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Originally posted by BradP I am just learning about synthesizers and am getting somewhat of an idea of how they work. One thing that I am confused about though is... is a synthesizer supposed to just make sounds on its own, or should it be connected to something else where it can alter the sound of that, or can it be used for both?

Technically both, but normally is used primarily for making sounds with its own hardware.

Plenty of synths do have external inputs which allow other sources, microphones for voice, guitar ect.. to be inputed..

but I think if you are wanting to do more of the later, there are particular effects units rather than synths that will let you do alot more.

Ahh it's all making sense to me now. I havn't listened to trance for quite a while so I forgot about "massive synths" and what they actually sound like. Thanks for the reply.

This brings another question to my mind. Are synthesizers used in other genres like house? I'm guessing they are... just not in the same way as Trance? Sorry for all the dumb questions. I'm new to all of this.

Well, some synths may be built for different purposes, some that do not have much knobs ( alesis micron ) will not be much of a use in controlling softwares.

Synths can be used even in country music ( maybe not so? ). They are commonly used in anything that sounds electronic, whether its house, trance,jungle, even pop stuff. its vastly used on the music world.

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yeah.

yeah come on, the entire 80's stream of pop music floats on synths.

As far as synth uses, anything goes if it sounds good. Make a sound on 1 synth, layer sounds from 25 synths, run synths through a chain of 10 other fx, sampling a synth to do something with it etc

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All rhythm evolves around a kick...