Learning Process for Synths
Learning Process for Synths Posted on: 07.08.2011 by Tatum Untiedt As a beginner trying to learn my way around a synthesizer, I've been watching a large amount of videos on youtube regarding specific types of sounds and how to make them. My problem with these videos, however, is that they often just tell you what parameters to use and at the end of the video I've essentially learned nothing. I'm having trouble finding explanations for 'this parameter affects this' or 'use this to make it sound like this' kind of things. I read that alot of the learning process comes from just fiddling around with a synth and seeing what does what, but that has provided little luck for me so far. I'll spend an hour or two trying to achieve a sound I have in mind but ultimately won't achieve it and along the way picking up very little knowledge. So with that little bit of backgroud I ask for whatever tips you guys may have. I don't want to settle for "well this is close to what I wanted", I want to actually be able to achieve the sounds I want. The time I've been putting in has not been progressing me towards this point at the rate I want, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys, hope you can help ! (i'm using Massive, if that helps at all) | |
| Tatum Untiedt 07.08.2011 | As a beginner trying to learn my way around a synthesizer, I've been watching a large amount of videos on youtube regarding specific types of sounds and how to make them. My problem with these videos, however, is that they often just tell you what parameters to use and at the end of the video I've essentially learned nothing. I'm having trouble finding explanations for 'this parameter affects this' or 'use this to make it sound like this' kind of things. I read that alot of the learning process comes from just fiddling around with a synth and seeing what does what, but that has provided little luck for me so far. I'll spend an hour or two trying to achieve a sound I have in mind but ultimately won't achieve it and along the way picking up very little knowledge. So with that little bit of backgroud I ask for whatever tips you guys may have. I don't want to settle for "well this is close to what I wanted", I want to actually be able to achieve the sounds I want. The time I've been putting in has not been progressing me towards this point at the rate I want, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys, hope you can help ! (i'm using Massive, if that helps at all) |
| Antonetta Domenech 11.08.2011 | you tube is shit. you are far better off reading the manual than wasting your time watching videos by people that also aint read the manual. I dont know why people never even believe to do this, everything makes so much more sense after that. |
| Celine Surico 09.08.2011 | I would say study existing presets, change the settings and learn. There's some good learning synthesis theory but it only goes some way. I.e. good to know what an oscillator does, how LFOs operate, the ADSR envelopes, but after that it's all about ears and trying things out. Even random changes could sound good! As for special programming -- let's say for example how to make a wobbly Dubstep bass- youtube is your friend. |
| Ofelia Schraner 09.08.2011 | check out nzmusic101, hes a beast and knows alot about synths. Also spend some time messing around with synths and you might find your own sound |
| Phil Zambrana 08.08.2011 | this is what helped me out the most http://synthstudent.wordpress.com/ |
| Karry Sappington 08.08.2011 | read this djcommunity s.com/community s/showthread.php?t=130486 |
| Belen Wermes 09.08.2011 | start fiddling. experiment. get your hands dirty. if you really want to get a handle on what each parameter does and how synthesizers generally work it's the best way imo. turn a knob see what sound it makes. press a button hear what it does. tutorials for making patches won't teach you much unless you already understand what these parameters do. unless you know what everything means first, you might as well just download a bunch of patches and not bother with the 10 minute walk through on what numbers to punch in. |
| Celestine Porebski 08.08.2011 | http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm Tons of useful information there.... |
| Tatum Untiedt 07.08.2011 | Thanks for the quick replies guys appreciate it, I have a slightly better idea how to approach this now. In response to the sonic academy videos, I'd heard of those from several sources but they all said to stray away because you could find similar tutorials for free online. I haven't been able to find anything close though... On a quick side-note for those who use massive, am I missing something or does massive not have standard "sin, square, triangle, etc." waves? All I see is combinations like smooth square and stuff like that, which makes it hard to follow some of the tutorials using other synths |
| Krishna Hospelhorn 07.08.2011 | I use Massive as my standard "go-to" synth if I wanna make something, so I'll write down a few general tips and then some Massive specific tips: (off the top of my head) in general: modulate. and then modulate some more. in Massive you'll probably be using the LFOs, steppers and performers to do this (the green things), but the idea of modulating things to create interesting sounds is synthesis 101. modulate the modulators. this is super easy in Massive, and one of the reasons I love it. experiment and don't necessarily worry if you don't understand why your newly created sound sounds so awesome. just save the sound and use it in your next track Massive specific: figure out how to use the LFOs, steppers and performers. its not that hard, and if you're not using them, you just won't be able to create any really interesting sounds. performer in particular is DAAAAAAANG good, and Massive is pretty much the only synth that has this awesome feature. once you have the basics down, and spent enough time with it not to be intimidated by for gazillion buttons and stuff, experiment and figure out what all the little buttons do. do one at a time, but if you really want to create sounds in a non-random way, you're going to need to know what all the "restart via gate" buttons and suchlike do. after quite a while you may find all your new sounds sounding quite similar, and that's because you'll always end up for the same few "voices" (e.g. modern talking, which you can hear in every 3rd dubstep or electro track at the moment). pick a voice (or wave) you aren't drawn to, and have a play with it, you never know happens. and the same goes for presets. there's nothing wrong with starting with a Massive preset (they are awesome) and then just tweaking the yellow knobs in the bottom right corner. I've heard Massive presets in well-known tracks, so its not cheating don't worry. however, just don't go for the obvious presets else you'll sound the same as everyone else. e.g. for aggro bass sounds, don't choose "Brutual Electro" or "Massive Bass". |
| Emilee Woytovich 07.08.2011 | I 'learnt' my way around synth's when one day I sat and literally played with random knobs for a couple of hours, listening to what they did and occasionally Googling the label on the knob and doing a bit of reading. Youtube also always helps. But, here is a quick run down of features you'll find on nearly every synhesizer and how to use them. Each part is usually found in its own little box with a few knobs and a label: OSCILLATORS: Often marked "OSC" an oscillator is what produces sound in the synth. There is usually 1 to 3 oscillators on a synth. They will usually have a number of selections for the type of 'wave' to use (you may see a sine wave, a saw wave, a square wave, a triangle wave etc) and each gives a slightly different sound. You may also find a volume/amp control for the oscillator volume and a pitch control. THe pitch control is often broken up into two components; 'coarse' and 'fine'. Coarse will allow you to make coarse adjustments to the pitch, going up and down one semitone at a time, fine will allow you to make very fine adjustments to the pitch allowing you to create a detuned sound (this gives a nice effect if two detuned oscillators are run through the synthesizer at once). FILTER: After the sound is created in an oscillator it is sent to a filter which controls how much of the frequency range gets through. You can look up the different types of filters and how they differ in the frequencies that they cut-off. Note that the resonance knob allows you to create a little boost in the frequency that the cutoff knob is set to so when you move the cutoff, it creates a sweeping effect. LFO: AN LFO is a low frequency oscillator. Just like the normal oscillators, and LFO creates a wave signal but of a much lower frequency. You can then route this signal to control some of the other parameters of the synthesizer. For example you could route an LFO to control the cutoff frequency of your filter which would create a dubstep like wobble. That stuff may be beneath you, but hopefully you find something new in there that helps. There are heaps of other features on synths and it often depends on the synth as to how they are routed and how they work. But, if you get the basics, learning your way around a new synth isn't that hard. Good luck! |
| Geri Krieger 07.08.2011 | Hey man I was getting frustrated for exactly the same reason as you! The video's on you tube where they twist a few knobs and them bam they've got an awesome sound made while I just had a mess or silence made it even worse! I know you may not want to pay but the only video I've found that explained the very basics of what everything does and how they shape the sound is on sonic academy. Bit slow at times but I don't believe I'll forget in a hurry. I was interested in their advanced MNML techno tutorial to pick up a few tips and it turns out access to all their videos for three months is nearly the same price as buying one tutorial and I found the subtractive synthesis gem amongst others! |
<< Back to Producer tips and DAW informationReply