What is it and why should I know this?
If you are an author interested in producing an AUDIO BOOK to embellish your creative works and find an additional revenue stream for your literary creations, you need to understand the difference between Audio and Pro Audio.
Why do you think the retail store, “The Guitar Center” has a complete area designated to Pro Audio? Because, this is where all the best gear and effects are to produce the highest level of quality sound. The best speakers for listening, the best balanced cables for clarity in recording, racks of equipment that are used by Professional Sound Engineers…however, we as professional engineers do not purchase most of our gear at this outlet as a rule.
But the example is reality. A Professional Sound Engineer knows how to filter unwanted highs and lows from each recording. A Professional Sound Engineer knows the human range of listening is between 20Hz and 20,000 Hz. A Professional Sound Engineer also knows that human hearing is most sensitive to frequencies between 2,000Hz and 5,000Hz.
Why is this important? If you are involved in the production of an Audio Book, your customer will not enjoy the recording, and struggle to understand the details of the sound if these parameters are not understood and adhered to in the actual recording of the voice actors and any ambient sounds.
Other factors to take in consideration are decibel range, age factors of your target audience, Infrasound & ultrasound, and the most important factors of decibel levels that can actually cause pain to sensitive human listening organs.
A Professional Sound Engineer typically has taken a college accredited course in some kind of sound engineering, and may be awarded a certificate of completion of this course. Check out my next BLOG that identifies the best school for Sound Engineering in the country, and why this school’s success is tops in the field.
Gregory A. Rosenblum
Published Author
Professional Sound Engineer
Photo by Natalie Parham on Unsplash used with permission under the Creative Commons license for commercial use 12/11/19.