Book: Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls
30 December 2008 in UncategorizedMany people recommend Allen Strange’s “Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls” book as one of, if not the definitive books on modular synthesis. It was written in 1972, and went through a number of reprints until its seventh reprinting in 1978. Understandably, because of this, it’s quite hard to find at an affordable price.
Front cover.
It is listed on Amazon, and ‘used’ copies turn up all the time, at varying prices. At the time of writing this, the cheapest one is going for $96. I’m glad I picked up my copy just before xmas at the bargain price of $44. One of the reviewers on Amazon mentions that the book is also available in pdf form from the publisher (McGraw-Hill) for $15. Personally, I find books easier to read in dead tree form, so I didn’t mind paying the extra. Due to the age of the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect when buying it from a used bookstore. For a thirty year old book, the copy I received was in almost perfect condition. No loose/torn pages, no notes scribbled on it. The yellowed pages give a nice ‘feel’ to a text this old.
On to the book itself.
Despite its age, the material (to me at least) is timeless. There’s a lot of information in these 160 pages, and it’ll take some time to digest it all. I’ve barely made it through a few dozen pages so far, and I can already see me referring back to it regularly.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no other book available with this much information. Given it went through a series of reprints in the `70s, I can assume there was quite a demand for it back then, when modular synths were first ‘popular’. Given the renaissance of modular synths in the last few years, I wonder if there would actually be enough demand today for a similar book to be written and published. Sadly, I suspect not.
I’m glad this arrived in time for the holidays, it’s made for some good reading.
Some photographs of the contents and table of illustrations are available at my flickr page.
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2 Comments to Book: Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls
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Wow. I’ve had this book for about 3 years, since I found it for ONE DOLLAR at a used bookstore. I snagged it, not knowing its monetary value (although I noticed its technical and reference value almost right away). I happened to do a search for it, just for fun mostly, and I found this page, as well as the Amazon lists, which go up to TWO HUNDRED (!!) dollars.
Lucky find. Great read.
Not going to sell it, or loan it, or let it out of my sight. Sorry.
-n
PS- I’ve been calling this my Bible for a few months now. Better than Dickens and Shakespeare put together.
Wow, $1 is seriously lucky! Nice find.