How To Make A Noise
by Simon Cann
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Book Summary Information
Author: Simon CannEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07-17
ISBN: 0955495504
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Coombe Hill Publishing
Book Reviews of How To Make A Noise
Book Review: A full description of what and how this book teaches is lacking
Summary: 2 Stars
So I just received my copy of this book and was very disappointed to find out that many of the examples in this book were created on 6 different software synths - Cameleon 5000, Rhino, Surge, Vanguard, Wusikstation and Z3TA+. While several of these are available as demo versions, the main synth that is used throughout the book for examples, the Z3TA+ is for PC only. That leaves me, a Mac user S.O.L.! The author seems to believe that it's not absolutely necessary to have his tools in order to try out some of the ideas. I completely disagree!! First, when I buy a book, I read the entire book, learn the entire book and come away with a new set of tools, I'm not really interested in learning SOME stuff. Second, some of the examples in this book use parameters from the various synths above that do not exist in any of my software synths. I have Absynth, FM8, Massive, Thor and Subtractor. For example, in the making a kick drum section, the book tells you to tweak the 'slope' setting of the envelope - this is an extra feature of the Z3TA+ envelopes. Instead of ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release), it has DASDSR (delay, attack, slope, decay, sustain, release). Many software synths do not have these additional envelope settings - so right away, I am not getting the same sound as the book when trying to follow the kick drum example. Another instance in this same kick drum tutorial is the use of the "Pitch EG" setting. Since again, this is a feature of the Z3TA+, I have no idea what this parameter is but if I'm trying to learn how to make sounds, I need to know ALL the parameters I am tweaking and why so that I can use what I learn in the real world on any synth. Over and over again, this book refers to the above software synths when giving examples, many times asking you to tweak parameters that are exclusive to those synths. So how am I going to learn? I have no intention of trying to follow the examples in the book on a demo version that times out after 15 minutes. Quick! Quick! Change those parameters before the program quits - and once you open it again, you won't be able to go back to what you've just done because you can't save anything in a demo version.
Which brings me to another point, I have a decent computer that I use for music and I'm extremely careful about what I put on it. Downloading demos from a company I've never heard of, is something I would NEVER do.
Another minus for me - the author offers sonic examples of the sounds he makes in the book for a purchase price of an additional $10! I'm sorry but if I'm buying your book, I think you might be decent enough to give me the sounds for free. As in the excellent Power Tools for Reason (Kurt Kuraysaki) book, where you not only get the patches/audio files needed for free on a CD, but you also get templates and a whole host of other very useful tools to assist in the examples in the book and for use on future projects. So between not being willing to use demos and not having the additional $10 soundfiles, I'll be fairly lucky to take away 25% of what this book is trying to convey.
NOTE: There should be a sub heading somewhere with the description of this book on Amazon that makes it clear that most of the practical examples in this book are directely related to 6 specific software synths.
So - if you own a PC, don't mind going to 6 different websites, downloading 6 synth demos (that last anywhere from between 15-30 minutes before timing out), that don't allow you to save what you've just created and are willing to spend an additional $10 so you can make sense of the examples in this book - then this is the one for you!!!
If you're looking for an indepth guide that explains sound design on a synth with the usual parameters, 3 or more oscillators, 2 or more modulation envelopes (that are standard ADSR), a couple of filters and traditional raw waveforms, not custom waveforms that are exclusive to the abovementioned synths used for some of the demos - then this book is not for you.
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