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Sylenth basics
Hi
I have just purchased Sylenth1 and want to start programming my own sounds, especially bass sounds. I have been producing for a couple of years but always used presets. I havent been lazy and have read the manuel but i didnt learn that much from it as i dont understand lots of the terminology. I have also looked on the web for sylenth tutorials.
How do i go about starting to programme my sounds using sylenth.
Sorry for the basic question.
Thanks
hey mate!
most synths have a basic similarity, it might be worth spending some time learning the basics of synthesis altogether, then trying to apply them to sylenth (which i've heard (though i don't have it) is a TOP synth, so great work there 
)
have a look at these tutorials (right at the bottom is a 7-part synthesis tutorial), which might seem a bit daunting, but are actually really simple and straightforward
LINK
have sylenth open and copy the stuff the tutorial's talking about and it might help you get a grasp of it
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| Originally posted by blowa How do i go about starting to programme my sounds using sylenth. |
hi
like EgosXII said, most synths are very similar. Sylenth1 is a synth, which uses subtractive synthesis. To understand the terminology and what all the knobs are doing, you should learn the basics (Waveforms, Envelopes, LFO's etc.). You can do so by reading Simon Cann's free version of 'How to make a noise': http://noisesculpture.com/htman_free.html
Once you've understand the basics you can start with analysing existing bass-presets in sylenth1 and check out what parameter effects the timbre and so on.
Hope that helps
Thanks for the information. I will study it later and have a go. 
just hope I can get it.
have you tried reading the manual ?
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| Originally posted by RichieV have you tried reading the manual ? |
Re: Re: Sylenth basics
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ******** move the knobs. |
Pick a preset and try to emulate the sound with a blank preset. You will learn alot by doing this.
If I would like to learn how to play table-tennis ,
I would go ahead and fucking play table-tennis.
Dont read , just do it.
You would learn much more this way.
Instead of going right in and moving the knobs yourself to see what they do, learn about subtractive synthesis and how it works. Once you know the basics of how filters and envelopes work, then you can go fuck with the knobs. Playing with a synth without knowing what the knobs do is like trying to play guitar without knowing how to put your fingers on the strings. Sure, eventually you'll figure it out but you'll waste time playing with the synth that you could have used to learn the synth.
Written a while ago, these are the basics of any subtractive synth really:
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| Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Subtractive synthesis is probably the most commonly used method of synthesis in electronic dance music. It is used by famous hardware synths such as the JP-8000, Nord Lead, and Access Virus, and much-used softsynths like z3ta+, Vanguard, and Albino. It is often the first sort of synthesis that new producers have a chance to play around with, and one that a great many producers use to produce "bread and butter" sounds for tracks, such as the "supersaw" and a huge number of keyboard and bass sounds. But how does this synthesis method actually work? The basic idea behind subtractive synthesis is very simple, and is hinted at by the word "subtractive": take a raw, harmonically rich unit of sound -- called a "waveform" -- and manipulate component frequencies, change pitch, dynamic properties, and (sometimes) timbre by using the knobs and sliders on your synth. Each of these terms could use some explanation, which I will give. But first it's time to say a little bit about tones, timbre, and how they relate to the mathematical properties of sound waves -- I know, boring, but it's good to know and might make things less confusing later on. Frequencies, Pitches, Harmonics, and Partials All waves, including sound waves, have high points (peaks) and low points (troughs). The frequency of a sound wave (or any kind of wave) is the number of times per second that the sound wave repeats itself -- how long it takes to move from trough to trough or peak to peak. Pitch is, for our purposes, the same thing as the frequency of a sound: if a sound wave has a high frequency, you will perceive it as "high-pitched," and if it has a low frequency, you will perceive it as "low-pitched." The frequency of a sound wave is measured in Hertz (abbreviated "Hz"). Nearly any given sound you hear will contain lots of individual waves with different frequencies -- these combine to give the sound its distinct character -- and a sound's fundamental frequency is the frequency of the lowest frequency wave contained within the sound. A harmonic is a whole number multiple of the fundamental frequency of a sound; as an example, 880 Hz would be the "second harmonic" of 440 Hz, since 440 * 2 = 880; then 1320 would be the "third harmonic," and so on. A partial is a fractional or decimal multiple of the fundamental frequency of a sound; 660 Hz would be a "partial" of 440 Hz. Sounds that people call "rich" have a lot of harmonics and sometimes partials present along with the fundamental frequency: this is what gives them their unique, attractive, or "interesting" character. [1] What is a "waveform?" [Note: a very useful tool to use in following along here is Native Instrument's Absynth, because it allows you to edit your own waveforms and view the effects on the harmonics of a wave (and vice versa).] A waveform is the "basic" sound you start out with when you construct a patch from scratch on a subtractive synth. The four "classic" waveforms are the following:  What does the shape of each waveform represent? The shape represents two characteristics on the following graph: the y-axis of the graph is amplitude (one half the vertical distance from a wave's peak to its trough) and the x-axis of the graph is time:  The four waveforms pictured above each have a characteristic "sound" (or "timbre") that results from the harmonics contained in them. Both the square and saw waves are especially rich in harmonics, making them ideal building blocks for "lead" sounds that can catch the listener's attention. Here are the four classic waveforms being played on Reason's Subtractor synth: Sine - Triangle - Square - Saw Now, after this long introduction you are probably thinking, "Okay, fine, but when are you going to tell me the stuff that will actually help me in designing a synth patch?!" Soon, soon! The next installment of this series will cover oscillators, filters, envelopes, and all the other good stuff that will allow you to create nice patches for subtractive synths. NOTES [1] It is useful to think of all non-sine waves as the sum of a bunch of sine waves, each one having a different frequency (usually, but not always, an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency). That is, waves such as saws and squares can be thought of as a number of sine waves all interacting with one another; this "summing of waves" concept is the basis for additive synthesis, but that is getting off-topic... --- Part One of this series was about the theory behind subtractive synthesis. This part and the next part will examine "the practice": what the typical buttons, knobs, and sliders on a subtractive synth do to a sound. I hope to provide a starting point for developing your ability to hear a sound and "reverse engineer" it, and of course for designing your own patches from scratch. In this particular installment, I will briefly explain the meaning of the following terms and their relevance to patch design: oscillator, tuning / detuning, polyphony, filter, resonance, and "opening up." Oscillators An oscillator -- often abbreviated "Osc" and sometimes "VCO" for "Voltage-controlled Oscillator" -- generates the basic waveform(s) of a subtractive synth. The number of oscillators on a given subtractive synth is usually from around two to six. The character of a finished sound will vary drastically according to what waveform(s) your oscillator(s) is generating. Some synths allow you to choose from a large number of different waveforms for the oscillator to generate, and some even allow you to draw or load your own waveforms and play them. Please read Part One if you are unsure about what a waveform is. Many synths give you the ability to fine-tune the pitch(es) played by the oscillators in terms of "cents." A "cent" is a tiny pitch difference of just 1/100th of a semi-tone (the musical interval from a note to its flat or sharp). Detuning refers to a process in which two or more oscillators are used to make a sound and one oscillator is pitched higher or lower than the other. This creates a sort of "vibrato" or "chorusing" effect when two or more waveforms of slightly different frequencies interact and bounce off of one another. It is the basic idea behind the famous "supersaw" sound, which in its widely-known JP-8000 incarnation used seven sawtooth waveforms detuned from one another. Basic detuning example The above file plays a single sawtooth waveform followed by two sawtooth waveforms detuned from one another by thirty cents. Polyphony Polyphony is the number of notes that a synth can play simultaneously. Many early synths were monophonic; they could only play one note at once. Most modern synths allow you the option of setting their polyphony number. In terms of softsynths, the polyphony setting is part of what determines the "upper limit" of a synth's CPU usage; a synth patch set with a relatively low polyphony number will be less likely to overload your CPU simply because it will not allow you to play enough notes at once to do so. Filters A filter is a part of a synth which attenuates ("cuts out") certain frequencies of the waveform generated by the synth's oscillator. Which frequencies are cut out will depend on the type of filter and the cutoff frequency of the filter. The four most common types of filters are: Lowpass (LP): Cuts out all the frequencies above the cutoff frequency. Highpass (HP): Cuts out all the frequencies below the cutoff frequency -- the inverse of lowpass. Bandpass (BP): Cuts out all the frequencies below and above a narrow "band" of frequencies. Notch: Cuts out all the frequencies within a narrow band and lets all others through -- the inverse of bandpass. Basic examples of what these filters do to a sound: A raw sawtooth waveform A sawtooth waveform with a lowpass filter A sawtooth waveform with a highpass filter A sawtooth waveform with a bandpass filter A sawtooth waveform with a notch filter The resonance setting on a filter allows you to increase the volume of the frequencies near the filter's cutoff frequency. When you increase the resonance on a filter, the sound will often seem to "squeak" or "bubble," depending on the cutoff and filter type you have set for the patch. Resonance can be manipulated to achieve some pretty neat-sounding effects, as in the following file: Two examples of high resonance The first part of the file shows what happens to a sound when the resonance is increased gradually. The second part is an example of what happens when a sound has a constant high resonance setting but the filter cutoff is moved up and down. It should be noted that the term "cuts out" is not entirely accurate when talking about what filters do, since filters are never "perfect" at eliminating all the frequencies above or below a certain point. Imagine running pure noise (all frequencies playing at equal volume) through a low pass filter; a graph of the frequencies in the resulting sound would look something like this:  As you can see, the filter causes the frequencies of a sound to have a "sloping" behavior rather than a strict "on / off" one. The steepness of the slope is dictated by the strength of the filter, which is specified in terms of "dB." A 24 dB filter makes a steeper "cutoff slope" than a 12 dB one, which in turn makes a steeper slope than a 6 dB one. The steepness of the volume slope created by the filter is called the Q factor. Most modern subtractive synths allow you some degree of freedom in setting the strength of the filter. When people talk about a filter "opening up," they mean that it is letting more frequencies through as time goes on. The term "opening up" is usually used in the context of a lowpass filter whose cutoff frequency is getting higher and higher. The sound should be very familiar to you from many trance songs, which often use filters that gradually (or suddenly) open up in order to increase the tension or energy at some point in a track. Here is an example I made today: Two examples of a lowpass filter opening up The first part of the file is an example of a lowpass filter gradually being opened up. The second part leaves the filter closed but then opens it suddenly at different points to create short "stabs;" even though the whole second part consists of just one note, an impression is created of a background noise and another, more intense noise bursting through to the foreground. I hope you have enjoyed reading this part and that it has given you some ideas for sounds or at least some food for thought. If you believe that I have made any errors or glaring omissions in explanation, please tell me. In a day or two I will write and post the third part of this series. --- Part One of this series was about the theory behind subtractive synthesis. Part Two was about oscillators, tuning, filters, and how they affect a synth patch. This third part will introduce the concept of modulation and discuss the three most common types of envelopes on subtractive synths. For this part of the tutorial, it is definitely best if you follow along with a subtractive synth of your choice. I have provided some examples for each part, but nothing beats learning the principles by actually manipulating the sound and tweaking the controls yourself. What is modulation? "Modulation" is a fancy word for a very simple concept. To say that "A is modulating B" just means that the behavior of A over time is controlling the behavior of B over time. Envelopes are used to modulate settings of subtractive synths from the time when a note is struck to when it is released. What is an envelope? An envelope is a part of a synth which controls the behavior of some characteristic of the sound that your synth produces from when a note is first struck to when it fades out completely. Most subtractive synths have at least three envelopes built in: an amp envelope, a filter envelope, and a modulation envelope. Each of these envelopes typically has at least four controls, often referred to as "stages" or "phases." These four controls are attack (A), decay (D), sustain (S), and release (R); because of the abbreviations used for these four elements, envelopes on subtractive synths are often called "ADSR envelopes." Now to explain the function of each type of envelope: Amp Envelope When you play a note on your synth, the amp envelope controls the volume of the resulting sound over time. The attack controls how long the sound takes to reach its highest volume once a note is struck. A shorter attack time will give you a "punchier" sound, while a long one will give you a sound that "fades in." The decay controls how long the sound's volume takes to drop down to the sustain volume. The sustain volume is the volume maintained when you hold a note after the sound has gone through the attack and decay "phases." How long the sustain phase lasts depends on how you long you hold down the note(s) on your synth. If you have the sustain set all the way at the top, the "held note" volume will be the same as the "attack" volume. Here are a few graphs for a visual guide to how different amp envelope settings affect the volume of a sound over time. Click on each one to hear an example of those settings being applied to a sound:    If you are following along with your own synth, try to imitate the volume characteristics of each of the above files by adjusting the ADSR controls on your amp envelope. Sounds that typically have short or short-medium attack times are Synth "stabs," keyboard sounds, basslines, any synth used in a "percussive" manner, and some pad sounds. Sounds that typically have medium or long attack times are synth "washes," noise sweeps, bass that gradually fades in, and pads. Filter Envelope The filter envelope controls what the cutoff frequency of your synth's filter does as a note is struck and then held. Here the attack setting controls the amount of time that passes before the filter cutoff reaches its highest frequency and the decay setting controls how quickly the filter cutoff decreases after hitting its highest frequency. The sustain setting controls the frequency of the filter as you continue to hold the note down after the attack and decay phases have ended. The release setting controls how quickly the cutoff frequency of the filter goes from the sustain level back to nothing again. Here is an audio example to give you some idea of what a filter envelope does: ADSR filter envelope applied to a saw wave In the above file, the filter envelope has a long attack time and a short decay time, so it takes a while before all the frequencies are let in, but then they get cut out quickly during the quick decay phase. The sustain is at a medium level, so the filter is cutting out and leaving in pretty even amounts of frequencies. The release time is short, so once I let go of the note, the cutoff frequency drops right away. Modulation (Mod) Envelope Unlike the amp envelope and the filter envelope, the modulation envelope can be "assigned" by you to control different settings on your synth, and on some synths it can even control more than one setting at a time. Typical parameters for the modulation envelope to control can include the following: Oscillator pitch: If you assign the mod envelope to the pitch of an oscillator, the oscillator changes the pitch played from the time a note is pressed to when it is released according to the ADSR model explained above. Oscillator mix: If you have more than one oscillator playing at once, the "Mix" setting on the mod envelope can be used to vary the volume levels of two or more oscillators relative to one another. FM: Many subtractive synths allow you to use the frequency of one oscillator to modulate another waveform; on the mod envelope, the FM setting can be used to vary the level of frequency modulation over time. FM will be discussed in the next part of this series. A second frequency filter: Many subtractive synths have a second frequency filter that acts upon the sound which results after the first filter has been applied to the raw sound. With the mod envelope, you can control the behavior of the cutoff frequency of this second filter. ADSR's Big Brother: The Breakpoint Envelope Some synths have breakpoint envelopes instead of ADSR envelopes. Just like ADSR, breakpoint envelopes allow you to vary settings of your synth as a note plays; the difference is that instead of controlling only four "phases," you can control anywhere from five to sixty or more. This is possible through a graphical editor, which allows you to plot how the settings of your synth should behave up to thirty seconds after a note is first struck. Absynth is one synth that offers very flexible breakpoint editing:  A sound that used the above breakpoint envelopes |
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| Originally posted by floyd741 Instead of going right in and moving the knobs yourself to see what they do, learn about subtractive synthesis and how it works. Once you know the basics of how filters and envelopes work, then you can go fuck with the knobs. Playing with a synth without knowing what the knobs do is like trying to play guitar without knowing how to put your fingers on the strings. Sure, eventually you'll figure it out but you'll waste time playing with the synth that you could have used to learn the synth. |
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