Darris - All About Synthesis
Acoustic Theory & Fundamental Sounds
Hi there. In this magazine you are going to be informed about the acoustic theory of waves, effects which would give you a brighter idea of making your own sounds whilst making it.
What is a wave?
A wave, which is referred to a sine wave, is a line that goes up and down depending on the frequency of Hertz (Hz) in the sound that is made. It is the most simplest wave and is normally a basic building block for any sound at all.
As shown in the image above, a sine wave also contains an amplitude, wavelength, crest & trough. The amplitude is to do with the loudness of the sound, the trough is how quiet the sound can go, the crest is the highest point of the sound and the wavelength is one crest to the next crest depending on the frequency of sound that is produced. Any sound could be made by combining a number of sine waves at different frequencies.
What does frequency mean in this case?
Frequency is to do with how frequent (often) the vibration is within the sound & time to produce a wave. This is also known as cycles per second, however the frequency is usually measured in Hz (Hertz) and can be found in low frequency and high frequency sounds. Normally, when a low note is played (low frequency) it leaves a resonating sound, on the other hand when a high note is played (high frequency) it doesn't leave out a resonating sound resulting to the key dying out straight away.
Main Waveforms - Fundamentals & Harmonics (Frequency continuation...)
There are 4 main waveforms in the acoustic theory and they all have different purposes and uses within music. Sine, Square, Triangle and Saw Tooth waves are what i'm going to describe and analyse their uses in music down below.
The sine wave is the most simplest wave out of the four, it is known as a fundamental as it is the lowest harmonic. Harmonics are multiples of a fundamental wave which the sine wave doesn't have because it only emits one harmonic sound. You can make any sound by adding together several sine waves in different frequencies. You can also make any sound by mixing few oscillators. An oscillator is a repeating waveform which has a fundamental frequency and a peak amplitude. This is commonly used in music in today's age. The most important feature of the oscillator is the shape of the waveform (Triangle, Square & Sawtooth etc.) When this wave is played it sounds smooth and soothing to the ear. Its sound alike to a electric piano.
The final main waveform is the sawtooth and is another non-sinusoidial wave but it is completely different to the the rest for main reasons; the waveform is teeth-like shaped and it has a zero rake angle. The oscillating waveform of the saw tooth is that it starts with an upward ramp movement and sharply dips down like the side of a square. The first fundamental frequency for the sawtooth is 220 Hz and it continues to double itself till it hits 440Hz, 880Hz & 1760Hz, where all of the frequencies sound distorted. Sawtooth's waveform is warm and even and also it contains infinite overtones.
What Are Envelopes And What Are They Used For?
An envelope is a mini device within a synthesizer or sampler which allows you to make and shape a more original sound. The most typical envelope on the ES1 Synth on Logic Pro is the ADSR. The ADSR Envelope is highlighted in a box shown in the picture above and this is where the sound created gets manipulated. The ADSR is an abbreviation of four words that are related to the envelope and its specific effect it gives to the sound. For example, the "A" stands for "Attack" and the attack is how long it takes for a certain note to reach its highest point of amplitude.
Now putting the slider all the way up to "long" makes the note take longer to hit its maximum level whereas if you put the slider to "short" the note pressed would be the complete opposite where the note would reach its highest amplitude straight away.
The "D" stands for Decay and this envelope is quite similar to the "Attack" envelope but the difference is the time it takes for a note to reach its sustain level after reaching its intial peak. This basically means that when it does get to the sustained level, the ending sound of the note won't die out straight away, it would leave the note ringing on till it fades out depending on how "long" or "short" the envelope slider is on. For example, a short Decay would get to the sustained level quicker than a long Decay where the note takes longer to get to its sustained level.
On to "S", it stands for Sustain and it is the only envelope to not represent time. Sustain is the level of amplitude that the signal from the signal stays on for as long as the synthesizer/note is being played. Sustain is also known as how long you hold down a note on the piano for. As sustain doesn't represent time, the slider is different to the other envelopes. Instead of saying "long" & "short", it has "0" & "full" as it is shown above in the picture. When the slider is on "0", sustain in the synth/note would not be available, whereas if it is on "full" the note would be completely held down.
Now the last envelope is the "R" which stands for Release which means how long the note that is triggered takes to fade out completely from the sustained level. This is also related to Sustain yet sustain doesn't fade out completely. In a way Release is the opposite to attack as it is taking a certain amount of time to fade away vice versa Attack is taking a certain amount of time to reach it's highest amplitude.
Low Frequency Oscillator - It's Uses
A Low Frequency Oscillator, also abbreviated as LFO, is a sub-audio frequency which produces a slow oscillating signal to alter the original waveform. Basically the LFO only affects the low frequencies in the wave form. The way it affects the synthesizer is by giving it more "wobble" in the low end frequencies of the waveform to give it a more unique sound. Another way to describe this is if as the other knobs are being turnt back and forth to create a more developed sound.
Creating My Own Sound
I made my own sound using the ES1 synthesizer as it is simple as well as easy to navigate and sculpt sounds with it. Down below shows the settings of how I made my own sound and also a audio track is beneath it too. Instead of just showing you the settings of how i got my sound, i'm going to describe and explain why and how i got the unique sound I made.
So first off i started with the filter cut off and here i wanted to allow a fair amount of frequencies to flow through but not too much. I decided to put the filter cut off halfway so that the frequency of the sound isn't too high which could potentially making my unique sound sound awful.
The next filter i modified was the resonance and this was used to allow most of the frequencies that were chopped out via the filter cut off to appear slighty. The reason why i put the resonance filter 3/4 up is because it gave a whoosh-like whispering sound to accompany the unique sound i made.
I went to my oscillators next and i though to myself that i wanted something a bit hollow/deep, on the 1st oscillator i switched it from the triangle wave to the square wave and literally it went from smooth and flute-like to smooth and hollow. Using the square wave in my unique sound made my sound come out stronger than it was before and this is essential to me as i want my sound to stick out.
With the 1st oscillator done i still felt like the sound wasn't strong enough and then went to the 2nd oscillator and modified it from there. I also put this on the square wave option and i noticed a big difference. Instead of being a smooth and hollow sound, it went to a deeper yet harder sound. This is because the 2 square waves merged together to create a stronger noise. An element that may not be obvious within my sound is phase this ideally shouldn't be good in a track/sound but i really like it as it adds more tone to my sound.
After I created my unique sound, I felt like it wasn't developed well enough, so it was all left to the ADSR envelopes. As explained from before, the ADSR envelope expresses how sound changes over time and i've decided to use all of the envelopes which would effect my track in a significant way.
First i adjusted the "Attack" envelope as i wanted the beginning of each note i played to hit it's highest potential within a certain time frame. I decided to put the "Attack" envelope half way because it gave the notes that had been triggered quite a bit of time to reach it's highest amplitude. This made my original sound appear more better because it removed silences and also a swung melody was created.
Decay was the next envelope i decided to modify and this was because the ending of my note ended too sharply. I wanted the ending of the note triggered to leave an echo sound. To accomplish my request, i put the "Decay" envelope half way but the ending of the note between the beginning of the next note left a bit of silence. My second option was to put the envelope all the way up and it created a more flowing sound between each note.
The next and final envelope i altered was "Release" and i wanted the sound of every note to fade out instead of ending straight away with no colour. This embellished my sound even more making it flow with more rhythm. Without rhythm in a song you wouldn't be able to hear it and it is very vital if you want to gain a listeners attention for longer. To hear how this 8 second track sounds like, please click the link below.
https://coulsdonac-my.sharepoint.com/personal/dp160684_student_coulsdon_ac_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=17ade488c6ed14d5e8a6e37c7feb71a5f&authkey=AY_y2LzEBPWWBuX63QJRYDY&e=2ebf408a5f4943c58e611857398b0810
Limitations of Logic Pro's Synthesizers & Advanced Synthesizers
I'm going to compare the synth I've been using in logic with a more advanced synth and talking about their limitations. So the ES1 synth (as seen above) has 2 oscillators, 1 sub-oscillator, 1 low frequency oscillator, 1 ADSR Envelope, 1 low pass filter & resonance filter, 1 amplifier and 1 modulation envelope. The useful thing about the ES1 synth on logic is that you can sculpt your own sound to make it replicate a real life instrument. This is useful because some artists/producers don't like using pre-made instruments and they tend to recreate the sound by inputting a melody through midi and then adjusting the parameters on the synth to sculpt the way they want the sound. This is a good thing about additive & subtractive synthesizers because they replicate real life instruments, however the limitation of additive & subtractive synthesizers are that they generally need many oscillators to generate a good quality sound. A disadvantage of this limitation is that the computer/technology device that the synthesizer is running on would require a lot of RAM storage for the oscillators to do its job efficiently and smoothly without crashing. With no good quality sound present within a track it would sound terrible and the listener would be put off from this.
The second synthesizer I'm going to be talking about is the Waves Codex which is a wavetable synthesizer. Wavetable synths are much more advanced than additive and subtractive synths because you can store already configured presets (sounds created by you) on the synth itself and can load up that same sound you created from that specific table. The Waves Codex consists of 4 LFOs, 6 modulation envelopes, 2 digital visual wavetable analysers, 3 ADSR Envelopes and 2 key changers. Already by seeing the big numbers of parameters, you could tell that this synth is more advanced than the ES1 synth from logic. An advantage of this particular synthesizer is that you can develop and sculpt as many sounds as you like, it comes with decent presets and also you can create and import your own wavetables. On the other hand, the negatives about the Wave Codex synth is that it is quite expensive for what it actually is and the oscillators sound cheap. Having cheap sounding oscillators doesn't produce the sound you ideally want and it could ruin the clarity in the mix of your song.
In conclusion Acoustic Theory and Fundamental Sounds are very important for when it comes to making sounds, as it enables you as a musician to create and manipulate a sound and making it sound different to an already made instrument.
synthbasics/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZKvLnf7wU
https://theproaudiofiles.com/sound-synthesis-basics/
Hi there. In this magazine you are going to be informed about the acoustic theory of waves, effects which would give you a brighter idea of making your own sounds whilst making it.
What is a wave?
A wave, which is referred to a sine wave, is a line that goes up and down depending on the frequency of Hertz (Hz) in the sound that is made. It is the most simplest wave and is normally a basic building block for any sound at all.
What does frequency mean in this case?
Frequency is to do with how frequent (often) the vibration is within the sound & time to produce a wave. This is also known as cycles per second, however the frequency is usually measured in Hz (Hertz) and can be found in low frequency and high frequency sounds. Normally, when a low note is played (low frequency) it leaves a resonating sound, on the other hand when a high note is played (high frequency) it doesn't leave out a resonating sound resulting to the key dying out straight away.
Main Waveforms - Fundamentals & Harmonics (Frequency continuation...)
There are 4 main waveforms in the acoustic theory and they all have different purposes and uses within music. Sine, Square, Triangle and Saw Tooth waves are what i'm going to describe and analyse their uses in music down below.
The sine wave is the most simplest wave out of the four, it is known as a fundamental as it is the lowest harmonic. Harmonics are multiples of a fundamental wave which the sine wave doesn't have because it only emits one harmonic sound. You can make any sound by adding together several sine waves in different frequencies. You can also make any sound by mixing few oscillators. An oscillator is a repeating waveform which has a fundamental frequency and a peak amplitude. This is commonly used in music in today's age. The most important feature of the oscillator is the shape of the waveform (Triangle, Square & Sawtooth etc.) When this wave is played it sounds smooth and soothing to the ear. Its sound alike to a electric piano.
The triangle wave is a non-sinusoidial wave which is shaped as a triangle and it only contains odd harmonics. Non-sinusiodial waves are waves that do not contain pure sine waves meaning that the sine waves that have been altered have different frequencies to each other. Whereas, a sinusoidial wave is the complete opposite to this; it is a wave with pure frequency and it also shows smooth reptition of oscillation. This is where the sine wave gets its name from as it is smooth and only contains one frequency. Harmonic overtones are based on the fundamental frequency multiplied by an integer, for example, a random note played (110Hz) would be the 1st sequence being the number 1, and the 2nd sequence would be the number 3 (110Hz×3 = 330Hz) as it is counting in odd numbers. The triangle wave is has a sweet sounding waveform and it is quite similar to the Sine wave yet it is has more power.
The Square wave is also a non-sinusoidial wave and the waveform is shaped as a square (as the image shows above). This wave is similar to a square wave as it counts in odd integers too to create its oscillation and it's specific sound. The square waveform is flat in the shape of a square and the sounds deep and hollow.
The final main waveform is the sawtooth and is another non-sinusoidial wave but it is completely different to the the rest for main reasons; the waveform is teeth-like shaped and it has a zero rake angle. The oscillating waveform of the saw tooth is that it starts with an upward ramp movement and sharply dips down like the side of a square. The first fundamental frequency for the sawtooth is 220 Hz and it continues to double itself till it hits 440Hz, 880Hz & 1760Hz, where all of the frequencies sound distorted. Sawtooth's waveform is warm and even and also it contains infinite overtones.
What Are Envelopes And What Are They Used For?
An envelope is a mini device within a synthesizer or sampler which allows you to make and shape a more original sound. The most typical envelope on the ES1 Synth on Logic Pro is the ADSR. The ADSR Envelope is highlighted in a box shown in the picture above and this is where the sound created gets manipulated. The ADSR is an abbreviation of four words that are related to the envelope and its specific effect it gives to the sound. For example, the "A" stands for "Attack" and the attack is how long it takes for a certain note to reach its highest point of amplitude.
Now putting the slider all the way up to "long" makes the note take longer to hit its maximum level whereas if you put the slider to "short" the note pressed would be the complete opposite where the note would reach its highest amplitude straight away.
The "D" stands for Decay and this envelope is quite similar to the "Attack" envelope but the difference is the time it takes for a note to reach its sustain level after reaching its intial peak. This basically means that when it does get to the sustained level, the ending sound of the note won't die out straight away, it would leave the note ringing on till it fades out depending on how "long" or "short" the envelope slider is on. For example, a short Decay would get to the sustained level quicker than a long Decay where the note takes longer to get to its sustained level.
On to "S", it stands for Sustain and it is the only envelope to not represent time. Sustain is the level of amplitude that the signal from the signal stays on for as long as the synthesizer/note is being played. Sustain is also known as how long you hold down a note on the piano for. As sustain doesn't represent time, the slider is different to the other envelopes. Instead of saying "long" & "short", it has "0" & "full" as it is shown above in the picture. When the slider is on "0", sustain in the synth/note would not be available, whereas if it is on "full" the note would be completely held down.
Now the last envelope is the "R" which stands for Release which means how long the note that is triggered takes to fade out completely from the sustained level. This is also related to Sustain yet sustain doesn't fade out completely. In a way Release is the opposite to attack as it is taking a certain amount of time to fade away vice versa Attack is taking a certain amount of time to reach it's highest amplitude.
Low Frequency Oscillator - It's Uses
A Low Frequency Oscillator, also abbreviated as LFO, is a sub-audio frequency which produces a slow oscillating signal to alter the original waveform. Basically the LFO only affects the low frequencies in the wave form. The way it affects the synthesizer is by giving it more "wobble" in the low end frequencies of the waveform to give it a more unique sound. Another way to describe this is if as the other knobs are being turnt back and forth to create a more developed sound.
Creating My Own Sound
I made my own sound using the ES1 synthesizer as it is simple as well as easy to navigate and sculpt sounds with it. Down below shows the settings of how I made my own sound and also a audio track is beneath it too. Instead of just showing you the settings of how i got my sound, i'm going to describe and explain why and how i got the unique sound I made.
So first off i started with the filter cut off and here i wanted to allow a fair amount of frequencies to flow through but not too much. I decided to put the filter cut off halfway so that the frequency of the sound isn't too high which could potentially making my unique sound sound awful.
The next filter i modified was the resonance and this was used to allow most of the frequencies that were chopped out via the filter cut off to appear slighty. The reason why i put the resonance filter 3/4 up is because it gave a whoosh-like whispering sound to accompany the unique sound i made.
I went to my oscillators next and i though to myself that i wanted something a bit hollow/deep, on the 1st oscillator i switched it from the triangle wave to the square wave and literally it went from smooth and flute-like to smooth and hollow. Using the square wave in my unique sound made my sound come out stronger than it was before and this is essential to me as i want my sound to stick out.
With the 1st oscillator done i still felt like the sound wasn't strong enough and then went to the 2nd oscillator and modified it from there. I also put this on the square wave option and i noticed a big difference. Instead of being a smooth and hollow sound, it went to a deeper yet harder sound. This is because the 2 square waves merged together to create a stronger noise. An element that may not be obvious within my sound is phase this ideally shouldn't be good in a track/sound but i really like it as it adds more tone to my sound.
After I created my unique sound, I felt like it wasn't developed well enough, so it was all left to the ADSR envelopes. As explained from before, the ADSR envelope expresses how sound changes over time and i've decided to use all of the envelopes which would effect my track in a significant way.
First i adjusted the "Attack" envelope as i wanted the beginning of each note i played to hit it's highest potential within a certain time frame. I decided to put the "Attack" envelope half way because it gave the notes that had been triggered quite a bit of time to reach it's highest amplitude. This made my original sound appear more better because it removed silences and also a swung melody was created.
Decay was the next envelope i decided to modify and this was because the ending of my note ended too sharply. I wanted the ending of the note triggered to leave an echo sound. To accomplish my request, i put the "Decay" envelope half way but the ending of the note between the beginning of the next note left a bit of silence. My second option was to put the envelope all the way up and it created a more flowing sound between each note.
The next and final envelope i altered was "Release" and i wanted the sound of every note to fade out instead of ending straight away with no colour. This embellished my sound even more making it flow with more rhythm. Without rhythm in a song you wouldn't be able to hear it and it is very vital if you want to gain a listeners attention for longer. To hear how this 8 second track sounds like, please click the link below.
https://coulsdonac-my.sharepoint.com/personal/dp160684_student_coulsdon_ac_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=17ade488c6ed14d5e8a6e37c7feb71a5f&authkey=AY_y2LzEBPWWBuX63QJRYDY&e=2ebf408a5f4943c58e611857398b0810
Limitations of Logic Pro's Synthesizers & Advanced Synthesizers
I'm going to compare the synth I've been using in logic with a more advanced synth and talking about their limitations. So the ES1 synth (as seen above) has 2 oscillators, 1 sub-oscillator, 1 low frequency oscillator, 1 ADSR Envelope, 1 low pass filter & resonance filter, 1 amplifier and 1 modulation envelope. The useful thing about the ES1 synth on logic is that you can sculpt your own sound to make it replicate a real life instrument. This is useful because some artists/producers don't like using pre-made instruments and they tend to recreate the sound by inputting a melody through midi and then adjusting the parameters on the synth to sculpt the way they want the sound. This is a good thing about additive & subtractive synthesizers because they replicate real life instruments, however the limitation of additive & subtractive synthesizers are that they generally need many oscillators to generate a good quality sound. A disadvantage of this limitation is that the computer/technology device that the synthesizer is running on would require a lot of RAM storage for the oscillators to do its job efficiently and smoothly without crashing. With no good quality sound present within a track it would sound terrible and the listener would be put off from this.
The second synthesizer I'm going to be talking about is the Waves Codex which is a wavetable synthesizer. Wavetable synths are much more advanced than additive and subtractive synths because you can store already configured presets (sounds created by you) on the synth itself and can load up that same sound you created from that specific table. The Waves Codex consists of 4 LFOs, 6 modulation envelopes, 2 digital visual wavetable analysers, 3 ADSR Envelopes and 2 key changers. Already by seeing the big numbers of parameters, you could tell that this synth is more advanced than the ES1 synth from logic. An advantage of this particular synthesizer is that you can develop and sculpt as many sounds as you like, it comes with decent presets and also you can create and import your own wavetables. On the other hand, the negatives about the Wave Codex synth is that it is quite expensive for what it actually is and the oscillators sound cheap. Having cheap sounding oscillators doesn't produce the sound you ideally want and it could ruin the clarity in the mix of your song.
In conclusion Acoustic Theory and Fundamental Sounds are very important for when it comes to making sounds, as it enables you as a musician to create and manipulate a sound and making it sound different to an already made instrument.
References:
http://beausievers.com/synth/https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://theproaudiofiles.com/
https://documentation.apple.com/en/logicstudio/instruments/index.html#chapter=4%26section=0%26tasks=true
http://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/docs_manuals/emagic_es1_v.2.0_manual.pdf
http://musicweb.ucsd.edu/~trsmyth/addSynth171/Additive_Synthesis_Pros.html
http://en.wikiaudio.org/Wavetable_synthesis
http://synthesizeracademy.com/wavetable-synthesis/
http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/waves-codex-613355
http://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/docs_manuals/emagic_es1_v.2.0_manual.pdf
http://musicweb.ucsd.edu/~trsmyth/addSynth171/Additive_Synthesis_Pros.html
http://en.wikiaudio.org/Wavetable_synthesis
http://synthesizeracademy.com/wavetable-synthesis/
http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/waves-codex-613355
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