Synthesis is bringing together parts to make something so?
We are trying to make sound which has 3 important factors.
Pitch/frequency content/amplitude. This is the basics of any sound you hear.
Osc's/filter/amplitude. These are the basic modules we have on a synth.
Wave types. Now I can tell you that different types sound like blah de blah de blay but your ears may differ from mine and to be honest it is better if you have a sample to compare and I can't do that just now so you have to do the work. A saw is buzzy, play a single osc with a saw and you'll hear what I mean. Now change it to pulse, slightly more buzzy but different, sine hollow no charachter as some say, but a triangle is mellow. (Wave tables christ if someone knows then tell me
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When you are trying to create a sound you have to start with a good wav shape so it is important to know these off the top of your head. A year ago I said that was impossible but it is not that bad when you have listened to each for a while.
(There is a lot more to this and if I was you I'd read up, there is stuff everywhere)
ok so we have an osc what now?
I go to the adsr's I firstly start with the amp as I usually know what I want. If you want a string that fades in then fades out when you press a key then you have a long attack (fade in) and a long decay (fade out), you can then add some release aswell if you like, but have sustain at 0 as this is the volume of the voice when you are pressing a key. If you want a pluck or instant stab then again you want no fade in and a quick fade out, A=0, D=50?
I usually think of the adsr's as a sample or wave shaper in the sense of looking at a wave sampl in an editor screen. If you look at it as fade in, fade down to a level then stay at a level then fade out to nothing then you can match up with ADSR. (I'm weird)
As for the filter. You can change the sound of a filter using the filter ADSR, but the best way to do this is to have cutoff etc at 0 then adjust the env amount to change the filter as you desire. you can then turn up the filter, this is hard to explain so just do it and you'll see it works.
As for setting on the filter ADSR, well that all depends on what you want. It is best though to have all settings on this set to slightly less than your values on the AMP ADSR. If not then things don't work, but sometimes that is what you want so experiment.
Filter, Ehrm. Covered so many times but. LPF only low stuff passes bassy sounds and up. the resonance control the amount of emphasis on the freqs around your max freq. Hence when high it squeels like a pig. HPF. opposite high sounds get through but bassy sounds are removed. (Tip good for leads that fade in as they are always notacible) band pass and band reject (I'm bored it's all in the name
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ok so you have some basics on the main parts. All this I have learned on the net by the way
Unison. This lets you fatten up sounds. It pretty much copies the sound you are playing and layers its so many times (Voice count) then detunes each by an amount and then pans them between left and right, spread.
Hypersaw, super saw etc etc. are all just fancy saw waves, they are like playing several osc's all playing saw waves with them slightly different. It help you make fat sounds without unison but I'm not using them yet so don't ask :P
MOST IMPORTANT:
listen
You have EG on your synth, use it. You will see in my previous patch that the sound isn't anything until you set them up. this is a quick way to get the sound the way you want it in a mix of sounds. If you have a bass drum then only allow the low freq's through and cut some but not all of the mid and low. as for a bass line, almost the same as the bass drum jsut try to make them sound low. Then the motif part, this should be in the middle, then the main lead if you want it to sit it high and cut all the low. then your four parts will sit nice and need little to no mastering. (Spoke to a few well known producers who never master tracks they just mix them properly, whatever that means)
There is more to the synth but you need to do some more work with the synth, I found so many rilliant little things on this synth by making my patch that I fear my hands will be busy for a while.
I hope this helps but if not then poo to you
Seriously, if you want to make a sound then give in a sample and we could try to learn together. I'm still learning this stuff and usually figure things out by looking at presets and seeing how a bit is done then copy that in to a start program and change things to see what else can be done.
Have fun
Cheers
Kris