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The Master Handbook of Acoustics is a solid choice.
You can apparently get the Fifth Edition for $10 used.
Are you more interested in making a game, or the tech behind games?
Game Programming Patterns is a great reference when you have problems to solve or a system to design. It's a relatively light and easy read and definitely very helpful.
Game Engine Architecture gives a broad view of technologies behind a game but it doesn't actually go into the nuts and bolts on how to develop one. I recommend it as a way to see how things work, and a gateway to learning about the different technical specializations in a game engine. The reference list is very useful for further study.
Neither of them are of much help when it comes to using Unreal or Unity though. I've actually found that "learn to make game with engine X" books serve as a guided walkthrough of engine features and workflows and give you a solid base on which to continue exploring the engine. I've also found that working through a book has a much lower mental barrier than searching for tutorials on the Internet, since all the info is available on hand and (hopefully) presented in an easy-to-follow manner.
Start with the extensive tutorials Unreal and Unity offer on their official websites. If you find those hard to follow, or when you're done and think you need more guidance, just hit Amazon and look for books like this which are relatively well-reviewed.
This is a good reference book and can be found in PDF format for free on archive.org
Since you're learning about Unity, you should checkout my book Unity in Action. It's very highly rated on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161729232X/
Note that it's designed for people who already know how to program and doesn't teach programming basics, but it sounds like you have that covered.
My book Unity in Action is designed for people who already know how to program but are new to Unity: https://www.amazon.com/Unity-Action-Multiplatform-Game-Development/dp/161729232X/
(objectively, it's got a high rating on Amazon)
Some reddingus downvoted you, yet I visited and scanned and yeah: I already know all that stuff too and dnrtfa. 1997, kittens.
The downvote button - in the original Reddit style - "does not equal dislike": it is meant for de-emphasizing "uninformative" content. An example might be "a lot of really careful EQing is quite important too" (with the caveat this is /r/watmm and not /r/audioengineering)... or "choosing a microphone is an important part of the sound" or "it's important to remember XLR means ground-left-right".
This form of mix analysis is 25 years old, I bought the book when it came out, use the downvote button for what it is intended for.
> I've tried to look for information on tantalum capacitors for low noise applications but I don't seem to find anything
https://smile.amazon.com/Small-Signal-Audio-Design-Douglas/dp/0367468956
This book has some really good nuggets of knowledge on audio-frequency characteristics of many capacitors and many more low noise design for audio applications.
That said AFAIK electrolytics are pretty bad at low noise applications. You might have to suck it up and get film caps.
I teach an evening adult acoustics class at a local college and use this text as an introduction:
Master Handbook of Acoustics, Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071841040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_AX3Z21E6WZENQ4JWMABY
If you want to learn the best, but hardest way, pick up a copy of something like The Computer Music Tutorial and some kind of fully modular software (Reaktor, Puredata, CSound, Supercollider, etc). It won't have you sounding like Virtual Riot right off the bat but it will get you to a place where you can learn any synthesizer or synthesis techniques effortlessly. And... you will be able to design your own shit. Just an alternative way of doing things.
<em>"Small Signal Audio Design"</em> 3ed by Douglas Self in 2020
<em>"Designing Audio Power Amplifiers"</em> 2ed by Bob Cordell in 2019
Also pick up a copy of The Art of Electronics.
Really depends on the application. The way to avoid it is generally just to not have floating inputs. Keep in mind when I say "extremely low signal levels" I'm referring to like, single digit microvolts down to nanovolts. There's nothing in the audio world that gets that low. Last place I worked we were measuring resistances down to the tens of nanoOhms so it came up.
There's a great book called Small Signal Audio Design I recommend picking up if you're going to do a lot of audio stuff. I used it to design an RIAA pre-amp stage for a record player. Super useful.
And of course The Art of Electronics should be on your shelf.
Ok, here goes. MFOS (Music From Outer Space) is a website dedicated to synth diy. The site is run by Ray Wilson. All of the projects on the site are of his own design. The projects are all sound based and include such things as guitar pedals, audio mixers, sequencers, synthesizers. The Noise Toaster is a synthesizer/sound generator. It includes a Voltage Controlled Oscillator, a Low Pass Filter, an Envelope Generator etc. You can get a wide range of sounds from it by twisting its many dials and flicking its many switches. It has an output jack for headphones or connecting to an external input of your choice. There is also a book dedicated to synth projects called Make: Analog Synthesizers by Ray Wilson.
Definitely MFOS, Ray Wilson (rest his soul) even made a book which is great for beginners - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Make%3A+Analog+Synthesizers%3A+Make+Electronic+Sounds+the+Synth-DIY+Way&qid=1617918813&sr=8-1
Adding to the above. Will Pirkle's Designing Audio Effect Plugin in C++ book has an implementation of a stereo phaser plugin in chapter 12 together with very detailed explanation of the theory and comments in code.
Speaking from a similar background as /u/Hoaxtopia, This was my textbook in my Acoustics course; it's a good breakdown of what acoustics mean for music, how we interpret sound around us, how our environment shapes the sound around us, and what exactly all that soundproofing in recording studios does.
Dry as sand to read, but a handy resource that won't be out of date in 10 years nonetheless.
>Let's say I go make an active 4>4, what are the things I want to keep in mind? Spacing of certain components? Housing material? Please feel free to let me know! I know it would be easier and cheaper to buy the mx/ha400's, but I also want to have fun making it, so if there's a chance I could still do so, I'd like to try!
If you're handy at all with electronics and really want to design your own I strongly suggest a copy of Small Signal Audio Design. If not you should really just try to find a DIY project somewhere on the intertubes. Elliott Sound Products has all kinds of neat DIY projects and IIRC they should have a basic mixer design in there.
It’s a mixture of some who act out of insecurity, as a lot of people don’t understand how sound works, but don’t want to admit it, and others who think they’re the shit and everyone needs to know it, and lots of pedantic nerds that know enough to be dangerous and want to show off. They are usually nice, but not always. There is a lot that can happen when 100 random people get thrown together like a traveling carnival. Lots of different personalities, backgrounds, priorities, past experiences with other random characters...
The art and science of it can be a deep rabbit hole and there is a lot of subjective phrasing presented as objective facts. If you want to dive in, I recommend the Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Brown
No problem I hope I helped at least a little bit.
Based on the description you gave of how the mix sounded phase was one of the first things that came to mind. But without hearing the mixes myself it’s kinda hard to say. You might want to consider posting a link to a sample mix so we can listen and try to identify the issue. I would especially try to find a mastering engineer to listen to it because when you master a track you’re specifically trying to listen for flaws that the mixing engineer missed. I’ve mastered songs that had major issues but after a lot of processing I was able to identify what the mix was lacking or needed adding to. If I could I would go back to the original mixing engineer and tell them which areas they needed to fix so I didn’t need to fix the mix as much when I mastered it.
When I mix I try to visualize all of the different frequencies and instruments in a 3 dimensional box in front of me. Basically the space from the monitors to my face. I learned that at sound recording school. The book “The Art of Mixing: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering, and Production” by David Gibson is a great place to start. It looks like this. A lot of people think that when you mix in stereo(as a posed to surround) that you only have left and right to work with. But if you learn how to utilize both left/right pan along with amplitude and phase you can creat mixes that have spacial depth as well. This effect is best experienced with headphones on but can also be heard on two speakers as well.
Hers a link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Mixing-Recording-Engineering-Production/dp/1931140456
The approach is usually broken into two categories: transmission loss and reverberation.
Transmission Loss is a measure of how much sound (noise) is reduced through partitions (i.e. walls, doors, windows). Increasing the transmission loss of a partition is what most will consider as "blocking" sound.
Reverberation is a measure of the effect of reflections that occur when sound waves interact with walls, doors, windows, ceilings, walls. We can affect reverberation by adding sound absorption panels to a space. Reduction reverberation is what most will consider as "absorbing" sound.
You will need to study up on these concepts to understand why possible options/approaches will or will not be effective and what impact each option will have. https://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Sixth-Everest/dp/0071841040
Most noise occurs during movement between classes, so we're less concerned about that hindering studying.
Step 1: characterize all noise sources that occur during class activity (from inside the building and outside).
Step 2: characterize the pathway for each of those noise sources.
Step 3: identify possible solutions to mitigate each source-pathway combination with predictions on effect after treatment.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Sound-Press-Andy-Farnell/dp/0262014416
You also need to use oscilloscope and spectrum analysers to dissect different sounds.
Also, get some book on mixing or mastering - I think that Bob Katz had some...
You could start with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220
It's written by Ray Wilson, who is the guy behind Music From Outer Space, where you will find tons of synths and module circuit, parts, pcb.
The book explains all the wizardry behind the Noise Toaster, and guide you through the build.
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Or you can start with eurorack, there is tons of DIY modules, you can have complete kit, so you "just" need to solder the parts, or you can buy a pcb and source the parts yourself. For eurorack, you will find "through hole" modules, aka classic and "big" components, or SMD, which are tiny component, usually made to be soldered by robots. You might want to avoid SMD as a first build if you don't have a lot of soldering experience (and tools).
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Posted this in pD too!
Andy Farnell's book, Designing Sound models combustion engines in pD. I believe he uses waveguides, not sure. You should be able to borrow a copy from the library.
You can find all the pD code examples from his book here. Look under machines and cars.
I hope you understand that most people (I'm talking about producers and commercial preset sound bank designers, not about vst developers etc) that claim that to know sound design actually understand what are doing only on a basic level and come with the sounds just by messing with things, and that the commercial synths are super limited compared to the modular/programming environments, which are what you need sometimes for realistic sounds.
The thing is that, if you want to become a really good sound designer, you will have to learn some DSP and math.
These are good start:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Sound-Andy-Farnell/dp/0262014416
If you want more after them, see Computer music tutorial by Curtis Roads.
Andy Farnell - Designing Sound
Uses Pure Data, which is similar to Max but free. The many practical examples are fantastic; they tackle many non-musical sources and they combine careful physical-modeling considerations with pragmatic corner-cutting (and try to help you understand when it is OK to simplify). Farnell seems to be a leading thinker on procedural SFX generation for videogames.
It's a different focus than the Cipriani-Giri books, I think, which are also good but more aimed at understanding traditional audio-DSP functions in depth (filters, reverb, etc.).
Not that specific link no; that's the 2nd edition, which is not available in print quite yet. Very very close but that doesn't help you; I'm done writing it but there's still a month or so before it's in print.
If you absolutely want a physical book then checkout the 1st edition. It comes with a code to download the ebook for free, so the publisher may let you download the 2nd edition ebook.
> I have an engine but I have no clue what to start with
Which engine? Generally you want to look for learning materials for that engine; for example, if it's Unity then checkout my book, Unity in Action.
I like to think of mixing like packing stuff neatly into a box, everything has a space so it all fits. The art of mixing book helped a lot! Patience and practice of course.
whoah whoah whoah, no royalties? man when I read your first post I was thinking "that's not laughable at all", but then I just noticed you saying "no royalties". When I wrote Unity in Action I didn't do it for the money (good thing, since it hasn't made enough to be financially worth it :P) but that still doesn't mean I'd have been okay with being taken advantage of.