Sound synthesis for beginners?

[RonF]

I've searched the forum, but couldn't find anything, so my apologies in advance if this has been answered before.

I'm enjoying playing around with Zebra 2, but now I want to know what I'm doing! Can anyone recommend a site (or book etc.) that teaches sound synthesis from first principles?

Thanks,

Ron

[jupiter8]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Sound on Sounds synth secrets series.
60 or so articles on everything (well almost) you need to know about synthesis.

[RonF]

Wow! Thank you!

Ron

[dbone]

1) Clear off 24 consecutive hours with friends/loved ones/S.O.
2) unplug the telephone
3) warm up/tune any analog synths 15-20 mins as required
4) enjoy a li'l "mother nature" (optional)
5) tune 'em low, maybe a little OSC sync, resonate, filter and Envelope to taste

My point is, play with the gear you've got as much as you can, bass will come.
Also, liberal doeses of RTFM have helped me a lot over the years.

[rsmus7]

one of the best books you'll find here:

how to make a noise

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76293

and it is free!!!

[alexibm]

Hi !
Of all the books on synthesis, the one that make most sense and scientifically justified is ARP 2600 manual

[RonF]

Great stuff! Thanks everyone.

Ron

[lnikj]

Hi !
Of all the books on synthesis, the one that make most sense and scientifically justified is ARP 2600 manual

It is well written but the diagrams sometimes leave something to be desired, falling somewhere between 'artistic impressions' and 'mathematically accurate'.

[lnikj]

Ronf

You might want to try this too:

http://www.alesis.com/downloads/tutoria ... torial.pdf

HTH

[RonF]

Another good one, thanks,

[wonshu]

I'll tell my personal story: I came to the synthesis table way late. 5 years ago there was Absynth available for OS 9 as shareware, it was basically the only thing available to me at the time and I spent hours upon hours trying out every parameter and reading and in forums.

So the key really is: limit yourself!

- Try the oscillators and see what they do
- Add a filter and see what it does.
- slowly add stuff to your vocabulary.

And then: play a sound on another synth and just try to emulate it in Zebra. You can get very very close with almost all sounds. And by doing that, your ear will tune in to what you know the parameters will do.

Cheers
Hans

PS: All the books I bought were crap! I mean real crap!!

[tamahome]

Simon Cann has a new book about Cakewalk/rgc:audio synths. It's like 700 pages!

http://www.noisesculpture.com/cakewalk.html

Here's the timewarp 2600 manuals. It's based on the arp 2600 manual (same author).

http://www.wayoutware.com/manuals.html

The timewarp demo is a pain though. Once the 15 days are over, you can't reinstall it.