“…most people most of the time…”
@ Bryan: Do you ever use Analog or Operator?
[quote]howiegroove (1/18/2010)[hr]@ Bryan: Do you ever use Analog or Operator?[/quote]
ive used operator yes
not a fan!
BTW, what is the difference between Analog and Operator ? I never used them. I know it’s off-topic so if the answer is too long and complicated, just tell me and I will create another topic. 
@MIKE: Just a different sound for the most part. Analog is more…uhhh…analog? FM synthesis is more digital sounding. However, Operator for me is easier to use.
Thank you, howie. Unfortunately, my ears are not trained to detect such a difference in the sound… 
When i listen to synths in video on youtube, most of the time, i guess it is an analog synth because it has those warm bass and pads and later, while looking at the technical details of the synth, i find out it is a FM synthesis… 
I’m trying to find a website or a video where i could see and/or hear the differences between analogic and digital synths. Both of them sounds really cool to me… but i guess there is a huge difference… and in the future, i’d like to properly choose my VSTi synth according to the sound i need…
if it’s on youtube the sound will have been downgraded and the audio is now digital as will have passed through some sort of recording process.
One of the things you have to know about the difference is that FM synthesis gives you the ability to create “Metallic” sounds. Regular subtractive synthesizers do not give you that ability.
Also, (I might be wrong) I think that Operator is capable of doing wavetable synthesis as well. I think that is where you can draw in your own oscillators with the harmonic overtones rather then just choosing a saw, square, etc.
If anyone is interested, I can do up a video in the future explaining how to do faux wavetable synthesis in Ableton with Sampler. However, I would make it only available to subscribers only and they would have to be invited to view the video on Youtube. Or, if SA would like, I could upload it to them and they could release it themselves to subscribers only.
I think using presets is fine…as long as we are given a quick rundown of the sound’s vital stats ie; a square and a detuned saw wave with a low pass filter of which the cutoff is modulated by an envelope. Then we can recreate it using whatever synths we have access to.
I run logic on a G5 so I can’t use sylenth, and i don’t use ableton usually this is no problem as you can cross the tutorials over relatively easily (and learn a few new things doing so), except when presets are thrown in quickly without at least a brief explanation of what makes up the sound.
I am enjoying this tutorial (and only half way through), but I have to agree that already there has been more than one sylenth preset used without such an explanation.
To have a run down of what makes up the sound would be really useful in future tutorials if presets are being used for those that love the site but don’t have the same plug ins/daws.
Cheers SA!
[quote]roben (1/15/2010)[hr]What would you suggest for other tutorials bro? The use of Ableton’s inbuilt synths like Operator ?
I see your point but another way of looking at it is that Sonic knows that most of it’s subscribers have Sylenth, after all it is an awesome plug in.
[/quote]
I have to disagree here. I’d say the majority of people using this site’s tutorials are beginners, and I would not expect a beginner to have a $130 dollar plugin.
I’ve purchased two separate series of videos and so far have watched the instructor use plugins that, altogether, cost in excess of 600 euro. I will not spend that kind of money on plugins when I am just starting out, and I doubt many others would either.
I’ve found the vids to be incredibly helpful and think the Sonic Academy have done a marvellous job but that’s my only criticism - they’re making videos watched mostly by beginners, so how about sticking to the tools that beginners have available to them?
Or, keep the cool plug-ins in the video, but also show how you can approximate the sound using free plugins, explaining that for the best sound you should consider plugin A or plugin B.
hey adam, i think you are right. you can recreate every single one of the videos on this website with free plugins that you can find on KVR. I believe that the reason SA uses Sylenth is because 1) its a relatively affordable synth plugin 2) it has a very simple layout 3) it sound very good for a VA, 4) the layout can translate to many other soft synths, including free ones and lastly 5) its easy to understand.
But Roben, myself, Jon Fisher, Raymondsar, and a few others are dedicated to helping others out on this site “get it”. But IMHO, freak whacha got. Just use Operator if you have Ableton Suite. You can do everything with that. Just use the modulation setup that is going straight up and down so that each waveform is not modulating each other.
when i first subscribed i was a beginner and found sythesis a real struggle i purchased operator after hearing how easy it was and found it no better i bought sylenth to follow the sa tutorials and it helped me no end i’m still far from a expert but sylenth is easy to use and very reasonably priced compared to others i think using sylenth as a basic synth for tutorials was a good move
if you got hooked on this site then you probably knew that sylenth was used alot or else you should have moved on to the next forum/website.
most people follow along in sylenth so to jump around from plugin to plugin would drive me crazy trying to buy them all …:hehe:
just find a plug in that is close to sylenth and run with that.
I think that the Tutorial was not that bad . I dont understand how people complain so much . if why SA only use Sylenth. I think Learning some Basic sound Design would help alot.
I used a hardware synth to emulate the kind of sound on the Sylenth , but every synth sound different than others. so what i think is if you try to experiment with whatever synth you have it and stick to it , you will be able to make any sound you want.
i am not an expert in sound design , but i think that SA did an awesome tutorial . except that was not in Cubase .:P( wich was hard for me to translate the Ableton tutorial to cubase).
BTW CAN SA DO THAT IN CUBASE . lol.(j/k)
I’ve got to be honest here, the tutorials are awesome but the constant use of presets is a little frustrating at times.
All it takes is a flash through the settings, most people can pause the video note the settings and emulate it from there, but you need to see the whole preset - so if sylenth uses four oscillators for the bass line it’d be nice to know what the hidden oscillators are set at.
I don’t think they need to go through complete construction of sounds but being placed int eh right ball park would be a helpful tip.
I understand peoples points when they say learn this and that but i bet 99% of people learnt the basics of synthesis from emulating the settings on another sound/synth they liked. This is no different, it’s just nice to understand how the oscilators and so on go towards creating the sound.
For example, i’d like to know how to create a similar style of Vangellis esq bassline as used in the tutorial - using only ableton instruments or with a free ware VST, if someone can point me in the direction then that just brilliant, but I haven’t been able to find anything that allows me to do this so far.
[quote][b]Aapie
For example, i’d like to know how to create a similar style of Vangellis esq bassline as used in the tutorial - using only ableton instruments or with a free ware VST, if someone can point me in the direction then that just brilliant, but I haven’t been able to find anything that allows me to do this so far.[/quote]
I think the best way of learning your Synth is the Manual . now you can google and do some research about Synthesis or even buy a book . I understand that many people dont know anything about synthesis they feel frustrated when they us presets.
but i think if you do your own research it will benefit you alot.
Without wanting to be rude or argumentative it really annoys me when people say “read the manual and experiment” to Newbies.
Of course research and experimentation will benefit you a lot, but reading a Manual will not tell you what you are looking for within a sound it will only tell you what the elements of a synth do and maybe some basic synthesis.
It will not tell you what Waves and filters to combine to make a certain type of bass or a certain type of lead it will not deconstruct a type of sound for you and allow you to work within that range.
On top of that a lot of people don’t have time to spend hours upon hours trying 1000 variations on a theme and just want to get ideas down, surely thats what a tutorial is all about helping people who don’t have that grounding in what they are trying to do?
If you are an experienced synth programmer you will be able to reverse engineer a sound, but a beginner needs a refrence point and can then experiement from there - people generally learn better from doing rather then reading, but you still need to tell them what to do.
Sorry if that seems like a bit of a rant, but we were all beginners at one point and i’m pretty certain 99% of people who make music used some kind of refrence point and were explained the concept before they just started twiddling knobs and magically came up with every sound ever created.
Like I said a visual refrence rather then a 100% breakdown would be nice so people can at least try and emulate it in different synths.