By Jay Rose, C.A.S.
460 Pages with 1-hour Audio CD
From Focal Press ISBN 9780240809717
List $44.95 at bookstores everywhere.
or click for discount purchase from Amazon.com and others.
If you got to this page by mistake and you were looking for Jay Rose's online tutorials, click here. But please come back to read about the book when you're done.
Critical comments (about the first edition):
- "No stone is left unturned... Every serious non-linear editor should have this book." -- CreativeCow.net
- "The chapter on dialogue editing alone is worth the price of the book." --Millimeter Magazine
- "Virtually every professional audio technique that can be adapted to desktop audio"--Creative Planet
...more...
About the Book
The Digital Video revolution makes it possible for artists, animators, filmmakers, and ordinary citizens to produce first-class video using nothing more than a desktop computer... and in fact, a lot of what you see on network tv has been assembled in ordinary offices, on Macs and PCs. (I should know. I create the soundtracks for them. My recent projects have included network-identity packages for PBS, documentaries for the A&E and Discovery Networks, and movie promos for Buena Vista and MGM.)
A lot of creative individuals have taught themselves how to produce and edit pictures by playing with these computer systems, and comparing what they do with what they see on bigger screens.
But you can't teach yourself how to polish a soundtrack this way. There are too many interconnected factors. For instance, decisions you make while editing dialog can influence how effective your music score will be. And trying to improve part of a track by ear -- tweaking a knob until things seem better -- can make them much worse later on.
And while there's good hardware and software available for just about every audio task imaginable, from strengthening a voice to cleaning up noisy backgrounds from the shoot, its use is almost never intuitive.
There's an art to good sound. But there's also a science, and a body of techniques that have been developed by professionals like me, over a large chunk of the past century.
This book teaches the science and technique of studio voice and sound effect recording, editing dialog and music (the techniques are different), processing, and mixing. I don't expect you to be a scientist, so I've kept the physics and math to basics you learned in grade school, illustrated with visual analogies. And since I expect you to be primarily interested in results, the book is full of practical tips, how-to examples, and time-savers that have been proven in the field. — Jay Rose
From the Introduction to the Second Edition:
Film and video sound have been separate disciplines for most of my career.
Film used platoons of specialists, sometimes with rooms full of interlocked transports and editing machines, to turn tiny bits of acting into tracks that would work in a theater. Video had to be smaller and faster. Even big shows often had only a few audio people, working with much longer performances and mostly the same equipment as music production. Film and video both had "sound for picture" and many of the problems were similar. But the equipment, techniques, workflows, and business models were different.
Digital changed that... (more)
New in this edition:
- Hollywood editing and mixing techniques for smaller projects
- The latest tapeless workflows to desktop production
- Setting up for surround
- Some before-and-after audio examples, with explanations, from actual tracks
- More free and low-cost tools for audio post
- More pages, more audio examples on CD, additional online content
Critical Comments on the first edition
See User-Generated Comments as well.
- No stone is left unturned in the audio postproduction process. ...even producers who have substantial audio production experience will learn a few things... The technical tables, illustrations and visual examples provided throughout the book are by themselves worth the cover price, and the author's sense of humor and positive attitude throughout the text only add to the enjoyment of what could have been a very dry subject. Every serious non-linear editor should have this book. It is destined to take an honored place beside Mr. Rose's best seller Producing Great Sound. I give it four and a half out of five "cows".
-- Timothy J. Allen, CreativeCow.net
Read the full review.
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Audio Postproduction for Digital Video is the follow up to Producing Great Sound for Digital Video. The new book basically expands on the postproduction section in the first book and as a result, some of the material overlaps. But at more than 400 pages, it contains so much essential new information that you may never notice the similarity between a few chapters. Rose is smart about not overwhelming the reader, but ... also goes beyond the basics for the reader who may be considering a career in film sound. Contains more practical advice and information about the actual process of ADR and sound effects editing than has been shared in any one book. Rose knows what is required to get the job done and presents it as if he's a consultant to your independent film company. The chapter on dialogue editing alone is worth the price of the book.
-- S. D. Katz, Millimeter Magazine
Read the full review (you'll have to scroll to bottom of that page).
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I have just read the best audio text on the practical and technical aspects of audio for digital video post production... a comprehensive and useful text for video editors who work with audio.
Novice editors can read this book... and have a collection of advanced audio capabilities in their bag of tricks in order to compete. The excellent chapter on dialog editing makes this book a must read for editors! There is a separate chapter for finding and editing music, and another for sound effects... If you work with audio in your timeline, I cannot imagine that you will not become a better video editor after reading it.
-- Bob Turner's The Cut, July 16, 2003
Read the full review.
- Audio Postproduction for Digital Video can be used as a reference book for experienced sound professionals or university instructors, or - for new film-makers like me - can be a practical handbook for anyone who makes digital films... It's all here, shown with useful illustrations and explained in straightforward language that even a beginner can understand. ... the author managed to keep me interested through more than 400 pages of hands-on, detailed practical advice. The book's audio CD - not the typical CD-ROM junkyard of shareware that expires in 4 days - is a valuable collection of sounds and tutorials that are expertly coordinated with the text of the book.
-- Michael Pastore, Epublishers Weekly
Read the full review.
- ...a compendium of virtually every professional audio technique that can be adapted to desktop audio. Digital video students and beginners can use the book to understand what options are available to improve a soundtrack, even after the actors have gone home. Experienced producers can learn the techniques that audio professionals use to solve technical and creative problems quickly.
-- Staff, Creative Planet Communities
Read the full review.
- 100% Recommended by our customers.
--
HallPhysic.com "The most comprehensive Physics portal"
Rose also writes popular audio tutorial columns for DV Magazine and ProVideoCoalition, lectures at various conferences, is a member of the Cinema Audio Society and past officer of the Audio Engineering Society.
The first edition is now available in Russian and German editions.
