Review: The Book of Audacity

By DAN MASON

It’s been few years since I was in a music recording studio. And I can’t honestly say I’ve ever tried mixing down multitrack recordings in surround sound.

But if I did, the first piece of kit I’d reach for is The Book of Audacity, by Carla Schroder.

Likewise, I don’t mind revealing my vintage by confessing to several boxes in the loft stuffed with LPs just crying out to be digitised. Well, thanks to Schroder, the Doobie Brothers and Oscar Peterson could soon be appearing on my iPod.

For journalists more concerned with capturing clean audio and natural sound for interviews; maybe the occasional podcast or audio slideshow, the above might not seem like essential learning. But Schroder’s approach is spot on: The more you know about audio, the better you’ll become.

And as this comprehensive book reveals, Audacity – the free open-source audio editor – will take you further than you might have imagined.

To be honest, I don’t think the book’s title does it justice. This is the ‘Everything you wanted to know about sound but didn’t know where to start’ book. Whatever the title, the content is excellent.

Writing about software isn’t easy. Either authors strut their knowledge leaving readers’ eyes to glaze over on the second page, or they keep it so simple we’re left skipping whole chapters.

Schroder knows what she’s talking and doesn’t need to prove it. In fact, she devotes a good deal of space to bursting the bubbles of audiophobes who might be trying to flog you gold-plated cables or convince you that valve amps hammer digital for sound quality.

The book’s style is witty and informal, but Schroder definitely doesn’t duck the detail. On the contrary, she expects you to grasp the difference between bit sampling and bit depth, and when a lossy format might be preferable to lossless. Thankfully, she puts it all across with refreshing clarity.

Whether covering studio techniques, podcasting or creating mobile ringtones, each chapter adopts, as the cover puts it, ‘a project-based, get-it-done’ approach.

Her chapters on using Audacity’s array of effects and plug-ins are particularly impressive. Follow the tips, and you’ll soon be juggling dynamic range, using compression, levelling and normalisation with confidence. And if you do get stuck with the terminology, there’s a glossary to hand.

Audacity ... It's free, but a powerful performer

If you’re a musician new to recording, this is a great place to start. Creating loops, overdubbing, click tracks, risset drums, reverb, phasing – even tips on copyright and legal issues … it’s all here.

For journalists, Shroder goes step by step through capturing, editing and exporting in a variety of formats. Schroder does a predictably masterful job of explaining Audacity’s controls and shortcuts.

As a Mac user, I did find the book a tad dominated by PC and Linux (some 40-odd pages are dedicated to configuring Audacity for these operating systems). But then, journalists I work with in Africa and elsewhere are more often than not using old PCs (on which Audacity invariably works a treat). So not an issue.

The Book of Audacity’s cover price is USD 34.95 (eBook USD 27.95), which a few may think pricey when there are hundreds of free tutorials online. But that wouldn’t be fair on the value of this book as an invaluable reference resource. In any case, I see The Book of Audacity currently on sale through Amazon.co.uk at around £17. And no-one could grumble at that.

If you are playing with Audacity for the first time, then by all means start with a quick-start online tutorial. But if you want to take your understanding of audio – and Audacity – to the next level, seriously consider buying this book. It certainly deserves a place on the bookshelf of journalism teachers, colleges, musicians and anyone interested in mastering quality audio.

In the chapter titled ‘Building a good digital sound studio on the cheap’, Schroder makes the point that ‘owning the most expensive, elite audio equipment won’t turn you into Quincy Jones … it won’t turn average musicians into stars.’

The star that shines in this book is Audacity.

• The Book of Audacity, by Carla Schroder, is published by No Starch Press, priced USD 34.95 (eBook USD 27.95)