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Open Mic: What Advice Would You Give a Beginner About Synthesizers?

Open Mic: What Advice Would You Give a Beginner About Synthesizers?

on Jul 20th 2012 with 18 comments

Each week we open our mic to readers and lurkers alike to come out of the woodwork and tell us your thoughts and opinion, your experiences and mistakes, what you love and what you hate. We want to hear from you, and here’s your chance.

Synthesizers allow you to create almost any sound you can imagine. And now that you can get them in software, they are more affordable (even free) and accessible. What advice would you give to a beginner about synths?

 
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Adrian is writer and editor for Audiotuts+ and Envato Notes. He has been playing keys and acoustic guitar for three decades, and has six kids. Follow him on Twitter at @envatoaudio.  

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  • Rutger

    Learn the signal path

  • fonske

    Buy hardware!

  • http://onebreathmeditation.wordpress.com Jordan

    Synthesizer can notoriously sound too ‘clean’ or ‘digital’, which can be OK for certain types of music.

    I like synths and use them a lot for my strange brand of ElectRock-Hop, but I add a Saturator unit almost always to soften it up and make it a bit more natural sounding

  • http://facebook.com/joshfryer Joshua Fryer

    My advice to a beginner about synths would be this: There are tons and tons of software synths on the market. At the end of the day, they are all “useless” unless you know how to manipulate them. Learn what an oscillator is. Learn what a filter does. Understand basic music composition before you go spending hundreds of dollars on a synth that may not fit your needs. A carpenter with all the tools, might not know how to build the house. Research, research, research.

  • http://www.scottnelle.com/ Scott

    I’m something of a beginner myself, but my advice would to be find one with the features you think you want, buy it, and take the time to learn it really well. Figure out the fundamentals of sound design, how they connect to your chosen synth, and use that to get the sound in your head. I spent a lot of time and money buying soft synths and preset packs to get a bunch of miscellaneous sounds, then I realized that by learning one synth really well and making my own patches I’d save money and get exactly the sound I wanted.

  • http://www.geoffreymultimedia.com Edwin

    My main advice would be to do what I didn’t do. This is an expensive and addictive hobby!

    Download about 3 free VST synthesisers and learn about those before spending $100+ on a new synth. The’re are plenty of resources to learn about synthesisers (both playing them and creating sounds). This site is great. As is KVR Forums.

    I’d recommend getting Synth1 by Ichiro Toda. It sounds so lush.
    http://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-by-ichiro-toda

    You can see the top voted-for synths at KVR (free and commercial) here:
    http://www.kvraudio.com/plugin-ranks.php

    I also paid a 2yr subscription to Computer Music magazine, saving myself half the cover price. It’s my favourite mag and comes with lots of samples on DVD.

    Some newsagents sell just the DVD for $1 (they get credit on returned mags but not disks). Because I’m so skin-flinty, I buy single Future Music DVDs (not the magazine) for $1ea. FM disks usually have better samples as they are made by more hardcore pro electronic musos. Computer Musi for beginners. i still consider myself a beginner after c is great

  • Cam

    - Don’t get overly complicated too early on, try to master the ADSR Envelope and the sounds that different oscillators make. Once you are confident with these move on to Filtering and Modulation.

    - EXPERIMENT !! try to make as many different sounds as possible.

    - Save your sounds/patches.

    Try out all the different Synths available. There are many free synths available online. Many synths have new and different modulation options that can expand your sound.

  • http://www.robertanthonyperez.com Robert Anthony

    Two things I would tell a beginner:

    First I would tell a beginner to, above all, not get discouraged. practice and time are what make you get better at anything in life.

    Second I would tell a beginner to take a step back and ask themselves “What exactly are you wanting to do?” While the lines are blurry, there is a difference between a producer and a sound designer; and both take a persons full dedication to master.

    If you are wanting to be a producer over a sound designer, then I would say to always keep in mind that you are not a sound designer, and to leave the 3 hours of tweaking a single sound to the sound designers.

  • Farmer

    Watch many youtube tutorials about snythies. You will learn many ways to work with the synthesizer and you get examples on the way.

    You either get some understanding about the synthesizer.

  • diego

    I would tell her/him that the best way to know the sounds she/he is going to learn to program, the best is to know what music and what genre/subgenre will produce.

  • Caio Moura

    I’m a beginner myself on sound synthesis, but I think any begginer should start with getting acquainted with the fundamentals of the sound: Pitch, Timbre and Volume, and how they can be modulated to achieve specific sounds using envelopes (like the ADSR, which stands for Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release). Virtually any synthesizer will have an interface which will allow you to control each of these elements of sound. For example: an Oscillator controls Pitch, a Filter controls Timbre (or brightness) and an Amplifier controls Volume. After you get acquainted with theses elements of sound, and how they work in each individual synthesizer (try different ones, but stick with one to learn it deeply). My tip is to research on the internet, ask questions on forums, watch tutorials, download and experiment on free VSTs before buying hardware synths.

  • Mojo

    As you progress on a sound you are working in,
    SAVE IT! As soon as you kinda like it.

    That way, if you get lost on the possibilities, you will always be able to come back to a place where you where comfortable.

  • Alex Jofer

    My advice is:

    Make presentation of various types of Synthesis like,

    - Additive synthesis

    - Subtractive synthesis

    - FM synthesis

    - Phase distortion synthesis

    - Granular synthesis

    - Physical modelling synthesis

    Best RG

  • Romain

    If you are using Logic (I don’t know about the other DAWs), take a look as soon as you can at the Instruments User Guide (downloadable in PDF). You will find a presentation of the different types of synthesis (and not only the ones used in Logic instruments), a great description of each soft synth provided in Logic, and a bunch of tuts for each instrument. For example it really helped me out to create original drum sounds in Ultrabeat, and to understand how Sculpture works. Despite its length, I think this manual is easily understandable by beginners.

  • Aaron Pecker

    Get Hardware Modular Synthesizer! Then patch them!

  • Hywel

    Get Zebra! It’s an amazing synth. Reverse engineer some of the presets, starting with the simplest, and keep notes. It’s a long process and one I’m still going through….

  • http://www.nunoarruda.com Nuno Arruda

    I recommend using a synth with a visual representation of the waveform like FXpansion Strobe, it helps to understand what you are doing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ploehrmusic Ploehr

    My advice for beginners would be like this.

    First things first:

    - Find out the difference between a ROMpler and (virtual) analog synthesis
    - Learn what oscillators are and why you need them (wtf are sine, square, triangle and saw?)
    - Get to know some filter types (LP, HP, BP) and see what cutoff and resonance does
    - Say hello to envelopes (ADSR) are and what you can do with it
    - Explore the power of the LFO

    When you have finished your “homework”:

    - Buy a simple synth that has
    – (at least) two oscillators
    – a filter set (LP, HP, BP)
    – ADSR

    I recommend a device that has dedicated knobs and/or faders for these parameters (cutoff, resonance, ADSR). It’ll help you a lot to get a feeling(!) for what you are doing, when you pull down the cutoff fader (or knob) with your fingers and not with the mouse! And you don’t have to setup anything to get started.

    OR

    - If you prefer software (I recommend Reason – no matter which version -, the SubTractor synth gives you more than you will need for the first steps!), find a synth with the according specs.

    - Find out how to initialize a patch (turn filter off, set ADSR to [0,100%,100%,0] and envelope to 0 – for both filter and oscillator)
    - Try out each of the 5 first steps, combine them and understand what you are doing
    - Don’t forget to save ;)

    My first synth was a Roland JV-80 (a ROMpler) and I learned a lot about sound synthesis!

    One last thing: If you’re stuck – take a break. I know what I’m talking about ;) Have fun!