Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming: The Ultimate Reference for Sound Design

If you make any type of electronic music - dance mixes, hip-hop, jazz fusion, country pop, film soundtracks, or experimental avant-garde - Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming is the book for you. All too often, owner’s manuals tell you what button to press, but fail to explain what’s actually going on in the instrument or what it means musically and technically. This is the only book that gives you the big picture while at the same time providing you with insightful details.

Even if you’re just grabbing presets to play on the keyboard, you’ll get to the music faster thanks to the tips in this book. And when you start editing the presets or designing your own sounds, Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming becomes an essential resource. Chapters on oscillators, filters, envelope generators, LFOs, effects, and digital audio reveal how to get the most out of your instruments.

To supplement the text, dozens of new illustrations have been added, and more than 30 streaming online videos, narrated by the author, walk you through the operational details of numerous software instruments. If you’ve ever wanted to spend quality time with a synthesizer expert, you’ll never have a better opportunity!

Jim Aikin has been writing about music technology for more than 30 years. He is the author of hundreds of product reviews and tutorial features in Keyboard, Electronic Musician, and other magazines, and he has written books about Csound, music theory, and cello technique. In his PC-based home studio, he composes and records using software instruments from more than a dozen manufacturers. Selected musical results can be heard at midiguru.bandcamp.com. He also teaches classical cello privately and plays in community orchestras.