Introduction
A synth is a software instrument that contains preset sounds and drums. A software synth also contains other controls such as waveforms, oscillators, LFOs, HP, LP and BP filters, ADSR envelope, etc. These controls are used for sound synthesis; creating sounds from default and making great effects with them.
Sound synthesis is a great way for a producer to create a sound that he/she wants if it can't be found in the preset library. However, synthesising sounds is a great way to make music sound much more professional and realistic. Not all songs need preset sounds because synthesised sounds are great to use in tracks of any genre as well. Synthesised sounds are great for EDM, Deep House, DnB and Dubstep.
Acoustic Theory
When an object is hit with another object is creates a sound. Once the sound has been created it travels through the air particles and from there the sound is picked up by the pinna and travels through the air canal. Finally the sound hits the ear drum causes the little hairs in the cochlea to react. The hairs vibrate because there is sound being picked up. However, there is too much sound being picked this can have a serious impact on the three little ear bones and the cochlea. For example if someone were listening to music in headphones with the volume to full, that person's hearing will not be as good as it was before. Everything that the person can hear will sound dull and faint. This is because the three little ear bones are getting to the point where they will be damaged and once they are damaged it will be permanent and this leads to loss of hearing. Tinnitus occurs when the cochlea is permanently damaged. Tinnitus is an annoying ringing sound that you can hear in mostly quiet environments and the only way someone will not hear tinnitus is if that person is a loud environment depending on how bad that person's tinnitus is.
Looking after you're ears is very important, especially for a producer, sound engineer or technician. The best way you can look after you're ears is by putting the volume low when listening to music in headphones, wearing good quality ear plugs at live events, clubs and parties and giving you're ears a break from time to time ensuring you're ears have time to refresh themselves and relax. Doing all of these things will help you prevent hearing loss and this will help benefit anyone that is a producer, sound engineer or technician.
Frequency
The next thing I will talk about is frequency. Frequencies are measured in hertz (Hz) and show us where each sound and instrument live in a record. Every record is made up of lots of different frequencies and frequencies can be heard from 20 - 20,000 kHz. Frequencies that are 200 Hz or below is where all the deep sounds and instruments live such as kick drums, bass and sub bass. Frequencies that are 200 - 400 Hz is where the you will hear more body of the lo instruments. From 400 - 1 kHz is where all the lo/mid sound lives. Instruments such as guitars and vocals will be in this frequency range. From 1 - 3 kHz you will hear more of the instruments. You will also hear a little bit of the hats and crash cymbals. 4 - 8 kHz is where the hi-mid instruments live but mostly the body of hats, crash cymbals, ride cymbals, etc. You will also be able to hear the top end of most of the instruments. 8 - 10 kHz is where all the hi end instruments such as ride cymbals, hats, crash cymbals, bells and top end of the vocals. Finally, 10 kHz and above is where all the air and hissing lives.
This can be very useful for a mixing and mastering sound engineer because when the engineer listens carefully to the track that is being mixed or mastered, the engineer will know exactly what to do. The multimeter plugin in logic is another good way of looking at different frequencies. The multimeter will be very helpful to a sound engineer because the engineer will know which frequencies to cut off, shelved out or boosted in any instrument or sound that needs it.
Fundamentals of synthesis
Waveforms and ADSR
When it comes to creating sounds there are aspects that need to be learnt before doing the actual creation. For example a producer needs to know the waveforms that are used in synthesis. Those waveforms are sine, square, triangle and sawtooth. A sine wave is great for making bass sounds, however a sine wave doesn't have any harmonics. Sine waves would be around the 44 to 86 Hz zone. Furthermore if a producer wanted some harmonics in the a bass, he could add a sawtooth, triangle or square wave depending on how he wants the bass to sound like. Logic pro 9 has a synth called ESP1 which is great for creating deep house basses.
Another thing you will find on a software synth is the ADSR envelope. ADSR stands for attack, decay, sustain and release. The attack is the time taken for the sound to reach it's peak, the decay is the time taken for the run down from the attack level to it's sustain level, the sustain is the duration of the sound's level until the key is released and finally the release level is the time taken for the sustain level to reach zero after the key is released.
If I were to sound design and use a pad using this envelope I would select the waveforms I would want to use to create the pad and from there I would use the ADSR envelope to configure the control of the created pad. I would put a sharp attack because pads with a sharp attack can be heard easier and you won't have to wait a certain period of time for the pad to reach your ears.
I would then use a short decay because long decays are not really my preference when it come to making pads because the pad will take longer to reach sustain level. I like my decays to be nice and short because this allows my pad to reach it's sustain level much quicker. It's better then waiting for a long period of time.
From there I would use a long sustain because this allows the pad to be heard for a unlimited period of time. Most pads usually have long sustain and a pad with a short sustain would not sound like a pad at all. It would sound like a stab or a pluck. This is the reason why I like having long sustains on my pads because pads with long sustains give a lot of ambience and harmonics and I can play the pad for a unlimited amount of time without letting go of the key.
Finally I would use a sustain that is not too long and not too short. What I mean by that is I would play around with the sustain controller until I found a sustain that is just right. I would first create a loop on logic with the created pad and from there I would use the release controller to adjust how much release I want. Once I found a release I am satisfied with I can just leave the ADSR envelope as it is to show that I have synthesised a pad and used the ADSR envelope to configure the control of it.
Filters
Filters is another feature you will find on a software synth. There are three types of filters. They are called lo pass, hi pass and band pass. The hi pass filter only allows sounds and instruments that have hi frequencies to pass, the lo pass filter only allows sounds and instruments that have lo frequencies to pass and the band pass filter is a filter that sweeps both frequencies together.
A lo pass filter is great for creating white noise sweeps in EDM music. I can easily create a white noise sound with ES2 synth by selecting the noise waveform on all three oscillators and from there I can record 4 - 8 bars of white noise and finally I can select the lo pass filter and automate it from there to create a perfect white noise sweep. A lo pass filter is also great for ambient pads. When a pad has a lo pass filter it takes out all the harmonics in the pad gives a lot of depth and warmth. This is preferably good for EDM, RnB and ambient music.
A hi pass filter is great for snare drum fills. If I had recorded a 8 bar snare drum fill in an EDM track I would add and automate a hi pass filter. I would do this because This shows that the drop is ready to come in. Without the hi pass filter it doesn't create much awareness of what is about to happen next. the best place to automate the hi pass filter is around the last two bar or last bar of the snare drum fill because this where the beat will about to drop.
Another thing I would use a hi pass filter for is giving a bass more harmonics. If I was using a bass that didn't have much harmonics I would use the hi pass filter to adjust the harmonics in the bass. A hi pass filter would definitely make a big difference in how the bass with more harmonics rather than pure sine wave bass because when I compare a bass with harmonics and a bass without harmonics, a bass would doesn't always have to sound deep. When listening to a bass in EDM music you can tell that there is a lot of harmonics used and it sounds so much better than a bass without harmonics. A bass without or very little harmonics is also good as well. Basses like these can be used in house, hip hop, RnB and pop. You can use these bass sounds as 808s, sub bass or deep bass.
LFOs
LFO stands for low frequency oscillator. LFOs are usually used for dubstep and dnb basses and rising sound effects. What an LFO does is it creates a wobble vibrato, the LFO will be heard more from 200 hz and below as it is a low frequency. LFOs is a great thing to use in music, especially when making sound effects. A producer can synthesise a sound and use an LFO to create a wobble rather than using one shot samples.
This piece of music is a good example of what an LFO does and what it sounds like. At 1:19 of the song 'Cinema' I can hear an LFO being triggered. The LFO is making the bass and some another sounds wobble and you can hear different dynamics in the sounds used. This can be a very useful technique for sound synthesis because it will give someone a great idea in his/her head for what you want his/her created sound to sound like and it will help with new upcoming tracks that any producer will make in the future.
Oscillators
Oscillators are controls found on software and hardware plugins. Using more than one oscillator will allow the synthesised sound to sound fatter and more layered. The ES2 synth on logic has three oscillators and each oscillator has every waveform, octave knob, a triangular mixer, glide and tune switch. Synthesising a sound using more than one oscillator is very useful because using one oscillator alone doesn't make a created synth sound very catchy. Using more than one oscillator allows a synth to have more harmonics and a little bit of lo end. Using the triangular mixer will allow you to control how much of each oscillator you want. Creating synths using more than one oscillator is much better than using preset sounds because if you can't find a sound you are looking for in the plugin's library you can use sound synthesis to create the sound you are listening for. When creating a sound that you want the most it is important to use you're ears and listen closely to what sound you are trying to create.
Types of synthesis
Additive synthesis - This type of synthesis allows someone to create a sound made out if sine waves of different frequencies. A sine wave has no harmonics, it's just one tone. If I wanted to make a sound using additive synthesis, I would use the EXS24 synth from logic and from there I would go into the edit setting and add 5 - 10 sine waves. During this procedure I must ensure that the note of every sine wave I insert in the edit function is different. If 10 sine waves are playing the same key there won't be any harmonics, it will just be one frequency. By changing the note on every sine wave you use this means more harmonics can be heard and seen on the multimeter.
Subtractive synthesis - This type of synthesis allows someone to cut off harmonics and any unwanted parts of a sound. For instance, if I wanted to make a pad I would use the ES2 synth in logic and from there I would select the waveforms I wanted and configure the levels on the ADSR envelope. I would not use an LFO envelope because I don't use LFOs when I make my pads. From there I would open the multimeter and take a look at the harmonics of the pad. If I saw some unwanted hi end I would use a lo pass filter to cut off the harmonics in the hi frequency range. This will make the pad sound more deep and mellow without the hi end piercing my ears.
FM synthesis - FM stands for Frequency Modulation. FM synthesis involves two frequencies, they are called the carrier and the modulator. The modulator causes a sound to have a wobble vibrato effect and the carrier is the starting point. When I was experimenting with the EFM1 plugin I used the harmonic wheel on the carrier oscillator to create the sound I want and from there I used the harmonic wheel on the modulator wheel and wave wheel to make the sound I was creating sound more aggressive. After, I used automation on the LFO rate to create a wobble vibrato this made my created sound become a downlifting sound effect. After experimenting with the EFM1 plugin I understand how effective it can be and how useful it is. Not only can the EFM1 plugin be used for FM synthesis but the ES2 plugin and DM7 keyboard are also great for this type of synthesis.
Bibliography
http://abovegroundmagazine.com/columns/pro-logic/10/26/understanding-sound-frequency-a-guide-to-hz-and-khz/
http://wkcphilrobinson.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Beginners%20Guide%20To%20Synthesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6lVhGeyXuw
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