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Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

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Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#41

Post by rainbowmverse »

freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

A lot of synths are painfully unintuitive because they try (and fail) to replicate hardware synth interfaces. Try Helm (free and open source) or Serum (not free) and you might have more luck.

Here's a rough crash course from someone who also struggled to get started:

1: You start out with a wave (sine, saw, pulse, etc). No synth starts out with a pure form of these waves. They all add a little color. Most synths have 2-5 oscillators (they produce the waves), often with each having different controls.

2: The filter constrains the sound. So, for example, if you wanted to make a bassy instrument, you'd filter out most of the high frequencies. The Attack, Sustain, Delay, and Release settings affect length and volume over time. This is what you use to turn waves into plucks, kicks, claps, strings, and anything else you can think of.

3: Most synths have at least 2 LFOs, or low frequency oscillators. You can connect these to different controls across the synth and change the timbre in weird, sometimes unpredictable and amazing ways. With Helm in particular, you click the little helmet by the LFO and drag the little bars on the different controls to change how much the LFO affects it. You'll see a little green bar pop out and move with the LFO. Serum has a separate tab with LFOs and routing to synth controls.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#43

Post by adriand »

veli_joza wrote: post #22
cjsuk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The phrases "menu" and "software update" are what kills all tactile electronic instruments of various kinds. This is the same for electronic test equipment as well. There are so many features crammed in new devices, even if you manage to get enough controls for the basic cases on the front panel, a lot is still hidden in nested menus galore and they aren't necessarily sensible or discoverable or even work proper…

The UX of digital equipment _really_ sucks. At first I thought it was because it was a new technology still in infancy, but things haven't improved since and we are still emulating analog controls. VST interfaces often have static background image (skin) and 'knobs' you control with your mouse. Actual hardware usually features rotary encoder or buttons to navigate the menu system with several layers of depth. This is…

Ableton Live in conjunction with the Push is a fantastic, very tactile, very musical solution to this. The Push is a very well-designed hardware instrument that, because of its tight integration with Ableton, has much of the flexibility of software. It's a really interesting approach and very productive from a music and creativity standpoint. This YouTube video gives a good sense of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CdMvkBOUgs

I believe quite strongly that for most people, utilizing hardware of some kind (pad controllers, keyboards, etc.) is essential for making music. Music is generally made by playing instruments. It is the small errors, the groove, the emphasis, the spirit/heart/soul of playing an instrument, that makes music feel alive and interesting and vital. If you're just clicking around with a mouse, you're programming it, and programmed music sounds programmed. Overly precise, inhuman, etc.

In Glenn Gould's debut on US television, conductor Leonard Bernstein talks about - and then demonstrates - the difference between rote, mechanical playing of a score (i.e. "programmed music") vs. a performer's interpretation of it (i.e. the heart & soul that I'm talking about). The discussion starts around here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nx09pigZRI&feature=youtu.be...

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#44

Post by veli_joza »

tpm wrote: post #38
veli_joza wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UX of digital equipment _really_ sucks. At first I thought it was because it was a new technology still in infancy, but things haven't improved since and we are still emulating analog controls. VST interfaces often have static background image (skin) and 'knobs' you control with your mouse. Actual hardware usually features rotary encoder or buttons to navigate the menu system with several layers of depth. This is…

You probably mean software equipment, because there is lots of digital music equipment with good UX. See for example Mutable Instruments' Tides or Rings modules, 4ms Spectral Multiband Resonator etc. - no menus, no displays, one knob one function (well there are sometimes 'special modes' and easter eggs of course).

For those boxes, 'digital' is just implementation detail. User interface and interface towards other equipment is still completely analog. I agree that they look very clean and usable.

I don't think there's anything wrong with displays. They offer immediate and quick insight into internal state and operation. The issues appear when you introduce modal workflow, with some features only available in some modes.

Worst offenders in category of hardware equipment are probably guitar multi-effects and synthesizer workstations. They cram so much functionality with so little thought given to flow and usability.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#45

Post by tiborsaas »

freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

I highly encourage you to watch this and P2 on synthesis. The concepts haven't changed since then. You will find the same things on all synths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atvtBE6t48M

Also, go ahead and try Propellerhead Reason (free to play with, you can save, but can't open saved files). It's the best one on the UX side. However I have to admit I'm using it for 10+ years now.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#46

Post by privong »

rainbowmverse wrote: post #41
freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

A lot of synths are painfully unintuitive because they try (and fail) to replicate hardware synth interfaces. Try Helm (free and open source) or Serum (not free) and you might have more luck. Here's a rough crash course from someone who also struggled to get started: 1: You start out with a wave (sine, saw, pulse, etc). No synth starts out with a pure form of these waves. They all add a little color. Most synths have…

For the benefit of others, I wanted to note that what you're describing is subtractive synthesis where you shape sounds by subtracting (filtering) components from the initial waveform. Additive synthesis is also a technique, where you add many sine waves together (this is difficult/expensive to do in hardware and so doesn't seem to be widely used). There is also Frequency Modulation synthesis where a simple waveform is modulated using another wave at a close frequency. FM synthesizers were popular in the 80s, such as the Yamaha DX7.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#47

Post by jedanbik »

freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

This frustration is why Korg sold so many Minilogues last year.

Check out this Minilogue review playlist by Marc Doty of Automatic Gainsay. You can see what's happening on the oscilloscope while he's explaining things.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAGrtvdn2CyYwV6gxgiXv...

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#48

Post by _Marak_ »

freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

I've been producing digital music since 2001. It took me three years of part-time tinkering to get something produced that remotely sounded like a song. It takes time to learn.

FruityLoops is a great start to learn the basics of audio sequencing such as: tracks, beats, bars, measures, tempo, basic mixing and effects.

Once you've mastered FruityLoops, I'd recommend switching to Cubase or Ableton Live. There are a lot of VST ( Virtual Instruments ) synths available for free which can offer a lot of unique tones ( not pre-sampled audio ).

There are a lot of YouTube tutorials available now for all these tools, which can really help. Reddit also has a few good sized subreddits for digital music production and is a good place to get help or advice.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#49

Post by crunchyave »

mmjaa wrote: post #16
dsego wrote: post #15

How does this compare to something like Pure Data?

All the power, none of the hokey GUI. Put simply, this is Pure Data on acid.

Ehh, I don't really think that's a good comparison. Pure Data is a visual programming environment/toolkit that gives you a set of low level building blocks from which you can build whatever you want. You can extend it by taking advantage of open source libraries that other people have made, or even code your own in C.

VCVrack is open source, but as an end user you're not dealing with the low-level stuff out in the open the same way you would in PD. It's a completed object rather than a set of legos.

Having said that, You're right about the GUI. The PD GUI is... primitive, to say the least.

Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music

#50

Post by brynedwards »

freeflight wrote: post #33

I wish I would understand even a fraction of the stuff that's going on with software synths. Every couple of years I get this fancy idea of "I'd really like to create some sounds/music", which usually ends up with me aimlessly manipulating digital knobs and switches on some massive UI, creating weird sounds with no real structure and changing all the default settings. The other option being something like FruityLoops…

I've been going through Syntorial[1] which is an interactive synth tutorial. I'm about half-way through and I've found it very useful for understanding not just what each part of a synthesizer does to the sound, but how it changes the sound. Later on, as you learn multiple functions of the synth, you practice combining them to recreate sounds.

The software itself is a bit pricey and only runs on Mac or Windows but I've found it very helpful for getting an intuitive sense of what the different synth options actually change.

1. https://www.syntorial.com/

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