Since many people are asking about the same thing I won't cut and paste all their separate posts. I'll just respond to all of them at once.
I haven't really thought about writing a book, mostly because of the very limited market, the cost/act of actually writing, laying out pages, publishing, printing, distribution, and whatever all that needs to be done to create a book. However, it has crossed my mind to do either something like Wendy Carlos' "Secrets of Synthesis" CD, or a computer CD with audio clips, text, patchsheets, charts, or whatever. Compared to doing a professional book, creating pdf files, recording mp3 files, and burning CDs either myself or through a professional service would be a whole lot easier. The customer could print out anything he wants if needed in hardcopy form.
However, it doesn't even begin to make sense to do that just so a dozen people or so on this of another site buy it. It would have to sell to a larger audience, like through Amazon.com. That would imply an audio CD (not a computer CD ROM) like Carlos'. Or it could be an audio CD with another computer CD with it. I don't know. These are the things I haven't really thought all the way through. And even then, I don't know how much of a market there is since synth programming is almost a dead art. I looked up the book Andrew Sanchez mentioned and it looks like that one is out of print (don't know whether it is very good anyway, only Andrew can answer that). That might mean there isn't a single book in print on analog synth programming today (certainly can't walk into a bookstore and buy one). That seems to imply very little interest in the subject.
I also considered doing this a lower priority last desperate act to make a little money, to keep me from having to go back to game programming or getting a real job, incase the string synth I'm writing, or the set of modular synth Bahn modules I plan, or the recording of Switched-On Bach #3, can't be done before I run out of money.
Last time the idea of people collaborating and writing a book came up, I mentioned that people could easily just record audio demos easily and right away. That killed the thread on the spot. That seemed to show that people like talking about the idea of doing a book better than the actual act of doing it even if it's something much simpler like a "patch of the week" kind of thing. But I'm not all that big myself on just feeding out little parcels of info over long periods of time, like magazines do. I want things all at once, like books give you. Besides, one can't really make money with a "patch of the week" thing anyway with a dozen subscribers, it just eats up time.
Larry Hendry writes:
>>I often wonder how well patching and emulation would have evolved by now if digital sampling had not pushed the manufacturers in a different direction.<<
Sadly, no difference. W. Carlos is the only commercial synthesist who seriously took on emulating all the instruments of an orchestra (with mixed results). That's it, one person in 5 billion. Even when it comes to synth only type sounds, it's gone straight downhill. To this day the synth is the most under utilized instrument even though it's the most flexible. It takes a back seat to the vocalist/guitarist/drummer. The film industry continues to use a real orchestras. Synths aren't used for sound effects where they sould be. Instead of sitting infront of a synth to create a sound, people are sent out to record natural sounds to digitally modify. For the movie Twister they spent a effort to build and attach a device to a truck so they could drive around and record the different pitches of wind blowing through it. This is about a minute of simplistic programming on a modular synth. Ridiculous. Nobody seems to know synths exist or how to use them.
-Elhardt