BERKLEE PRESS
What makes some songs great? Inside the Hits ($29.95) by Wayne Wadhams offers colorful anecdotes and in-depth analysis of what makes hit tunes tick. Songs are described in chronological order, which provides an overview of musical trends and recording technology through the years.
Interviews with composers, engineers, managers, and musicians offer insight into the songwriting process; Wadhams cites song lyrics and discusses the way musical elements amplify lyrics and song mood. Inside the Hits analyzes Elvis Presley's “All Shook Up,” a slew of Beatles songs that span the group's career, “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, and songs by Steely Dan, to name only a few. Key signature and tempo listings are included for all songs. Berklee Press; tel. (617) 747-2146; Web www.berkleepress.com.
HAL LEONARD
More than a historical tally of the company's stompboxes, The Boss Book ($19.95) is rife with specifications and collector's info. The book includes interviews with product designers who relate behind-the-scenes development tales, numerous color photos, notes from collectors, charts of feature sets, and more.
One chapter is devoted to an analysis of the differences between the myriad Boss distortion products; in addition to notes on each model, waveform views graphically illustrate variations in sonic characteristics. Another section, which discusses effects as heard on popular recordings, provides top-down illustrations of pedal settings for various boxes. An accompanying CD-ROM demonstrates the resulting tones. Hal Leonard Corp.; tel. (800) 637-2852; www.musicdispatch.com.
MIT PRESS
Curtis Roads's long-awaited Microsound ($47.95) provides an exhaustive look at the quantum level of acoustics and granular synthesis. The first chapter begins with a discussion of the temporal domains of sound as they relate to music, ranging from the infinite at one end to the infinitesimal at the other. Roads then addresses the perception of sound as it moves from one boundary to the next. Diagrams illustrate time domains from the physical age of the universe to a 44.1 kHz sample, periods of ultrasonic frequencies, and smaller slices of time.
Subsequent chapters include the history of microsonics, referencing such diverse sources as Henry Cowell, Norbert Weiner, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Ezra Pound; a section on the theory and practice of digital granular synthesis; a survey of granular synthesis techniques; and compositional applications. Roads also includes an overview of software applications that offer granular synthesis, and he devotes an entire chapter to the aesthetics of composing with microsound.
Various forms of particle synthesis are also discussed, including glisson, grainlet, trainlet, pulsar, particle cloning, and particle-based formant synthesis. The book includes an audio CD with examples of those synthesis types, as well as historical examples such as Iannis Xenakis's A et B for string quartet and analog granular synthesis. MIT Press; tel. (800) 356-0343 or (617) 253-5646; e-mail mitpressorders@mit.edu; Web http://mitpress.mit.edu.