Hi guys,
I’ve asked for this before I think, but I’d love to see a series on sound design. There are some incredibly talented users on the site who constantly amaze me with their ability to recreate patches they’ve heard on different tracks. For me this is something I am always experimenting with, but can’t seem to nail. I’d love to see a series of tutorials that demonstrate how to ‘reverse engineer’ certain synth (and even sampled) sounds, giving tips on what features to listen out for.
Any chance of this? Would anyone else be interested?
Totally agree!! The tutorials are great but I would love to see some videos more about the production of sounds and how to use synths in general.
wouldn’t mind a few tutorials aimed at various synths sort of “Getting Started” tutorials with
Native Instruments Collection
As far as i am aware there are not tutorials on FM8, Massive, Pro53, Absynth
D.cam Synth Squad
The Tutorials for these that can be found on the web are quite open ended and don’t really give many answers.
Sylenth
There Is no in depth tutorial for this synth
Ableton, cubase, logic and reason all have good synths with very little information on how to use them.
a guide around the various modulation matrix’s and how to build sounds in various types of synth would be great. i am ok with subtractive synthesis but FM, Granular, additive, Physical Modeling and Wavetable i have very little experience with so i usually end up using presets
+1
would love to see this!!! Great idea . . .
Not quite what you want but still interesting 
Cheers Jon - much appreciated. Yes - you’re right in that what I’m looking for is something more than basic synthesis. Perhaps this could form the beginning of a series on how to deconstruct synth sounds for yourself.
I’ve found that trying to recreate sounds for myself is useful in that I end up with a sound that is useable, although usually nothing like that I was starting out to recreate. I’d love a series that takes a selection of existing synth sounds and gives tips on what to listen out for when working out what waveform is being used, filters, modulation, routing etc etc.
The video above, though is really useful as a starting point, and one I learned a lot from. I think the best bit for me though was definitely the disco version of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ made on the guys own homemade synth in the 70s :w00t:. Stuff like that inspires me to write that happy hardcore version of ‘Doh A Deer’ I’ve been putting off for far too long now. 
yea good post jon, and the music was a added bonus for me also
totally! Ive spent hours going nuts trying to replicate a certain sound. This idea would be extremely helpful!
+1
I hate to push on this, but I really think this would make an invaluable series to include through Sonic Academy. Would any of the content creators be able to say whether its something they would be prepared to put together?
Sorry if this is a little cheeky but hey! You’ve got to ask, right?
[quote]wickedged (28/02/2010)[hr]I hate to push on this, but I really think this would make an invaluable series to include through Sonic Academy. Would any of the content creators be able to say whether its something they would be prepared to put together?
Sorry if this is a little cheeky but hey! You’ve got to ask, right? :)[/quote]
too true!!! you don’t get, if you don’t ask
+1 here
yes yes +1 please do!!! this sounds like a great idea for a tutorial.
I think this is a really good idea, i know that i have pulled my hair out many times trying to create a particular sound such as say Deadmau5 or Steve Angello’s basslines… It has got to the point now where i have a bald patch on the back of my head and my constant frustration doesnt allow it to grow back… Please Sonic, save my hair…
As i am learning i find that i lack a lot of knowledge and although i am happy to sit there and play about with the Synths all day long, its amazing how things like the semitones can affect the sound, and for instance in Massive, settings such as “Spectrum” and “Bend+” etc.
I think it would be good to have a comprehensive synthesis / sound design series, that cover things like "if you want a dirty electro bassline, the general practice is to use for instance -24 semitones, if you want a good subby steve angello bassline try doing this… etc
I think in general (although this could be my learner ability coming out) a lot of basslines are similar in respect to how they have been created, its just i dont know what those particular wave forms, and semitones settings are… obviously they have different filters, lfo’s etc. Because of that, i cycle through massives’s massive wave form collection, and spend ages messing with the semitones etc just to get the type of sound i want… I find once i have something similar to what i want, the LPF and Cutoff’s, LFO’s and ADSR etc help to make it more unique and get it closer to the finished product.
What im trying to say, is i think the key is to understand what semitones and waveforms produce typical types of used sounds as a “core” for a style of music.
+1
i agree i want to see videos emphasized on synths
+1
Agreed
Thanks for keeping this thread alive everyone. Come on guys - the more people who show an interest the more chance there might be of this actually materialising!!! Power to the people! Lennon would be proud!