Sound System Engineering
by Don Davis and Eugene Patronis, Jr., Published by Focal Press (Third Edition)
ISBN 0-240-80830-4, hardback, 489 pp, $79.95
EN-Genius Reviewer: Paul McGoldrick

This is a heavy book -- in all manner of meanings.

The vast majority of people who play in the audio engineering worlds get there through hands-on experience, not the college lecture theater. You therefore have to be very careful how you try and expose the science of sound engineering to them. If mathematics is required -- so be it. But when you get to a point where you can spout for fifty-seven pages on signal processing without actually offering anything practical you have to wonder about the mindset of the author -- in this case Patronis, who is a Professor of Physics, Emeritus, from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

I don't wish to demean physics in any manner, but when you are talking sound engineering -- especially when you include Systems in the title -- then you need to be practical. The previous two editions of the book, with the authors given as Carolyn Davis and Don Davis, were much more practical, much more useful.

Now we have a text that is highly mathematical -- when it needn't be -- and only touches on the edge of reality. But then you throw in an Appendix on how to solder? What is that all about? Oh, and don't forget the pin 1 problem, doesn't that come every day on new equipment?

This is a book about sound (I prefer audio: sound is an anachronism, being limited only to aural perception) that makes no mention of the following items, most of which I would have thought to be of some importance to audio engineers: mixers; MIDI; Dolby; noise reduction; Surround Sound; cinema sound; CDs; broadcasting; THX; recording; distortion (except in the decibel chapter -- big deal); and spends just three pages on AES3. And the list can go on and on.

There can be no recommendation for this edition of the book; it is an esoteric text in the context of 2007, with little to no value for an audio engineer.

I am really getting to the point where I think technology books of any kind simply should not be allowed to get into a third edition. It doesn't seem possible to modify the content for later year developments without it just becoming a mess. I know that the two books I have edited in my day could never be just modified -- you would have to start from scratch.

Publishers -- as in acquisition editors -- need to find new authors with more current knowledge and understanding of their fields of expertise.