Getting the Best Out Of Your Synths

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Perhaps one of the most important elements of a song is the sound of the instruments. Nowadays, most people have turned to the synthesizer, which is perhaps one of the most powerful musical instruments up-to-date. It can produce a wide variety of sounds. Even so, companies have now produced what are called "sound engines" that aim to create a sound so perfect, that it almost sounds like the real thing. Nonetheless, people have taken this a step further by pushing the limits of the sound engine. In this thread, you will find various resources from yours truly on creating sounds that can and will improve the quality of your creations significantly. All sounds you will find in this thread are produced from the Korg Kronos 88 workstation. However, even if you don't have the Korg Kronos, you can still do alot with the effects paths, instruments and other elements in your own DAW.

 

Every sound is based off of one of four simple sound waves: sine, square, sawtooth and triangle. There are many other types of waves such as step and exponential waves, but these are more complex. In addition, there is a variant of the squarewave known as the pulse wave, where the peaks and bounds of the square wave are of different phase. A phase is a single instance of a wave. Here's an example of a single sine wave phase:

 

 

A phase is consisted of a leap and bound. Rolling back to the pulse wave...it has a skinnier top end than a standard squarewave as shown in the picture below:

 

Now that we got that out of the way, it is time to apply this knowledge to creating custom sounds. Let's say you're making a piece that calls for a solo instrument such as a violin. You don't have a virtual violin...what are you going to do? Simple, you can make one from scratch using the knowledge you have soundwaves. Okay...so...which of the five basic soundwaves has a mellow type of feel...? The answer: The Triangle wave. So, a triangle wave alone simply cannot produce a violin or wind instrument sound. It has been stated that most synthesized wind instruments originate from the square or triangle wave...so...we must transform it into the instrument by changing the attack time, equalizing and adding some vibrato if necessary. For a more brighter wind instrument sound, a subtle sawtooth may be added, but we must not make the sawtooth overpower the triangle/squarewave combination. After all work has been done, we get something like this:

 

 

Notice the reverb and the sawtooth decay after the initial square/triangle combination wave has fully decayed. This is supposed to simulate either string vibrations or location that this sound is being played at. 

 

Next, let's say you want to make a song about our favorite bubble cutie-mark mare Derpy Hooves. Her cutie mark is bubbles...but you don't have a bubble sound. What are you gonna do? Well, if you have a sound engine in your DAW that has filter controls, your cutoff control is your big one here. Turn that all the way off. Next, turn your resonace up close to, but not all the way. Finally, turn your EG Intensity knob all the way up, that is, if you have one. You may fiddle around with other parts of the sound engine to fit to your taste, but here's what you should get:

 

 

The second run of this sample is with added ring-modulation, which is basically tremolo beyond it's maximum capacity. It gives the sound a "retro" feel, sort of like pac-man. 

 

So as you can see, there is a lot of potential with the five basic soundwaves. I'll start with these two custom sounds and add more as I go on. Happy creating!

 

 

[Square 69]

Came here looking for Fallout 4 jokes, left with a better understanding of music.

 

Cheers

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Came here looking for Fallout 4 jokes, left with a better understanding of music.

 

Cheers

 

Glad you got something out of this. Have any questions?