(Bass Recorded Versions). Note-for-note bass transcriptions with tab of Jacos brilliant bass work on 16 songs: Amerika * Birdland * Blackbird * The Chicken * Chromatic Fantasy * Come On; Come Over * Continuum * Donna Lee * Invitation * Liberty City * Opus Pocus * Portrait of Tracy * River People * Soul Intro * Teen Town * Word of Mouth.
#318545 in eBooks 1998-04-01 1998-04-01File Name: B00FJ6E5NS
Review
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. My favorite computer programming book of all time!By duck coverAs the title suggest; this book is about writing Software Synthesizers in C++; so this really implies that this book is not for the weak hearted only from reading the title. So far for the other review; only giving it 3 stars; its completely useless and has absolutely nothing to do with what this book is about in the first place; and does not assess the quality of the writings in any way.This book is a god send for me; I have been waiting for this for many years! I am only half through so far (will update this review after I have worked it through) but I can already tell that this is a total quality product as it does not often happen with computer books. I would even go as far as to say that it is stroke of genius. Let me explain.I am "flitring" with DSP since years; but without a deep academic background; I always faced some hurdles that were very difficult to overcome. First there is the math; and then if you want to do stuff like synthesizers containing a plethora of different objects acting together to form a quite complex network. Sure; all the information found in this book can be found elsewhere online (if you are willing to dig hard enough and bang your head against the wall for many months); but how it is present here in a concise manner is almost too good to be true. You get in depth and current information on how it is done the right way. Oscillator design; filters; envelopes; all explained with cross-references to all the great synthesizers made in the last few decades. Many a nice detail of the history can be found in the texts; e.g. i didnt know that Dave Smith was involved in designed Korgs Wavestation.Will Pirkle deserves an Oscar just for RackAFX alone; the Windows IDE he designed originally for his students in his DSP classes; an incredible useful tool for learning and experimenting. But now with taking it to the next level; including the two most important plugin-platforms VST3 and AudioUnit; thats the real stroke of genius of this book and sets it apart from everything else currently available.I find working through his book enormously pleasurable; Wills writing style is on a great level and has a good flow; I would love to go to his DSP classes. Also for a first edition; this book is extremely well edited; there are almost no typos. Check the errata on his page; it is ridiculously short for such a technical book; this fact alone speaks volumes.This is already my favorite programming book of all time. It is like it was specially written for me. Therefore; I would love to congratulate everybody who was involved in the process of publishing it; this hard work should be rewarded to the fullest.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Marekexcellent!2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. In-Depth Multi-API Approach / Very Well-StructuredBy frankp93I received a free item to review.This isnrsquo;t like those game programming/graphics books from years back where you could just lsquo;play with the executablesrsquo; and skip the explanations and theory (I suppose thatrsquo;s possible if yoursquo;re good enough to simply build it all and let it rip - but I think that defeats the purpose).The real value in lsquo;Developing Software Synthesizers Plug-Ins in C++rsquo; is not simply getting the six synths to run with your choice of plug-in container and platform. Itrsquo;s understanding what Pirkle has to say about software synth design; component details; and recognizing similarities across common plug-in APIs well-enough to customize and extend the designs; or use them as jump-off points for your own.Depending on your DSP background Irsquo;d recommend Polmannrsquo;s lsquo;Principles of Digital Audiorsquo; ndash; as Pirkle does in the very useful bibliographies at the end of each chapter. I still have my second edition of Polmann and; while itrsquo;s been updated several times; the fundamentals remain the same and I think itrsquo;s one of the more readable DSP books out there that doesnrsquo;t drown you in math.And speaking of math; Pirkle doesnrsquo;t drown you here either ndash; although as he states itrsquo;s impossible to avoid it completely ndash; even the dreaded C word - calculus. But fear not; to his credit; Pirkle keeps it all very readable and interesting.And thatrsquo;s true across the board: While the book is ambitious it will reward those willing to put in the time. Therersquo;s quite a lot of discussion of DSP; MIDI and synth theory but Pirkle doesnrsquo;t presume much expertise or even advanced knowledge and the writing is very clean and straightforward.The C++ code is what Irsquo;d call early-intermediate level: you should understand pointers; classes and basic OO design; type coercion and casting to work with floating point values. Therersquo;s no use of libraries such as Boost; ATL; or of templates in general.If you focused on Windows you should understand DLL architecture and be comfortable working in Visual Studio (the downloaded code was build with 2008 but compiled with 2013 with no problems).The code focuses more on class framework architecture; including Pirklersquo;s own RackAFX introduced in his previous book (which makes a useful companion but not absolutely essential) and API usage rather than extensive algorithms; low-level data structures; and memory manipulation. If yoursquo;ve coded against Win32 natively or used MFC; and worked with Audio/MIDI libraries and frameworks Pirklersquo;s syntax and use of Hungarian notation will feel familiar.If yoursquo;re a C programmer with audio programming experience; such as working through lsquo;The Audio Programming Bookrsquo;; you should be OK.Likewise if you have strong Java skills; especially in library/API design; just watch the pointers and keep a C++ reference handy.Irsquo;m not a Mac developer but the additional requirements Pirkle mentions mostly have to do with building GUIs for the synths ndash; this requires knowledge of Objective C and the XCode compiler. Mac is not shortchanged at all in the book ndash; all synths are presented to run on both platforms.If you have Pirklersquo;s previous book and are wondering about overlap; know that this one stands on its own with deliberately new implementation ideas and an emphasis on native code ndash; yet it clearly wonrsquo;t hurt anyone who first explored plug-in writing and audio effects with RackAFX in the earlier book.Pirkle chooses three lsquo;containerrsquo; APIs on two platforms RackAFX/Windows; VST/Windows and AU/MacOS and illustrates separate and complete implementations of both a lsquo;training synthrsquo; to teach core synthesis concepts and implementation; as well as six polyphonic synthesizers that utilize a variety of algorithms including an audio sample playback synth; vector synth; and clones of the Yamaha DX100 and the Moog AniMoog Anisotropic Synth iPad app.A real strength of the book is its structure. Pirkle first presents the Nanosynth as a lsquo;training synthrsquo;; gradually adding components as he covers oscillators; filters and other core synthesizer concepts. The beauty is yoursquo;re learning design as yoursquo;re building-out the Nanosynth and Pirkle encourages you to think about lsquo;countless variationsrsquo; all along the way.By the time you get to the six complete synths you understand enough to choose whichever ones spark your curiosity (hint: they all will).With all the focus here on technology itrsquo;s sometimes easy to lose sight of a simple truth: At the end of the day; yoursquo;re building musical instruments in software - regardless of how broad your definitions of music and instruments are.For those of us who take that notion seriously therersquo;s every reason to approach the software craft with the same thoughtfulness and attention to detail as though you were building a violin or a guitar in wood. I happen to work in both and I think that connection is important and worthwhile.