Some pocket books seem to be miniature text books. My view is that the place for text books is back in the office for occasional reference! Pocket books, I think, should contain the kind of information that may be needed frequently; that such a book has an important place in the pocket, and is as essential there as one’s wallet or car keys.
Of course, it is unlikely that everyone is going to need all the information in such a volume, but my hope is that this Pocket Book will be important to most sound engineers most of the time.
For fuller information on any topic in it the reader is referred to the Audio Engineer’s Reference Book (Focal Press, second edition, 1999) from which most, but not all of the data has been drawn. Some of the material comes from my own work and some comes from the excellent little Audio System Designer handbook, published a few years ago by Messrs Klark–Technik. I gratefully acknowledge their permission to quote from it.
The ideal target, as I have said, would have been attained if any practising engineer underwent a panic attack if he or she found that they had left the relevant pocket book behind. I doubt if that is ever going to be quite the case, but perhaps this pocket book for sound engineers might approach that ideal.
Michael Talbot-Smith