Synthesis from scratch...

[john]

Hi

Anyone created any real instrument patches from scratch? Pleased with the results? I thought I'd see if any of you were into actually creating the sounds instead of just using and tweaking presets. Sure they give the ability to work quickly, but to really learn the breadth and depth of a synth I think you have to at least try and create sounds from scratch. If not, sounds tend to take shape by accident rather than design.

For me I think the sythesised sound I was most pleased with was a didgeridoo patch I created on my 01W. Its not the easiest of synth interfaces, and not the most flexible of synth designs but I was able to create passable imitations of several of the typical sounds created using a didger, all within one patch.

I started by creating a reasonable pulsing drone, which I was able to inject tonal changes in, for rhythm, using aftertouch on the keys to give something close to the tonguing sound. I used the positive y-axis of the wheel to add something that resembled the variation in sounds you get as you change your mouth shape and the negative y-axis to add a change in the breathyness. Lastly I used the pich bend to vary the pitch to emulate the 'sung' notes

So, what have you put together and how successful was it....

Cheers

John

[BongStuff]

Wow John - you really worked your ass off for that one!  

To be honest, I rarely try and program any "real" instruments from scratch. What I *do* do ( be do be do be dooo ) is try and avoid anything vaguely "real" sounding in my recordings!

Call me wierd, or weird, but I never want e.g. Strings to sound actually like violins/violas/cellos/basses all playing together. I want the harmonic content to be in the same vein - rich, chorussed, thick, deep, warm - but I always try and make a sound my own.  e.g. for strings normally I`ll build it from scratch based on a simple sustained note, shape the "ADSR" to suit my track. Then layer it. Detune, then layer it again. And again until it`s rich enough.

I suppose it`s really apeing the idea of a synthesizer being a tool to emulate real instruments - but I think most people who are really into synths like synths that sound like synths - not real instruments!! Funny old bunch, eh? :

Oh, I did once manage to make my CZ3000 say "seeeeezeeeee" in a kind of robot voice. Does that count?  

 BS

ps. lights still on in Montreal!!

pps. sorry about the `sign - it`s a damn French keyboard ( sorry Dider!! )

[BongStuff]

But I did make a killer dance-kick drum sound once...