Which book on sound synthesis?

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:18 pm

Hi dear friends,
I'm interested in reading about sound synthesis. I find myself too often moving knobs in soft synths without really knowing what I'm doing, which sometimes is nice, but other times is kinda frustrating, more when I'm looking for a particular sound.

Do you know of good books that can be get in AMAZON or such? Hopefully nothing so technical that I'll have to go and buy a physics book to understand.

I hope you can help me here.

Big hugs for everyone.

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:50 pm

I don't own any books, but the nord modular manual has a section called synthesis basics that actually quite good.

you can download it here.

i'm referring to the old modular manual, not the g3, although the g3 manual may be good too, i just haven't seen it.

-lm

PJarrett · Post by **PJarrett** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:17 pm

This is the book for you:

http://tinyurl.com/d4j3d

zeitgeist · Post by **zeitgeist** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:24 pm

The best resource I've found on this is the first year of the "Synth Secrets" column by Gordon Reid in Sound on Sound. It got me started with all the basics a number of years ago. Best of all, the archives are all available FREE online:

http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/articles17.htm

Scroll about halfway down the page, and you'll find links to Synth Secrets numbers 1 through 41. If you just read parts 1-13, you'll have a solid understanding of subtractive synthesis and a decent overview of FM.

Once you've read those, a good resource for more advanced topics is this free online book, Advanced Programming Techniques for Modern Synthesizers:

http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmod ... k_toc.html

Its examples are based around the Nord Modular, but the info and techniques are applicable to all kinds of synths (particularly modular tools like Reaktor).

summersc2002 · Post by **summersc2002** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:32 pm

i just got done reading "Sampling and Soft Synth Power" . It breaks down all the different types of synthesis, and then takes you through a soft synth tutorial. Its pretty good for basics.

chris

zekrab · Post by **zekrab** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:47 pm

"How to make a noise", a free ebook you can find here:
http://www.noisesculpture.com/

and I don't think you need more...

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:20 pm

i'm referring to the old modular manual, not the g3, although the g3 manual may be good too, i just haven't seen it.

That would be G2...

...and it's manual and a pretty intuitive demo can be found here!

Cheers,
Mikael

SimonPHC · Post by **SimonPHC** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:33 pm

The Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads!

It deals with all kinds of synthesis, additive, subtractive, wavetable, fm, granular, sampling, vector, pulsar, waveguide ...

and it features ALOT of other subjects that might be of intrest for you (since you are using a computer for making music

)

genshi · Post by **genshi** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 9:42 pm

Also good along with Curtis Road's book is the Csound book which not only explains all kinds of synthesis, but lets you create any type of synth or sound or composition with the Csound program included (for ALL platforms!)

bytheriver · Post by **bytheriver** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:07 pm

Are any of these books good at telling you how to make specific sounds?

I read a great book on subtractive synthesis, the way it works and the technical side to it, but I finished it none the wiser how to go about making a bass sound, or any particular kind of sound.

I could really use a book that gives an idea how to implement different features and combinations of features to achive specific sounds or types of sounds.

I'll check some of the ebooks and links out though, so thanks for those.

iskandar · Post by **iskandar** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:59 pm

http://www.soundonsound.com/search?url= ... ummary=Yes

try that one

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:06 pm

Another great DSP textbook can be found for free download here.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:00 pm

PJarrett wrote:This is the book for you:

http://tinyurl.com/d4j3d

Hey, it seems good, the reviews are all positive. Do you have it yourself?

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:22 pm

PJarrett wrote:This is the book for you:

http://tinyurl.com/d4j3d

I'm instantly suspicious of any book which only has one page of material for granular synthesis, resonant filters, or pitch shifting....

Kas. · Post by **Kas.** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:14 pm

I second the sugestions of the Computer Music Tutorial and the Csound book. Most other texts are either just aimed at one synth or don´t go beyond substractive and fm synthesis. If you are at all instested in grains Microsound (also by Roads) is also well worth you time and money.

In adition to the official pages on the Nord Modular and G2 I also recomend the notes by Rob hordijk, found here.

I think they are more pratical and more interesting in scope then the manual since they treat the material from the perspective of sounds and patches instead of looking at each module in turn.