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Comments
You’re right. Something like FM synthesis can be overwhelming without knowledge of signal flow and the workings of FM.
Someone with electronics background might see faster how synthesis works.
Audulus not so much. It is a toolkit for creating synths and effects. Audulus doesn’t readily lend itself to wavetable synthesis of anything sample-based. You can implement FM but creating an easily usable fully-featured multi-operator FM synth would be a major task…and one can’t readily save and recall presets.
It’s a great app but it isn’t ideal for diving in and learning different types of synthesis.
Dude, start with a synth that has all the basic parameters on one screen that doesn't have a billion options. People are suggesting some very complex synths with multiple page or menu UIs. Even synths like poison or sunrizer have too much going on to get started smoothly. Can Be Done but I think it's inefficient. You can make crazy sounds with the free primer, which has EVERYTHING on one page.
@Spidericemidas who is a genius at design, made over a hundred quality patches on PRIMER. That should tell you how much you can get done with that 'basic' synth.
And unless you prefer to learn algebra and calculus at the same time, I think starting with a simple but powerful synth is the way to go. Sometimes asking ppl who have been at this a while will get you answers that are really advanced as it's hard for ppl to remember how complex it was to get started. If this thread continues you'll literally have ppl mentioning every synth (I mean, FM synthesis without grasping subtractive? Absolutely not). Which happens on every what synth thread.
I certainly don't think starting with a synth that has multiple oscillator options, 10 filters, 6 pages/tabs, etc will help. In fact, it'll slow you down since the ui and number of choices will keep getting in the way. Too many variables. Lagrange, FM synths, zeeon, synth one, they're all great. But only once you can figure out where to start. I'm honestly surprised someone hasn't suggested you start with mirack (eurorack virtual modular) or tera synth pro (complex semi modular), but it's starting to get there. I mean, audulus?! May as well skip all this and build your own synth.
Keep it simple. These every synth under the sun answers are the forum equivalent of opening up a complex synth. Still hard to know where to start for the OP.
The syntorial lessons are fantastic, and if you can do what they teach, you will have a better ear for sound design than most ppl who do this since you'll actually hear a sound and go (2 saws, detuned, slight, ring mod, sub oscillator with square, lfo on x y z etc.). Actual ear training, which is necessary in any music endeavor where you want to shape the sound with agency (piano, violin, guitar, synths, drums, etc. all need it).
Thanks a lot @NoncompliantBryant !
I’m already into synthorial lessons. I will just take my time and keep it simple.
Synth is a very different world. Maybe I should have payed attention and get interested decades ago.
You got this. Just remember what you know already... The tools are not the music nor the musician. Brian Eno could do more elegance and musicality with a sine wave than most of us with a 20k modular setup could. A lot of us are synth fetishist (me included), so it's easy for us to get carried away.
Oh and I'd check out some of the books and SOS articles @Poppadocrock suggested once you feel like you can make your way around Primer without too much hesitation or research. Then the diagrams and signal flows and other technical stuff can make more sense... And be more fun rather than descending into VCR manual boredom.
I'd say OB-XD is a quite nice poly-synth for creating a raw basic sound which you can process with effects as needed.
Everything is on one page.
Out of curiosity what kind of sounds are we trying to create?
I don't know yet.
I always could create the sounds in my head with sampling, being real instruments imitations or weirder sounds that do not exist. But they all have my "touch", so I'm hoping to create something different.
Primer and y to he free chapters of syntorial are a great starting place.
My suggestion for progression?
Start with Primer and the lessons. Listen to the @Spidericemidas presets to get inspired and if you want (and you should), try to backwards design some patches you like as you continue to progress through syntorial.
Then chill with Primer for a while and just make music. Or you could make the mistake I made and just dive into increasingly more complex synths without actually using the older ones fully 😢. This will help you focus, make music, get skilled, ear trained, and also will help you know WHAT YOU WANT for future synths.l and sounds.
Then try Synth One as a free super powerful synth that is just a big brother to primer in many ways... But it isn't auv3. Same number of oscillators. One extra lfo with more modulation destinations. Sequencer and arpeggiator. And better fx.
Viking is a free minimoog clone without fx and is auv3. Try it in parallel to primer or synth one for variety. Very different sounding oscillators than the aforementioned primer and synth one.
Then you're off to the races. By now you'll be able to use subtractive synthesis and you'll know what you wish you had more of. Sunrizer, poison, zeeon, are your next subtractive synth ports of call for subtractive. Moog model d seems simple but is different in many ways given its ui... I don't actually think it's the easiest to use starting out given how modulation works. Anyway, at this point, with your background, they'll all make more sense.
Before you know it, you'll be trying FM and wavetable before you end up succumbing to modular, which will mean you'll design sounds but no music. It's the final resting place and destination for us all 😂
Cheers!
Ok. I'm personally addicted to the Square/Pulse Waveform with variable duty-cycle (PWM) with a bit of vibrato and light touch of filtering as well as 2 Operator FM synthesis which is quite easy to learn by experimenting.
When I hear a sound I like I go into 'detective mode' and try to figure out how it's made
The conclusion is many times that 'less is more' and keeping it as simple as possible.
Once you know how all the parameters affect the sound it will become second nature to sculpt it to your liking.
It will take some time to dig thru 'everything' and go thru all the various filter types and how they affect the sound, how does sync, ring-mod, pm/fm etc. affect the sound?
For effect processing, the easiest way is to use a basic saw-wave and listen how the effects processes it.
It will be a journey for sure, but one I feel you'll enjoy!
Sampling 'stuff' is fun, that can't be denied.
(a simple synth sound when sampled thru effects becomes something completely different).
I could not imagine trying to synthesize hitting a teacup with a spoon or running water and why bother when I can just sample it
Cheers!
Definitely.
Primer is a good one to start with.
Tal-Uno-Lx is pretty basic and easy for starters.
All you need to learn subtractive is 2 Osc through one Amp Env, 1 Filter with 1 Filter Env, 1 LFO.
That should be enough to learn easily how subtractive works and the relationship between those main elements.
As soon as you fully understand and master those few sections, you quickly just automatically start thinking of bigger designs and wanting more routing options with more Osc, Envs, Filters, LFOs etc. And there's plenty of high quality and complex synths out there on iOS to get stuck into when you're ready to go deeper, and for literally less than the cost of a pint each in many cases! Crazy.
+1 for Primer and Syntorial.
I'm amazed I can do this for free:
My other picks would be OB-XD (with external reverb), Tal-Uno-Lx, and Moog Model D.
Avoid FM synthesis to start with.
The cool thing about sampled instruments is that you don’t have to learn flute fingerings to play one “virtually”. The whole orchestra is provided in presets… I treat synths this way and just use presets and buy them all looking for just the right preset. Who am I kidding… I just like buying apps of all kinds. Sonically, Reason Compact’s Europa has the best presets for my love of that synth that sings expressively like the Wendy Carlos Moogs. A synth that makes an orchestral instrument feel limited and slips a human singer some clues on what an oscillator can do to move a human heart.
I recall an IAP was needed to unlock the controls for Europa and I also bought a massive stack of Artist presets from people like Jakob Haq.
The recent Harry Gohs “Tera Pro” covers most historic synthesis categories with the exception of granular. For that I like the simple to use Spacecraft Granular.
I do hope you don’t loose years catching up on 60 years of innovations and stop actually producing 3-4 masterpieces a week.
No, you don’t have to. But knowing how an instrument plays, what it can and cannot do really helps writing credible imitations.
In a synth or sampled instrument we have plethora of parameters that we can modify in real time with various controllers. Does that necessarily makes a real instrument limited? And is limitation a bad thing?
I’m a quick learn. Should only take me 59 years.
As long as I have music in my head, and the means to transform that into real music, I will. It isn’t a choice, I would go crazy if I had no way to put that out.
Yes, one great thing about this forum is that I think a lot of us don't have a choice but to create ☺
@Spidericemidas yup. What he said. Lol.
@jo92346 listen to this guy, he is a brilliant sound designer.
While the backwords method can definitely help you learn, especially for removing things, to see what’s left, it’s only one approach, and might not be best to start with.
Did you try that ableton synthesis interactive lesson above. It’s free. It’s pretty useful
Here’s an article on it with a link from MusicRadar
It sounds like you understand most of the pieces that affect the waveform but not the start of the process and moving through the steps. The type of synthesis and waveforms the oscillator uses will dictate a lot.
Also step by step like spider said. Take it as a bunch of individual pieces.
You know another really great way to approach synthesis is starting with a simple drum synth like RuismakerFM. It has a the basic things, you move right down the line, and it’s easy to program drum sounds.
Some good stuff here
https://synthesizeracademy.com/
Thank you all for the tips and suggestions: it's been really helpful and I truly appreciate.
I've been doing my homework since I started this thread, and I started including synth sounds in my compositions.
I think I'm still VERY heavily influenced by my classical education in music, and I can't seem (yet ?) to use those sounds like some of the super talented people here, it's like I'm just replacing parts of the orchestra with some synth sounding a bit like the same, which make it in the end not super synthetic sounding.
But I'll keep working on that.
here are my latest demos using synths (synth one, steinberg nanologue, primer, bliss monolyth, obsidian synth and a few preprogrammed synths from garageband)
Find some premade patches you like, then tear them apart and find out why you like them. See if you're then able to replicate them from scratch.
You mean Buttersynth STILL hasn't been released yet?
You are like a Pro
I’m totally incapable of doing that yet.
I don’t seem to get a grasp on the logic behind the oscillators type and how they mix to produce the final sound. Everything else I get it: it is the same with samples.