Autumn 2010

Literature

1. New textbook

We have been using the same book for a number of years, and a change is overdue. The new updated sixth edition of Ken C Pohlmann's Principles of Digital Audio is now available on www.bokus.com for only 310 kr in paperback, an excellent value. Allow 3-6 days for delivery. ( http://www.bokus.com/bok/9780071663465/principles-of-digital-audio-sixth-edition/ , 800 pages, 310 kr). This book is the preferred book for the course. It contains a huge amount of material, so I will issue a reading guide for the course as soon as I can. For the first two weeks of the course, however, we will be using Damian Murphy's handout material, so there will be time for you to order Pohlmann's new book.

2. The book we have used earlier is John Watkinson: The Art of Digital Audio, third edition, 2000. Elsevier Science & Technology, ISBN: 9780240515878. This is the best of the several Watkinson books, but it is quite expensive (816 kr on www.bokus.com), so I am not counting on many participants to buy it. Most of the material is still current, although some sections on mechanical storage are becoming a little dated. This book will be referred to as WArt.

3. The third choice is John Watkinson: An Introduction to Digital Audio, second edition. Focal Press 2002, ISBN: 9780240516431. (374 kr on Bokus). This book is adequate but somewhat thin and introductory. Analogue audio technology is entirely missing (as in WArt). This book will be referred to as WIntro. A few copies are available for loan at the TMH reception (deposition of 400 kr).

4. There is also John Watkinson: The Art of Sound Reproduction. Focal Press 1998, ISBN 0-240-51512-9, 684 kr. This book is now too old, but it contains sections on analog techniques which some may find interesting, although they will not be dealt with in the course. This book will be referred to as WSound. We will use parts of it as handouts.

The core chapters in the Watkinson books are very similar. Your interests (or your wallet) can guide your choice. None of the books contain much on spatial sound (lectures F2-F4 and tutorial 1), nor on software for audio. Those topics will be covered by substantial handouts and web links.

2. Audioteknik i praktiken: selected articles written by earlier course participants in 2002-2008. Some of these are in English. These provide interesting insights into special areas and real-life installations. Download here  (PDF 3 MB).

3. The Swedish broadcasting corporation (Sveriges Radio) has published a pair of excellent overview books in Swedish called Digital teknik i ljudproduktion and Digital ljudlagring på CD och DVD. These will be distributed free of charge, courtesy of SR.  

Reading guide to Pohlmann, Principles of Digital Audio, Sixth Edition

Reading guide to WArt: Watkinson, The Art of Digital Audio

1. Why digital? Read through
2. Some audio principles. Repetition, on your own
3. Digital principles. Applied theory, on your own
4. Conversion. Important; lectures 5, 6, exercise 2
5. Compression. Important, lecture 10
6. Dig. rec & transmission principles. On your own
7. Error correction. On your own
8. Transmission. Lecture 11
9. Digital audio tape recorders. On your own
10. Disk drives. Lecture 9
11. Audio editing. On your own
12. Digital audio in optical disks. Lecture 12.
13. Sound quality considerations. On your own.

Reading guide to WIntro: Watkinson, An Introduction to Digital Audio

The whole book is worth a good read through, but all chapters are not on the curriculum. "On your own" means that the material is part of the course, but will not be treated in the lectures.

Chapter 1 Overview of the book. Read before the first lecture.
Chapter 2  Elementary acoustics and perception. Voluntary repetition from Medieteknik gk:Ljud för Media, suitable for a quick read for those from the E and D programmes.
Chapter 3  A quick sweep of things audio related in digital technology fundamentals, transforms and discrete mathematics. The beginning is easy but it advances rapidly. Good for filling in your prior knowledge. On your own.
Chapter 4  Conversion. Important, corresponds to lectures F5 and F6.
Chapter 5  Data reduction. The principles are important, corresponds to lecture F10.
Chapter 6  Coding principles, error handling. The technique is important, but it is mostly the error handling that is audio-specific. The principles of Reed-Solomon-codes are important but their implementation details are out of scope (some of you may know them already).
Chapter 7  Transmission. Lecture F11.
Chapter 8  Digital recorders.  Read as an orientation, not part of the course requirements.
Chapter 9  Hard disks and audio. Lecture F7.
Chapter 10  Editing digital audio. Read in preparation for Lab B.
Chapter 11  Optical discs. Lecture F12. More detailed than we have seen in earlier courses. The Sveriges Radio booklet is perhaps an easier read. 

Reading guide to WSound: Watkinson, The Art of Sound Reproduction

This book from 1998 is now rather dated but can be a worthwhile supplement if you are interested in analogue techniques. The whole book is worth a good read through, but all chapters are not on the curriculum. "On your own" means that the material is part of the course, but will not be treated in the lectures.

Chapter 1  Introduction. Read it through.
Chapter 2  General fundamentals. Perhaps superfluous for E, but a useful recapitulation for Media and D. On your own.
Chapter 3  Elementary acoustics and perception. Voluntary repetition for Media and E, partially new for D. On your own.
Chapter 4  Sound sources, is a bit like a quick preview of DT2212 Music Acoustics, for those who are interested. Not part of the course.
Chapter 5  Microphones, more applied than in DT2400 Electroacoustics. On your own.
Chapter 6  Loudspeakers, more applied than in DT2400 Electroacoustics. On your own.
Chapter 7  Stereophony. More modern but less theoretical than in DT2400.
Chapter 8  Digital signals. Included.
Chapter 9  Analog techniques. On your own if you are interested.
Chapter 10  Digital recording. On your own.
Kap 11  Optical discs. Lecture F12. More detailed than we have seen in earlier courses. The Sveriges Radio booklet is perhaps an easier read. 
Kap 12  Sound editing. Read in preparation for Lab B.
Kap 13  Audio processing. Sections 13.1-13.15 will be handed out, to be read in preparation for Lab A.
Kap 14  Sound quality measurements. This is somewhat dated; it is better to read the blue booklet from Sveriges Radio.  

Lecture notes

The lecture notes of our English guest lecturer Dr Damian Murphy
on surround sound are here: Introduction and full text .

The Ambisonic decoding exercise is here.

Damian Murphy encourages us to read the article series on Surround Sound at http://www.sospubs.co.uk/ (of Sound on Sound magazine). Pohlmann and Watkinson have little to offer on this subject.

Lecture slides on software architecture for audio. (PDF)

Lecture slides on construction with audio IC's, transmission, optical disc storage and hard discs. (PDF, English)

Lecture slides on compression of audio data. (PDF, English)

Additional reading (optional)

· Everest, F. Alton. The Master Handbook of Acoustics. ISBN 0-8306-4437-7. (mostly on the design of studios)
· Davis, Don & Davis, Carolyn. Sound System Engineering. ISBN 0-240-80305-1. (construction and planning of large installations.)
· Rumsey, Francis. Spatial Audio. Focal Press Music Technology Series, ISBN 0-240-51623-0 (Surround Sound, 2D- and 3D-reproduction)