Reddit Reddit reviews Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking

We found 20 Reddit comments about Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking
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20 Reddit comments about Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking:

u/TopexMission · 13 pointsr/synthesizers

It's a lunetta synth. The oscillators are simple CMOS chip opamp ocsillators that run off of DC. Look up the Hex Schmitt Trigger circuit. You can load tons of these into whatever housing you make for awesome noise drone synth stuff. Nic Collins from Make Magezine compiled a simplified workbook on how to approach making circuits similar to these. Here ya go.

I also assume this guy used a fuck ton of timer chips in weird ways to mangle the sound.

u/Ameterdeep · 6 pointsr/diysound

What a glorious time for you! If you haven't already check out nic collins book this was a big help as I moved beyond bending. Unfortunately, we lost Ray Wilson last year, but Music From Outer Space remains a tremendous resource, his make book is good too..

u/VolrathTheBallin · 4 pointsr/diyaudio

Here's the fancy updated version of that text, with better figures and a DVD and stuff. Kinda spendy, but I highly recommend it.

u/mosspassion · 3 pointsr/synthrecipes

Hey, everyone starts somewhere. I hope I can point you in a decent direction here:


I started with hardware via guitar pedals and Nicolas Collins' "Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking" and have now moved into things like modular analog synthesis, Max/MSP (or Pure Data), and Supercollider. Of course there are many paths to go about understanding how to synthesize sounds, and why certain sound tools like biquad filters are necessary or convenient, but it is best for you to figure out how and why you would want to use those ideas for yourself.


One thing you have to understand is timbre. I'm not going to go into detail about it, because you seem motivated enough to lead your own path, but timbre is probably the most important reason sound synthesis exists. Think about it, the people who created synthesizers (E-mu, Moog, Bell Labs, etc.) wanted to make it easier to make "full" music without having to use a huge orchestra of people, so they figured out how to recreate the sounds of the instruments, the "timbres." At this point the timbres of synthesizers are their own, rather than trying to simulate others, and are what make synthesizers such an interesting part of musical instrument history.


Once you understand why timbre is so important, then you can look into what "voices" in synthesizers are. A simple "voice" in a synthesizer consists of three main components: An oscillator (or noise generator), a filter, and an voltage controlled amplifier that is usually controlled by an envelope generator. That is a really crude description of what a voice is, but that is why there are very expensive synthesizers with capabilities of their "voices" that are versatile and desirable depending on their design and components. And that is the main reason why things like a biquad filter are useful in certain situations.


I'm not going to go on too much longer here, but I will say one last thing about sound synthesis that will prove useful. That is that in sound theory, or the scientific analysis of sound (physics, acoustics, even psychoacoustics), it is theorized that every single timbre can be analyzed resolutely down to its constituents; every sound can be represented by a given number of sinusoidal frequencies (the more frequencies, the greater accuracy of the sound). That is a big one to bite into, and has a lot to do with "additive synthesis," but I feel that it is very important to understand this about sound theory in order to be proficient in sound synthesis.


Just for fun, a quote from one of my instructors, the one that taught the analog synthesis class I took: "Trying to filter a sine wave is the definition of futility."


Good luck out there, sound synthesis is a wide world of weird nerdy stuff.

u/SourShoes · 3 pointsr/CircuitBending

Started collecting bent stuff a couple years ago and now can bend and build stuff myself. As you learn to solder, the only skill you need basically, read these two books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0415998735
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0764588877

u/gtani · 3 pointsr/synthesizers

There's a few books you can check out (I stumbled onto most of these in my local community college library, and yes, some of these are really expensive). I can suggest more if you like


http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/

http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Technique-Electronic-Music/dp/9812700773/

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Sound-Press-Andy-Farnell/dp/0262014416

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and some subs: /r/diySynth, /r/SynthDiy, /r/modular

u/Lagduf · 2 pointsr/synthesizers

Nice work! I’d recommend an Atari Punk Console next if you want a noise box that can accept CV.

Alternatively take a look at CMOS noise makers, there’s a nice hex inverter chip that will give you 6 square wave oscillators. These types of CMOS/Logic devices are often called Lunettas.

If you want to step up do LMNC’s CEM3340 VCO’s. They work great, I just built 3. Doing his filter and envelope next.

Lastly, shell out the money for the 2nd edition of Nic Collins excellent book Handmade Electronic Music.

https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735

Yes, it’s worth the money. Especially if you’re coming in to this with zero knowledge of electronics. This book will show you how to do the CMOS stuff, circuit bend, make a 10 step sequencer, plus all kinds of rad “experimental” stuff. It’s money well spent.

u/ka-is-a-wheel · 2 pointsr/edmproduction

Find a good book, well reviewed by the community. A good reference text will have all the concepts you need to know, on at least a high level, all right there within the pages. Once you build a foundation from that, learning more complex topics will be easier.

E.G. I know nothing about making music hardware, and I read a random comment of someone recommending this book (http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735). I saw that the book had great reviews, so I bought it.

It's just easier to read a damn book than google stuff sometimes, especially when you dont even know what you should be googling!

u/Adman130 · 2 pointsr/synthesizers

Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415998735/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_zFTUAbTT96WFH

This book is incredible, you can start with a 74c14 chip, a capacitor, resistor, 9v battery and audio jack to get a mono pitch.

u/Goom909 · 2 pointsr/synthesizers

I don't know if you're interested, but you can DIY a simple line input mixer for about $10.. maybe $20 if you wanted volume pots. There's probably a few tutorials online, if not this book has a great section;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412272132&sr=1-2&keywords=circuit+bending

u/alanklinke · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Handmade Electronic Music and Circuit Bending are two books that one can not miss if one wants to dive into this experimental territory.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/modular

I'd pick up this book: http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412952260&sr=1-1&keywords=handmade+electronic+music

Amazing and essential book for diy'ers. Lots of passive curcuits you could just put on panels. Pretty much all the circuits in here are easily adaptable to euro. I just finished a six square wave osc based on something from this book. If you want details you can PM me. Synthrotek and erthenvar are good places to get parts like custom rails, panels, power headers, etc...

u/mypetrobot · 2 pointsr/guitarpedals

I got one. It's kind of gimmicky, you'd definitely have to write around the effect. The (intentionally bad?) pitch-tracking will only work semi-reliably on leads. Everything else sounds like glorious glitchy noise. Don't get me wrong, if you want to sound like Lightning Bolt, this thing is right up your alley. As a more traditional effect it sounds like someone spilled beer on your MXR Blue Box.

One of my buddies told me that it's just a pedal version of one of the basic projects from the book Handmade Electronic Music by Nicolas Collins. I never confirmed this.

I have the older version, construction wasn't so good. I let someone borrow it and they fried it (no reverse polarity protection or some shit). I cracked the thing open, and the components were soldered to a hobby breadboard. I never fixed it, it lives in a desk drawer now.

I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have. Keep in mind that I am a synth-player, not a guitar player.

u/letgravitydecide · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

This book will give you plenty of ideas.

u/diabeticporpoise · 1 pointr/synthesizers

Lol we should get coffee, I'm like the opposite-- ok with hardware synthesis but me trying to understand microcontrollers is comical.

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Anyway I exported one of my earlier folders from when I was first reading and learning to HTML, its pretty disorganized but is a ton of random builds and info. Heres the html! https://file.io/DxE4uG ( if thats not working try https://gofile.io/?c=R3nHUN )

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I'm a noob myself, but I recommend breadboarding and aiming for guitar pedals and effect stuff before jumping into other stuff. stuff like distortion is easy to make while tuned oscilators are... well, simple, but a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of cool youtube channels that have tutorials, one well known one (while a bit hectic) is sam at look mum no computer. For general hardware electronic understanding with some entertainment value I also like Electroboom's channel, and Diysynthguy is another good one to find cool kits through

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If you are in the US, good sites to buy kits from are synthcube and modularaddict. outside of the US thonk is great and a lot of the synth companies in DIY modular are in europe so you can buy direct too, like from befaco.

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Here are a good read on the topic too:

https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537984669&sr=8-1&keywords=hardware+electronic+music+book

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if you live in seattle, lets get a beer! Because I've been working with microcontrollers lately and it makes me want to blow my brains out.

u/expanding_crystal · 1 pointr/modular

Sorry, wasn’t trying to be a jerk.

If you’re getting into modular synths and you don’t have a good grasp of basic electronic theory, I highly recommend this book:

Handmade Electronic Music by Nicolas Collins

https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541778119&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=handmade+electronic+music&dpPl=1&dpID=51rgvIc6vvL&ref=plSrch

Having a decent understand of what’s going to happen before you do something will help you understand what your modules are actually doing, come up with new patches, avoid damaging anything, and a host of other benefits.

u/coloringpad · 1 pointr/breadboard

This is the best book on the subject and really got me far in creating original circuits: My copy is as dog-eared and bookmarked as could be.

Nicolas Collins
Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415998735/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_57MCAbAZ0WC52

More than hacking and mods, really gets into playing with ICs and such.

Have fun.

u/LovesSecretDomain · 1 pointr/electronicmusic

It's a musical circuit book which deals with a wide variety of projects, but I can't remember if circuit bending is one of the tecniques used.

These reviews and these video tutorials are very interesting.

Edit: The book Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments might be more specific.

u/TheAlphaNerd · 1 pointr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Well the entire scan is available there for free

I don't think the book should cost that much

Here it is for $30 on amazon