Tone generation and Subtractive Synthesis 101

Last post we cover the ADSR envelope here. I know this concept is a little difficult to get your head around but stick with it. The pay off is completely worth it.

What you’ll need for today:

1 ) A Synth plug-in. Today I’ll be using TAL Elek7ro – Mainly because it’s free, non DAW specific and you can download it here.

2) Spectrum analyzer: If you don’t have one, grab this.

So what is Synthesis?

Fundamentally all sound sources can be broken down into a mathematical relationship of tones. How these tone can be created, expressed and interact is some seriously high level math. As in…a basic saw wave looks like this…

Input: Peak amplitude (A), Frequency (f)
Output: Amplitude value (y)

y = A - (A / pi * phase)

phase = phase + ((2 * pi * f) / samplerate)if phase > (2 * pi) then
      phase = phase - (2 * pi)

Looking that over, I smell fear in some of you right now but don’t stress there is no math involved today.

What you need to know?

All sounds have two main components, they are:

Fundamental – This is the lowest pitch of the sound and forms the start point from which the partials emerge. The main function of the fundamental is to provide the pitch information. C C# etc.

Partials/Harmonics/Overtones – different form of sonic information. All sounds will  have combination of these and this combination is what provides the instrument’s characteristic information or timbre. It’s this part that lets you tell a shaker from a bell even if the pitch (fundamental) is identical.

So?

This knowledge is amazing useful if you’re interested in re-creating or creating new sounds and textures. Understanding the function of the fundamentals/harmonics and the way they interact should give you a head start in implementing desired timbrel quality into your own sounds.

So many different types of Synthesis, I don’t really understand the difference?

The basic idea of all synthesis is pretty much the same, the route they use to get is a little different and as such they all have there own unique qualities that are useful in different circumstances.

Follow these links for a deeper overview about the various different types of synthesis: subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis, frequency modulation synthesis, phase distortion synthesis, physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis )

But today, we are going to look at subtractive. It’s the simplest to grasp in terms of design, common in all styles of music and is a great way to understand the fundamentals that we are going to build on later with other types of synthesis.

What is Subtractive?

In a Nutshell: You build a complex tone using simple wave shapes, then by using a combination of filters and manipulation of the ADSR curve you reduce or “subtract” it into it’s final sound.

Let’s look at the various basic wave forms and build on from there.

Basic Wave Forms:

Sine - Pure fundamental, no additional harmonic information.

Pulse wave- is rectangle in shape and depending on the pulse width (normally labeled PW) can contain a range of both even and odd harmonics. Setting the pulse width somewhere in the 50% region will turn it into into a square wave. Some synthesizers will have a Square setting, some will have a Pulse and a Pulse width.

Saw - Contain both even and odd number harmonic information.

Triangle - Contains mainly odd harmonic information, similar to the pulse wave except due to it mathematics equation it uses the high harmonic content will roll off alot faster.

Noise- Just that random harmonics. Useful but not exactly musical.

Even and odd order harmonics is a whole other topic that I’ll cover at a later date. But a sound with more even harmonics is warm and musical. More odd order harmonics is harsh and biting.

Getting our hands dirty:

What we’re going to do today is create our own tone and using your DAW we’ll mimic what is happening inside the synth. This is a great way to visually process each step and slows the whole process down.

Okay, so open up your DAW and place the TAL then a spectrum analyzer on the channel strip. It should look like this.

Something like this… Make sure turn down your OSC 3 which defaults on.

Create C3 midi note and hit play.

In this section. Click Sine. Now look the analyzer. See how you got one pure tone or your fundamental.

Push the Sine. Use the Semi tone knob to ensure the pitch match the note being played

Yeah, Pure tone

Well… not quite

Now you’ll notice here that there is additional overtones occur. Not a pure sine wave but close.

Click the triangle and look at the way the upper harmonic content filters off rather than on the pulse or saw.

Below the fundamental you’ll see what is refer to as a sub-harmonic.

Click through the other basic waves. Take note of the way the sound changes with each wave.

Making Our Own:

Now let create our own custom harmonically rich sound. Drop the Tal Bitcrusher or any sort of distortion (harmonic generating) plug in on it. Play around with parameters and keep your eyes on the spectrum analyzer. Watch the way the additional harmonics shape and change the wave form.

Find a cool tone and then render the sample as a 1 bar audio loop.

We have now just created a tone ready to be shaped.

Tune in next post as we going to continue on and use both filtering and the ADSR envelope to shape the sound further.

Awesome.

Braydon

Back next week.

Haven’t forgotten. I’ve just started a brand new project so it’s derailed me a little. Should be back on track for next Monday. till then enjoy.

ADSR or how I learned to love the transient

Before we dive further into the world of synthesis I’ve decided to spend this week writing a post on volume envelopes and try to breakdown the one of the fundamental building blocks of sound manipulation.

The ADSR curve is a term you’ll hear all of the time and if you trying to improve your production skills it will be something you will come into contact with almost daily.

ADSR: stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release

Something like this...

Attack: We define as the time from start point (0db) to the highest point of volume. (peak)

Decay: The time from the highest point (peak) of the signal to the average volume.

Sustain: Time of average volume.

Release: The time it takes the signal to move from average level down to zero.

Every sounds source can be broken down into this form…

Told you...

Why this is awesome…

One of the biggest problems I hear from people starting out is “I can’t make it the way I hear it in my head”. I think that a large percentage of this has to do the fact audio 101 concepts are often abstract and explanations by jargon wrapped in jargon.

Problem is, understanding these very simple (often overlooked) ideas  is one of the critical steps to moving forward in your production skills.

Being intensely visual, I find that the above method of understanding the ADSR curve  a useful tool in the design / manipulate process. Now, when you stare at the knob instead of inside your head you hear:

“what does this do? yeah, that sounds cool“

it can be little more…

“Okay the attack, that’s front portion of the sound. I need it to be “X” close, closer. There is the sweet spot, stop”

Or when editing the chorus of the song, you know something is not quite right. By understanding the ADSR curve you may make the connection that the keyboard sound is over staying it’s welcome and that by reducing it’s release time it will tighten up the sound.

This process for most people is automatic, you probably do it already. But for those of you who are just getting started or trying to refine your creative process. I found this to be one of the cleanest cut ways to think about this idea.

(important side note)

The byproduct of fiddling with stuff :

Now that we are starting to move deeper into sound production inevitable the question will arise in your brain “What does the perfect snare sound like?” “What does the perfect X sound like?”

At this point, I want to stop and tell you. You CAN go real deep on this question and explore all sorts of tangents but the important thing to remember is…

Writing music is very similar, if not the same as a painting. It’s not about how the sounds sit in isolation, it’s about how the sounds sit next to each other in track. The perfect kick drum in this song could be the worst kick drum in the world for that song.

Getting our hands dirty:

Open up your DAW, go into your library and drop in a couple of contrasting samples on to individual channels. Kick, Pad, Keyboard stab and an Whoosh style effect.

Now zoom in real close on the kick.

Play it.

Play it again and listen real close. You want to be asking yourself critical questions. Would you say it has a long attack? or short attack compare to another kick? to a pad?

Take your volume envelope tool and re-draw the ADSR curve. How does that affect the sound?

Try a long attack, so the front of the kick isn’t clicking it’s more of a womp.

Try shorting the release, try reducing the DSR in different combinations to make the kick drum a tiny click.

Repeat the process with the other sound sources. Making sure to listen to the way altering volume can dramatic change the tone and perception of the sound itself.

That’s all for this week. Next post we’re going to move into Subtractive Synthesis. As always stay tuned, subscribe and share.

Braydon

Loops and the Art of the One Shot.

Loops and One Shot… one you’ve probably heard of, the other maybe be not.

Loops – simply put, are samples where the start and the end of the audio connect almost seamlessly.

Look at how the loop ends right against the start of the new bar.

One Shot Looped – Originally to combat CPU and memory limitations. Samplers were designed so that when you struck a key. The first part of the sound would play (the pluck) and then the mid point (sustain) portion would loop. Once the key was released the end portion would give you the tail. Like so…

We can see the middle section here. This is the part that will be looped to ensure sustain until the key is released.

While technology has come to the point where memory is not such an issue. You will find this process is still integrated into samplers such as Kontakt, so it’s useful to understand how it works and what you are looking at when you come into contact with an such a system.

One Shot- Has a definite start and end point. Percussive instrument often fall into this category. These type of samples can be transformed into a looped one shots but 99% of the time it’s not necessary due to the nature of what is being played back.

A single sound file played back in a linear fashion. Left to right

These three ideas form the basis of today’s focus:

What is sampling and how do I do it?

Without getting all esoteric about it: sampling is a music production tool where you can take prerecorded phrases, loops and one shots and use them to re-enforce, re-mix, add to or create from scratch musical/audio compositions.

In a different way: the taking of recorded music sources and placing them into a new environment.

OR…

Take some sounds

add one part water and two eggs.

Cook for 45 mins on 185

enjoy the delicious Cake music.

Use of sampling in contemporary music:

Since most of you want to make music, let’s look at some of the ways it’s been used in the past.

1) The hook or the almost direct rip-off because the sample is awesome method: Here is where you take an obscure/older song or a small section of a obscure song and use it to build up a new song or provide a hook.

Hip hop is all over this method. Check out this video

A/B of samples – Kayne West

2) The hook or the almost direct rip-off because the sample is awesome but re-play all the parts for licensing reasons or aesthetic deviations method:

Similar to the first method but maybe the part doesn’t quite fit. So replaying gives you a bit more control over things like tone, instrumentation, arrangement etc. Timberland often employs this method, have a look here.

Samples a built upon : Timberland

3) The taking snippets of hundreds of records to form a new musical work method.

This is also pretty common in the hip hop/dance community. Often the samples are merged, eq, distorted and put back together to form something totally different.

You Got Me Burnin’ – Cloud 9 (Original Mix) which is a composite of a bunch of tunes and has been updated again recently to this

Burning Up – Peo De Pitte (Torqux Twist remix)

And here’s a great video on this process

Voodoo people – Prodigy (making of video 10 mins or so.)

4) The use/re-purposing of cleared samples to form a professional off the grid sound-set. Personal Library method.

This is where you spend time cannibalizing your failed ideas. You might take a bass patch from here and snare you liked from here and slowly out of this you develop a crate of samples that no-one else has. This is what is going to sets you apart from the millions of others out there making electronic music.

Far Too Loud – Basically Just Awesome

Zodiac Cartel – Signature Jackin’ Clap Sound

Technical Considerations when creating a sample one shot or loop:

Most important – use quality files, don’t be using 24Kps files and then wonder why you kick drum sounds bad. Use a WAV or other forms of Loss-less file.

Find a zero point.

So you searching for a part of the sample is as close to the middle as possible. minimizing the chance of clicks

Something like this...

What if there is no zero point? You need a point close so you can fade it out.

0) Find a clean sample (if you trying to get a snare don’t pick the one with the massive crash cymbal over it) or record something. The better the sounds before you chop it, the easier life will be for you.

1)Place a fade at the front. (to prevent any clicks)

2) Place a fade at the the end or zero point. (to prevent any clicks

3) As good practice ensure the start of the sample is the start of the audio and if it’s a loop, that it loops properly. Nothing is worse than making a tune and have to manually re-adjust sample because you couldn’t be bothered doing in the first place.

4) Check it for clicks/pops and other forms of digital distortion.

5) (optional) If you want colour the sample, here’s a good place to start. Ideas could include filtering, adding distortion, equalization, phasers, choruses, auto panning compression etc.

6) Render the audio, this will save you CPU power because it won’t be trying to play the sample, the fades, the volume automation and the effect automation in the later stage of the song writing process.

7) Add it to a folder for personal samples in a sub folder that makes sense to you. i.e “Experimental Percussion Loops”

8) You’re done.

Get Your Hand Dirty:

Sample some stuff.

Got a mic? Use it. Don’t have one? Use that thing on your computer.

Record the door, your voice, opening a soft drink bottle.

Got some sample packs? take 2 drum loops, cut the snare out of drum loop 1 and replace the snares on drum loop 2.

Now take the bottle noise and replace the snare out of the loop with that. Replace the kick drum with your voice. Now you’ve got a experimental percussion loop.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned, Subscribe and Share because next week and we’re going to start on basic synthesis waves and over the next couple of weeks going to build up into building classic drum machine inspired samples.

Awesome.

Further videos/information:

The Amen Break in sampling

Everything is a Remix:

Who Sampled

Legal Issues:

I am not a lawyer and in short copyright law is deep and complex. So to keep yourself out of hot water unless you have permission from the copyright holder or the work is part of the new school of copyright which allow derivatives and remixing. Don’t touch it.

Here a little more info on US copyright law and an entry in Wikipedia that refers to the “you can sample a little bit” argument you often hear about.

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeport_Music,_Inc._v._Dimension_Films

Tune Glue and 3 unconvential ways to find new music.

One of my earliest memories was me being caught by my mother at age 3 in the early hours of the morning watching the all night music video channel and eating rice bubble drowning in sugar. Now, 20 something years later I don’t eat rice bubbles but I am still as excited if not more excited about find new tunes as then.

Which is why this week I spent about three hours looking at this.

http://audiomap.tuneglue.net/

If you don’t have time to be distracted, here is the 411 (I’ve been wanting to use that for a while now.)

1) Type in an artist

2) Search

3) Tune Glue provide you with a bunch of artists that are connected in a cool social circle style diagram.

4) Click on connected artists, repeat process til you pass out.

5) Curse the fact you have wasted most of the day.

After I did this it got me thinking about how I look for new music and how to get beyond the radio and stuff your friends like. Here are 3 of my more obscure methods to finding new music.

Label hunting or the super secret DJ method.

Most independent artists have a releases across various indie labels. This means that by browsing Artist A’s discography you can find a list of labels. From here you move to the label discography and listen to new artists. The thing with quality indie labels is usually there have a niche market so the type of music you’ll find is often very similar stylistically. From here you repeat process with these new artist and repeat.

The Benefit: Assuming the label is good their filter for music makes most of the stuff you find awesome.

Personally, I’ve found most algorithm based searches don’t work quite as well as this method. Good music seems to come in clustered and jumping from one to another is often more chance and luck then anything else. So this method allows you to go off on half-cocked tangents which sometimes end badly and sometime end in a goldmine.

The Drawback: It’s time consuming and addictive.

Soundtrack Raiding:

Very similar to the first method. Searching soundtracks of movies you like often returns interesting results. It’s a total gold mine for random encounters with great music. When combined with method number one it can lead your taste in a whole new direction.

The Benefit: Unlike the first method it’s a whole lot faster.

Drawback: You’ll hear some stuff that going to make your ears bleed and question the taste of the film maker.

The Radio Promo Swipe:

If you live in a large city chances are there is some sort of community radio station. Firstly get involved. Secondly, your mind will be blown by the amount of promo material that will be sent in weekly. Often this will be sorted and cataloged by the radio station programmer with most of the duplicate then be farmed off to anyone who wants one. This is great way to find new, unsigned and local bands (It’s also give you an excuse to go out and get involved)

The Benefit: Here you can talk with other people into records, find out about upcoming talent, find underground shows and if you want to be playing out it’s a good way to make some friends etc.

Drawback: Sometimes because of time constraints not everything will be listen to, so you’ll take home stuff, put it on and it will be bad. Really, really bad.

Get you hand dirty:

Now I told you about it.

Go do it.

Next week: I’m going to jump back on the music production bandwagon and talk about drum loops and re-programing.

Stay tuned, Subscribe and Share

Braydon

Noise Generators: stress and distraction… plus some synthesis

Who hasn’t felt stressed recently?

Between trying to spend time writing music, rehearsing, trying to book gigs, collecting new tunes, researching ways to improve your craft. You also have to fit in family, friends, jobs and recreation.

Normally you go home and listen to some music and unwind. But now music has become a stimulate for you…

“Did that hook work?”

“that bridge falls flats…”

“I think the slap-back echo killed the vibe.”

“This is too long.”

For me the process of writing, researching and relaxing all would normally be accompanied by music. Now though, I just use a noise generator. In fact, I just use this one.

http://simplynoise.com/

It’s awesome, it comes in three colours.

White Noise: White noise contains equal amounts of energy in all frequency ranges.  This is the stuff you use to hear on the TV when the reception was out. So for some though, this is going to be a quite harsh.

White Noise: Harsh for some

Pink Noise: Pink noise is equal amount of energy per musical octave. Which mean on the ears it’s going to be less harsh than white noise.

Pink Noise: Look at the change in high frequent content.

Brown Noise: 6db reduction per octave. And is the softest of these three. More than likely it’s going to remind you of rain or a waterfall.

Brown Noise: Low frequency information = Waterfall

Plus some Synthesis

All three are use extensive within synthesis and we are going to look at how to put them into practice in the future but for now just understand they are used for tonal shaping (adding additional harmonic information to a sound), classic percussive sounds. (909 anyone?) and fx’s (sweeps, risers etc.)

Stay tuned, Subscribe and Share

Braydon

Return to Sender

This week we’re going to delve further into the world of routing and getting our head around the digital version of plugging in cables. If you missed the last post, go here for an introduction to routing.

Today we’ll look common examples of effects processing, where we can put them in the signal chain and more importantly what sort of factors would go into your creative decision making.

The Origins of the Send Knob.

To understand the Kingdom of send we need to look back and understand originally audio devices weren’t used by self confessed audio nerds that enjoy talking about Hertz  and spatial characteristics of rooms but by men in awesome lab coats in large room filled with cool electronic gear.

Each piece of equipment worked as a modulator part. To solve this problem you need A, B, and C bit of equipment chained together. To solve that problem you need A, C and D and so on.

But at some point in the 1950′s someone discovered that adding 6 reverbs to re-create one acoustic space meant that you either spent the either song confused as the drums were in big room and the vocal were stuck in a cube in the corner…

Or you need 6 large boxes to do one thing.

Splitting the signal was born…

I want to point out here. I must have re-written this part about six or seven times but in the end a picture won out over long form gibberish.

On the left hand side, a small amount of the signal is being passed into the effect unit through the send knob. On the right, the signal is being completely processed.

And yes…the wet/dry knob on most modern units does the same thing.

As to the pre vs post fader options, I talked about this in the last post

To help distinguish between the two setups often you’ll hear the terms Inline processing (inline with the signal path) or Side processing (outside the signal path). So the real question becomes why would you want to use Inline vs Side?

Psycho-acoustically …
Well, traditionally if you’re recording a group of musicians such as a 4 piece band. You’ll want a natural acoustic environment where everyone appears within it. Using one room reverb provides a sort of sonic glue that will help your brain place them in the same space.

Processing Control…
You can process your reverb (effect) separately from the original signal. For example, you’re using a plate reverb for a drum and vocal track the plate is being overexcited by the the cymbals in the overhead mics. By using side processing we can now place an EQ across the reverb channel to help correct the reverb without damping the high frequency content of the dry signal.

CPU Limits…
CPU have limits and often  if you’re like alot of my readers your CPU is pretty good but not amazing. Using a Send system means that your reducing load on the CPU and less crashes mean less swearing at your computer.

But there are plenty of great reason for inline processing as well.

Psycho-acoustically …

Maybe you don’t care what the audience thinks and want to just mess with their brains. In that case put thirty reverbs on everything. Do what you want.

Dynamic control…
Inline fx placement is often used where you need to process all of the signal not a portion. You wouldn’t for example want to half gate a snare drum for a rock track or half eq out a problem frequency. In this case INLINE all the way.

Sound Design…
Often having six delay on the one channel is awesome then you want to crush it using extreme limiting. Just do it.

Just remember…There are only traditions in the music environment not rules. No one is going to die if it sounds bad so don’t fall into the trap of being scared of making mistakes.

Getting our hand dirty…
Download this (Contain a 4 bar drum loops and a Deep house 4 bar synth stab)

1) Set up a send system with send A a large reverb (Something ridiculous like a church), Send B a small room which is reflective (This will give a better sense of the room) add Send A in 25% increments then B in 25% increments and then use a combination of. Pay attention to the the illusion that is created as you add the reverb.

2) Repeat step 1 with the stab. Try drums in the small reverb and stab in in the big reverb. Try the reverse.

3) Try putting a delay (try two delays) on the stab inline then adding drums and stab to the small room.

4) Active your routing from send A to send B add some small room to the big room. Do the reverse.

5) Keep Experimenting

Listen. Try different things. It’s all about exploring and finding what works and what sounds cool or not cool. Maybe that won’t work in this track but maybe in different track it will be the exact right thing.

That’s it for this week.

Subscribe, Share and definitely stay tuned because coming up we’re going to dive into sampling and working with loops.

I’m quite busy at the moment developing new segments for the blog. First up the playlist of the month. Some of it will be old, some of it new and some it obscure. Along with a little snippet about what makes it exciting to my ears. Check it out

Braydon