3 comments about Evolution of the Audio Recorder.

1. Van Praag does a wonderful job of bringing a great deal of information about old tape machines together in one fun to read book. Open reel recorder information dominates here, but the theory section covers compact cassette and 8 track as well. For readers interested in technical data, a section deals with circuit drawings. The photography of the equipment is very high quality, it does justice to these old machines. Van Praag's style is matter-of-fact and rather relaxed. He is certainly a realist, you can tell he has spent many an hour working on audio recorders. His how-to-do section on repair/restoration is thorough, funny, and quite accurate. Whether you just fooled around with a cheap toy recorder as a child, or made your living keeping the big reels turning, you will enjoy this book.



2. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even remote interest in electronic equipment. This book is profusely illustrated and written in an entertaining yet informative style that will keep you reading for hours! This book will have special appeal to those who collect or have an affinity for vintage electronics equipment equipment.



3. If you have an interest in audio tape recorders, whether historically or an owner (I grew up with them), this book is excellent. There is none other like it. Coverage is complete with lots of great photos of tape recorders (like Elvis's Ampex 350 studio deck). If you are a hobbyist or technician, there are schematics and much repair/rebuild information. I was also a broadcast engineer and have recently rebuilt several Ampex reel-to-reel recorders. I searched everywhere for reference information and there wasn't much, other than old service manuals. This book covers all the Ampex models plus just about everything else, and is just plain fun to read. Many of the long lost home recorders I knew as a child are included. You won't be disappointed by purchasing a copy of this book.

4 comments about Goldmine Heavy Metal Record Price Guide.

1. This is by far the best reference guide for collecting Metal on vinyl. Although a record is really only worth what somebody will pay for it, this guide gives you a nice ballpark figure of what to spend on an LP. It also includes entries on early pre-fame recordings of bands whose members went on to become somebody (ie: ELF featuring Ronnie Dio, Black Sheep with Lou Gramm, etc)....Rookie Cards if you will.

   All of Martin Popoff's books have been informative, funny and entertaining, however, I don't agree with his views on Triumph.




2. Yes, this guide is a must have for all Metal record collectors. I would recommend it for CD collectors too, as it has a great discography of just about every metal band. But I was dissapointed to find out the author devalued many of the US record releases while raising the values of the UK releases. I know record collecting is more popular in the UK, but there are still many collectors here in the US too. This book makes it hard for the US collector to figure out what his collection is really worth. Case in point, GNR's banned robot cover sells for about five times what the guide lists by many dealers in the US. Anyway, I guees it is just a guide so don't take the values too seriously. Still, a great reference guide for the Metal Record collector.



3. If you are into 80's Heavy metal and vinyl collecting you must get this books, which is mainly a catalog. It's very helpful on things as Band's LP's, EP's, release year, etc. If you have a missing LP from the 80's metal and don't know the label, year or even more, you want to complete your collection dig this.



4. This book is perfect for those who simply have an interest or the hard-core collector of rock and roll's wicked stepchild, Heavy metal. Loads of photos, bios, and assorted gems, this takes some of the guess work out of ammassing one's collection. The only complaint I could possibly offer is that there needs to be more concentration on the newer sub-genres of Heavy metal (black metal, death metal, etc) although they are addressed.

5 comments about Goldmine Jazz Album Price Guide.

1. ...Goldmine is still holding sadly to the olden days of flea market and record shop values, instead of realizing that ebay values are the only true ones these days for collectibles. With that in mind, the guide is useful only because it's really the only one published recently. Ebay prices are generally 1/3 of those quoted here, with a few exceptions spurred by trends online that bump prices to 1/3 or so above the prices quoted in this book. If you carry this book with you as you shop at garage sales or flea markets, make sure to adjust the values in your mind accordingly so you don't pay too much in the real world for something you want to sell in the virtual one.



2. I bought this in order to estimate the vaule of my collection for insurance puposes and wasted my money. The guide claims that, for example, my mono Jackie McLean "Destination Out" is worth $30. If I were to lose my copy due to fire or some other reason would I be able to find another copy for $30? Absolutely not. More like $60. Several listings are completely out of touch with the current market and subsequent repressings of older recordings are overpriced. If you really had no idea about the jazz LP market then this book will be of at least some help. You might be cheating yourself, however, if you are looking to appraise a jazz collection about which are are unfamiliar.



3. I ordered this book even after I read the sparse not-so-favorable reviews, because my experience with jazz officionados (sic) is that they are whining nitpickers (example: sniveling over Ken Burns Jazz documentary). I have the old 1992 Umphred book, missed the 1994 edition and thought it was time to update. I screwed up.

   Pluses: *listings beyond 1969--though who really cares unless you like to have a checklist for all your albums. They're pretty much all the same price and overpriced at that.

   *Frank Zappa listings. Though I don't agree with including this in a jazz book it is kind of cool to see the state of my Zappa collection being addressed.

   *Updated prices. Sad to see my mono pressing devalue, but I kind of agree with some of the listings here, though how dime-a-dozen Brubeck albums on Columbia can bring more than early '60's Blue Notes is totally beyond me! Tim, what are you thinking?!

   *Label info in the actual listings rather than in the intro--but sparse (see below)

   *Cool little checklist boxes to mark off the stock

   Minuses:

   *WHat I've already mentioned above

   *biggest minus: this book is for collectors--what we need more than anything, more than even a "new and improved" price list is "new and improved" label information bordering on the factual. Buyer beware: there is nothing regarding labels except for some Blue Note info and Columbia. I was looking for reliable info on Riverside which is sorely lacking in the '92. I couldn't believe that this vital information was tossed. A real disservice. Is there reliable info in the '94 Umphred? Could someone fax me copies of that so I can paste onto my inside cover. Jeeeezzzz!

   *Stupid numerical listing system that separates Mono from Stereo copies. But on the plus side it is divided by labels rather than years. Preferable though I don't really know why myself

   I really hope this helps. I should have bought the '94 instead but felt that it didn't address my concerns from the '92. I don't know how hard this can really be if you are steeped in the industry. I do this for s**ts and giggles and know things not in any of the books. A half-assed product, I'm sorry to say. If you are going to do it, do it right or not at all. Where was Neil? He at least has a particular interest in Jazz. WHen you read the forward Tim comes right out and confesses that jazz is not his cup of tea. He therefore has no business getting involved in such a delicate matter as jazz collecting. Sorry Tim, but I suspect I speak for all of those who will purchase this book AFTER have owned an Umphred. Newcomers to the arena will find themselves buried in unwanted reissues in no time.

   P.S. Why did my Colpix stereo copy of Jimmy Rushing's "Five Feet of Soul" disappear? Is it even rare? Saw a VG+ copy selling for $25 at a show couple years ago. I already had it.




4. Well-a last a long-awaited update to the, despite some minor quibbles, excellent 1994 price-guide by N. Umphred.... But it doesn't take more than a few minutes to discover that this is a serious letdown. This is basically a photo-copy of Umphred's Book with all the excellent details an easily readable format edited out? . This has apparently been compiled without ANY real research, insight or interest for that matter in Jazz Vinyl collecting. The only excuse for the release of this text-book-example-of-cashing-in-on-other-peoples-reputation-and-work is the unavailability of Umphred's edition. Owners of this previous edition should stay way clear of this...



5. Although it's nice to have listings from beyond 1969 (why was that date chosen as a cutoff for the previous incarnation of this book, anyway?), this book falls short in several areas.

   First and foremost, most of the prices have been left unchanged; in some cases, they've been downgraded. A quick market pulse-check will tell anyone that you're not going to net $100 for a first press in M- condition of Lee Morgan's "Candy" on blue note, and you're definitely going to get more than $25 for a first-press Sun Ra record on El Saturn! Frequently, the prices for post-'69 records are formulaic; a majority of those records are listed as $6.25/$12.50/$25.00. Thanks for nothing, Neely!

   Second, the label determining information is seriously lacking, frequently repeating mistakes made in the Umphred book (i.e., "the 'deep groove' on Blue Note records is about the size of a 50-cent piece.")! only in the case of Columbia mono/stereo pressings. Argh!

   In sum: although this book is complete, its prices are out of touch with reality, and it appears as though the bulk of time it took to get the book to market was spent in arranging the listings, rather than completing the requisite thorough research to successfully achieve its auspicious goal. If you already have Umphred's book, purchase this only if you have a significant number of post-'69 records.

5 comments about Goldmine's Price Guide to Alternative Records.

1. Yes, there are many glaring omissions, and yes, the prices of many of the records are laughably low. This book's value, however, lies in its cataloging of many popular "alternative" bands from 1976-1996.
   
   Even if you never find them for the prices Neely has listed, at least you'll be able to find out the number 45s Rage Against the Machine released or how many pressings of "Pick Your King" Posion Idea released and which ones were on what colored vinyl.
   
   Admittedly, you could probably find all of the information in the book with some searching online, but there's nothing like having an old fashioned paperback with all the information in it right by your side. Requires no electricity, pries you away from the evils of the addicting internet, and just perhaps will shed light on a group or record you didn't know existed.
   
   And, hey, it's $1.99 from the Amazon Marketplace. How can you pass it up?



2. Tim Neely is very clear in his Intro (or Disclaimer, if you will) that this book is a guide only and could not include many artist. His Intro addresses most of the negative reviews listed for this book. I liked the book and it proved useful to me. Yes, after almost 10 years it should be updated. Thank You.



3. Lotsa errors, omissions and inaccuracies. There's about as much chance of finding some of the Misfits singles for the prices listed in this guide as there is for the Boulder police to ever solve the Jon Bennet Ramsey murder.



4. I really was very dissapointed in the range of music that this book covers. I was hoping to get at least a decent discography of many of these bands, but this volume failed even that test. Having listened to this music in the 1970's and 80's into the 90's and beyond, I take offense to the many glaring ommissions that the author made either by choice or poor research. A few examples are: Psychic TV, Primus, the Muffs, amd Cyprus Hill are a few bands that did not make the cut at all. Steve Albini's original band Big Black is ommited but his 90's band Rapeman is represnted, go figure! (Probobly because by this time he had produced bands like Nirvana, even though Big Black is by far the more influential of his bands) Other bands have only a token mention with only one or two of their discs listed. Examples: Didjits, Naked Raygun, Fugazi, etc. Even more popular acts like Elvis Costello may have his LP's well listed but his Stiff records 45's are completely ignored, likewise Joy Division and the Specials also are poorly represented in the singles department. Especially frustrating to those who grew up with this music is the author's choice to include such modern pop-rock monstrosities as Hootie and the Blowfish and Blues Traveler and other such bands which might find a fine home on most adult contemporary radio stations but can not in any good conscience be considered 'Alternative'. Also if you go into any finer used record store you might be a bit surprised at some of the prices. While the vast majority of record prices have remained constant, he is well off on many of the rarer issues. In conclusion it seems that the author has a real shallow understanding of the heart and soul of the variety of musical forms that are collectively entitled 'Alternative', his viewpoint seems to be that of a contemporary mainstream rock station's music director, strong on the 90's rock but excedingly weak on the roots.



5. This book is the only one of it's kind that I know of...I think it needs to be updated soon though...it is a 1996 pricing guide..Also, it does need some adds on the artist listings section and a CD guide would be great too. It is the only book that I have found that has what I need for Alternative Rock vinyl listings.

No comments about Goldmine Records & Prices (Goldmine Records and Prices).

1 comments about Digital Audio Restoration.

1. This book was written by two professors at Cambridge University, who are also founders of the CEDAR Company, which is on the leading edge of audio restoration technology. The book consisely summarizes several of the audio restoration ideas developed by the authors that have been published in various journals. The book focuses on Bayesian analysis as a means for determining the most probable nature of audio defects (clicks, pitch variations and so forth) based on observed, corrupted data. Bayesian inference is also used to find maximum a posteriori characteristics of the underlying, uncorrupted signal.

   Those interested in restoring old phonograph and cylinder recordings will find the book very interesting, should one want to understand and develop audio restoration software.

   The book is very well-written and typeset, unlike many contemporary technical books. It uses vector and matrix notation for most formulae, which is welcome to those familiar with matlab. There is a very good list of references.

   Many of the priniciples discussed require a good knowledge of statistical signal processing by the reader. (Fortunately a new book "Computational Statistics Handbook with Matlab" was just published and should fill some gaps.)

   The book comes with an audio CDROM that illustrates several of the techniques discussed in the book. The CD itself is effectively an advertisement for their CEDAR sound processing systems, as the CD has clips with varying levels of processing applied, including the full CEDAR proprietary system. The CD contains the original source material as wav files, so researchers can use them to benchmark their algorithms against the commercial CEDAR system.

   I find it disappointing that the authors did not include matlab code to better illustrate their concepts. But then, the authors caution that some of the algorithmic details embodied in their restoration software are not published "for reasons of commercial secrecy."

   [As an interesting side-note, one other founder of CEDAR, S. Vaseghi, has published a book on noise reduction and audio restoration. The publisher's advertisement said it came with matlab code. This is not the case. I contacted the publisher and was told (three months later) that the matlab reference was an oversight. Why the secrecy?]

   In summary, Digital Audio Restoration is an excellent book by two of the world's leading researchers in this area. I would have given it a five-star rating if it had matlab (or C) reference code. An intrepid researcher could sift through IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and ICASSP proceedings and glean much of what's in this book; thus matlab examples would have been a welcome addition. Still, there's no better book to my knowledge in the area of audio restoration.

5 comments about Tori Amos Collectibles: Collectibles.

1. This was a great reference up until BFP. This book does not have items after 1997. I contacted the author about possibly doing a volume II and he was not planning on it. However this book is great for early Tori items.



2. to say that this is an essential volume of work for the serious tori collector is almost a contradiction in terms. the serious collector could basically be any tori fan around the world who is slavishly devoted to tori's music & simply must own the rarities no matter how expensive or obscure they may be. naturally, this book would probably not appeal to the casual tori fan who buys an album occasionally at the local wal-mart. if you mainly interested in some basic information on tori & her formative years, you should try the kalen rogers book instead which is an awesome introduction to ms. amos & contains many lovely photographs of the goddess herself. on the other hand, this is a useful reference book if you are seriously into collecting promos, extremely rare vinyl, or the infamous y kant tori read cd. speaking from personal experience, i've found very few of the items listed in this book but i keep it on hand just in case i should run across them at record shows, used cd bins, or perhaps yard sales of tori fans. sad to say, most of these items are either long out of circulation or very few copies were distributed. one interesting fact is that most of the material you will find on ebay are not the original pressings but rather cheap bootlegs(while these sometimes can be very necessary) which are overly priced. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO SHARE ANOTHER PIECE OF VALUABLE INFORMATION FOR EXTRMEME TORI FANS LIKE MYSELF HERE. if you love live tori material or rare songs which are not in print, you can often go the www.hereinmyhead.com website & pull up mp3s of all your favorite rarities. this is where i have found most of my songs for my extensive tori collection. rumour also has it you can go to www.toritraders.com where you can download full length concerts or cover art for cd cases. from what i've read or heard, this can be done with dial-up service but the process of downloading could take up to five days whereas a high speed connection would only take about five hours. as of yet, i have not tried this so i cannot substantiate the rumour but i found that tidbit to be very interesting & i figured tori fans might find this useful in addition to purcahsing this methodically researched volume of work. needless to say, this collection book sitting on his coffee table or by the computer right near the bible.



3. I purchased this book recently. It is surprisingly heavy and is packed wih pictures and info. Really a must-have for collectors.
   I have a few critisisms: first, there are no prices or values for the items, which I thought there would be. I realize that prices and availability fluctuate after several years making it difficult to place a value on certain items, but even including the original store prices would have been better than nothing. Second, I was very disappointed to find that the book does not include any of the merchandise sold on the tours (with the exception of the UTP and BFP tour books), such as tour necklaces, t-shirts, and other items. I thought this was a pretty big omission considering the popularity and collectibility of such items.
   Despite those things, it is a great book to have, I would recommend picking one up if you plan to start collecting.



4. This is an excellent book to have for collectors. You shouldn't purchase unless you are a serious collector.



5. This is an excellent book to have for collectors. You shouldn't purchase unless you are a serious collector.

1 comments about Digital Audio Technology: A Guide to CD, MiniDisc, SACD, DVD(A), MP3 and DAT, Fourth Edition.

1. I bought this thinking I could beef-up my knowledge on DVD-Audio and SACD. This is not what your looking for for in-depth info, its more of a technical engineers manual if anything with hardly any info on DVD-A or SACD with very, very small articles on these topics. I has more charts and technical data on very scientific data that only an engineer can decipher. Its put out by the people at Sony and Philips and gives you the same info that you can get in a tech magazine. Save your money, its not worth it.

No comments about Lenk's Laser Handbook: Featuring CD, DV, and CD-ROM Technology.

No comments about Official Guide to the Money Records.