Introduction

This book teaches how to tickle electronics. It is a guide to the creative transformation of consumer electronic technology for alternative use. In the 1970s, when fresh questions about what constituted “musical sound” and performance took hold, electronic instruments were far too expensive for anyone but rock stars or universities. Their building blocks (integrated circuits), however, were pretty cheap and almost understandable. By the end of the decade, primitive microcomputers had begun to emerge from the primordial ooze of Silicon Valley, and many electronic composers shelved their soldering irons and started coding, but the odd circuit still popped up from time to time, adding analog spice to the increasingly digital musical meal. The book focuses on sound-making performable instruments, aids to recording, and unusual noisemakers—although some projects have a strong visual component as well.