Well the osc (oscillator) is what makes the actual sound. Normally, a synth will have 2 or three oscillators. Some older ones like the 303 have only one oscillator. Some have more than 3. I think Pentagon has 4.

Okay, so the oscillator makes the sound. All the other dials and buttons shape the sound.

In subtractive synthesis, the oscillator makes the sound and everything else takes parts away from that sound. Hence, you are "subtracting" from the intial sound to get what you want.

So if something has good oscillators, then it is making a nice waveform to start with. Waveform types would include sine, saw, square, tri and many other digital waveforms.

Go to the access site. They have a pdf. manual on "how to program analogue synths". This will only be beneficial for the use of subtractive style synths, but they seem to be the most common today. The tutrial was written for the virus, but it can be correlated to others. Also, try and read the Virus C owners manual if they have it available. This is the best manual ever. It will tell you exactly what all the features are, what they do, why they do it, what they change about the sound and why you would want to do it. Again, this is for the Virus but it can be used for other subtractive synths as well.

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cheggy, would you happen to have a link for that tutorial ?

Hey! Thanx for the short tutorial That's was great info, really!

cool but what about modular etc?

I like to think of modular synthesis as being the "choose your own adventure" of synths.

Basically, you start wiht nothing and you ad the parts you want. Its kind of like baking a cake, yet computer circutry tends to taste less sweet. You ad an oscillator, and a filter, and a ring modulator and another osciallator and a LP filter and some frequency modulation and some LFO's modulated by a digital waveform but modulating the resonance of the LP filter and so on.

Basically, rather than being stuck to a certain layout, you get to make your own synth. I'm not too familiar with mods, but I think Reaktor is a modular synth. Vaz modular is too, and so is moog modular I guess, and the Nord Modular. Basically anything with Modular after its name tends to be a modular synth.

Kewlness, link to Programming Tutorial and Virus Manual is HERE
They may ask for some information from you, but don't worry, they never send anything or give it to others.

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1 out of every 4 people in this country are mentally disturbed. Look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem okay, then you're the one.