Books about Sound for Video and Film

By Jay Rose

These books are platform-independent, technically-savvy guides aimed at videographers and filmmakers who don't think their soundtracks are as good as their pictures. They feature plenty of visual analogies, step-by-step instructions, and from-the-trenches tips and techniques used by professionals. Each comes with an audio CD full of tutorials, diagnostics, and demonstrations.

Jay is a Clio- and Emmy-winning sound designer, whose clients range from CBS and Disney to documentary, corporate, and independent film producers. He's a Contributing Editor for DV Magazine, writes their popular Audio Solutions column, is a member of the Cinema Audio Society and past officer of the Audio Engineering Society.

	Producing Great Sound for Film and Digital Video Third Edition A new edition, updated and expanded to include narrative film and Hollywood-style workflows. Published March 7, 2008. More details, samples, and links to discount sales. Looking for the figures we couldn't fit into the Preview in DV Magazine? They're here.
	Audio Postproduction for Film & Video Second Edition Specializing in sound after the shoot, this new book has long chapters on editing, equalizing, noise reduction, sound effects, using music effectively, mixing for various media... as well as on building and wiring the perfect audio set-up, getting sound from camera to computer without losing quality or sync, recording foley and ADR, and anything else you'll need to know.editions. Published October 6, 2008. 460 pages, with 1-hour audio CD. More details, samples, and links to discount sales.
	Producing Great Sound for Digital Video Second Edition Released in 2002, and used in college film courses around the world. More details, for historic interest.
	Audio Postproduction First Edition Released in 2002, and subsequently published in Russian and German editions. More details, for historic interest.
	Producing Great Sound for Digital Video The first edition of this book was released in December 1999. More details, for historic interest.

Is there overlap between Producing Great Sound and Audio Postproduction?

Sure. The basics of sound and digital audio are the same whether you're shooting on a location or posting in your NLE. This makes up the first couple of chapters of each book. But I've explained them differently, to give you twice the chance of really understanding the subject. There is also a difference in emphasis: Producing Great Sound has more about acoustics; Audio Postproduction goes into greater detail about wiring, hardware, and software.

Since Producing Great Sound covers the entire soundtrack process, it has to talk about post. But it most of its pages are devoted to production planning and location sound, including long sections on boom and wireless technique and getting the best results from prosumer cameras.

On the other hand, Audio Postproduction has nothing about location audio (though there's a section on studio voice-overs and dialog replacement). But it has four times more material about post audio, explains many more techniques, and includes "Cookbook Recipes" for common situations.

The text, illustrations, demonstrations, and audio tutorials are completely different in the two books.

-- Jay