Diploma in Sound Engineering

Synthesis
Summary Notes
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Contents
3 Lesson objectives

3 Introduction

4 Introduction to audio synthesis

6 Advanced Synthesis

7 Additional resources

7 References
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Lesson objectives
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Learn what synthesis is

Understand the different kinds of synthesis
Use LFO’s and Envelope filters to create movement
Create your own sounds using synthesis

Introduction
In this course we’ve discussed how to compose, arrange, and mix sound. In today’s lesson we are going to look at how to
create sound through synthesis.

The digital era is upon us, and the tools we have available are extremely powerful in creating new, fresh sounds. With audio
synthesis and enough know-how, you can recreate almost any sound. In today’s lesson we are going to take a deeper look
into the types of synthesis and how you can use it to create your own, new sounds for your productions.
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Introduction to audio synthesis

What is it?
The Oxford dictionary defines synthesis as “the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole”. I’m
sure you’ve seen at least pictures of synthesisers before with so many buttons to press and knobs to turn that you have no
idea where to start. After today everything will make much more sense and you’ll find synthesis as one of the most powerful
tools in your creative toolbox. Let’s begin with the most common ways we can synthesisers and manipulate sound.

• Additive synthesis
• Subtractive synthesis
• FM Synthesis
• Granular synthesis
• Wavetable Synthesis

Before we can delve into how we can create different sounds with different types of synthesis, we need to understand the
types of digital waveforms we have. Synthesisers produce sound with an oscillator. This is a device that produces electric
currents and voltages by converting direct current into alternating current or DC to AC, which we can send to a speaker and
listen to.

Oscillators traditionally generate 5 types of wave forms:

• Sine waves
• Square waves
• Sawtooth waves
• Triangle waves
• Noise

Each of these wave shapes have their own unique timbre.

Additive and subtractive synthesis

We know that every natural sound has a fundamental frequency and an overtone series that gives the sound its timbre. Its
due to the overtone series that a guitar, voice and piano can play the same note but sound distinctly different. We can use
this principle of adding sound waves of different or the same frequencies together to create our own sounds. And this is
what additive synthesis is.

We can start with a single sine wave as the fundamental and then add more sine waves at different frequencies to imitate
the harmonics of an instrument. You can get quite close to recreate almost any sound if you know what the frequencies of
the harmonics are and what their relative levels to the fundamental need to be.

Subtractive synthesis on the other hand is when we start with an oscillator creating a waveform at a certain frequency. Then
we use modifiers and filters to subtract or adjust certain elements of that sound.

Frequency modulation
Frequency modulation or FM synthesis is one of the most common and powerful ways we can change the tone of signal. Fm
synthesis is where we take the signal of an oscillator to affect the signal of another oscillator or recorded sound source. Low-
frequency-oscillators, or LFO’s, are some of the most common ways of using FM synthesis.

A low-frequency-oscillator generates tones from 0 Hz upward. We don’t use the LFO to create audible sound, but rather to
control filters, amplifiers, and modifiers. Remember, an oscillator creates current and voltage which we send to our
speakers and hear as sound. The changes in current and voltage is what we use to control modifiers and filters. An LFO that
is set at 1 Hz completes 1 oscillation per second, that is 1 complete waveform from peak to peak. We can set the values of
LFO’s to numerical values, or we can sync it to the tempo and use note values to set the frequency of the LFO. This is quite
useful, because we can create musical nuances in sync with the tempo of the music.
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Another reason why FM synthesis is so popular, is because we can use it to create movement in our sounds. Think about it,
natural sounds have a lot of small details and changes in them, but a synth producing a single waveform sounds very
unnatural and static. We can use FM synthesis to modulate a certain component of a frequency or sound based on the
changes in voltage from the LFO.

Another common form of FM synthesis is called phase modulation. In this case, you use the waveform of an oscillator to
affect the phase of another signal. This can have all kinds of interesting effects and is a common way for us to create
movement and different timbres within the static timbres of an oscillator.
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Advanced synthesis
Wavetable synthesis
One of the more modern techniques to create a larger variety of tones, is by using wavetable synthesis.

Traditionally oscillators generate one of the 5 waveforms we discussed earlier, sine, sawtooth, square, triangle, and noise.
The oscillator of a wavetable has the information of a variety of waveforms and shapes stored in a data table. This means
that if you have an oscillator that produces a sine wave in first position and a sawtooth in the last position, that when you
turn the knob to change from sine to sawtooth the wavetable will switch between all the different waveforms in the data
table and the timbre change from sine to sawtooth will be gradual .

Granular synthesis
Granular synthesis is a technique where we use existing sounds and adjust the timbre and sounds completely.

This is done by taking a sound, and instead of playing the entire sound, the synthesiser takes very small snapshots of the
sound called grains and plays them in succession at a fast rate. To best explain and demonstrate wavetable and granular
synthesis, let’s go over to Reason and see what the main significant differences are.

Envelope
Envelope in audio synthesis refers to the rate at which sound is created and how and how long it takes to decay. It’s a form
of automation that we can assign to affect cut-off filter, gain or other parameters. The useful bit of envelopes is that they are
very customisable.

In synthesis we divide the envelope of a

sound into the Attack, Decay, Sustain and
Release of a sound.

(FL Studio, 2021)

• Attack - The time it takes for a

sound to reach its maximum level.
• Decay - The time it takes for a sound to drop from the maximum level to the sustain level (the next level in the
ADSR chain).
• Sustain - The level while the sound is held.
• Release - The time it takes for a sound to drop
• from the sustain level to zero (silence) when released.
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References

• FL Studio, 2021. Envelopes Explained. [online] [Link]. Available at: <[Link]

[Link]/fl-studio-learning/fl-studio-online-manual/html/glossary_envelope.htm>
• Jordan, B., 2021. Benn Jordan. [online] [Link]. Available at:
<[Link] .