Little Boy Blue Deluxe
Little Boy Blue Deluxe
Discontinued — Legacy Item

Everyone assumes the internet is the best resource today. Right? Wrong! There's so much mis-information about electronics on the internet, it can easily do you more harm than good to read some of those sites. It's a better idea to start out reading some things that you know for a fact are 100% accurate. My suggestion is to read some of these books first, then look at the synth-diy list or message boards or some know-it-all's site. That way you'll be able to discern the facts from fiction a little better!

The single most important author in the world of "popular" electronics is certainly Forrest Mims III. His series of "Engineers Mini-Notebooks" are so popular that when Radio Shack stopped selling them a few years ago, I saw some art school students passing each other photocopied bootlegs! Fortunately his books are still in print and you can order them online.

On a similar level, but tailored to the more modern reader, is Nic Collins' excellent book Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. Nic also teaches at The Art Institute of Chicago so you could always sign up for his class. He's an extremely entertaining character!

Once you start to understand those, it's time for a more "serious" book. My favorite is The Art of Electronics by Horrowitz and Hill. This book is so awesome it has its own independent web page! Well actually, I only like the first half (analog), so I cut my copy in half and re-bound it. I wrote "the chafe of electronics" on the spine of the digital half. But that's just my prejudice!

If you want a really in-depth understanding of analog synthesizers, you should read Electronotes magazine. Start with the Musical Engineer's Handbook and The Builder's Guide and Preferred Circuits Collection, then if you still want more, buy the first 100 issues.

After you read all that, if you still don't know what you want to know, you have to go to college. End of story! You can't learn circuit analysis except by practicing it, and you can't practice it without a teacher.


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Last update: Monday, February 18, 2008
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