Hi all,

I just posted a new article on my website about the fundamental workings of subtractive synthesizers. A lot of the newer hardware and software synth units are built off the same building blocks as the original subtractive synth units and a lot of the understanding of those units is getting lost today. It’s been my experience that a basic understanding of how those old units work will go a long way in helping you create the sounds you want to hear on many of the newer units. That applies to creating sounds from scratch or simply editing presets. This article sets out to provide some of that basic understanding.

Mostly it’s fairly dry basics with a bunch of sound samples. It briefly touches on software emulations of classic synths and also Absynth 4 right at the end. To make this non-Teflon, consider the possibilities if you master a program like Absynth and drive those sounds with your GK-equipped Stick. Cool!

Thanks to Mark Smart for providing some additional information and very special thanks to Sean Stirling for being my proof reader, fact checker and voice of sanity.

Article is at http://www.detroitstick.com/words/articles/synths

Glenn

Thanks Glenn, I'll find time to read it all and comment soon. I've had a few synths in my time and being the child of a wickedly talented synth-playing father, have grown up with some of the best of them in the household. Will do my best to add some useful comments.

Cheers,

EG
Korg Wavestation A/D owner

I have never been a synth player, only guitar. This article is great for me, thanks for your good work. It's obvious that you put a lot of time, thought, effort into it. I will be sharing this with lots of people.

This forum has the highest quality contributions and highest signal-to-noise ratio of any online community I'm aware of. Having serious and studied pros who are willing to help and teach us hopeless amateurs is almost miraculous and I'm deeply grateful.

-Eric

On a slightly related note, Tristram Cary passed away here in Adelaide a few weeks ago. He was considered to be the pioneer of modern synths along with Bob Moog.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/28/arts/AS-A-E-MUS-Australia-Obit-Cary.php

There is a Stick-connection here too; Cary was a friend of Peter Delin who attended the Sydney Stick seminar last year.

Cheers,
Andy

Very educational Glenn. I learned allot. Very well done.

-Curtis

I love synths, mainly analog or good emulations. I have little knowlegde of how it all works so this looks nice. The 70's synths are still the king, with patchbays and all. I wonder if that korg legacy with the mini ms 20 sounds good. Oh and absynth is so insane its redicuolous! I can't wrap my brain around it but its cool. I've tried computer synths with the midi-pickup and it works better than I thought. There is that little added latency though. I wonder if anyone has rigged up some analog style synths to the midi-pickup, or maybe no midi then.

Thanks for the great feedback everybody!

Absynth is pretty wild stuff but it isn't insurmountable. Have a read through the paper and then give it another go. There are a handful of things you can do to wrap yourself around the product a bit faster.

First, start with a brand new empty sound. With all the extras essentially turned off, the bare minimum is easy to follow and build on. That way you can hear what the bare minimum sounds like and then hear what other options sound like as you turn them on.

Second, Absynth has these templates that are really nice. When you go to load up a waveform, you can choose from a list of template. These are combinations of waveforms and envelopes that are designed to be starting points that you can build on. That way you can choose something close to what you're after and then examine the various settings to see how it was created. They also have "channel template" that also include various filters and modifiers as well.

Pretty neat stuff.

Right on, I think there is great potential in the more ambient style stick synth. Slightly slower attack and a morphing pad kinda thing, mixed with clean stick. It can feel disconnected to the feeling of strings and all, but its interesting. I am thinking about an experiment where I have my normal stick effects set up, then absynth routed back into the normal effects. Thus having an illusion of a unified gigantic sound. So adding filters and stuff to the synth and normal tone at the same time at the end of the signal path. If anyone has any more examples of synth played on stick I'd love to hear it.

Hi Ben,

Are you familiar with Nick Begg's CD, "Stick Insect," he uses the MIDI for a lot of synth pads, etc, and to "good effect."

"If anyone has any more examples of synth played on stick I'd love to hear it."

I have some songs with Stick synth. You can hear them at:
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?so ... 061&T=8960
Most were recorded in my living room with a little Ederol digital recorder.
Perry