Electronic musical instruments Books

Book SynopsisDive hands-on into the tools, techniques, and information for making your own analog synthesizer. If you're a musician or a hobbyist with experience in building electronic projects from kits or schematics, this do-it-yourself guide will walk you through the parts and schematics you need, and how to tailor them for your needs.

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Book SynopsisIn Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor Tim Lawrence examines the city's party, dance, music, and art culture between 1980 and 1983, tracing the rise, apex, and fall of this inventive, vibrant, and tumultuous scene.Trade Review"Lawrence goes into remarkable depth to portray this world which, during its few short years, gained expansive popularity and had a significant impact on art, film, literature, and culture. His meticulous research, with details on the leading figures, trends, events, places, and music that made it all happen, also provides critical/analytical commentary on the social backdrop of the times, the genesis of the emerging and eclectic music/dance styles, and the essence of this artistic renaissance. In addition to the well-selected photographs, notes, and bibliography, set lists, discographies, and a filmography add to the title's impressive breadth. Cultural historians and those familiar with the 1980s milieu will find this informative and insightful." -- Carol J. Binkowski * Library Journal *"Through a comprehensive and lushly detailed text stuffed with original photos from dance floors, DJ booths, and parties, Lawrence imparts the mood, the music, the faces and the places from that remarkable era, with a nostalgic nod to nights where 'a new kind of freedom was set to rule the night.' ... Dance music historians will want this book for reference, while others who recall these days with a sense of longing will close its covers and dream of the days when nightlife amounted to a line of cocaine, a Madonna remix, and a dark, packed dance floor in a basement club in the Village." -- Jim Piechota * Bay Area Reporter *"Life and Death provides the most intensive mapping of this brief era of New York subculture we've yet seen. The book's strength is its depth of research, drawing on the realtime journalism of the era as well as many new interviews. The detail is fascinating, as Lawrence salvages ephemeral events, forgotten people, and lost places from the fog of faded memory." -- Simon Reynolds * Bookforum *"Exceptionally accessible (the author’s passion for his subject shows through on every page; it’s easy to imagine how his knowledge and genuine interest opened many a door and got people talking, telling tales recorded here that might not otherwise have seen the light of day), the raw, new energy of the city is accurately captured and conveyed. No small feat.... Seriously, when’s the last time you read a book you could actually dance to?" -- Tom Cardamone * Lambda Literary Review *"The focus here is clearly music. Mr. Lawrence even includes some D.J. playlists for the listener to investigate. But Life and Death is more expansive than that — it takes you deep into a time and place, the good-old-bad-old-days of pre-Rudolph Giuliani New York, which many have valorized for some time now. If the 1970s have been thoroughly examined, the early ’80s have been left relatively unexplored, and while Mr. Lawrence provides a lot of minutiae, he also delivers a story with some sweep." -- Michaelangelo Matos * New York Times *"[I]f you have no abiding love for New York, disco, hip-hop, studio techniques, or fast and dirty real-estate shuffles—there must be such people, statistically—perhaps Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor will not hold you. But if you care for any of those things, and even if that concern borders on the obsessive, you will benefit from Lawrence’s investigations." -- Sasha Frere-Jones * The New Yorker *"The cast of characters in the book can be staggering, the exhaustive accounts overwhelming — Lawrence interviewed or corresponded with more than 130 people, and he makes room for their voices — but that's part of the point: He wants a crowded and motley party. This is a scrupulously researched, marvelously detailed history." -- Megan Pugh * Village Voice *"[A] compelling tale, beautifully told. As one who was fortunate enough to have landed in New York during this timeframe, Lawrence does a cracking job capturing a time when even listening to the city’s black radio stations at noon could change your life. It was a surreal, magical period of ground-breaking activity which now seems hard to believe could actually happen at the same time in the same city. Finally, here’s the proof." -- Kris Needs * Record Collector *"[O]ffers fresh detail and insight on the clubs, DJs, parties and recordings that emerged from the scene. He even offers DJ playlists from different clubs." -- Andy Beta * Wall Street Journal *"Tim Lawrence's Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983, the definitive history of that fabled time in the city, is already taking on the status of a sacred text." -- David Hershkovits * Paper Magazine *"Reading Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as a clubber in the city is to reflect not only on what’s been lost over the past three decades, but on how the sounds, events and characters at the center of Lawrence’s story still influence NYC’s nightlife. . . . [W]hat Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor makes acutely obvious, as both volume and prism, is not just the cultural value of the city’s party scene, but how it also serves as a moral compass – and how it still can." -- Piotr Olov * The Guardian *"Life & Death defines New York's unnamed era of invention. When Boy George was nicking from the cloakroom at Blitz, and everyone else was at The Batcave, this is how it ran in NYC. With hundreds of interviews, deep research and enlightening playlists, it's almost as invigorating as being there." * DJ Magazine *"Lawrence has mustered convincing evidence for the case that Madonna was not the most important cultural creation of early 1980s New York. . . . Lawrence is most convincing when he documents the remarkable variety and genre-blurring fecundity of sounds available to tuned-in city dwellers, a diversity that was even more bracing when contrasted with the monotonous airwaves stifling the rest of North America." -- Robert Anasi * TLS *"Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor is a remarkably intense piece of 'community history writing.' It breathes life into an iconic historical epoch and sociocultural scene without ever retreating into nostalgia or naive celebration. In fact, there's something unexpectedly electrifying about reading Lawrence's exceptionally well-researched historical studies. It is the sensation of remotely yet meaningfully becoming part of something hitherto only secretly known. One becomes slowly yet unequivocally aware of how that specific era's cultural and sociopolitical conditions, so thoroughly reconstructed in these works, resonate with the current sense of cultural and political impasse." -- Niels Van Tomme * The Wire *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco 1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11 2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30 3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48 4. Subterranean Dance 60 5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73 6. The Sound Became More Real 92 7. Major-Label Calculations 105 8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111 9. Lighting the Fuse 122 Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism 10. Explosion of Clubs 135 11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155 12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170 13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184 14. The New Urban Street Sound 199 15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210 16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221 17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232 18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239 Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City 19. All We Had Was the Club 245 20. Inverted Pyramid 257 21. Roxy Music 271 22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279 23. The Planet Rock Groove 288 24. Techno Funksters 304 25. Taste Segues 314 26. Stormy Weather 320 27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331 Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division 28. Cristal for Everyone 343 29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369 30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381 31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400 32. We Became Part of This Energy 419 33. Sex and Dying 430 34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438 35. Behind the Groove 449 Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458 Notes 485 Selected Discography 515 Selected Filmography 529 Selected Bibliography 521 Index 537

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Book SynopsisA collection of twenty-four interviews with women in electronic music and sound cultures, including club and radio DJs, remixers, composers, improvisers, instrument builders, and performance artists.Trade Review“[Rodgers] conducted thoughtful, detailed interviews with a wide range of artists. . . . Even when I don't much care for the artist Rodgers is talking to . . . the discussion is lively and interesting. . . . Rodgers clearly understands many disparate modes of music making, and sounds equally authoritative whether she's talking about elaborate programming schemes, the language of analog synthesizers, or record buying.” - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader“One of the best music books of 2010, Tara Rodgers’s Pink Noises, gave an accessible window into what looks to be many years of research into gender, identity and electronic music. . . .” - Frances Morgan, The Quietus“Pink Noises is an extremely well informed, informative and inspiring discussion of some of the most crucial aspects and developments in electronic music. The innovators and actors behind these developments happen to be women and Pink Noises thereby highlights the astounding male centeredness in standard accounts and representation in electronic music.” - Anna Gavanas, Dancecult“[A] vitally needed book, and it really is wonderful to read so many women talking passionately about the subject.” - Emily Manuel, Bitch“Pink Noises touches upon nearly every aspect of female involvement in the evolution of electronic music and sound. . . . This book would be worthwhile if only for its excellent, clearly written glossary of essential terms and its basic primer on the history of the speed-of-light changes of a mega-industry and tools that most westerners use—in our current climate of relatively affordable consumerism: (if not necessarily civilization)—on a virtually daily basis and that we take for granted.” - Deborah Frost, Women’s Review of Books“Pink Noises is an original and important contribution to discourse inelectronic music, musicology, and gender studies. Rodgers’s unique background as both electronic musician and scholar allows her to ask incisive questions about both creative process and cultural situation. And the introductory essay is nothing less than groundbreaking in its attempt to birth an alternate historiography for electronic music and to theorize the language and systems of electronic music.” - Betsey Biggs, Women & Music“Pink Noises is a breath of fresh air when you look at how many electronic music books are about more of the same: boys with toys. From the Middle Eastern–inflected electronica of DJ Mutamassik, to the Punjabi rhythms of DJ Rekha, to the academix of Pamela Z and Pauline Oliveros, Tara Rodgers’s examination of women as central figures in the creative processes of twenty-first-century art and music is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of music in our hyper-connected and hyper-post-everything contemporary life.”—Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky“What does it mean to be a female electronic musician? This seemingly simple question lies at the heart of Pink Noises, Tara Rodgers’s compelling exploration into the relationship between technology and gender. . . . Rodgers’s book serves as both an introduction to the world of music and technology, even providing an extensive glossary, and inspirational manifesto, revealing that to succeed as an artist is to follow one’s own unique path, no matter what.” -- Nick Zurko * Tom Tom Magazine *“Pink Noises is an extremely well informed, informative and inspiring discussion of some of the most crucial aspects and developments in electronic music. The innovators and actors behind these developments happen to be women and Pink Noises thereby highlights the astounding male centeredness in standard accounts and representation in electronic music.” -- Anna Gavanas * Dancecult *“Pink Noises is an original and important contribution to discourse in electronic music, musicology, and gender studies. Rodgers’s unique background as both electronic musician and scholar allows her to ask incisive questions about both creative process and cultural situation. And the introductory essay is nothing less than groundbreaking in its attempt to birth an alternate historiography for electronic music and to theorize the language and systems of electronic music.” -- Betsey Biggs * Women and Music *“Pink Noises touches upon nearly every aspect of female involvement in the evolution of electronic music and sound. . . . This book would be worthwhile if only for its excellent, clearly written glossary of essential terms and its basic primer on the history of the speed-of-light changes of a mega-industry and tools that most westerners use—in our current climate of relatively affordable consumerism: (if not necessarily civilization)—on a virtually daily basis and that we take for granted.” -- Deborah Frost * Women's Review of Books *“[A] vitally needed book, and it really is wonderful to read so many women talking passionately about the subject.” -- Emily Manuel * Bitch *“[Rodgers] conducted thoughtful, detailed interviews with a wide range of artists. . . . Even when I don't much care for the artist Rodgers is talking to . . . the discussion is lively and interesting. . . . Rodgers clearly understands many disparate modes of music making, and sounds equally authoritative whether she's talking about elaborate programming schemes, the language of analog synthesizers, or record buying.” -- Peter Margasak * Chicago Reader *“One of the best music books of 2010, Tara Rodgers’s Pink Noises, gave an accessible window into what looks to be many years of research into gender, identity and electronic music. . . .” -- Frances Morgan * The Quietus *"I love opening this book and flipping to a random interview. Each one is extremely personal but also technical and conceptual, exploring the artist's unique relationship to sound and space. It's refreshing to read about these women's musical journeys in the context of a male-dominated field like electronic music." -- Lyra Pramuk * Artforum *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part 1. Time and Memory 25 Pauline Oliveros 27 Kaffe Matthews 34 Carla Scaletti 43 Eliane Radigue 54 Part 2. Space and Perspective 61 Maggi Payne 63 Ikue Mori 73 Beth Coleman (M. Singe) 81 Maria Chavez 94 Part 3. Nature and Synthetics 105 Christina Kubisch 107 Annea Lockwood 114 Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix) 128 Jessica Rylan 139 Part 4. Circulation and Movements 157 Susan Morabito 159 Rekha Malhotra (DJ Rekha) 169 Giulia Loli (DJ Mtuamassik) 178 Jeannie Hopper 190 Part 5. Language, Machines, Embodiment 201 Antye Gueie (AGF) 203 Pamela Z 216 Laetitia Sonami 226 Bevin Kelley (Blevin Blectum) 235 Part 6. Alone/Together 243 Le Tigre 245 Bev Stanton (Arthur Loves Plastic) 255 Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat) 263 Riz Maslen (Neotropic) 273 Glossary 283 Discography 295 References 301 Index 313

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Book SynopsisA detailed look at the elusive work of a French pioneer of musique concrète and electroacoustic compositionThis volume is an exploration of the early electronic work of French composer Éliane Radigue (born 1932), whose radical approach to feedback, analog synthesis and composition on tape has long evaded straightforward interpretation. Combining key texts, newly translated primary documents, in-depth interviews and commissioned essays, this compendium probes her idiosyncratic compositional practice, which both embraces and confounds the iterative nature of magnetic tape, the subtleties of amplification and the very experience of listenership.Chief among these entries is an in-depth overview by cellist Charles Curtis examining the composer?s earliest experiments in feedback techniques and analog synthesis, her eventual turn to works for unamplified instruments and live performers, and her unique aesthetic of time and presence. Detailed conversations provide crucial windows into her working methods at different points in her career. Sketches for unrealized work, contemporary reviews, programs and ephemera are collected together for the first time. The anthology concludes with a roundtable discussion working out the knotty paradoxes of Radigue?s continued ethos of resistance.

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Book SynopsisPush: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production shows how changes in the design of music software in the first decades of the twenty-first century shaped the production techniques and performance practices of artists working across media, from hip-hop and electronic dance music to video games and mobile apps. Emerging alongside developments in digital music distribution such as peer-to-peer file sharing and the MP3 format, digital audio workstations like FL Studio and Ableton Live introduced design affordances that encouraged rapid music creation workflows through flashy, user-friendly interfaces. Meanwhile, software such as Avid''s Pro Tools attempted to protect its status as the industry standard, professional DAW of choice by incorporating design elements from pre-digital music technologies. Other software, like Cycling 74''s Max, asserted its alterity to commercial DAWs by presenting users with nothing but a blank screen. These are more than just aesthetic design choices. Push examines the social, cultural, and political values designed into music software, and how those values become embodied by musical communities through production and performance. It reveals ties between the maximalist design of FL Studio, skeuomorphic design in Pro Tools, and gender inequity in the music products industry. It connects the computational thinking required by Max, as well as iZotope''s innovations in artificial intelligence, with the cultural politics of Silicon Valley''s design thinking. Finally, it thinks through what happens when software becomes hardware, and users externalize their screens through the use of MIDI controllers, mobile media, and video game controllers. Amidst the perpetual upgrade culture of music technology, Push provides a model for understanding software as a microcosm for the increasing convergence of globalization, neoliberal capitalism, and techno-utopianism that has come to define our digital lives.Trade ReviewA thoughtful and comprehensive look at digital musicianship in all its many layers and contexts. * Erin Barra, Director of Popular Music and Assistant Professor, Arizona State University *In this book, D'Errico (Albright College) examines Push technology, not just its evolution and technical background but also the gender gap among its users and the fact that a technical background is not required to produce music with it. D'Errico introduces many popular DAWs, such as FL Studio, Pro Tools, and Ableton, showing how they evolved into creative and money-making music production used in such music genres such as EDM (electronic dance music) and gaming music and by deejays in making music on dance floors around the world. The author also explores how the various DAWs split as music makers sought an easy flow system like FL Studio to produce music that was quick and profitable. The more rigid DAWs-for example, Pro Tools-were made for more technical productions and require more background in traditional recording techniques. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements About the Companion Website Introduction: Interface Aesthetics PART ONE: Sonic Architectures 1. Plugin Cultures 2. Monopolies of Competence 3. Terminal Aesthetics PART TWO: When Hardware Becomes Software 4. Controller Cultures 5. There's an App for That PART THREE: Software as Gradual Process 6. Worlds of Sound 7. Deep Listening Conclusion: Invisible Futures References Index

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Book SynopsisCreating Sounds from Scratch is a practical, in-depth resource on the most common forms of music synthesis. It includes historical context, an overview of concepts in sound and hearing, and practical training examples to help sound designers and electronic music producers to effectively manipulate presets and create new sounds from scratch.Trade Review"Creating Sounds from Scratch follows a revolutionary approach to sound design that is specifically designed for contemporary producers, songwriters, and composers. The idea of opening the exciting world of sound design to every music artist is refreshing and inspiring. This book allows anybody to quickly understand and practically create original sounds for a variety of contemporary music styles and genres. I recommend the book to anyone who desires a deeper understanding of how to make original sounds and to intelligently manipulate presets on software or hardware synthesizers. A reference book that is a must-read for any contemporary musician."--Thomas Dolby, songwriter, synthesist, and author of The Speed of Sound "In 1597 Thomas Morley published A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music. Now Pejrolo and Metcalfe have done the same for electronic synthesis, creating a comprehensive and accessible guide for the 21st century musician, a companion to the great orchestration books of the past. With the current seamless melding of hardware and software, the entire history of synthesis techniques from the field's very beginnings is available for all; the authors cover every development, with detailed applications illustrated by current technology. A must for electronic musicians in any style."--Robert Carl, Director of Composition, the Hartt School, University of Hartford "Encyclopedic in scope and thoroughly well organized, Creating Sounds from Scratch provides detailed historical information, including rare photos of key people, instruments and gear, essential sound design insights, and extraordinarily lucid and practical advice throughout. The companion website with video tutorials and audio examples, along with ongoing updated content from authors Perjolo and Metcalfe, truly make this a must have resource for producers and composers alike."--Ken Steen, Professor of Composition, the Hartt School, University of HartfordTable of ContentsAcknowledgments About the Companion Website Introduction Chapter 1: How did we get here? Chapter 2 - Understanding Sound and Hearing Chapter 3: The Tools of the Trade Chapter 4: Subtractive Synthesis Chapter 5: Frequency Modulation Synthesis (FM) Chapter 6: Additive Synthesis Chapter 7: Sample-based Synthesis Chapter 8 -- Physical Modeling Chapter 9: Wavetable and Granular Synthesis Index

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Book SynopsisInteractive Composition empowers readers with the skills and insight needed to compose and perform electronic popular music in a variety of popular styles. This book focuses on the implementation of compositional and production concepts with each chapter culminating in a newly composed piece created by the reader using these concepts.Trade ReviewThe authors' simple and direct approach to teaching how to use these powerful tools within a single environment will empower anyone to experiment with his/her own musical creativity and expressiveness. * Morton Subotnik *Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; Acknowledgments ; Preface ; Chapter 1: Introduction to Interactive Composition ; Chapter 2: Session View ; Chapter 3: Introduction to Max for Live ; Chapter 4: Ambient ; Chapter 5: Pop & Rock Music ; Chapter 6: Electro-acoustic Music ; Chapter 7 - Hip Hop & Trap Music ; Chapter 8 - House Music ; Chapter 9 - Breakbeat/Drum & Bass ; Chapter 10 - Chiptune ; Chapter 11 - Granular Synthesis ; Chapter 12 - Dubstep ; Chapter 13 - Remixing & Loop Sampling ; Chapter 14 - Mastering ; Chapter 15: Analysis of Projects ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive text and reference that covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, synthesizer architecture, system interconnection, and psychoacoustics. The Computer Music Tutorial is a comprehensive text and reference that covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing systems, algorithmic composition, MIDI, synthesizer architecture, system interconnection, and psychoacoustics. A special effort has been made to impart an appreciation for the rich history behind current activities in the field. Profusely illustrated and exhaustively referenced and cross-referenced, The Computer Music Tutorial provides a step-by-step introduction to the entire field of computer music techniques. Written for nontechnical as well as te

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Book SynopsisThe book is divided into three major sections, Part I deals with basic information about the nature of sound and of hearing-acoustics and psychoacoustics. In Part II, the equipment and methods of synthesis are discussed in terms of the three primary techniques-studio work, integrated synthesizers, and computer generation. Part III examines some of the fundamental concepts of computer music in a manner designed to introduce the reader to the state of the art at the present time. Possibilities for the future are explored as well. Electronic Music Synthesis is the first book to explain all these techniques fully, and it will be the indispensable handbook for everyone working in this exciting field.

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Book SynopsisIn Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor Tim Lawrence examines the city's party, dance, music, and art culture between 1980 and 1983, tracing the rise, apex, and fall of this inventive, vibrant, and tumultuous scene.Trade Review"Lawrence goes into remarkable depth to portray this world which, during its few short years, gained expansive popularity and had a significant impact on art, film, literature, and culture. His meticulous research, with details on the leading figures, trends, events, places, and music that made it all happen, also provides critical/analytical commentary on the social backdrop of the times, the genesis of the emerging and eclectic music/dance styles, and the essence of this artistic renaissance. In addition to the well-selected photographs, notes, and bibliography, set lists, discographies, and a filmography add to the title's impressive breadth. Cultural historians and those familiar with the 1980s milieu will find this informative and insightful." -- Carol J. Binkowski * Library Journal *"Through a comprehensive and lushly detailed text stuffed with original photos from dance floors, DJ booths, and parties, Lawrence imparts the mood, the music, the faces and the places from that remarkable era, with a nostalgic nod to nights where 'a new kind of freedom was set to rule the night.' ... Dance music historians will want this book for reference, while others who recall these days with a sense of longing will close its covers and dream of the days when nightlife amounted to a line of cocaine, a Madonna remix, and a dark, packed dance floor in a basement club in the Village." -- Jim Piechota * Bay Area Reporter *"Life and Death provides the most intensive mapping of this brief era of New York subculture we've yet seen. The book's strength is its depth of research, drawing on the realtime journalism of the era as well as many new interviews. The detail is fascinating, as Lawrence salvages ephemeral events, forgotten people, and lost places from the fog of faded memory." -- Simon Reynolds * Bookforum *"Exceptionally accessible (the author’s passion for his subject shows through on every page; it’s easy to imagine how his knowledge and genuine interest opened many a door and got people talking, telling tales recorded here that might not otherwise have seen the light of day), the raw, new energy of the city is accurately captured and conveyed. No small feat.... Seriously, when’s the last time you read a book you could actually dance to?" -- Tom Cardamone * Lambda Literary Review *"The focus here is clearly music. Mr. Lawrence even includes some D.J. playlists for the listener to investigate. But Life and Death is more expansive than that — it takes you deep into a time and place, the good-old-bad-old-days of pre-Rudolph Giuliani New York, which many have valorized for some time now. If the 1970s have been thoroughly examined, the early ’80s have been left relatively unexplored, and while Mr. Lawrence provides a lot of minutiae, he also delivers a story with some sweep." -- Michaelangelo Matos * New York Times *"[I]f you have no abiding love for New York, disco, hip-hop, studio techniques, or fast and dirty real-estate shuffles—there must be such people, statistically—perhaps Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor will not hold you. But if you care for any of those things, and even if that concern borders on the obsessive, you will benefit from Lawrence’s investigations." -- Sasha Frere-Jones * The New Yorker *"The cast of characters in the book can be staggering, the exhaustive accounts overwhelming — Lawrence interviewed or corresponded with more than 130 people, and he makes room for their voices — but that's part of the point: He wants a crowded and motley party. This is a scrupulously researched, marvelously detailed history." -- Megan Pugh * Village Voice *"[A] compelling tale, beautifully told. As one who was fortunate enough to have landed in New York during this timeframe, Lawrence does a cracking job capturing a time when even listening to the city’s black radio stations at noon could change your life. It was a surreal, magical period of ground-breaking activity which now seems hard to believe could actually happen at the same time in the same city. Finally, here’s the proof." -- Kris Needs * Record Collector *"[O]ffers fresh detail and insight on the clubs, DJs, parties and recordings that emerged from the scene. He even offers DJ playlists from different clubs." -- Andy Beta * Wall Street Journal *"Tim Lawrence's Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983, the definitive history of that fabled time in the city, is already taking on the status of a sacred text." -- David Hershkovits * Paper Magazine *"Reading Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as a clubber in the city is to reflect not only on what’s been lost over the past three decades, but on how the sounds, events and characters at the center of Lawrence’s story still influence NYC’s nightlife. . . . [W]hat Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor makes acutely obvious, as both volume and prism, is not just the cultural value of the city’s party scene, but how it also serves as a moral compass – and how it still can." -- Piotr Olov * The Guardian *"Life & Death defines New York's unnamed era of invention. When Boy George was nicking from the cloakroom at Blitz, and everyone else was at The Batcave, this is how it ran in NYC. With hundreds of interviews, deep research and enlightening playlists, it's almost as invigorating as being there." * DJ Magazine *"Lawrence has mustered convincing evidence for the case that Madonna was not the most important cultural creation of early 1980s New York. . . . Lawrence is most convincing when he documents the remarkable variety and genre-blurring fecundity of sounds available to tuned-in city dwellers, a diversity that was even more bracing when contrasted with the monotonous airwaves stifling the rest of North America." -- Robert Anasi * TLS *"Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor is a remarkably intense piece of 'community history writing.' It breathes life into an iconic historical epoch and sociocultural scene without ever retreating into nostalgia or naive celebration. In fact, there's something unexpectedly electrifying about reading Lawrence's exceptionally well-researched historical studies. It is the sensation of remotely yet meaningfully becoming part of something hitherto only secretly known. One becomes slowly yet unequivocally aware of how that specific era's cultural and sociopolitical conditions, so thoroughly reconstructed in these works, resonate with the current sense of cultural and political impasse." -- Niels Van Tomme * The Wire *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco 1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11 2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30 3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48 4. Subterranean Dance 60 5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73 6. The Sound Became More Real 92 7. Major-Label Calculations 105 8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111 9. Lighting the Fuse 122 Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism 10. Explosion of Clubs 135 11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155 12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170 13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184 14. The New Urban Street Sound 199 15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210 16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221 17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232 18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239 Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City 19. All We Had Was the Club 245 20. Inverted Pyramid 257 21. Roxy Music 271 22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279 23. The Planet Rock Groove 288 24. Techno Funksters 304 25. Taste Segues 314 26. Stormy Weather 320 27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331 Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division 28. Cristal for Everyone 343 29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369 30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381 31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400 32. We Became Part of This Energy 419 33. Sex and Dying 430 34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438 35. Behind the Groove 449 Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458 Notes 485 Selected Discography 515 Selected Filmography 529 Selected Bibliography 521 Index 537

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Book SynopsisInnovations in music technology bring with them a new set of challenges for describing and understanding the electroacoustic repertoire. This edited collection presents a state-of-the-art overview of analysis methods for electroacoustic music, with analyses of key electroacoustic works from a wide range of genres and sources.Trade Review'The contributors share profound insights on a variety of subjects and demonstrate tools and methodologies that address the unique challenges of electroacoustic music analysis. Composers, performers, analysts, and educators will find this collection to be a valuable source of course readings, analytical examples, and creative inspiration. It is also an essential book for college and university library collections that support music technology, music theory, and electroacoustic music composition programs.' Joel V. Hunt, NotesTable of ContentsPart I. Setting the Scene: Introduction Simon Emmerson and Leigh Landy; 1. The analysis of electroacoustic music – the differing needs of its genres and categories Simon Emmerson and Leigh Landy; Part II. Ideas and Challenges: 2. Listening and meaning: how a model of mental layers informs electroacoustic music analysis Gary Kendall; 3. Forming form John Young; 4. Interactive and generative music: a quagmire for the musical analyst Michael Young; 5. Some ideas concerning the relationship between form and texture Raúl Minsburg; Part III. Harnessing New Forces: 6. Exploiting computational paradigms for electroacoustic music analysis Tae Hong Park; 7. OREMA – an analytical community Michael Gatt; 8. EAnalysis: developing a sound-based music analytical tool Pierre Couprie; Part IV. Analyses of Key Works: 9. Trevor Wishart's Children's Stories II from Encounters in the Republic of Heaven: an analysis for children of a sample-based composition Leigh Landy; 10. Analysis of Foil by Autechre (from Amber (1994)) Ben Ramsay; 11. Temporal recurrence in Andrew Lewis's Penmon Point Ambrose Seddon; 12. Michel Waisvisz: No Backup/Hyper Instruments John Ferguson; 13. Analysing sound art: Douglas Henderson's Fadensonnen (2009) Kersten Glandien; 14. Analysing the identifiable: cultural borrowing in Diana Salazar's La voz del fuelle Manuella Blackburn; 15. Kireek 2011 championship routine analysis Sophy Smith; 16. The analysis of live and interactive electroacoustic music: Hans Tutschku – Zellen-Linien (2007) Simon Emmerson; 17. Audio only computer games – Papa Sangre Andrew Hugill and Panos Amelides; 18. Some questions around listening: Vancouver Soundscape Revisited by Claude Schryer Katharine Norman.

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Book SynopsisThis exhaustive bibliography, reflecting current interest in electronic music, includes all available citations of books, articles, and monographs pertaining to "musique concrète," "Elektronische Musik," "tape music," and "computer music" from  publications in fourteen languages. Organized alphabetically by author, or, in the case of unsigned works, by title, and including a classified subject index, this book will appeal primarily to persons or organizations who are founding or maintaining electronic music centres, composing or performing electronic music, or pursuing original research in experimental music and related disciplines.

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Book SynopsisThe revised edition of Sync or Swarm promotes an ecological view of musicking, moving us from a subject-centered to a system-centered view of improvisation. It explores cycles of organismic self-regulation, cycles of sensorimotor coupling between organism and environment, and cycles of intersubjective interaction mediated via socio-technological networks. Chapters funnel outward, from the solo improviser (Evan Parker), to nonlinear group dynamics (Sam Rivers trio), to networks that comprise improvisational communities, to pedagogical dynamics that affect how individuals learn, completing the hermeneutic circle. Winner of the Society for Ethnomusicology''s Alan Merriam prize in its first edition, the revised edition features new sections that highlight electro-acoustic and transcultural improvisation, and concomitant issues of human-machine interaction and postcolonial studies.Trade Review"I am pleased to have had my work subjected to such rigorous scrutiny and I appreciate all the thinking David Borgo has done in an area where it is almost impossible to make any single uncontested statement!" -- Evan Parker, saxophonist/improvisor/composer"Integrating a broad range of interdisciplinary considerations - from complex systems and sociological theories to cognition and consciousness - saxophonist/composer/scholar David Borgo's Sync or Swarm makes important contributions to the expanding dialogue about contemporary improvised music." -- Ed Sarath, Professor of Music and Chair, Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation; Director, Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"Getting excited while you are READING about MUSIC may be common to ethno-musicologists. But for me (a cognitive and computer scientist), music generally lives in one part of my brain while scientific/academic work lives in another. David Borgo's Sync or Swarm successfully lights up both sides of my brain!" -- Richard K. Belew, Professor and Chair, Cognitive Science Department, University of California, San Diego"Not only is this an important book for specialists working in areas of both contemporary music and contemporary science, but it also offers absorbing reading to improvising musicians, their listeners, and the growing cadre of smart, engaged folks fascinated by the human implications of 'complex' music, chaos theory, and other once-foreboding realms." -- David Ake, Associate Professor of Music, University of Nevada, Reno; author of Jazz Cultures"Borgo is familiar with a wide range of the recent literature on complexity, chaos, embodiment, etc. and he's done a creative job of bringing that into his main topic: free-jazz group improvisation." -- R. Keith Sawyer, Associate Professor of Education, Washington University; author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation"David Borgo's Sync or Swarm, a provocative, gutsy, and potentially revolutionary attempt to apply chaos theory, fractal plotting, sociological Actor-Network Theory, the concept of swarm intelligence, and other analytical templates to improvised music, wow!" -- Christopher Delaurenti, The Stranger"a provocative, gutsy, and potentially revolutionary attempt to apply chaos theory, fractal plotting, sociological Actor-Network Theory, the concept of swarm intelligence, and other analytical templates to improvised music. Wow!" * The Stranger *"Worth noting by British readers is the amount of space devoted to Evan, including some new quotations". -- Brian Priestly, JazzwiseThis new edition of Borgo’s Sync or Swarm is a most welcome addition to the growing literature emerging out of the new field of Improvisational Studies. Borgo’s great strength is to point us toward emerging methods and theories that can both help us understand improvisation in all its complexity, and the ways improvisation itself can help make sense of complex and dynamic social and cultural practices. Here in Sync or Swarm, Black diasporic art is shown to be at the forefront not just of creative practices, but of scientific ones too. It is refreshing to see Black art taken seriously as both a test-case for new theories in cognition, group behavior and complex systems, and as a way of enacting such theories. If you want to see where main-stream research in improvisational studies is likely to be a decade from now, read this new edition of Sync or Swarm. -- Eric Lewis, Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and co-editor Improvisation and Social Aesthetics (2017)With this expanded edition, Borgo presents to us an exquisite, ecological, system-centred view of a profoundly incorporating, embodied musicking practice – improvisation. His journey, deeply influenced by contemporary research in 4E cognitive science (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), takes us on a metaphorical Mobius strip that illuminates not only the process and practice, the detritus and debris of musical improvisations, but, that also shows us improvisation as a microcosm of our perception of the world, highlighting the necessity for an open, dynamic, adaptive and emergent collective response to current, pressing social and environmental challenges. -- Franziska Schroeder, Professor of Music and Cultures, Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom, co-editor of Soundweaving: Writings on Improvisation (2014)David Borgo's original book is already a landmark in improvisation studies. His approach, which seeks to explore improvisation through the lens of several contemporary sciences such as complexity theory, embodied/enactive cognition and actor-network theory, is absolutely original and opens up a field of interdisciplinary studies that has been expanding more and more in recent decades. This new edition brings important updates to the original work, including reflections on electro-acoustic improvisation, cross-cultural improvisation, man-machine interaction, and postcolonial cultural studies. With regard to this last topic, I am sure that my colleagues (improvisors and researchers) in Latin America will be especially pleased. -- Rogério Luiz Moraes Costa, Professor of Music, Improvisor and Researcher, University of São Paulo, Brazil, author of Música Errante: o jogo da improvisação livre (2016)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface Preface (first edition) 1. The Sound and Science of Surprise The Age of Complexity Sync or Swarm 2. The Study of Improvisation The Field of Improvisation Studies Referent-Based Improvisation Referent-Free Improvisation Freedom Music Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t Improvisation Is, Improvisation Isn’t A Marvel of Paradox 3. Strange Loops The Embodied Mind Enaction and Prediction Taking the Note for a Walk It’s a Bit Like Juggling Lived Body and Living Body On Repeat Fractal Correlation Circular Causality Hall of Mirrors 4. Rivers of Consciousness The Art of the Trio Complexity and Emergence Musical Elephants The Sound of One Note Clapping Time and the Qualia of Experience The Phase Space of Improvisation Attractors Hues of Melanin Fractal Correlation Flights and Perchings 5. Orderly Disorder Chaotics Complex Adaptive Systems Dissipative Structuring Ancient to Future Sketches of Another Future 6. Sync and Swarm The Science of Sync Entrainment A Coordination Problem Insect Music The Art of Improvisation in the Age of Computational Participation The Puzzle of Coaction A Web Without a Spider Reassembling the Social 7. Harnessing Complexity The Map is Not the Territory Situated Musicianship Group Creativity Yes, and… Comprovisation The Shores of Multiplicity Complementarity and Metastability References Index

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Book SynopsisThe Ondes Martenot is one of the precursors of electronic musical instruments, and is today considered, with the desire for a return to analogue, as a cult instrument. This book, which is the result of several years of research, sheds light on the intrinsic functioning of the Ondes Martenot. Based on the study of numerous prototypes, the authors trace the historical evolution of the different techniques used: additive, multiplicative and relaxation syntheses. Often, the analysis of the functioning of these instruments demonstrates atypical technological choices, underpinned by a logic that places artistic creation at the forefront. Several models and simulations are built, so as to understand the functioning of each of the different sub-assemblies (keyboard, ribbon, intensity key, timbre filter...). At the end of the book, the complete construction of an Onde (copy of model no. 208) is described in detail. This practical realization of a facsimile is an opportunity to explore the knowhow of the electronic luthier Maurice Martenot.Table of ContentsForeword xi Hugues GENEVOIS Photo Credits xiii Introduction xv Chapter 1 Ondes 1928 1 1.1 Presentation 1 1.2 Principle of operation 3 1.3 The diagram 4 1.4 Construction of a model of the “1928” ondes 8 1.4.1 The box 8 1.4.2 Construction 9 1.4.3 The tuning capacitor controlled by a wire 10 1.4.4 The intensity key 14 1.5 Tests 18 1.5.1 Energy sources 18 1.5.2 The wiring 18 1.5.3 Tuning capacitor calibration 20 1.5.4 Adjusting the instrument 21 1.6 Perspectives of evolution 22 Chapter 2 Ondes No. 15 (1930) 23 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Presentation 23 2.3 Organization of the instrument 24 2.4 The heterodyne system + mixer-preamplifier + amplifier 27 2.4.1 General organization 27 2.4.2 Heterodynes 31 2.4.3 The mixer-preamplifier 34 2.4.4 The amplifier 35 2.5 The drawer 37 2.6 The diffuser 41 2.7 Power supplies 43 2.8 Trials 48 2.8.1 Preparations 48 2.8.2 Measurements 53 2.8.3 Measurement results 55 Chapter 3 Ondes No. 169 (1937) 63 3.1 Presentation of the instrument 63 3.2 Organization of the instrument 63 3.3 The heterodyne system + mixer + LF audio amplifier+ power amplifier 65 3.3.1 General organization 65 3.3.2 Heterodynes 67 3.3.3 The mixer–amplifier 79 3.3.4 The amplifier 81 3.4 The drawer 88 3.4.1 Description 88 3.4.2 Circuit diagram 89 3.4.3 Functional study 94 3.4.4 The intensity key 96 3.5 The diffuser 101 3.6 The power supply module 108 3.7 Model 112 3.7.1 Presentation 112 3.7.2 Realization 112 3.7.3 Tests and measurements 121 Chapter 4 Model ‘47 125 4.1 Presentation 125 4.2 Synoptic diagram 125 4.3 Operation analysis 125 4.3.1 Heterodynes 125 4.3.2 The mixer 130 4.3.3 First LF 131 4.3.4 The T9 timbre 136 4.3.5 LF power stage 137 4.3.6 Power module 142 4.4 The intensity key, ribbon capacitor and keyboard 142 Chapter 5 Ondes No. 208 (1953) 145 5.1 Introduction 145 5.2 Functional descriptions 146 5.2.1 The unit 146 5.2.2 The block diagram 150 5.2.3 Mechanical/electrical arrangement 150 5.3 Operation analysis 153 5.3.1 Oscillators 153 5.3.2 The fixed-frequency oscillator 154 5.3.3 The variable-frequency oscillator 157 5.4 The ribbon capacitor 161 5.4.1 General provisions 161 5.4.2 Sizing 164 5.4.3 Comments 179 5.5 Keyboard inductors 180 5.5.1 General provisions 180 5.5.2 Sizing 182 5.5.3 The register change 188 5.6 The mixer 190 5.7 1st LF 193 5.8 LF power stage 196 5.9 Timbre filters 198 5.10 Diffusers 209 5.11 Power supply 209 Chapter 6 Building an Ondes with Vacuum Tubes 213 6.1 Introduction 213 6.2 The electrical schematic 213 6.3 The chassis 214 6.4 The wiring 217 6.5 Special devices 217 6.5.1 The high register tuning capacitor 217 6.5.2 The diapason capacitor 218 6.5.3 The variable tuning inductor of the low register 219 6.5.4 Capacitors for timbre 7 219 6.5.5 HF inductors 220 6.6 The LF output transformer 225 6.7 Generic components 225 6.8 The drawer 225 6.8.1 Introduction 225 6.8.2 The box 225 6.8.3 Switches 227 6.8.4 The quarter-tone control buttons 228 6.8.5 The T8 timbre control knob 230 6.8.6 The power control knob 231 6.8.7 The needle block 232 6.8.8 The intensity key 232 6.8.9 The wiring 232 6.9 The keyboard/ribbon system 234 6.9.1 Introduction 234 6.9.2 The ribbon capacitor 234 6.9.3 The keyboard 241 6.10 The accessories 248 6.10.1 Command buttons 248 6.10.2 Other accessories 250 6.11 Calibration and tuning 254 6.11.1 Introduction 254 6.11.2 Ribbon capacitor calibration 254 6.11.3 Calibrating the keyboard coils 256 6.11.4 Tuning setting 257 6.11.5 The tuning procedure 259 6.12 Some photographs of ondes 2208 260 Chapter 7 Manufacture of the Leather Bag of the Intensity Key and the Ribbon 263 7.1 The intensity key 263 7.2 The mercury key 264 7.2.1 Description 264 7.2.2 Operating constraints 264 7.2.3 Realization 266 7.3 The powder key, first version 268 7.3.1 Abandonment of the mercury key 268 7.3.2 Description 268 7.3.3 Operating constraints 269 7.3.4 Realization 269 7.4 The powder key, second version 270 7.4.1 Description 270 7.4.2 Operating constraints 271 7.4.3 Realization 271 7.5 The powder key, third version 272 7.5.1 Description 272 7.5.2 Operating constraints 272 7.5.3 Realization 273 7.6 The powder key, fourth version 275 7.6.1 Description 275 7.6.2 Operating constraints 276 7.6.3 Realization 276 7.7 Other powder bags 277 7.7.1 Introduction 277 7.7.2 The pedal 277 7.7.3 The knee lever 278 7.8 Intensity key and gesture control 280 7.9 Manufacturing a powder bag 282 7.9.1 Introduction 282 7.9.2 Problem 283 7.9.3 Manufacturing the mixture 283 7.9.4 Manufacturing the powder bag 285 7.10 Ribbon manufacturing 288 7.10.1 Introduction 288 7.10.2 Problem 291 7.10.3 Ribbon manufacturing 291 Chapter 8 Transistorization 297 8.1 Introduction 297 8.2 The support 297 8.3 The problems of transistorization 299 8.4 Compatible transistor experimental ondes 301 8.4.1 Introduction 301 8.4.2 Diagram of the HF sub-assembly 301 8.4.3 The LF subset 302 8.4.4 Power supplies 303 8.5 Tests 304 References 305 Index 307

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