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Quick morsel: how to think about a synth

u0421793u0421793
edited May 2016 in General App Discussion

I am just throwing this out here, it is totally obvious, hardly requires mentioning, but just in case it helps anyone:

Lots of synthesisers have lots of knobs and switches. This is often confusing, a person new to that synth, or synths in general might think they’re on the flight deck of the Space Shuttle (STS). Here’s a good way to think about what is going on, and it applies to pretty much all synths. Divide it up in to three aspects:

  • Where does the sound come from?
  • What can modify that sound?
  • What can control how they do it?

For example, in most synths the answer will be:

  • What makes the sound? Oh, that’s the oscillators.
  • What modifies that sound? Ah, that’ll be the filters and amplifiers.
  • What can control the previous two? Hmm, there’s envelope generators, and also LFOs/modulation generators, and aha, the keyboard, oh, and sequencer / arpeggiator…

Obviously it can be more or different, but it’s a good initial approach. As I say, this is probably insultingly obvious to a lot of people, but if it clarifies anything for at least one person, it was a worthwhile displacement activity from what I should have been doing.

Comments

  • null____voidnull____void

    it often helps to envision the synthesizer "like a suicidal Aphrodite between two opposite poles, fleeing on an invisible wire as far as the luminous escarpment of the lower world, where lurks the touching brute who will kill her. " though this approach is incompatible with the iMS-20...

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]

    Yes simple maybe, but only because we already know. I remember learning about synths as a kid. What a wonderful time I had - the whole world of sound synthesis seemed so full of wonder :)

  • richardyotrichardyot

    That's why the Moog Model 15 app has been so good, I read the first 10 parts of the synth secrets articles at Sound On Sound, built a few basic sounds and as result I understand the fundamentals, which is great since for the last 3 years or so all I could really use with any skill in an iOS synth was the preset browser.

    So after actually building the signal flow from scratch in Model 15, now when I open an app like iMini I completely understand what all the knobs do, it's quite an eye opener, and didn't really take that long to grasp. The reason this has been so effective is that with the modular synth there is a practical aspect involved: you have to actually build the sound. If I had had read the synth secrets articles without doing this I would have forgotten it all within a couple of days. It's just so much better to learn by actually doing, rather than just reading articles or watching videos.

  • db909db909

    @u0421793 said:
    I am just throwing this out here, it is totally obvious, hardly requires mentioning, but just in case it helps anyone:

    Lots of synthesisers have lots of knobs and switches. This is often confusing, a person new to that synth, or synths in general might think they’re on the flight deck of the Space Shuttle (STS). Here’s a good way to think about what is going on, and it applies to pretty much all synths. Divide it up in to three aspects:

    • Where does the sound come from?
    • What can modify that sound?
    • What can control how they do it?

    For example, in most synths the answer will be:

    • What makes the sound? Oh, that’s the oscillators.
    • What modifies that sound? Ah, that’ll be the filters and amplifiers.
    • What can control the previous two? Hmm, there’s envelope generators, and also LFOs/modulation generators, and aha, the keyboard, oh, and sequencer / arpeggiator…

    Obviously it can be more or different, but it’s a good initial approach. As I say, this is probably insultingly obvious to a lot of people, but if it clarifies anything for at least one person, it was a worthwhile displacement activity from what I should have been doing.

    You should post this on r/edmproduction. They need all the help they can get.

  • oat_phippsoat_phipps

    It's a good post. The method is almost exactly how the old Moog manuals explained synthesis, and they were some of the best manuals I've read.

    Like Goodyear said as well, once you understand the signal flow, everything kind of opens up for you.

  • PhilWPhilW

    It's not just synths, you can think of traditional instruments in the same way, which is sort of why synths are designed like that. Take a trumpet as an example:

    Where does the sound come from - vibrating lips (oscilator)

    What can modify that sound - the shape and material of the instrument, which enhances certain frequencies and filters others.

    What can control how they do it - how hard you blow, use valves or slides to alter the effective length of the pipe, put a mute in the bell, etc.

  • knewspeakknewspeak

    I blame God, he just had to start it all by fiddling with the Mod Wheel.

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