What's In A Sound? In the first part of this new series exploring the world of subtractive synthesis, Gordon Reid goes right back to basics. What are waveforms and harmonics, where do they come from, and how does the theory relate to what we actually hear?
The Physics Of Percussion The first part of this series explained how the tones of most real instruments can be reduced to patterns of harmonics, which can be generated using sine, saw, square or pulse waveforms. This month, Gordon Reid considers the sonic raw materials needed to imitate unpitched percussion.
Modifiers & Controllers Gordon Reid moves on from discussing the harmonic components of sound to explaining how they change over time, and some of the tools subtractive synths give you to emulate this process
Of Filters & Phase Relationships Having dealt last month with the concepts of envelopes, oscillators and LFOs, Gordon Reid moves on to the subject of filters, and the havoc they wreak on the signals that pass through them.
Further With Filters Gordon Reid continues his series on the theory of subtractive synthesis by delving deeper into the amazingly complex world of the analogue audio filter.
Of Responses And Resonance If you have read the most recent two parts of this series you'll now know (at least in principle) how to construct a 24dB/octave filter and define its cutoff frequency. You will also be able to appreciate how that filter messes around with the phases of the harmonics within any signal you pass through it. So now we can start talking about winding up the resonance to 11, overdriving the input and creating some classic tearing analogue filter sweeps... Yes?
Envelopes, Gates & Triggers You press a key on your synth. It plays a note. That's it, right? Wrong. Gordon Reid explains the role of envelopes, triggers, and gates in this deceptively simple process.
More About Envelopes Gordon Reid reveals some of the limitations of the 'classic' ADSR envelope with reference to a practical synthesis example, and explains some of the different types of envelopes found on 'classic' analogue synths, from AR envelopes right up to highly flexible digitally controlled EGs.
An Introduction To VCAs Having laid bare the inner workings of oscillators, contour generators and filters, Gordon Reid turns his attention to something which at first sight seems entirely self-evident. Can the humble voltage-controlled amplifier really hold any Synth Secrets?
Modulation In this month's instalment of his series on the basics of subtractive synthesis, Gordon Reid considers the magic ingredient that makes all the other elements sound interesting...
Amplitude Modulation Last month, Gordon Reid examined the concept of modulation at low frequencies. This month, he speeds things up a bit. The result is not just faster versions of the same modulation effects, but a new type of synthesis...
An Introduction To Frequency Modulation As Gordon Reid explained last month, audio-frequency modulation of the amplitude of a signal can be a powerful synthesis tool. The possibilities expand still further when we consider what happens when you use one audio-frequency signal to modulate the frequency of another
More On Frequency Modulation Last month, we examined the frankly scary maths allowing you to predict the audible effects of Frequency Modulation. This month, although the maths gets even tougher, Gordon Reid relates the theory to the practical implementation of FM synthesis on Yamaha's digital synths, as well as modular and non-modular analogues
An Introduction To Additive Synthesis Every pitched sound can be thought of as a collection of individual sine waves at frequencies related to the fundamental. Gordon Reid introduces a powerful method of synthesis that works by manipulating these individual harmonics.
An Introduction To ESPS And Vocoders Gordon Reid turns his attention to the effects that can be achieved when subtractive synthesis components are applied not to the output from oscillators, but to real-world sounds -- such as human speech.
From Sample And Hold To Sample-rate Converters (1) Gordon Reid introduces the synthesis modules that allow you to create a number of commonly used 'random' effects, and their close relatives -- analogue sequencers.
From Sample And Hold To Sample-rate Converters (2) Sample and Hold modules, as Gordon Reid explained last month, convert a continuously varying signal into a stepped series of fixed pitches. And this, as we shall see, is the basis of what we know as 'digital audio'...
Priorities And Triggers In these days of 64-note polyphony and 32-part multitimbrality, it's easy to forget the importance of note-priority systems in analogue monosynths -- yet they can have a drastic effect on what you hear when you play or trigger an old synth. Gordon Reid provides a refresher course
Duophony Gordon Reid discovers that two's company, as he investigates how manufacturers stretched the capabilities of analogue monosynths to offer the magnificent total of two notes at a time...
Introducing Polyphony Having explored the way monophonic and duophonic analogue keyboards work, Gordon Reid puts away his Minimoog and Odyssey and descends into the complex world of polyphonic synths to a flourish of complex jazz chords.
From Polyphony To Digital Synths Polyphony is hard to achieve on analogue synths without incurring hideous expense. This month, Gordon Reid explains how synth manufacturers employed digital technology to overcome this problem.
From Springs, Plates & Buckets to Physical Modelling Onboard effects may seem like a relatively recent synth innovation, but even old modular synths offered analogue effects. Although they were basic, the freely patchable nature of modular synths allowed them to be used to create convincing acoustic instrument sounds . thus effectively physical modelling. Gordon Reid explains how.
Formant Synthesis Last month, we discussed a way of emulating acoustic musical instruments using short delay lines such as spring reverbs and analogue reverb/echo units. At the end of that article, I posed the following question: "Couldn't we have avoided this talk of echoes, RT60s, room modes, and all that other stuff, and achieved the same result with a bunch of fixed (or 'formant') filters?". This month, we're going to answer that question.
Synthesizing Wind Instruments Gordon Reid embarks on a journey to synthesize convincing woodwind and brass. This month, he considers how these instruments make their sounds in real life.
Synthesizing Brass Instruments Gordon Reid builds on the acoustic theory of wind and brass instruments he introduced last month, and explains how to produce a convincing analogue trumpet sound.
Brass Synthesis On A Minimoog Last month we looked at how analogue modules can reproduce the sound of a real trumpet. All very well if you own a wall-sized modular system . but what if your means are more limited? Gordon Reid adapts theory to practice with a Minimoog
Roland SH101/ARP Axxe Brass Synthesis Gordon Reid concludes his attempts to adapt an idealised analogue brass patch so that it can be programmed on real synths. This month, he looks at the Roland SH101 and ARP Axxe.
Synthesizing Plucked Strings Having dealt exhaustively with the mechanics of brass instruments and how to go about synthesizing them, Gordon Reid turns to instruments that use plucked strings to generate their sound, taking the complexities of the acoustic guitar as an example...
The Theoretical Acoustic Guitar Patch Having explained last month the reasons why analogue synthesis of guitar sounds should be well-nigh impossible, Gordon Reid puts the theory to the test...
A Final Attempt To Synthesize Guitars Having proved that subtractive synthesis of an acoustic guitar is completely impractical, Gordon Reid tries his hand at the electric variety, and deconstructs some past attempts to emulate the sound via analogue means.
Synthesizing Percussion Synth Secrets turns its attention to the synthesis of percussion instruments, beginning with pitched drums
Practical Percussion Synthesis Building on the theory of what makes up the sound of timpani, as explained last month, this month's Synth Secrets reveals how to synthesize realistic kettle drums using a Korg MS20 and a Yamaha DX7.
Synthesizing Drums: The Bass Drum Ever wanted to synthesize unpitched membranophones? No? Well, you might if you knew that bass and snare drums are of this percussion type. We show you how
Practical Bass Drum Synthesis Moving from last month's theoretical bass drum synth patch to its practical application on affordable analogue synths, we also take a look at how the world's most famous drum machines produce this fundamental rhythm sound.
Synthesizing Drums: The Snare Drum If you thought synthesizing realistic bass drums was complex, that's nothing compared to snares. So how is it that the analogue snare sound is so well known? And how do you go about creating it? We find out...
Practical Snare Drum Synthesis Last month, we revealed just how hideously complex the sound-producing mechanism of the snare drum can be. Nevertheless, synthesizing the sound is not as hard as it seems, as we find out with the aid of a Roland SH101...
Analysing Metallic Percussion In this month's Synth Secrets I'll begin my examination of the next family of important percussion instruments we're going to try to synthesize -- idiophones constructed from thin metal sheets. In other words, cymbals, hi-hats, tam-tams and gongs.
Synthesizing Realistic Cymbals Last month, we began looking at the complex way in which a cymbal produces its sound. We considered some of its modes of vibration via the wonders of holographic interferometry, and also analysed how the various modes develop after a cymbal is struck.
Practical Cymbal Synthesis Synthesizing realistic cymbals is complex, but not impossible -- after all, over 20 years ago, Roland's TR808 drum machine featured synthesized cymbals. We look at how they managed it, and attempt to create cymbals on another affordable analogue synth.
Synthesizing Bells Having come up last month with a reasonably realistic cymbal patch, it's time to take the principles of synthesizing metallic percussion one stage further, and produce bell sounds. But there's more to this than you might think
Synthesizing Cowbells & Claves Having learned last month how to synthesize tuned bells, we turn this month, in the last of this series on the subject of percussion, to untuned bells -- in the form of the humble cowbell -- and claves.
Synthesizing Pianos Surely the only convincing synth pianos are sample-based ones? A sound as rich and expressive as that of an acoustic piano is far too complex to be rendered by subtractive synthesis... isn't it? We find out...
Synthesizing Acoustic Pianos On The Roland JX10 As explained last month, synthesizing the sound of an acoustic piano is difficult, but it can be done reasonably realistically, as the 1986-vintage Roland JX10 shows. We find out how Roland managed it...
Synthesizing Acoustic Pianos On The Roland JX10 How did they make that sound on a subtractive synth? We continue to dissect the analogue 'Acoustic Piano' Perfomance from Roland's 1986-vintage JX10
Synthesizing Acoustic Pianos On The Roland JX10 When trying to copy a real piano with an analogue synth, if one patch doesn't quite do it, two just might...
Synthesizing Strings: String Machines Analogue synths can't synthesize every sound, but the attempts made to replicate the sound of orchestral strings were so successful that so-called string machines became much-loved instruments in their own right. We begin a voyage into the world of synthesized strings...
Synthesizing Strings, PWM & String Sounds Pulse-width modulation is a vital tool in achieving lush-sounding synthesized string pads . so what if your synth doesn't have it? Fear not . for PWM can itself be synthesized. Here's how...
Synthesizing Bowed Strings: the Violin family Following our success at synthesizing the sound of analogue string machines, we hone our techniques with a view to recreating the sound of the real thing
Practical Bowed-string Synthesis Having looked at the mechanics of how a bowed string instrument generates its sound last month, it's time to put these principles into practice, using nothing more complex than a miniKorg 700 monophonic synth...
Practical Bowed-string Synthesis (continued After putting all our bowed-string synthesis theory into practice on a Korg 700 last month, we found that the result was only acceptable as a string sound with a lot of wishful thinking. Can we improve on it?
Articulation & Bowed-string Synthesis The skilful articulation of a synthesized string patch can improve it no end, even one created using very basic building blocks, as we saw at the end of last month. But we can take this approach much further...
Synthesizing Pan Pipes The characteristic sound of flute-like instruments is complex . but fortunately not so complex that it can't be emulated fairly successfully with a synthesizer
Synthesizing Simple Flutes The Monty Python team once famously claimed that being able to play the flute was a simple matter of 'blowing here, and moving your hands up and down here'. But there's a lot more to it than that...
Practical Flute Synthesis As we saw last month, there's much to synthesizing a convincing flute sound . and yet basic analogue monosynths have offered reasonable flute patches for 30 years. Surely the process can be simplified?