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Subtractive synths explained (2011)

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Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#71

Post by mochomocha »

cousin_it wrote: post #19
segphault wrote: post #2

For those who are interested in this topic, I highly recommend checking out VCV Rack, an open source application that lets you build Eurorack-style virtual modular synthesizers: https://vcvrack.com/ I've been going down this rabbit hole lately and it's really fascinating.

This winter I went down this rabbit hole and back up, trying to approximate some acoustic instrument sounds. I went through a succession of different workflows, spending a couple weeks on each. Workflow 1: feed a sawtooth oscillator through filters controllable with knobs. Eventually I realized that it will always sound mechanical, no matter how many filters you stack. That led to Workflow 2: feed a sawtooth oscillat…

In grad school, I had a tiny start-up with a classmate selling a virtual instrument doing just what you describe (for guitar sound synthesis). We had PDE models for the string, finger/string interaction, fret/string interactions etc. We would then discretize these PDEs to generate in real-time a synthetic "force" applied by the string on soundboard, and then convolve this in real-time with measured impulse responses of real acoustic guitar soundboards. Our website is still up (spicyguitar.com) and we give it for free now, but I don't know if it still works in recent DAWs.

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#72

Post by xtagon »

infogulch wrote: post #17
xtagon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since a lot of people here are technical, here's a fun tip: VCV Rack stores the rack as a (somewhat) human-readable JSON file. A couple of friends and I are experimenting with collaborating using Github and pull requests.

That's pretty cool. How well do merges work if two commits change the same file?

I tried it and only ran into a couple of issues:

1. I was using VCV Rack on Windows, but I think my friend was not, so you may need to tweak Git's line ending settings

2. Some changes you just don't want to merge. The other person could have different audio output settings. There can also be rounding errors in the knob values so sometimes the values can be edited slightly even if they were 1.0 before, even if you don't think you changed them, which makes merges a little noisier. But `git add -p` made short work of cleaning that up.

Edit: This is also assuming that you coordinate who takes turns editing at one given time - "ping pong" is easier than free for all.

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#73

Post by bravura »

cousin_it wrote: post #68
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subtractive makes a lot of classic synthesizer sounds, which is why it's a thing. It's also easy to understand. It seems to be easy to implement digitally, but it really isn't, because a lot of the nuances and non-linearities that add weight and colour to synthesis with real electronics aren't present in simple digital emulations. For pure DSP the choice is more or less between open additive, modal (which is a kind o…

> If you want to "enforce a physically correct relationship" between etc you're going to want AI-constrained additive or physical modeling. I was thinking of relationships like these: 1) Decay time of nth partial falls as a certain formula of n. 2) Frequency of nth partial is slightly different from n * fundamental, by a factor which is a formula of n. 3) Spectrum of nth partial isn't a delta function, but a hump who…

Do you mind emailing me?

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#74

Post by tomduncalf »

justaj wrote: post #70
tomduncalf wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning computer programming you mean? If you think creating something musical would motivate you, JavaScript using the WebAudio API isn’t a bad starting place, as it provides high level components such as oscillators and filters that you can plug together without needing to know the internals - for example, check out https://teropa.info/blog/2016/07/28/javascript-systems-music... , which is aimed more or less at ne…

Thanks, yes, exactly. I thought perhaps I could combine these two fields since I very much enjoy making electronic music but I'm still intimidated by code. C and C++ in that regard sounds like the final bosses of the intersection between audio and computers, so I think I'll take up your suggestion and start with JS and the WebAudio API.

Haha, correct! Yeah that’s probably the best place to start :) There are loads of cool WebAudio apps out there for inspiration, e.g. check out https://blokdust.com/.

I’d check out that tutorial I posted, once you feel comfortable with the basics of JS you may also want to take a look at https://tonejs.github.io/, which provides a layer on top of WebAudio with useful functionality like synths, sequencers etc. Can save a lot of time!

There are many other great tutorials and open source WebAudio projects out there too. Have fun, hopefully you can post something you have made on here in the not too distant future! Like I say, feel free to give me a shout on email/twitter if you need more advice.

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#75

Post by Severian »

mochomocha wrote: post #71
cousin_it wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This winter I went down this rabbit hole and back up, trying to approximate some acoustic instrument sounds. I went through a succession of different workflows, spending a couple weeks on each. Workflow 1: feed a sawtooth oscillator through filters controllable with knobs. Eventually I realized that it will always sound mechanical, no matter how many filters you stack. That led to Workflow 2: feed a sawtooth oscillat…

In grad school, I had a tiny start-up with a classmate selling a virtual instrument doing just what you describe (for guitar sound synthesis). We had PDE models for the string, finger/string interaction, fret/string interactions etc. We would then discretize these PDEs to generate in real-time a synthetic "force" applied by the string on soundboard, and then convolve this in real-time with measured impulse responses…

Loaded it up and I can confirm it still works in FL Studio 32b and 64b versions. I really like the music box preset, very melodious with certain parameters.

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#76

Post by mochomocha »

Severian wrote: post #75
mochomocha wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In grad school, I had a tiny start-up with a classmate selling a virtual instrument doing just what you describe (for guitar sound synthesis). We had PDE models for the string, finger/string interaction, fret/string interactions etc. We would then discretize these PDEs to generate in real-time a synthetic "force" applied by the string on soundboard, and then convolve this in real-time with measured impulse responses…

Loaded it up and I can confirm it still works in FL Studio 32b and 64b versions. I really like the music box preset, very melodious with certain parameters.

Thank you!

Re: Subtractive synths explained (2011)

#77

Post by analogmatt »

tomduncalf wrote: post #27

If anyone is interested in getting started playing with synths, AudioKit Synth One is a great free, open source synth for iOS: https://audiokitpro.com/synth . iOS is a pretty cool platform for starting to play around because the multi touch nature of a touch screen makes it more fun (IMO) than using a mouse to drag virtual knobs around.

Thanks for the AudioKit Synth One shout out! We're working hard to improve open-source synths
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