Synthesis and sound design book?

[jonpuget]

hey all
Well i have left over book vouchers from christmas..
Can anyone recommend a good book on the subject?
I would be happy with a fairly in depth read

Thanks

[chris...]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

[jonpuget]

Thanks chris..
I'll take a look at those alrigh,read some already..
Looking for a hard copy too, since i have vouchers..

Cheers man!

[Kevin Nolan]

"The Computer Music Tutorial" is THE source for the theory behind synthesis and audio DSP

You can preview it on books.google.com:

http://books.google.com/books?id=nZ-TetwzVcIC&dq=computer+music+tutorial&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=NSFWS6WwI5Lu0gTewPGzCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

And buy it in all good book shops and on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Curtis-Roads/dp/0262680823

[jonpuget]

"The Computer Music Tutorial" is THE source for the theory behind synthesis and audio DSP

You can preview it on books.google.com:

http://books.google.com/books?id=nZ-TetwzVcIC&dq=computer+music+tutorial&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=NSFWS6WwI5Lu0gTewPGzCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

And buy it in all good book shops and on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Curtis-Roads/dp/0262680823

Thanks Kevin

[gryfyx]

You guys will be surprised but this topic of sound design and sound synthesis books has been a place to build a fight club here.

Anyways, I'll back the same books I mentioned earlier in that fight club thread: 'Sound Synthesis and Sampling' by Martin Russ, if I'm in a budding phase of synthesis.
And thereafter I'll graduate to,
'Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Musical Sounds: The Sound of Music (Modern Acoustics and Signal Processing)' by James W. Beauchamp
Also,
'The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Mixing and Mastering Audio Recordings' by Bill Gibson.
I also refer to Bob Katz and documents of Berkley University - which one can dig online.

[geefunk]

For sound design there's this

[torinkrell]

For amazingly useful in depth coverage of analog synthesis try to find the rare publication
The Complete Guide to Synthesizers by Devarahi.
Other useful books include:
Electronic Music by Allen Strange,
Synthesizer Basics by the editors of Keyboard Magazine, and
Synthesizer Techniques by the editors of Keyboard Magazine.

[SecretSam]

The Allen Strange book is available for about US$15 as a download on the Primis website (McGraw Hill academic books for higher education site). Or US$90 secondhand from Amazon if you really must have a hard copy (it's out of print).

[hibrasil]

If your interested in sound design and synthesis from a computer music perspective, I would recommend "Designing Sound" by Andy Farnell:

http://aspress.co.uk/

Also check out "computer music" by Dodge and Jerse:

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Synthesis-Composition-Performance/dp/0028646827

I prefer this one to Curtis Road's book, because it has a lot less outdated information.

oli

[gryfyx]

Uhhh! If a strong foundation build with mathematics and some analytical approach of engineering has driven you to synthesis then I must recommend this haven of digital signal processing.

[gryfyx]

Can anyone help me out with this Contemporary studio plugins, designed through unconventional methods.

[Psychopat]

thank you all
but which one is better for a complete beginner to analogue modular systems?
i just read the Gordon Reid Synth Secrets and it's the best so far )

[gryfyx]

thank you all
but which one is better for a complete beginner to analogue modular systems?
i just read the Gordon Reid Synth Secrets and it's the best so far )

You had just read one of the best source of electronic sound synthesis tutorial (Although its funny that even after it has been more than a decade since these articles were published, they are still called secrets).

And if you have already finished reading Gordon Reid then you must not still be a complete beginner to analogue modules. For further reading I'll recommend - 'Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Musical Sounds: The Sound of Music (Modern Acoustics and Signal Processing)' by James W. Beauchamp, which I had already mentioned in this thread earlier.

I enjoy these secrets as well. Learnt a lot from these.

[Martin Walker]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

Martin

[gryfyx]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

Fully agreed, Martin. Funniest part is that when you have so so many tutorials in videos and books, you may start feeling that music is methodical and formulaic, which is fatal.

Trial and error technique gives lot of space for innovation. I might forget lot of things that I read, but I'll never forget what I'll figure out on my own.

[hollowsun]

This is a tutorial wot I writ for Alesis for newbies to the Alesis Fusion.

Analogue Synthesis Tutorial

Although written for Fusion users, it isn't at all 'Fusion-centric' but a real back-to-basics breakdown of what each module does and why and applies to ANY analogue synth, modular, pre-patched, VA, hardware, software, whatever.

I gather some universities use it on their courses... so I've been told.

[Martin Walker]

I gather some universities use it on their courses... so I've been told.

Fame at last eh Steve?

And you're contributing to the education of the nation

Martin

[Exalted Wombat]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

When a synth voice had essentially 4 controls, you could work that way. Though I wish someone had told me the concept of balancing other settings so that 99% of a given knob's travel wasn't "dead space" (have I explained that clearly?) a little sooner. Much the same idea as gain staging through a mixer channel. I suppose you MIGHT work it out for yourself, but a little tuition avoids a lot of dead ends.

Once FM synthesis arrived, I think the chance of doing anything useful by pure intuition effectively vanished! Let alone the incredibly powerful but almost impenetrable VAST synthesis engine on my Kurzweil keyboards. Getting anything out of that without "standing on the shoulders of giants" would be highly unlikely!

[Michael Dow]

Nice, that juno 6 drawbar organ preset i just had a go at on my juno-60 and as i thought, it was exactly the same as one i'd already done

[Zukan]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

When a synth voice had essentially 4 controls, you could work that way. Though I wish someone had told me the concept of balancing other settings so that 99% of a given knob's travel wasn't "dead space" (have I explained that clearly?) a little sooner. Much the same idea as gain staging through a mixer channel. I suppose you MIGHT work it out for yourself, but a little tuition avoids a lot of dead ends.

Once FM synthesis arrived, I think the chance of doing anything useful by pure intuition effectively vanished! Let alone the incredibly powerful but almost impenetrable VAST synthesis engine on my Kurzweil keyboards. Getting anything out of that without "standing on the shoulders of giants" would be highly unlikely!

Exalted, I think once you get a bit tech anal, like some of us here, then the VAST engine becomes a dream to use.

FM is another ballgame entirely and requires the use of heavy drugs and a social problem.

TBH, I love FM too.

[Zukan]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

Martin

I lost a few girlfriends that way.................but did learn a thing or two.

[gryfyx]

Ironically most musicians starting out with modular synths in the early days did so on a ‘suck it and see’ basis, and discovered many useful things by accident

Martin

I lost a few girlfriends that way.................but did learn a thing or two.

Epic... LOL.

[Martin Walker]

[soundbyter]

For synthesis - Roads' "Computer Music Tutorial"
For sound design - Sonnenschein's "Sound Design"