Music journalist, historian, teacher, and performer Mark Vail is the author of The Synthesizer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Programming, Playing, and Recording the Ultimate Electronic Music Instrument (2014), published by Oxford University Press, as well as Vintage Synthesizers (1993, 2000) and The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B (1997, 2002), both from Backbeat Books. He holds an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media (Mills College, Oakland, California, 1983), was a member of the editorial staff at Keyboard magazine from 1988 to 2001, and has written for Sound On Sound, Arturia, Propellerhead Software, Moog Music, Korg, and Roland.