Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking

by Nicolas Collins

Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking provides a long-needed, practical, and engaging introduction for students of electronic music, installation and sound-art to the craft of making--as well as creatively cannibalizing--electronic circuits for artistic purposes. Designed for practioners and students of electronic art, it provides a guided tour through the world of electronics, encouraging artists to get to know the inner workings of basic electronic devices so they can creatively use them for their own ends.
Handmade Electronic Music introduces the basic of practical circuitry while instructing the student in basic electronic principles, always from the practical point of view of an artist. It teaches a style of intuitive and sensual experimentation that has been lost in this day of prefabricated electronic musical instruments whose inner workings are not open to experimentation. It encourages artists to transcend their fear of electronic technology to launch themselves into the pleasure of working creatively with all kinds of analog circuitry.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Art, Reference, Science

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Andrew Horton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the greatest book out there for getting started in electronics. Within a week of getting this, I went from knowing literally nothing about electronics to breadboarding oscillator and effect circuits, building a little light theremin, hacking a toy pager to make it go crazy, and much more. Engaging, informative, and written by someone that actually knows how to communicate these concepts to other human beings (which you'll rarely find in the field of electronics!).

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real basic, old school audio electronics, includes a section on soldering that looks good. A great beginners book on the subject. I messed with analog audio quite a bit starting about 50 years ago, I find this nostalgic, the only thing missing is tubes ;)

A good STEM book for people wanting to learn the very basics.

[Shawn Pi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever about music and hardware hacking.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a joyous - and well written - book. This book is ideal for the men and women who like to play with electronics. This is for the people who find the conventional computer interface somewhat unresponsive and want to transform the everyday hardware around them to create sounds.

It is filled with DIY passion, but it also provides a great guide to (step-by-step) taking everyday electronics and rendering them the platforms for electronic music.

[6655321]

Another book I am familiarizing myself with and drawing up a project list from, since i have done nothing from this book i cannot give much of a review other than "if your dad wore birkenstocks and explained how to make weird electronic instruments to you" the book.

[Brandon Greter · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most helpful books I have ever read, speaking as an artist, musician, and all around fan of the avant guarde

[Helge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read and hands-on introduction to tinkering with electronics with the aim of making music, no previous knowledge required. In fact it manages to hold off the theory until about half of the book, where the reader is first introduced to Ohm's law. And that's all the theory there is, really. This isn't to say that it's not a useful book for people who already know the theory. I, for one, was very excited to learn about where to find parts like piezo disks to salvage and how to use them as contact mikes as well as how to use digital ICs to build analog oscillators, build simple mixers, bend existing circuitry and use all kinds of means to control these circuits. It's structured into a series of simple projects to build and after reading it, you should have learned a fair bit about electronics, even without much theory.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good beginner's guide to building electronic instruments. Requires no previous knowledge of electrical components. Intentionally steers away from theory and overly-scientific explanations, though there's a resources appendix for those wishing to know more. The stated goal is to get the reader making noises as quickly as possible, and it delivers. Each project builds on the last, and scattered throughout are sidebars about artists & musicians who have used the technology in each chapter. The text instructions on soldering are a little unclear, though that's remedied by the accompanying DVD instructional videos. The writing has the clear, conversational tone of someone experienced in lecturing on this subject, which extends to the author's instructional videos. The only slightly annoying downside is the camera can't zoom into the projects close enough without getting a little blurry, though I haven't found it to be detrimental to understanding the projects.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of fun electronics projects ideas here, most geared towards older electronics that don't have integrated components. I think most of them would result less in musical instruments than noisemakers, but there's an approximately infinite supply of obsolete electronics out there (Goodwill FTW), so if it's something you were looking to get into this book is a great place to start.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to anyone interested in circuit bending, soldering, audio hacks, etc. The author assumes no experience in this area, but it's entertaining if you already have some. The circuits are easy to build (I have built some of these in the past), and produce great results for aspiring (noise) musicians.

[Mick Bordet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas as well as a reasonable introduction to some electronic theory, though there are some concepts that look interesting, but are side-stepped (the section on pre-amps, in particular). The focus is much more on noise-making devices than the title might suggest - still musical, but definitely on the chaotic side of the scale.

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome. It covers a wide range of topics in the area of its title. Very pedagogic, partly due to a superb and sometimes hilarious prose.

[Wctiii · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to build electronic things that make funny sounds this is the book for you. My friend Mr. Becos has more to say about this here:
http://becosthefirstword.blogspot.com...

[Jreimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not only fascinating but immediately useful. you can be making refrigerator sounds by dusk.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers an amazingly useful and inspiring array of projects for getting started with circuit bending and even building your own noise-making circuits.

[Thommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

manual of glitches

[Danielle]

Best for for a real DIY electronic musician. Really easy to understand.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Mark Kleeb]

One of the best books for beginners that want to learn about music and circuitry.

[Cambra · Rating 3 out of 5]

it came, it came!

loss of stars for b&w photos. splurge next time, Nic.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sound Objects, take me away!