Book Recommendation: The A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers

There’s not much to say. The Bible of knob-synth lovers. The Holy Grail, so to speak. “The A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers” is a comprehensive encyclopedia with so much information about all the great and not so great synthesizers specs and history.

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Split alphabetically into two volumes (A-M & N-Z) never has there been such a comprehensive compendium of analogue instruments. A must-have for anyone even vaguely interested in vintage synths.

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“The A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers” consists of two books – PART ONE and PART TWO. In the middle of each book there is a section with photos, seurrounded by highest quality information on textual basis, with occasional black and white images, timelines, diagrams and sketches.

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Ah yes, we also discovered a Peter Forrest interview:

http://vicmod.blogspot.co.at/2009/01/peter-forrest-interview-from-z.html

Peter Forrest’s favourite synth is the Prophet T-8, by the way. In his opinion it’s the closest best synthesizer ever:

“The T8 is the closest, despite its imperfect envelopes. If only the JP-8 or Memorymoog or Andromeda had a keyboard like that …” (see the interview for more info).

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Sadly we have no information if there’s a 3rd edition in preparation. There’s so much analog stuff that’s come out since 2003 … the Alesis Andromeda, the GRP A8 and A4, all those great (new) synthesizers from Moog, DSI, Doepfer, Waldorf, COTK, Vermona … and let’s not forget the Trax RetroWave.

However, “The A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers” are two books you simply must own …

Filed under 2013, Books

“Es genügt, einen Ton schön zu spielen” sagte der Komponist Arvo Pärt im Jahre 2005. Diese Aussage ist ebenso einfach wie ich auch exzellent: Es braucht kein Meer an Tönen, denn entscheidend ist der Klang. Dass so mancher Vintage-Synthesizer der 70er und 80er Jahre teils unerreicht hochwertige Klänge liefert, steht außer Frage. Doch tatsächlich leben wir “heute” in einer nahezu perfekten Zeit. Einerseits hat man – mehr oder weniger – noch Zugriff auf die Vintage Analogen, andererseits wird auch bei Neugeräten die wichtige Komponente des hochwertigen Klanges wieder zunehmend berücksichtigt. Doepfer, Cwejman, Synthesizers.com, MacBeth, Moog, GRP, Studio Electronics, COTK, John Bowen und andere Hersteller bauen hervorragende Synthesizer, die den “Klassikern” in nichts nachstehen. All diesen (alten wie neuen) “großartigen” Instrumenten ist Great Synthesizers gewidmet. _________________________________________________________ In 2005 composer Arvo Pärt said: “Playing one tone really well is enough”. In other words, it is sufficient to play one tone 'beautifully'. I agree with that. All musical efforts are focused on the sound itself. Although I studied classical music (piano and drums), it’s the electronic sound that inspires me. Synthesizers are the epitome of new sounds and exciting tonal spheres. Today, many companies produce high-quality - excellent! - synthesizers: Doepfer, Cwejman, MacBeth, Moog, GRP, Synthesizers.com, COTK, Studio Electronics, John Bowen and others. It's their products I'm really interested in ... apart from Vintage Synthesizers, which I have been collecting for 20 years. Subsequent to our former websites Bluesynths and Blogasys, Peter Mahr and I have now created GreatSynthesizers. We hope you like it.

2 Comments

  1. Theo Bloderer

    Very good … Akai VX600, Synton Syrinx and Roland SH-101 (left to right) …

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