synth-diy (Real Beginners vs. Advanced Beginners... GREAT Books)

[inman at interpath.com]

TRUE BEGINNER BOOKS

The question of where to begin could only be answered if we knew what you
meant by beginner.  Are you a beginner in electronics, or a beginner in
music, or a beginner in both?  If you are a beginner in electronics, I
am going to differ with the majority here and suggest a Delton Horn book.
I agree that his manual on synthesizer repair is not very helpful.  
Horn is a generalist who has written countless electronics books; he
is not a synthesizer expert at all.  But books of his like "49 Electronic
6-Volt Projects" TAB Books, Inc. 1990 (REAL BEGINNER stuff) offer a few
oscillator circuits that, for an absolute beginner, are good because they
use easy to find cheap parts, are fun, and are relatively idiot-proof.  
BTW, "Music Synthesizers:  A Manual of Design and Construction" TAB 1984
is not the same as Horn's repair guide, which is notoriously useless.  
"MS:a M of D and C" actually has some interesting circuits and a good, 
low-level introduction to electronics and music and even AD / DA conversion.

Along the same lines, Forrest Mims sells some mini-books on the rack
at Radio Shack, including one on Op-amps and another on digital circuits.
Both offer some interesting, musically-related circuits.  The books feature
parts you can find on the next rack over at Radio Shack, usually the 741
OP-AMP or 555 Timer, both classics.  At Radio Shack, these parts are
relatively inexpensive, although you should know that bought in bulk
from DIGIKEY or MOUSER, you can get the same parts for much less....
The Mims Op-Amp book actually includes circuits for low-pass and
high-pass filters.  The problem with these Forrest Mims books is that
they offer very little explanation of the circuits.
  
For guitarists, another great book is Craig Anderton's "Projects for
Guitarists" (Miller Freeman Books, 1995) which begins with a section on
basic parts and their function, soldering, and reading schematics.
The best part of this book is that it includes detailed explanations
of every aspect of the designs, plus many, many great useful tips
hidden in the middle of projects.  Anderton is the Anti-Mims!
On the other hand, his "Digital Projects for Musicians"
(Anderton, Moses, and Bartlett, Amsco Publications, 1994) is
a massive book with some useful introduction to electronics and MIDI, but
it is more of an assembly manual for the MIDITOOLS computer, parts sold by
www.pavo.com.  (I've never built one, so I cannot comment, although it
looks very interesting.)  Overall, not a beginner book.

All of these authors:  Horn, Mims, and Anderton are very understandable,
even if you know little about electronics, although only Anderton is a
"real" electronic musician writer.  Also, in general, if you are searching
at a library, just look up TAB books.  They are the big publisher of
electronics and electronic music books.

Also check out this magazine:  Nuts and Volts.  (www.nutsvolts.com).  
N & V seems to have at least one or two musically-useful circuits
in every issue -- sometimes a special issue of music stuff.  A great
magazine for a true electronics beginner because they have regular
introductory columns (recently good stuff on flip-flops and gates and, in
December... PICs!)



THE NEXT LEVEL BEGINNER

At the next higher level, read anything by Bob Moog.  The great secret
about Bob Moog that I never hear anyone mention is how great a writer
he is.  He could teach a gorilla to build a voltage controlled filter.
Keyboard Magazine republished many of his articles in a book called,
"Synthesizer Basics" (1984).  Moog explains all:  not necessarily the
circuits, but the science.  See if you can find it at a library.

However, none of the above will get you to higher ground:  real
electronic schematics for a sophisticated synthesizer.  For that, I
suggest (all of which may only be available through a local
public or university library):


THE CLASSICS  (both available as reprints from the authors... check out
        the www.paia.com website and select the Friends page.  Both
        authors below are listed as friends.)

Chamberlin, Hal.  (1984)  Musical Applications of Microprocessors.
        [Fantastic book.  Worth its weight in gold.  Great circuits,
        exceptionally clear.  Covers the history and design of
        everything from analog synthesizers to digital samplers.
	Plus, Chamberlin's 1984 predictions for the future make him
	the Nostradamus of synth design -- except for the part about
	MIDI.  This book goes from absolute beginner to EE major,
        but is written so concisely that any intelligent person
        could understand it.  If you could memorize this book, you
        would know 99% of everything worth knowing about electronic
        music circuits.  If I thought I could absorb every word by
        sleeping with the book beside me, I would ask my wife to
        move over.]

Klein, Barry T.  (1982).  Electronic Music Circuits.  Howard W. Sams
        and Co., Inc.  [The Mac Daddy of Electronic Music Books...
        Barry Klein provides an example for virtually every useful
        electronic music circuit known to man or woman... Circuit
        corrections noted on the www.hyperreal.org/music/machines/
        website.  Check before you build.]


SOME OTHERS I LIKE

Paturzo, Bonaventura Anthony.  (1984)  Making Music with
        Microprocessors.  TAB BOOKS, INC.  [First half is
        useful information, second half is directly related
        to a microchip now discontinued... a gamble the
        author admitted.  Still interesting if you can find it,
        especially for a very simplified, but accurate description
        of DA / AD processes with a computer.]

Brown, Robert and Olsen, Mark.  (1984)  Experimenting with
        Electronic Music.  TAB BOOKS, INC.  [Very solid
        introduction although the circuits use older
        approaches -- few modern IC's].

Ward, Brice.  (1975).  Electronic Music Circuit Guidebook.
        TAB BOOKS, INC.  [Great introduction and circuits,
        some older parts, but some newer.  Very detailed
        description of PAIA GNOME, a classic DIY synth --
        thanks to John Simonton, who is to SYNTH DIY
        design what Linus Torvalds is to Operating Systems.]


WARNINGS:

WARNING ONE:  Older books are great as background and some of the
classic circuits live on, but often the parts are hard or impossible
to find and techniques used are potentially outdated, replaced by
easier, cheaper, more effective methods.  Still, these older books
are often the only written history of analog or early digital designs.

WARNING TWO:  Is there a book of electronic circuits published that
does not include some error?  I doubt it.  So, if at all possible
look for a second printing book or one that has "been around the
block" electronically.  There are probably people on this list who
could tell you the location of three incorrectly spelled words in 
Barry Klein's book, without opening it.  


Finally, two Cool History Books, off topic, but which should never be
forgotten for their singular, important contributions...
Just for the record...

Hiller, Lejaren A. and Issacson, Leonard.  1959.  Experimental
        Music:  Composition with an Electronic Computer.  McGraw-Hill
        Book Company, Inc.  [Sit back and watch, dear friends, as
        two men teach a computer to compose... Fascinating to retrace
        the mental footprints of Hiller, a true genius.]

Matthews, Max et. al. (1969) The Technology of Computer Music.
        The M.I.T. Press.  [Go along with Matthews as he invents
        digital music.  Learn about programming C Sound when people
        could actually learn to program C Sound.  Matthews is even
        gentle on the math-phobic, promising to keep the numbers round.]

Both of the above prove that really brilliant people are brilliant
communicators -- like Bob Moog, Hal Chamberlin, and Barry Klein.  If you
can't write it, you don't know it.

Hope this proves useful.  As always, I welcome any second opinions or
criticisms.  


Elliot "Never Read a Book until the 12th Grade and Haven't Stopped Since"