Best midi & mixers books according to redditors
We found 100 Reddit comments discussing the best midi & mixers books. We ranked the 25 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 100 Reddit comments discussing the best midi & mixers books. We ranked the 25 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.
First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.
It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.
One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.
If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.
Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.
Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!
Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.
If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.
Hope this helps, good luck!
yeah, no problem - its up on amazon and Barnes and Noble for preorder
Basic theory: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/toc.shtml, and http://electronotes.netfirms.com/free.htm (e.g. see "Theory and Practice of Musical Sound Synthesis")
Ray Wilson's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220
LM13700 datasheet (has circuit example for VCO, VCFs, VCA, Sample and Hold, PWM, multiplier): http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm13700.pdf
The LM13700 is a $1 chip which can be used to implement most of the basic synthesizer modules.
https://hackaday.com/tag/lm13700/
http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/DUALVCA/DLLVCA001.html
http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/STATEVARVCFFEB2006/STATEVARVCFFEB2006.html
http://www.djerickson.com/synth/
"The kits I build use a lot of the same parts over and over, so having a stock of the basics is good. You can probably build this stock up for about $100:
DIP ICs, a few of each: LM13700, TL072, TL074, LM324"
Yes. Syntorial and https://www.amazon.com/Synthesizer-Basics-Dean-Friedman/dp/0711910227
The book has a video format on YouTube.
Also https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/search?q=learn+basics&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all
Websites
Gearslutz Forums
ADSR
HTMEM
Syntorial
Sound On Sound
Somewhat Helpful Tip Lists
List 1
List 2
List 2's Main Site
Books
Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques
This is a great book which goes in depth with the tools and approach needed, along with the main circuits in every modular setup/ synth. It comes from this site which has tons and tons of circuits. They are not really beginner stuff but filled with inspiration and is great to go back to once you have some experience and components to use.
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367955744&sr=8-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers
Site: http://musicfromouterspace.com/
​
Here is a good blog to read through and watch the videos for some basic circuitry. Some really interesting stuff here! There are 12 posts on different things. He is quite knowledgeable indeed...
https://hackaday.com/2015/02/04/logic-noise-sweet-sweet-oscillator-sounds/
​
And if you really want to learn about electronics in depth (or any other field) check out https://www.khanacademy.org/ which offers lessons for free.
I stopped by the library today and I ended up checking out a old book about electronic music titled Synthesis: An Introduction To The History, Theory & Practice Of Electronic Music by Herbert A. Deutsch. When I opened it, I was thrilled to find that there was a 7 inch record included!
Since the whole album is just over ten minutes, I decided to upload it as one video.
Side A is mainly tape experiments, Side B includes some synth jams. Some of the music on here is really unsettling to me, especially Tape Study #3, so this may be appropriate for the Halloween thing this sub is doing.
I'm excited to share this record! My easiest find by far and one of the most unique. I am sad that I will have to return it.
www.amazon.com/Babbling-Corpse-Vaporwave-Commodification-Ghosts/dp/1782797599
www.amazon.com/Vaporwave-Dystopian-Musical-Ekko-Iruka/dp/1329386264
You might really enjoy reading (Electronic and Experimental Music by Thomas Holms)[https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Experimental-Music-Technology-Culture/dp/0415896363]. I found it at my college library when I was looking for anything to keep the high of my Moog factory tour going. I'm really glad I stumbled upon it, and am still debating adding it to my bookshelf at home.
It thoroughly documents the history of electronic music, which Holms roughly describes as the history of music that does not need a human to be performed. It starts off in the late 1800's I believe and continues until contemporary synthesis. There's a lot of discussion about early researchers, organized by country of origin, and recording outputs of function generators onto tape reels and splicing tape to compose. The second half is then about synthesizers and techniques that are more akin to what is used today, in the modular to keyboard style machines.
Really a phenomenal history book, and a pleasant read, with interesting diagrams and photos of the old equipment, and diagrams of concepts being discussed.
If you are at all interested in the actual beginnings of electronic music then this book is a must:
[Thom Holmes - Electronic and Experimental Music] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Experimental-Music-Technology-Culture/dp/0415896363/ref=pd_cp_b_0)
It goes right from the early rumblings of electronic music, in the italian futurists manifesto at the start of last century, through to glitch experiments etc. It is an academic text but it is very readable and has a lot of information on a variety of topics - tape editing, synthesis, MIDI and their origins. I think the newest edition also has a sampler CD of key works. As the title suggests it does have an emphasis on experimental electronic music but a lot of pioneering is done on the fringes.
For the actual programming, there's the Juce C++ library which is pretty essential. If you spend a few minutes scouring the website, he recommends some good resources (both digital and print) for learning C++.
For DSP knowledge I would start with DSP Guide because it's just bloody incredible.
As far as books go, do you mean books on audio programming or C++? I started learning C++ with C++ Primer, but for audio programming both Designing Audio Effect Plugins In C++ and The Audio Programming Book have been invaluable.
Also check out the KVR Developer Forum!
Here are 2 that have been useful to me...
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=make+synthesizer&qid=1569440610&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=make+synthesizer&qid=1569440643&s=gateway&sr=8-6
I've enjoyed this one as a start. Interested to see any other suggestions you get: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220
Yeah. You have to ask yourself, why am I obsessed with collecting all this information? It's not enough to just stop it, I'm sure you've tried that and found yourself back in the same old familiar patterns. A book that I really enjoyed reading was this, music habits His message is really simple, but his whole philosophy of music production is really good. There are a lot of bad habits we pick up when we first start music production and one of them is that obsession with collecting more info.
Also what really helped me is stick to a few good resources. Forget about the internet because I find more often than not there is a ton of bad advice floating around that you don't want to take on. Occasionally you find these amazing posts full of wisdom and 9/10 their knowledge came from a professional who knew their shit who probably already wrote a book that would be really beneficial to read.
And if you're like me you probably just overthink everything way too much. And collecting all that info isn't helping you to trust your own judgement and just making music.
You might want to check out Babbling Corpse. although it takes itself a bit too seriously at times, it presents a good comparison of vaporwave against modern culture and digs into the history and philosophy of where the culture of vaporwave exists.
> isnt japan fairly homogeneous and this wouldnt really apply to them? they have plenty of common myths and folktales, they have plenty of common legends, they tend to respect their environment a fair bit as well. theres plenty of coherence there. but the coherence has become a weight pressing on the necks of the youth and average citizen to become more valuable for the companies.
Even if you find strong disagreement with Marx' economic analysis, his philosophical work is becoming more and more insightful to today's world in particular his theory of alienation. There are so many comments in this thread that have probably never read about it yet describe exactly alienation from Gattungswessen(species essence), the product, from other workers. Humans are more commodified than ever, and we are discovering that commodification was never the same as a meaningfully productive role in society. Look at the emergence of "the gig economy", how there is no more future even within companies(which were already a terrible substitute for a tribal unit), wherein you must leave for greater pay.
When he described his Theory of Alienation, I think he underestimated the amount of sheer wealth that would be produced in globalization, but as always, the margins get tighter and tighter and the fever dream of globalized wealth for a middle class was never sustainable with a never ending greed of the elite.
The youth of today, despite all the conservative and neoliberal propaganda thrown at them, know deep inside that something is wrong, even if they can't articulate it. They know there is something wrong with entering adulthood with a lifetime of debt, into a disappearing job market. There is a nostalgia for a past that never existed, even their parents who grew up in the economic booms did not know the dreams they handed to their children would become dust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation
https://www.amazon.com/Babbling-Corpse-Vaporwave-Commodification-Ghosts/dp/1782797599
theres the book from Make as well https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220
This this this this this this. Read this book. Completely changed how I approach making music. Focuses a lot more on workflow and creativity and developing your own style/taste than it does on technicals such as mixing and sound design however I believe that any producer at any stage of their journey should read it. It's a great read too, witty, personal, fast paced, and informative. https://www.amazon.com/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U
That page only has info on adding the resonance pot that was removed for the delay.
Ray Wilson's MAKE book is here. His site, Music From Outer Space is also a good resource.
or Babbling Corpse, also from zero books.
Just passing on the recommendation I got here a long time ago, which is: [Ray Wilson's Make: Analog Synthesizers] (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220) A really chill / good read but also really good to have nearby as technical reference.
Make publishes a book called Analog Synthesizers if you want a head start.
An ATMEL based Arduino is a bad choice for generating video, you probably can't do it. It just isn't fast enough. You can generate audio but you going to be limited by the limited amount of RAM and the lack of decent digital to analogue support. Also, due to the low speed of AVRs you won't be able to produce high fidelity sound.
I recommend that you check out Musical Applications of Microprocessors by Hal Chamberlin. The book was written back in the days of 8 bit micro processors and is one of the seminal books on the topic of creating sounds.
Basically, you create wave tables in RAM and cycle through them outputting the data through a DAC. Using wave tables you can achieve polyphony. Creating white and or pink noise is just a matter of creating the right data in your wave table.
I think an ARM based processor would be a much better choice for this application. You will have a proper amount of RAM, a much faster CPU and depending on the model, you will get a DAC.
As others have pointed out, you'll have to use the Steinberg VST SDK and code in C++. A great book on that topic is The Audio Programming Book. There's a lot of examples and in one chapter you're actually walked through the process of writing a full VST from start to finish (there's also a bunch of other stuff in there about coding low-level audio). Another option would be to use something like JUCE to simplify the coding process. The other nice thing about JUCE is that it makes it really easy to write a VST that's also wrapped as an AudioUnit or RTAS plugin, so you get some great cross-compatibility there. JUCE also has a built in GUI library, but I've never really cared for the default style of it. A third option would be to use Faust, but it's kind of a weird language to learn and FaustWorks, the IDE that it comes with, is buggy as all hell. That said, it'll deploy as a VST, AU, RTAS, Max External, Pure Data external, or Pure Data abstraction and small effects plugins are generally really easy to write once you get the hang of the language syntax. There are a bunch of example VSTs on the site under the Online Examples section and it even has an online IDE, which is nice. IMO, if you're trying to really learn about signal processing and such, the best way to go would be to just write using the normal SDK. This is definitely doing it the hard way, but in my experience I learned so much more by not having anything of the functions abstracted away from me. On the other hand, if you're just trying to bang the VST out and use it, I'd look at JUCE or (depending on the complexity of the effect) FAUST. Either way, I hope that you'll post your results on /r/FreeSounds.
In order starting with the book on the top left:
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Keyboard-Chord-Piano-Method/dp/0793551447
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Complete-Training-Workbook/dp/0882848976
http://www.amazon.com/MIDI-Book-Syntharts-Steve-Furia/dp/0881885142
http://www.amazon.com/The-Total-Keyboard-Performing-Electronic/dp/1586637037
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Volume-Sandy-Feldstein/dp/0882842161
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
http://www.amazon.com/Welshs-Synthesizer-Cookbook-Programming-Universal/dp/B000ERHA4S
You could also try Pure Data, which is the open source version of Max/MSP.
Max/MSP is a good start because you can go on to write your own objects in Java and C++ as you progress.
But I assume most plug ins are C/C++. The Audio Programming Book is quite good for learning C specifically for audio.
Edit: link to book
and by speaking of mfos, you really should get his book... it was so helpful to me... I learned a lot by doing his stuff from the book and reading all the explanations...
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220
If you want a general, but very broad (it's a huge fucking book ~1200pgs) overview check out The Computer Music Tutorial by Curtis Roads. If you have a strong math background and really want to get into the nuts and bolts of digital sound check out The Audio Programming Book by Richard Boulange. For something sort of in the middle Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance by Charles Dodge. I took a two years of sound design / engineering at a UC campus. These were the three books we referenced most.
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
There's always the classic csound.
And the hip new kid on the scene, Supercollider. And by new, I mean only 10 years old.
If you are into this, you should check out Richard Boulanger's books.
The Csound book
The Audio Programming Book
Adding to this, his book Make: Analog Synthesizers is a great resource for beginners.
Check this out:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Systems-Techniques-Controls/dp/0697036022
Unfortunately it's out of print so it's a small fortune to buy the physical copy, but if you contact the publisher they sell the pdf for $15.
There's best seller book for this exact problem: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ZJG398U/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1475077293&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=computer+music&dpPl=1&dpID=51VuceO6uoL&ref=plSrch
For more information about this build, here's an imgur album I did showing the build process
To try and answer all the questions in this thread:
Sure, you can basically go as simple or as complex as you'd like. The most basic "synth" You could make would probably be a tone generator based on the 555 timer, something like the Atari Punk Console. Music From Outer Space is a good resource for more involved synth projects and the book Make: Analog Synthesizers is a pretty popular resource (you can find pdf versions online). Finally, r/synthDIY has some good resources too.
Call your library and get a copy of Allen Strange's Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls through inter-library loan.
Work through the book.
Haha thanks for the correction man. Total derp.
Elements of Computer Music by Richard Moore is another great one if you want to get deep into the nitty-gritty of audio DSP. The code is all in C, and it was written in 1990, so some of it is mildly outdated- but the theory is still relevant, and you can implement everything in a more modern language. It's on the more low-level theory side, where Pirkle is mostly focused on application, and getting to practical uses as quickly as possible. It's a really cool book to read, even if you don't follow along with the exercises.
if you're thinking about audio programming for games this is a great book to get started with basic audio programming concepts.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fat-Man-Game-Audio/dp/1592730094
"The Fat Man on Game Audio: Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness". This was an entertaining read, and covers some interesting philosophy on game audio.
If you're interested at all in early electronic music I'd recommend "The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde." It's a really interesting period in American music history that doesn't get much attention (http://www.amazon.com/Francisco-Tape-Music-Center-Counterculture/dp/0520256174).
Another one is "Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music," great comprehensive book but only worth it to buy used (http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Sound-Promise-Electronic-Music/dp/0133032310/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421354001&sr=8-1&keywords=electric+sound+the+past+and+promise+of+electronic+music).
So what did you think of JUCE?
This seems to be way easier. Did you read this book? There are CSound chapters
https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-MIT-Press/dp/0262014467
I enjoyed / suffered through Alan Strange's book on synthesis, still awesome though obviously dated.
There are pdf's floating around; I eventually found a copy for less than the currently ridiculous asking prices on used book sites
https://www.amazon.ca/Electronic-Music-Systems-Techniques-Controls/dp/0697036022
This book was a little dense, but not too hard to get through for a layman like me who knew next to nothing about synthesis or basic electronics before reading it. It was a slow read, but very much worth it. A little research and you can probably find an electronic copy. Its a crime the book is no longer in print. Look for the 2nd edition.
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Systems-Techniques-Controls/dp/0697036022
There's a single book I've found it in B&N the other day about creating audio filters and what not. It's a very hard thing to find information about and I've been curious about diving in to it myself. I just left my job as a radio engineer for almost a decade, I was constantly trying to learn about codecs and lossless audio file formats with the hopes of taking an open source format like ogg or flac and piggy backing ads to specific tracks with the hopes of creating a new type of automation system. anyhow, long story short, if you're truly willing to learn you're going to have to hunt down the guys who make the codecs and learn from them directly, try emailing the devs who make this stuff. I would start with Radio because radio engineers love to show off tech and teach people what they know.
It's a very good book but not so much about VST. The OP could have a look at https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-MIT-Press/dp/0262014467 instead.
Make: Analog Synthesizers is a great introduction. It even details an example project, the Noise Toaster. But I think its strongest section might be the appendix, which is a good reference for various utility circuits you need in an analog synth, especially the LM13700 OTA, which you can use to build VCOs, VCFs, and VCAs.
The only glaring omission in the Make book is the lack of voltage-controlled exponential current source circuits that drive the OTA's current bias inputs. You can find more about those by digging through the textbook Musical Applications of Microprocessors (beware, much of the content regarding embedded systems is a bit outdated, but there is a surprising amount of analog material in there) and this Electronotes newsletter. In fact, this collection of Electronotes newsletters is a gold mine in itself.
Happy tinkering.
If anyone is interested in this kind of stuff, Electric Sound by Joel Chadabe is an awesome book on the history of electronic music. It talks about musique concrete techniques and much more. I definitely recommend it.
Also the Frank Zappa album, "Lumpy Gravy" features a lot of musique concrete.
I'm working on one myself and have found some things around. Right now I've got a teensy and a big pile of electronics components to make the yusynth moog clone filter
yusynth has some good resources.
If you want to get deeper into the electronics, Aaron Lanterman's lectures on youtube are great..
Another book, from the same era, is Musical Applications of Microprocessors by Hal Chamberlin .. it's a little steep on Amazon but I was able to find it at my local University library
I'm into Csound, which is kind of like a scripting language using a library of audio function objects (opcodes). Some of the programmers who worked on it just made a straight up C programming for audio book. I have it, but being a crappy programmer I haven't done much with it yet.
It does take time, even years to learn about synthesis. I would say that the versatility of your keyboard is a hindrance, not a benefit to your learning because although it can do a lot, it is not focused on any aspect of synthesis in particular.
First you need to see synthesis in broad categories. 1. Subtractive, 2. FM, 3. Additive, 4. Granular 5. Hybrid/Sample and Synth... etc.
Definitely master subtractive synthesis first while learning a little bit about the physics of sound such as harmonics (overtones). Having a simple Subtractive synth (it can be a plugin) will limit you in ways that make learning easier.
There are many good books and tutorials online. My favorite is this series of articles by Gordon Reid.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/synthsec.htm
Gordon Reid is a great teacher. You can also find a lot of really great tutorials by Reid on the Reason website. They are for the most part applicable to any synth or plugin, not just Reason.
http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/discovering-reason/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=part19
I myself learned from this book, which although old and out of print, was very helpful and well written:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Systems-Techniques-Controls/dp/0697036022/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1265751623&sr=8-10
its a really pricey now but i got it at the library. I'm sure there are a ton of other books out there that are just as good. In addition to the fundamentals there are time-tested tricks--you mentioned detuning and layering. But its better if you know a bit about physics and it'll all click for you so you can come up with your own tricks.
have fun!
Wwise or FMOD are solutions which attempt to solve these high-level problems. They each come with their own authoring tool and a library to trigger events and set parameters which are defined in that authoring tool to trigger sound playback.
They're both somewhat complex (Wwise much more so). You're not going to get a library that is easy-to-use and also handles all those tasks for you. They're also the "pro standard".
You can also start with a library that will just give you an interface for writing samples and go from there:
The Audio Programming Book is a decent intro to concepts relevant to audio programming. It's more focused toward people who do installation art or new music, but is still relevant for audio programming in games.
Rave Culture: An Insider's Overview by Jimi Fritz. Jimi's been involved in the party culture out here in Victoria for a long time and this is a great book discussing the culture in the 90s.
More links:
The Audio Programming Book - highly recommended to me
Designing Audio Effect Plugins in C++
Apple's Documentation for AU
Another thread
Some relevant stuff in this thread too
edit: I forgot an important one. Steinberg's VST SDK. Complete with example projects to get started with.
Steinberg
edit: basically people are saying Juce, WDL, Steinberg, C++. And lots of math.
Also this looks interesting coming from a java point of view: Java VST Wrapper
Definitely go to events like game conferences and local meetups. Here are some resources for video game audio. Fat Man Audio Book.FMOD Studio. Audiokinetic.
Here is the desktop version of your link
If you'd like to take this all to the next level, I'd suggest reading Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production. It provides essential tips on how to keep pushing through in the creative process and ensure that you're enjoying what you're doing. Also provides tons of recommendations on how to keep building up templates so you avoid a blank slate in your DAW - the most dreadful moment in production! Also, while on topic if you're ever searching for inspiration and trying to find your own creative voice, I'd highly recommend Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. Although it's jazz piano focused, it applies to any type of creative. No more pressure! Have fun and keep the shavings coming :)
That is interesting, and tied in very closely with a book I am reading right now.
That is where the idea of working on something music-related for 15 minutes every day came from. I usually put it on hold when I go on travel, but I brought some stuff to work on this time to try and build the habit.
I posted a similar thread a few years back, and it seemed to come down to this book. I bought it, but it's pretty above my head and I haven't had the time to really try and delve in.
Have you looked into MaxMSP?
i forgot, ray has a book took. its really great. it has info on synths, some info about ray, about synth diy, and a very detailed build of the noise toaster. also the appendices have great info on common chips and common op amp circuits:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220
he also did a MAKE video lecture on TL0x op amps you should watch once you know a bit more about op amps and circuits (due to lingo).
It's kinda pricey, but I have this book and think it's a great place to start for understanding the basics of analog synthesis.
The Audio Programming Book, if you're interested in music: http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-Richard-Boulanger/dp/0262014467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452310130&sr=8-1&keywords=audio+programming
Thanks for the tip on that book. Looks amazing and gets great reviews.
You could start with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220
It's written by Ray Wilson, who is the guy behind Music From Outer Space, where you will find tons of synths and module circuit, parts, pcb.
The book explains all the wizardry behind the Noise Toaster, and guide you through the build.
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Or you can start with eurorack, there is tons of DIY modules, you can have complete kit, so you "just" need to solder the parts, or you can buy a pcb and source the parts yourself. For eurorack, you will find "through hole" modules, aka classic and "big" components, or SMD, which are tiny component, usually made to be soldered by robots. You might want to avoid SMD as a first build if you don't have a lot of soldering experience (and tools).
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C / C++ are the main languages to learn for this. This is a good book for reference. I would strongly recommend looking into the JUCE library. Their latest version JUCE 5 comes with some added features (free for personal use). They have good tutorials and it also allows you to build for AU/AAX etc just by selecting a few options when setting up the project.
Glad to hear it, thank you! And yeah I can think of a few books that really helped me.
For analog, the best book I've read is "A Practical Introduction to Electronic Circuits" (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Introduction-Electronic-Circuits-ebook/dp/B01MSEO5HX). It's actually a terrible introduction, so the title is dumb, but if you already have a basic knowledge this book will take you to the next level. Also one of the best resources for analog is Dave Jones' YouTube channel EEVBlog (https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog). He's an excellent presenter and a real analog pro.
For digital, after you have a good grasp of C, I'd recommend Musimathics Vol. 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Musimathics-Mathematical-Foundations-Music-Press/dp/026251656X/ref=asc_df_026251656X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316181319&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952). The first volume can be skipped cause it's mostly acoustics and music theory related, but it's a good book too. The second volume is by far the best explaination of DSP and digital audio synthesis I've come across. If you want something a bit lighter, this is a great book as well (https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-MIT-Press/dp/0262014467/ref=asc_df_0262014467/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312140868236&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9994434488221753680&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-330509287619&psc=1).
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367955744&sr=8-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers
I did not build my own synth, but I really enjoyed reading this book about how to do it. There's a lot to it.
Need this book: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Wires-History-Electronic-Music/dp/178023824X/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
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"Live Wires: A History of Electronic Music" by Daniel Warner
There's no expectation that you produced every sound yourself either. Just ask the Beastie Boys, or any rapper for that matter.
The thoughts you express here are harmful to creativity. I'd advise you to change your perspective on what constitutes authenticity.
Also, you don't know me. Don't assume that you know my artistic process. My post here comes from having studied and taught mindsets that are beneficial for creative output.
Some resources for you that I'm sure you'd find helpful:
The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production by Jason Timothyhttps://www.amazon.com/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U
The Secrets of Dance Music Production by David Felton
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Dance-Music-Production/dp/0956446035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538863017&sr=81&keywords=the+secret+of+dance+music+production
I'd also highly recommend the music school taught by Mike Monday. He's coached people like Claude Von Stroke and is a well-accomplished producer himself. His insights into the creative process are among the best I've found. Nothing technical, all mindset, which is the biggest stumbling block to making and releasing lots of quality music in my opinion. https://mikemonday.com/
Found it. This is the book that helped me the most.
Also, here's a freebie.
Have you looked at Ray Wilson's book?
Do you have any background knowledge in electronics? Because I would seriously start there.
I realize you are an adult, but Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery) was a really great book for me (an adult). It gives you a good foundations in electronics and has fun projects as well.
Make: Analog Synthesizers was particularly fun for me.
Any interest in either of those books? They're both great starting points.
The other guys covered your specific filter question, so here's some general info on learning/implementing DSP via code. I don't know whether you're a programmer already or not, so if you're not, DSP is not a great way to learn C programming from the beginning. Basic DSP like your low-pass filter is not very demanding of more advanced programming skills, but it IS (relatively) hard to debug. I don't even want to imagine how awful debugging DSP output would be for a new programmer who's not yet sure his basic code even works properly. Much easier to learn C by writing some scrubby text output programs rather than staring at a huge pile of output floats.
If you're already comfy with C, you're just going to have to dig into some textbooks and work your way through them. Don't let them scare you. The math looks ugly, but it REALLY isn't! I highly recommend combining at least two sources for each topic.
http://www.dspguide.com/ is free and great for understanding what you're doing. Very little math, very heavy on explanations of how DSP works. Read the section on filters or whatever from this book first.
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-Richard-Boulanger/dp/0262014467 is the math side of the same DSP topics + lots of actual C code implementations of each
If you make it through the pair all the way, you've pretty much got an entire foundation
re: coding externals, this is a great book by eric lyon!
edit: nvm, you said free. still a good resource though!
2 of the books which helped me a lot, both great for beginners (but also pros):
This ones focuses more on the right mindest towards learning the skills (hugely important imo): https://www.amazon.de/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U
And this one is more about concrete techniques: https://www.amazon.de/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8
And this one is what iam reading right now, it's more for experienced practicioners who want to understand how to make the step from being "solid" to "great".
It's also very much about developing a healthy mindset to learning and playing / producing. It's written by a classical music / piano guy, but most of what he says translates 1-1 to electronic music production.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B005OUHOLY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
When i look at my own progress, i really feel "mindset" is the key word - in short, you need to accept your current level, and that learning takes time - but you also need to feel that your potential is only limited by the time and effort you are willing to put into your craft.
And: when you wanna learn a certain technique, try to find a youtube video about it! That can really speed things up.
As far as book recommendations, check out anything by Julius O Smith (his website has all his books for free), A Digital Signal Processing Primer by Ken Steiglitz, The Audio Programming Book by Richard Boulanger & Victor Lazzarini, and this one has been on my wishlist for a while.
The program is very young (under a decade), so I can't give too many examples (our first graduate did land a producer's job at Microsoft, and our second is in R&D upstairs, working on the sound engine for our in-house game engine), but generally these skills translate to other areas of software development that involve heavy DSP knowledge (biomedical tech, watermarking, speech recognition, communications tech).
I should mention DigiPen provides a hyper-focused course of study. It's definitely not a good choice if you're looking for a general education, or even a generalized CS education. Most of what we learn is Assembly/C/C++ in Procedural/Object-Oriented styles. On the upside though, there's a projects course every single term, which is where most of your portfolio comes from.
If you haven't read Moby's book I highly recommend it. Basically he talks about his life in the 90s. Very interesting to hear what music production and touring was like during that time.
I know of some good text books that are pretty easy to read. The Oppenheim and Schafer are considered by a lot of my former profs to be the bible of DSP intro:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131988425/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0132146355&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=17WDV1JR8EA7P3D8W78A
It's pretty comprehensive, so if you're looking for something simpler, this is a pretty short and intuitive intro text (which was actually my first exposure to DSP!):
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Primer-Applications/dp/0805316841
This looks like a pretty good book!
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220