I got a call from my insurance agent. Not about
coverage—could I talk to her high school son? He loves sound, and is
always playing with audio on his computer and editing new tracks for TV shows.
But he doesn’t know whether to go to film or engineering school; get a liberal
arts degree or save the money and look for an internship.
Maybe I’ll have a better idea after I hear the kid’s work,
but for now, all I could say on schools is, “They’re all good, and they all
have drawbacks.” This isn’t a knock on higher education. Lots of my friends
teach at film and engineering schools, or media courses at major universities.
But school can be expensive, and some people don’t flourish in that kind of
setting. Fortunately, you can learn a lot—even about something as
technical as film and video sound—without ever setting foot in a
classroom.
I should know. My last serious math and physics classes were
in high school. But I’ve built complicated studios and kept them running,
programmed some well-respected pieces of digital audio equipment, and written
books used in engineering schools and film classes. My secret—which I
hereby share with my insurance agent’s son and you—requires just four
things: a few books, a Web browser, a little luck and a lot of loving what you
do.
The luck part involves finding mentors and opportunities to
practice your craft. These are important, and a good college can provide them
both. It can also give you lists of books and help you find Web resources. But
if you want to be any good, you have to keep learning throughout your
career—whether you’ve taken college courses or not. So let me list some
non-school resources that are part of my own continuing audio and film
education. Many are free, and all are bargains. (If I miss one of your
favorites, drop a note and I’ll spread the word.)
The Web is a wonderful thing. Google and Wikipedia answer
almost any question you throw at them, sometimes even with correct and unbiased
information. After the skepticism and cross-checking that a good Web search
requires, they’re still great resources. So are Wikiversity.org (free introductory
courses on a bunch of subjects) and Wikibooks.org
(exactly what you’d expect). In fact, you can spend some profitable hours just
poking around the world of user-contributed-and-edited content at Wikimedia.org. The Open Source movement,
similar to the Wikis, does the same thing with free software. Some of its
programs are great production tools, like the Audacity multitrack audio editor
I’ve mentioned before. Some are just fun to play with, which can also be
educational. Many include documentation. Open Source’s home is sourceforge.net.
Manufacturers, industry organizations, magazines and
individuals like me also sponsor sites where you can learn about audio and
electronics. Among the best, in alphabetical order:
An organization primarily of production sound mixers, with
an informative online journal, an active discussion board, and links to other
film sound technical societies.
My Web site, which has a large tutorial section and index to
my columns in DV, as well as some streaming audio humor about our industry.
This is the current home of engineer Tomi Engdahl’s Web
site, one of the most valuable and relatively undiscovered technical areas on
the Web
. It includes an immense database of contributed articles, circuit
diagrams, and tutorials about audio and electronics.
Equipment Emporium
(www.equipmentemporium.com)
A sales and rental house, with lots of useful articles on
soundtrack production, and downloadable manuals for some common gear.
Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)
Cast, crew, and occasional trivia for just about every movie
ever made—Hollywood features, made-for-TV, low-budget indies, the works.
Museum of Broadcast Technology (www.wmbt.org)
The growing site of a new brick-and-mortar museum in Rhode
Island. Articles and photos about how we got where we are today.
Quantel Limited (www.quantel.com)
This film and video equipment manufacturer has assembled a
large downloadable library on digital audio and video, workflows, and
interchange systems. The site also offers a free, downloadable 150-page
guidebook to digital broadcasting.
Rane Corporation (www.rane.com)
Rane makes equipment for commercial sound installations. But
its site includes valuable information on all forms of audio, including a
library of downloadable technical booklets and a complete audio dictionary.
Rycote’s Microphone Database (www.microphone-data.com)
Technical specifications for thousands of microphones,
sponsored by a maker of professional shockmounts and windscreens. Rycote
doesn’t do its own measurements, but if a mic manufacturer publishes any,
you’ll find them neatly organized here—complete with polar patterns and
response curves when available.
Video University (www.videouniversity.com)
This site has a few basic articles on audio, plus a lot of
information about the technology and business of video.
A few of these sites require free registration, but I’ve
never gotten spam from any of them. Many also include links to other sites, so
you could spend a few lifetimes exploring and learning. Of course the Web
doesn’t stay still, so some of these references might disappear before you get
to them.
TEXT ME
Computers also made possible an explosion of up-to-date
books by working experts—people who’d never consider writing in the days
of manual typewriters and stodgy publishers. Some can be valuable for beginners
and experienced pros alike. Here are a few I’ve learned from. Most of these are
available from standard sources; links for all of them—with discounted
prices, where I could find them—are on the DV Readers’ page of my site (www.dplay.com/dv).
ARRL Handbook.
The American Radio Relay League updates this 1,200-page
encyclopedia every year, with a CD-ROM containing articles on just about every
aspect of audio and radio electronics. It’s unabashedly technical, but deep and
reliable—and you don’t need the latest version to learn a lot.
Audio Postproduction (Jay Rose)
OK, I wrote it, but it’s used at a lot of schools worldwide,
including Russian and German versions. Downloadable samples, critical comments
and more are all at my Web site.
Dialog Editing for Motion Pictures (John Purcell)
Video and film sound evolved with very different editing
methods; each has its specific strengths. Film style is much better for telling
long stories shot in short takes. Video style can be more powerful for
documentaries and pieces using voice-over, and it’s faster. While these styles
evolved because the technologies were different, modern audio software makes
both available all the time. My books come from a video-centric point of view,
while Purcell’s are from film; we each explain tricks and techniques the other
never covers. I recommend reading both. Besides, Purcell is as good and clear a
writer as I try to be.
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound (David Lewis Yewdall)
The differences between film and video workflows affect the
entire process, from preproduction through mix. Yewdall covers the entire film
sound process. This wide-ranging topic means he can’t get as deeply into
specific techniques as my books or Purcell’s, but you can learn a lot from his
extensive experiences in the feature world. If you want to learn how things are
done when there’s a Hollywood budget, this is the book to read.
Producing Great Sound (Me again)
See listing under Audio Postproduction; details also at my
Web site.
Sound for Film and Television (Tomlinson Holman)
A bit more for the technically minded than Yewdall’s book,
and definitely oriented toward feature film workflows, despite the title. This
makes sense, since Holman is the “TH” in THX, as well as a respected sound
designer and teacher in Hollywood.
Total Recording (David Moulton)
This thick book, written by a Grammy-nominated engineer and
audio educator, explains how to get the best results from just about every
gadget and person in a music studio. A lot applies to film and video as well.
If you’ve got the time and commitment, you can also benefit from the listening
exercises in Moulton’s separate Golden Ears audio training CDs.
A disclaimer: Purcell, Yewdall, Holman and I are all
published by Focal Press, but I have no financial interest in any titles other
than my own. In fact, I’ll even point you to a great Web resource for people
who’d rather borrow books than pay for them: www.worldcatlibraries.org. Enter a
title, author, and your ZIP code, and this meta-catalog will locate the library
copies closest to your home.
Jay Rose, C.A.S., is a nationally respected sound designer who readily admits he’s still learning. Reach him at www.dplay.com.