Letters

Response to Review of Handmade Electronic Music

Many thanks for the lengthy review of my book, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, in the Spring 2007 volume of CMJ. I would like to correct one small error, however: Mr. Kypke, the reviewer, evidently conflated me with my young British doppelgänger, Nick (with a "k") Collins, and credits me accordingly with studying with Ian Cross and Alan Blackwell (neither of whom I have met, to the best of my knowledge) and writing Super Collider plug-ins. Nick, on the other hand, has frequently been unjustly accused of editing the Leonardo Music Journal, so I suppose it balances out in the end. In June 2007, we share a stage for the first time, at the New Instruments for Musical Expression (NIME) conference in New York City—an event which, regardless of the quality of its musical output, should clarify our individual identities.

Nic Collins

Professor, Department of Sound, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Music Journal

I am happy to second Nic's observation. I can certainly take no credit for hardware hacking, since I've only ever burnt myself with solder and never created a functioning circuit. I have my own (edited) book coming out later in the year, which is even more confusing because Nic contributed a chapter.

Nick Collins

Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge

Lecturer, University of Sussex

[Editor's note: Computer Music Journal regrets the error, which although common might be unexpected in a journal sharing a publisher with Leonardo Music Journal. Some of Nick Collins's work is described in the article he co-authored in CMJ 30:2, Summer 2006.]