Understanding Digital Signal Processing

If you are planning to get into DSP from a practical point of view, then there are only two books to get - and this is one of them. DSP is a complex subject, and if you are not in an educational environment where you have easy access to teachers who can advise you, then you could easily be turned off by diving into a book such as Schafer and Oppenheim's recognized text book on the subject. I am a retired ex-academic with an interest in signal processing, and decided to get back into the field, which had developed considerably since I was involved in basic continuous signal processing, which than revolved around Fourier analysis and integrals. I researched the market thoroughly and ended up purchasing Steven Smith's excellent book "The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing", which gives a conceptual view of DSP without getting too involved in the mathematics of the subject. Having worked through this book and established a solid basis of what DSP is all about, I decided that I needed a little more mathematical support to the concepts, and settled on the current book. What a good choice. These two books are a perfect complement to each other, and the writing style of the authors is very similar. Anybody getting into DSP is strongly advised to purchase them both. But back to the current book - this book focuses on the reader and makes you feel that you are interacting with a teacher rather than puzzling over equations. It leads you gently through the concepts, but doesn't bypass thorough considerations of the development, for instance, of the Fast Fourier Transform, which can be quite intimidating. This is a chapter that you can scan through without disrupting the rest of the material. The book includes many exercises and - best of all - Rick Lyons has a DSP blog of tips and tricks where you can get invaluable information and interact directly with him. All in all, by purchasing this book you not only get a source-book of the practical application of DSP, but a wealth of support, and I have no hesitation in awarding it a 5-star rating.

I had been searching for a good DSP reference book, when I found Understanding Digital Signal Processing 3rd ed. in Amazon. The reviews regarding the 2nd ed. we're positive, so I decided to get a copy.At the same time I was working on a software defined radio for the HF amateur bands. I had little knowledge of I and Q signals, analytic signals, Hilbert transforms - a lot of things that make single sideband modulation/demodulation possible in an SDR.This book, in addition to extensive coverage of FIR/IIR filtering and related topics, also covers complex/quadrature signals, upconversion/downconversion, Hilbert transform, sample rate conversion, polyphase filtering, etc. in a way that's understandable and applicable. The math is there as one would expect, but then the author also explains things in a physical/real sense. I was able to learn these topics and actually apply them - the fact that I was able to make my SDR work is a testimony to the book.To summarize - if I need to brush up on a DSP topic, or learn something new, but then APPLY it, this book is an wonderful reference. If you're considering this book, be sure and review the Table of Contents - there's a lot in this book. The Processing Tricks section has been very helpful as well. I can highly recommend this book.

My review is based on the second edition. I've been using this book for the last four (4) years. I wish i'd purchased it ten (10) years ago.Core DSP concepts are made clear and intuitive. Lyons' pedagogical style is comparable to Steven Smith's introductory book (Digital Signal Processing: A Practical Guide for Engineers and Scientists, also freely distributed online at author's Web site). Math is used only when needed and generally kept to a minimum---a refreshing approach for such a technical topic.This book, along maybe with Schaums Outline of Digital Signal Processing, 2nd Edition (Schaum's Outline Series), should form a good basis for conceptually understanding the fundamentals and beyond, so that upper undergraduate and graduate courses on DSP become more enjoyable. Lyons' clarity is uncommon. The breadth of the book is also commendable.The book is not a substitute for the classic texts on DSP (Proakis, Oppenheim & Schafer, Manolakis) or Fourier theory (Bracewell, Papoulis); judging by his style, neither does the author make a pretense it is. Rather, this is a much needed attempt to gap the math--intuition gap so many of us have struggled with over their beginning DSP years. And a very successful one at that. Truly an exceptional and welcome addition to the DSP literature.

This is my 2nd book by Mr. Lyons (he was editor of the first). I bought it specifically for his "Tricks of the trade" chapter. He does not disappoint. As a digital communications engineer who gets paid to be an RF engineer, I don't get to do enough DSP communications algorithm design to do the DSP I need to (too seldom) do without some continuous textbook reading. Mr Lyons gets down and dirty with the basics of what you need to know, in contrast to the more university style presentation that you get with most university textbooks. He is rigorous in taking the reader through the building blocks of DSP, but his extensive use of step by step examples sets him apart from most textbooks. His practical examples of algorithms used in baseband DSP ( sampling rate conversion, CIC filtering optimization, ALC, AGC frequency conversion, etc... (read the book) make this a must have book.