On older phone I had a fun touch-synth called Etherpad but it says it's not compatible with my newer phone.
Learning Synths
21–30 of 128 posts
Re: Learning Synths
#22I like synths with movements instead of keys a lot better. They give me that old sci-fi vibe. It's something that should be nice with the Quest VR handtracking. (but no, really not like this; https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/synthvr/3748465338566... ; then I would just get a real synth)
That's mainly just the 'sweep' or portamento between notes that's indicative of things like the Theremin or 50s Sci-Fi sound.
Check out the Ondes Martenot for a compromise between the two paradigms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondes_Martenot
Re: Learning Synths
#23I've been playing synths and piano for a while, but I've been struggling to get some solid intuitions about what is going on when I tweak the synths. One thing that really helped on this site, is the «dot» that is bouncing back and forth on https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/playground . Try tweaking the nobs and see how the dots movement changes. It helped me visualize something that I wasn't able to grasp before…
The best way I found to understand a bit more about how synths work, was to give VCVRack a try. Basically "build your own synth" in a box, AKA " Modular synthesizer", which lets you build what a mainstream synth comes with, from scratch.
Re: Learning Synths
#24Syntorial is also popular and posted here many times. https://www.syntorial.com/
I was going to post it as well. And also from the same creator "building blocks" a similar tool for music creation instead of sound design
Re: Learning Synths
#25The "Playing different pitches" section plays "The Final Countdown", arguably the greatest synth riff of all time. If you know it, just click the rhythm on that section.
Re: Learning Synths
#26The quick tour of Glicol that I made is also a way to learn digital sound synthesis:
Have fun
Re: Learning Synths
#27I've been playing synths and piano for a while, but I've been struggling to get some solid intuitions about what is going on when I tweak the synths. One thing that really helped on this site, is the «dot» that is bouncing back and forth on https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/playground . Try tweaking the nobs and see how the dots movement changes. It helped me visualize something that I wasn't able to grasp before…
The best way I found to understand a bit more about how synths work, was to give VCVRack a try. Basically "build your own synth" in a box, AKA " Modular synthesizer", which lets you build what a mainstream synth comes with, from scratch.
It’s also pretty easy to create your own VCV Rack modules, assuming you don’t mind doing a little math.
Re: Learning Synths
#28I've been playing synths and piano for a while, but I've been struggling to get some solid intuitions about what is going on when I tweak the synths. One thing that really helped on this site, is the «dot» that is bouncing back and forth on https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/playground . Try tweaking the nobs and see how the dots movement changes. It helped me visualize something that I wasn't able to grasp before…
The best way I found to understand a bit more about how synths work, was to give VCVRack a try. Basically "build your own synth" in a box, AKA " Modular synthesizer", which lets you build what a mainstream synth comes with, from scratch.
There is also Cardinal, a GPL fork that you can run as a plugin directly in your DAW of choice (I believe you need the paid VCV Rack to do that):
Re: Learning Synths
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you say keyboard are you talking about a piano-type keyboard or a computer keyboard?
Computer keyboard .
Don't. Computer keyboards are inexpressive. You'll be giving up the ability to modulate note velocity/volume, for starters. Get a cheap MIDI keyboard for a few hundred bucks.
If instead of playing you're more interested in making cool sounds, I'd skip the keyboard completely and download a free DAW like Reaper, Ableton, or FL Studio.
Whichever route you take, the secret is practice. It always is...
Re: Learning Synths
#30If you want to understand (Subtractive) synthesis. The best way is to get copy of VCV rack and follow a few tutorials. If you patch one subtractive mono synth voice once, you understand 80% of all subtractive synth architecture moving forward.
https://vcvrack.com (open source and wonderful)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V35OhojjqDs Happy patching :)
There's a bunch of other really interesting types of synthesis and you can explore them using the above software
- Frequency/phase modulation synthesis
- Vector synthesis
- physical modeling/Karplus strong
- Additive synthesis
- Eastcoast (subtractive)
- Westcoast (waveshaping/LP gates)