Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Frank Trocco (2002)

Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Frank Trocco (2002)

 ISBN 0674016173 (ISBN13: 9780674016170)

Bottom line: Analog Days is a fun, accessible reads that provides fun historical context and musical references that make it a good read for anyone, particularly if you have an interest in synthesizers. 

I tend to have mixed experiences with historical books like this. I start out strong but then I kinda peter out. I find doing X interesting but often times the history of it is a little dry. Videogame or computer history is a little dull for me, for example. So I was pleasantly surprised of how Analog Days was paced; it kept me going. 

Another positive note of Analog Days is that, while it focuses on the Moog synthesizer, it examines the people who made, used, marketed synths and how these different people played a role in where synths are today. It wasn't just a biography of Moog. A side effect of this larger cast of characters is that the book introduced me to some seriously cool music and synthesizers. 

Analog Days introduced me to Don Buchla. Moog was East Coast, Buchla was West Coast. Moog added a keyboard to his synthesizer, Buchla added a pressure sensitive pad. Buchla and the musicians that use/d his synths were about utilizing the sounds as a new experience rather than an "imitative" one. Suzanne Ciani is one such musician. The whole vibe of Buchla feels very Berkeley. That company still makes very expensive synths today too!

While reading this book, I was exploring VCV Rack (a free, open source modular synth) and Sonic Pi (a programming language used to make music). The section on Buchla had a really positive effect on how I approached music making. With Buchla, it was about exploring sounds, heck, it turns out a lot of early synths were like that. Lots of rock and pop bands, Analog Days discusses, had a synthesist who was able actually use the Moog (or other brand) synthesizers. 

If you've ever seen a modular synth, they can range from complex to crazy complex. So as they bands were watching these synthesists putting in wires and turning knobs, a sound would emerge. They'd yell, "Oh that last one was cool! Can you go back to that?" But by that point the knobs and wires made it so that other sounds couldn't be found again.

So, I had been focusing on making music in a traditional sense like with music theory and yadda yadda yadda but after learning about a really temporal nature of synth sounds I loosened up and made some really groovy tunes.

Subject matter aside, the style of the book is casual. There is a sense of that the subject is well researched (there are a plethora of interviews) but it always stays at a high enough level that it doesn't get bogged down. It's accessible even if you don't have much experience with synths.

Overall, if you're interested in synthesizers, I recommend checking out Analog Days. It's a fun read.

Speaking of reading, thanks for reading this post! Comment down below with your thoughts on historical books or synthesizers!