From georg@nlp.physik.th-darmstadt.de Mon Jan 16 10:06:10 1995 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 10:39:45 +0100 From: Georg Mueller To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Review: "The A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers , Part One: A-M" I got my copy of "The A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers , Part One: A-M" by Peter Forrest on Friday and here are my first impressions. The book is available from SUSURREAL Publishing Star House, Sandford Crediton, Devon EX17 4LR England ISBN: 09524377 0 8 First published 31/10/94 Fax: (0)1 363 777872 Price: 16 pound sterling Payment by Visa/Mastercard or UK cheque or Eurocheque I paid the price of 16 pound sterling vith my Visa/Mastercard and got it via Air Mail. I got No 0851 out of the limited edition of 8000. The book is in A5 (148 x 210 x 13 mm, 340 g) and has 240 pages with 80000 words, 96 full-color pictures and 700 synths/modules. The style of the book is very similiar to the stuff published in Music Technology. Some parts of the original A-Z list can be found on the Analog-Heaven archive site. A small full-text section describes the company, the company's logo is shown sometimes. The synths are decribed by short notes. Original prices (recomended retail price) and target prices (price in the UK in 1994/95 for an instrument in good shape) are listed. Bibliographic references are given. For the most significant instruments a rating box is given, ratings out of ten, in the following ten areas: sounds, keyboard, interface, controls, memories, easo of use, character, power:space, maintenance, collectability. The sum of those ten areas is listed. A graph with prices shows the years the instrument was being made, or available from stock, the highest prices you were likely to pay - originally the new prices, later the higher extreme of second-hand prices and the lowest price. Those graphs are fun, usually a minimum in 1989 and then a steep increase to 1994, sometimes more than the original price. The list of users is sometimes only one entry, sometimes half a page (as for the Rhodes). For some instruments a b/w picture is includes with the text, the quality of these pics is not the best, even worse than in Vail's book. In the middle of the book is a collection of color-pics, 16 pages with a total of 96 pics. Remember A5 and 6 pics per page, that's a bit on the small side. But the pictures are quite good. The scope of the book are only analogue synthesizers, so no vintage digital stuff like the Prism or the GDS is included. Even the Korg DW series is banned. So Part Two will not contain any info about the PPG wave series. In contrast Hammond and combo organs and electric pianos are listed. I'm a bit uncomfartable with the layout. Peter Forrest did it himself and the design is in no way professional. The main text font is of SWISS type, not ROMAN and there are boxes and shadows spread across the pages, scary. I've seen book which are easier to read. But the book seems very complete, even the strangest pieces of equipment are listed. I think it's a good addition to the literature allready available. A must to have for every analogue fan. A range of other pruducts is planned: a T-shirt (11/95), an anorak (3/95), a Sample CD for Part One (5/95), A-Z of Vintage Interfaces and Sequencers (10/95), A-Z of Analogue Effects (12/95), A-Z of Analog Synthesizers, Part Two, N-Z (3/96), a Sample CD for Part Two (6/95) and another Sample CD, Sunsurreal Steals, volume one (10/96). Georg. P.S.: Susureal is distributing the Vintage Synths CDs Vol. 1-3 by Matthias Becker. The prices are (in pound sterling) UK(1st class) Europe(Air Mail) Rest of the World(Air Mail) Any one 13 14 15 Any two 25 27 29 All three 36 39 42