5 comments about Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer.

1. I liked this very much and recommend it for anyone involved any way in electronic music.
   
   I have a few reservations, however:
   
   1) I would prefer more technical information.
   
   2) The prose tends to be trite, and there are misspellings and other errors. "All right" is repeatedly misspelled as "alright", for example. The Hammond B-3 is labeled an "electronic" instrument, when in fact it is an electrical or electro-mechanical instrument; like the electric guitar, its sound is AMPLIFIED electronically ("electronic" means using a tube or transistor, which is essentially what an amplifier is), but it is not created electronically.
   
   3) Some of the connections are strained. The book promises us, for example, to show how the invention of the Moog synthesizer has intimately to do with the tuba, but this turns out to be a rhetorical ruse. One of Moog's associates happened to have played the tuba, and that's it.



2. This is the best book I've read about the development of the synthesizer, focusing on the interaction between engineers and musicians and also the commercial influences that ended up determining the directions the technology eventually took. The authors let the participants speak in their own words about how and why various developments came about, keeping the story human and realistic. Lots of anecdotes and accurate information, but only enough technical information for the reader to understand what distinguishes one set of developments from another. Moog is the central character, but many others (Buchla, Pearlman, Zinovieff/Cockerell, Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Suzanne Ciani) get their moments as well. One gets the feel of the workshops, the tinkering, the personalities that steered the inventions and discoveries in a way that reminded me (somewhat) of James Gleick's Chaos in that it allows the humanity of the science/technology to show through. The losses of potential that resulted from commercialization and digitalization are dealt with, but not pounded upon. Very direct (one gets the feeling of hanging out with the participants) and readable (fine sense of narrative, the authors let the stories tell themselves without over-dramatizing).
   
   I'd love for these same authors to follow this book up with a more technical history, but as a popular book that touches base with the engineers, musicians, and entrepeneurs who were involved in the creation of synthesizer culture they have done a fantastic job.



3. An enjoyable read. I've been a Moog enthusiast for many years. Recently I've seen the Video Biography on Robert Moog as well and these complement each other. The enjoyable thing about the book is that is delivers good information on early synth development and there appears to be a division as to how musicians wanted to use these synths. Robert Moog worked closely with musicians who wanted a keyboard trigger and this became a worldwide format, but there was an independent group who wanted a different means of triggering and not so set on a chromatic keyboard format. There is also a very detailed chapter on Wendy (Walter) Carlos. Those that were upset at her absense in the Moog Video Documentary can gain a bit more insight here. This triggered more interest for myself in her recordings.
   Overall a very good history book on early synth development and good account of early Moog modular synth Development as well as an extensive chapter on the Minimoog as well. ARP and Buchla also included.



4. As an unsatisfiable 'gear head,' the thing I thought was lacking was a greater examination of the modular Moog itself, and especially a detailed analysis of some of the more esoteric/custom modules that Moog made for various customers. After all, this was THE machine that set the engineering standards for years, almost decades to come. (Case in point, Moog's 902 Voltage-Controlled Amplifier was developed in the early '60s, and yet is still almost CD audio quality some 40 years later!) At least give us some loving closeups of Keith Emerson's 'Monster Moog!'
   
   The interviews make up for the lack of photos, especially with the lesser-known lights who helped blaze the trail but are largely forgotten today.



5. I found this book to be incredibly interesting. So interesting, in fact, that it made me wish I had been involved with the analog synthesizer scene during the era which this book details. Hearing the stories and personal accounts of individual contributions to the development, marketing, and subsequent musical evolution caused by the early analog synthesizers, made me lust for yesteryear.
   
   
   
   After reading several compliants regarding the sociological study-aspect of this work, it must be stated that the sociological impact analysis is a vital component of the historical content contained within. In fact, if the sociological discussion was ommitted, the work would suffer, as I feel the Moog's and early synthesizer's impact on society is a fascinating subject. During the time period which this book dissects, individuals were, for the first time, hearing totally unique and original sounds. Unfortunately, humanity has since become jaded to the excrutiating beauty of subtractive analog synthesis. The statement which described the sound of two analog oscillators beating against each other on the morn of (I believe--challenging my memory here) the second day of Woodstock, reflecting it was the first time many had heard that exact sound, made me yearn to be there.
   
   
   
   Ultimately, if you are interesting in an account of historical fact, coupled with social impact commentary as it pertains to these now ancient analog synthesizers, and associated early sequencers, read this book. However, if you have no desire to learn of yesteryear and absorb depictions of the early evolution of music technology, which has led to the crap that is virtual analog, don't waste your time.

1 comments about Introducing Reason 4.

1. I love Reason, have used it since 2.0., and find it an astonishing program for digital music production. But the available documentation feels lacking, until I bought this book. Clif explains everything in a step-by-step manner, starting from the basics without talking down to the reader. And his writing style feels more like your buddy sitting down and showing you stuff, rather than like the usual "OK, dummie, do step 1, step2, step 3."
   
   The included CD is very well put together, and has a lot of nifty loops and patches, and a lot more.
   
   I highly recommend it.

5 comments about Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming: The Ultimate Reference for Sound Design (Power Tools Series).

1. I would really give this a 3 1/2 stars, but that's not an option.
   
   This book is great for getting an overview of how general synth functions work. If you're interested in getting a general overview without actually applying it, then get this book. Better yet, get this book as a compliment to your manual or some other book. Sure it has projects in the back of each chapter, but they're more like 'suggested experimentations' IMO. Given that there seems to be little written on the subject, it might still be worthwhile. I also got Welch's Cookbook and enjoyed the hands on approach with that book, though I must admit that Power Tools covers a wider set of synth possiblities...that is, it covers an area like LFO's and then discusses every different type of LFO one might encounter given the fact that the synths on the market vary so much for one synth to the next.
   
   After reading this book I wondered how much of the information really 'stuck' with me, as I didn't actually apply it as I went through the material. Given the abstract nature of this topic I think that this would have been helpful. Like I stated before, Welch's Cookbook did give me that in the first several chapters (the later chapters are basically synth recipes); for example, you learn how to look at a sound through an FFT analyzer and see the partials in the sound (you don't get this type of hands on with Power Tools).
   
   There was definitely a part of me that questioned whether the $25 outlay was worth it. I decided that it was to have a sort of generalized reference on my bookshelf. But I definitely agree with the other reviewer that fealt that there needed to be more examples. Obviously, the author knows a great deal about synths. But I couldn't help feeling that he had written this by spewing his knowledge and not considering how important applying the concepts would be. If he was so inclined, he could create a freeware (or use someone else's) softsynth, and create projects that concretely apply at least some of the theoretical knowledge in future editions. This just might make it a great book. JMTC.



2. As an electronics engineer, responsible for education at university level, I was a bit disappointed after reading the book. From theoretical/technical point of view, the book starts at a very basic level. For instance phase cancellation and definition of decibels. I did not find anything that was really explained in depth. As far as I can understand, the book is not intended for technicians or engineers dealing with design and analysis of electronic music systems.
   
   On the other hand, musicians with no technical background that will mainly buy and use a synthesizer can probably find some useful information about common technical terms and buzzwords. However, from my point of view, I am not convinced this book really is The Ultimate Reference for Sound Design.



3. This book taught me a lot about the elements of synthesis, covering details that I didn't know before. I had used synths (real and virtual), and I kind of knew what I was doing, but I won't ever have a problem understanding a synth again. This book tried to cover everything, but the scope of the book is to give you the tools necessary to hit the ground running on a real or virtual synth.
   
   With a guest author, this book could go into a lot more depth with the theory side of synth programming.
   
   The money you pay for this book is well worth it. You definitely feel like you've gotten your money's worth, and it will make a good reference if you forget something.



4. If you compose/produce electronic music or any genre that includes synthesized sounds, this book is extremely valuable.
   
   No doubt you've picked sounds from sample cd's and tried to fit them into your tracks but the colour just doesn't seem to match up with what you were aiming for, so you add a couple of effects, and then a few more, and tweak the effects to within an inch of their life (and within an inch of your sanity), and find it just ends up sounding flat, or boring - especially when it's repeated throughout your track...
   
   ... No need for that. Build the sound from the ground up. This book has proven to me that you will have a more robust sound that responds to effects much better than a sample or patch that has been pre-built to impress through the whole audio spectrum - with no real overall goal in mind. You can make any impressive sound exactly as you heard it in your head in the first place through the tuition this book provides through listening effectively to the result of each exercise and its application.
   
   The book is filled with mini-projects which - once you have completed - open the door to possibilities that you wouldn't have dreamed of without 10 years tweaking every knob on your synth as if it were your full time job.
   
   Easy to read, with plenty of semantics for those who are fussy about getting their facts straight first time and want to do a truly professional job of their electronic music creation.
   
   I highly recommend you purchase this book if you don't have a degree in sound engineering - and it's not like you're going to part with much money doing so.
   
   My only criticsm is that the CD that accompanies the book is really not essential because the book is approximately one billion times more valuable than the samples that are on the CD. It's more rewarding to hear the sounds come out of your synth - but as I said before, it's not going to send you broke buying this book.



5. This book provides an excellent overview of synthesizer programming and is good as a technical reference as well. It is written by veteran synth expert Jim Aikin and provides and excellent overview of the main concepts and also dives into each of the components in the signal chain, providing relevant, useful information to better educate you to make your own choices based on your desired results. This is however not a "recipe book" of sound designs with specific patch routings for achieving specific results. If that is what you are looking for then look elsewhere. This will get you in front of your synth and leave you understanding the system's architecture and purpose and function of it's individual components (modules) so you can get started making your own sounds.

2 comments about Analog Synthesizers: Understanding, Performing, Buying- from the legacy of Moog to software synthesis.

1. This book (which I still have yet to come close to finishing) is unbelievable in the amount of information that is contained in here. Not to mention its all about analog synthesizers which is hard to believe given some text books stray away from the topic and give other useless information...
   
   If you want to learn about these things and you are down for studying once in a while this is the book!



2. This is an excellent read for anyone wanting an insight into the world of analogue synths, be it virtual or good old hardware. The author clearly knows his stuff and puts it all across in an highly readable style. Definitely money well spent if you like your synths!

5 comments about Cakewalk Synthesizers: From Presets to Power User.

1. Great book. Although, could not down load the down loadable chapters. A must for, "Cakewalk Synths Users". Goes into good details about sound designing.



2. I have needed this book for years. Step by step, thorough instructions that have helped me to really explore the deep possibilities in Cakewalk synths. The accompanying downloads make the value of this book increase exponentially. The section on Z3TA+ is worth the price of admission and then some. Thanks!



3. The book contains a great introduction to "virtual analog" synths which applies regardless of whether its a Cakewalk product or not. Each chapter dives into the depths of a specific Cakewalk synth, many of which are bundled with various Cakewalk products, so this book is like an addendum to the owner's manual. I don't consider myself a synth "tweakhead" so I found this book EXACTLY what I needed! For musicians who like to tweak their synths instead of simply playing the Presets, this is the book that explains what you're doing when you adjust those knobs, dials and sliders. Very nice!
   
   All you need is a host program (Cakewalk's Sonar, Home Studio or Project5 will be fine) and you've already got some of these synths in your software arsenal. You can download some of these synths for free from Cakewalk! I recommend purchasing Dimension Pro. I've been playing around with Z3TA+ and am eyeballing Rapture as well. These are serious studio quality synths, each with a TON of power. This book details how to harness that power and put it to work in your music.



4. This book has a lot of useful information that is very hard to find elsewhere, from the basics of synthesis to descriptions of all the Cakewalk synthesizers. I especially liked the web material that accompanies the book - the extra chapters and pointers to download free tools like Triangle 2 (which I used to learn the basics). I am mostly a beginner at using Sonar and this book was a significant help. My only criticism is that the book is already out of date - e.g. the chapter on Session Drummer 2 says "at the time of this writing, it was so new that only a release candidate version was available" - but Session Drummer 2 has been available for a while (in both Sonar 7 and 6). Also some of the user interfaces to the programs have changed since the book was published.
   
   Learning Sonar is tough (hey, Cakewalk - please have non-engineers review your tutorial material!) - this book is helping.



5. This book is a rare gem on a topic near and dear to my heart (Since first laying my eyes on an Arp Odyssey), but often not expounded upon with enough detail. Simon Cann, however, has provided a very deep source book for Cakewalk users in general, as well as a detailed guide for comprehending wavetable and sampling synthesis.
   I am still slogging through the almost infinite presets which come with Dimension Pro and Rapture, as well as drilling down into creating my own sounds. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the desire to get down and spend some serious time creating their own sounds with the VSTs and AUs of today! If the competition (NI - Arturia -IK) would only provide similar guides, the sonic world could be a greater and more creative place. These plug-ins have become complicated enough to warrant such manuals and I salute Mr. Cann for his efforts!

2 comments about Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook: Synthesizer Programming, Sound Analysis, and Universal Patch Book.

1. This book opens with a section on the components of a synthesiser. More advanced users will no doubt skip this, but it provides a clear explanation on oscillators, filters, envelopes and LFOs, detailing how each contributes to the final sound.
   
   This 3rd Edition add a section on harmonic analysis. Using freely available tools, the techniques used to produce the patches are dissected. This goes on to show how to analyse an existing sound, including one sitting in a mix, and produce a similar patch.
   
   The main meat of the book is taken up with the patch settings. The patches themselves sound great. A large number sound entirely authentic within the limitations of subtractive synthesis; others retain the flavour of the instrument they try to emulate, but wouldn't be mistaken for genuine acoustic instruments. Your mileage depends upon the synthesiser itself; this book has settings for both 12db and 24db lowpass filters, and assumes the synthesiser has 2 detunable oscillators, 2 ADSR envelopes, a routable LFO and noise source. If a synthesiser offers more features, you can usually tweak the patches into even more usuable sounds.
   
   The patches cover a wide range of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, tuned and untuned percussions, bass, pads, and sound effects to name but a few. The sound effects seem an odd choice. Even though they only occupy a few pages, I'd rather have they pages taken up with usuable instruments, basses or pads. They are all well organised so it's easy to find a specific patch.
   
   The accompanying CD seems a missed opportunity however. I'd have liked to have seen .wav files of the patches so we'd have an idea of what the patches would sound like. It does offer calibration settings so you can 'tune' your synthesiser and bias the patches accordingly to a specific synthesisers filter and envelope speed, but I feel being able to hear what the patches are supposed to sound like as they are being programmed would be more useful.
   
   Overall, it's a great book, and serves well as both a learning resource and reference.



2. The service was impecable. Shipment was prompt. Communication excellent.
   
   I have read many synthesizer theory books and manuals. I will say this one takes the cake. Not only are the sound fomulas fun and accurate, the course on analog synthesiser basics and essentials is phenominal. It is simple and concise, accessible to those of us who do not have a PHD in the subject matter. This book gives a great synopsis of what all of the different parts of the signal path do in the process of sculpting a sound on an analog synthesizer. Helps those of us who used to twiddled knobs until something sounded good, now we can twiddle with a bit more knowledge and focus. Thanks Fred

1 comments about Reason 4 Ignite!.

1. If you are starting or even you are an expert with synths, this is a very nice an helpful book to be always with you.Very comprehensive guide, will introduce you in the art of making music using Reason 4.The author did a very good work here because he teaches and makes you exercise, almost all the major features in Reason's software.
   So add it right now in your shopping cart....you won't regret it.

5 comments about How to Play Keyboards: Everything You Need to Know to Play Keyboards (How to Play).

1. This is an amazing book for your loved ones...especially for a growing musican. It gives the basic methods of how to play a keyboard without much confusion or fustration. This book also inspires to play music and write the notes in our own way. I would recomend this book to anyone who is seeking to know how to play a keyboard.



2. I am what you might call "musically challenged", but by slowly following the lessons in this book I have learned to play several simple tunes with chords and accompaniment. I'm having a ball. It's probably not for the serious music student, but if you want to learn keyboard and are starting from scratch, this is the book for you.



3. I have been using this book in tandem with Fasttrack and its been a great book to start self-learning keyboards. Unlike Fasttrack, this one gives you more right from the start using the Auto Accompanyment feature on the Keyboard to play Chords and Drums -- you;re the one who still orchestrates it -- so its more fun!



4. A good book to start.. I wouldn't rate this book as the best as I havent seen any other books. But this certainly helped my cause to get started learning Keyboard.



5. This book is really amazing.at the first i was little bit sarcastic about it but this book can make me play my new keyboard after half an hour of reading it and i had no idea about playing it before. really i'm highly recomended this one and guess what i can read music too now and it's all from one simple,cheap but useful book.

5 comments about Reason 4 Power!.

1. AS You may know by now, the ability to create a product and the ability to write documentation explaining it often do not exist in the same building.Luckily in the software world you have so-called third -party documentation. Hence this very useful book. I put off uprgrading to Reason 4.0 until this book became available. This book will really help you dive into the program. The weird thing is I was actually waiting for Reason Ignite which has more page space devoted to pictures than text. Turns out this book came out first so I got it. I would everything in ignite is covered in POWER, BUt Power goes into actually recommend" Ignite" because it is even simpler especially if you NEVER owned reason. Power and Ignite totally overlap in the sense that slightly more depth -more textand examples -but Ignite will make it easier and more enjoyable to learn. I have both but if I had to buy one it would be Ignite.



2. I thoroughly enjoyed this book both as an educational tool and a desk reference. It has easy and simple explanations on how to use most every part of Reason. For beginners however, it is a must that you do not skip sections when it comes to synthesizers as it is necessary to master Subtractor first before working with Malstrom or Thor. Coupled with Reason Ignite this book is the perfect arsenal for any fan of Reason.



3. If you are starting or even you are an expert with synths, this is a very nice an helpful book to be always with you.Very comprehensive guide, will introduce you in the art of making music using Reason 4.The author did a very good work here because he teaches you all the features in Reason's software.
   So add it right now in your shopping cart....you won't regret it.



4. greately covers all the important features and topics of the new reason 4.0 great for the begginer and advanced reason programer



5. I bought this book as a completely new user to Reason. This book was very helpful in understanding the baiscs of Reason and how to use all the specific tools. However, this book goes into great detail about the more subtle aspects about Reason as well, so it is useful for advanced users also. The book is written well, so it is easy to follow. Highly recommended.

2 comments about Ableton Live 7 Power! The Comprehensive Guide.

1. If you are a regular user of Ableton live, you know it gets updated frequently and lots of new features are added when it does. This is THE definitive sourcebook on this latest version, including many hidden features that I'd never have had the time to figure out myself by experimentation.



2. If you are starting or even you are an expert with synths, this is a very nice an helpful book to be always with you.Very comprehensive guide, will introduce you in the art of making music using Ableton.The author did a very good work here because he teaches you all the features in Ableton.So add it right now in your shopping cart....you won't regret it.