synth sound design

[lpuma]

Yo, (yes i said yo cause i'm an ignorant ethug beatmaker), as a beatmaker i use to play with the presets i find in my synthetizers, i change some filter or adsr settings to find what i need, i know filters, the adsrz, the ocillators, the glide, the tune, the arpegiators, the fx etc. but i want to step up my sound design skills. I want to program my synth myself without using the presets, and hear what i really want. (every time i really try to do this i end lost in the ocean of my ignorance)

do you know any book/tutorial/site/forum that can help me?

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by lpuma

Yo, (yes i said yo cause i'm an ignorant ethug beatmaker), as a beatmaker i use to play with the presets i find in my synthetizers, i change some filter or adsr settings to find what i need, i know filters, the adsrz, the ocillators, the glide, the tune, the arpegiators, the fx etc. but i want to step up my sound design skills. I want to program my synth myself without using the presets, and hear what i really want. (every time i really try to do this i end lost in the ocean of my ignorance)

do you know any book/tutorial/site/forum that can help me?

What synth do you have?
The manual for it would be the best place to start.
I've done a lot of sound design in the past- some in the games industry but also for house artists. If you want to get serious about sound design then I suggest getting Native Instruments Reaktor and start building synths.
Getting a modular analog synth is very useful for concepts, but they are expensive these days.

Good luck, hope this helps.

[lpuma]

Originally Posted by richmondjames

What synth do you have?
The manual for it would be the best place to start.
I've done a lot of sound design in the past- some in the games industry but also for house artists. If you want to get serious about sound design then I suggest getting Native Instruments Reaktor and start building synths.
Getting a modular analog synth is very useful for concepts, but they are expensive these days.

Good luck, hope this helps.

yeah reaktor... i tried it, maybe a lil too much possibilities for me at the moment. for example: the arturia minimoog, or the virtual ms20 from korg, but the synth is not the problem, as i said i know how to use filters, adsr etc... i dont need a tutorial about how to handle a soustractive/fm/rompler synth, i need some rules, for example "how to program strings" (well i know you have to play with the adsr), or "how to program a nice pad" etc... I need this kinda tips. so, any suggestions?

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by lpuma

yeah reaktor... i tried it, maybe a lil too much possibilities for me at the moment. for example: the arturia minimoog, or the virtual ms20 from korg, but the synth is not the problem, as i said i know how to use filters, adsr etc... i dont need a tutorial about how to handle a soustractive/fm/rompler synth, i need some rules, for example "how to program strings" (well i know you have to play with the adsr), or "how to program a nice pad" etc... I need this kinda tips. so, any suggestions?

I know what you mean- Reaktor will give you a good grounding as it has many possibilities for different types of synthesis.

What is your synth(s)?

Programming an additive synth vs a wavetable vs subtractive, vs granular - well it all depends what you want to do.
I don't know of a single resource for teaching you how to do this.
Most people just start tweaking existing presets to learn and then start bulding them from the groun dup once they have it under control/

How are you on synthesis theory?

Do you understand how subtractive differs from additive, wavetable, granular, FM, physical modelling?
Do you understand how this all works?
Do you understand how wavetable synthesis and sampling differ (I mean true wavetable synthesis, not the type attirbuted to creative style soundcards).

If so then you should be able to conceptualise what you want by thinking about it.
You'll know what is possible and what isn't- for instance expecting highly realistic acoustic instrument sounds from (EDITED- said wavetable but meant granular- not thinking straight today) wouldnt not be fair.

There is more to it than simply 'how do I do xyz'- there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, or at least to synthesis the sound of a skinned cat.

If you have any specific questions I'll be happy to help.

Sound on Sound had a good example based series on synth programming a few months back.

[lpuma]

well, I know soustractive synths are based on filters, i know analog or virtual analog use to be soustractive. I know fm synths is kinda mutli oscilator that feeds hiself back or something like that (i admit i'm scared to program fm synths). i know wavetables are short samples the synth use to create the sounds. i know granular synths use samples too but divide them in "grains"...

but i dont know how to get that fat drum kik out of the ms20 by myself,like you say i just use other ppl presets and try to changes them to my taste (sometimes after half an hour of destroying the program, i come back to the preset and find it way nicer than my divagations), lol.

soft synth that i like and use:

soustactive: arturia minimoog, korg ms20, korg polysix, gmedia imposcar.
wavetable: korg wavestation
fm: ableton operator
(rompler: kontakt/ableton simpler)

for now i'd like to start with the soustractive synth. I have to find that sound on sound, maybe it will help me, like you say i need examples of programations to undestand the process by doing it myself (in theory i undestand it but when it comes to reality, i'm limited by my non experience).

If anybody know where i can find some examples of programations for synth, feel free to post it here.

thank you richmondjames.

[Zacchino]

This post is really interesting, richmondjames.

I usually end up buying / downloading presets, patches, banks, etc. As I have ZERO patience with soft synth (but illimited patience with well made hardware synth).

Let's begin with a basic question : how many waveforms there is in the "try again" by Timberland (for Aallyiah).

My guess is a Saw tooth (of course)... And something like a transient to make it kinda "wet".

What do you think ?

Also, if you have good tutorials webpages on this subject, it'd be really helpful.

Isaac

[Cojo]

You'll need:

2 oscillators
1 lfo
1 filter
1 adsr
1 vca

Set the lfo to tri and slow speed.
Set the oscillators to saw.
Detune oscilator one -1 to -2 cent, detune oscillator two +1 to +2 cent.
Assign the lfo to the pitch of oscillator 2 with very little amount.
Also assign the lfo to the filters cutoff with little to medium amount.
Adjust the filter cutoff so the lfo turns the cutoff just about when the filter can't get any more open.
Set resonance farly low.
Assign the adsr to the vca.
Adjust attack to 0.5-1 sek, decay to 1-4 sek, sustain to 50-75% and release to 2-6 sek.

If you want to spice it all you can do that by adding another triangle lfo at slow speed and assign to the pitch of all oscilators with very little amount.

Also you can add another sinus wave oscillator one octave belove the other two.


Cook in micro oven for ten minutes and you're ready to rock!


/Cojo

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by Zacchino

This post is really interesting, richmondjames.

I usually end up buying / downloading presets, patches, banks, etc. As I have ZERO patience with soft synth (but illimited patience with well made hardware synth).
Let's begin with a basic question : how many waveforms there is in the "try again" by Timberland (for Aallyiah).
My guess is a Saw tooth (of course)... And something like a transient to make it kinda "wet".
What do you think ?
Also, if you have good tutorials webpages on this subject, it'd be really helpful.

Isaac

Thanks Isaac, I like to try and help.
Um, don't know that track actually- I'm not really into new hiphop- I mostly listen to old stuff and nu skool breaks these days.
But I'm a bit of a synth-head-and enjoy hanging out in the hip hop forum and I am on nubreaks forum quite a bit too.

I can suggest getting a Nord Lead II- the rack version goes for a couple of hundred quid these days- definitely a pukka synth and it is laid out properly so you can really get in there and learn it, without loads of menus getting in the way.

I really like Quasimidi synths (I have all of them) as although they are menu driven they are pretty logical and I like the filters.

The best way to design sounds is to be able to conceptualise what you want and then think about ways of getting it- sounds pretty simple, but vague and I apologise for this, but there isn't an easy way of doing it.

SOS articles are great for 'I have a juno106 and want to make a celeste sound' instances- but to learn how to program synths 'properly' (if you'll forgive the term) means you need to understand the various types of synthesis quite well, know what suit which application anf then work on getting the sounds you want over a period of time.
It is certainly not a 'monkey-see-monkey-do' process, anymore than engineering is.



The SOS articles will start you in the right direction though.

[lpuma]

thank you very much everybody, exactly what the monkey needed to get started, but the monkey not so dumb, the monkey will soon be able to program his own sounds. forreal, i think i learned more about sound design today, than in yearz of reading esoteric articles.thank you.

cojo i folowed your instructions on the virtual minimoog (i tried to), it sound cool.

[babyface_finsta]

V-Synth....

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by lpuma

thank you very much everybody, exactly what the monkey needed to get started, but the monkey not so dumb, the monkey will soon be able to program his own sounds. forreal, i think i learned more about sound design today, than in yearz of reading esoteric articles.thank you.

cojo i folowed your instructions on the virtual minimoog (i tried to), it sound cool.

Oh oooh...

hrmmm, I don't know how to say this but...








...the oven part was a joke!

Originally Posted by richmondjames

I can suggest getting a Nord Lead II- the rack version goes for a couple of hundred quid these days- definitely a pukka synth and it is laid out properly so you can really get in there and learn it, without loads of menus getting in the way.

Yep, a good and easy synth that also a great manual with all the basics in soundcreating explained.

/Cojo

[justdatruth]

Theres a a pretty decent synth programming tutorial on the Access wesbsite as well (the virus programming tutorial i think its called) , its obviously geared towards their Virus range so its general usefulness is a little limited but theres some decent tips n tricks in there too.

http://www.access-music.de/downloads...ct=virusb#cat4

[lpuma]

Originally Posted by Cojo

Oh oooh...

hrmmm, I don't know how to say this but...








...the oven part was a joke!




/Cojo

yeah, ho ho ho, i do wit what i have in my kitchen man, sorry if i'm not part of the sooooo slutty club. whatever, thank you.