operator precedence challenge

I'm having problems with the query below. It works fine until the "NOT IN" part and I'm not sure why. Basically, I'm getting records where their educ_audio field is set to "no". I've messed with the parens to try to force SQL to process the NOT IN part before the other clauses without avail. Can someone shed some light?

TIA

SELECT distinct contacts.fname, contacts.lname, contacts.company, contacts.contact_id, contacts.business_phone, contacts.emailAddress, contacts.dateLastContact FROM journal INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id INNER JOIN products ON journal.product_code = products.product_code WHERE ( journal.product_code IN ('ABLE') ) OR (( journal.product_code IN ('JOBS') ) AND ( journal.product_status IN ('12','14','15') )) OR (( products.prod_design IN ('audio') ) AND ( products.library_code IN ('hrss') )) AND (journal.journal_id NOT IN (SELECT journal.journal_id FROM journal INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id INNER JOIN products ON products.product_code = journal.product_code where ( contacts.educ_audio IN ('no') ) )) ORDER BY contacts.lname asc, contacts.fnameI think you can get the results you want by enclosing all your OR clauses in one set of parenthesis. If I understand correctly, your records must satisfy at least one of the OR clauses, and the AND clause:

SELECT distinct
contacts.fname,
contacts.lname,
contacts.company,
contacts.contact_id,
contacts.business_phone,
contacts.emailAddress,
contacts.dateLastContact
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON journal.product_code = products.product_code
WHERE ((journal.product_code IN ('ABLE'))
OR ((journal.product_code IN ('JOBS')) AND (journal.product_status IN ('12','14','15')))
OR ((products.prod_design IN ('audio')) AND (products.library_code IN ('hrss'))))
AND (journal.journal_id NOT IN
(SELECT journal.journal_id
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON products.product_code = journal.product_code
WHERE (contacts.educ_audio IN ('no'))))
ORDER BY contacts.lname asc,
contacts.fname

But you can clean this up a lot more
First, IN ('ABLE') is equivalent to ='ABLE', so don't muddy the waters with more parentheses than you need.
Second, many of your Parenthesis pairs are superfluous, in that they enclose only one clause. Eliminate the clutter.

SELECT distinct
contacts.fname,
contacts.lname,
contacts.company,
contacts.contact_id,
contacts.business_phone,
contacts.emailAddress,
contacts.dateLastContact
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON journal.product_code = products.product_code
WHERE (journal.product_code = 'ABLE'
OR (journal.product_code = 'JOBS' AND journal.product_status IN ('12','14','15'))
OR (products.prod_design = 'audio' AND products.library_code IN ('hrss')))
AND journal.journal_id NOT IN
(SELECT journal.journal_id
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON products.product_code = journal.product_code
WHERE contacts.educ_audio = 'no')
ORDER BY contacts.lname asc,
contacts.fname

--Lastly, consider converting you NOT IN clause to a LEFT OUTER JOIN subquery:

SELECT distinct
contacts.fname,
contacts.lname,
contacts.company,
contacts.contact_id,
contacts.business_phone,
contacts.emailAddress,
contacts.dateLastContact
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON journal.product_code = products.product_code
LEFT OUTER JOIN
(SELECT journal.journal_id
FROM journal
INNER JOIN contacts ON journal.contact_id = contacts.contact_id
INNER JOIN products ON products.product_code = journal.product_code
WHERE contacts.educ_audio = 'no') ExcludeRecords
on journal.journal_id = ExludeRecords.journal_id
WHERE (journal.product_code = 'ABLE'
OR (journal.product_code = 'JOBS' AND journal.product_status IN ('12','14','15'))
OR (products.prod_design = 'audio' AND products.library_code IN ('hrss')))
AND ExcludeRecords.journal_id is null
ORDER BY contacts.lname asc,
contacts.fname

If you take the time to develop a coding style that includes neat and consistent indenting and formatting, you will be rewarded with much clearer and more bug-free code.|||Thanks for your help.

Reason the SQL looks like it does (not indented, etc) is because that was a paste from my application. This is for an ad-hoc query tool I'm building.

As to your suggestions, they all seem to work except the last one.
Error: The column prefix 'ExludeRecords' does not match with a table name or alias name used in the query.|||Just a typo.

on journal.journal_id = ExludeRecords.journal_id

...should have been:

on journal.journal_id = ExcludeRecords.journal_id