Computer Music magazine - powered by MusicRadar

View in gallery

When you fire up a synth for the first time, it's inevitable that you'll attempt to get an idea of its capabilities by playing some of the presets. However, if this is all you ever do and you never attempt to program any custom sounds of your own, you'll be missing out.

Synth programming can be daunting if you've never done it before, so here are eight handy tips to help you get started.

1. Think before you act

Even the most basic subtractive synth can be a deceptively involved instrument to program. Synthesisers welcome experimentation, but very often it can be helpful to take a step back and consider how a sound you want to program would be constructed before you actually start doing it.

As a square wave has a hollow tone, it makes a good starting point for synthesising woodwind-like instruments, for example, whereas a saw wave has a much smoother tone, which makes it particularly good for emulating string-like instruments.

Another thing to consider might be how the tone of the instrument changes over time, and how you can make that happen with the filter and filter envelope sections.

2. Reach new depths

Acoustic instruments and sounds in nature aren't static things - they tend to shift, dance around and evolve continually. If you loop a single wave from a recording of a human voice, a string instrument, or even an analogue synth, you tend to get an unnaturally colder, synthetic-sounding result, which may or may not be what you're looking for.

It's always worth thinking about ways in which you can add subtle, natural movement to your synthesised sounds. One of the most effective it is to set your synth's LFOs up to modulate parameters like oscillator pitch, filter cutoff and pulse width modulation.

3. Multiple oscillators

Another good way to add depth and richness to your synth patches is to use multiple oscillators slightly detuned against each other. If you were making a two-oscillator string sound, say, you might choose to detune one oscillator up 5 cents, and the other down 5 cents.

For even thicker sounds - especially big trance-style synth chords - you could use more oscillators and a greater range of detuning. Some synths offer a unison mode, which multiplies the number of voices your synth uses for each note and enables you to choose the degree of detuning.

4. Strike a chord

Coarse detuning can be used to add even more thickness to your synth sounds, as well as creating interesting melodic effects. The simplest way to add weight to a synth sound is to add an oscillator and tune it down an octave (-12 semitones). Many synths also feature a dedicated sub-oscillator for adding a simple tone tuned, typically, an octave or two down.

Tuning an oscillator up +7 semitones gives the classic open fifth sound. This can be very effective with lead sounds and pads, particularly when playing big chords.

Around the web: