The Complete Guide to Game Audio: For Composers, Musicians, Sound Designers, and Game Developers by Aaron Marks, Aaron Marks Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Complete Guide to Game Audio: For Composers, Musicians, Sound Designers, and Game Developers
Book Review: Few specifics
Summary: 3 Stars
Although an o.k. book, I have to agree with "mysticmusing" in his criticism. The industry advice is probably invaluable to professional or budding audio dudes, but it fills up half the book..!There are very few specfic examples of actual techniques for composition, sound effect development or integration. There are no concrete examples of game audio as implemented within any game engine - be it by C+ or through e.g. DirectMusic.
All in all this book has very little to tell people that don't already master all the great techniques and tools. And if you do master those techniques and tools, I suspect half of this book would be old news.
Book Review: mysticmusing get out and read about the industry
Summary: 5 Stars
Great book, and ignore that first review where it talks about lack of coverage of developer issues. The term developer is not used the same way in the game industry as it is in the more general software world. Developer does not mean programmer. Game programmers use the term programmer (imagine that!). A developer is someone who works in a broader role to get the game created (or developed), like say a producer or project manager or whatever. It is not the narrow term that we all have come to know and love in other areas of software development. Maybe those chapters on how to get into the industry might do you some good after all, eh?Book Review: Be Warned! This book is not for DEVELOPERS
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book after reading several reviews, on Amazon.com and other sites. Let's take a closer look at the title - The Complete Guide to Game Audio: For Composers, Musicians, Sound Designers, and Game Developers.
For composers - yes. For musicians - yes. For sound designers - yes.
For DEVELOPERS - NO! I am a DSP Engineer with extensive MATLAB programming experience and I'm looking for a book that will help me develop audio applications in C++.
There is NOTHING here for the developer. Chapters 4,5,6 deal with finding jobs and landing a contract. What the Hell? I'm sure there are people that need that kind of advice - but when this is the title of your book, I expect job hunting to be appendix C.
The rest of the book is for musicians. Being a musician myself, and with some experience of studio production, I found the material to be alright. Nothing that really made me hang on to this book.
Pg. 289 0f 300 is where the developer bit starts. And it offers absolutely nothing, but more of the same general information contained in the preceding pages.
In short, this book is short on specifics and has a rather misleading title.
BE SURE TO READ THE CONTENTS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU PURCHASE IT. And if you still want it, I have it for sale in the Amazon Marketplace
Book Review: A Great Book
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a terrific book for all-around beginners, but if you are an advanced composer that's just lacking game industry experience-- this book is equally as valuable. I did skip past pages here-and-there, because I already knew about a particular subject-- but I still use this book to help me through a certain business procedure or to look up a sample entertainment contract. This was definitely worth the money.Book Review: Especially for neophyte musicians looking to make their mark
Summary: 5 Stars
The Complete Guide To Game Audio by digital audio expert and music composer Aaron Marks is a solid resource for all composers, musicians, sound designers, and game developers which covers everything from the essential skills for making a living in the exciting world of video and computer game audio, to searching for and landing a job in the field, to how much to charge, as well as a wealth of tips, tricks, and techniques for creating exciting and suitable music. An accompanying CD-ROM contains music and sound effect samples, demo versions of sound editing programs, interviews with composers and sound designers, and much, much more. The Complete Guide To Game Audio is confidently recommended, especially for neophyte musicians looking to make their mark in a growing and popular field.