Synth Programing

[Sharon]

Hello,

I'm new to virtual/analog concept synth's and i wondering very i can find on Internet or some not expencive book for patching,I have an AN1x for almost 2 years i readed the manual I know the basic's VCO,OSC,VCA and so on,

but i still having trubelle to know what parameter to use to have lets say

string sound,organ sound.

Please help

 

and if someone know the formula for LFO Hz to BPM

 

Thanks

[Michael Jones]

Like all things in the sound business your expertise and experimentation will serve you best. Remember...the best sounds are not something canned, but something you have created...a sound that is uniquely yours!!!

 

Floyd Forever........The Dark Side!

 

 

Jonesy

[synthetic]

The best way to learn programming is by tweaking the factory sounds. Find something close to what you want and experiment with the controls. I could tell you that resonance is feedback in the filter which accentuates the cutoff frequency, but that doesn't really mean anything. You just have to grab the knob and dig the cool whistley sound it makes.

 

As for the Hz to BPM calculation, your LFO is going to eventually drift out of sync over the course of the song. The best way to sync LFOs to tempo is to find out if there's a MIDI Clock sync for the LFOs. If not, you can retrigger the sound every few bars to make sure it stays in sync.

 

-jl

[Jonathan Hughes]

As far as programming the An1X, you best bet is to fool around with the sounds and see how each parameter effects the sound.

 

Also, you might want o download the free Soundforum synth from www.native-instruments.com. Some of the terminology might be slightly different than on the AN1X, but th cool thing about the Soundforum synth is that it has a builti-in oscilloscope, so oyu can see how each parameter effects the sound visually (which might help you figure out what to do to make a specific sound)

 

 

"and if someone know the formula for LFO Hz to BPM"

 

Assuming that the LFO value is actually in Hz (rather than some arbitrary number), and since Hz is vibrations per second, you could just do some simple division to figure out what to set it at. So if the song is at 60 BPM, that's one beat per second, which is the same is one Hz, and say you want one LFO cycle to take one measure (4 beats), so that means that you would set it to .25 Hz.

 

So the formula I came up with is (60/BPM)/beats

 

So say the tempo is 100 and you want the LFO over 2 measures (8 beats), you set the LFo to .075 Hz:

 

60/100BPM=.6

.6/8=.075Hz

 

Someone please correct me if 'm wrong -- I majored in English, not math.

 

But synthetic's right -- it'll drift. Doesn't the An1X let you sync the LFO to midi clock?

 

 

Jonathan

[Sharon]

Thanks you all for your replay....

Jonathan Hughes I will try what you suggested for LFO...and by the way AN1x do have some arbitrary numbers but I have the Hz for each number converted

by yamaha.

[Tusker]

Sharon:

 

As to LFO's...This subject was investigated by the Yahoo AN1X community. I'll summarize the situation for you.

 

If you are going off the table #1 on page 8 of the AN1X data book, that data doesn't match up. It is incorrect. I tried it, failed, and found that others on the list had found it doesn't work as well. Then some of the users got the lfo numbers off the Ax000 sampler series (some Yamaha rep had suggested this) in hopes they would match up. Turns out they don't. Just hoping to save you some effort, if the numbers you have are from one of these sources.

 

However....

While the LFOs on the AN1x do not sync to MIDI... you can draw the LFO shape you want on the Free EG and sync that to MIDI. Everything that is modulatable by LFO is modulatable by Free EG. You can have up to four different modulations locked to tempo with this and it is pretty straightforward. Yamaha provided the free eg procedure in place of the tempo locking LFOs of other manufacturers as it is more flexible. If you would like some examples or more detail I'd be happy to help out.

 

I hope this helps. Good Luck.

 

Jerry

 

------------------

www.tuskerfort.com

 

This message has been edited by Tusker on 04-28-2001 at 06:26 AM

[Tusker]

Sharon:

 

Having answered your second question....

 

As to instruction, the book I have found most useful was a book by Steve Furia called "Secrets of Analog and Digital Synthesis." It is an old book and I picked it up cheap. The primary thing I found useful in the book is that it gives you broad categories (bells, strings, brass) and tells you the basic osc, filter and envelope parameters you would need.

 

If you can get some old keyboard magazines.... There is a gentleman called Jim Aikin (Jim are you here?) who wrote some brilliant articles on synthesis techniques in keyboard magazine throughout the 80's. I found them very useful. I wish he would publish them again.

 

Cheers,

 

Jerry

 

------------------

www.tuskerfort.com

[Sharon]

Thanks you Tusker for you help,

I prity sure that the table list that I have is one from the forum...of

Ax000 sampler series.

 

I would like to have some details and exsample for LFO shape on the Free EG.

 

email me to panoman_@hotmail.com

 

I will try to find that book you sagested .....os far for keyboard mags..i was 2 years old in 80's http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

thanks a lot waiting to your answer.

 

This message has been edited by Sharon on 04-28-2001 at 06:26 PM

[Steven Denike]

Does anyone know a good source for spectral plots of various instruments? Books and articles often give you an example like 'harmonic structure of a pp trumpet - harmonic structure of an ff trumpet - etc., etc.,' but I wondered if there was a resource that contained a rundown of a number of different instruments/dynamics instead of just one example . . .

[Sharon]

Steven Denike Thats exsactly what i'm looking for ....

But i trying the other ofers and starting to learn few triks.

 

Tusker still waiting for that exsample http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Tusker]

I'm working on it. Question: Do you have AN1X Edit? It will be easier to send it you in that format than sysex. Also, Free EG is kinda hard to visualize without AN1xEdit, where you can see the shape of the waveform.

 

Cheers,

 

Jerry

 

------------------

www.tuskerfort.com

 

This message has been edited by Tusker on 04-30-2001 at 09:50 AM

[dansouth]

Originally posted by Steven Denike:

Does anyone know a good source for spectral plots of various instruments? Books and articles often give you an example like 'harmonic structure of a pp trumpet - harmonic structure of an ff trumpet - etc., etc.,' but I wondered if there was a resource that contained a rundown of a number of different instruments/dynamics instead of just one example . . .

 

As a crude first step, try running some recordings of solo intrumental passages through free filter.

[dansouth]

Originally posted by Jonathan Hughes:

As far as programming the An1X, you best bet is to fool around with the sounds and see how each parameter effects the sound.

 

Jonathan's approach is good, and this is the way I learned to program synthesizers. Take a preset and vary one or two of the parameters. Note how the sound changes. The next step would be to develop your own variations of presets. Then, finally, use the knowledge you've gained to develop your own programs from the ground up.

[synthetic]

> If you can get some old keyboard magazines.... There is a gentleman

> called Jim Aikin (Jim are you here?) who wrote some brilliant articles on

> synthesis techniques in keyboard magazine throughout the 80's. I found

> them very useful. I wish he would publish them again.

 

I miss 80's Keyboard magazine. Soundpages, a dozen pages with musical examples, and tons of Power User articles.

 

It would be nice if they would OCR some old issues and put them on the website. MP3s of old soundpages would be even better. But until this happens, you can find old copies of Keyboard on eBay from time to time.

 

-jl

[Sharon]

Hi and thank you all again for your help..

 

Tusker,yes i have AN1x Edit and i save all my sound in there too.

Waiting for this exsample

Thanks

[Tusker]

Sharon:

 

Ok, I got the example up on my AN1X web page. Just follow the link . The demo file contains 4 patches and there is a step-by-step walk through on the webpage.

 

Each successive patch has an additional EG added to the patch and is modulating something or other. It's certainly not good sound-design but it should illustrate the technique, I think.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Jerry

 

------------------

www.tuskerfort.com

[synthfoolsynthfool.com]

I learned on modulars and still believe that the modular concept of choosing your modules, their order, fanout, mixing, etc are what helps learn (subtractive) synthesis concepts the best.

 

Not to say that this is the ONLY way.

It's how I learned though and I still believe that modulars reflect the basics needed to understand programming on and for many synths. Learning one prestructured synth often results in you learning THAT synth only.

The "carry over" of shared terminology isn't always very applicable.

ie: a vco on one synth may not help one understand the actual functionality of a vco, only it's application as offered to you by that synth and it's design criteria.

 

(no "say whaaat???" 's now http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Sharon]

Thanks Tusker,

i will chek it ....

also thank you synthfool....you site was a big fun and i still looking for some pictures,so sorry that i didnt d/l all of them