Music Book Review: Handmade Electronic Music (3rd Ed.) by Nicolas Collins

Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, 3rd Ed.
by Nicolas Collins (Music 786.7 Col)

Previous editions of Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking have been very popular in the DIY electronic music community, and for good reason: this is the kind of book that can walk you safely through basic circuitry concepts even if you’re a total novice. I was a lucky owner of an earlier edition of the book, and armed with its easy-to-follow information and a fairly inexpensive trip to Radio Shack, I was able to make basic electronic musical tools, like contract microphones.

 

Most of the book focuses on modifying the kinds of discarded electronic gadgets you may have in a closet, or that you can easily obtain at a thrift store: radios, cassette players, and musical children’s toys: generally a range of battery-operated gadgets. With a little understanding of how circuits work, you can make all kinds of fun and unexpected sounds by repurposing these often discarded items, while having some fun and learning a little about the fundamentals of electronic music in the process. Some of these projects have a kind of philosophical satisfaction, like learning how to turn microphones into speakers, and speakers into microphones. Everything is related in electronic music.

 

This new edition includes 12 new chapters with over 40 new hardware-based projects that you can make at home, four chapters that focus on software-based concepts that are similar to hardware hacking, and a website with additional support materials to guide you through it all. Perhaps most interesting of all, there are 8 new chapters that focus on the history of DIY electronic music from around the world, taking the book beyond being a project guide into helping connect potential electronic music-makers with like-minded communities wherever they live. A lot of this new material is found on the companion website for the book, creating an interesting new kind of hybrid creation that still functions as a book while offering a lot of multimedia material that really enhances the experience. Some things have been removed from this latest edition, too: as newer toys are harder to circuit-bend, some of those projects have been retired.

 

The same clear, readable style and approach is still used to describe each project, which I think is the ultimate strength of this book. You’ll learn the “hows” of many projects, while also getting a sense of the “whys” behind the functionality of common electronic devices. This practical way of approaching what could otherwise become pretty confusing can lead to your own creative adventures with electronics and sound. And safety is always paramount in the instructions, so you’ll develop good habits working with electrical devices (the battery-powered devices investigated here are generally safer than their wall-connected cousins).

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers by David Erik Nelson, Make: Analog Synthesizers by Ray Wilson or Mirror Sound: A Look Into the People and Processes Behind Self-Recorded Music by Spencer Tweedy.)

 

( publisher’s official Handmade Electronic Music web page ) | ( official Nicolas Collins web site )

 

See Polley Music Librarian Scott S.’s new Experimental Music booklist here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

 

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