Rating: 
Summary: A Must for Any Electronic Music Fan!!!
Review: Frank Trocco's book "Analog Days" chronicles the full history of an invention that would change music as we know it today. That invention of course is the synthesizer created by Dr. Robert Moog. This book is loaded with historical information dealing with how the instruments were manufactured as well as details about the artists who were among the Moog synthesizer's first prominent users. Moog pioneers such as Walter/Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Beaver and Krause, Margouleff and Cecil, Mother Mallard and countless others are mentioned in this book. This is definitely THE book to own if you're doing research on the history of electronic music or synthesizers. There is so much information, there's bound to be something new each time you read it. Not only is it a perfect research tool, it's just a plain great book to read. The person writing this review doesn't like to read very much so, for me, this is saying quite a lot.
"Analog Days" is a book that does not disappoint and it will be one that you'll want to read over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: If You Moog It They WILL come
Review: From the first moment I heard Switched-On Bach, I was hooked. I loved the sounds, the technology, the possibilities of electronic music. I even saved up and bought a Minimoog when I was thirteen; no greater love have I ever had. The early days of electronics shook many people like it did me. The synthesizer was not just a collection of dials and patch cords, but a way into a sonic universe. Trever Pinch and Frank Trocco's new book, ANALOG DAYS, recaptures that feeling of celestial expectancy. Describing the development of the Moog synthesizer from kit-built theremins to the ubiquitous and glorious Minimoog, the book mainly concentrates on pre-polyphonic modalur synths and how the world embraced them, and then turned them into cheese-making devices a-la "Switched-On Whatever" albums. Pinch and Trocco give us other ways to look at synths: they discuss women synthesists like Suzanne Ciani who never are mentioned in other histories even though Ms. Ciani's synthesized commercial work is probably the heard electronic music ever. Though Moog-centric, the book gives us the background of the Buchla box, a sort of sprout-and-wheat-germ rival to the Moog modulars. While Moog turned the synthesizer into a keyboard instruments, Buchla kept his machines free of established interfaces, and established musical norms. As a sythn-freak, I couldn't put this book down, even though much the material is duplicated in Mark Vail's Vintage Synths. Vail, however, choose to be only a technical historian, while Pinch and Trocco aim for a more cultural view of the events surrounding the shifting of musical boundaries. All your favorites are here; the unexpectedly successful Dr. Moog; the victorious but hubristic ARP company; the offhand eccentricities of EMS and their wonderful VCS3 named by Tristam Cary, son of Joyce Cary, the novelist. Don Buchla haunts the pages too, half Kesian merry-maker, half NASA sub-contractor with his silver, red and blue synths bleeping in the Haight. And good old Keith Emerson's here too, flailing his ribbon controller across the arenas of America. I recommend this book to anyone interested in electronic music, anyone interested in why their microwave talks to them, anyone interested in the history of 1960's. Analog Days also has a really cool cover.
Rating:
Summary: If You Moog It They WILL come
Review: From the first moment I heard Switched-On Bach, I was hooked. I loved the sounds, the technology, the possibilities of electronic music. I even saved up and bought a Minimoog when I was thirteen; no greater love have I ever had. The early days of electronics shook many people like it did me. The synthesizer was not just a collection of dials and patch cords, but a way into a sonic universe. Trever Pinch and Frank Trocco's new book, ANALOG DAYS, recaptures that feeling of celestial expectancy. Describing the development of the Moog synthesizer from kit-built theremins to the ubiquitous and glorious Minimoog, the book mainly concentrates on pre-polyphonic modalur synths and how the world embraced them, and then turned them into cheese-making devices a-la "Switched-On Whatever" albums. Pinch and Trocco give us other ways to look at synths: they discuss women synthesists like Suzanne Ciani who never are mentioned in other histories even though Ms. Ciani's synthesized commercial work is probably the heard electronic music ever. Though Moog-centric, the book gives us the background of the Buchla box, a sort of sprout-and-wheat-germ rival to the Moog modulars. While Moog turned the synthesizer into a keyboard instruments, Buchla kept his machines free of established interfaces, and established musical norms. As a sythn-freak, I couldn't put this book down, even though much the material is duplicated in Mark Vail's Vintage Synths. Vail, however, choose to be only a technical historian, while Pinch and Trocco aim for a more cultural view of the events surrounding the shifting of musical boundaries. All your favorites are here; the unexpectedly successful Dr. Moog; the victorious but hubristic ARP company; the offhand eccentricities of EMS and their wonderful VCS3 named by Tristam Cary, son of Joyce Cary, the novelist. Don Buchla haunts the pages too, half Kesian merry-maker, half NASA sub-contractor with his silver, red and blue synths bleeping in the Haight. And good old Keith Emerson's here too, flailing his ribbon controller across the arenas of America. I recommend this book to anyone interested in electronic music, anyone interested in why their microwave talks to them, anyone interested in the history of 1960's. Analog Days also has a really cool cover.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Read for Synth-heads
Review: I had trouble putting the book down. The book deals with the early days of both Bob Moog's and Don Buchla's entrance into the electronic Music scene of the mid 60's and is so easy to read I would suggest anyone with an interest in these extremely expressive instruments which totally permeate today's music to Read This Book!
Rating: 
Summary: glib but fun
Review: I liked this very much and recommend it for anyone involved any way in electronic music.
I have a few reservations, however:
1) I would prefer more technical information.
2) The prose tends to be trite, and there are misspellings and other errors. "All right" is repeatedly misspelled as "alright", for example. The Hammond B-3 is labeled an "electronic" instrument, when in fact it is an electrical or electro-mechanical instrument; like the electric guitar, its sound is AMPLIFIED electronically ("electronic" means using a tube or transistor, which is essentially what an amplifier is), but it is not created electronically.
3) Some of the connections are strained. The book promises us, for example, to show how the invention of the Moog synthesizer has intimately to do with the tuba, but this turns out to be a rhetorical ruse. One of Moog's associates happened to have played the tuba, and that's it.
Rating:
Summary: A sense of history about a modern instrument
Review: It's amazing how distant a past the early years of the synthesizer are. This book is a good reminder that it was not immediately clear that Moog's kind of synthesizer would ultimately win. I had heard of Buchla, but never heard any music made with it. That synth didn't have a keyboard, though it did have a sequencer, and initially it wasn't clear whether that, or Moog's more traditional keyboard orientation was the best idea. Early synthesizers were not even aimed at pop musicians, but at serious composers, or to be used as studio tool. It's also interesting to read how the MiniMoog was invented, and how Bob Moog initially didn't even believe in it. A fascinating read in all, this book.
Rating:
Summary: A sense of history about a modern instrument
Review: It's amazing how distant a past the early years of the synthesizer are. This book is a good reminder that it was not immediately clear that Moog's kind of synthesizer would ultimately win. I had heard of Buchla, but never heard any music made with it. That synth didn't have a keyboard, though it did have a sequencer, and initially it wasn't clear whether that, or Moog's more traditional keyboard orientation was the best idea. Early synthesizers were not even aimed at pop musicians, but at serious composers, or to be used as studio tool. It's also interesting to read how the MiniMoog was invented, and how Bob Moog initially didn't even believe in it. A fascinating read in all, this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Read for Synth-heads
Review: Published by Harvard University Press, this is unquestionably a scholarly and serious work... yet at times it reads almost like a novel. Kudos to Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco for making this material educational, accessible and enjoyable in all the right ways. As a "serious" collector of Moog LP's (from "Switched on Bach" onward through the late 1970's) with a lot of interest in the history of the Moogs (specifically) and analog synthesizers in general, I found this book to be enlightening in a number of ways, clearing up many things I'd been wondering about. For anyone interested in "the invention and impact of the Moog synthesizer" (and analog synths in general), this book is a must. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly, yet entertaining...
Review: Published by Harvard University Press, this is unquestionably a scholarly and serious work... yet at times it reads almost like a novel. Kudos to Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco for making this material educational, accessible and enjoyable in all the right ways. As a "serious" collector of Moog LP's (from "Switched on Bach" onward through the late 1970's) with a lot of interest in the history of the Moogs (specifically) and analog synthesizers in general, I found this book to be enlightening in a number of ways, clearing up many things I'd been wondering about. For anyone interested in "the invention and impact of the Moog synthesizer" (and analog synths in general), this book is a must. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Roots of the synthesizer
Review: This is the best book I've read about the development of the synthesizer, focusing on the interaction between engineers and musicians and also the commercial influences that ended up determining the directions the technology eventually took. The authors let the participants speak in their own words about how and why various developments came about, keeping the story human and realistic. Lots of anecdotes and accurate information, but only enough technical information for the reader to understand what distinguishes one set of developments from another. Moog is the central character, but many others (Buchla, Pearlman, Zinovieff/Cockerell, Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Suzanne Ciani) get their moments as well. One gets the feel of the workshops, the tinkering, the personalities that steered the inventions and discoveries in a way that reminded me (somewhat) of James Gleick's Chaos in that it allows the humanity of the science/technology to show through. The losses of potential that resulted from commercialization and digitalization are dealt with, but not pounded upon. Very direct (one gets the feeling of hanging out with the participants) and readable (fine sense of narrative, the authors let the stories tell themselves without over-dramatizing).
I'd love for these same authors to follow this book up with a more technical history, but as a popular book that touches base with the engineers, musicians, and entrepeneurs who were involved in the creation of synthesizer culture they have done a fantastic job.
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