Analog Synthesizers: Understanding, Performing, Buying

Book excerpt: Making its first huge impact in the 1960s through the inventions of Bob Moog, the analog synthesizer sound, riding a wave of later developments in digital and software synthesis, has now become more popular than ever. Analog Synthesizers charts the technology, instruments, designers, and musicians associated with its three major historical phases: invention in the 1960s–1970s and the music of Walter Carlos, Pink Floyd, Gary Numan, Genesis, Kraftwerk, The Human League, Tangerine Dream, and Jean-Michel Jarre; re-birth in the 1980s–1990s through techno and dance music and jazz fusion; and software synthesis. Now updated, this new edition also includes sections on the explosion from 2000 to the present day in affordable, mass market Eurorack format and other analog instruments, which has helped make the analog synthesizer sound hugely popular once again, particularly in the fields of TV and movie music. Major artists interviewed in depth include: Hans Zimmer (Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee and winner, "Gladiator" and "The Lion King") Mike Oldfield (Grammy Award winner, "Tubular Bells") Isao Tomita (Grammy Award nominee, "Snowflakes Are Dancing") Rick Wakeman (Grammy Award nominee, Yes) Tony Banks (Grammy, Ivor Novello and Brit Awards, Genesis) Nick Rhodes (Grammy Award Winner, Duran Duran) and from the worlds of TV and movie music: Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein (Primetime Emmy Award, "Stranger Things") Paul Haslinger (BMI Film and TV Music Awards, "Underworld") Suzanne Ciani (Grammy Award Nominee, "Neverland") Adam Lastiwka ("Travelers") The book opens with a grounding in the physics of sound, instrument layout, sound creation, purchasing, and instrument repair, which will help entry level musicians as well as seasoned professionals appreciate and master the secrets of analog sound synthesis. Analog Synthesizers has a companion website featuring hundreds of examples of analog sound created using dozens of classic and modern instruments.