How to make soundsin general on synths

I'm very new to synths(only using a vst atm actually, but the same basic concept is there I'm sure) and just want to learn. How do you even begin to make a sound? To give an idea for anybody who may have this, I'm using Aturia's Yamaha CS-80 vst. There's switches for a lot of stuff here, but they seem to be basically to modify the sounds rather than like...make one from scratch. I'm at a loss to explain what I'm seeing. Lets just say there's so-called "templates" provided for expirimenting with, like simple waveform and envelope sounds. Now I can mess with all the switches I want, but I'm not really getting how to evolve it anything past the basis of what it is already, as in I can mess with general timbre of it I think, but for example if I wanted to get it to a sounds I heard off Selected Ambient Works 2 for example, I just don't see where you go to actually start forming it into a very unique sound different from what it started off as.

It's hard to express myself here as I don't understand anything... So if anyone just knows of like a source to learn from, that'd be much appreciated. It's tiring to use presets instead of actually getting to like produce a sound you may have in your head or something.

Websites rather than books would be much appreciated..though i guess books can't hurt :p

Find a VST oscilloscope to see how you're actually changing the waveform. This will help you understand how different voice generators go together to make a sound. Either way the best way to learn I think is exploration.

If you have some money lying around and want a more hands on way to learn synth patch editing, the Korg MS2000B is an excellent, relatively low cost ($500-$800) synthesizer that has great capabilities to not only learn, but make music with.

Here is a good technical explanation of how synths generally work: Synths

It sounds like you really want to understand.... here are the only 2 things you should need for a while.

(Modular) Synthesis Tutorial

Link to a page with Nord Modular G2 demo software

This is a demo software program, that shows you what you can do with the actual hardware (which works in combination with software). Basically, its fully functional, except several modules, and you can only play one note at a time, and you can't load it like a VST... it's a stand alone program. You can save the files though, so you can work on them over time.

The first link is a history of synthesis, as well as a how-to, as well as a how-to for the Nord Modular G2, specifically.

Take these two, and call me in the morning.

  Bramsworth said:

Synth virgin

Synth GANGBANG.

  Bramsworth said:

I'm very new to synths(only using a vst atm actually, but the same basic concept is there I'm sure) and just want to learn. How do you even begin to make a sound? To give an idea for anybody who may have this, I'm using Aturia's Yamaha CS-80 vst. There's switches for a lot of stuff here, but they seem to be basically to modify the sounds rather than like...make one from scratch. I'm at a loss to explain what I'm seeing. Lets just say there's so-called "templates" provided for expirimenting with, like simple waveform and envelope sounds. Now I can mess with all the switches I want, but I'm not really getting how to evolve it anything past the basis of what it is already, as in I can mess with general timbre of it I think, but for example if I wanted to get it to a sounds I heard off Selected Ambient Works 2 for example, I just don't see where you go to actually start forming it into a very unique sound different from what it started off as.

 

It's hard to express myself here as I don't understand anything... So if anyone just knows of like a source to learn from, that'd be much appreciated. It's tiring to use presets instead of actually getting to like produce a sound you may have in your head or something.

 

Websites rather than books would be much appreciated..though i guess books can't hurt :p

CS-80 is a beast. start with something simpler. if this were in person, the best thing would be for me to give you a hands-on lesson...

anyways, first and most essential point is that your standard subtractive synth is not some mysterious monolithic thing with switches, but rather a collection of smaller, discrete functional units: oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs. a car has an engine, brakes, suspension, lights -- all separate systems, fairly independent of each other. we just call it a car, just as we call a synth a synth. understand all the individual components of the synth, and you will have the basis to understand the synth as a whole. start with that list of four i gave... wikipedia perhaps?

finally: keep messing with it. that's how i picked it up. still one of my favorite pastimes, just mucking with synths, no particular goal in mind. :laughing:

  Tamas said:

If you have some money lying around and want a more hands on way to learn synth patch editing, the Korg MS2000B is an excellent, relatively low cost ($500-$800) synthesizer that has great capabilities to not only learn, but make music with.

well, i agree on choice - MS2000 is the bomb, excellent, excellent choice of first synth - but i disagree on price.

rack version of ms2k should go for like $200-300, keyboard for $300-400. i wouldn't pay any more than that, anyways.

my synths are lowered and have race exhausts.

  hahathhat said:

CS-80 is a beast. start with something simpler.

yes! please!

here's a comprehensive glossary that will help you out: http://www.soundonsound.com/information/Glossary.php

  Kcinsu said:

(Modular) Synthesis Tutorial

this is a must.

  BCM said:

my synths are lowered and have race exhausts.

Riced Out Synthesis

you better believe it.

  BCM said:

my synths are lowered and have race exhausts.

LOL!

  Kcinsu said:

It sounds like you really want to understand.... here are the only 2 things you should need for a while.

 

(Modular) Synthesis Tutorial

 

Link to a page with Nord Modular G2 demo software

 

This is a demo software program, that shows you what you can do with the actual hardware (which works in combination with software). Basically, its fully functional, except several modules, and you can only play one note at a time, and you can't load it like a VST... it's a stand alone program. You can save the files though, so you can work on them over time.

 

The first link is a history of synthesis, as well as a how-to, as well as a how-to for the Nord Modular G2, specifically.

 

Take these two, and call me in the morning.

I went for a degree in synthesis and all I got was this demo software.

Wow, thanks for all the links. I definitely will read all of them through during the course of the next year :p

I wish I had the money for a real synth. I used to actually have a yamaha sy99 but it came all broken(both UPS and the moron sellers fault). The guy who sold it to me never payed me back either so I lost over $700. So you can imagine unless it's in person i don't really want to get such a huge piece of equipment through the mail ever again.

  Braintree said:

  Kcinsu said:

It sounds like you really want to understand.... here are the only 2 things you should need for a while.

 

(Modular) Synthesis Tutorial

 

Link to a page with Nord Modular G2 demo software

 

This is a demo software program, that shows you what you can do with the actual hardware (which works in combination with software). Basically, its fully functional, except several modules, and you can only play one note at a time, and you can't load it like a VST... it's a stand alone program. You can save the files though, so you can work on them over time.

 

The first link is a history of synthesis, as well as a how-to, as well as a how-to for the Nord Modular G2, specifically.

 

Take these two, and call me in the morning.

 

I went for a degree in synthesis and all I got was this demo software.

speak for yoself yo!

i chose not to do a music-related degree because i didnt want to ruin the mysterious trial and error enjoyment id been experiencing since i was 12-13 (and because im a good designer).

part of the joy is being lost in it all. fuck around and google specific things.

  BCM said:

my synths are lowered and have race exhausts.

Somehow I know Forat must have done a "The Fast and the Furious" MPC mod :stuart:

  Idrn said:

i chose not to do a music-related degree because i didnt want to ruin the mysterious trial and error enjoyment id been experiencing since i was 12-13 (and because im a good designer).

 

part of the joy is being lost in it all. fuck around and google specific things.

I love how you are so sure of things of which you have no idea what you are talking about.

I see you are currently responding.

Let me just throw in there really quickly, that my response to braintree, was about the software... not the degree.... I was refering to the fact that I have the hardware versions of the demo software.... in case you were reading into the degree part of the conversation, hence your insecure self justification.

carry on.

  Kcinsu said:

  Idrn said:

i chose not to do a music-related degree because i didnt want to ruin the mysterious trial and error enjoyment id been experiencing since i was 12-13 (and because im a good designer).

 

part of the joy is being lost in it all. fuck around and google specific things.

 

I love how you are so sure of things of which you have no idea what you are talking about.

haha joker, i saw your post before you edited. be ashamed.

just to clarify though, i dont think i was making out i was sure of anything other than a personal joy for playing around with music. i learnt about synthesis by playing around with synths and learning aurally what things did. from this you can accumulate questions and enthusiasm to learn about specific areas which can be asked/discussed or googled.

my original post wasnt directed at you either. something i am sure of though mate, is that people who approach music without 10 grand in fees arnt just monkeys poking away and hoping for good results. some people also prefer to show what theyve learnt in their music, not banter.

  hahathhat said:

CS-80 is a beast. start with something simpler.

I'm not even sure what to say to you... you're just fucking laughable.

and was PMing me the exact same message is kind of redundant.

well none of this makes sense after you replaced egomaniacal toss with a jibe at me. i cant be fucked with this anyway. /internets

goodnight

none of it made sense from the beginning.

you say it wasnt directed at me, or anyone in particular, but if you search this thread (do it... do an apple F) for the word "degree" it only shows up in braintrees post, and then yours... so I find it hard to believe your comment was completely unrelated.

And I fail to see how I'm the ego maniac, when you are the one jumping in talking about yourself, with no real connection to the subject at hand. Like I said, no one mentioned the words "study" or "degree" yet for some reason you felt you needed to come and tell us why you chose not to study, or get a degree in music. And then the side note of you being a good designer.

Egomaniac indeed.

And talking about jibes... what jibes? The part when I say you have no idea what you're talking about? That's not a jibe, that's fact. You don't know what goes into studying music formally... you made it sound like you did, and from my experiences was untrue, so I said you had no idea what you're talking about.

You were far more attacking than I.

And what is this nonsense about "some people also prefer to show what theyve learnt in their music, not banter"? Are you really criticizing me for not spewing my tracks all over the place? I haven't posted in a very long time, because I believe in quality control... I'm working damn hard on my music, and when it's ready, you'll hear it. In the mean time, yes, I talk about music... excuse me.

My main point, from the beginning, is that you talk a lot, but you really don't know what you're talking about. You for example, you don't know how I got into synthesis, or how I learned it. If you think my life in music began at school, you're very wrong. If you think music school, and in fact the process of learning a creative craft is as simple as: just showing up to a class, and being good at it (which from what you said, seemed to be (basically) what you were boiling it down to), then you are extremely misinformed.

Surely you know from your graphic courses, that you aren't simply taught something, and that's it... you've mastered it, understood it, and "own" that material, so to speak... there is a FUCK load of experimenting and blind stumbling... questions that you come across, and answers you seek out.

And how is my being fascinated with music and synthesizers, and eventually deciding to go to music school to learn more, really that different than your description of being fascinated with music and synthesizers, and eventually deciding to go to google to learn more? Different scales, obviously... but it's the same fundamental process, which you seem to imply is somehow invalid.

I don't even have anything to say about your name calling (and duplicate PM) because it is pretty self descriptive of the type of person that would feel the need to say that.

look, turning this into a me vs. you argument by building some 2 page 'rebuttal' on a framework of false accusations, insinuations and straw men is at best pathetic, at worst devious.

im not prepared to tussle in the mud with someone i dont give a fuck about and wasnt addressing. especially when that mud is diarrhea spewed forth from a flapping lie-hole.

my last post was cordial enough because i saw this approaching Internet Argument. its now obvious that you took this as an opportunity to go on all out offensive, largely by setting me up as the unreasonable party in a series of arguments that did not exist in the first place.

the main problem (and your self styled "main point") is that youre operating under a guise of me caring about you.

download the Schwar Olga VST (virtual vintage russian analogue synth). it's pretty straightforward except all the knobs are labelled in german so you can experiment blindly which i imagine would be quite fun if you dont know anything about synths. there is a way to switch to english, but like i said its pretty straightforward, 2 oscillators, filter and amplifier evelopes, LFOs and a few bits more. Looks pretty ugly but you can get a fully functioning one free. I think theres a 5 second wait to load it up until you pay 50 odd quid for it, but thats not so bad as all the functions (including save) are present in the free version (which is nice of them)