Project 7: Synth Design Part II

This project is an extension of the previous project.  In project 6, you needed to design a synth using Sytrus, starting with the default setting, and I walked you through it. This time, you need to design your own from the ground up.

The most important part of this project are your blog posts. I'm changing the way I grade for this project to reflect that. Previously, 100 points were issued for your music file, and 100 points were issued for your post and comments.

This time 150 points are going to your post, and 50 are going to the actual music file.

I'm confident that all of you can write a solid music file at this point. What I'm after is your expertise in synth design. Make sure that by the time you post your audio file, your daily posts have touched on this basic information about your synth :

1. The shape of the wave(s) that you use.
2. Any adjustments to the shape of the wave (using the sliders next to the wave shape).
3. Which operators and how many of them did you use (1-6).
4. Filter settings.
5. FX Settings.
6. Any envelopes or LFO used to modify the wave (pitch, volume, panning, cutoff filter frequency, etc.).
7. Balance of your loop: Rhythmically busy vs. rhythmically simple and high pitched instruments vs. low (bass) pitched instruments.
8. Form. Is it AABA? ABACA? ABCAB? Blues? Vamp? Trance? Describe how the parts are organized.

Good Luck!

 Example of project 7 post:

I started with a triangle wave synth using 100% of operator 1 and 60% of operator 2 Operator 2 is set down an octave. I used a low pass filter, chorus with an order of 6 and a touch of reverb. I backed the decay of the reverb way down. No other tricks were used. I wanted to keep the bass part rather simple.

When I entered it into the riff machine, I got a rather pleasing motif right away.  I wrote drums for it using the hip hop kit, and i made the hi-hat sound really busy.  I also made sure that my kick drum was accenting the strong notes in the riff machine riff.

Next, the chords you hear are a sine wave with a slow LFO applied. The chords follow the bass line harmonically, and I intended to keep it sustained and simple. There are a few variations of this pattern, and I designed it primarily to serve as the backdrop for a lead synth sound. The form is theme and variation on an 8 bar progression that repeats.

This form is separated by a drum fill, and a sustained note by my second synth.

 For the lead sound, I mixed in a bit of operator 2 with operator 1. Operator 2 is set at 6% and is a bent saw wave set down an octave.. Operator 1 is a saw wave with some chorus (order of 5) and a default delay setting. I recorded this using the recod function in FL studio.  Simply hit the record button and play the keyboard. I did a big sweep of the white keys and then ended up the in the high register to play a little melody (all white keys).

I have my first synth in the low register doing the opening theme, my second synth is right in the middle of the keyboard playing the midrange chords, and my final synth sweeps up the keyboard into the extreme upper register. I like the rhythmic interplay of the bass pattern and the sustaned midrange synth.  The lead synth floats over the top with long sustained notes. I could have developed this lead part into a more explosive solo, but opted for a simple line.

I also opted for a simple ending. The piece fades out.