#1April 6th, 2009 · 11:58 AM
4 threads
3 posts
United States of America
Sytrus etc. sound design, What is your thought process...
Hello everyone,

As of right now I am using FL Studio-Sytrus as my primary instrument and trying to master it. If you don't use Sytrus, your examples of other instruments would help too. To get it out of they way here, I have done some tutorials, like Blackhole, but if you know of others that I haven't checked out yet then please tell.

I do have an understanding or a basic understanding on Synth creation, but when I look at the presets that Sytrus has, I wonder, what were they thinking when they did that?, Why they added that filter there?, or Why they added that envelope there?

What is your thought process when you are making sounds for your scores or when you are just playing with a instrument to come up with a sound? How do you decide on the parts of the synth to create that sound?

As for study sake and feel free to use another preset or other example if U like. Here is one in Sytrus, it is digi 2 located in the Synth string category.....This goes back to my questions above. Why did this person decide on using all those Operators, how do you know when you should? I will leave it at that for now.

Thank you all for your time and assistance.
#2April 6th, 2009 · 12:36 PM
121 threads / 56 songs
3,098 posts
Netherlands
Well I have quite some experience in synth-tweaking, basically I start by forming an idea of a sound, a general direction, then I simply play the basic (default) sound if there are no presets available, and compare the sound to the one in my head. If what I'm hearing is more of a sine wave than the default square wave (for instance), that will be the first thing to change. Then I want a slower attack, so I go to the envelope settings and adjust it. And so forth.................. Although I don't use FL much, Sytrus is "just another synth" and in the basics, it works like any other synth.

What you actually really need to know is basic soundwave theory. If you understand the different oscillation forms, if you understand how ADSR envelopes work, how to set a filter, how to route a bit of effects... Then you can look at the settings of a preset and quickly understand how the individual settings of a sound affect the end result. Try tweaking those settings one at a time to hear how it influences the sound.

But you should above all not worry about how others have managed to get their sounds. How the settings got there is seriously the wrong question... Mostly it's just turning knobs on the go... Groove along with what you're hearing and what you want to hear. Synthsound design is a lot of on-the-fly messing around and ofcourse it really helps to know what filters and envelopes do, what pulse wave modulation does, what the various types of oscillation do - gives you more control, but the true genius sound happens more by chance than it does by intentional design. Or in fact, it's a perfect combination of both
#3April 6th, 2009 · 01:06 PM
189 threads / 27 songs
2,834 posts
Germany
Yeah... The knowledge of how a sound is created is very important to build new soundwaves. And the basics are one or some more oscillators based upon waveforms like sine, rectangle, triangle, sawtooth and variable rectangle and of course pink or white hiss/noise. Old analog modular synths (i.e. Moog) are so straight in their sound that you can recognize them very easily.
Computer and software based synths (i.e. Sytrus) host some very weired sounds you can edit. There are some really good soundstations / wavestations / workstations out there as software synths where you can create new sounds on the fly. But they are all based on default creations by others. Some of them use empty applets to add oscillators, filters, envelope generators, feedback loops, sequencers, effects like echo, delay, chorus, flanger etc. to create personal sounds.

Simply try, tweak and use them. Sytrus is as good as the other software synths.

btw I love the ol' Moog
#4April 6th, 2009 · 03:25 PM
4 threads
3 posts
United States of America
PuppetXeno wrote…
What you actually really need to know is basic soundwave theory. If you understand the different oscillation forms, if you understand how ADSR envelopes work, how to set a filter, how to route a bit of effects... Then you can look at the settings of a preset and quickly understand how the individual settings of a sound affect the end result. Try tweaking those settings one at a time to hear how it influences the sound.

Will do

PuppetXeno wrote…
But you should above all not worry about how others have managed to get their sounds. How the settings got there is seriously the wrong question... Mostly it's just turning knobs on the go... Groove along with what you're hearing and what you want to hear. Synthsound design is a lot of on-the-fly messing around and ofcourse it really helps to know what filters and envelopes do, what pulse wave modulation does, what the various types of oscillation do - gives you more control, but the true genius sound happens more by chance than it does by intentional design. Or in fact, it's a perfect combination of both ;)

Thank you for pointing this out. This helps me picture how other poeple do it.

Also, how do you know when enough is enough when creating your sound?
#5April 6th, 2009 · 03:27 PM
4 threads
3 posts
United States of America
TritonKeyboarder wrote…
Simply try, tweak and use them.

Will do.


Thank you for your advice
#6April 6th, 2009 · 03:49 PM
121 threads / 56 songs
3,098 posts
Netherlands
rocknje wrote…
Also, how do you know when enough is enough when creating your sound?

When you are satisfied

But satisfaction is a weird and unattainable concept anyway, as Mick Jagger pointed out quite a while ago, "Can't get no satisfaction" and that's basically why people continue keep messing around in life in general.. they're never satisfied. But I digress...

Personally when I play with my EMX (Korg hardware synth/sequencer groovebox) I just play till I've laid down a couple tracks that are good as they are, and any tweaks are cool but deviate and deform the coolness of the track I've managed to make. How can I explain, I think I'm looking for a sound that is a good "template" to tweak from, where every knob turn will have a desirable result, as opposed to a sound that is so specific that knob turns will yield desirable results less often.

So to say, stop tweaking when you've found something cool but generic enough to make a lot of variations to it, and save that particular sound as a personal template.

I hope it helps...
#7April 13th, 2009 · 09:27 AM
4 threads
3 posts
United States of America
PuppetXeno wrote…
rocknje wrote…
Also, how do you know when enough is enough when creating your sound?

When you are satisfied

But satisfaction is a weird and unattainable concept anyway, as Mick Jagger pointed out quite a while ago, "Can't get no satisfaction" and that's basically why people continue keep messing around in life in general.. they're never satisfied. But I digress...

Personally when I play with my EMX (Korg hardware synth/sequencer groovebox) I just play till I've laid down a couple tracks that are good as they are, and any tweaks are cool but deviate and deform the coolness of the track I've managed to make. How can I explain, I think I'm looking for a sound that is a good "template" to tweak from, where every knob turn will have a desirable result, as opposed to a sound that is so specific that knob turns will yield desirable results less often.

So to say, stop tweaking when you've found something cool but generic enough to make a lot of variations to it, and save that particular sound as a personal template.

I hope it helps...

Thank you again for your response. Like you said satisfaction can be tough to attain if you let it that is or unless you can stop yourself. I know somebody who is always trying to change the song or sound to make it better when it sounds good as it is.

Will do.

Keep checking back I am probably going to have more questions. Thank you again.
#8April 13th, 2009 · 09:33 AM
4 threads
3 posts
United States of America
Are there any more takers out their on this topic? Would love to see what others say about this.
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