Hey guys,
this is something I´ve been thinking of a very long time.
There are way to many "how to make a wobble" or "how to make a badass reese" tutorials on the internet but only a few good ones that go further in understanding sound synthesis in general. Well, there are a lot of websites out there that contain a lot of useful information (e.g. soundonsound synth secrets) but most of them are overwhelming you with so much information that somebody who is new to this would stop experimenting.
On the other hand most of the people I know are using presets and mostly because they don´t have a clue how to manipulate the frequencies on their dedicated soft synth in the "right way". They turning a lot of knobs without having a plan what to do and in the end they are very frustrated and stop experimenting. Believe me, I know what I´m talking about. It took me a long time to understand "what comes next" and "why does nothing happen when I´m turning those knobs?". But this could be so rewarding if you only understand the signal path inside your synth.
So everytime you work on a (new) synth the first thing you should do is try to understand the signal path of it.
And after some time it will be an ease to work with other synths as well because they all have some similarities.
But for now I will show you two free softsynths and how to read them properly. Both of them are using subtractiv synthesis. Basically that means you start with a lot of frequencies (f.e. a saw osc)and cut away those frequencies you don´t need to get your timbre. Most of them share a signal path that looks like this ...
Osc -> Filter -> Amp.
Here we go...
1) This is how the iblit softsynth looks like...very clean and easy to understand if you know how it works.
2) First things first: the oscillator section. This is where you start selecting your waveform (saw or pulse in this case). This will have the most impact on your further sound. I won´t go into detail which waveform to choose from but this is something you could try on yourself. Here we have 3 different oscillators (on the left side) and the mixer where you can enable/disable all of them, adjusting the level of them and add some kind of noise.
3) The filter section. After the oscillator comes the filter section. This is where you cut (or boost) those unneeded frequencies. But keep in mind that most of the time you can assign an (gate triggered) lfo or envelope to it (there are two depth knobs: one with negative/positive values for the env and one lfo depth with only postive values). Right now they have "no depth" which means no modulation neither from the envelope nor the lfo.
4) The amp section. Normally the amp section of each synthesizer is triggered by an ordinary ADSR envelope. This is where you assign the behavior of your sound when you press a key on your midi keyboard. If you want to have a pad you probably need full sustain with a little bit of attack and release. If you want a short bass sound you only need a little bit of decay and release.
5) MOVEMENT!!! The last section will be the modulation section. This is where you bring additional movement to your sounds (f.e. a vibrato). Here we have only two lfos and both of them have been already assigned to either the oscillators or the filter cut off frequency. (see filter section and lfo depth for the amount of it). You also see a restart button. This one is common on most synths (sometimes labelled as "key sync"). If you have enabled this one the lfo cycle restarts every time you trigger a key on your keyboard. If you disable it the cycle runs and runs and runs...
6) Now that you know where to start and what comes next on the iblit try it on your own and do some nasty shit. ... or move on to the next synth which will be SUPERWAVE P8. Looks complicated? Only at first glance.
Take a look at the top. This is where the smart author of it shows us the signal path (thx for that). This will help us a lot understanding this synth.
As you can see the signal path looks the same like the iblit. Thx to subtractive synthesis for this one.
1) The osc section. I wont go into detail but here you can see a lot more options than at the iblit. Take a closer look at the super wave section. This one only has some kind of impact if you also enables "super wave" in the Osc Mode Section (single, dual, super). So turning those knobs while having single mode enabled won´t do anything to your sound.
2) The filter section.
3) The amp section.
4) The delay section. On other synths this is where you will find further effects like a delay, chorus etc.
5) The modulation section. Now here we have a lot more routing options. It´s up to you where you need an lfo (osc pitch, filter cut off frequency etc).
6) Some misc. stuff. Other than the iblit which is monophonic (only one note at the time) this one could also be polyphonic (which means you could trigger multiple keys at the same time and hear all those notes simultaneously).
7) And this is how osc1 goes through all of this.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this little post and got some information which will help you understanding your synth a little bit more. I hope you start experimenting right now because all you need is to understand the signal path and the rest is up to you.
Cheers
Halma
this is something I´ve been thinking of a very long time.
There are way to many "how to make a wobble" or "how to make a badass reese" tutorials on the internet but only a few good ones that go further in understanding sound synthesis in general. Well, there are a lot of websites out there that contain a lot of useful information (e.g. soundonsound synth secrets) but most of them are overwhelming you with so much information that somebody who is new to this would stop experimenting.
On the other hand most of the people I know are using presets and mostly because they don´t have a clue how to manipulate the frequencies on their dedicated soft synth in the "right way". They turning a lot of knobs without having a plan what to do and in the end they are very frustrated and stop experimenting. Believe me, I know what I´m talking about. It took me a long time to understand "what comes next" and "why does nothing happen when I´m turning those knobs?". But this could be so rewarding if you only understand the signal path inside your synth.
So everytime you work on a (new) synth the first thing you should do is try to understand the signal path of it.
And after some time it will be an ease to work with other synths as well because they all have some similarities.
But for now I will show you two free softsynths and how to read them properly. Both of them are using subtractiv synthesis. Basically that means you start with a lot of frequencies (f.e. a saw osc)and cut away those frequencies you don´t need to get your timbre. Most of them share a signal path that looks like this ...
Osc -> Filter -> Amp.
Here we go...
1) This is how the iblit softsynth looks like...very clean and easy to understand if you know how it works.
2) First things first: the oscillator section. This is where you start selecting your waveform (saw or pulse in this case). This will have the most impact on your further sound. I won´t go into detail which waveform to choose from but this is something you could try on yourself. Here we have 3 different oscillators (on the left side) and the mixer where you can enable/disable all of them, adjusting the level of them and add some kind of noise.
3) The filter section. After the oscillator comes the filter section. This is where you cut (or boost) those unneeded frequencies. But keep in mind that most of the time you can assign an (gate triggered) lfo or envelope to it (there are two depth knobs: one with negative/positive values for the env and one lfo depth with only postive values). Right now they have "no depth" which means no modulation neither from the envelope nor the lfo.
4) The amp section. Normally the amp section of each synthesizer is triggered by an ordinary ADSR envelope. This is where you assign the behavior of your sound when you press a key on your midi keyboard. If you want to have a pad you probably need full sustain with a little bit of attack and release. If you want a short bass sound you only need a little bit of decay and release.
5) MOVEMENT!!! The last section will be the modulation section. This is where you bring additional movement to your sounds (f.e. a vibrato). Here we have only two lfos and both of them have been already assigned to either the oscillators or the filter cut off frequency. (see filter section and lfo depth for the amount of it). You also see a restart button. This one is common on most synths (sometimes labelled as "key sync"). If you have enabled this one the lfo cycle restarts every time you trigger a key on your keyboard. If you disable it the cycle runs and runs and runs...
6) Now that you know where to start and what comes next on the iblit try it on your own and do some nasty shit. ... or move on to the next synth which will be SUPERWAVE P8. Looks complicated? Only at first glance.
Take a look at the top. This is where the smart author of it shows us the signal path (thx for that). This will help us a lot understanding this synth.
As you can see the signal path looks the same like the iblit. Thx to subtractive synthesis for this one.
1) The osc section. I wont go into detail but here you can see a lot more options than at the iblit. Take a closer look at the super wave section. This one only has some kind of impact if you also enables "super wave" in the Osc Mode Section (single, dual, super). So turning those knobs while having single mode enabled won´t do anything to your sound.
2) The filter section.
3) The amp section.
4) The delay section. On other synths this is where you will find further effects like a delay, chorus etc.
5) The modulation section. Now here we have a lot more routing options. It´s up to you where you need an lfo (osc pitch, filter cut off frequency etc).
6) Some misc. stuff. Other than the iblit which is monophonic (only one note at the time) this one could also be polyphonic (which means you could trigger multiple keys at the same time and hear all those notes simultaneously).
7) And this is how osc1 goes through all of this.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this little post and got some information which will help you understanding your synth a little bit more. I hope you start experimenting right now because all you need is to understand the signal path and the rest is up to you.
Cheers
Halma
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