My Strange Addiction (reading synth manuals)

Montreal_Music · May 2023

I'm always trying to be better at sound designing and programming synths. I bought a couple of books on the topic of sounds designing but it's often very hard to understand and abstract.

"Designing Sound" by Andy Farnell got a lot of praises, but I feel that I don't know enough things right now to really appreciate his work. I'm not Dr Doogie.

The most usefull things I have read to learn on that topic is synth manuals. I'm now addicted to synth manuals. The synth manual of Ripplemaker by Bram Bos is super interresting, really.

I don't have the synth Kaivo, but I'm now reading large parts of it's manual and it's very instructive.

If you already read a synth manual that taugh you a lot, let me know which one.

Grandbear · May 2023

It's probably outdated by now, but I remember having learned a lot from the Reason manual back in the mid 2000s, especially from the Malström synth, which taught me what the deal was with granular synthesis.

I would still recommend the manual for the Buchla Music Easel, written by Allen Strange (of "Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls" fame). The current version is available on their website: https://buchla.com/guides/Buchla_Music_Easel_Manual.pdf

Montreal_Music · May 2023

Wow, great, thanks!

raabje · May 2023

I assume (...) the manuals of the premium synths could be a nice read, like Moog synthesizers. Or some flag ship models from Roland, Korg or Yamaha, Nord?