Free Software Synth with good documentation?

[dlawlis]

There was discussion in this thread about how reading your synth's manual is one step in the right direction for learning synthesis. The thing is a lot of beginners like me are using free software synths that usually don't come with a manual.

So far all I've found is an "unofficial" manual for Synth1:

https://sound.eti.pg.gda.pl/student/eim/doc/Synth1.pdf

Is anyone aware of any free software synthesizers that come with good documentation? Ideally a softsynth that is subtractive and fairly straightforward. Maybe something that is now free but was once a commercial product?

[ATN69]

One of the best free synths I ever used is TAL Noise maker.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker ..and there is a PDF user guide.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker ..and on youtube there are tutorials.

[Michael L]

Uhe Podolski: ex-magware, beautiful sound, 26pg manual, giant gui, loads of presets.

[rod_zero]

If you wanna learn to program synths check out Syntorial, at least download the demo and make the first lessons so you get a first aproximation in how to aproach synthesis.

[discoDSP]

Check Intro To Synthesis

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSy4 ... nZPbF8ICFf

[dlawlis]

Check Intro To Synthesis

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSy4 ... nZPbF8ICFf

I did some googling on that guy cuz I thought his name sounded familiar. I remember hearing his music on the radio when I was a kid

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

[discoDSP]

Heheh I was into synths since I was a kid too

[Full Bucket]

All my plugins come with user manuals, and for Kern and the scrooo YT videos are available, too.

http://www.fullbucket.de/music/vst.html

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Cheers, Björn

[dlawlis]

Heheh I was into synths since I was a kid too

Yeah, and I've dabbled with them for too long to still be in the preset stage (and to not be a better kb player).

http://www.fullbucket.de/music/vst.html

I've heard of at least three of these while doing research. And they're 64-bit to boot! I'll check 'em out. Thanks!

[chk071]

One of the best free synths I ever used is TAL Noise maker.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker ..and there is a PDF user guide.

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker ..and on youtube there are tutorials.

+1 for this. For me, the best learning synth. I don't know how the manual is, but, if it's more or less decent, it should be pretty straight forward to learn subtractive synthesis with TAL-Noisemaker.

[dlawlis]

I'll have to revisit TAL Noisemaker. It seems like I didn't care for the layout though.

edit: Yeah, I definitely don't care for the layout.

[dlawlis]

oops. See? My confusion carried over to the forums.

[chk071]

I'll have to revisit TAL Noisemaker. It seems like I didn't care for the layout though.

edit: Yeah, I definitely don't care for the layout.

What exactly don't you like about it though?

[dlawlis]

What exactly don't you like about it though?

Ya know, I've been messing around with it for awhile and I'm starting to like it! I guess what I didn't like before (and still don't to some extent) is having two hidden pages of controls, but after some consideration I realized that the bottom two pages won't be accessed nearly as often as the oscillators and the filters on the first two pages.

[chk071]

Oh, that's fair enough, i also consider that a con of TAL-Noisemaker. But, as you say, you probably won't be fiddling too much on the bottom 2 pages anyway, so you'd most likely only have the front 2 pages opened frequently.