Hey Guys, I'm looking for a good book covering musical electronics (amps, effects, eq etc.). Preferibly with enough depth and detail that I could make a few simple projects after reading it. I'm not completely new to electronics, I'm an Junior in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Idaho and have had Circuit Analysis and a couple of other classes that include electronic understanding, and am familiar with op amps, ac filters, analog/digital convertion, and such. I really want something to apply this to musical equipment to read over the summer. Thanks.
BTW: I'm moving to Idaho Falls for the summer and I was wondering if there is anyone there who might want a jamming partner? If there's not it will be a long summer.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joe Kaufman on 16 May 2002 at 09:42 AM.]</p></FONT>
Electronics Book
Moderator: Dave Mudgett
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Keith Hilton
- Posts: 3787
- Joined: 1 May 1999 12:01 am
- Location: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
Joe, I know of 3 really good books. It is late tonight and I don't want to look for them. Tomarrow I will look them up and give you information. I think we need more people interested in electronics. I want to help anyone who wants to study electronics.
The books I will mention have some great electronic projects. If I forget to post the books, e-mail me and remind me, as I'm pretty busy.
The books I will mention have some great electronic projects. If I forget to post the books, e-mail me and remind me, as I'm pretty busy.
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Jim Palenscar
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- Location: Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Glenn Austin
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- Location: Montreal, Canada
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Jerry Erickson
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Steven Welborn
- Posts: 1315
- Joined: 13 Dec 1999 1:01 am
- Location: Ojai,CA USA
Not a project book for musicians...but I just found an exellent book from the library, "the Benchtop Electronics Reference Manual" by Victor Veley. I agree with kieth, I really desire to acquire a good practical knowledge of electronics so I can repair or modifiy amps and such... also so I can stop pestering others with a lot of dumb questions. The book mentioned above is very readable. My problem is when I see volumes of calculus or when numbers start turning into letters...my ADA starts to kick in.
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Keith Hilton
- Posts: 3787
- Joined: 1 May 1999 12:01 am
- Location: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
Here goes Joe: Projects for Guitarists by Craig Anderton. Electronic Projects for Musicians by Craig Anderton. The Stomp Box Cookbook by Nicholas Boscorelli. Stompbox by Art Thompson. These are all great books. The Art Thompson book does not involve electronics, but instead gives a detailed history of guitar effects. Very interesting! There are other books out there, but these are some of the better ones.
Joe, there are a couple of important issues none of these books cover. None of them cover transformer power supplies and what is needed to prevent hum and failure from a power supply. Almost 100% of the designs operate from battery in these books. None of the books cover failure protection. Without failure protection none of these projects in these books could make it in the real world. The real world is a musician with 6 different powered devices, each with it's own 120 volt power supply, all un-grounded. The real world is where it is not un-common to see 120 volts come down a guitar cord. The best source to study protection is look at Peavey inputs and outputs. Peavey has diagrams of all their equipment. The inputs and outputs is where the transistor junctions see the outside world. I would advise capacitor protection, resistor protection, RF, EMF and other types of protection, boot strap diodes, zener dioes, voltage regulation, current regulation, fuses, and any other thing you can use. Again, look at the input and output diagrams Peavey has. If you want to graduate from battery power to wall wart transformer power, I would advise going to the book store and looking for power supply books. That is a subject by itself. Be advised that a power supply is usually the source of a lot of noise and requires a lot of thought and design. Most of the projects with today's modern chips require dual polarity power supplies. Sometimes those can be a trick to build and keep balanced. Good luck! If I can be of any assistance, let me know and I will try and help you.
Joe, there are a couple of important issues none of these books cover. None of them cover transformer power supplies and what is needed to prevent hum and failure from a power supply. Almost 100% of the designs operate from battery in these books. None of the books cover failure protection. Without failure protection none of these projects in these books could make it in the real world. The real world is a musician with 6 different powered devices, each with it's own 120 volt power supply, all un-grounded. The real world is where it is not un-common to see 120 volts come down a guitar cord. The best source to study protection is look at Peavey inputs and outputs. Peavey has diagrams of all their equipment. The inputs and outputs is where the transistor junctions see the outside world. I would advise capacitor protection, resistor protection, RF, EMF and other types of protection, boot strap diodes, zener dioes, voltage regulation, current regulation, fuses, and any other thing you can use. Again, look at the input and output diagrams Peavey has. If you want to graduate from battery power to wall wart transformer power, I would advise going to the book store and looking for power supply books. That is a subject by itself. Be advised that a power supply is usually the source of a lot of noise and requires a lot of thought and design. Most of the projects with today's modern chips require dual polarity power supplies. Sometimes those can be a trick to build and keep balanced. Good luck! If I can be of any assistance, let me know and I will try and help you.
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Dr. Hugh Jeffreys
- Posts: 738
- Joined: 24 Sep 2001 12:01 am
- Location: Southaven, MS, USA
I've recently read of guitar synths. wherein one can press a button by foot and completely change the "tuning" of the guitar. This would be a remarkable invention for steel guitarists. I could see myself getting rid of 14 pedals and levers and doing the whole thing electronically plus much, much more. By the way, I'm still in the market for an IVL synth. with a 10 string pickup. Hugh
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Joe Kaufman
- Posts: 281
- Joined: 5 Aug 2000 12:01 am
- Location: Lewiston, Idaho
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Bob Lawrence
- Posts: 1094
- Joined: 6 Oct 2001 12:01 am
- Location: Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia, Canada
Here is a list of electronic/music articles that are available from "Electronics Now" or the new name "Poptronics" (they keep changing the name)
Mod Box - Fuzz,Tone , 3 band EQ, For guitar, bass or keyboards - May 1997
Balanced line converter Dec 1988
50 watt SS Guitar AMP Dec 1997
Tube Amp bias checker Nov 2000
Tremulous Bear - Tremolo with a 555 - Aug 2001
The Real McTube - Audio vacuum tube amp
Feb 1999
The Wild Mouse effects box Sept 1999
Stereo Compressor Aug 1996
Back issues are usually available from the Web Site at: http://www.poptronics.com/index.html
You should also check your local library.
Another book is:
33 Electronic Music Projects You Can Build.
By: Lawrence E. Winston
Tab Books
The "Guitar Electronics A Workbook" (listed in the post above) is a great resource
for anyone repairing or designing guitars
and effects. It contains schematics such as: preamps, distortion, pickup wiring etc.
If you don't have a lot of electronic experience a great way to get started is with
a kit. Kits step you through the process and include all of the parts required as well as
a schematic.
Music projects in kit form. http://www.paia.com/
Use this link to look up IC's transistors etc... You can learn allot just by checking out the specs. You can find a source for parts (IC's Transistors etc): http://www.nteinc.com/
Or download the QUICKCrossTM Software
Useful for parts you can't find and it allows you to do a cross reference from another manufacture to NTE.
Another method is to use a search engine such as Google.For example if you were trying to repair a Hilton Pedal
and were looking for info on a part such as a SSM2018 
type it in the search engine)
You would get a result such as: http://products.analog.com/products/info.asp?product=SSM2018
Another great source for parts is:
Jameco Electronics http://Jameco.com/
There are many others just search the net.
Most beginners need lots of help learning to solder properly (a source of many! many! many! problems). Try a book such as:
"Modern Soldering Techniques"
From: Prompt Publishing
Available from Jameco
If you want to make your own printed circuit try: "Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board"
From: JV Enterprises
Available from Jameco
The Craig Anderton book listed above is a great book for effects but some of the parts
are very hard (if not impossible to find)
Such as hard-to-find RC4739 IC
Here is a web site that has updated those projects with newer IC's (That are available).
The project I had most fun with is the Ring Modulator (I hooked the internal signal generator to the pot of a volume control and vary the frequency with the volume pedal and get some really weird sounds on the steel.
I Hope this is some help to you.
Bob
VE1RLL
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Mod Box - Fuzz,Tone , 3 band EQ, For guitar, bass or keyboards - May 1997
Balanced line converter Dec 1988
50 watt SS Guitar AMP Dec 1997
Tube Amp bias checker Nov 2000
Tremulous Bear - Tremolo with a 555 - Aug 2001
The Real McTube - Audio vacuum tube amp
Feb 1999
The Wild Mouse effects box Sept 1999
Stereo Compressor Aug 1996
Back issues are usually available from the Web Site at: http://www.poptronics.com/index.html
You should also check your local library.
Another book is:
33 Electronic Music Projects You Can Build.
By: Lawrence E. Winston
Tab Books
The "Guitar Electronics A Workbook" (listed in the post above) is a great resource
for anyone repairing or designing guitars
and effects. It contains schematics such as: preamps, distortion, pickup wiring etc.
If you don't have a lot of electronic experience a great way to get started is with
a kit. Kits step you through the process and include all of the parts required as well as
a schematic.
Music projects in kit form. http://www.paia.com/
Use this link to look up IC's transistors etc... You can learn allot just by checking out the specs. You can find a source for parts (IC's Transistors etc): http://www.nteinc.com/
Or download the QUICKCrossTM Software
Useful for parts you can't find and it allows you to do a cross reference from another manufacture to NTE.
Another method is to use a search engine such as Google.For example if you were trying to repair a Hilton Pedal
and were looking for info on a part such as a SSM2018 type it in the search engine)You would get a result such as: http://products.analog.com/products/info.asp?product=SSM2018
Another great source for parts is:
Jameco Electronics http://Jameco.com/
There are many others just search the net.
Most beginners need lots of help learning to solder properly (a source of many! many! many! problems). Try a book such as:
"Modern Soldering Techniques"
From: Prompt Publishing
Available from Jameco
If you want to make your own printed circuit try: "Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board"
From: JV Enterprises
Available from Jameco
The Craig Anderton book listed above is a great book for effects but some of the parts
are very hard (if not impossible to find)
Such as hard-to-find RC4739 IC
Here is a web site that has updated those projects with newer IC's (That are available).
The project I had most fun with is the Ring Modulator (I hooked the internal signal generator to the pot of a volume control and vary the frequency with the volume pedal and get some really weird sounds on the steel.
I Hope this is some help to you.
Bob
VE1RLL
------------------
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Keith Hilton
- Posts: 3787
- Joined: 1 May 1999 12:01 am
- Location: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
My favorite electronic supply house is Mouser.
On the web www.mouser.com Some items I can't get what I want there and I have to use other suppliers like Newark, Digi Key, Jameco ETC.
A lot of the audio chips at Radio Shack, like the 741's, leave a lot to be desired when it comes to sound quality. You can find many better sounding chips like the OPA604. This was a Burr Brown chip, but Burr Brown was bought out by Texas Instruments. Another good source is to down load manufacturers application information data from their web site. This information is always free. The chip makers have application information and lots of it applys to audio equipment. The VCA Bob mentioned, that is in the Hilton pedal SSM2018, was chosen from 15 different VCA chips and 5 other transconductance amps. Some chips just sound better. By the way, the SSM2018 is the cream of the crop. It costs a little more, but it is worth it. The audio department at Analog Devices seem to have a feel for quality sound. I am always willing to help those interested in electronics.
On the web www.mouser.com Some items I can't get what I want there and I have to use other suppliers like Newark, Digi Key, Jameco ETC.
A lot of the audio chips at Radio Shack, like the 741's, leave a lot to be desired when it comes to sound quality. You can find many better sounding chips like the OPA604. This was a Burr Brown chip, but Burr Brown was bought out by Texas Instruments. Another good source is to down load manufacturers application information data from their web site. This information is always free. The chip makers have application information and lots of it applys to audio equipment. The VCA Bob mentioned, that is in the Hilton pedal SSM2018, was chosen from 15 different VCA chips and 5 other transconductance amps. Some chips just sound better. By the way, the SSM2018 is the cream of the crop. It costs a little more, but it is worth it. The audio department at Analog Devices seem to have a feel for quality sound. I am always willing to help those interested in electronics.