tuning oscillators

[djfm]

im delving into making my own sounds with not just tweeking the presets. Ive also been reading this months future music's feature about famous synth sounds and how they were made
what i would like to know is tuning of oscillators.. Is there a right way to do this in terms of music theory? or do i just move them until they sound good?
thanks

[Johnisfaster]

im delving into making my own sounds with not just tweeking the presets. Ive also been reading this months future music's feature about famous synth sounds and how they were made
what i would like to know is tuning of oscillators.. Is there a right way to do this in terms of music theory? or do i just move them until they sound good?
thanks

typically I think you'd want one oscillator to be exactly tuned to a specific note (at at least close) and sometimes a second oscillator which is detuned if you like. or 5 more detuned if you like. USUALLY you want one perfectly tuned though.

but the rule of thumb is to do whatever the hell you want to do, it's all up to you

[SimonPHC]

Tuning oscillators is a great tool to make interesting sounds. A dull pad or string sound can be make fatter or wider be detuning the oscs just a little bit or crazy effect sounds can be made by detuning a lot.

I'm not sure where to start your hunt for info about tuning (and detuning oscs) but a great series about synthesis in general is the Sound On Sound Synth Secrets series that can be found on their website.

HERE you can find a search on their website. Best place to start is article one, on the last page of the search results.

[SimonPHC]

nobody else has anything to say about this? I figured this would trigger a in depth discussion and tips sharing experience between synth programmers alike, but it seems my wishes are to far fetched...

[weeddigger]

I saw something similar not long ago (famous sounds n' how they were made), and if I'm not wrong it was a link thru a thread here. A lot of cool stuff there. Gave me some ideas on how I can make new tunes.

...



As far as programming synths go, I say start fucking with everything, learn from others, definitely, save any cool sounds as you go, even the smallest changes to a sound, just like you might save a bunch of different versions of a song as you go along.


Space permitting of course...



...

Now, tuning oscillators, that can lead to all kinds of goodness. But, can also lead to shit. It makes sense to keep these things at musical values apart, and even on specific tones, but Eh... You could also make one big cluster fuck of whatever.

[xherv]

Detuning an oscillator is not the only way to change it's pitch

[Robert Henke]

most percussive sounds, including tuned percussion have strong inharmonic content. Think of bells, of metal beams etc... They all have a fundamental frequency or a low harmonics tuned to a musical key and the rest is inharmonic content.

May I say that Operator is the perfect synth for exploring those things

Robert

[Machinate]

most percussive sounds, including tuned percussion have strong inharmonic content. Think of bells, of metal beams etc... They all have a fundamental frequency or a low harmonics tuned to a musical key and the rest is inharmonic content.

May I say that Operator is the perfect synth for exploring those things

Robert

I do believe I'm inclined to agree with you, oh tall loud one.

I find myself using Operator more and more; my first patches on it were strict subtractive synths, now I'm really about exploring dissonant sounds, currently heavily inspired by oldskool Buchla-style FM sounds.

*wobble, wobble*

[Moody]

Another Operator fan boy here.