The Dance Music Manual is great--it gets you going, has several hands on synthesis tutorials, talks about the subtle differences between, say, Dub/House/DnB/French House etc. It's good for learning the fundamentals, and like you said above the Virus' included synthesis tutorial download isn't really for beginners.

I learned most of what I know about synthesis when I got my first really knobby synth(the korg RADIAS). It helped me to see all the parameters without trawling through menus. I twist this knob and this sound comes out. the korg ms2000 is a great (cheap!) knobby synth to play around with to get the basics. The Virus Polar etc. are beauties but they send you back to the menu from time to time.

Think of each section like it's a separate 'guitar pedal'--the filter box/the mixer/the effects. The oscillators are the 'guitar'. Each of these separate modules plug into each other in different orders to affect the sound--explore each module on its own with the basic raw sound of the oscillators.

'Modulation' means invisible hands turning knobs. You grab the filter cutoff knob and sweep it. *Cool* But when your hands are busy you need some extra hands to do the sweeping/tweaking. Here come the envelopes and LFOs. Both are like invisible hands that twist the knobs for you while you play.

But until you know how the basic sound of the oscillators (guitar) is affected by the modules (pedals) you can't start letting invisible hands tweak for you.

anyway--the book will help a whole lot.

Thank you! That is very good to know. The book looks really good, but I couldn't tell if it would explain the fundamental theories of synthesis.

This book looks really intriguing, but I am hesitant about it because it appears to be written for specific software synthesizers, none of which I have. Is it worthwhile if all I have is a Virus? If so, then it seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Thanks!

Thanks! That's good to know. I am going to order that book this afternoon.

I re-read the sections in the manuals about the envelops, and with the information from the people here and a bit of experimentation, I understand the envelopes now. The filter envelope simply adds a bit to the cutoff of the filter for a short period of time after a key is struck. The amount added, the 'shape' of the envelope, is controlled by the various attack, decay, etc. parameters, as displayed in the "Cheese" section of the manual. The envelope controls only the cutoff, and it is a fixed, time based function that is tied to the key stroke. By the way, is there any way to make the envelope negative, i.e. subtract a bit from the cutoff frequency of a low-pass filter when the key is struck?

Haven't read the OP's suggested book. I have read this one however, I found it to be one of the most comprehensive books I've read.

The Computer Music Tutorial - Curtis Roads
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item...ype=2&tid=8218

;-)

Judging by the table of contents it's got a lot on the basics in there (good).

Published in 1996 - is the info it still current?

It's current enough to still be applicable in theory and fundamental's.

It's definitely worth having as reference to say the least.