. Setup
          2. Processing
        4. Musicmatch
          1. Setup
          2. Processing
        5. Obtaining album artwork
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
      5. Format Conversion
        1. Direct conversion
          1. iTunes
          2. Media Jukebox
          3. Musicmatch
        2. Burn and rip
        3. Audio capture
    3. 13. Editing Audio
      1. Editing Software
      2. Working with Waveforms
        1. Elements of a Waveform View
        2. Command entry
        3. Navigation
        4. Selecting audio
          1. Snap to zero crossing points
          2. Channel-independent editing
        5. Markers
          1. Creating markers
          2. Modifying markers
        6. Regions
          1. Creating regions
          2. Modifying regions
          3. Locating regions
          4. Creating selections from regions
        7. Basic editing tools
      3. Digital Signal Processing
        1. Gain
          1. Gain Envelope
        2. Fades
        3. Normalization
          1. Applying normalization
        4. Equalization
        5. Duration (time stretch)
        6. Sampling rate, bit depth, and channels
          1. Converting the sampling rate
          2. Converting bit depth
          3. Converting channels
      4. Noise Reduction
        1.  
          1. Noise removal
          2. Impulse noise
          3. Broadband noise
          4. Narrowband noise
          5. Irregular noise
      5. Samples and Loops
        1. Creating loops
      6. Analyzing Sound
    4. 14. Digitizing Your Records and Tapes
      1. A Brief History of Records
        1. Shellac records
        2. Vinyl records
        3. Magnetic tapes
      2. From Analog to Digital
        1. Software options
          1. Bundled programs
          2. Sound editing programs
          3. Jukebox programs
          4. Utility programs
      3. Before You Record
        1.  
          1. Use a quality turntable and cartridge
          2. Use the right stylus
          3. Find the sweet spot
          4. Clean your records
          5. Keep ‘em flat
          6. Clean and demagnetize tape heads
          7. Align and calibrate your tape deck
          8. Set proper tape noise-reduction and bias settings
          9. Make a good connection
          10. Set proper signal levels
          11. Record and listen to a test clip
      4. Making the Recording
        1.  
          1. Filenames
        2. Splitting tracks
          1. Automatic track splitting
          2. Manually splitting tracks
      5. Removing Noise
        1. Types of noise
          1. Hiss
          2. Clicks and pops
          3. Crackle
          4. Rumble
        2. Noise-removal strategies
          1. Minimize noise before you record
          2. Don’t try to remove noise that isn’t there
          3. Use different approaches for different types of noises
          4. Preview the result and listen to just the noise
        3. Pick the right software
        4. Removing hiss
        5. Removing clicks and pops
          1. Common settings
          2. Automatic removal
          3. Manual removal
        6. Removing crackle
        7. Removing irregular noise
      6. Record Equalization
        1. Equalizing a vintage recording
  8. V. Sharing and Distributing Your Music
    1. 15. Burning Your Own CDs and DVDs
      1. Types of CDs
        1. Recordable CDs (CD-Rs)
        2. Rewritable CDs (CD-RWs)
      2. CD Formats
        1. Audio CDs
        2. Data CDs
        3. Enhanced CDs
      3. CD Capacities
      4. Purchasing CD Media
        1. Compatibility
        2. Media speed ratings
          1. CD-R speed ratings
          2. CD-RW speed ratings
        3. Media errors
          1. Reading problem media
        4. Media life
          1. Handling
          2. Cleaning
        5. Audio versus data CD-R media
      5. CD Recording Software
        1. Jukebox programs
        2. Standalone programs
        3. Other programs
        4. Drag and drop
      6. Tips for Successful Burning
        1. Get the right type of media
        2. Update your software and firmware
        3. Stabilize your system
        4. Do a test burn
        5. Verify important data
        6. Don’t touch
      7. Recording Options
        1. Projects
        2. Image files
        3. Track-at-once versus disc-at-once
        4. Choosing the format
          1. Recording audio CDs
          2. Recording MP3 CDs
        5. CD Filesystems
      8. Burning CDs with a Jukebox Program
        1. iTunes
          1. Setup
          2. Burning
        2. Media Jukebox
          1. Setup
          2. Burning
        3. Musicmatch
          1. Setup
          2. Burning
      9. Recording DVDs
        1. DVD capacities
        2. DVD Standards
        3. Recordable DVD media
    2. 16. Setting Up an Internet Radio Station
      1. Understanding Internet Radio
        1. Broadcasting a stream
        2. Listening to a stream
      2. Building an Internet Radio Station
        1. Bandwidth: The Final Frontier
          1. Upstream versus downstream speeds
        2. Internet radio hosting services
        3. Stream hosting services
        4. Do-it-yourself Internet radio
      3. Setting Up Your Own Station
        1. Live365
          1. Basic mode
          2. Live mode
          3. Relay mode
          4. Costs
          5. Creating a playlist
        2. Nicecast
          1. Broadcasting with the built-in server
          2. Listening to your station
          3. Using a remote server
        3. SHOUTcast
          1. Choosing the operating system
          2. Installing the SHOUTcast server
          3. Configuring the SHOUTcast server
          4. Running the SHOUTcast server
          5. Sending your webcast to a SHOUTcast server
          6. Originating webcasts from non-Windows systems
    3. 17. Digital Audio and Copyright Laws
      1. Copyright Basics
        1. Copyright registration
        2. Exclusive rights
        3. Rights of purchasers
        4. Copyright term
          1. Before January 1978
          2. After January 1978
        5. Common myths
        6. Penalties for infringement
          1. Simple infringement
          2. Criminal infringement
          3. Conspiracy to commit infringement
          4. Fraudulent copyright notice
      2. Copyright Laws in Action
        1. Case #1: Ripping CDs
        2. Case #2: “I’m just giving a copy of the song to a friend; I’m not selling it!”
        3. Case #3: Free downloads of Top-40 songs?
        4. Case #4: Is it legal to download any songs for free?
        5. Case #5: Trading MP3 downloads
        6. Case #6: Downloadable music and webcasting
        7. Case #7: Professional DJ using MP3 files instead of CDs
        8. Case #8: Professional DJ playing at a local catering hall
        9. Case #9: Amateur DJ playing music at a friend’s party
        10. Case #10: Restaurant playing music from its own stereo system
      3. Quick Guide to U.S. Copyright Laws
        1. U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code)
        2. First Sale Doctrine
        3. Audio Home Recording Act
        4. No Electronic Theft (NET) Act
        5. Digital Millennium Copyright Act
        6. Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recording Act
        7. Doctrine of Fair Use
  9. Glossary
  10. Index
  11. About the Authors
  12. Colophon
  13. Special Upgrade Offer
  14. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Digital Audio Essentials
  • Author(s): Marty Fries, Bruce Fries
  • Release date: April 2005
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596008567