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Question about Allen Strange Dream Machine
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elmegil



Joined: Mar 20, 2012
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Location: Chicago
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:50 pm    Post subject: Question about Allen Strange Dream Machine
Subject description: p85 of second edition of The Tome
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I'm putting together a small cabinet that I want to take to Knobcon in a month.... It has 20U for MOTM spaced modules, as well as 89HP (ask me about why it's not 90 ) of Euro that will hold a Klee and a SeqSquared.

I'm looking at the lower half of the diagram for Allen's Dream Machine, where the Sample & Hold output is inverted and used to drive an LFO.

The input to the LFO is labelled "period".

I plan to use an El Cerrito in LF mode for the LFO here, and the control input controls frequency.

Frequency being the inverse of period, I think this implies that I could forego the inverter (which would make my life a LOT simpler, as I don't have any inverter that I could just drop into this cabinet--to do so would require a repanel that I want to do but doubt I have time for, as well as building a whole new module).

Anyone who's built this patch or some variation of it have an opinion on this?




BTW the whole new module is also something I want to do, a 2X Attenuverter. In other words, the extreme ends of the knob give a gain of -2 or +2 respectively rather than -1 and +1 per standard attenuverter. I am thinking I'll have use for this because of my mishmosh of Euro and MOTM, there are modules I have which generate / use 5V triggers and such, and others which generate / use 10V triggers and such. a quad 2X Attenuverter seems like it could be a perfect utility solution to matching these things up. I just can't see having the time to finish that on top of other things I also want/need for this cabinet, and real life.
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MusicMan11712



Joined: Aug 08, 2009
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Location: Out scouting . . .

PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

In the early 70s I had a book on electronic music by Allen Strange. Is this the same guy? (I foolishly lent it to someone and never got it back. Gee, same thing with The Frank Zappa Songbook, Volume 1. Hmmmmmm. I think there's a lesson here!)
Steve
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elmegil



Joined: Mar 20, 2012
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Location: Chicago
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Same guy, same book (or some edition thereof). "Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls"

Go check out prices to buy it now that it's out of print Smile

This is considered seminal by lots of folks, particularly the second edition. I happened to luck into copies of both first and second editions, purchased at different times at my university library's used book sale, for mere dollars (not even tens, I don't think). Once I started getting involved in this community I found out that I had something very precious....

The Dream Machine is a self-playing patch. You can find diagrams of it various places on the web without having to pay a ton of money for the book, just search "Allen Strange Dream Machine".
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MusicMan11712



Joined: Aug 08, 2009
Posts: 1082
Location: Out scouting . . .

PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

OUCH!!!!!!!! I found 2 second editions (1982) on ebay--one for $183, one for $362. I am guessing that my 1st edition probably cost less than $5.00 back in the early 70s. (And that was brand new!!!)

Its sick that there is so much profiteering. Considering he is dead and none of his heirs (if there are any) will see 1/10th of 1% of those sales, I simply don't understand the greed here.

Out of curiosity, who owned the copyright of the original edition and who owned the copyright of the 2nd edition?

Steve

Update: I found a January - June 1972 copyright book that lists 3 names.

Update # 2: I found the copyright listing for the 1983 edition. Evidently it was held by William C. Brown. I seem to recall from my days in academia that they were into publishing books that had a college/university market.

I'd be interested in knowing if they also did the 1972 edition.

Update # 3: WOW!! Its going for $450 via Amazon. I'm guess they get a commission that's more than the cost of the original book. Anyhow, I found a picture of the version I had. I guess I should have been more aggressive about "asking" for the book back.

It looks like that as of 1997 McGraw-Hill probably held the copyright.
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elmegil



Joined: Mar 20, 2012
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 6:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Yeah, it was even available, for a while, as an ebook, but no longer.

I don't have my first edition handy to look up, but I'm guessing the same publisher.
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