Instead of using 2 saw waves or 2 square waves detuned against each other, why not mix a saw wave and a square wave together, or even get creative using noise colours and the oft-ignored sine and triangle waves \u2013 mixing waveforms is the starting point to creative synthesizer patches.<\/p>\n
Remember that the decay is how long the sound lasts at full volume, and the sustain is the volume at which the sound plays after the decay stage – but before the release. These two stages are essential to accurate acoustic sound emulation, and add life and dynamics to any patch.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got a spare envelope (or on some synths, at least part of one) why not use it to good effect by modulating the oscillator pitch (sounds very D-50 like), PWM functions (good for percussive effects!), oscillator sync effects or ring modulation, or even the level of SFX used. The complexity of modulations performed by a dedicated envelope is far more than that of a bog-standard LFO, and can really add something extra to the start of a sound.<\/p>\n
Create performance effects using LFOs. Use the modulation wheel and keyboard velocity\/after touch features to alter the sound while playing it. You can create a vibrato effect by setting an LFO to gently alter the oscillator pitch, a wah-wah effect by doing the same thing to the filter frequency, and a tremolo effect by altering the volume (or pan) setting.<\/p>\n
Ever heard what it sounds like when you set one oscillator 5 semitones above the other? Instant funky harmonics! Try doing it with 7ths and 9ths and even 11ths \u2013 it creates a jazzy chord feeling. For even more complex oscillator tunings, try using the chord memory function if your synthesizer has one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Vary your oscillator waveforms! Instead of using 2 saw waves or 2 square waves detuned against each other, why not mix a saw wave and a square wave together, or even get creative using noise colours and the oft-ignored sine and triangle waves \u2013 mixing waveforms is the starting point to creative synthesizer patches. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovativesynthesis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}