so i have been debating picking up this book...by simon cann i have read some reviews about it..but i wanna hear more from actual people...ive read his free book online and it was informative..but this book looks like the real deal..ive only heard one person give a negative review to this book...who basically said it was like reading the manuals of the synths featured in the book..so that got me sorta up in the air..
I have his older book for Cakewalk synths and I've flipped through the Wizard book on numerous occasions. It's based on the same paradigm as the earlier book in that it walks you right through the steps of designing a variety of sounds using several different synths. Cann does a great job of explaining concepts so that you can apply what you learn to other synths. It's nothing like reading a synth manual and that's the main reason that it gets great reviews, so I'd just ignore that one review.
There's not a book that I would recommend over Cann's book for getting up to speed on synthesis quickly, but if you want another book to supplement it, you might want to check out "Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming: The Ultimate Reference for Sound Design" by Jim Aikin. As the title suggests, it's much more of a reference and won't teach how to program given sounds the way Cann's book will. But, this book goes pretty deep into teaching you the terminology and types of synthesis and synthesis parameters out there. While it may seem sorta dated in that it is 7 years old and doesn't use many real-world examples with current synths, the concepts are general enough and explained in enough detail that you can apply them to whatever synth(s) you have at your disposal.
LoveHate
thanks for that, i might actually go ahead with this now, i read the first few pages online and it seemed pretty informative but still easy for a guy like me to read at the same time..and fyi the person who gave me the bad review was a fellow ta. :haha:
ambient_chris
i have also considered for a while purchasing this book. Can i use the principles of this book and adapt them logic synths???
LoveHate
quote:
Originally posted by ambient_chris
i have also considered for a while purchasing this book. Can i use the principles of this book and adapt them logic synths???
yeah i think thats the main reason i wanna pick this one up, because it serves as a guide for all synths,
LoveHate
just went ahead and bought it, should be here in 6 to 8 weeks.
Terrence Parker
New e-books from the Synth-Wizard :D
cryophonik
quote:
Originally posted by Terrence Parker
New e-books from the Synth-Wizard :D
Thanks for the heads-up. I just picked up the FM ebook ($2.99).
I was going to pick up the sample-based ebook as well, but I'm a little disappointed in the content. Looking at the TOC in the sample, it looks more like a primer on using 1990s E-Mu samplers. I was hoping that it would get into discussions of granular, spectral, and additive synthesis using audio samples, but it doesn't look like it does. With synths like Alchemy, Omnisphere, Harmor, Reaktor, etc. around these days, a modern discussion of sample-mangling synthesis would be an excellent resource. I think Mr. Cann missed an opportunity here.
