Allen Strange book club

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Hey everybody. I’d like to start an informal book club here for people who want to read and discuss Allen Strange’s ‘Electronic Music’. If you already have a copy through the reprint campaign and need a little motivation to get started, or if you want to discuss and share patch ideas from the book, this is for you.

Here’s how I thought this would work:

  • We’ll read a chapter every two weeks or so and discuss it here.
  • If you find the thread later on and read something cool in chapter 3 (for example) and we’re already on chapter 9, it is totally fine if you want to post here. If you are already on chapter 9 and we are on chapter 3, it is also OK to post. It’s not as if you find out at the end the butler did it :laughing:
  • I might post some discussion topics for each chapter if I can think of some good ones, but it’s not really hierarchical and anyone can join in.
  • Besides discussion, it’d be cool to see how people interpret and make use of the patch and performance ideas. You could share an audio clip, a Patchstorage link, or something else!

I thought we’d start by combining chapters 1 and 2 for the first installment since they are both more introductory (but have some good stuff!) and plan on finishing around the 31st October. That will give people time to wander in.

Totally optional, but I’d also recommend having a copy of VCVRack (which is free to install) or a similar program available while you are reading. Depending on what hardware and software you have available, you may find it easier to try some of the patches at first using a more modular setup. For example, Strange refers to some Buchla modules like the Source of Uncertainty which have cloned counterparts available in VCV.

I hope you’ll want to join in and read this classic book!

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Allen Strange - Electronic Music REPRINT
#2

Cool idea!

A couple of “aha” moments for me in the first few short chapters here. The first is the formulation of “parametric design” (p 4-5) as a first principle for sound design in electronic music, the idea that real-world sounds and aural phenomena can be described in terms of their parameters, controllable qualities that can be tuned in an electronic instrument. (Electronic sounds need not be imitations of real-world or let’s say “familiar” sounds, but it seems they’re generally meaningful to listeners with reference to a repertoire of familiar sound phenomena, so the parameters we associate with physical objects seem important to learn… this is something I love about the Sound on Sound synthesis series…)

The second, p8-9 “Musical Structure and Temporal Measurements”, mentions Stockhausen as a classic source (I was unfamiliar with this) and expands on it, in terms of vibration on different scales. The 20Hz threshold for a vibration moving from rhythm to pitch (and audio-rate modulation in its various forms) has seemed to me like one of the exciting basic concepts of modular synth patching, and a special quality of synthesis (not to say unique, to forestall someone popping out of the woodwork with a didgeridoo or something) as a space for sonic experimentation.

Looking forward to reading further into the patching ideas and so forth…

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#3

is it possible to still buy a hard copy of this book and if so, where would we order one?

#4

There is another Kickstarter that is live until October 15th. I’ll dig up the link shortly.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasonnolan/allen-strange-redux-2023

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#5

Great idea! I have my copy, and am slowly starting to delve in, but probably won’t make the (or any) schedule. Will be very happy to lurk on this thread, though! :wink: