Synth Programming (Future Music)

7/24/2019 Synth Programming (Future Music)

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Synth Programming (pt I)

Ever wondered how synth sounds are made? Start here in ourfive part guide You've bought your first synth. You've got it home. You're looking at it. You've played with the basic sounds. And you're wondering, now what? You have two options here. You can stay huddled with the innocent masses,content to doodle away on the presets, using the same canned noises that everyone else does. Or you can breakout into uncharted territory, learn how to put your own sounds together and make new and fresh choons thatsound nothing like anyone else.The reality is that option 1 is perfectly OK for a lot of people. If your only synth is a budget soundcard, then you'remore or less stuck with the basic sounds anyway. There's very little you can do to change them even if you wantto.But if you have something more sophisticated - a workstation like the Korg Trinity or Triton, a physical-modellingsynth like the Access Virus or Nord Lead, a soft synth like ReBirth or Reaktor, or even a go-anywhere box like the Yamaha RM1x - then knowing how to put sounds together isn't about being clever. It's more about giving yourselfa whole lot more synth for your money.Instead of being stuck with the original factory noises you'll be able to turn your synth into anything you want it tobe. And if you have one of the more upmarket modelling synths, you'll have an endless supply of full-on customnoises to spread around your tracks. You'll also be able to tweak the sounds that are there already if they don't

quite fit with what you're working on.The easy and foolproof way to do all this is to cheat. Either buy some new sounds or download them from the Netand - if they're good - you can find yourself with a whole new synth. Of course, if you take this road, you're stillstuck with someone else's idea of what sounds good. Some sets of sounds are excellent - better than the factoryset in fact - but even so, it's still incredibly useful to know why they're good and perhaps how to modify them tosuit a different context.I nside out

So what's involved in creating sounds? You need to know two things. The first is a brief idea of how sounds workin general. The second is an understanding of how the bits inside a synth - and all the knobs and sliders - controlthe different aspects of a sound.Let's start with getting to know how sound works. Any sound or group of sounds, whether it's a train falling downthe side of a cliff, a snowflake landing on a winter lawn or a Pete Tong megamix, is made up of three things.Firstly there's pitch: high trebly bat scaring tweaks at one end and low floor-shaking rib-imploding bass at theother. Most sounds have a definite pitch. Some, like waves, don't. Some are halfway between the two, with a sortof hint of pitch, like the sound of the wind.Next there's colour. Colour - sometimes called 'timbre' in the books - is the quality that lets you tell one instrumentfrom another, even though they may be playing the same note. Imagine an expensive acoustic guitar, and acheap electric. Play the samenote on both and the pitch is identical. But the tone is completely different. Similarlya note on an oboe and a flute sounds different; different enough to be able to tell one instrument from the other.Finally there's loudness. This is basically just volume; the difference between loud and quiet. All of those three things will tell you all you need to know about one moment in the sound's life. But real soundsevolve and change, either slowly between notes or rapidly during the course of a note.Pitch canbe wobbled (think fat opera singers jiggling their stomachs and vocal chords) to create tremolo. Or it canglide between notes, instead of changing instantly. This is often known as portamento (remember those acidywhoops of yesteryear?).

Colour changes rapidly when you pluck a note on a guitar; the sound starts sharp and bright and then quicklyfades to something much more mellow. And - if you think of that same note again - the volume changes quicklytoo, with an initial quick attack and then a slow fade to silence.In terms of longer changes, sounds can fade in and out and become brighter or more mellow with respect to theother sounds around them. Colour is also tied to how hard you press, pluck, blow or otherwise get a noise out ofan instrument; usually the harder you do whatever it is you need to do, the brighter the note.The real dealSo how does a synth go about controlling and manipulating this vast universe of sonic possibilities? Well, quitecrudely actually. Inside every synth you'll find a collection of boxes that either create raw sound or shape it insome way. Some boxes work with sound directly. Some boxes control what other boxes do.Overall, it's the settings for each box and the way they're linked together that create the final sound. The moreboxes there are, and the more settings they have, the more complicated and interesting the sounds you can make

with them.The simplest synths to program are also the most popular. They're called analogue or sometimes analoguemodelling(or physical-modelling) synths because they're based on original 1960s synth design idea, but usually



updated to use computer chips instead of transistors and those Licorice Allsort capacitor and resistor thingies youcould find in the originals. An analogue synth sound starts with one or more oscillators. On their own, these sound horrible; a constant waspin-a-jar buzzing sound. If you play the keyboard, the buzzing changes in pitch. There's usually some kind ofoctave setting, which controls whether you get bass, mid or treble buzzes.On most synths there's a range of ways you change the colour of this basic buzz. You can switch between whatare called waveforms and the names of the waveforms come from the shapes you'd see (if you could see them).Sound can be analysed in this way by feeding it through an oscilloscope, which plots how the sound waveundulates or moves. The classic waveform is the pulse, but as you can manipulate soundwaves, there are variations on the shapes.Usually a synth provides some or all of the five basic waves: sawtooth, square, pulse, sine or triangle, or variations on them. Each wave sounds different:- Sine and triangle waves sound pure and flutey, because of the equal climbs and falls between the peaks andtroughs.- A sawtooth wave, with its gradual climb but sudden drop gives a full-on bright rasp.- A square wave is literally on then off, so its wave shape looks brutally, er, square. It produces a mellow but brightsound.- Pulse - if it's available - looks like and sounds similar to sine, but in place of the low troughs, it has level plains.On some synths, it can be made to shift using a trick called 'pulsewidth modulation' which produces a slow

sweeping effect that adds interest to the sound.Extra sounds

On some synths there are different variations on these basic shapes. You might get two or three saw waveforms,perhaps based on the sounds of different antique synths.Better synths have two oscillators. Often you can detune them, so they don't play at exactly the same pitch. Thisfattens out the sound or - at extreme settings - makes it out of tune. Some synths have more than two oscillators,which gives you an even fatter, heavier sound. After the oscillators, you'll find a mixer section which controls the level of each oscillator. Often here you'll find anoption to add 'noise' which is basically an unpitched rushing or rumbling sound.So far, what we've got sounds kind of scary, in a brainwashing scene from a bad 60s spy film kind of way. You'vegot a constant rasp or buzz, perhaps filled out with rushing or rumbling. It may be quite a rich-sounding rasp orbuzz, but it's still too basic to listen to for long periods.The filter optionSo next comes the filter. This takes some of the rasp or buzz away, and optionally adds some famous synth-stylesquelchiness. Filters do a lot to make the character of the final sound appealing (or not) which is why people goon about them so much.The most important control on a filter is a knob marked Cutoff. The filter acts a bit like a gate which you can openand close. When it's fully open the sound comes through unchanged. As it closes more and more of the treble partof the sound gets filtered out.It's a bit like the 'Before' and 'After' photos you see in those adverts for posh dentists in the back of lads' mags.Before the filter process, the sound is pretty messy and rough (the equivalent of dirty, nicotine-stained teeth), andafter it's pristinely clean. (What a charming analogy, if I say so myself.)When the filter's fully closed you typically won't hear anything much, apart from perhaps an occasional bassythump. In between you get the raw sound of the oscillator(s) with some of the brashness removed. And, of course,it almost goes without saying that you don't have to leave the filter at one single position.

By moving the filter from fully closed to fully open the sound gradually changes, and if you do this during a track, you get the classic filter sweeps so beloved of the rave generation of last century (yeah, that does sound weird,doesn't it!?).Following on from the filter is an amplifier. This controls final volume, in the usual volume control way. But it's alsowhere the loudness curve of the sound is shaped, using a different section of the synth, which we'll get to in aparagraph or two.Ful l effectFinally, most synths these days have some built-in effects to fatten up the sound some more. These add shimmer,space and depth to the finished result, and they go a long way to making the sound appealing. If you turn them offon just about any synth the result immediately sounds weedy and sad.Programming these effects is something that will have to wait for later in this series. For now it's enough to knowthey're there and they're important.

T ime and spaceThat's an outline of the path the sound follows. But there's more to a synth than that. Remember there are alsoways to shape how a sound evolves over time? These next few items control how that happens. Typically you'll



Tremolo A wobble in the sound created by tiny fluctuations in volume. Vibrato A wobble, similar to tremolo, but with rapid changes in pitch rather than volume.

Synth Programming (pt II)Patches, filters and more in part II of our guide...In part one of this series we covered the basics of creating sounds on a synth. Just in case you missed lastmonth's feature, or have forgotten it already, synth sounds are made using a collection of electronic boxes. Eachof these boxes shapes an aspect of what you hear.Oscillators make a harsh pitched buzzy or whiny noise which responds to the notes you play on the keyboard.Filters chop out some or all of the buzziness. The most common sort take out of the trebly bits of the buzz,although you'll come across other sorts which take out the bassy bits, or leave a small range of buzziness in themiddle. They can also - if you want them to - add a squelchy effect to the sound. Amplifiers simply control the volume of the sound. And there's moreIf these were the only boxes you had, the sound would always be static and boring. So LFOs and envelopegenerators control how the sound changes over time. The big thing to remember about both of these is that they

don't make any noise of their own. Instead they work like automatic hands that change what the oscillators, filtersand/or amplifiers are doing.LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators) produce a slow wobble, while envelope generators produce a shape thatramps up and down in a controlled way. Connected to an oscillator, these change the pitch of the sound.Connected to a filter, they change how much of the sound is being chopped out, and hence how buzzy (orsquelchy) the result. Connected to an amplifier, they change the volume, so you can create fast blips, or soundsthat fade in and out slowly.The patch is the catchLinking everything together is some sort of patching system that connects the LFOs and envelopes to theoscillators, filters, and amplifiers. On cheaper synths this fixed. On more expensive ones you can link anything toanything, to make complicated, dynamic or just plain bizarre noises.Finally on all modern synths there's an effects section which adds things like echo, chorus (to fatten out thesound), reverb (to make things sound like they're in a big space) and other less common options such asdistortion (grrrrrrrrrunge), phasing and flanging (whooshy and spacy jet plane effects) and countless variations onthese and others.Controlling it all there are memories which store all the settings for each sound. And more often than not, a wholecollection of MIDI options which let you get into the guts of the synth and control some or all of the settings from asequencer.Creating the sounds.OK, so now you've got these basics, what do you do with them? The best thing to do now is to put some soundstogether yourself, to put these basic theories into practice.Big enough?So once you've created your sound, how about making the sound bigger, or punchier? The bass is usually thereto create the foundation of a track, so you don't usually want to make bass sounds too swirly. Adding anotheroscillator or two and detuning them a lot is unlikely to sound good.

What you can do though, is add another oscillator and detune it very, very slightly. That'll thicken the sound out.Or you can add another oscillator at a different octave usually the one above. Or both.Next you can add a filter sweep. For a dry sound, keep the resonance (Q) at a minimum, and turn up the Filter EGsetting (or however it's labelled on your synth). Set the attack to a minimum, sustain to minimum and play withdecay and release till they sound good. Similarly experiment with the Filter EG setting to vary the depth of thesweep.Dynamic dynamismSo how about some dynamic variation? On both the filter and amplifier envelopes you'll usually find a settingmarked something like EG Vel Depth. This lets you change the size of the envelope depending on how hard youhit a note. On the filter envelope, it makes the sound brighter or softer; on the amplifier envelope, it makes itlouder or quieter. And when you're sequencing, it's also an easy way to introduce interesting variations to a line orriff, because you can program the note velocity in your sequencer however you want.

What about some squelchiness? To add this, just turn up the resonance control on the filter. The sound gets'wetter' as you do this. Grunge? If there's an effects section in your synth, it may have a distortion or ampsimulator option. That'll instantly dirty up and crack up the sound. Once you're started, it's easy to keep



experimenting till you get something that sounds good to you.Stuff you need to knowOK, presuming you've now got your hands dirty and have created some sounds and wellied up the filters anddynamics, we now want to delve into some essential information about the setting, but just where do these live inreal synths?If you're lucky enough to have an analogue-modelled synth like the Access Virus, Nord Lead or one of the newKorg MS2000s, then most of the settings will be right there on the front panel, pre-labelled and ready and waitingfor you. Just grab the relevant knob, and turn it until things sound right.Typically there will be an LCD window which shows you some numbers relating to the knob's position, so you canhave more precise control over what you're fiddling with.Occasionally knobs will be 'paged'. This basically means there will be a button which steps through a set ofoptions that defines what the knobs do. The envelopes on the Waldorf Microwave work like this. There are eightenvelope control knobs, which are switched between the filter/amplifier envelopes, the free envelope, and thewavetable control envelope. Press the button once to set the filter/amplifier knobs, press it again for access to thefree envelope settings, and again for the wavetable control envelope. (We explain more about wavetables in partIII) An LED lights up to tell you where you are in this scheme.Not no knobsIf the synth doesn't have knobs (like on the Roland JV series of modules or on lots of Yamaha kit), you'll have tobattle your way through some form of display and menu system. It's a pain, but the only way to do the job. Usually

you have to hit an Edit button to go into Edit mode, which makes all the settings accessible. From then on it'scursor, abbreviation and manual hell as you try to find your way to the settings you want. When you get there youmost often change them with a data entry knob or slider. Then go off and find the others.Some synths are just plain bizarre. The Yamaha AN1x uses a combined knob and menu system that must havebeen designed by someone whose brain was put in back to front. You really don't want to tackle a system like thisunless you have to.Synths go softFinally, there's the software option. Some synths have optional editing utilities for PCs and/or Macs which you cancopy from the Net or - as a last resort - buy. To use these you have to connect the synth to a computer.Once you get the software up and running, all the settings appear on the screen, where you can easily edit them.Soundcards that have editable sounds usually go for this option too.

Synth Programming (pt III)How to make scarier, wilder noises in part III...OVER THE LAST couple of editions of this series of analogue synth programming we've been dealing with thebasics of analogues. But the trouble with the basic analogue patch we've been talking about over the last fewmonths is that it's only capable of a limited number of sounds.True, you can get basses, pads and leads out of it. But they all have a very samey quality. Part of the problem isthat using simple oscillator waveforms is boring. Even detuned and filtered, two sawtooth waves playing togetherstill sound like two sawtooth waves. And if you listen to just about any professional dance CDs, you'll soon noticesome of the sounds are more complicated than that.So what can you do? First off, there's noise. Just about all synths have a noise option, which is not, as you mightexpect, any old generic sound, but means something quite specific. In a synth context, noise is a whooshingsound,much like what you'll get out of a TV when it isn't tuned to any channel.Technically it's like having an infinite number of oscillators tuned to an infinite number of pitches all varying in

volume randomly, so essentially there's no definite pitch at all.Noise is sometimes referred to by colours. Most synths will have a white noise option which is more trebly andhissy while pink noise is more of a deep bass rumble. It's really easy to make ambient wind and surf effects byrunning either of these noise through a filter... if you're that way inclined of course.Perhaps surprisingly noise is also useful for synth drum sounds. A short dose of white noise sounds a little bit likea snare sound, although you'll usually need to fill it out with anoscillator or two, and perhaps some otherprocessing, in order to create a sound which is interesting enough to be useful.Then there's the sample playback option. Instead of a simple waveform, you get a sample (or a recording) of areal instrument: piano, guitar, orchestral strings, another synth or whatever. Although it was invented in the mid80s, this kind of synthesis is still popular. Synths like the Korg Trinity and Triton and the Roland JV series use it togood effect because it's a cheap shortcut way to get real(ish) instrument sounds out of a keyboard. PCsoundcards do this too.

You can still shape the sound with filters and the amplifier, so if you want a piano sound with a slow fade in, this isthe way to do it. Or you use the same approach to go the pretend analogue route. Keyboards like the QuasimidiSirius come with a whole load of synth samples already in place. This practice, known as sample + synthesis, is a



cheap and easy way of getting analogue noises out of simple digital hardware.The big problem is the sounds tend to be canned. If you want a really fat analogue sound, you're unlikely to get itthis way because samples simply can't duplicate the life and variation of a real analogue synth.One of the reasons for this is because better analogue synths offer another couple of more complicated optionswhich we haven't looked at yet. If you want interesting and unique analogue sounds, as opposed to just plainpredictable ones, it helps a lot to understand how these work.

What's the frequency Kenneth?Frequency modulation or FM (not to be confused with the abbreviation for a certain well-known, bestselling,monthly music technology magazine of course) enables you to wobble the pitch of one oscillator with another. Youcan get fat ripping, tearing, and bell-like sounds this way.Some synths (such as the Pro-Five soft synth reviewed in FM issue 96) also let you control the filter like this forsimilar effects. The exact sound you get depends on the pitch relationship between the oscillators, and on howmuch you apply.On high-end analogue synths you'll often see a knob marked FM or perhaps FM depth which controls exactly this.On very high-end synths you can create dynamic depth FM by routing the oscillator which is doing the wobblingthrough an amplifier controlled by an envelope generator.Basic analogue FM is easy enough to handle. As soon as you start experimenting you'll hear that at mostoscillator ratios and depths the sound is pretty much a wibbly, out-of-tune mess; possibly useful if you're TrentReznor but otherwise not.

Once in a while though, at certain magic settings - which you have to find by trial and error - the sound snaps intofocus and you get interesting, rich tones which sound nothing like conventional analogue synthesis. You canmake hollow-sounding pads, bell sounds, chunky slappy basses or ear-bending leads like this.There's a lot of maths behind FM which usually gets quoted in articles like this, but you needn't worry about that.(Not unless you're a bit of a sad anorak who loses sleep over these things). All you really need to know is usingtrial, error and your ears will get you a lot further than any amount of wibble about modulation indices and Besselfunctions.That syncing feeling Another option you can use is called oscillator sync. This makes classic screaming solo sounds. It ties oneoscillator to the pitch of another, so you get a waveform which is a combination of the two. As the relative pitchchanges, the slave oscillator is forced to follow or sync to the pitch of the master. In practice this means the truepitch doesn't change but the sound quality changes dramatically. Typically it starts to scream or wail in adistinctive kind of way.Like FM, sync is a high-end kind of feature which you only find on more expensive synths. Usually all you get is abutton or menu option which turns it on and off for the slave oscillator(s). You can get some fun effects by usingan LFO or envelope to change the pitch of the oscillator which has been sync'd up.There's nothing to stop you using sync on pads and bass sounds but it's usually a bit full-on for anything whichisn't right at the front of a mix. There's also nothing to prevent you from using FM and sync together. When youdo, strange things happen. In fact what you get depends very much on what synth you're using.This is where sound programming can be fun; it's not just about theories any more, it's about pushing the limits ofwhat your kit can do and creating some excellent and unique sounds in the process.

Waving awaySome synths - particularly the Waldorf Wave and Microwave and the Access Virus - get more from their oscillatorsby offering wavetable synthesis. With this, you get a library of simple waveforms which the oscillator can play.But instead of setting up the oscillator with, say, a modified sawtooth from the library and sticking with it, you can

switch between waveforms with an envelope or LFO while the oscillator is playing. In effect the oscillator morphsbetween one waveform and another. Or it can switch randomly between completely unrelated waveforms.Wavetable synthesis is great for spiky and sharp digital sounds or for slowly evolving random pad sounds.Waldorf's Wave series even lets you upload your own wavetables. So you can start with a sample which has beenconverted into a wavetable and scan through it to create your own completely original sounds.Korg made a synth (actually a range of synths) called the Wavestation, which used nothing but wavetabletechnology. These are still popular with anyone who wants pad sounds which go on forever without repeating.Wavestations can also create rhythmic sample sequences. The Wavestation presets soon became clichés, butanyone who has a Wavestation and hasn't experimented with it will find they can create some unique riffs andlines by stringing together some of the sounds in the preset sample memory.Give me a ringOne final option found on some synths is a ring modulator. If you put two pure pitches through a ring modulator

you get two different pitches out the other end. Because of some devilishly complicated and fiendishly cleverdesign, the end pitches happen to be the sum and difference frequencies.So, if you put 300Hz and 400Hz sine waves in (if you remember from last month's Synth programming feature,



sine waves are pure tones with no other ingredients) you get sine waves at 100Hz (400Hz - 300Hz) and 700Hz(400Hz + 300Hz) out the other end.If you feed in more complex tones, with more complex ingredients, each of the ingredients will produce sum anddifference tones of their own. The end result usually sounds like a clangy, bell-like sound, or like some of theweird noises radios make.If you change any of the pitches you can actually hear the sum and difference tones moving in opposite directions.So what use is this in practice? Well, ring modulators are great for fattening up sounds, for giving analoguesounds a bit of a digital edge, and of course, for bell-like or shortwave radio noises and effects. As usual you can forget the theory for most things and just use your ears. As a rule though, if you have a soundwhich is too rounded and analogue, plugging in a ring modulator, or turning up its volume, can be an excellentway to give it more character. Another use for a ring modulator is simulating cymbals, hi-hats and other synthpercussion.Skip to my filters?So what about filters? Filters have their own options and complications. Most synths have low-pass filters whichlet bassy sounds through, but trim off the treble. These are the most useful kind, but if you build a track out of lotsof low-pass filtered sounds things can get muddy and unclear down at the bottom end.High-pass filters remove the bass. These are great for stringy pad sounds, for simulating hi-hats and other synthpercussion. Band-pass filters remove both bass and treble and keep the bit in the middle. As with high-pass filters,these are worth using to avoid low-end audio sludge in a track. They're also excellent for mid-range sequenced

sounds that cut through a mix. (The filter on the TB-303 is a kind of cross between a low-pass and a band-pass,which is one reason why the 303 sounds so up-front when you turn up the resonance on it.)Some expensive synths have two filters instead of one. On some you can connect these in series or parallel andeven control them with separate envelopes and LFOs. Total madness can easily ensue with these and there areno rules about how to use them. Although if you want vocal-ish sounds it's worth knowing about formants, but you'll have to wait until next month to find out about those.One interesting effect is to put high- and low-pass filters in series, so the sound seems to evaporate from themiddle as the filters cross. You also get some interesting and unpredictable interactions between filter types if youblend their outputs. Again, it's best just to experiment.So that's it for now. In part IV I'll be back with information about how to put everything together and control it overMIDI. See you then!

Synth Programming (pt IV)part IV of our in-depth guide to synth programmingTHE PREVIOUS three episodes of this synth programming series have introduced you to the basics and by now you should know what each part of a synth does to the sound and how the parts can be connected together. Thismonth we'll be looking at some interesting combinations and patches and how to integrate your synth with otherpieces of kit.Let's start with those patches. Once you get out of the bargain basement, most synths have a modulation matrixwhich lets you connect bits to other bits. A lot of the time the mod matrix feature doesn't get used for muchbecause it's quite hard to figure out how you're supposed to drive it. This is really a shame because you can reallygo overboard with this part of a synth and use it to make completely mad or, at the very least, some deeplyinteresting noises.The job of the matrix is to let you connect the ins and the outs together. Once this has been done you can start tobring out the more interesting programming possibilities which your synth is capable of.

Examples? Well, how about the modulation section on the Pro-Five soft synth. All you've got here are two knobsand three switches. It may not look like much, but you can do a surprising amount here. The switches controlwhat's affected by this section. Press the Freq A button and the frequency of the first oscillator will be modulated.PW A changes the pulsewidth (wave shape) of the oscillator. Filt changes the filter cutoff. And for the inputs, FiltEnv is the filter envelope. Osc B is the second oscillator.If you turn the switches off and set the knobs to zero, nothing happens. Now, if you press Freq A and turn up Filtenv, the filter envelope will start controlling the pitch of oscillator A. Depending on the envelope settings, you'll getpitch swoops up and down or short Kraftwerk-style blips.Press Freq A again to turn it off and then select PWA. Now, if you select the square wave output from oscillator A you will hear the waveshape changing as you hold down the note. This is great for spiky, retro simulations of aninstrument called a Clavinet. If you turn off PWA and turn on Filt, you will be routing the filter envelope to thefilter.

There isn't much point in doing this because there's already a knob which does this.If you turn the Filt Env knob to zero and turn up Osc B all will be revealed. Now the filter cutoff is being modulatedby the oscillator. Depending on how it's set up, this will either give you a tearing, squelchy, buzzy effect or LFOlike



filter sweeps. Not weird enough? Then press Freq A as well and you should get the FM effect we talked aboutin part III.Modulation, ins and outsPro-Five's mod matrix is incredibly simple. More often than not you may find you've got a handful of possible insand outs. Instead of being available on panel controls, you have to delve into the programming section to findthem and then set them up, using some cryptic abbreviations on an LCD display.Take the JV-1080, for instance. Here, there are actually two mod matrix pages. One is used solely to connect thetwo LFOs to different parts of a patch. The other is for more general purposes and includes LFOs and MIDIsignals. The envelopes are hardwired to their destination and don't go through either matrix.The JV-1080 uses a kind of dual-synth system, where you get two independent-ish synths under each note. If youlook at the JV's LFO pages, under each column the number before the colon shows how much LFO signal getssent to synth 1 and the number after it, how much is sent to synth 2. (If synth 2 isn'tbeing used, you can ignorethese latter numbers because they won't do anything.)Some of the numbers may be negative - what's happening here is the LFO shape is getting turned upside-downas it goes through the matrix.This is more useful than it sounds becauseit means you can have a positive signal sent to one synth and anegative signal sent at the same time to another, which is a great way to make sounds more interesting.Before we leave this subject to go on to other synth matrixes it is worth remembering that all the matrix does isconnects things to other things. To control the speed and 'shape' of the effect you will need to know how to

program the LFO settings.Deeper and deeper You'll find the same idea on a lot of other synths. Sometimes the ins and the outs are preset and you can't changethem. Other times, you can select them however you want. The Waldorf Microwave, for example, has acompletely open 16-way matrix spread across 16 editing pages.To set this up, you select a source from the scrollable list, select an amount and select a destination. The big redwheel then lets you select another mod matrix page to set up one of the other 15 available connections. (Thenumber you're working with appears in the top right.) With the settings above LFO1 wobbles the pitch, while withthe settings below the oscillator pitch changes as the tempo gets faster, assuming you have some kind ofsequencer or drum machine attached. Bizarre? Of course.But all this fiddling doesn't end there, oh no. Those suffering from terminal nerdiness can get stuck into theModifier subsection. Essentially, this is a kind of processing matrix which lets you combine modulation sources ina myriad of ways. There are two sources, which you can select from the usual list of suspects, such as envelopesand LFOs. The destination is fixed and the four outputs are labelled M1 to M4. You can select these as sources inthe main matrix.It's the bit in the middle which is interesting. Here you can combine the two sources by adding, subtracting,multiplying or dividing them. Or doing weirdo stuff like smoothing out any sudden jumps, doing Boolean operationslike AND, NOT and NOR, choosing the maximum or minimum value, and so on. By mod matrix standards this isreally extreme; it's hard to think of a sensible use for most of these options unless you're really into playing withthem for their own sake.MIDI meTo make life more interesting, most mod matrixes usually include more than just the LFOs and envelopes.Typically, you'll also get note number, velocity, modulation, aftertouch and all MIDI messages which are sent tothe synth from outside.It's kind of traditional in features like these to pretend MIDI doesn't exist. But this is a deeply strange attitude

because once you add MIDI you can take your synth programming into whole new, previously unthought-of areas.Here's the bottom line. In all but the very cheapest synths, you'll find a range of MIDI messages which are eitherhardwired or which you can also route through the mod matrix. For those who have just joined us, MIDI is theremote control system used on synths to control them remotely. If you use it to hook one synth to another, youcan play the second synth remotely. Hit notes, change the sounds, make the pitch whoop up and down... all ofthat kind of thing. If you are using exactly the same synths you can even dump the sounds en masse from one toanother. (But that's for another article).MIDI is interesting, because you can do two things with it.First you can use the keyboard, buttons, wheels andsliders on a synth to shape a sound as you're playing. Second, you can use a computer (with some help fromsome sequencing software) to do the same.Let's begin by looking at the first possibility. On most synths there's a wheel next to the keyboard called the mod(ulation) wheel. It's the one which doesn't spring back to the middle when you let it go. In most patches, the mod

wheel is used to add vibrato (a kind of gentle pitch wobble which adds interest to the sound and makes it musical). Vibrato is actually a hangover from classical music days, where if you wobble your finger on (say) a violin'sfingerboard you get a poignant quivery effect.



However, you don't necessarily need to use the wheel for vibrato. Using the modulation matrix, you can set it up todo whatever you like. In fact, on most synths you can create some incredibly complex effects with it. You can setthings up so when you move the wheel lots of things change at once, for example, things like waveshape, filtercutoff, volume, LFO and rate. If a synth has effects, as often as not, you can control the effects in some way too.Set up a patch where the LFO is wobbling the pitch in an extreme kind of way like one of those spacy sci-fi soundeffects. Route the mod wheel to LFO rate. Now you can control the speed of the LFO from the keyboard.If your synth has two filters, set up the mod wheel so when one sweeps upwards the other will sweep downward.Control chorus rate and depth from the mod wheel. With an organ sound and the right kind of chorus, this givesthat instant cheesy retro Hammond organ effect.Bend me, shape me You can do similar things with the other wheel. This is called pitchbend and it - surprisingly - bends the pitch, itsounds like when you bend a string on a guitar. For starters, you can control the range of the bend from a fewnotes (which is standard) to extreme sweeps. But more than this, you can also route it to other parts of the synth.So, as the pitch changes, the quality of the sound will change too.But you're not limited there. Aftertouch - the pressure you put on the keyboard - can also be used in a similar kindof way. The first ever preset in the Virus V3.0 which was called overture uses this to sweep the pitch of thesecond oscillator. It's an interesting effect but not particularly useful in practice.For a lot of music, it's more creative to modify the sound so aftertouch can fade in the sub oscillator in order togive some extra bass welly. It's a much less gimmicky and more subtle effect which also carries more emotional

impact than the original. You almost don't hear it; you simply hear the sound swell get bigger as you press down.There are 128 different kinds of MIDI messages which you can use to create these kinds of effects. Typically onlyaftertouch, modulation and pitchbend will be playable direct from the keyboard. The others are hidden and you'llneed a computer or possibly (if you have patience) a hardware sequencer to feed information through them to your synth.When you do, it's like having a whole new synth to play with. Remember, normally it's just LFOs and envelopeswhich control the way a sound evolves over time. Once you add MIDI sequencing you've suddenly got, nearly,infinite control over what you can do.MIDI confusionThis is where it can get confusing; in many synths, instead of connecting MIDI messages directly to the businessend of things, they tend to get mapped through an extra stage of complication. Typically, you'll have somethinglike two or more controller inputs. One, on the input side, which you set up so it will listen to whatever kinds ofMIDI information you want. And on the output side, they're connected to whatever you want to change. Theconfusing bit is instead of being labelled aftertouch in or modulation in, as you'd expect, they're called controller 1and controller 2.Quite often when you return to a patch after you've programmed it, you can't remember how the hell you've set itup. If you want to get really anal you could keep a notebook or make electronic notes as you go. If not, well, it'snot particularly hard to check.I'm not going to give any examples here because this is stuff you need to play with to appreciate. So, it's time tosay goodbye till next time, when we'll be back with the last part of the series, which explains how to include effectsin your synth patches and how to take programming a few steps further than most people do. See you then.Richard Wenkt Future Music 08/00Synth Programming (pt V)Our final look at effects, arpeggiators and more...OVER THE LAST four months, if you've been following this series and trying out some of the ideas on your own

kit, you should have some idea how to make more interesting sounds than average. You should by now be able tomake sounds which are completely average on their own, but still fit perfectly into a track.This month we're going to end by looking at effects, arpeggiators, and some of the more extreme synthesisoptions you can use if you want to try some more advanced ideas.So let's start with those effects. Effects can be as much a part of synth programming as the oscillators and filterscan. Especially now that many effects options are just as sophisticated as those you'll find in a separate effectsbox. The usual suspects include:Delay:usually just echo-o-o-o. You can set the time, the mix (full effect 'wet' or no effect 'dry') and the amount offeedback, which sets the number of repeats. Often useful on basslines to add some extra in-between-notesinterest - use a time that's in sync with the tempo - and on pads to thicken them out.Flange: jet-plane style whooshy sound. Have this sweeping away on a sequence line, or on a pad. The moretreble there is the in the original sound, the more obvious the effect is. Settings are modulation amount and rate

(controlled by an internal LFO), and depth. And resonance - also known as feedback. Turn this up for a metalliceffect.Chorus:like flange, only thicker and runnier. Mostly used on pads. Uses similar controls as flange.



Phasing:like flanging, only more analogue sounding. Almost always great on basslines.Distortion:there are basically three sorts. Amp simulators pretend to sound like guitar amps. Overdrive and 'pure'distortion just grunge the sound up. Digital distortion eliminates the detail in the sound by throwing most of the(digital) bits away and sounds really nasty; it's great for crunching up samples.EQ: tone controls or, in other words, bass and treble. Sometimes you get a mid as well.Enhancer:makes the sound more brashand bright.Reverb:creates an artificial space around the sound - from subway to concert hall toaircraft hangar.Compression: fattens up the sound.

What a combinationSome synths have combined effects as well, which give you separate effects on the left and right output channels,or two effects in series. Some also have individual effects for each voice in a multitimbral setup, and then one ortwo 'global' effects that add that extra something to the whole mix.For example, the Access Virus has an effects chain that includes delay, distortion, a phaser, and chorus on themain mix. On each individual voice you can have a phaser, distortion, bass boost, chorus/ flanger and a ringmodulator.So how do you put all these together? And are they icing or are they cake? That depends on the kind of patches you're using. It's tempting to throw everything into a patch to try and make it memorable, but that's usually a bad

idea. The key thing to remember here is - as mentioned last month - don't listen to single sounds, but to how tothey sit together in a mix. As a rule of thumb, chorus and reverb tend to push things back a little, so they're great for adding atmosphere.Distortion tends to push things forwards so they stand out more. A second rule of thumb is to think of effects as being an essential part of the patch, rather than something stuckon afterwards. Try dialling in the effects while you're programming, rather than as an afterthought. Otherwise, acomplete guide to everything that's possible would take an entire article, but for some starters take a look at theEffects specs box on p102. And then try them.Into the rhythmNo synthesis series would be complete without mentioning arpeggiators. They're excellent tools, very easy to useand program, and a lot of synths have them. Some kinds of dance music - Goa and other flavours of trance,ambient and some older rave styles - would be impossible without them. So here's the beginner's guide.The basic, bog standard plain vanilla arpeggiator works by playing a sequence based on notes you're holding onthe keyboard. (Some synth modules have arpeggiators too - they work instead on MIDI information you send tothem.) Slam down any chord pattern, and the arpeggiator will play it - up, down, up and down, at random, over asingle octave, or over two or three or four.Typically there's a 'hold' option, which means the arpeggiator keeps playing even when you let go. And MIDI clocksync can sometimes be divided down, so the arpeggiator plays half, quarter, eight, 16 or 32 to the bar. Moresophisticated arpeggiators let you use 3/2, 3/8, 3/16 subdivisons for triplets for moreinteresting rhythms.Most people tweak and twiddle with arpeggiators for a while, and then get bored with them. They're not that easyto play by hand. If you play lots of chords with three notes, and then play one with four notes, the rhythm changesawkwardly. The same thing happens if you hit an extra note by accident.The way round this is to sequence the notes, instead of playing them by hand. 90% of this year's (and every year's) Ibiza classics use this technique. You can re-record the MIDI output of the arpeggiator if you want to edit it.

In fact, this is an excellent thing to do anyway, because arpeggiators can be a fantastic source of ideas for bassand sequence lines.Some synths have more interesting arpeggiation options. The Quasimidi Sirius has a range of preprogrammedpatterns (which Quasimidi calls 'motifs') that either repeat a chord, or split it up in more interesting ways that gobeyond playing the component notes. You can also program your own motifs. Another variation is to create astep-time rhythm pattern that only plays on certain beats. If you combine this with the riffing abilities of the typicalarpeggiator, you can create hypnotic sequences that never repeat.But things become really colourful when youcombine all of these to create a multitimbral sequence. Synths like the Waldorf Microwave and the various largerNovation machines let you do this. On these you can have a different type of arpeggiation happening on lots ofdifferent patches at once. You can combine drum patches with synth and bass sounds to create a mega-patchthat plays an impressive mini-sequence. All you have to do is hit a single note on the keyboard to start it off.

Confused? Here's an example. Let's start with a bass drum patch on channel 1. Set this up so the arpeggiatorplays on quarter notes. Then hi-hats on channel 2 playing 16ths. This gives an excellent foundation for the rest ofthe multi-patch. What you do next is up to you. A good option is to create a rhythm motif, and use it with a



bassline. Another excellent option is to create a patch with a very slow LFO sweep on the filter, and someresonance to give it abit of bite.Better still, do both. Using trial and error you can soon build up a complex rhythmic pattern that you can play withone finger. If you have other synths with arpeggiators you can use those as well, to build up an even morecomplex effect. It doesn't take long for a complete track to more or less write itself.The hard stuffCan you journey further into the world of weird sound possibilities and create limpid landscapes of shimmeringlyseductive gorgeousness, drums with more aggression than an SAS unit facing down an alien invasion force, andbasslines so chunky you could quarry out some rooms and live in them? In a literal sense, probably not. But if youwant to go further than the average sound designer, here are some things to do, techniques to try, and tools tobuy. Vocoders: vocoders work by splitting an input ('analysis') sound into frequency bands, working out the volume ineach band, and then applying those volumes to an equivalent set of frequency bands in a different ('synthesis')sound. When you do this, magic things happen.If the analysis sound is a voice, and the synthesis sound is a string pad, you get that talking pad effect that's beendone to death. Try talking over basslines and drum parts too. Or don't talk at all; you can more or less vocodeanything with anything (even itself) and still get an interesting result. You can also get interesting noises byretuning the different filters so they don't work on the same range of frequencies.

Resynthesis: this is where you pull a sound apart, a bit like sending light through a prism, hack around with the'colours', and then put it back together again. With resynthesis you can morph sounds, exaggerate the way theychange, tune unpitched sounds so they ring like a bell, blend sounds (so you can make talking drum loops - onlywith much higher quality than you'll get from a vocoder), create totally bizarre noises by randomising the 'colours',or vintage retro effects by throwing away a big chunk of the sound, like a kind of mega EQ.

Additive synthesis: is a bit like resynthesis. When you do resynthesis it turns out that the colours you get can bereduced down to sets of sine waves, each with their own frequency and level. In other words, if you had enoughsine wave oscillators, each with an independent pitch and level control, you could make any sound you wanted -real, or imaginary.In practice, you need hundreds or thousands of oscillators to do this well. That's for each note. And if you're tryingto synthesize real instruments, you also need to remember that the sounds changed according to pitch and velocity. So high quality synthesis of real instruments isn't possible yet. But you can still get some interesting andunusual effects like this.Granular synthesis. If you've ever timestretched a sample you've already used granular synthesis. Granularsynthesis works by chopping a sound up into tiny segments. You can then control the envelope, volume and thepitch of each segment. You can 'granulise' samples or start from scratch with little oscillator-produced blips. Itsounds a simple technique, but it has a lot of applications.By scrunching up or expanding the gaps between granules you get timestretch. By changing their pitch you getpitchshift. By randomising the pitches you get a kind of 'sound cloud' effect. By randomising the times you can getmonster reverb-like sounds. By using sine waves and precisely controlling the envelopes you can createinteresting vocal-like effects. (This is sometimes known as formant synthesis.)Physical modelling:Instead of using waveforms, physical modelling actually simulates in software how all themechanical or electronic bits of a synth work together. So to make a guitar sound you create a complicatedmathematical model of how the strings vibrate (this bit is called the 'exciter'), and how the soundboard amplifiesthe sound (this is known as the 'resonator'), and so on.

It's very heady stuff, which is why mostphysical-modelling synths just give you a set of presets to play with, that you can tweak in a minimal kind of way. And in spite of the complications, it's not that hard to get your head round; 'exciters' work like oscillators,'resonators' work like filters. The rest is more or less trial and error.How to get hands-on Apart from vocoding, which is available in many mid- to high-end analogue-style synths, these and other effectsare mostly stuck in the realm of the experimental. This is bad news for anyone who wants instant gratification. Butgood news for people who want to make sounds that are literally like nothing ever heard before. As for getting your hands dirty with all this synthesis business, you really need to get your hands on some serioussynths and for this the Internet is a blessing. Some of these toys are free, some are cheap, a couple are seriouslyexpensive but here's a rough list:Csound.Big, bad, totally obscure, totally free, multi-platform, and really only for über-nerds. This is (literally) the

granddaddy of all other soft synths. It does more than everything, but it's slow, clumsy, almost perversely difficultto use, and maintained by a rather cliquey group of academics who will laugh at you if you don't have a PhD.Most soft synths have oscillators, but Csound has simple oscillators, sample-playback oscillators, high-quality



oscillators, click oscillators, additive synthesis and resynthesis oscillators, wavetable oscillators and an optionwhich creates oscillator-like sounds by calculating the orbit of a planet in a binary star system.To get the best from it you need to wrap it up in some smarter high-level software. Linux weenies or Mac userswill want to use something called Cecilia, which sorts out some of Csound's shortcomings. (Unfortunately there'sno Windows version of Cecilia.) More information can be found at www.notam.uio.no/internt/csound/Csound/TITLE.htmlComposer's Desktop Project (CDP).UK-based resynthesis package. It's command line based (yes, that's right, you have to type in filenames andcommands by hand) but it will do most resynthesis-style things. And there are attempts to create a more up todate Windows-y interface. While it's a bit clunky by modern standards, it's also not too expensive at just over£100. And it can be fun to dabble with.MetaSynth. Mac-only resynthesis toy, with the unique ability to turn pictures into sounds (and vice versa). It's afantastic product, but there's some confusion about whether it's still available. Try www.uisoftware.com for details.Kyma system. Forget expensive analogue modulars, this is currently the ultimate commercial synth system. Atany price. It's a soft synth that uses its own hardware in the form of a rack full of plug-in cards, a bit like theCreamware Pulsar, only bigger and better. You can get started for around £2,000, while a fully expanded modelcosts around £7,000. Kyma is the thinking person's Csound. It does most things that Csound does, only it's abouta million times easier, quicker and more fun to use. For details take a look at: www.symbolicsound.com/kyma.html.

Going hardMeanwhile, if you don't fancy donning the lab coat and specs, and going down the intricate software route, whynot go hard and get yourself a real synth! Kawai K5000 series. The only hardware synth to do proper additivesynthesis the K5000 rack synth is now available second-hand for around £400 or less (check our Marketplace adsstarting on p128). It's capable of some unique far-side noises and well worth watching out for as they do come upfrom time to time.

Yamaha VL-series synths. This is the acceptable face of physical-modelling synthesis, starting from the hugelyoverpriced and commercially unsuccessful VL1, via the VL1M and VL7, and eventually ending up with the VL70and even some VL-ready options in the Yamaha budget soft synth range. You might find a lot of the sounds sufferfrom kind of diminishing returns effect, so the closer you get to the sound of a real instrument, the more obviousthe shortcomings and differences. But if you can put that niggle aside, there's plenty of physical 'phun' (sorry!) tobe had here.Korg Z1. Another physical-modelling synth which achieved 90% and a Platinum award in FM61. Surprisingly it'snot as popular as the Trinity before it (or the Triton since) but it's still worth looking out for and trying out.

AAS Tassman.OK, so it's not a hardware synth, but it's still physical-modelling even if it is software. It also hassome analogue-style features. We'll actually be reviewing this relatively new synth next month, but in the meantime, find out more from www.applied-acoustics.com.

Synth Programming (Future Music)

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