O’Reilly’s New Digital Audio Site: Designed for You

In “Doing Digital Media Right,” Derrick Story laid out his goals for O’Reilly’s ambitious new Digital Media site. I’m happy to report that Phase 2, Digital Audio, is now online, joining Photography. Look for Phase 3, Graphic Design, to launch in the months ahead.

What can you expect on the Digital Audio site? We’re all ears. Since the time I ran Music & Computers magazine (1994–1998), I’ve sought out authors who share my enormous enthusiasm for computer music production. Many times, that meant working with people who’d never published before but had solid, exciting ideas and the patience to explain them clearly. I often ask authors to imagine they had just discovered a terrific new music-production technique when suddenly I had showed up with a camcorder to watch over their shoulder. Of course, on the Web, demonstrating those techniques is much easier than in a magazine.

So if you’re doing cool things with digital audio and want to tell the world, just (And don’t forget to sign up for our free Digital Media Services Directory.) If you’ve been dying to get into digital audio (or do it better), please use the Talkback link below to suggest topics you’d like us to cover.

Singing the News

Keep an eye on the RSS news feeds at the top right of the home page. You’ll find links to new product announcements, trends, other digital audio articles, and to gadgets people wouldn’t normally think of using for music production but that offer sneaky shortcuts. We’ll also populate these blogs with hot tips, editorials, discoveries, and buzz overhead on other forums. We have lots of ideas for expanding the site as well with useful multimedia features such as sample libraries and Web-based production tools.

Mission: Invaluable

In short, our mission here at “AudiO’Reilly” is to provide inspiring, useful, and timely information on digital audio production. We’ll place strong emphasis on using the software, gear, and techniques we cover. In addition to extensive tips and tutorials, we’ll feature technology primers, interviews (again with a how-to emphasis) and artist profiles. I see the latter as the audio equivalent of the “featured photographer” profiles on the O’Reilly photo site; they’ll be based on annotated MP3 examples.

We also plan to offer master classes on popular products—like the crucial “in use” section of a product review, showcasing creative ways to exploit and hack the products rather than simply regurgitating spec lists. We’ll top it off with occasional editorials. Digital audio is fabulous, but it has a long way to go.

Looking forward to the journey,

David

Dying to get into digital audio (or do it better) ? Suggest topics you’d like us to cover.