Generating Sound & Organizing Time: Thinking with gen~ Book 1 Paperback – October 14, 2022

I came at this book with a thorough understanding of how to *use* pretty much any synthesizer (modular, fm, ect. - but not make a synthesizer), but only a couple weeks of max tutorials and youtube videos. I think that’s near the minimum foundation you need to get anything out of this book. Its pace is very fast and has little time to lay out explanations of the synthesis terminology throughout. As someone fairly new to max and DSP, I can’t say I’ve really learned how to use gen~ at depth after finishing the book and working my way through the many example patches. I can make some very simple devices from scratch and have a better understanding when looking at the work of others.However, that wasn’t the value of this book to me. What was invaluable were the dozens of very musical objects I created, and the logic I learned by copying the book's designs (a large library of example patches and gen~ objects can be downloaded for the book, but I remade many by hand). I was informed enough to modify these devices as I patched, and then stitch the results together. I ended up with tons of tailored utilities I would’ve had a very rough time learning to make in max, and many I don’t think I could ever make or even think to make at all. As a musician, I’ve been given some amazing tools to construct instruments in a broader context outside gen~ and new ideas for how to use them. Essentially, it was an excellent cookbook for me. Yet it could be that the logic I learned might serve to accelerate further learning.If you're coming at this from outside the synthesis and DSP world, this will probably be too advanced. I can't criticize the fast pace too much - the book would have to be absurdly long for thorough explanations at the level of terminology and individual connections. If you're an experienced max user, this book might really show you how to use gen~ but I wouldn't know. This book opened my possibilities enormously - so I'm giving it five stars. It's a wonderful repository of patches and concepts.However, in terms of teaching, the authors come across as extremely knowledgeable but prone to blunt explanations. To look at the more difficult examples and really understand them - I'd venture a guess that modular synthesis experience, decent max experience, programming ability, some circuit design, alegbra skills, conceptual calculus knowledge and a grasp of logic would get you a lot further. That said, I'm lacking quite a bit in a few of those categories and I still got a lot out of this book.I look forward to book two and the possibility of some reverbs!

The way it's written is really easy to understand, and the patch ideas are awesome. Perfect for somebody seeking to get into DSP.

I've learned so much from this book!

I greatly appreciate this author's take on helping us think of new ways to use Max and Gen. I have so much to learn but this book and Gregory Taylor's other books give me hope for making progress on using Max.

So my bad. This book assumes you own Max and Gen~. I own Max for Live as part of the Ableton Studio version. As a new Max for Live user I had assumed that Max for live was a full implementation of Max. For Abelton Live users, Gen~ is part of a crossgrade for Max and cost $159. So to use this book effectively, we have to pony up some more money.The low original rating is not a reflection of the contents of the bookI have not had the time to read more than the first 20 pages. I did the low rating so that others will see the issue presented here. If I decide to phony up for the crossgrade I will do a full review of the content at that time and change the rating.Update: I bought the Max for live crossgrade and have been reading this book and working through the book and many other tutorials. I coded for years and have a strong acoustics background in seismics, but not applied to music. From my background perspective, this book definitely presents material extremally well! And as stated I am new to any form of MAX.

excellent book

I like the idea of this book but, despite what the blerb says, this is completely unreadable for a normal person like myself.

Garbage instructional - get the book by Teresa M. Nakra called “Constructing Music.”