Book Recommendation: Keyboard Presents Synth Gods

Ernie Rideout, former editor in chief of Keyboard magazine, got to spend a lot of quality time with many of the greatest synth players, synth designers, and synthesizers of all time. He collected 20 interviews from the Keyboard archives, all summarized in this book.

Keyboard Presents Synth Gods spotlights leading visionaries who changed the course of music history and who have one sure thing in common: they’d hardly ever use a preset sound (as Ernie Rideout notes).

Keyboard Presents Synth Gods
2011, New Bay Media LLC
190 pages
12 USD,-

Order at: www.amazon.com – Synth Gods
or at your local book store via ISBN: 978-0-87930-999-2

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Contents (excerpt):

  • Richard Barbieri
  • Wendy Carlos
  • Malcolm Cecil
  • Brian Eno
  • Jan Hammer
  • Greg Hawkes
  • Jean Michel Jarre
  • Dr. Robert A. Moog
  • Gary Numan
  • Prince
  • Dave Smith
  • Tangerine Dream
  • Isao Tomita
  • Rick Wakeman
  • Edgar Winter

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Further links:
www.newbaymedia.com
www.backbeatbooks.com
http://blogcritics.org/book-review-keyboard-presents-synth-gods

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.