[sdiy] Synth Electronics

Tue May 7 11:55:59 CEST 2024

Whilst obvious not everybody seems to get all emails.  Also they seem to arrive at me in batches.
________________________________
From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of Neil Johnson via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Sent: 07 May 2024 08:15
To: Ben Gebhardt <benjamin_gebhardt at yahoo.com>
Cc: Paulo Constantino via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Synth Electronics

Just reply to Jeff's email from yesterday?

On Tue, 7 May 2024 at 01:54, Ben Gebhardt via Synth-diy
<synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>
> I’m interested in MAM.  Maybe I’m dense, but how do I email you Jeff aka BrightBoy?
>
> Thx
>
> > On May 6, 2024, at 5:10 PM, brianw <brianw at audiobanshee.com> wrote:
> >
> > 'MAM' is short for "Musical Applications of Microprocessors"
> >
> > It's a book written by Hal Chamberlin, who is a genius of electronics. His 1973 Masters Thesis was a synthesizer design with digital waveforms, and his career has been related to digital audio and keyboard synthesizers. This book covers many aspects of using programming techniques to create sound. I found the description of the Fast Fourier Transform to be the most enlightening I've ever read - it really helped me understand what the math is doing behind the scenes. Each of the chapters has something to offer.
> >
> > Brian
> >
> >
> >> On May 6, 2024, at 12:51 PM, Paulo Constantino wrote:
> >> What is the MAM book please?
> >>
> >>> On Mon, May 6, 2024 at 8:38 PM BrightBoy wrote:
> >>> You don't need to go to BookFinder and pay collectible prices for the 2nd edition MAM Book.
> >>>
> >>> I've been providing mint NOS (New Old Stock), unread copies to the community for over
> >>> 25 years at fair pricing.
> >>>
> >>> Reach out privately if interested.
> >>>
> >>> Jeff
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Ben Bradley <ben.pi.bradley at gmail.com>
> >>> Sent: May 6, 2024 2:35 PM
> >>>
> >>> And I dare say Barry's book is much better than the Delton Horn book
> >>> "Electronic Music Synthesizers" from the same time period. I recall
> >>> seeing both for sale way back when, and I bought the Horn book because
> >>> it had a drawing of a Minimoog on the cover, and that's what I wanted
> >>> to have the schematics for and make. But then Horn wrote a lot of
> >>> books on other topics, and so surely didn't have the depth of
> >>> knowledge to do a good job on synths.
> >>>
> >>> Another good book from back then is "Musical Applications of
> >>> Microprocessors" 2nd. edition. It has a remarkable amount of analog
> >>> synth circuitry for a book on microprocessors, even though some of it
> >>> is "discrete" ADCs and DACs as things were done back then.
> >>>
> >>> Remarkably, used printed copies of both are available at collectible
> >>> prices. I look up (and sometimes buy) a lot of books at
> >>> https://www.bookfinder.com/
> >>>
> >>> You mentioned Sound Semiconductor - here's a not-quite-up-to-date list
> >>> of relevant chips available, though I think it at least lists all the
> >>> current manufacturers. Go to each manufacturer's site to see what's
> >>> currently available:
> >>> https://electricdruid.net/analog-renaissance/
> >>>
> >>> I remember way back when the Prophet 5 and other
> >>> microprocessor/microcontroller-driven analog polysynths showed up, I
> >>> learned they used new chips that were each basically a whole synth
> >>> module in one chip, then a decade later both manufacturers quit making
> >>> the chips before I could get some and make my own polysynth. The
> >>> analog synth chips were probably yet another thing the DX7 killed. You
> >>> mentioned Sound Semiconductor - one thing you might want to do (if
> >>> this is to be a commercial product) is make sure at least one other
> >>> maker of chips can be used, if not drop-in replaceable then at least
> >>> by switching a few jumpers, so you don't end up with a lack of source
> >>> of parts.
> >>>
> >>> But then you say "I want to build an analog synth from scratch." To me
> >>> that means going back to the 1960s through mid 1970s, when oscillators
> >>> and filters were made out of op-amps and discrete transistors and
> >>> such, before the CEM and SSM chips. There's certainly value in doing
> >>> that, and learning how (for example) exponential response and
> >>> temperature compensation are done. I've wanted to at least make a
> >>> monosynth that way, but it might not be appropriate for a polysynth -
> >>> Yamaha's GX-1 and CS-80 are two "big" examples I'm thinking of.
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 at 20:34, Barry Klein via Synth-diy
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> You can’t get rich writing a book on modular synth design either: find a PDF copy of my book Electronic Music Circuits….
> >>>>
> >>>> Barry
> >>>>
> >>>> On Apr 8, 2024, at 4:40 PM, Pete Hartman via Synth-diy wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 5:54 PM Paulo Constantino via Synth-diy wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Hi all,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I want to build an analog synth from scratch. I currently work as a digital IC design engineer at a semiconductor company and I have good knowledge in analog circuit design, but I'm not that good at advanced analog circuitry.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Can anyone recommend me a book or some tutorial on synth electronics?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> This is a perennial topic. I'm sure there are good things in the archive:
> >>>> https://synth-diy.org/ (about half way down the page are the archive links)
> >>>>
> >>>> If you can find a copy, Electronotes taught a lot of folks here the foundations of what they know, and worked out and explained a lot of what is considered standard now. Unfortunately they're no longer available from Bernie (and please, list members, let's not turn this into another debate about that topic), so you will have to find someone who is selling their copies. Join the sister list marketplace at synth-diy.org for your best shot at this.
> >>>>
> >>>> A lot of folks will recommend _Make: Analog Synthesizers_ by the late Ray Wilson, whose website is still available here: https://musicfromouterspace.com/
> >>>>
> >>>> I learned a lot from several books by Thomas Henry which are available at lulu.com
> >>>>
> >>>> has a lot of discussion and lots of contributions by various folks with "names" in this area, as well as a wiki containing a lot of circuits. You'll find recommended websites to look into such as https://yusynth.net/ (https://electro-music.com/forum/)  https://www.schmitzbits.de/ (https://ijfritz.byethost4.com/) and a ton of other discussion. https://modwiggler.com has some fora that also cover this sort of thing, but there are lots of other topics there too, like discussions of the latest gear from the major manufacturers etc etc. Some of that goes on on E-M as well but modwiggler has been the main hub for that for a while now. It's all background that would be good to have even if not directly about the electronics.
> >>>>
> >>>> Dr Aaron Lanterman has kindly made his Georgia Tech course "Analog Circuits for Music Synthesis", which covers a lot of the common blocks that a lot of analog synths/modules use as standard, available on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYk8r3QlNi8&list=PLOunECWxELQS5bMdWo9VhmZtsCjhjYNcV
> >>>>
> >>>> And there is some very good advice from Paul Schrieber of Synthesis Technology here, about things which aren't usually given much thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGyEBQnIws
> >>>>
> >>>> As for getting rich :) I think Paul S has some relevant commentary about that as well which should be findable in the archive.
> >>>>
> >>>> Pete
> >>
> >
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>
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