[sdiy] electronics book

[David G Dixon]

> http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html

I bought the Radio Shack Electronic Learning Lab about six years ago to get
myself started in electronics.  I must say that I found it pretty useless.
It comes with a guide book written by Forrest Mims, which didn't explain
anything.  Sure, I knew which wire to stick in which hole, but I didn't know
why.

I'm afraid that there really is no shortcut to learning this stuff other
than trying stuff out, and slowly accumulating knowledge as you go.  You're
not going to learn it all from one book.  Build a few circuits, try
designing something simple, and learn from your mistakes.  That's pretty
much always been the way it is.  Eventually you will find that you
understand more and more of what is in the books, and what the gurus around
here are talking to each other about.

I personally found Ray Wilson's circuit write-ups at Music From Outer Space
(.com) to be far more enlightening than anything in a Forrest Mims book.  If
you want to design synth circuits, start there.