GET SMART

Oct 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Marty Cutler

           
 

SUPERCAT PRESS

John Keane's A Musician's Guide to Pro Tools ($39.95) is a step-by-step guide to learning Digidesign's Pro Tools Free and Pro Tools 5.1 for Macintosh and Windows systems. The author provides a tutorial that covers everything from basic recording and editing procedures to organizing and backing up files.

The book is divided into three main lessons. The first lesson starts with basic installation and setup advice (including how to create a new session), choosing a sampling rate, and an overview of the Edit window. It continues with a discussion of recording, overdubbing, and basic editing.

The book's second section focuses on mixing: it explains plug-ins, aux sends and returns, automated effects, submixing, and gain structure. Chapter three covers advanced editing techniques, such as setting Markers, fixing and aligning drum tracks, locking regions, and creating Zoom presets. The Appendix provides a list of key commands relevant to each lesson and cutout overlays for function keys. A CD-ROM that contains Pro Tools Session examples is included. Supercat Press; e-mail info@supercatpress.com; Web www.supercatpress.com.

WILDERNESS PRESS

Wilderness Press's Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World ($19.95) is a guide to understanding and recording natural sound environments, by esteemed nature recordist Bernie Krause. The book's publication coincides with the beginning of a National Park Service educational program geared toward educating park visitors about natural soundscapes and the impact of human noise on animal habitats.

Wild Soundscapes begins with a general discussion of sound and auditory perception and provides an analysis of industrialized culture's loss of sensitivity to sounds generated by nature. Krause provides spectrograms that contrast environments with and without the interference of human noise; one example illustrates a spadefoot toad chorus before and during a jet fly-by.

In subsequent chapters, Krause explains his concept of biophony, or creature choruses, and analyzes the limitations of traditional vocabularies of music and sound when describing the sounds of nature. The book also includes a chapter on the art of hearing and recording the sounds. In it, Krause discusses the pitfalls and complications of recording in the wild. An audio CD offering recordings of natural sound and examples of recording techniques accompanies the book. Wilderness Press; tel. (510) 558-1666 or (800) 433-7227; e-mail jones@wildernesspress.com; Web www.wildernesspress.com.

EMEDIA

With more than 175 lessons for guitar, eMedia's Intermediate Guitar Method (Mac/Win; $59.95) CD-ROM moves you into a world beyond simple melodies and strumming. As each lesson's music plays, you can view the animated fretboard and choose from right-hand, left-hand, or other visual perspectives. MIDI tracks enable you to adjust the music to a comfortable speed. In addition, you can loop any portion of a track for repetitive practice in order to focus on difficult passages.

The CD-ROM includes pieces performed in the styles of well-known guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. The disc also provides instruction on strumming techniques for various styles and left-hand techniques, such as bends, vibrato, and barre chords.

Instructor Kevin Garry teaches the use of scales and chord building, improvisation basics, and finger-style playing techniques. The instruction is based on hit songs, including Bob Dylan's “All Along the Watchtower” and Willie Dixon's “Spoonful.” The CD bolsters the course with supplemental tools: a scale directory presented from different neck positions, an automatic tuner, a metronome, a recorder that enables you to record your performance to your hard drive, and a chord dictionary with more than 1,000 chords. eMedia; tel. (206) 329-5657; e-mail custserv@emediamusic.com; Web www.emediamusic.com.