Overview

Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking provides a long-needed, practical, and engaging introduction to the craft of making—as well as creatively cannibalizing—electronic circuits for artistic purposes. With a sense of adventure and no prior knowledge, the reader can subvert the intentions designed into devices such as radios and toys to discover a new sonic world. You will also learn how to make contact microphones, pickups for electromagnetic fields, oscillators, distortion boxes, mixers, and unusual signal processors cheaply and quickly. At a time when computers dominate music production, this book offers a rare glimpse into the core technology of early live electronic music, as well as more recent developments at the hands of emerging artists. This revised and expanded third edition has been updated throughout to reflect recent developments in technology and DIY approaches. New to this edition are chapters contributed by a diverse group of practitioners, addressing the latest developments in technology and creative trends, as well as an extensive companion website that provides media examples, tutorials, and further reading. This edition features: Over 50 new hands-on projects. New chapters and features on topics including soft circuitry, video hacking, neural networks, radio transmitters, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, data hacking, printing your own circuit boards, and the international DIY community A new companion website at www.HandmadeElectronicMusic.com, containing video tutorials, video clips, audio tracks, resource files, and additional chapters with deeper dives into technical concepts and hardware hacking scenes around the world With a hands-on, experimental spirit, Nicolas Collins demystifies the process of crafting your own instruments and enables musicians, composers, artists, and anyone interested in music technology to draw on the creative potential of hardware hacking.

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9780367210106

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Reviews

Praise for the Second Edition Nicolas Collins wants to tear apart your CD player. WIRED magazine Nic Collins' book passes the torch of home-brew electronics to the next generation of musical experimentalists. Providing practical and fun recipes for sonic adventures, it simultaneously introduces the reader to the past and present field of electronic sound art. Chris Brown, Mills College Center for Contemporary Music This is a terrific, unique, and much needed book; I wish I had it fifteen years ago. Dan Trueman, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Princeton University The most radical music book I've read so far this year. This jargon-free text offers a fresh alternative to the usual instruments prized by the music business. Christopher Delaurenti, The Stranger, Seattle With wit, wisdom and enviable clarity, Nicolas Collins guides the would-be hardwarehacker through the possibilities and pitfalls of playing with electricity. Those who followhis guidance assiduously will not only be able to make noise that is both personal andinstilled with the virtue of self-discovery; they will also gain an education and mostimportant of all, stay alive. David Toop Nic Collins has provided an informative and gently structured doorway through whichanyone can enter the limitless world of possibilities to be discovered in a raw, hands-on approach to sculpting original, electronic arts hardware. Even starting with littleexperience, a motivated reader can emerge with invaluable circuit building, hacking andbending skills, while also gaining an enhanced understanding of what goes on inside theboxes and behind the panels of artist-invented, electronic music devices. David Rosenboom, Composer-Performer, Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music and Dean, The Herb Alpert School of Music, California Institute of the Arts A friendly portal into the seemingly arcane art form of circuit bending and building,rich with insights into the history and spirit of experimental electronic music. Chockfull of projects, ideas, and inspirations . . . enough to keep your neighborhood circuitbender out of trouble for years to come. Mark Trayle Praise for the First Edition Here we have, at last, an electronics book that caters to people who have ideas first,and electronics second. Collins offers a splendidly integrative look into the history of'sound art,' basic electronics, and junk revisioning. Meara O'Reilly, MAKEMagazine and makezine.com There are times in the history of any art form when its true visionaries set down inwords, the blueprint behind an entire generation of genius. Collins has done just thatwith Handmade Electronic Music, an essential manifesto of know-how, trade secrets, andaesthetic accomplishment leaping off from Cage and Tudor and landing in today'sclassroom. Thom Holmes, author of Electronic and Experimental Music

Praise for the Second Edition Nicolas Collins wants to tear apart your CD player. WIRED magazine Nic Collins' book passes the torch of home-brew electronics to the next generation of musical experimentalists. Providing practical and fun recipes for sonic adventures, it simultaneously introduces the reader to the past and present field of electronic sound art. Chris Brown, Mills College Center for Contemporary Music This is a terrific, unique, and much needed book; I wish I had it fifteen years ago. Dan Trueman, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Princeton University The most radical music book I've read so far this year. This jargon-free text offers a fresh alternative to the usual instruments prized by the music business. Christopher Delaurenti, The Stranger, Seattle With wit, wisdom and enviable clarity, Nicolas Collins guides the would-be hardwarehacker through the possibilities and pitfalls of playing with electricity. Those who follow his guidance assiduously will not only be able to make noise that is both personal andinstilled with the virtue of self-discovery; they will also gain an education and mostimportant of all, stay alive. David Toop Nic Collins has provided an informative and gently structured doorway through which anyone can enter the limitless world of possibilities to be discovered in a raw, hands-on approach to sculpting original, electronic arts hardware. Even starting with little experience, a motivated reader can emerge with invaluable circuit building, hacking and bending skills, while also gaining an enhanced understanding of what goes on inside the boxes and behind the panels of artist-invented, electronic music devices. David Rosenboom, Composer-Performer, Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music and Dean, The Herb Alpert School of Music, California Institute of the Arts A friendly portal into the seemingly arcane art form of circuit bending and building, rich with insights into the history and spirit of experimental electronic music. Chockfull of projects, ideas, and inspirations . . . enough to keep your neighborhood circuitbender out of trouble for years to come. Mark Trayle Praise for the First Edition Here we have, at last, an electronics book that caters to people who have ideas first, and electronics second. Collins offers a splendidly integrative look into the history of'sound art,' basic electronics, and junk revisioning. Meara O'Reilly, MAKE magazine and makezine.com There are times in the history of any art form when its true visionaries set down in words, the blueprint behind an entire generation of genius. Collins has done just that with Handmade Electronic Music, an essential manifesto of know-how, trade secrets, andaesthetic accomplishment leaping off from Cage and Tudor and landing in today'sclassroom. Thom Holmes, author of Electronic and Experimental Music

Author Information

Nicolas Collins, an active composer and performer, has worked with John Cage, Alvin Lucier, David Tudor, and many other masters of modern music. Dr. Collins is a professor in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Research Fellow at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium. He has led hacking workshops around the world. He has been Visiting Artistic Director of STEIM (Amsterdam), a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin, and a long-time Editor-in-Chief of Leonardo Music Journal.

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