What do synthesisers do

You know the sound. And yet, how many of us know how a synth works? How do a bunch of wonky tones coming out of a box covered in knobs and buttons translate to the memorable sounds of disco, or synthpop, or house or electro or EDM or Taylor Swift? Which is why to really understand anything about synths, you have to have a basic grasp of acoustic theory.

In a nutshell, sound is caused by a vibrating object creating changes in air pressure, which vibrates our eardrum, and which we in turn perceive as sound. A synthesizer basically mimics this natural acoustic process. Those oscillations repeat periodically, in patterns called waveforms. Then eventually, the electrical signal is amplified and sent through a speaker to convert it back to sound the human ear understands.

But how does an electrical signal go from sounding like the robotic fart sound of speaker feedback into something resembling music? The control panel on the Minimoog synthesizer.

All synths have a few basic components that work together to forge a sound: an oscillator that generates the waveform and changes its pitch, a filter that carves out certain frequencies in the wave to change the timbre, an amplifier that controls the signal volume, and modulation to create effects. The oscillator is the initial source of the sound — like the guitar string pluck.

Voltage from a power source oscillates electrons which generates a waveform, and most synths let you select from various types of waves because different patterns have different sounds. The most common types are:. Fundamentals of synthesis poster via Moog Foundation. Frequency is the speed of the vibration the frequency with which a waveform completes one cycle of its pattern. The faster the frequency, the higher the pitch—double the frequency and the pitch goes up an octave.

So to put it in musical terms, a Hz tone is an A note, and Hz is an A an octave up. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.

Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Prev NEXT. Understanding how they work will open up a whole world of sound creation and manipulation that can transform your recordings and productions. What is a synthesizer? A synth sometimes seen as synthesiser is an electronic instrument that can create a wide range of different sounds and textures.

A synth can imitate real instruments, or can be used to create new sounds that have never been heard before. Synths can come in both hardware and software versions. You can now find software emulation plugins of the most famous and well-known hardware synths from years gone by. This can help modern-day producers to achieve those classic synth sounds at the fraction of the cost of the original models. The history of the synth can be a long and complicated story. The story can also depend on what sort of electronic music device is actually classified as a synthesizer.

Pitch: The frequency of a soundwave. The higher the frequency the higher the pitch of the sound will be to the ear. Polyphony: The number of voices that a synth can play at a time.

A monophonic synth can play only one voice, a paraphonic and duophonic synth both play 2 voices but work differently, and a polyphonic synth simply refers to multiple voiced synthesizers. Pulse Width: This is the time a waveform will take to go from its highest point to its lowest point. The width refers to the visual length on the waveform of the signal.

Quantisation: This lines a signal up the closest increment in a specified range. Most commonly used when referring to rhythm and aligning notes up in time with a rhythmic grid. Resonance: Using feedback, this boosts the frequencies around the cutoff.

This can emphasise harmonics and can generate a sine-wave if it is raised enough to boost the feedback. Sequencer: The arrangement of musical patterns which can be repeated to build up looping beats and melodies. Square Wave : A waveform with very abrupt changes to its peak and trough, creating a shape with near right-angles. Sustain: This describes how the sound will vary and sets the peak. For example, it will be the volume of the note when the attack reaches its destination.

Tempo: The speed at which music should be played defined by the number of beats in a minute. Can also be referred to as the tone clur or tone quality. Treble: The bandwidth of high end frequencies. Commonly accepted as between 5. Triangle Wave: Waveforms with a linear rise and fall giving it a triangular shape. Velocity: Normally equating to the loudness of a note, this represents the dynamic attack of a trigger.

Vibrato: Effecting the pitch of a tone, this creates a funny warbling sound from a signal. PocketDrum are Bluetooth drumsticks that pair with your phone to remove the big, bulky, expensive and noisy aspect of playing the drums.

Ever wondered what all the different synthesizers are and what types of synth sounds they all make? Your email address will not be published.

Skip to content Jacca-RouteNote in. September 28, October 11, What are these mysterious musi making devices that seem capable of making any sound and how do they even work? Synthesizer definition: What does synthesizer mean? What does a synthesizer do? A modular eurorack synth Image credit: Adi Goldstein What is a synth keyboard? How a synthesizer works No two synthesizers are completely alike and there are plenty of different methods that allow them to create audio through analogue and digital means.

Band: A range of frequencies in an EQ.