I really love learning hardware by reading manuals. And sometimes when a manual is particularly bad, (or even when it’s good, but is very reference-focused) I wish I could buy a book that laid out the ideas behind a synth and how to use it. Sadly, in recent years this job seems to have fallen to youtube influencers. And while they produce fantastic videos, that’s just not a medium I personally feel like I can derive deep learning from.
So I thought, “Hey, I’m a writer, and I like explaining things. Maybe I’ll write some manuals?” But I don’t know how unique I am in my desire for this type of thing. Do other people out there enjoy learning from manuals, or is it a youtube world now? If you do enjoy manuals, would you pay for a 3rd party one if it was better than what shipped with your hardware? What gear do you own that you would most like to see an upgraded manual for?
Your insight on here is always a welcomed read, and would translate perfectly into a manual. That said, I myself usually don’t read the manuals. I generally just use them for reference.
As someone who reads a lot and hates waiting for a video to get to the right point I would love this. So much more detail you can get in text than in video. Add a few diagrams and images and it’s superior to constant play stop rewind on fiddly bits. The first thing I do is read a manual and they’re very often terrible. I remember the old video game manuals that were like books. Sometimes they actually were books like the old Maxis sim game ones.
Eowave Quadrantid Swarm could also profit from a better manual (and an easier to type name…). Like presumably many others I prefer proper PDFs over YouTube videos, no matter how well they were produced. So, go for it!
There’s surely a market for this for some devices. For instance I purchased Korg Volca FM - The Expert Guide by Tony Horgan in ebook format when I was trying to wrap my head around that device. He’s written similar books for many Volcas. The documentation that comes with them is sparse, and while I appreciate the Volca FM videos from the likes of Oscillator Sink I really hate trying to learn via video. Do I wish this ebook was a PDF? Yes, but I also understand why you don’t want to just have PDF copies of something you’re trying to monetize getting shared all over the internet.
In the case of the Korg Opsix I felt the manual was more than adequate to get to know the synth, so I wouldn’t purchase additional books on that. However, I do occasionally watch videos that delve into more obscure programming ideas for it. I think you’d really have to figure out which gear has the right combination of significant sales and insignificant documentation if you’re going to try to make any money off these supplementary manuals.
It’s difficult to express any extended opinion on this subject and not just parrot parts of other people’s answers. There are various other elektronauts who have/are doing similar projects, especially if you take specific pieces of gear into consideration. My feeling is that personally, I use all available forms of learning, because it’s much easier to search even a poorly laid out manual than it is to watch a 3 hour video and wait for the information I want to appear. At the same time, there are some concepts that can be easier explained by (observing) a brief series of button presses with user enacted pauses in between, and which can cement learning in seconds, where it can take a very high level of reading comprehension and several passes of reading a paragraph of text just to even begin to try and carry out the same functions in practice.
I really prefer (and possibly learn better, or have more permanent retention from) a physical paper manual, but you also can’t search that with ctrl+F like you can in a PDF. This also may be a product of my age where all of my major learning/schooling in my younger life was done from paper based books/guides. Even when a youtube video is broken down into sections, it’s not like you can search the transcript of the closed captioning and jump to a point which the captions have identified as you can in a PDF.
I feel like there is a gap somewhere between the visual and written formats that could use some attention as well as would be a unique and desirable commodity for most users. Something which allows you to isolate the learning you are looking for, and be able to access both a text and companion photographic or video solution that is already tagged and ready to access with a single (or very short series of) click(s).
I realize as a person who is considering stepping into the world of content creation for this purpose, one does not want to waste their time and efforts, but also one wants to see their work used to it’s best potential. One also does not want to invest so much of themselves in one project that they get burnt out and never want to touch it again despite the fact that it may receive a great response. In essence, I think if you can find a unique take on the middle ground between tactile, visual, and text based search learning, while still not growing sick of doing the job, you could absolutely win over a lot of people who find the accompanying “quick start guides” severely lacking, but don’t always have the time or patience to deal with youtube, ego, extensive searching and unfiled teaching that it entails dealing with.
I bought several of the Horgan Volca ebooks. The challenge for the OP, I think, is to find gear like the Volcas that’s crying out for a better manual than it got.
My first wish if I were buying 3rd party documentation would be laminated cards with all the important operations and shortcuts for a particular synth on one double-sided page.
The MFB Tanzmaus and Moog Minitaur come immediately to mind—instruments that require a lot of “press this button while holding that button” moves. I don’t want to grab the manual every time, I want a cheat sheet, in a sturdy format. For this I would pay.
I feel horrible for not calling out SynthDawg myself. I own all their Elektron books, despite thinking Elektron’s manuals are already top-notch. Love their stuff!
I’m not so crazy as to think I’d make money on this. It’d be a hobby thing for fun. But putting the cart way before the horse, charging some small token amount probably makes sense. People value things they pay even small amounts for more than fr33 WaReZ.
Roland feels like a good place to start. Love their gear. Hate their manuals. And hate it when their gear is misunderstood because of their manuals.
The cockles of my heart are warmed by so many expressing a similar preference for read learning. I feel less like a misfit
Love his videos. Didn’t even know he wrote manuals! Maybe the takeaway here is that there’s not a lot of need for new writings. I just need to search harder.
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir is, to my mind, one of the best manuals ever written. The difference between it and, say, a Chiltons manual for your year/make/model is night and day. Muir’s book not only taught me how combustion engines function, but how to keep my car running and also that I was perfectly capable of doing g a great deal of the work myself… ME! a complete noob when it came to air cooled engines! That being said, his book was nothing short of technical writing, but imbued with personality and humor and killer drawings.
So, I guess I am saying, “Yes! There is a market and please do the equivalent for the Octatrack!”
I’d pay $20-$30 if I could give it a perusal and felt it had answers in there…
I know that the current one has those same answers… but it can be a drag to read.
@jemmons Whoah man! The timing of this thread is crazy. Just last night I was sitting with my recently acquired A4 and having a blast. I wasn’t feeling frustrated or overwhelmed or anything but I still briefly thought to myself “I ought to drop jemmons a message and see what he has to say about direction in regards to learning this shockingly vast device”. And of course I just kept right on twiddling knobs until way past bedtime and forgot all about having thought that. And now I see this thread! I’d sure as hell buy any manual you made that related to any piece of gear I own. You have a knack for making complicated stuff make more sense to those of us of questionable intellect.
I do like reading manuals.
No I would not pay for a 3rd party one, even if it was better.
The octatrack manual already is premium in my opinion. I have the OG printed one that came with my OT.
Korg and Roland stuff has notoriously bad manuals, but that just makes me learn the gear by doing, rather than reading.
I’m probably not going to buy any more gear for a very long time, the manuals for the gear I have are fine.
