Free download · Component 4

The Story of Synthesis

A 69-page illustrated book on how electronic sound became an instrument: the whole arc from the laboratory tone generators of the 1920s to today’s modular synths, told era by era for A-Level Music Technology. A framework chapter, “The Four Blocks”, sets out how every synthesiser does the same job (source, filter, amplifier, and the control that moves them) before each era’s chapter closes with a “hearing the era” section, so you learn to place a sound by what your ears find in it.

69 pages · five eras · PDF

• 1Electricity Finds a Voice
• 2The Patch-Cord Years
• 3Presets and Chips
• 4Software and the Infinite Instance
• 5The Modular Return

In the back: a glossary, a listening companion, an era-identification drill and a century-long timeline: the same skills Component 4’s listening questions reward.

Free to read, keep and print. Teachers are welcome to share it with their classes.