Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
HELP WANTED: Synthesizers for Dummies...
...Who Don't Want to Be Dummies Anymore
As the title suggests, I'm looking for an introduction to synthesizers. I know that's a pretty general ask, so perhaps giving you a little context will help to point me in the right direction.
My primary music background is as a guitarist; I've been doing it for over thirty years. I've never owned a physical synthesizer, and with the software capabilities available today, I doubt I ever will. Still, I'm fascinated by them enough to want to know my way around their iOS counterparts. I figure one of the better ways of doing that is to gain an understanding of what they do and how they do it.
From what I already know—at least where analog synths are concerned—the heart is in the oscillator. Tube guitar amplifiers are, at their core, nothing more than a speaker connected to a few circuit bits and vacuum tubes. Of course, I could wax on and on about all the minutiae that make this speaker different from that, this tube different from that, etc. I suspect the same is true of oscillators, filters, and the like in even the most basic of synthesizers. Maybe this is where I should start. (Or maybe not. iDunno.) For example, is there something very different about the oscillator or filter in a Minimoog as compared to, oh, a Jupiter-8 or CS-80. (If I already sound like an idiot, you're getting a picture of just where I'm coming from.)
I would turn to a synth forum for this post, but I fear those members may be so mired in the aforementioned minutiae that they just wouldn't know what to do with me. Plus, I'm just plain comfortable here and like all you yokels, so I figured I'd make this place Square One. If you feel I should be looking under a different rock, by all means, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
This isn't for dummies but the Sound On Sound articles are great reading, something to chew on occasionally and really well written:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160403115835/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
Start from the bottom up.
Great series. Also check articles on propellerheads website about programming Thor, and the "how to make a noise" books. Those are really inexpensive on kindle and have great info.
Most definitely, there are fundamental differences between oscillators and filters across many synthesizers. Some might argue the differences are unnoticeable, while others might argue you're a fool for not noticing JUST how different filter A sounds to filters B and C. It's the same crowd that exists in your guitar world, and the exact same debates exist over synths as they do with amps, strings, cabinets, heads, etc. That said, I wouldn't even consider that to be something that matters. Especially for someone who is just learning about synthesis. What matters is learning how these things function, and that you enjoy making them function. There are some truly great apps out there, and it will probably serve you best to start with a subtractive synthesizer. Arturia' s iMini is a great place to start. It's simple, but capable of amazing things. And in addition to those Sound On Sound articles mentioned above, I would say a general "Subtractive Synthesis" search on YouTube will turn up loads of information to get you started.
Start with these three vids:
I like Syntorial, also.
Try syntorial app. Is free for basic lessons and the synth that it uses to teach you is also a fairly decent free synth
I recommend the Syntorial app. I know that everyone goes wild for the Sound on Sound series, but those articles get so, so technical.
Was going to post these. A must watch for people getting into synthesis!
i heartily recommend this series as well.
Got to mention Caustic.
Caustic by Rejean Poirier
https://appsto.re/dk/xImpU.i
Its a steal on its own, but paired with the devs tutorials
the basics are pretty much sorted for you.
Enjoy
WRT Syntorial, just how much does the free 22 lessons cover? The upgrade to full version is a whopping $179.99 (Cdn$) !!!
Was also gonna post this.
There isn't a plethora of stuff on IOS but if you have access to a desktop or notebook then you may find it easier to get up to speed quickly.
The aforementioned Gordeon Reid articles and Syntorial are both excellent and accessible on IOS. They give a good grounding.
There are some good video courses on the basics - check out, for example, the Richard Lainhart courses on Ask Audio/MacPro Video. I think you can get a free trial with them; if not, Ask Audio are inexplicably cheaper than MacPro Video for exactly the same content, and you can get a month for $9.
However, my suggestion would be this (and I wish I had done it this way round) - if you understand how a modular synth works then you will be 80-90% of the way to understanding how any and every synth works.
You can do that in something like Audulus or Zmors Modular on IOS, or if you have access to a desktop you may find it easier if you download demos of Arturia's Modular, Pulsar Modular 900, Softube Modular or even Max (with the BEAP library).
(If you want to have a go with the Arturia Modular there is an excellent course on that on Lynda.com that explains all the core concepts of synthesis. Lynda.com has a 30 day free trial.)
You can learn how to patch a synth together easily in any of these environments and figure out how control signals and audio pass through synths. Try it - it's fun ! Connect up an oscilloscope and analyzer and watch what is going on (Melda Production have good free ones, and this is very good to - http://www.jthorborg.com/signalizer.html).
Once you have a handle on all that then you can look at the vast majority of synths and understand the way that they work and what you need to tweak to get the sounds that you want.
If you want to hear how different oscillators, filters and envelopes from several classic synths sound then download a demo of U-He's Diva.
HTH
After you get the basics, purchase one iOS synth and learn how it works inside and out.
Thor has a "guided tour" of sorts on Propellerheads' site, as mentioned above. It was written by the same guy that did the Sound on Sound articles (Gordon Reid) and is very accessible. Thor would be my first choice because it has a "normal" layout but lets you experiment with different oscillator and filter types. It was the first synth I really learned and because it does a little of everything, it gave me a good foundation for everything I've learned since.
Korg Odyssei or iMS-20 would be my next choice because they emulate very popular real-world synths. There are tons of patchbooks, video tutorials, and recorded examples of both the app, the vintage hardware, and the reissue hardware so you can learn a lot of great tricks quickly. Odyssei is newer and it has better sound quality IMO. But iMS-20 has a simpler architecture if you ignore the patch panel, it can be pushed into wild territory if you don't, and it is generally a good intro to semi-modular.
If you're feeling patient, you could also check out Moog Model 15. It has a steep learning curve but it is one of the best sounding synths on the App Store, and once you wrap your head around the architecture, you will be able to sit down with basically any synthesizer.
OK, 18 hours in and I'm already finding some great stuff based on the posts in this thread. So, first and foremost, THANK YOU!! I've downloaded Syntorial, watching the first of the three YouTube videos by Dean Friedman, and read parts 1–3 of the (63-part!!!) Gordon Reid Synth Secrets series. I'll finish the Dean Friedman videos later today and crank through another couple Gordon Reid articles, then tonight give Syntorial some attention.
I do own a few of the iOS synths mentioned in the thread (iMini, Thor, Model 15, and many others), the exploration of which led me to the overwhelmed feeling in the first place. The high praise, hype, and low cost resulted in an accumulation of stuff I feel I should know a lot better to justify their presence on my iPad.
Through a combination of thread on this forum, tutorials on YouTube, and just plain futzing around with these apps, I managed to gain a little knowledge of the basics, but I'm still far from nuanced enough to know what makes Model A's oscillator or filter better than Model B's. (You encapsulated that nicely, @brice. Thank you.) Probably going through these articles and tutorials will help me better refine my questions.
This all is a great start, and I thank everyone who has contributed! If you have other ideas or suggestions, I'm all ears.
Another nod to Syntorial. The key difference is that guides you through synthesizing sounds by ear, rather than explaining things. And while it seems expensive, for the amount of content it really isn't. While theory is important, the trick to synthesis is really experience. Really quite subtle changes in say an envelop filter can have a huge difference on a sound. And that's something you only really learn from doing (which is where Syntorial provides in spades).
Synth Secrets is great, but I feel it's something you read after you have some experience of using a synthesizer.
"Free" will definitely get you started.
Keep in mind you can advance without passing a lesson.
Syntorial does occasionally offer discounts, but not through the App Store; you have to go via syntorial.com. (Syntorial has a slightly unusual licensing model under which you get both the desktop and iOS versions for the price, whether or not you need both. If you buy through the web page, you get a code for the iOS App Store.) I don't know how often they do it; I got it on a third off in June 2015, but if you google "Syntorial discount" you'll see there've been various 30%- and 40%-off deals since. And if you qualify there's also an educational discount available through the website. But it's well worth the full whack anyway; the sustained, systematic, interactive hands-on ear training is kind of priceless.
You can get a sense of how much is covered by doing the five free chapters (1–4 you can blitz through in a single sitting, then 5 is where it starts to get serious) and launching the full synth to compare what's still to cover. It seems impossible to imagine you'll ever be able to program a specific patch out of all that just by ear, but you do get there if you keep at it. The commitment of having paid in full upfront is actually quite a motivator in itself (particularly in the dark days before Joe took pity and added the Hint button); I doubt I'd have made it through if the chapters came as a series of progressive IAPs.
To be honest, if I were teaching someone nowadays about the full breadth and girth of synthesis, in 2017 as opposed to 1967, I doubt I'd start with subtractive synthesis. I would prefer to start the student with spectral synthesis, but there isn't really a uniform model or user interface paradigm for spectral - most synths that do it do it their own way and the commonality won't be apparent to a student for quite some time. Therefore, the next up the ladder I'd choose to teach with would be FM. I personally think that's actually a bit easier to explain than subtractive is, assuming you were at a starting point of not understanding any synthesis model at all. I'd leave subtractive until further down the line. So, therefore, to sum up, I'd start a student off by teaching FM first.
I agree, this is the logical, progression from the fundamentals onwards, but subtractive is just more hands on knob twiddling...instant gratification.
I finished the three-part YouTube tutorial by Dean Friedman, and although I discovered I already knew about 90% of what he taught, it was still a solid refresher. (Besides, there's the other 10% I didn't already know.) I think where I'm at right now, which is close to where I was when I started this thread, is wondering what sets various iconic synths apart—really at their core.
Again, I must resort to a guitar analogy, because it's what I know: The Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster are iconic guitars. They both have six strings, 21–22 frets, and pickups, but a guitarist wouldn't blindly choose one or the other willy-nilly. But it's not some set of bells and whistles that set the Les Paul apart from the Stratocaster; it's more fundamental than that. I guess that's where I'm trying to understand some of the differences among the most well-known synths out there. (And I think "well-known" is another term I have yet to be defined. I assume, where iconic synths are concerned, they include the Minimoog, Prophet-5, what else?) Is the special sauce in the oscillators? The filters? Something else?
Maybe an analog between guitars and synths isn't appropriate. Or maybe it would make more sense to compare guitar amps and synths. In any case, I hope I'm getting closer to the question I'm trying to answer. It's like, I usually can tell within a few seconds if someone's playing Guitar X or Y into Amp A or B, but I haven't a clue with synths. Are those of you for whom synthesizer is your native language able to do that?
The difference between an oscillator in one synth versus another is purely the way it sounds which comes down to how the signal is generated at the start and blah blah science. So for your practical purposes, it's purely a matter of taste between synth A or synth B. One may have more sound sculpting controls than the other or one may sound "fuller". So I wouldn't worry about too much about the differences on the oscillator level
Well, one thing I can point out, while not quite the same as sound differences in any particular module, but a difference nevertheless, is the way the knobs are scaled. On my Roland synths (the MC-202 I sold last year, the SH-09 I still have) you can set all the sliders to halfway and get a fairly acceptable sound. Wherever you put the sliders, you'll find it quite difficult to get a combination of settings that sounds unacceptable or silent or just plain incorrect. It is all scaled quite musically and usably, from a performance perspective. Contrast that with some other more 'scientific' synths I've had (like the Arp 2600 I have) or not had (like a VCS3) there are combinations of settings easily encountered that produce no sound, or not what you'd class as a usable or predictable sound, which might be embarrassing or inconvenient live on stage. Those synths have their controls scaled to a more 'academic' and wide range, quite a bit outside the bounds of musical fit at either end.
Best comparison I've found about filters (yet)
Dummy here. I love synths, got a whole bunch, hardware and software. Don't have the vaguest notion of how they work, tried to learn, huge waste of my time. They sound kick ass is all I know, ya just twist knobs and pull sliders and shit and the sounds change, what more do ya want? Use em to make music and be happy, yer gonna hurt yer brain if ya try to figger out what's going on under the hood, that's fer smart folk and not dummies like me.
Little known fact: they sound even better if ya drink lotsa beer when ya play em!
I'm surprised no one mentioned Korg Gadget! As far as super simple synthesis goes you can't go wrong with the Phoenix synth for starters (basic subtractive synth, think classic analogue style) Dublin to learn basics of modular and then Wolfsburg to step it up another level. All simple synths plus sequencer, arpeggiator and chords on tap. If you want some tutorial stuff there's a ton of tuts based around Korg gadget synths, I know Jacob Haq does a lot on YouTube. Free version too if you want to have a look. By all means read synth explanations and videos but get stuck in and all that stuff will make more sense. Korg gadget stuff are all scaled down versions of different synth techniques. All the essential functionality is there but without over complicating things.
So far, I've found Gordon Reid's "Synth Secrets" series the most helpful. I've got quite a way to go before finishing the articles, to say nothing of actually putting the knowledge into practice. I like that he starts at the lowest level—audio physics—and works his way up from there. Having these articles alongside a couple analog synth modeling apps has been invaluable.
This was a nice demo, but I didn't get a good feel for the differences between those units' filters. Could be my inexperience with analog synths.
I'd say this is the exact opposite of my intended approach.
Fair enough- and my bad for skipping over the "help wanted" cause I got so excited when I saw "dummies." (I'm like a puppy dog who hears his name and come runnin right atcha!) But something tells me you ain't no dummy- you prolly know more than you let on, and you're gonna learn even more from watching the videos these fine, smart folks posted. And if learning what makes all that magic happen brings you joy, by all means, have at it!
That's the attitude!
@kgmessier
There are obviously several ways to find out why synths sound differently. One is to test many yourself, fun but takes a lot of time and money. Study the design, esp. the filters. This is hobby of mine, great fun but certainly not for everyone and definitely not if you're not math loving dude. You can get advice. I can recommend this book here. Clearly I don't know what you find expensive (US$52), but I think it's a very good straight on book to get "usable" know how quickly.
https://www.amazon.com/Musical-Art-Synthesis-Sam-McGuire-ebook/dp/B013RC65BK/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501977752&sr=1-1&keywords=the+musical+art+of+synthesis
@kgmessier
Try comparing at about 6;00 and 10:00 minutes.
Moog (style ladder filter) is "smudgy" (letting high frequencies through but not as cleanly/clearly)
vs
Yamaha (cs80 style) "brassy" lets more of the high frequencies through cleaner (not smeared or attenuated as you sweep through the frequency range)
I have to agree the difference is subtle, but makes the character of the synth in the sounds played. I offered this as a comparison because the oscillators themselves were zeroed out as a factor, since the two units are identical in hardware except the filters.
cheers.