[sdiy] beginner book?

[synth at oldmail.charlielamm.com]

You don't say what your level of expertise going into this thing is.  
Mine was pretty much zero, and here's the course I took....I went from
musician crying every time I bought a "vintage" pedal, to electronics fab
dude able to knock of the same vintage pedals but not really knowing how
they work, to electronics duffer (??) able to design and build things and
make them work, and only blow 'em up about half the time....

Anyway, here is how I did it, book wise.

a) Go to radio shack and get the Forrest Mimms "Getting Started in 
Electronics" and "Engineer's Mini Handbooks" if they still carry it.
Don't listen to what anyone else says if they don't like 'em.  I think 
Forrest rules!!!!

b) Get Forrest Mimms Electric labs or whatever they call it (USD $70 or 
so) and build some of the more interesting looking things in that.  Try to 
understand _why_ things work, instead of just hooking stuff together and 
seeing if the little lights come on.

c) Buy some basic tools, and build a few paia kits.  http://www.paia.com

After a/b/c, you should be able to get simple circuits off the Internet
and build them.  I could anyway, so you probably can.  Then it's time to
move on a bit....

c) Get Horowitz and Hill's "The Art Of Electronics".  Don't expect to whiz 
through this one the first day but it's a keeper.

d) Get some of Thomas Henry's books; Thomas Henry writes clearly and has 
some interesting stuff IMO. The 3080 and noise books are esp good, IMO

http://www.midwest-analog.com/

e) Get "Musical Engineer's Handbook" and "The Builder's Guide and
Preferred Circuits Collection" from Bernie Hutchins (here:
http://electronotes.netfirms.com/ordform1.html.  You see the circuits
here, or fragments of them, over and over in DIY land.

Other advice:

If you can find EE type friends who can help call 'em up.  They usually 
love to chatter on and on and on about anything related to electronics and 
can help you solve whatever basics you are going to get stuck with.

Also, the DIY group (this one) is the greatest resource you can imagine.
We basically all need to get lives, and suffer happily.

Above all, don't give up!  There is a slight "hump" to DIY, but it is
absolutely the greatest fun once you get over the initial confusion and
fear.



--CL

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004, James C wrote:

> Can you guys give me some essential books in helping me start off with synth 
> design? I need something straight from the beginning. Help me get on my feet 
> with an introduction to understanding and designing circuits.
> 
> any help would be appreciated.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> james
> 
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