[sdiy] good books on electronic music/ electronics history?

Tue May 12 18:20:56 CEST 2009

I really like Mark Vail's "Vintage Synthesizers." I have both first & second editions. It's often criticized for being just a collection of dated articles, but they are entertaining to read. In most cases, it doesn't matter that the book was published in ~1993. He kind of leaves out the Hammond side as I believe he wrote a book just about Hammonds. Some chapters are also written by Bob Moog. 

I also like Mark Jenkins "Analogue Synthesizers." I don't really like the way it's structured, but there's some good info and history in there. One might dispute some of his conclusions, but it's clear he's had his hands on a lot of gear, not just written about it from afar. However, there are times when I wish he had elaborated more about certain companies, people, or pieces of gear.

On a side note, I finally got around to reading "last Night A DJ Saved My Life." The first chapter's boring as can be, but once you get past that, it's terrific. It's filling in a lot of gaps, answering a lot of questions, and opening my eyes to a lot of stuff I never knew about. It's the kind of book that makes you want to go out and buy more books and lots of records.

A little further to the side, I've been a big fan of Brian Bagnall's "On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore." Aside from coining the phrase "Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field" it's a really entertaining read for a 548 page book about a computer company. It's very heavy on the Pet and the C64 history and very light on Amiga History. It has a lot of copy problems (typos, etc.). I've been told by a few friends that a few very minor facts are off, but I think anyone into DIY electronics will really enjoy reading about the early years when a whole lot more of the process was done by hand.

Erik

----- Original Message ----
From: Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com>
To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:19:14 AM
Subject: [sdiy] good books on electronic music/ electronics history?

so i got the book by roland's founder today (i believe in music)

it has made me want to get more books like this as something fun to read but also related
to synth diy and electronics.

so i was wondering if any other engineers or inventors or historians have written books
on Synths or drum machines or electronics related to music,etc but hopefully at a level that is NOT just written for a non technical audience.

have you read any books like this that you could recommend?

i read analog days this summer and that was good, and in the past i have read lots of books on
music criticism,etc. But i dont know where to start looking for good synth diy or electronic music books that are more than just primers on WHAT IS ELECTRONIC MUSIC?

it sure would be nice if somebody like moog had written a book. maybe buchla will?

anyway...any advice on books highly appreciated!!

thanks!!

--------------------------------------------
check out various dan music at:

http://www.myspace.com/lossnyc

(updated monthly)

http://www.soundclick.com/lossnyc.htm

http://www.indie911.com/dan-snazelle

(or for techno) http://www.myspace.com/snazelle

ALSO check out Dan synth/Fx projects:

AUDIO ARK:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRpvaOcUic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqIa_lXQNTA&feature=channel_page

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nJPjGgOcU&feature=channel_page

and soundtrack/design work:

NEW: check out Dan's sound design from the 1998 award winning film SAFARI by catherine chalmers

http://www.catherinechalmers.com/videos.cfm

----------------------------------------
> From: tom at electricdruid.net
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Tap Tempo LFO/Clock
> Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 15:09:17 +0100
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>
>
> On 12 May 2009, at 13:44, Michael Zacherl. wrote:
>
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>>> I've added a "tap tempo" feature. This measures the time between
>>> two rising edges on one input pin and sets the LFO frequency based
>>> on the result.
>>
>> so it delivers a proper waveform tracking the frequency of the
>> input signal?
>
> Yes, exactly.
>
>>> It'll work with a momentary push button or a 0-5V pulse train, so
>>> it works as a sync-able LFO too.
>>
>> "Syncable" I understand as a feature that resets the oscillator in
>> the analogue world, which causes a "broken" wave cycle.
>> But I suspect that's not what you're intending?
>
> No, the original code had a synth-style "hard sync" input like you're
> talking about. The new code changes the frequency of the LFO to match
> the incoming pulses.
>
>>> What applications do you see for a chip like this?
>>> What features would you like to see on a chip like this?
>>
>> Multiples and fractions of the input frequency would be nice, IMHO.
>> Going more crazy if the factor could be determined by a CV! :-)
>
> Ok, I'll bear that one in mind.
>
>>> What could I get rid of from the original VCLFO?
>>
>> I'd keep the wave distort cv.
>> The S&H feature isn't really important as long as your conceived
>> RND wave has a loooong cycle.
>
> You mean that the random wave doesn't repeat? I used a 32-bit LFSR,
> so it generates over 500 million random bytes. So, no it doesn't
> repeat any time soon.
>
>> I just noticed that I'm about to a get bit crazy: How about sort of
>> a loop? Which means you would need to store (?) the previous RND-
>> fragment somewhere.
>> No idea by now how to control that, but if you just heard a nice
>> sequence from RND, push a trigger and it loops.
>> Loop length could be determined by the "factor-CV" (see above).
>> Something I wouldn't know how to do in pure analogue technology.
>
> This would be possible. The "random" element is generated by an LFSR,
> so if you keep track of where you are in the sequence, you can repeat
> the sequence from that point. One of the Nord synths uses this idea
> for its "Synced noise" oscillator waveform.
>
>> But I'm afraid you'd be running out of I/O on the PIC ...
>
> That's what usually happens!
>
>> Just some thoughts - cheers, Michael. :-)
>
> Thanks Michael, exactly what I was looking for.
>
> Regards,
> Tom
>
>
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