[Synthesizer] Sound Design with Patrick Young About Speaker - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

[Synthesizer] Sound Design with Patrick Young

About ● Speaker Feature Studios - Patch Design ○ http://www.speakerfeaturestudios.com/soundbanks/ ● BSEE, MSEE with specialization in Digital Signal Processing ● Favorite waveform: Sawtooth ● Most comfortable in Massive ● Questions and suggestions are welcomed!

Properties of Sound ● Pitch - tonal or atonal ● Loudness / Amplitude ● Timbre - Character and quality of a sound outside of pitch/note and loudness ○ Time Domain - how does amplitude change in time ○ Frequency Domain - how does frequency content change in time ● Perceived Duration ● Envelope and Articulation ● Spatial Location, Diffusion, Reverberant Environment [Source: Steve Everett - https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalsounddesign]

Synthesizer Building Blocks ● Source - Oscillator, Noise ● Modifier - Filter, Envelope ● Controller automatic (programmed) or manual - LFO, Macro, Keyboard, Modwheel Source Modifier Controller

Source - Waveforms ● [Discrete] Fourier Transform - any signal can be represented as a summation of sine waves ● Fundamental - Base Frequency (Note) ● Harmonics - multiples of the fundamental frequency (1/n of the wavelength) Fundamental 2nd Harmonic 3rd Harmonic 4th Harmonic Amplitude 5th Harmonic 6th Harmonic 7th Harmonic 8th Harmonic 9th Harmonic n 2n 3n 4n 5n 6n 7n 8n 9n Frequency Oscillators Types ○ Sine - Fundamental only ○ Square - Odd Harmonics only ■ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/SquareWave.gif ○ Sawtooth - All Harmonics ○ Hybrid Source: http://www.forthecontemporaryflutist.com/images/study/02-waves2.jpg

Source - Noise Noise - defined as any unwanted sound, but..

Modifiers Envelope ● ADSR Filters ● Low Pass ● High Pass ● Band Pass ● Other - Comb, All Pass ● Resolution / Drive ● Rolloff (20 dB/decade = 6dB/octave): ○ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-off#/media/File:Roll-off_graph_multiple.svg

Controllers ● LFOs ● Envelopes ● Keyboard ● Macro ● ModWheel

Types of Software Synthesizers ● Main Types of Software Synthesizers ○ Subtractive - Massive, Sylenth1 ○ Additive - Razor ○ FM - FM8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis ○ Granular / Sampling - Ableton’s Granulator II, Sampler ● Source Generation ○ Wavetable - Massive, Serum ○ Physical Modelling / Computational - Ableton Analog

Patch Design ● Traditional Types of Patches ○ Lead ○ Pad ○ Synth ○ Bass ○ Bells ○ Drum - High Hat, Snare, Kick ○ Sequence ○ Pattern ○ Builds / Noise Sweep ○ Soundscape

Thickening ● Voices ● Detune / Spread ● Sub-bass ● Oscillator Phase ● Effects ● Feedback ● Harmonic Distortion (Tube)

Spacial Awareness ● Stereo Field ○ Free Running Oscillators ○ Voice Width ● Reverb ● Delay ● Chorus ● Panning

Inharmonic Content Departure from whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency ● Ring Filter ● FM ● Detune

Vocal Sounds Formant Frequencies - Resonance of the human vocal tract. Can be modelled with 2 to 5 individual bandpass filters Vowel Sounds: Source: http://cnx.org/resources/c77b5f2afe37dd160f01c3a619c92e71/sub_formants-voweltable.png More Details: http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/david/ma_ssp/doc/Klatt-1980-JAS000971.pdf

Other Techniques ● Sidechain ● Macros ● Gating Effects ● Chiptune ● Glide ● Key Tracking ● Velocity Tracking