Synthesist Espen Kraft shared this video review of the vintage book The Complete Guide to Synthesizers, Sequencers and Drum Machines, by Dean Friedman.
Kraft notes that the book ‘had colossal impact on me in 1985, as a young teenager looking to buy my first synth. I read it for hours each day, memorizing each word about the synths he goes through in the book.”
“It’s so much fun going through this book again,” he adds. “Many of the synths that were very new at the time the book was written have since became classics.”:
The background music for the review come from Kraft’s album Those Days.
I remember many of those synths, but wasn’t interested in synths until a few years after that book was published.
Several years ago, I bought a Gakken snap-together synth that came with a wonderful, colorful (and kind of weird) book about synthesizers. Most of it is in Japanese, but it is still very fun to look at and read.
This book is down at our local library at the moment and has resided there since i can remember. Its quite a good book if you can find it, detailed parameter & functions of many classic synths nowadays. I think the Yamaha DX-7 must have been quite new when this book was released. Love to score a copy on e-bay or something just for nostalgic reasons.
Espen Kraft. Your voice is so musically Norwegian. Viking power! Great good natured review. Thanks.