Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer
by Trevor Pinch, Frank Trocco

Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer
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Book Summary Information

Author: Frank Trocco, Trevor Pinch
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-15
ISBN: 0674016173
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Book Reviews of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

Book Review: True Analog Bliss
Summary: 5 Stars

I found this book to be incredibly interesting. So interesting, in fact, that it made me wish I had been involved with the analog synthesizer scene during the era which this book details. Hearing the stories and personal accounts of individual contributions to the development, marketing, and subsequent musical evolution caused by the early analog synthesizers, made me lust for yesteryear.



After reading several compliants regarding the sociological study-aspect of this work, it must be stated that the sociological impact analysis is a vital component of the historical content contained within. In fact, if the sociological discussion was ommitted, the work would suffer, as I feel the Moog's and early synthesizer's impact on society is a fascinating subject. During the time period which this book dissects, individuals were, for the first time, hearing totally unique and original sounds. Unfortunately, humanity has since become jaded to the excrutiating beauty of subtractive analog synthesis. The statement which described the sound of two analog oscillators beating against each other on the morn of (I believe--challenging my memory here) the second day of Woodstock, reflecting it was the first time many had heard that exact sound, made me yearn to be there.



Ultimately, if you are interesting in an account of historical fact, coupled with social impact commentary as it pertains to these now ancient analog synthesizers, and associated early sequencers, read this book. However, if you have no desire to learn of yesteryear and absorb depictions of the early evolution of music technology, which has led to the crap that is virtual analog, don't waste your time.

Summary of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

Though ubiquitous today, available as a single microchip and found in any electronic device requiring sound, the synthesizer when it first appeared was truly revolutionary. Something radically new--an extraordinary rarity in musical culture--it was an instrument that used a genuinely new source of sound: electronics. How this came to be--how an engineering student at Cornell and an avant-garde musician working out of a storefront in California set this revolution in motion--is the story told for the first time in Analog Days, a book that explores the invention of the synthesizer and its impact on popular culture.

The authors take us back to the heady days of the 1960s and early 1970s, when the technology was analog, the synthesizer was an experimental instrument, and synthesizer concerts could and did turn into happenings. Interviews with the pioneers who determined what the synthesizer would be and how it would be used--from inventors Robert Moog and Don Buchla to musicians like Brian Eno, Pete Townshend, and Keith Emerson--recapture their visions of the future of electronic music and a new world of sound.

Tracing the development of the Moog synthesizer from its initial conception to its ascension to stardom in Switched-On Bach, from its contribution to the San Francisco psychedelic sound, to its wholesale adoption by the worlds of film and advertising, Analog Days conveys the excitement, uncertainties, and unexpected consequences of a new technology that would provide the soundtrack for a critical chapter of our cultural history.

(20021114)

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