Click here to purchase the entire book in PDF format. Preface Once upon a time I went to McGill University to try to get into the Master's program in sound recording at the Faculty of Music. In order to accomplish this task, students are required to do a ``qualifying year'' of introductory courses (although it felt more like obstacle courses...) to see who really wants to get in the program. Looking back, there is no question that I learned more in that year than in any other single year of my life. In particular, two memories stand out. One was my professor - a guy named Peter Cook who now works at the CBC in Toronto as a digital editor. Peter is one of those teachers who doesn't know everything, and doesn't pretend to know everything - but if you ask him a question about something he doesn't understand, he'll show up at the next week's class with a reading list where the answer to your question can be found. That kind of enthusiasm in a teacher cannot be replaced by any other quality. I definitely wouldn't have gotten as much out of that year without him. A good piece of advice that I recently read for university students is that you don't choose courses, you choose professors. The second thing was a book by John Woram called the Sound Recording Handbook (the 1989 edition). This book not only proved to be the most amazing introduction to sound recording for a novice idiot like myself, but it continued to be the most used book on my shelf for the following 10 years. In fact, I was still using it as a primary reference when I was studying for my doctoral comprehensives 10 years later. Regrettably, that book is no longer in print - so if you can find a copy (remember - the 1989 edition... no other...) buy (or steal) it and guard it with your life. Since then, I have seen a lot of students go through various stages of becoming a recording engineer at McGill and in other places and I've lamented the lack of a decently-priced but academically valuable textbook for these people. There have been a couple of books that have hit the market, but they're either too thin, too full of errors, too simplistic or too expensive. (I won't name any names here, but if you ask me in person, I'll tell you...) This is why I'm writing this book. From the beginning, I intended it to be accessible to anyone that was interested enough to read it. I can't guarantee that it's completely free of errors - so if you find any, please let me know and I'll make the appropriate corrections as soon as I can. The tone of this book is pretty colloquial - that's intentional - I'm trying to make the concepts presented here as accessible as possible without reducing the level of the content, so it can make a good introduction that covers a lot of ground. I'll admit that it doesn't make a great reference because there are too many analogies and stories in here - essentially too low a signal to noise ratio to make a decent book for someone that already understands the concepts. Note that the book isn't done yet - in fact, in keeping with everything else you'll find on the web, it will probably never be finished. You'll find many places where I've made notes to myself on what will be added where. Also, there's a couple of explanations in here that don't make much sense - even to me... so they'll get fixed later. Finally, there are a lot of references missing. These will be added in the next update - I promise... If you think that I've left any important subjects out of the Table of Contents, please let me know by email at geoff.martin@tonmeister.ca.