Music Gizmo

Synthesizer is a complex musical instrument. It is all about sound. And there are three very important things that control the sound. Those three are, timbre, pitch and volume of a synthesizer. If you do know enough about them, then your knowledge about the synthesizers will be considered incomplete. Here is some information on these to help you understand the instrument better and master it’s technical aspects.

In the case of synthesizer, the timbre is controlled by one module and the pitch is controlled by another module. Controlling the volume is not very tough.

First let us talk about the pitch, which is an indispensable part among the timbre, pitch and volume of synthesizer. Normally sound is of two basic types. One is pitched sound and another one is unpitched sound. But there are lots of sounds that fall in between these two categories. So it will be better if sounds are categorized as single pitched sound with harmonics and unpitched sound. Chords fall under this category.

A VCO or Voltage Controlled Oscilattor controls the basic pitch of a particular sound. A periodic waveform is generated by the VCO with many harmonics. Most of the synthesizers have two types of waveforms. They are called sawtooth wave and square wave. There is a good reason for using two waveforms. Actually the sawtooth consists all the harmonies. But the square wave consists only the odd harmonics. They do not contain the even harmonics. If you use good quality synthesizer filters, then you would be able to subtract the unwanted harmonics from the waveforms.

Though it is good but the problem that occurs is that the instruments change the timbre constantly. This change happens in a very complex way. This is micro modulation. The filters, which are generally used, are not sophisticated enough. For this reason, some synthesizers fail to copy the original sound of any acoustic instrument. It is not that the sounds cannot be copied. But the sounds do not produce the original effect like the acoustic instruments. Sampler is the best tool to copy the original sound. If you use sampler, then the copied sound will be more realistic.

Controlling the volume of a synthesizer is easy nowadays. There are lots of volume controllers available. There are digital volume controllers also. They offer you a lot of facilities to control the volume.

Volume generators are also available for synthesizers. These generators consists a lot of modes of controlling the volume. Right offset, left offset, etc. It has also got some volume effects. These effects give the volume a different feel. And makes the instrument worth listening.

Timbre, pitch and volume of a synthesizer are one of the most important parts of synthesizers. Without them, there will not be any proper sound production by the synthesizer. The sound of this instrument is good mainly because of them.

If you really want to play the instrument well, then you must be aware of all the details about the timbre, pitch and volume of a synthesizer.

About the Author: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, electric guitars, drums, drum sets, and synthesizers, synthesizer filters.
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Doesn’t it feel great thinking about composing and playing your own music? And especially when you are looking for a career in music. Whichever instrument it may be, drum, guitar, or synthesizer. There are lots of things to be taken into account before jumping to action. Just learning the instrument won’t make you a good musician; you need to have clear knowledge about the instrument you are using. Before you set your mind to buy a synthesizer, you need to get clear about its features, parts, price, brands etc. However, here are some synthesizer buying tips that will definitely help in your decision to buy one.

First of all it should be noted that synthesizers are one of the costliest musical instruments. Therefore, as a buyer you will have to be very cautious in every step and will have to think over the factors relating to the buying, again and again. Some very important synthesizer buying tips are as follows:

Synthesizer buying tips - I

Know your needs: Defining your needs is your first task. Decide, what kind of synthesizer you want to buy, is it analog synthesizer or digital synthesizer. You may opt for simple classical synthesizer or even go for software synthesizer with high profile sound and other qualities. Whatever it is but your budget should match your need, which is very important. One thing should be pointed out here that the choice basically depends on the use of the instrument, like whether you are going to use it for the studio or for your personal use.

Synthesizer buying tips - II

Have sizeable budgets: As it is mentioned earlier that synthesizers are very costly items, therefore going for too much low price may not serve the purpose. As you may not get a good one and the longevity of which is not guaranteed. Sometimes, the cheap synthesizers have awful keyboard, or it may lack vital functions. And so it is better to opt for something within average price but not too low.

Synthesizer buying tips - III

Check it: Before settling down to buy your instrument, check it out properly. Listen to the sound first and see whether it is the kind of music you prefer. Then examine the functioning, including each unit, specially the sound processor unit. If necessary, try to consult an expert. Try some other synthesizers and compare the sound and the systems.

Synthesizer buying tips - IV

New or old: Next thing to decide over is that either you want to go for the new one or the old one. In case you want to buy an old synth, check it out carefully. Make sure all the keys work properly, see that all the notes sound same and none of them sounds louder or softer than the rest. You should always remember that unlike guitars and violins, synthesizers do not get better with age. Sometimes problems like damaged internal batteries, flickering displays may occur. Therefore, it is better to examine each nooks and corners of it.

Synthesizer buying tips - V

Workstation: In case of experienced musician and composer, workstations are the best option. It is basically a synthesizer with many polyphonic voices, includes a built in sequencer, with effects unit and drum kits. For the studio system particularly, the workstation is quite economic. It is like getting a whole studio system in one box.

Coming to sound system, if you want to get both realistic sound and high tech sound synth, its better to buy different synths rather than opting for a single one having both the sounds. Because each one posses different features and qualities.

About the Author: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, electric guitars, drums, drum sets, and synthesizers, analog synthesizers, digital synthesizer.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

When programming synthesizers and software instruments during the writing process, people generally tend to reach for the presets on the available plug-ins and keyboards.

Although this is a perfectly acceptable way of creating music, but sometimes it may limit the creativity and ultimately hampering the smooth flow to a truly original sound. This may be happen due to various reasons. It may happen because of the lack of know how of the synthesizer or it may also happen due to an instant eagerness for immediate gratification. Some producers may even use some tweaking methods to make it fit for their music.

Well, there are some quick methods of programming a synthesizer that will make it possible to move beyond these techniques and move towards creating your original sounds absolutely from the scratch.

Easy steps to follow while programming a synthesizer

The things which should always be remembered are that programming synthesizers is less confusing if we do things in this order.

Filter
First we need to carve away the unwanted part of the music. The filters used in the digital synthesizers cuts the sound quickly and effectively.

Envelopes
While programming the envelopes one should not forget to control the filter envelope and then the amp envelope. If there is a slight pitch variation then the pitch envelope should be programmed to set a fast attack and decay with sustain at zero, or where it is in tune after the little pitch burst settles down.

Velocity
Velocity is required to change to a different waveform to adjust a change in timbre of the sound.

LFOs or Low frequency oscillators
It is a modulator. It enables to rhythmically alter the patch in any time sequence from very slow to very fast. To get a 3 dimensional sound, slow LFOs should be used to modulate panning and volume.

Effects
Different effects and overtones are added to the music at the end of the programming. It gives an extra edge to the music which has been created. While building an effect patch, there is no hard and fast rule about what type of oscillators or envelopes to use.

This may enable to reach for any basic subtractive synthesizer, hardware or software, and mold some compelling basic sound types. We create a patch in order to use it in a composition. While making patches and use them in a test sequence, one should always keep the sequencer on.

The main form of modulation that brings the synthesizer sound effect to life is a delayed sine wave LFO routed to the filter cutoff. The delay is timed in such a way that it starts to kick in as the filter envelope drops.

Most of the time, the main oscillator needs to be turned off, although if the synthesizer supplies a noise source, some noises are sometimes useful because it is non-musical in tone.

Conclusion

While programming a synthesizer, it is just a matter of knowing which parameters are required to be changed to achieve the desired results, and once those causes and effects are learnt, we only have to patch them together.

About the Author: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, bass guitar gears , drums, drum sets, drum kits, and synthesizers programmers, keyboards.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com