Book Description
Create slick videos with sound effects, moving titles, and more
Import video and still pictures, tackle the Timeline, and become a movie-making machine
Do you dream of becoming a movie mogul? Dive right in with this friendly guide to low-budget video editing on your Mac! Before you can yell "action," you'll be importing and organizing all types of media, sizing video clips, jazzing up your productions with filters and special effects, and outputting them to DVD, videotape, or the Web.
The Dummies Way
* Explanations in plain English
* "Get in, get out" information
* Icons and other navigational aids
* Tear-out cheat sheet
* Top ten lists
* A dash of humor and fun
Customer Reviews:
Moving Up to FCE, the Dummies way!.......2003-06-09
If you're the typical Mac enthusiast, you've dabbled in all the i-Apps, including iMovie. If you're like me, you've outgrown iMovie for many of your video projects. If you're also like me, you haven't got the kind of cash to splurge on Final Cut Pro, which costs as much as one arm, one leg, and some spare skin from the other leg. Final Cut Express fills the gap, allowing the video editor who works exclusively with the DV format a way to afford a powerful editing program.
The book being reviewed here, lest I forget and go off into Apple rapture, is Final Cut Express for Dummies. This book is a fine example of the For Dummies series of books from Wiley Publishing, Inc. Author Helmut Kobler is a well-known author on the subject of Final Cut Pro.
The For Dummies series of books is usually the way to go when learning a new application, in my opinion. This book is no exception. It's simply written, and well laced with a practical writing style that works well when mired in the complexities of a software application like Final Cut Express. The humor is not as prevalent as in other For Dummies books, but that's well compensated for in the straightforward way the information is presented. I definitely feel that I could use Final Cut Express to edit and output my next training or wedding video.
The book progresses in orderly and clearly written fashion, from importing, capturing and organizing your video media to editing basics and some more advanced techniques. Of special note is the nice way he discusses audio techniques within Final Cut Express. The first noticeable thing about any amateur video is the inadequate sound, and the author takes a fair amount of space helping you get the best audio tracks from your raw audio media.
Another great section is the ten tips for becoming a better editor, and the ten tips for making your editing easier. Nothing is worse than reading the Final Cut manuals, but not having any practical experience to using them in a real world way. These two sections go a long way toward helping the novice editor get a leg up on real-world application of the techniques that can be used in Final Cut Express.
Book Description
This is the first comprehensive guide to the saxophone, its history, technical development and repertoire. Extensively researched and including much new information, the volume is written by some of the finest performers and experts on the instrument. The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone incorporates detailed historical developments in the classical, jazz and rock fields, provides practical performance guides, and has a chapter on teaching the instrument.
Customer Reviews:
History Lesson?.......2002-04-27
When I bought this book I thought it would be more of a general reference book. However, it is more essays on the history of the saxophone and the more technical aspects of playing. Recomended for teachers more than students.
not a useful reference; anglocentric.......2000-06-01
The title of the book makes it sound like a general reference book on the saxophone. Instead, it's more like a collection of idiosyncratic essays with a distinctly nationalistic point of view. If it was going to be a useful reference work, one thing it would need is a good index, with entries broken down better. ("Reeds," for example., gives a list of 20 page numbers without subheadings.) Loads of space is given to obscure English saxophonists and composers. Many of the articles need fleshing out, e.g. the part about mouthpieces doesn't say anything about the numerical system used to describe them. It's also topheavy with advanced stuff,e.g. a chart of altissimo fingerings and discussions of microtones, but no ordinary fingering charts or trill fingerings. Classical players had better not depend on this book as an introduction to jazz, since it doesn't discuss any of the jazz issues about tonguing or triplet feel.
A very good academic tool for learning about the saxophone.......1999-08-02
This book is truly good as a reference. It is written in a scholarly manner, and it is not oriented towards performance, but rather it covers issues such as the instrument's history, its evolution and the classical repertoire. It also has several very detailed chapters covering the relationship between the saxophone and jazz.
It has certainly made me more saxophone-literate, but it has yet to improve my playing!
A great, very detailed book........1999-06-25
This book tells you all you need to know about the saxophone; from it's creation and Adolphe Sax, to techniques, players, and music. The chapters are written by different people, including Gordon Lewin, Dave Roach, Kyle Horch, Don Ashton and Richard Ingham himself; all reputable people in the saxophone business.
Book Description
This Companion is an accessible survey of one of the most popular forms of musical performance. Written especially for students and theatergoers, it offers a guide to the history and development of the musical in England and America, and worldwide. Starting with the early history of the musical, the volume examines the latest works and innovations, and includes information on the singers, audience and critical reception, and traditions. The book contains a chronology, reading lists and photos from key productions.
Download Description
This Companion is an accessible survey of one of the most popular forms of musical performance. Written especially for students and theatergoers, it offers a guide to the history and development of the musical in England and America, and worldwide. Starting with the early history of the musical, the volume examines the latest works and innovations, and includes information on the singers, audience and critical reception, and traditions. The book contains a chronology, reading lists and photos from key productions.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent introduction to a vast subject.......2003-03-24
Although my shelves are loaded with histories of the Broadway musical, there is always room for one more. So I really looked forward to reading "The Cambridge Companion to The Musical" (Cambridge University Press, 2002). When I saw there were only 265 pages of text (not counting bibliography and index), I doubted that they could adequately cover the field. Soon I began to realize that the "field" included American and British musicals, film musicals and film versions of stage musicals, and even recordings; and I just settled down to enjoy what amounts to a series of essays covering all these fields, none of them adequately but all of them interestingly.
There are fourteen chapters by various writers, organized into three parts. The first deals with "Adaptations and transformations before 1940" and includes essays on the early days of the American musical theatre in general, then in New York, operetta on both sides of the Atlantic, the Afro-American as depicted on stage, and the American musicals of the 1920s and 1930s. Part II covers the years from 1940 to 1970 and discusses the British theatre, Rodgers and Hammerstein, their successors, and Weill and Bernstein. Part III picks up the story with a disproportionately long chapter on Sondheim, the fully integrated musical, the film musical, rock, and the megamusical--which brings us into the present century with a lot of questions yet to be answered by way of projection.
In short, there are plenty of ideas packed into this short book and each one can lead you in several directions if you wish to follow up this or that idea. There are one or two piddling errors, such as calling "Yip Yip Yaphank" an "all-sailor vaudeville"; but in general what is said here is trustworthy, the opinions (mostly positive) about certain works and composers are informed opinions, the organization is very good. The few pictures, however, are not very helpful.
Yes, I would recommend this highly for those who want to begin to understand the complex evolution of the musical play by way of enough examples to form a solid basis before going on to books that deal with each of these topics in more detailed and expanded way.
Book Description
This Companion is designed to provide the enquiring music lover with helpful insights into a musical style that recognizes no contradictions between the accessible and the sophisticated, between the popular and the significant.
Book Description
This is a compact, composite and authoritative survey of the history and development of the cello from its origins to the present day. Its carefully structured series of thirteen essays deals with the history and construction of the cello and bow, discusses the careers of the most distinguished cellists through history, surveys the repertory of the instrument in unprecedented detail and reviews teaching methods, technical developments and issues of performance practice. It is the most comprehensive book ever to be published about the instrument.
Customer Reviews:
Some good some bad.......2007-09-19
An interesting overview of the cello, from history to instrument description and acoustics. If your main interest is history, though, this is not a great choice. I was disappointed with the chapters 4 - 6 by Margaret Campbell - overview of virtuosi from past centuries, the writing was very boring. The rest of the book is fun, though.
the making of a cello.......2003-01-31
I bought this book to give to a friend for Christmas. He had just dusted off his Cello after 20+ years and needed some refresher info. Unfortunately, this was not the book for him. This is a book of esays about the history of and how to make a cello. It gives great detail in that aspect. There isn't really any included music or actual methods.
A True Cello Lover's Book.......2002-10-14
This book is not an instruction on how to practice the cello but gives an historical perspective about how the cello was developed back in Europe to today's modern cello. It does however discuss the physics of playing easier and with less stress. It is for those who want to know everything about the violoncello not just playing it. It is informative and very interesting. So if you love the cello and want to know just about everything about it, get this book.
Too encyclopedic.......2001-10-16
Compact is good, yet I want some more depth on each topic.
This is a good looking paperback, so it's not bad for a cello
lover to own this on her bookshelf.
Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments provides an overview of the history of brass instruments, and their technical and musical development. Much of the volume is devoted to the way brass instruments have been used in classical music, but there are also important contributions on the ancient world, non-Western music, vernacular and popular traditions and the rise of jazz. The editors are two of the most respected names in the world of brass performance and scholarship, and the list of contributors includes the names of many of the world's most prestigious scholars and performers.
Customer Reviews:
A GAP-FILLER.......2002-01-16
On one level this is disappointing compared with, say, the Oxford companions to various subjects, being a series of detailed essays that leave large gaps between them. But taken along with Baines's classic, it documents a lot of significant stuff, notably the role of brasswinds in avant garde music. Don't buy it first -- but do buy it second (if only because this is a field whose entire available English-language literature is feweer than a dozen books)
Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to the Piano is an informative and practical guide to one of the world's most popular instruments. This collection of specially commissioned essays offers an accessible introduction to the history of the piano, performance styles, and its vast repertoire. Part 1 reviews the evolution of the piano, from its earliest forms up to the most recent developments. Part 2 explores the varied repertory, up to contemporary music, with a final chapter on jazz, blues and ragtime. The Companion also contains a glossary of important terms and will be a valuable source for the piano performer, student and enthusiast.
Book Description
This is the first book to offer a complete introduction to the recorder. Eight contributors from four different countries write on topics such as the recorder and its music through the centuries, the recorder as orchestral instrument, the professional recorder player through history and today, and the phenomenon of the recorder revival. The Companion also contains basic reference material previously unavailable in one volume. A special feature is the rich collection of illustrations that provide a history of the instrument. The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder will be of interest to performers and students as well as to music enthusiasts.
Customer Reviews:
Bravo, almost.......2002-10-17
Any recorder player will enjoy and learn from this book.
I have been playing the alto recorder for a year now. This book taught me a great deal about the instrument. What's even better,
the book carefully introduces the repertory and where to find and read about it.I am delighted to learn that I will never run out of material to play.
The book is written with care, verve, and love. However, the reader is assumed to have considerable knowledge, to know without explanation, for instance, the implications of wide windways and bores, and narrow windways (p178). The history of the 20th century recorder revival, of great interest to contemporary enthusiasts, is brushed off twice, as "described and discussed in several publications." Fine, then why not this one? This should have been dealt with more carefully. The illustrations are very poorly reproduced. I am still suffering from eyestrain from trying to find the recorder in Plate 27.
Overall, though, this is a book any recorder player will want.
Amazon.com
In this addition to the Cambridge Companion series, 13 essays by 11 authors provide a useful and interesting introduction to the music and personality of Alban Berg. The volume is divided into three main sections and a postscript: "Culture and Environment," "From Song to Opera," and "After Wozzeck." The essays deal with everything from "cultural politics" to Berg's compositional techniques, and the postscript tries to establish Berg's place in and influence on the history of 20th-century composition. The book suffers in places from an overly academic approach to its subject (not to mention an overly academic vocabulary), but the reasonably informed lay reader with an interest in Berg will still find it informative and helpful in understanding his music and its context.
Book Description
Alban Berg's achievement is based on an extraordinarily small musical output, but it includes towering masterpieces such as the operas Wozzeck and Lulu, and his last work, the Violin Concerto. These and all Berg's other substantial works are discussed in this wide-ranging Companion, which contains essays written from a variety of historical and critical perspectives, outlining the place of the music in the cultural history of its time and within the broader interplay of twentieth-century fashions, aesthetics and ideas.
Book Description
Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide diversity of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. A fascinating array of composers and inventors have contributed to a diverse set of technologies, practices and music. This book brings together some novel threads through this scene, from the viewpoint of researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology. The chapters provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topic areas and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. Recent areas of intense activity such as audiovisuals, live electronic music, interactivity and network music are actively promoted.
Book Description
This volume explores the culture in which the composer Franz Schubert (1797SH1828) lived and worked, and provides a basic outline of his life examined in relation to the most persistent myths and legends. Schubert's music is then explored according to genre, a chapter on his songs, another on his symphonies, and so forth. The final section looks at the reception of Schubert's music, primarily during the nineteenth century, and considers the performance tradition of his music.
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- How to Do Everything with Macromedia Flash
- How to Wrestle and Wrestling:Catch-as-Catch-Can
- I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon
- Incredible Cross-sections of Star Wars, Episode II - Attack of the Clones: The Definitive Guide to the Craft
- Intracoastal Waterway Chartbook : Norfolk, Virginia, to Miami, Florida
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
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