BERKLEE PRESS

David Franz's Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools ($34.95) is a detailed, practical guide to recording in the personal studio. Although the book's focal point is Digidesign's suite of digital-audio recording tools, Franz covers important, related, nontechnical topics such as how to run a recording session, how to set up a studio, and recording budgets.

You also get application-specific instruction: the book provides a wealth of keystroke shortcuts and detailed technical information about Pro Tools' inner workings, including using the system's MIDI features for sequencing. Berklee Press; tel. (617) 266-2146; Web www.berkleepress.com.

SCARECROW PRESS

Elizabeth C. Axford's Song Sheets to Software ($36.95) is an eclectic sourcebook for using your computer as a music-education tool. The book begins with a history of song sheets, with discussions of early American folk and religious music as well as more contemporary forms.

Ensuing chapters cover copyright laws and music software. Song Sheets to Software finishes with a listing of more than 6,000 Web sites for music. The book concludes with a glossary of technical terms. Scarecrow Press; tel. (800) 462-6420 or (301) 459-3366; e-mail slambert@scarecrowpress.com; Web www.scarecrowpress.com.

HAL LEONARD

The worlds of MIDI and digital-audio recording are inextricably woven together. As such, novice studio owners can find themselves awash in misinformation, misleading equipment specifications and requirements, and generally confusing advice.

Thankfully, How MIDI Works ($29.99) isn't another dry exegesis of MIDI protocol. Author Peter Lawrence Alexander guides beginners through the process of building a MIDI and digital-audio system by offering practical advice about important aspects of the modern personal studio. The book is peppered with wry observations, anecdotes, and object lessons, and it contains numerous illustrations, software screen shots, and diagrams.

Topics include audio cards and drivers, MIDI keyboards, sequencing and recording, multiport MIDI interfaces, and software synthesizers and samplers. The book's chapter about understanding minimum system requirements covers everything from available audio tracks to video-card conflicts. Hal Leonard Corp.; tel. (414) 774-3630; Web www.musicdispatch.com.

EMEDIA

Bass Method, vol. 1 ($59.95), provides more than 100 bass-guitar lessons on CD-ROM for Macintosh and Windows computers. You also get more than 200 songs and exercises, all of which feature full-motion video and audio tracks. An animated fretboard helps illustrate proper fingerings as the music plays back.

The skills covered in Bass Method, vol. 1, range from fundamentals, such as simple bass lines and tuning, to advanced topics, including triads, fills, syncopation, and reading (including tablature and standard notation). In addition to audio tracks, the CD-ROM provides MIDI versions of the performances, which lets students vary tempos to suit their pace. The audio portion offers a bass-only track for closer inspection and a band track without bass for playing along.

Windows requirements are any Pentium, 16 MB of RAM, and Windows 95 or 2000. For Mac users, any Power PC with 16 MB of RAM and OS 7.53 or later will suffice. EMedia; tel. (888) 363-3424; e-mail custserv@emediamusic.com; Web www.emediamusic.com.

IZOTOPE OZONE

Ozone (Win; $199) from Izotope is a DirectX plug-in that provides a suite of mastering tools and models analog circuitry. Ozone's biggest draw is its multiband dynamics processing, which includes compression, expansion, and limiting (four bands in all). A real-time graphic display illustrates the effects of processing on each band.

The Multiband Harmonic Exciter is based on analog tube-saturation models and features adjustable crossover points. A multiband parametric EQ offers soft saturation modeling and a spectrum display. A separate spectrum analyzer, with real-time and averaging modes, is also included.

Ozone comes with a reverb that gives you control of room size, frequency cutoff, and damping; a stereo phase meter; tools for adjusting the width of the stereo image (including multiband delays); a loudness maximizer; and an interface for determining the plug-in's signal flow and order of effects.

Ozone also keeps a list of all of your changes, so you can easily recall earlier adjustments. The plug-in uses 64-bit processing in its digital signal processing algorithms.

To use Ozone, you will need a Pentium II/450 MHz with 64 MB of RAM; Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, or XP; and a DirectX-compatible host application. Izotope, Inc.; e-mail izotope@izotope.com; Web www.izotope.com.

EMAGIC EMI 2/6

Emagic has released the emi 2/6 ($499), a USB 24-bit digital-audio interface. The interface delivers 44.1 or 48 kHz audio with six channels of playback and two simultaneous recording channels.

Housed in translucent blue plastic, the interface provides coaxial S/PDIF I/O. The unit's two analog inputs and six outputs are unbalanced RCA connectors. The emi 2/6 is powered from a USB port and is compatible with all powered USB hubs. For situations in which you're using several USB-powered devices and running them all off of the same hub, the emi 2/6 can be powered from an external power supply (available as an option from Emagic) so that the unit can maintain maximum audio quality.

The unit has a ⅛-inch stereo minijack for headphone monitoring and a wheel for adjusting headphone volume. Emagic claims zero-latency hardware-assisted monitoring for the interface. Additionally, Emagic offers low-latency ASIO drivers for both Mac and Windows platforms.

The emi 2/6 includes a switch for toggling between digital and analog input; another switch lets it act as the master word-clock source or as a slave to external word clock. An intelligent resampling feature allows the unit to lock to any incoming word-clock signal. Emagic USA; tel. (530) 477-1051; e-mail emagic@emagicusa.com; Web www.emagic.de.

SUMMIT AUDIO TD-100

Summit Audio's TD-100 ($495) is a half-rackspace instrument preamp and direct box. An internal high-voltage power supply drives the unit, which integrates a 12AX7a/ECC83 tube with a discrete transistor circuit at the output stage.

The input stage impedance knob is continuously variable from 10 kΩ to 2 MΩ. That lets you precisely tailor your instrument's input level. You can also plug in a set of headphones and use the TD-100 for private practice. Front-panel signal and peak LEDs allow you to monitor the input.

The TD-100 has an XLR mic-level input, an unbalanced ¼-inch input, a balanced ¼-inch line-level output, a polarity switch, and a ground-lift switch for eliminating noise from your signal. The output gain control has a range of 24 dB. Summit Audio, Inc.; tel. (831) 464-2448; e-mail sound@summitaudio.com; Web www.summitaudio.com.