Attack Sustain » books http://attacksustain.com/blog Noisy machines & misc modular synth nerdery. Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:53:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Book: Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls http://attacksustain.com/blog/2008/12/30/book-electronic-music-systems-techniques-controls/ http://attacksustain.com/blog/2008/12/30/book-electronic-music-systems-techniques-controls/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:53:42 +0000 davej http://attacksustain.com/blog/?p=19 Post from: Attack Sustain

Book: Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls

No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Many 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.

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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Book: Electronic Music: Systems, techniques, and controls

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