Sound Inventions is a collection of 34 articles taken from Experimental Musical Instruments, the seminal journal published from 1984 through 1999. In addition to the selected articles, the editors have contributed introductory essays, placing the material in cultural and temporal context, providing an overview of the field both before and after the time of original publication. The Experimental Musical Instruments journal contributed extensively to a number of sub-fields, including sound sculpture and sound art, sound design, tuning theory, musical instrument acoustics, timbre and timbral perception, musical instrument construction and materials, pedagogy, and contemporary performance and composition. This book provides a picture of this important early period, presenting a wealth of material that is as valuable and relevant today as it was when first published, making it essential reading for anyone researching, working with or studying sound.

Music’s roots begin at the dawn of humanity, when the earliest humans used rudimentary sounds to communicate for survival. Inventions in Music: From the Monochord to MP3s traces the evolution of music through technologies that shaped the medium: the monochord, the phonograph, magnetic tape, and MP3 files. The book describes these inventions in chronological order, considers their influence on one another, and examines these innovations’ impact beyond music.

In a remarkably short time, electronics has penetrated almost every aspect of modern life and the pace of development in the field shows no sign of slackening. One of the first books to cover electronic inventions in depth, Electronic Inventions and Discoveries: Electronics from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day, Fourth Edition traces the development of electronics from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Spanning a period of two and a half centuries, the book presents a mini-encyclopedia full of valuable information on practically all inventions in electronics from 1745 to 1996. This fourth edition has been brought up-to-date and made more attractive by a complete redesign while still maintaining the successful features of previous editions. The first nine chapters supply concise yet comprehensive histories of the main areas of the subject. Subsequent chapters provide a list of inventions by subject and succinct descriptions of each invention in date order with over 1,000 references. The book concludes with a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a list of books on inventions and inventors, and a comprehensive index. During his seventy years in the field, the author has collected a variety of published data to form an up-to-date systematic review of the major developments in electronics and the pattern of advances in electronic techniques. The book forms an essential source of reference to practicing engineers wishing to broaden their knowledge. Teachers and students who require a sound background and understanding of electronics will also find the book invaluable. Written in an easily understood largely nontechnical language, this fascinating and authoritative history of electronic developments will be of great interest to electronic hobbyists and general science readers.