WIGGLING 'LITE' IN GUEST MODE

[arthurgrimley]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if anyone could point me in the direction of articles/books/sites that deal in some depth with the electrical design of synth modules (VCOs, VCAs, filters, waveshapers, etc) rather than more general purpose applications?

Thanks

[Rod Serling Fan Club]

You might want to post this in the DIY section. You might also want to take a look at the DIY forum over at electro-music.com.

[andrewF]

try reading the module descriptions and studying the schematics at
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/mfosweb/home.action

and

http://www.cgs.synth.net/

[BugBrand]

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/

Order the 'Everything Package' - that'll certainly keep you in reading material for a few years to come!

Or for a slightly smaller initial purchase, get these two:
Musical Engineer's Handbook
Builder's Guide and Preferred Circuits Collection

[sandyb]

arthurgrimley

welcome to the forum
i'll move this to the diy section. the folks there will have lots of resource ideas for you i'm sure.

sandy

[arthurgrimley]

thanks for the suggestions - I'm just looking into them now (and to Sandy for moving this strand into the DIY section)

[Tim Stinchcombe]

Other than the masses of schematics on the web, if you actually want a book that maybe explains a bit more, two immediately come to mind:

Electronic Music Circuits by Barry Klein, available direct from him at that link.

'Musical Applications of Microprocessors' by Hal Chamberlin - despite the title there is actually a nice section in there that describes how basic analogue synth circuits work (but don't go paying top-dollar for it: I think new copies are still to be had, but a second-hand one ought to be had for a reasonable price; lending it via your local library also makes sense...)

There are many other titles out there, perhaps a dozen or more, purporting to describe the electronics inside synthesizers, but they tend to be either pretty mickey-mouse, or rather old, or both. And some titles, despite having 'electronic' in the title are just about synths in general, or electronic music in general, and so don't contain any circuits to speak of!

Tim

[Tim Stinchcombe]

...which actually makes me think we could use a decent list of books in the Wiki pages...

[cbm]

I agree with the Electronotes recommendation; really good for synth-related schematics and info. Not a tutorial, though. Pretty high level in places.

Some of the DIY articles in Synapse are good: http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/intro.cfm

How synthesizer-specific does it need to be? More general refs:
Op-Amp Cookbook - Jung (a classic)
Small Signal Audio Design - Self

[arthurgrimley]

Thanks Tim and Chris

Tim - a books page on the Wiki would seem to me to be a great idea

Chris - I'm not an expert by any means, but I'm familiar with resources such as the Op Amp Cookbook, but I guess I'd like to learn more about why some designs are more suitable for synth use than others, the sonic characteristics of certain designs, and other such things that more general texts don't tend to cover (obviously trying things out is part of the fun, but given time and financial contraints it can't hurt to be informed)

[megaohm]

[pugix]

[Junk Rhythm]

[kindredlost]

[Tim Stinchcombe]

[discomicke]