The Atari Punk Console is one of DIY sonic electronics’ all-time greatest hits. Designed by Forrest M. Mims III — the brilliant electronics artist and engineer whose hand-drawn books were once promoted in Radio Shack — the “Stepped Tone Generator” as it was originally called is an excellent circuit for first-timers or those wanting something simple and adaptable. You can read up on the APC over on Wikipedia, with some good links to what the circuit does.

The Cracklebox is, similarly, a “greatest hit” of electrical noisemaking, a simple, self-contained synthesizer with speakers.

Put them together and add some comic art, and you’ve got the creation you see above, created by Massimiliano Farnea, aka maxfarnea. It’s been watching over the site from the CDM Flickr pool (which has various other stuff like this, as does the pool for our friends at MAKE and some other Flickr pools). So I had to know more. Here’s a quick preview from its creator — and the story behind that fantastic illustration:

There are some strange sites out there. This one, found via Google Alerts, apparently is a Russian site designed to lure readers looking for illegal downloadable PDFs of books. As it happens, the page for my book seems to be stolen from the Amazon.com description; there’s no pirated copy of my book available. (Too bad; I would have been flattered.) But the ad that coincidentally showed up when I loaded the page made me laugh:

I’m not sure whether this means my book helps single guys attract women, or whether it can actually stand in for a romantic life. You be the judge. Anyway, something’s helping sales over on Amazon, so maybe this “ad campaign” worked:

Real World Digital Audio

My friend Francis Preve, tech author and electronica producer / remix artist, has a new title out on Backbeat Books assembling a broad range of production tips, tutorials, and anecdotes from artists. (He’s pictured here, though that’s not actually his pool.) You may know Fran’s writing from Keyboard; for The Remixer’s Bible, he’s assembled Keyboard’s best club production tutorials, the best of the Dance Mix column, and tips and anecdotes from BT, Armand Van Helden, Thunderpuss, and others.

The most interesting decision for the book, though, is to include remixable music from Gabriel & Dresden, Coldcut, Meat Beat Manifesto, and Jacinta on the CD-ROM in Ableton Live 5/6 format. I like the hands-on approach there; will be curious to hear what remixing readers cook up.

I haven’t seen the book in the flesh yet, but I know a lot of what’s in it, and it should be easily worth the absurdly low pricetag Backbeat put on it:

Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey

Fran’s other projects include “working on some new original dance tracks, kibbutzing with Josh Gabriel (of Gabriel & Dresden fame), and continuing to lay the groundwork for that dance label [I] keep talking about.” You can find his sound design in the instrument racks in Live 6, too — more on that later. But here’s the interesting part:

Fran says he’s “putting finishing touches on his patches for a secret new product from Korg“.

Reeeeeally? Knowing Fran, I’m guessing this is software, though I’d love a cute new Korg synth to keep around the place. I’ll just sit here and drool and wait, I guess.

So, other Keyboard writers want to brag about your projects? Jim? Craig? Steve? Mike? Ernie? Can you reveal any secret projects in the process?

It’s easy to miss stories among the various cool distractions on Matrixsynth, like videos of synth pioneers Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani. So, I can’t help but point to Matrix’s extended review of my book, along with some words from me about why I wrote it, even though self-promotion makes me feel funny. Why? Because I think Matrix has something great to say about books and general. And because I couldn’t be happier to be reading some new books like the ones pictured beelow, now that I’ve finished mine:

Real World Digital Audio review, interview [Matrixsynth]

*Disclaimer: Boookshelf pictured does not represent the wall-obliterating shelf space in my apartment.

I’m flattered to share that multitalented musician MikeB reviews my book, Real World Digital Audio, and interviews me about the book and this site on GarageSpin:

Interview Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music

New Book, Real World Digital Audio, Rocks (His headline, not mine, but thanks, Mike!)

The book is now actually hitting shelves. (I wrote earlier that it was online, but brick and mortar distribution took much longer.)

I don’t like talking about myself here (really), so if you want to hear that, head to Mike’s excellent site! More importantly, if you aren’t yet reading GarageSpin, it’s one of my favorite sites. It’s one of the few blogs that effectively covers not only music creation, but online promotion and distribution, all from an artist’s perspective. MikeB’s resume explains part of the reason why: in addition to being a musician and producer, he’s a digital media veteran of RealNetworks and the Harry Fox Agency, among others. And he’d probably make a great interview, though I’d better wait a while, or that would just look weird.

Better idea: we’ll all get together in NYC, and New Yorker area dwellers, you’re invited. More on that soon. Until then, thanks, Mike; you don’t know how nice it is to connect with people after the long, solitary writing process. Pictured: a very comforting sight after over a year on a book (ask any author).

Our friend James Grahame (of Retro Thing, Reflex Audio, and hopefully soon to become a guest contributor on CDM 2.0) has launched his first book:

Essential Retro: The Vintage Technology Guide

(See also James’ announcement, Music thing)

Why should CDM readers be buying this book? Because the table of contents looks like a list of everything we love: vintage hi-fi audio gear, retro videogame consoles, early computers, classic toys, and, oh yeah, plenty of vintage synths. James sez:

Since I’m a synth addict, there’s an entire chapter dedicated to electronic musical instruments. I start with a look at some classics like the the ARP Odyssey and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, but I couldn’t resist including a few modern ‘vintage analog’ devices from Dave Smith, Clavia, and even the real analog growl of the Alesis A6 Andromeda . . .

People can buy signed copies direct from the site for the next few weeks, and it should be available on Amazon in the USA and UK early next week. Priced at $19.95 in the USA, £11.95 in the UK.

Can’t wait to read it; more when I get my copy. Sure, we’re online writers and bloggers, but who said we didn’t love paper?

I couldn’t be more proud to share this one: over a year in the making, my book Real World Digital Audio is now hitting shelves:

Real World Digital Audio [Official Book Site]

I launched this project with Peachpit Press because we wanted to compress the broad range of skills you need to master music production with computers — from synthesizing sounds to recording to producing scores to DJing and playing live — into a single book. There are superb books out there on individual topics and individual tools, but I found many of the general books were either out-of-date, had limited coverage of computers, or assumed too much about what you already knew.

Of course, as the production deadline slipped back from January to March, to June, to August, to October, I realized just how big a challenge this would be. Thankfully, there are some incredibly patient people at Peachpit Press, particularly my production editor Cary Norsworthy, who supported the project even as it grew in scope, size, and schedule.)

(More on the book after the jump)

Looking for gifts for others, or yourself? Or a way to drop hints about what you want? CDM is here to help. Next up for digital musicians ready to give and receive: music with a conscience, and books worth reading, many suitable as stocking stuffers.

An incredible amount of stuff coming up here in NYC:

VJ Book: Paul Spinrad’s new The VJ Book is packed with interviews and how-to information and ships with a DVD full of VJ samples, mixable content, and demo software. (Paul and I got to work together on an upcoming issue of Make Magazine, which you’ll be hearing more about soon.)

VJ party Wednesday: It’s a book launch party edition of Eyewash, the live video series. I’ll be VJing with Korg hardware and Quartz Composer-generated visuals, along with the book’s DVD creator Melissa “Miixxy” Ulto (previously on CDM). Jay Smith from Livid Instruments will be demoing the new Tactic M2 wood-paneled VJ control surface (see previous story). I’ll be trying to steal it from him. Watch your drinks, Jay.

VJ: The Movie Video Out documents the history of VJing and live video art from the 1960s to today. It’s premiering in the East Village November 11, but if you clamour hard enough, it may come to your town, too.

Music Player Live: Les Paul is keynote speaker for this weekend full of of music stars, gear, and instruction. The crew from Keyboard, EQ, GuitarPlayer, BassPlayer, and Frets will all be there. Catch my live video and VJing for musicians seminar Sunday, if you can, but there’s plenty of other good stuff happening.

Game Boy Music Saturday: There’s a major lineup Saturday night of Game Boy and chiptune musicians at Manhattan’s The Tank (which is still looking for a permanent home). Performers: DAVID SUGAR (UK), RECEPTORS (US), HEY KID NICE ROBOT (US), M-.-n (BE), GLOMAG (US), BUBBLYFISH (US), OMAC (US), NULLSLEEP (US) and BIT SHIFTER (US).

Now, attention rest of the world: aside from Paul’s VJ book and the movie, we want to make sure you get to enjoy some of this, too. So, New Yorkers, aside from my own feeble attempts to photograph and document these events, if you’re going and want to help, please drop me a line. And certainly say hello; I’ll buy you a drink or steal you some video hardware.

Sorry to disappoint you, but Real World Digital Audio will not be a new MTV reality show where participants live together in a boozed-up recording studio for a few months and have “issues” with their fellow audio engineers. Though I’m still holding out hope for that.

No, Real World Digital Audio is my long-delayed book for Peachpit Press . . . and if you’ve noticed I’ve gotten increasingly flaky keeping CDM together, especially this week, the good news is I’m finally finishing the manuscript this week. Expect a party afterwards — and more on the book itself, once I can share a bit more. Most importantly: this book will be out by the end of the year.

Anyway, think we can rip off the image shown here for the cover?