what defines something as a square, or saw, or supersaw, etc? i'm really lost in all the production jargon. to me it is either "sounds good" or "sounds bad"

those are wavforms that synths uses to generate sounds.

ok.. synths basically generate sounds
how??? they use certain "shapes" like "saw" shape, "sine" shape... etc...
so if you have a synth using a "saw" shape... you'll have a certain sound...

now there is another thing called the "envelope"... it "sorta" controls like the type of sound you are going to get from each note...
it controls the volume or the cut frequency....

ok... for example... you wanted your synth to have the same quick short "snap" sound like a kick drum or a snare... that is controlled by the envelope... let's say you wanted to make your synth to sound like a ringing bell... that is controlled by the envelope... hope that sorta clarifies what envelope is...

next, once you have your basic synth down... you can add some fx... like

reverb: makes it ring (like a cathedral or something)

delay: makes the sound "bounce" back... (think of it as yelling in the grand canyon and hearing your voice echo back)

flanger: i don't really know how to describe this... it sorta "flanges" your synth and you can set the frequency and stuff... frequency is the speed of one cycle of "flanging"

EQ: set volume levels of certain frequency... (what is frequency?? i'll give you an example... a low deep bass drum has a low frequency... a high pinging sound from a bell has a high frequency... best way i can describe)

this is just a very very basic guide to get u started... there is LOTS AND LOTS more other stuff that i haven't even mentioned about

hope that helps

quote:

Originally posted by nic01445 what defines something as a square, or saw, or supersaw, etc? i'm really lost in all the production jargon. to me it is either "sounds good" or "sounds bad"

squere is called squere wave because the shape of the wave is like squere.... also a saw is some kind of giomtric shape I guess
you can read good introudcion to this in alot of analog synth tutorials around the net.
i'm sure you know enough about synths and effects to create amazing stuff like :
Nicolaas_Netherland_-_Wonka__Mind_Twist.mp3!!!!


so you looking only for definition right?...anyway you can find some introduction to those definitions here :
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tuto...g/a_sforbeg.asp

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quote:

Originally posted by Flotser squere is called squere wave because the shape of the wave is like squere....

SquAre is called SquAre wave because the shape of the wave is like SquAre...

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quote:

Originally posted by dj dimwit SquAre is called SquAre wave because the shape of the wave is like SquAre...

ok ok
funny i write like that day after my school's final english exam

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actually you can go a little deeper than just saying "the shape of the wave is a square".

Sound is pressure waves in the air. what you are hearing is pressure variations that affect your inner ear and are translated for your brain there. you have your tympanum (eardrum)that swings with the pressure, and that creates the sound in your head. the wave form is really just a pressure pattern. so if you have a sinewave, you get very smooth variations of pressure, resulting in a smooth, steady sound. if you have a square wave, you have very harsh pressure changes, resulting in a much harder and overtone-rich sound. if you look at the waveform, that's actually just a representation of how strong the pressure on your eardrum is in an array of time.

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quote:

Originally posted by kewlness flanger: i don't really know how to describe this... it sorta "flanges" your synth and you can set the frequency and stuff... frequency is the speed of one cycle of "flanging"

Flanger (correct me if i'm wrong) is a variation of a chorus effect. It echoes the sound but over a really short delay time, which causes little frequency shifts in the sound. When you reduce the delay time of the chorus fx to a really short amount, it starts to create the flanger effect.
The feedback that you get off the sound is bi-polar (+ & -), which then starts modulating in opposite directions and you get the cool (as pioneer simply describes this effect) "sound of an aeroplane ascending and descending.

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chorus doesn't use the same technology as flanger (a phaser does sort of)

Like you said, flanger uses very short delays of which the length varies over time (the sweeping sound you hear). The filtery sound is achieved through "comb filtering" which occurs because of phase cancellation.

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Square waves are more hollow in sound because they contain every other harmonic above the fundamental. Saw waves are rich, thick raspy tones because, in part, they contain all harmonics. A sine waves sounds the way it does, kind of dull and droning, because it only contains the fundamental. This should help.

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thanks TA's for all your help!

quote:

Originally posted by nic01445 thanks TA's for all your help!

But none of this help will be useful until you actually sit down and try playing around with synths on your own.


And, moreover, when you're writing a track, sometimes what really helps is not some general advice, but just a random sound that you accidentally happen to stumble upon, by tweaking all those knobs.


Experimenting is the key!

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