Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More Review

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Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More ReviewBurning Down the House
Ripping, Recording, Remixing and more!
Nov. 2004
This book is about putting music on the computer, editing it and then playing it back. Or, "That's No Computer - It's Your Music Machine". As the book further states, "It doesn't matter whether you can play an instrument, read music, or carry a tune - as long as you like music, all the projects in this book are within your grasp".
The desktop computer now can do things that used to require thousands of dollars worth of equipment. This book gives the novice computer audiophile a lot of great basic info to get started, and also has many tips and tricks for more experienced users
It is well-written , with many screenshots illustrating the text, and though short, it is extensive and very informative. The book identifies software needed to perform the various functions which, in almost all cases, is freeware or shareware, to limit costs.
Of course, an initial question is "Why do I want to know all this?" My short answer - because it allows one to obtain a digital audio file with content just as wanted.
I have a few projects in mind which would make good use of the computer. In some cases there are no commercial CDs available presently. Other projects would transfer audio from records or tapes that will continue to deteriorate - records when the phonograph needle wears out the grooves and tapes as they age and lose magnetic material - and also continue to accumulate scratches and other artifacts that cause blips in the sound. Computer processing can eliminate these artifacts and improve the sound quality. Also the computer will allow me to make CDs with my own compilation of music - and in a manner so it can be played on any CD player, anywhere.
The following are my initial projects which can be handled quite well on the computer.
1. I have old tapes of my children's music performances while in school. I would like to produce an audio CD with the numerous tapes combined on the one CD.
2. I have some old 78 rpm records of Enrico Caruso, Fritz Kreisler and others, which are no longer available. It will be interesting to listen to these on modern equipment.
3. I have a 33 rpm record of Porgy & Bess with Cab Calloway as Sportin' Life singing It Ain't Necessarily So which is not available on CD.
Before describing how this book helps me with these projects - and other music-related uses of the computer - it will be helpful to define certain of the terms relevant to this processes used in this book - and thereby indicate the scope of the efforts described.
*Digitizing - converting the analog sound signals from tapes and records to digital format for the computer
*Burning - writing data onto a CD-R or -RW
*Ripping - reading audio data from a CD and saving to a computer
*Recording - capturing audio on to a media
*Mixing - creating a group of selected songs, including songs from different CDs or other sources
*Re-mixing - further editing of mixes, including excerpting portions of songs
*Downloading - obtaining music from the Internet and saving it on the computer [see Streaming]
*Streaming - receiving and playing, without storing, music from the Internet [see Downloading]
*Broadcasting - sending audio signals to remote receivers or speakers
*Codecs -technology for compressing/decompressing data files, in this case audio files:
oMP3 - a popular codec
oWMA - Microsoft's codec
oRealAudio - Real.com's codec
oWAV - Microsoft's uncompressed format
oNumerous other
*Mash-up - splicing all or parts of two or more songs into one unit
The book's Chapter headings also are descriptive of the content

1.That's no computer - It's your music machine
2.What you need [and what you don't]
3.Copy a CD
4.Rip a CD
5.Download music
6.Record and mix live audio
7.Burn the perfect mix
8.Digitize your vinyl [my primary interest]
9.Turn your digital pictures into music videos
10.Build a beat and sample library
11.Broadcast audio to every radio in your house
12.Turn out your own DJ set
13.Make a self-playing or self-burning CD
14.Create your own Internet Radio Station
15.Remixing 101
16.Create a mash-up remix
Appendix - Legal considerations

The low-cost music software covered includes Audacity, CoolEdit Pro, Windows Media Player, MusicMatch Jukebox, PC DJ Broadcaster, Shoutcast Server and more, with explanations of the various file formats. The discussions of editing include fixing artifacts [defects], creating effects, using multiple tracks and more. They describe the way to capture and restore the quality of audio from old media.
I was struck by the number of times the author refers to the legal issues pertaining to copyright and fair-use - describing relevant copyright law, and what is advised to do and not to do, and much more. Besides the Appendix, there are many sidebars within the chapters making note of the potential issues and the conflicting opinions regarding fair use.
All in all, this is a great book for anyone interested in music and the computer and curious about combining the two. I will refer to it often as I proceed with my own projects.

Burning Down the House
Ripping, recording, remixing, and more!
By Eliot Van Buskirk
Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Osborne
© 2003
ISBN: 0-07-222879-2
List Price: $24.99
Price On Amazon: $16.49
Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More OverviewLearn the perfect way to rip, copy, record, and burn your favorite songs, using free or open-source software. From mash-ups that combine existing hits, to remixes of your favorite songs, you'll be ready to tackle it all—even if you start as a novice who doesn't know BPM from MP3.

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