Roland - The Synthesizer Pt. 1...

I was able to scan in the first of the four Synthesizer 2nd Edition books. This is “A Foundation For Electronic Music,” and the title pretty much sums up the contents. It is the smallest of the four, and contains a general overview of synthesis types of the era and what filters do.

It is perfectly pertinent today, as we’ve not diverged much in the 40 years since this book was made, with the caveat that it only talks about the methods available at the time, which were subtractive, additive, and some very basic computer stuff. There are three others in the set: Multichannel Recording For Electronic Music, which mostly describes recording and mixing techniques for a four-track tape deck and a 6-channel mixer, and the two-volume Practical Synthesis For Electronic Music, which has in-depth programming techniques. It mostly uses the System 700 for its examples, but the second volume also uses the System 100 and SH-101.

In any event, here is a zipped version of the PDF. I’ll put up the rest in the next few days as I get to them, and once I have them all scanned, I’ll bundle ’em all together and put them on the Free Shit page. If you find these useful, here’s a tip jar. I paid too much money for these, and it’d be nice if I could spread the pain around a bit.