Analogue systems

Hi Arnauld,

> the "synth secrets" on sound-on-sound magazine. I have heard about 
Allen
> Strange's book, "electronic music systems", but it's not printed 
anymore
> and it's not possible to get it by Amazon.

As far as I know it *is* still possible to get this book - I got a 
copy direct from McGraw-Hill about a year ago. It's basically a bound 
photocopy of the original - some detail in pictures is illegible, but 
it's better than not at all. It's available from McGraw-Hill 'Primis 
Online', which seems to be some weird way of ordering a 'custom-made' 
book, i.e. chapters from several different books all bound together, 
and they only copy the books 'to order' so it takes a while to get 
them. I think it's aimed at academics, and it certainly took quite a 
lot of prodding to get McGraw-Hill to sell me a copy but eventually I 
succeeded (McGraw-Hill in New York didn't want to deal with me 
because I wasn't "a university bookstore", but the guy in the UK 
(phone number below) just took my credit card details, and after a 
few months and a few more phone calls, I did get the book!). Here is 
a link on the Primis site where you can (hopefully) see it with your 
own eyes - unfortunately to get much further you need an 'account':

http://www.mhhe.com/primis/catalog/pcatalog/D30-1.htm

The 'customer contact centre' phone numbers for McGraw-Hill 
Publishing in Maidenhead in the UK, on my receipt are given as:

From UK or Ireland: (44) (0)1628 502700
From Continental Europe or Nordic region: 44 1628 502717
From Middle East or Africa: 44 1628 502727

Here are the details of the book, also as on the receipt:

ISBN: 0075232197
Author/title: Strange, Pol Electronic Music

and it cost £34. So, if anyone listening is in one of these regions 
you could give it a go!


> Any one has read some good, still printed, books ?

The other analogue synthesis books I have, all bought over the last 
year, are listed below. They are all pretty similar - once you get 
past the 'this is a VCO, this is a VCA, this is a VCF' stage, you are 
pretty much on your own.

Waugh, Ian, Quick Guide to Analogue Synthesis, PC Publishing 2000, 
ISBN 1870775708
- v. small and introductory, but does give some simple patches to try

Schmitz, Reinhard, Analog Synthesis: The Newbie Guide to Synthesizers 
and Sound Design, Wizoo GmbH (Wizoo Basics series), 2001, ISBN 
3934903010
 - more 'overall' than the above, and includes an audio CD of examples

Hurtig, Brent (ed.), Synthesizer Basics, Hal Leonard Books, rev. edn. 
1988, ISBN 0881887145
- reprints of articles from 'Keyboard' magazine circa mid 80s, 
possible a little more technical than the others above, but also out-
of-date

Russ, Martin, Sound Synthesis and Sampling, Focal Press, 1996, ISBN 
0240514297
- about 20% of the book is about analogue sysnthesis, reasonably 
technical.

There are a few others that show up in a search of the bookstores, 
but from what I can tell are likely to be even more introductory than 
those above. Someone on the Synth-DIY list has a website with quite a 
big list of titles - if I can re-find the link I'll let you know, but 
it will suffer from the problem of not highlighting currently 
available titles!

Cheers,
Tim