The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)

One of the classics and must-reads in music technology.

I read it over and over again when I was building: https://glicol.org/

One of the motivations for building Glicol is to quickly let more people understand sound synthesis and music programming in the browser.

also recommand:

Designing Audio Effect Plugins in C++ by Will Pirkle

Audio Effects Theory, Implementation and Application By Joshua Reiss, Andrew McPherson

And all the books by JULIUS O. SMITH III https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/filters/Book_Series_Overview...

Finally, I get to reference one of the few kickstarters that were worth it.

"Since it's first edition in 1972, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls has been acknowledged as the definitive text on modular synthesis"

For those who missed either of the kickstarter runs, there's a reprint due via Schneider's Berlin.

https://schneidersladen.de/en/allen-strange-electronic-music...

There are so many resources around timbrel construction and manipulation, but never enough about the rhythmic domain. This book being another example.

I've read Godfried Toussaint's book, and looking for more recommendations in this area.

I've been tinkering with a cybernetic folk drumming project, and trying to create rhythms using oscillators, with beats triggered at zero-crossings, so I can build and manipulated patterns in real-time. (demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVlgPoTpL94) Results have been interesting, but perhaps not "good" in Toussaint's sense. I'm hoping to find a model that works better. Advice and pointers appreciated.

If anyone's interested in a more hands-on approach towards learning how to build patches from basic oscillators, etc., I can highly recommend Syntorial.

https://www.syntorial.com

> Finally, a realizable filter, whose frequency response is always a continuous function of frequency, must have a frequency band over which the gain drops from the passband gain to the stopband gain; this is called the transition band. The thinner this band can be made, the more nearly ideal the filter.

Perhaps ideal from some mathematical view, but musically, a brick wall filter could sound like shit where a lower order filter would be fine, because in that situation, you need a more nuanced blend of the range of frequencies than taking everything at 100% amplitude below the wall, and 0% above.

What a fantastic thread! Thanks for all the comments + resources. <3 <3

I have this book and used the ideas from it to create a synth using 12 GI AY-3-8910 chips for a total of 36 voices. Might have been 25-30 years ago.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910

Apart from the Books quoted below (thanks!!) - are there video resources / tutorials / online courses that knowledgeable folks would recommend?

Particularly on thery + praxis of state of the art?

Many Thanks!!

This was a classic, must-read book back in the day .. but these days, I think that Loopops Incomplete Guide of Electronic Music Ideas, Tips and Tricks is a better investment of ones time. Its just more broadly applicable and far more dense in terms of tooling and methodology.

https://www.docdroid.net/3K4UL8i/loopop-toc-pdf

In general, screeds documenting the theory and technique of electronic music would be better served if their authors didn't orient the works around a particular tool or method - such as Puredata, in this case. Even those PD is indeed an extremely powerful tool, its not really all-encompassing when it comes to making Electronic Music - its a digital tool, and electronic music covers the gamut from analog to digital and beyond...

The second best book about Pure Data, so I've heard.

[ Yes Miller, that's fighting talk round here too :) ]

Seriously, this is a very very good place to start learning audio DSP in general because you hit the ground running, making sounds you can compose actual music with right away.

This is a weird title for the book, because there's very little musical content in the book at all. It's about sound synthesis and signal processing. It's audio engineering, which is a nice skill to have for music making, but it's not music theory.