Computer Music and Digital Audio Series

Fundamentals of Digital Audio
Alan P. Kefauver

In Fundamentals of Digital Audio, Alan P. Kefauver presents a systematic overview of the elements for digital recording and reproducing sound. With ideas grounded in the principles of acoustics, the author explores the essential issues involved in preserving, transferring, and modifying sound recordings in the digital domain. In addition to references on historic methods of sound reproduction, this book includes detailed information about the latest digital audio technology.

Of special interest is the coverage of optical and magneto-optical technology, including the Audio Compact Disc (CD-A), Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I), and the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD). Kefauver also explores the nature of Compact Disc Recordable (CD-R and CD-RW) and other related developments and explains in detail the processes involved in digitally editing recorded sound, presenting a step-by-step editing and mastering session.

Fundamentals of Digital Audio is an essential textbook for anyone who wants to better understand or work with recorded sound using today's digital equipment. The book contains many diagrams and illustrations through which the author shares his expertise with the reader. It is one of the few books that treats this subject comprehensively yet understandably, and it should become an essential text in this area.

Alan P. Kefauver has served as coordinator for the Recording Arts and Sciences degree program at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. In 1977, he co-founded the Aspen Audio Institute, where he taught until 1983. At the Peabody Institute he designed and implemented the curriculum for the Bachelors of Recording Arts and Sciences degree program (1982) and the Masters of Arts in Recording and Acoustics degree program (1997). He has been a recording engineer, producer, or consultant with the Casals Festival; Towson University; the University of Mexico, Mexico City; the Inter-American Arts Festival; and the Baltimore Symphony and broadcasts for John Denver, Danny Kaye, and Victor Borge. He has engineered many albums and CDs and has published articles on acoustics and recording. He is co-author for The New Recording Studio Handbook, which has been succeeded by The Audio Recording Handbook, considered by many to be the definitive work on audio recording for undergraduate use. From 1982 to 1984, Kefauver was the on-site producer for national broadcasts of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was a member of the Expert Educational Committee for SPARS and is a member of NARAS, SMPTE, and AES.