SV: SV: [sdiy] A book about analogue synthesizer circuits?

[Dustin Withers]

on 4/4/03 3:54 AM, Thomas Kahn at thomas at roundhouse.se wrote:

> Magnus D:
>> Please find a PDF attached for your eyes only. It's not much,
>> but it is something. I did have more, but lost it in a crash.
>> Anyway, if people like Thomas pester me with questions and
>> ask me to extend on this or that topic I can certainly extend it.
> 
> The book that I have in mind has a rather different structure though. It
> starts in the "wrong end" so to speak. Most books have a bottom-up
> structure where you begin with basic theory in electronics, descriptions
> of the various type of components and their properties etc.
> 
> My suggestion is that you do it the other way around: top-down. Select a
> number of _complete_ projects with schematics, card-layouts, parts lists
> and building instructions. After that you start explaining the different
> solutions that are a part of the circuit the reader has just built (or
> at least read about). After that you go even deeper describing how the
> properties of the different components are utilized and how they work
> together. After that you dig into the theory with formulas etc.
> 
> As I see it there are two major reasons for doing it this way:
> 
> 1) I think it appeals to people that are into DIY electronics. First get
> your hands dirty, listen and toy around with the thing you have just
> built. This in turn will hopefully create a deeper curiosity for the
> circuit and the theroy behind it and there you have the next step in the
> book waiting to be read.
> 
> 2) It's easier for people like me to read and understand. If I see the
> circuit in action first I can then start learning more about what makes
> it tick. Or, if I'm not at all interested in the theory I can just build
> the projects and skip the theory. This makes the book more interesting
> to a wider audience; an audience that would get bored and set the book
> aside if they first had to plow through 100 pages with theory.
> 
> Of course I can't speak for the entire DIY community, so take this
> suggestion as my personal point of view regarding how a book should be
> structured. Me and Magnus have talked a little about why people are into
> DIY electronics and the reasons seem as many as there are DIY:ers. Some
> get a kick out of drawing schematics but get bored when it's time to
> realize them, others jump head first into the soldering and don't care
> much for the theory behind the circuit.
> 
> /Thomas
> 
> 
I love this idea but I was thinking why don't you guys start with something
preestablished such as the ASM-1.  You could have something similar to the
Elektor Formant book.  Going through each circuit explaining the total
workings of it.  I don't know just an idea....

-dustin