Turtlerock Forum

Hi all,

I went book hunting today and came across a copy of a 4 book set on synthesis theory and practice put out by Roland. Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on whether these books are worth having as a resource and what's too much to pay for them?

Cheers

Don't know. But if it's reasonable I'd grab them for coffee table paraphenalia.

Hi there,

I got a copy of that when I bought my Jupiter 8 in 1981 !

Sold it about 5 years ago to some guy in the states for $60 US.

Good book...but really for the System 700/100 modular etc
Is a collectors item.

Cheers
N
Y
M
O

Thanks Nymo,

can you suggest a better modern alternative intro text to synthesis theory?

Cheers

Hi there,

Dave..that Roland book is pretty good !

The other one evryone talks about is by Allan Strange...but I think its pretty technical.

The one I like is the EMU modular ex[lained on pdf and I think ther's a pretty comprehensive one from
Nord as well on pdf.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
N
Y
M
O

I'm a bit of a sucker for gear porn.. manuals / books on synthesis etc.

But seriously, do you really need a book to tell you how to work an analogue synth?
(If you think you do, then you are thinking about it waaaay to hard)

Once you understand a VCO , VCA , VCF, LFO and ADSR / ENVs.. what else is there? More VCO's & VCF's?

Sure, things like Ring modulation and other stuff... but it's all not exactly rocket surgery.

If you wanna get a DX7 & into FM .. then, Myles is selling a nice fat guide on that one!

Hey Mike,

I'm actually on the lookout for teaching resources – the Roland books looked like they had some lovely, simple to understand, content on the fundamentals of synthesis as well as some practical examples that could be modified for classroom exercises.

As Nymo suggested Allan Strange's book is awesome but very technical (and unnecessarily so for my purposes).

Get them if they are cheap, otherwise download the ARP 2600 user manual for a reference if you want to learn about analog synths.

Text_Edifice wrote:I'm actually on the lookout for teaching resources – the Roland books looked like they had some lovely, simple to understand, content on the fundamentals of synthesis as well as some practical examples that could be modified for classroom exercises..

Well, thats different then.

Sorry if I sounded brash.

Apart from the occasional funny translation, most of the roland synth manuals are pretty good and have good graphics and examples in them.
(SH-101 etc)

Regards
Mike

No hassles Mike - think there might be better stuff out there for the price.

Cheers

try here

http://fa.utfs.org/diy/roland100/

http://www.kolumbus.fi/janne.husu/specs/101manual.html

http://www.guitarfool.com/ARP2600.html

It may help.

I have that set of books. They do provide good teaching materials for people who want to
teach the basics of analogue synthesis. They are a bit dry though. The methods they
describe look like something related to the System 100M, IIRC, but they are generic enough
to apply to any basic modular....

I might even have the Allen Strange one looming around in here somewhere.....


rachel

Text_Edifice wrote:I'm actually on the lookout for teaching resources .

teaching resources? ummm, sit em in front of a minimoog or an SH-2 or similar for a while.

Those Roland books used to sell for a pretty penny on Ebay and vintage synth auctions.
In other words 'collectable'.

One of the best resources is Sound On Sound magazine.
They have most of their synth programming basic articles written by Gordon Reid available free online.
It's hours of material teaching everything from understanding basic waveforms to creating drum sounds using analogue synths.

Thanks for the tip Chris - I forget SOS has so much of their older published material available online.

Passed on the books. Price was too steep for the content.