Synthesisers

[Dave2002]

Knobby nut?

This seems crazy - https://youtu.be/V0kq0yCTpNE

I still wonder if people who do this kind of thing actually know what they're doing, but he doesn't just have one project it would seem - if you look at the background. It is curiously interesting, though.

The enthusiasm is great!

It only takes a fraction more than 10 minutes to watch so not a large investment of time.

[Dave2002]

All three items currently my "binaural" playlist were made using software synthesizers of various flavours, although the third piece disquiet is the only one that uses only the pure output from one of these, consisting of a mix of up to 11 layers created with the Arturia Arp 2600. Vermilion Sands was made using Reaktor to create material that was then further processed, and luminous has various sources of raw materials: a voice, a recording of one of my ensemble pieces, and sounds from both the Arturia Arp 2600 and Synthi AKS.

Thanks for this.

I'll try the headphones later, but I've done a quick sample with the speakers.

https://soundcloud.com/r-barrett

I agree about the violin player - though there are presumably some generally agreed ways to play violins. Is the same true for synthesisers? If I give you a new one, would you be able to play it, or would you have to experiment for days?

It now seems to me that most are actually doing very much the same things, though perhaps variations in production and components give a difference. Digital systems, unless deliberately randomised, ought to give repeatable results.

Essentially all any synthesiser does is to produce electronic waveforms - possibly over a large number of "audio" channels.
I thought there might be significant differences between additive and subtractive synths, as well as sampling and FM synths, but as far as I can see they are all aiming at the same thing, but the means by which they achieve results are slightly different. Perhaps in the days of analogue systems, there were real differences - and constraints on hardware - for example building a system with 100+ oscillators (most systems only seem to use a few) to do additive synthesis, but with digital computers this kind of thing can be done quite easily by mathematical algorithms, and I think often effective efficiency short cuts have been found. There may be a degree of approximation, but firstly approximations can be very good, and secondly, for the kind of outputs it's possible that hardly anyone will notice small differences from an intended result - if indeed anyone, even the creator, knows what the intended result should sound like.

[Dave2002]

I found some youtube videos about a fairly recent hardware synthesiser - the HydraSynth from AMS. Actually this comes in two versions - a desktop version which doesn't have a keyboard, and the other which looks more like a performing instrument, which does.

https://youtu.be/0b85vXqgnC8

There is mention of aftertouch in the video. I didn't know exactly what it is. Here is a short and succinct explanation - https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/aftertouch/

I was a bit surprised after the very positive youtube reviews that the Hydrasynths didn't feature in any of the lists of "best" synths for 2019 or 2020. https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-...he-world-today

After that I found this video of vintage synthesisers - https://youtu.be/0XrPLBSlopQ

[Dave2002]

Now I’m wondering how to play a synthesiser. OK - the ones with keyboards are easy, but surely it should be possible to do something much more imaginative than simply playing “regular” music with slightly odd sounds. There don’t seem to be many people giving advice about how to play with all the knobs etc, rather than using, or creating presets, for use with the keyboard controller. A lot of the creations also sound uninteresting, these days.

[Dave2002]

Here is a somewhat manic use of old (in electronics terms) technology to produce what looks like a fairly complicated synthesiser system. I’ve seen this guy’s videos before - quite fun, and I suspect the’s really rather knowledgeable. If you’re only interested in watching him do the knob twiddling etc., skip the first 7 minutes or so - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Gv...&feature=share

I find his work somewhat amusing, which is perhaps his intention.