Unit 35 - Sound Creation and Manipulation - LO2

Using Synthesizers to Create Tracks

In this unit, I was instructed to create a piece of music showing skills with use of samplers and synthesizers. I had to make sure everything in my track was original and either recorded or created entirely by me, as I wanted to avoid any plagiarism that could come from using other peoples sounds and designs. This was important as if the piece wasn't completely original, then I could be infringing on someone else's copyright.

In the track I created, I used synthesizers such as the ES1 subtractive synth, the ES2 hybrid synth and the EXS24 sampler and with these I created different sounds using the editing functions available in these synthesizers. These include oscillators, LFOs, filters and envelopers. All of these functions can work together to create desired sounds and effects that I wanted for my piece.

Presets:

In all of the synthesizers I used, there were presets I could use and edit to make into my own sounds, but as I wanted to make sure my song was completely original and not infringing on or plagiarising someone else's copyright, I created my own presets I could use for any project I create. Here are some of the synths I created:

Filters:

On most of my sounds, I used filters to focus on specific frequencies so I could then modulated those further and use oscillators and LFOs to create pulsing, waving, or panning effects. The filters also had the option to add resonance and choose specific cut-off points and how much drive it uses. The ES2 synth even has two filters so I have the option to change both and choose the blend between them. It can also choose if you want it to be a series filter or parallel filter. Here are two sounds that I made, the second being a modification I made on the first, both of which I decided to use in my track. One of the biggest changes I made when creating the second one was my use of the filter in the ES2. On the first, I used a series filter with the blend of the two filters being mostly over to the side of the second filter which works as a low pass filter that works at different dB levels when the first works as lowpass, highpass, bandpass, band reject, or peak filter. In the first synth I had the first filter set as a high pass filter but this was still quite small in the blend between the two filters. In the second synth, I changed the filter to a parallel filter and put the blend even further to the second filter and set the first synth as a band reject filter. I didn't change much else other than this as this gave the buzzing effect on my sound that I wanted that worked well with the other modulations I made to the track.

Oscillators and LFOs:

The ES2 also has three oscillators, which choose the combination of the different wave types that will be put together to create my sound. Some of the shapes that can be used are sine waves, saw waves, square waves and triangle waves with the last three being combinations of different sine waves.
Two LFOs are also included in the ES2 synth, and these are similar to oscillators but are used to edit lower frequencies which allow the modulation of a sound to allow it to pulsate or wave, depending on what it is applied to. It can give a tremolo, vibrato or phase effect, and this gives us a lot more options on how I can edit sounds. An example of my use of oscillators and LFOs is in on of my sounds I created on the ES2 using the combination of a sine wave, a saw wave and a square wave on my three oscillators and used a triangle wave on my LFO to create a buzzy but even sound.

Modulation:

In my synthesizers, there are many editing functions that are used to modulate the sounds that I could use in my piece such as LFOs, oscillators, the editing matrix that can edit cutoffs, pitch, velocity and lots of other effects. This allows you to sculpt your sound any way you want and create the specific sounds with any effects you would want to add to it.

Patch Bay:

A patch bay is something that can be used to route and re-route signal paths and used to network areas to each other. There isn't a real example contained in logic pro, but an example of routing, which is the main function of patch bays, is the environment in logic which allows you to route your input device through things like arpeggiators and delay lines before being outputted. I didn't use this in my piece though. Patch bays can also be used to link rooms and areas in a studio setting as well allowing you to cable rooms together so you can send and receive signals either way when recording.

An example of a patch bay is using Reason/Record alongside Logic Pro as a slave device, meaning that you can develop sounds inside Reason and play these out through a logic auxiliary channel. Creating sounds in Reason also allow you to use virtual patch bays to create sounds and use samples with their ability to create sounds in a virtual rack that can be edited with the front and back. The front is used to actually edit the sounds in the rack, and the back is used to patch each part of the rack to one another through virtual cabling. This means that it is far easier to see the virtual process of how each sound is made, rather than in logic that only allows you to add processes to your tracks and doesn't show you the actual route of how each process effects each other.
Here is an example of a reese bass I made using Reason:

And here is the back of the rack:

This shows the direct route and connections of each patch in the patch bay and allows you to edit them in any way you want. Because I've put all of the patches into a combinator, it means I can also use the patch I've made and link it to logic through an auxiliary channel and record and play it back out through logic. I made this track using three Malstrom additive synthesizers, one with a sine wave that I've used as my sub-bass, and two using sawtooth waves. The malstrom has the ability to use multiple of these waves at once though in each oscillator so I used a "sawtooth 16" on both and then put the sounds through a shaper and filter. To edit my sound to be exactly how I wanted it, I then put my second malstrom through a DDL delay unit and a Scream 4 unit to give the grittier tone that reese basses have. I then used the cabling feature in reason to create a haas effect, where you link only one side of the mix through the delay unit to make the sound "wider' in the mix. I then repeated this with the Scream and DDL units on the third malstrom to create a bigger sound. I later used this reese bass patch I made in my track.

Reese Bass Example

Monophonic and Polyphonic Voices:

The ES2 and EXS24 all had the option to change between 'poly', 'mono' and 'legato' voices. This controls how many voices of a certain sound will play when playing my sounds. 'Mono' is monophonic, which means that it will only play one voice and 'poly' and 'legato' means that it will play multiple voices polyphonically with the EXS24's parameters being able to play up to 64 voices at once when the ES2 can only go up to 32 on the monophonic and legato behaviours and only 16 on polyphonic. Both also have a useful unison function that make all voices play simultaneously that are able to make sounds fuller and richer.

Parameter Select and Change:

More parameters that can be changed are 'glide', which determines how long it takes to change from the pitch if the note you're playing to the next note and 'analog', which emulates a detuned analog synthesizer, although I haven't used this in my synths. The parameters are essentially how much you can change all of the editable functions on a synthesizer, with the parameter select being what you can change and the parameter change being the range on how much you can edit a sound with that function.

Amplifiers and Envelopers:

The amplifiers parameters in my synths are controlled by envelope generators in my synthesizers. They control the attack, decay, sustain and release of my synths and control the level the sound takes over time. Envelopers are important because they can change how your sound plays out with sounds with high releases, lasting for a long time after the note is played and if that is combined with a large attack time, the note will last even longer, working as a good background pad. The amplifier can also be modulated through using the LFO as the source on the matrix and selecting the Amp as the target to create a tremolo effect, changing the level based on the LFO rate value.

Example Synths

Here are two examples of a synth tracks I made by using some of these techniques on two different synth creators; the ES2 and EXS24.

WavyFuzz Synth Example

Filling SubBass Track Example

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