|
A professor of electrical engineering at the University of Utah, Stockham became interested in recording audio using digital means in 1949, when Bell Labs first digitized speech. "It became apparent," he said later, "that if speech could be digitized, so could music," and started researching the concept in earnest in 1962. In 1975, he founded Soundstream, the first digital recording company, and demonstrated his digital recording techniques by remastering early Enrico Caruso recordings and a live performance of the Santa Fe Opera. He says he was told that "when you get it in the field, it will fail." But Stockham's techniques led directly to compact discs and other digital recording systems. And the CD led to more: "It was just a very logical step to go from sounds to pictures," says Larry DeVries, a colleague at the University of Utah. "So nowadays we not only have CDs, we also have DVDs. It's the same basic concept." Stockham has long been known as the "father of digital recording" and was awarded Grammy, Emmy and Academy awards for his accomplishments. He died January 6 of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 70. From This is True for 4 January 2004 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: David Nahmani List Price: $54.99 Amazon Price: $32.99 Editorial Review: This brand-new Apple-certified guide, reconceived for Logic's new interface, uses all-new projects and media files to show you how to record, produce, and polish your musical creations with Apple's professional audio software. Veteran audio producer David Nahmani uses step-by-step, project-based instruction and straightforward explanations to teach everything from basic music creation to advanced production techniques.Using the book's DVD files and either Logic Pro 8 or Logic Express 8, you'll begin making music in the first lesson. From there, you'll learn to record audio and MIDI, edit sequences, master mixing techniques, and use Logic's software synthesizers, sampler, and digital signal processors to put the perfect aural polish on your audio creations. A special troubleshooting section helps you set up and optimize your studio and Logic system effectively. Whether you're looking to use your computer as a digital recording studio, create musical compositions and cutting-edge surround-sound mixes, or transfer that song in your head into living music, this comprehensive book/DVD combo will show you how.  By: David Pogue List Price: $19.99 Amazon Price: $13.59 Editorial Review: iPhone: The Missing Manual Sneak Preview: David Pogue's Favorite iPhone Tricks The iPhone's finger-driven interface seems natural and obvious. But when you really think about it, making it seem that way was no easy task. There are no menus in the iPhone software, for example, and no checkboxes or radio buttons. Everything on the screen has to be big enough for a fleshy fingertip. On the other hand, the finger makes an outstanding pointing device; heck, you've been pointing with it all your life. It's much faster to scroll diagonally with a fingertip, for example, than with fussy adjustments on two different scroll bars. Here, then, are some of the iPhone's unadvertised taps, double-taps, and other shortcuts, all culled from iPhone: The Missing Manual. Double-TappingDouble-tapping is actually pretty rare on the iPhone. It's not like the Mac or Windows, where double-clicking the mouse means "open." On the iPhone, you open something with one tap. A double tap, therefore, is reserved for three functions: In Photos, Google Maps, and Safari (the Web browser), double-tapping zooms in on whatever you tap, magnifying it by a factor of two. In the same programs, as well as Mail, double-tapping means, "restore to original size" after you've zoomed in. (Weirdly, in Google Maps, you use a different gesture to zoom out: tap once with two fingers. That gesture appears nowhere else on the iPhone.) When you're watching a video, double-tapping eliminates or restores letterbox bars. See, the iPhone's screen is bright, vibrant, and stunningly sharp. It's not, however, the right shape for videos. Standard TV shows are squarish, not rectangular. So when you watch TV shows, you get black letterbox columns on either side of the picture. Movies have the opposite problem. They're too wide for the iPhone screen. So when you watch movies, you wind up with letterbox bars above and below the picture. Some people are fine with that. At least when letterbox bars are onscreen, you know you're seeing the complete composition of the scene the director intended. Other people can't stand letterbox bars. You're already watching on a pretty small screen; why sacrifice some of that precious area to black bars? That's why the iPhone gives you a choice. If you double-tap the video as it plays, you zoom in, magnifying the image so that it fills the entire screen. Part of the image is now off the screen; now you're not seeing the entire composition originally broadcast. You lose the top and bottom of TV scenes, or the left and right edges of movie scenes. If this effect winds up chopping off something important--some text on the screen, for example--restoring the original letterbox view is just another double-tap away. Secrets of the SensorsThe iPhone has three cool sensors. First, it has an accelerometer that detects when you've rotated the iPhone into landscape orientation. In programs like Photos, Safari, and iPod, it triggers the screen image to rotate as well. Camouflaged behind the black glass where you can't see them except with a bright flashlight are two more sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the screen illumination and touch sensitivity when the phone is against your head (it works only in the Phone application), and an ambient-light sensor that brightens the display when you're in sunlight and dims it in darker places. Apple says that it experimented with having the light sensor active all the time, but it was weird to have the screen get brighter and darker all the time. So the sensor now samples the ambient light, and adjusts the brightness; it does this only once--each time you unlock the phone after waking it. You can use that tip to your advantage. By covering up the sensor (just above the earpiece) as you unlock the phone, you force it to a low-power, dim screen-brightness setting (because the phone believes that it's in a dark room). Or by holding it up to a light as you wake it, you get full brightness. In both cases, you've saved all the taps and navigation it would have taken you to find the manual brightness slider in Settings. Earbud Cord SwitchWithout close inspection, you'd have a hard time telling the iPhone's white stereo earbuds apart from a regular iPod's--but don't get them mixed up. The iPhone's earbuds have a tiny, embedded clicker/microphone partway down the right earbud cord. That's right, "clicker/microphone." The tiny bulge is the microphone for phone calls. But if you pinch the bulge, you'll find that it clicks. Pinch once to answer an incoming phone call. Pinch for a couple seconds to dump the call to voicemail. (You can also double-tap the Sleep/Wake switch on top of the iPhone to send the call to voicemail.) During music or video playback, pinch once to pause the music; pinch again to resume playback. During music playback, double-pinch to skip to the next song. Customizing the iPod ButtonsThe iPod module on the iPhone starts out with buttons along the bottom for summoning four lists: Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Videos. But what about Albums? Genres? Composers? They're there, all right, but hidden; you have to tap More to see them. But what if you use those lists more often than Artists or Songs? No problem: you can replace one of those starter buttons with a list of your own. Tap More, and then tap the Edit button (upper-left corner). You arrive at the Configure screen. Here's the complete list of music-and-video sorting lists: Albums, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Genres, Composers, Compilations, Playlists, Artists, Songs, and Videos. To replace one of the four starter icons, use a finger to drag an icon from the top half of the screen downward, directly onto the existing icon you want to replace. It lights up to show the success of your drag. When you release your finger, you'll see that the new icon has replaced the old one. Tap Done in the upper-right corner. Keyboard SpeedupsDon't bother using the Shift key to capitalize a new sentence. The iPhone does that capitalizing automatically. Don't put apostrophes in contractions, either; the iPhone will put those in for you, too. Force Quit, ResetThe iPhone is pretty darned simple and stable, but it's still a computer. In times of troubleshooting, these tips may come in handy: Force quit a program. Press and hold the Home button for six seconds to force-quit a program that seems to be stuck. Reset. If the entire iPhone locks up--it can happen--press and hold both the Home button and the Sleep/Wake switch for eight seconds. You'll see the screen go black, and then the Apple logo appears as the iPhone reboots. McCallum's Awesome iPhone Period-Typing Shortcut I have in my possession a nugget, a secret bit of iPhone information that's so valuable, such a headache- and time-saver, that I don't know what to do with it. One voice in my head says, "Hoard it! Keep it a secret until your book is published! If you reveal it, it'll be all over the Net in hours, and all your competitors' books will have it, too." But another voice says, "But this information is too good to keep quiet. Plus, you didn't discover it yourself. And besides, you're not gonna starve, either way." Eventually, the second little voice prevailed. I'm going to share with you the solution to one of the most annoying things, if not THE most annoying thing, about typing on the iPhone: The punctuation keys and alphabet keys appear in two different keyboard layouts. So every time you want to type a period or a comma, it's a three-step, awkward dance: (1) Tap the ".?123" key in the lower left to summon the punctuation layout. (2) Type the period. (3) Type the ABC key in the lower left to return to the alphabet layout. Imagine how excruciating it is to type, for example, "a P.O. Box in the U.S.A.!" That's 34 finger taps and 10 mode changes! And therefore imagine how thrilled I was to receive an email from reader Andrew McCallum, containing a method of typing a period or a comma with only a SINGLE finger gesture. The iPhone doesn't register most key presses until you *release* your finger. But Andrew discovered that the Shift and Punctuation keys register their taps on the *press-down* instead. So here's what you can do, all in one motion: 1. Touch the ".?123" key, but don't lift your finger as the punctuation layout appears. 2. Slide your finger a half inch onto the period or comma key, and release. Incredibly, the ABC layout returns automatically. You've typed a period or a comma with one finger touch instead of three. In fact, you can type ANY of the punctuation symbols the same way. This makes a HUGE difference in the usability of the keyboard. Type on, bro. Book Description As you'd expect of Apple, the iPhone is gorgeous. iPhone: The Missing Manual is a book as breathtaking as its subject. Teeming with high-quality color graphics, each custom designed page helps you accomplish specific tasks -- everything from Web browsing to watching videos. Written by New York Times columnist and Missing Manual series creator David Pogue, this book shows you how to get the most out of your new Apple iPhone. The name iPhone may be doing Apple a disservice. This machine is so packed with possibilities that the cellphone may actually be the least interesting part. The iPhone is at least three products merged into one: a phone, a wide-screen iPod and a wireless, touch-screen Internet communicator. The iPhone's beauty alone may be enough for you to dig for your credit cards, but its Mac OS X-based software makes it not so much a smartphone as something out of the film "Minority Report." The real magic, however, awaits when you browse the Web. You get to see the entire Web page on the iPhone's screen. All of this is cooked up with Apple's traditional secret sauce of simplicity, intelligence and whimsy. Written by New York Times columnist and Missing Manual series creator David Pogue, iPhone: The Missing Manual shows you everything they need to know to get the most out of your new Apple iPhone. Full of humor, tips, tricks, and surprises, this book teaches you how to extend iPhone's usefulness by exploiting its links to the Web as well as its connection to Macs or PCs; how to save money using Internet-based messages instead of phone calls; and how to fill the iPhone with TV shows and DVDs for free.  By: Jude BiersdorferDavid Pogue List Price: $19.99 Amazon Price: $13.59 Editorial Review: Product Description With iPod touch, Apple's sleek little entertainment center has entered a whole new realm, and the ultimate iPod book is ready to take you on a complete guided tour. As breathtaking and satisfying as its subject, iPod: The Missing Manual gives you a no-nonsense view of everything in the "sixth generation" iPod line. Learn what you can do with iPod Touch and its multi-touch interface, 3.5-inch widescreen display and Wi-Fi browsing capabilities. Get to know the redesigned iPod Nano with its larger display and video storage capacity. It's all right here. The 6th edition sports easy-to-follow color graphics, crystal-clear explanations, and guidance on the most useful things your iPod can do. Topics include: Out of the box and into your ears. Learn how to install iTunes, load music on your iPod, and get rid of that dang flashing "Do not disconnect" message. Bopping around the iPod. Whether you've got a tiny Shuffle, a Nano, the Classic, or the new Touch, you'll learn everything from turning your iPod off and on to charging your iPod without a computer. Special coverage for iPod owners with trickster friends: How to reset the iPod's menus to English if they've been changed to, say, Korean. In tune with iTunes. iTunes can do far more than your father's jukebox. Learn how to pick and choose which parts of your iTunes library loads onto your iPod, how to move your sacred iTunes Folder to a bigger hard drive, and how to add album covers to your growing collection. The power of the 'Pod. Download movies and TV shows, play photo slideshows, find cool podcasts, and more: this book shows you how to unleash all your iPod's power. iPod is simply the best music player available, and this is the manualthat should have come with it. Amazon Exclusive: VIP Tips and Tricks for iPod Users iTunes Store Tip: Future Shopping Many people use Amazon's Wish List feature for tagging items they want to remember to buy at a later date--and you can do the same thing with music and videos for sale in the iTunes Store. To get started, make a new playlist in iTunes by pressing Control-N on Windows or Command-N on a Mac. Name the new playlist "Wish List" or something memorable like "My Next Paycheck." If you want to keep it extra handy (and on top of all your other playlists), add an "@" symbol to the beginning of the name so the wish list stays on top of the alphabetical pile of playlists in your iTunes window. When you browse the Store later and find a song or video you want to eventually buy, drag its 30-second preview snippet right out of the iTunes Store window and onto the new wish-list playlist you made. Those 30-second snippets will hang out there as a reminder that you want to buy the song or video; if you change your mind, select the track and hit the Delete key to remove it. But if you do want to follow through and make the purchase, you just have to click that big BUY SONG or BUY EPISODE button next to the title to get transported back into the Store to seal the deal. iPod Audio Book Tip: Adjusting the Speed of the Read The iPod is great for listening to audio books, and both Audible.com and the iTunes Store offer thousands of them for sale. But if you find a particular book's narrator is talking too slow or too fast for your personal liking, you can adjust the pace of the reading. Just go to the Settings menu on the main iPod menu screen and select Audiobooks. On the next screen, you can opt to make the playback speed slower or faster than normal. And you can do this without affecting the pitch of the voice and making it sound either like the book is being read underwater or recited by a chipmunk. If you want to adjust the playback speed while you're listening to the audio book file itself, press the iPod's center button a few times. On most models, the audio book speed controls will appear on screen after a few taps and you can change your reading speed on the fly. iTunes Tip: Grooving Out with the Visualizer If you've been working hard all day and want to take a little music break at your desk, give your eyeballs and treat and let your mind wander with the iTunes Visualizer. This swirling laser-light show is built right into iTunes itself and you can turn it on by going to the View menu and choosing "Turn On Visualizer" (or by pressing Control-T in Windows or Command-T on a Mac keyboard). With the Visualizer turned on, choreographed bursts of color accompany your music as it plays. If you want to adjust the size of the Visualizer window — or even make it take over your full computer screen — pop into the iTunes preferences box by pressing Control-comma (Windows) or Command-comma (Mac). In the Preferences box, click the Advanced tab and choose the size of your visuals from the options at the bottom of the box, then click OK. And if you want to get even deeper into the Visualizer, press the question mark keys on the computer keyboard next time you're chilling out to the light show. A hidden menu of other Visualizer configurations and commands appears on screen for you to play with.  By: David Miles HuberRobert E. Runstein List Price: $50.95 Amazon Price: $35.30 Editorial Review: As the most popular and authoritative guide to recording available, Modern Recording Techniques provides everything you need to master the tools and day-to-day practice of music recording and production. The sixth edition has been expanded to cover the latest digital audio technology and features a new section on surround sound. For those who are just starting out or are looking for their next job in the industry, this edition also provides essential advice on career options and networking. David Miles Hubers approachable writing style, coupled with over 500 technical diagrams, screen shots and product illustrations, makes this an essential resource which you will want to refer to again and again. * Learn from the resource that is used by more students, musicians and audio engineers than any other in the industry. *International bestseller providing tips and techniques for getting the best results from both project and professional recording studios. * The biggest edition yet - it is packed with new material, including surround sound and digital technology, as well as the latest career advice * The companion website, www.modrec.com, provides even more resources and information.The most popular and authoritative guide to recording available. Modern Recording Techniques provides everything an enthusiast needs to master the tools and day-to-day practice of music recording and production. The sixth edition has been expanded to cover the latest digital audio technology and features a new section on surround sound. For those who are just starting out or are looking for their next job in the industry, this edition also provides essential advice on career options and networking. The approachable writing style, coupled with over 500 technical diagrams, screen shots and product illustrations, makes this an industry praised, essential resource which users will want to refer to again and again.  By: Tony BoveCheryl Rhodes List Price: $21.99 Amazon Price: $14.95 Editorial Review: Whether it’s the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, video iPod, or some other variation, iTunes and iPods go together like treble and bass. It’s so easy to purchase the latest music and videos, download podcasts, and even keep track of your calendar on your iPod—so why wouldn’t you? But if it’s so easy, why do you need iPod & iTunes For Dummies? iPods now come in everything from 1GB to 80GB models and play movies, store photos, function as a spare hard drive, and even wake you up in the morning. If this is your first one, you’ll find no better place to get acquainted with it than in this bestselling book. If you’ve just purchased a brand-new iPod, you’ll find this Fifth Edition packed with valuable tidbits about the latest and greatest features. You’ll discover how to: Set up an iTunes account Build a playlist of streaming radio stations Synchronize your iPod with other devices Record memos and appointments Play movies from your iPod on a TV Connect your iPod to your car stereo or portable speakers Add and edit iTunes song information Organize music and media into iTunes playlists Fine-tune sound playback with either the iPod or iTunes equalizer Transfer music to your iPod from old tapes and phonograph records Find out how to use every feature of your favorite iPod model and get the scoop on making the most of iTunes with iPod & iTunes For Dummies, 5th Edition!UL> iPod is Apple's breakthrough MP3 music player that weighs less than two CDs, holds 7,500 songs, and has generated tremendous excitement Since hitting the market in November 2001, the iPod has sold more than one million units, which equates to more than one iPod sold every minute of every day since its introduction The iTunes music service sold more than five million tracks at ninety-nine cents apiece in its first eight weeks of service Covers key features of iPod, iTunes, and the iTunes music store, which provides a legal way for consumers to secure downloadable music at an affordable price Explains how to name your iPod and set preferences, connect and share your iPod, organize your digital jukebox, play music, synchronize your iPod, copy files, burn audio CDs, preview music tracks, search for and download songs from the music store, and more Appeals to Mac veterans who are seeking more information about downloadable music, as well as to the growing population of new Macintosh and iPod users |
About the HUs
About This is True
Prev: Computer/Internet pioneer Phillip Goldman Next: Writer Jack Cady |