iTunes Music: Mastering High Resolution Audio Delivery: Produce Great Sounding Music with Mastered for iTunes

by Bob Katz

Overview

Apple’s exciting new Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) initiative, introduced in early 2012, introduces new possibilities for delivering high-quality audio. For the first time, record labels and program producers are encouraged to deliver audio materials to iTunes in a high resolution format, which can produce better-sounding masters.

In iTunes Music, author and world-class mastering engineer Bob Katz starts out with the basics, surveys the recent past, and brings you quickly up to the present—where the current state of digital audio is bleak. Katz explains the evolution of standards for dynamic range through the present and with implications for the future. He details the new methods that Apple is developing to accept high resolution audio and shows step by step how audio engineers and producers can take advantage of them.

This book is designed for all those dealing with sound, from sound engineers to music industry executives and musicians—and those aspiring to all these roles. This book will help you understand the issues around delivering high-quality environment and get all your facts straight for when you encounter resistance to good sound.

Topics covered include:

• Contrasting the production of CD albums with iTunes albums
• High Resolution audio
• Dithering
• Distortion (and how to avoid it)
• Lossy Coding
• Loudness Metering
• Sound Check and how it affects our production techniques
• Apple’s tools for Mastered for iTunes

Foreword by renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig.

Join the forums at www.digido.com/iTunes, for the latest information and discussions!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135098858
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	36 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bob Katz played the B flat clarinet from the age of 10, and his lifelong love of sound and music led him to become a professional recording, mixing and mastering engineer (since 1971). Three of his recordings have garnered the GrammyT award and many others have been lauded in publications such as Stereo Review, Audio, and Stereophile. He has written over one hundred articles for audio and computer publications, and is an inventor and manufacturer with processors and support gear in use at mastering studios worldwide. His most recent patent-pending inventions, the K-Stereo and K-Surround Processors, fill a missing link in the mastering and post- production pantheon. He has been a workshops, facilities and section chairman of the AES and has given lectures in several countries. Currently, Bob runs Digital Domain Studios just north of Orlando, Florida.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1: The Past; Chapter 2: The Present; Chapter 3: Metadata; Chapter 4: The Near Future: The First Loudness Revolution; Chapter 5: The Far Future: The Next Loudness Revolution

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Mastered for iTunes… will be the standard from now on. It is 100% based on solid science, as you will learn in the chapters of this book.
—Bob Ludwig, Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME (from the Foreword)

In iTunes Music, the tools of the trade are expertly explained by Bob Katz in a way that informs the professional and enlightens the beginner. The next time I’m asked "What is mastering?" I’ll answer the question with a question: "Have you read Bob’s book[s]?"
—Jim Anderson, Professor, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Recording Engineer, and Past President, Audio Engineering Society, NYC

Knowledge is key to understanding, and Bob’s book clarifies the "new world order" of music delivery with the right mix of practical and technical detail. No matter your background, if you care about how your music will sound to others, you need to read this! You should be able to provide better sounding music after reading Bob’s book!
—Jim Kaiser, Audio Educator, Engineer, AES Past President, Nashville, TN

Katz is unusual as an author in combining a high-flying day job—and all the secrets that mastering usually entails—with a desire to communicate and demystify technology and methods. He’s now turned his attention to the bugbear of high-end and addressed the iTunes generation. You know you’re going to want to read it.
—Zenon Schoepe, Executive Editor, Resolution Magazine, United Kingdom

Bob Katz turns the dry, but critically important, technical side of mastering into an engaging easy read, and does it without sacrificing depth or completeness. The beautiful graphics and clear writing style offer a masterful education for the reader.
—Alan Silverman, Adjunct Professor, NYU Steinhardt, Dept. of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Adjunct Instructor, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and www.arfmastering.com, NYC

iTunes is a reality of today’s production world. iTunes Music helps shed some new light on this mystifying topic. From the best way to handle metadata and higher sample rates to coding and final delivery, this informative work is the "go-to" manual for modern music mastering.
—Rich Tozzoli, Grammy-nominated mixer, producer, composer, and writer, NJ

Editorial Reviews

Mastered for iTunes… will be the standard from now on. It is 100% based on solid science, as you will learn in the chapters of this book.
—Bob Ludwig, Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME (from the Foreword)

In iTunes Music, the tools of the trade are expertly explained by Bob Katz in a way that informs the professional and enlightens the beginner. The next time I’m asked "What is mastering?" I’ll answer the question with a question: "Have you read Bob’s book[s]?"
—Jim Anderson, Professor, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Recording Engineer, and Past President, Audio Engineering Society, NYC

Knowledge is key to understanding, and Bob’s book clarifies the "new world order" of music delivery with the right mix of practical and technical detail. No matter your background, if you care about how your music will sound to others, you need to read this! You should be able to provide better sounding music after reading Bob’s book!
—Jim Kaiser, Audio Educator, Engineer, AES Past President, Nashville, TN

Katz is unusual as an author in combining a high-flying day job—and all the secrets that mastering usually entails—with a desire to communicate and demystify technology and methods. He’s now turned his attention to the bugbear of high-end and addressed the iTunes generation. You know you’re going to want to read it.
—Zenon Schoepe, Executive Editor, Resolution Magazine, United Kingdom

Bob Katz turns the dry, but critically important, technical side of mastering into an engaging easy read, and does it without sacrificing depth or completeness. The beautiful graphics and clear writing style offer a masterful education for the reader.
—Alan Silverman, Adjunct Professor, NYU Steinhardt, Dept. of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Adjunct Instructor, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and www.arfmastering.com, NYC

iTunes is a reality of today’s production world. iTunes Music helps shed some new light on this mystifying topic. From the best way to handle metadata and higher sample rates to coding and final delivery, this informative work is the "go-to" manual for modern music mastering.
—Rich Tozzoli, Grammy-nominated mixer, producer, composer, and writer, NJ

From the Publisher