Electronic music instruments weren't called synthesizers until the 1950s, but their lineage began in 1919 with Russian inventor Lev Sergeyevich Termen's development of the Etherphone, now known as the Theremin. From that point, synthesizers have undergone a remarkable evolution from prohibitively large mid-century models confined to university laboratories to the development of musical synthesis software that runs on tablet computers and portable media devices. Throughout its history, the synthesizer has always been at the forefront of technology for the arts. In The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument, veteran music technology journalist, educator, and performer Mark Vail tells the complete story of the synthesizer: the origins of the many forms the instrument takes; crucial advancements in sound generation, musical control, and composition made with instruments that may have become best sellers or gone entirely unnoticed; and the basics and intricacies of acoustics and synthesized sound. Vail also describes how to successfully select, program, and play a synthesizer; what alternative controllers exist for creating electronic music; and how to stay focused and productive when faced with a room full of instruments. This one-stop reference guide on all things synthesizer also offers tips on encouraging creativity, layering sounds, performance, composing and recording for film and television, and much more.

The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument

Arts & Photography

Vail, Mark

Music

Oxford University Press

Computers & Technology

Keyboard Presents the Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B

Miller Freeman Books

This new edition is the ultimate exploration of the upstart instruments – and their unique analog growls and screams – that paved the way over the last four decades for today's fast-paced electronic music world. Explores the development of the modern synthesizer from 1962 on, with in-depth interviews with pioneering designers Bob Moog and Alan R. Pearlman of Moog Music and ARP Instruments fame. These and other designers reveal their initial ideas, reflect on their hits and misses, and discuss how star performers have used their creations. Histories of groundbreaking instruments examine modular, analog &amp; digital synths and samplers, plus more unusual instruments like the Mellotron. Noted synthesist Keith Emerson and composer Wendy Carlos (“Switched-On Bach”) offer musical insights and performance techniques. Includes fully updated pricing and production info, and more than 200 photos and a stunning color section.

Vintage Synthesizers: Pioneering Designers, Groundbreaking Instruments, Collecting Tips, Mutants of Technology

Humor & Entertainment

Backbeat

Now fully updated ÊThe Hammond Organ: Beauty in the BÊ traces the technological and artistic evolution of the B-3 and other tonewheel organs as well as the whirling Leslie speakers that catapulted the Hammond sound into history. You'll discover the genius that went into the development of Hammond's tonewheel generator drawbar harmonics percussion scanner vibrato and other innovations as well as the incredible assistance Don Leslie provided for Hammond by creating his famous rotating speaker system. Plus ä B-3 legends including soul-jazzman Jimmy McGriff and progressive rocker Keith Emerson share their playing techniques; technical experts offer tips on buying restoring and maintaining Hammonds and Leslies; and over 200 photos illustrate historic Hammond organs Leslie cabinets and B-3 masters at work.

The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B (Keyboard Musician's Library)

In Recasting Welfare Capitalism, Mark Vail employs a sophisticated and original theoretical approach to compare welfare states and political-economic adjustment in Germany and France. He examines how and why institutional change takes place and what factors characterize economic evolution when moving from times of prosperity to more austere periods and back again. Covering the 1970s to the present, Vail analyzes social and economic reforms, including labor policy, social-insurance, and anti-poverty programs. He focuses on the tactics and actions of key political players, and demolishes the stagnation argument that suggests that France and Germany have largely frozen political economies, incapable of reform. Vail finds that these respective evolutions involve interrelated changes in social and economic policies and are characterized by political relationships that are continuously renegotiated—often in unpredictable ways. In the process, he presents a compelling reconceptualization of change in both the welfare state and the broader political economy during an age of globalization.

Recasting Welfare Capitalism: Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany

Business & Money

Economics

Temple University Press

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Books by Vail, Mark