Wow! Thanks everyone for all the replies!!!....
What a blast from the past, I had forgotten about this post...
mylkoa wrote:Hi Cej! So did you ever end up getting any particular book?
I own Fred Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook, and I have programmed about 15 or so of the patches, but I get stuck sometimes, because the patches are listed with values in the book that are different from the values in the synth that I'm using to recreate them. There is a VST synth that comes with the book, but it's Windows only, so I can't use it. Instead, I use Ableton's Analog to create the patches, and for the most part, it's very good for Fred Welsh's book, but there are challenges. For example, one patch in the cookbook might ask you to route an LFO to modulate the frequency of an oscillator by 11 cents, but in Analog, the modulation depth goes from zero to one, with zero being no modulation, and one being a modulation of 4800 cents. So you see, I can't type 11 into that parameter, cause it doesn't go that high, and even if I put in 0.11, that is likely much larger of a modulation than what the book asks for. But that actually doesn't make that much of a difference. If I can't get a value exactly, then I use my ears to get an approximate. So for that example, 11 cents is an extremely small vibrato, so I just modulate the oscillator frequency enough so that I can barely hear it.
Hi mylkoa,
Yes, I have been reading a plethora of books and manuals on sound, synthesizers, psychoacoustics and really wrapping my head around the physics of sound.
The Moog Voyager manual is probably “the most” concise book I have ever read (in my whole life) that has helped me understand synthesis, I have read it well over 40, 50, 60 times in the past year...
I’ll do my best to share what I have learnt from the many resources I have read....
If I explain something you already know, just skip over it....
To route an LFO to modulate the frequency of an Oscillator by 11 cents, the synth you use needs to have ‘fine tune or detune’ (or something to that effect with a knob).
There are 100 cents in a semitone eg. C > C# > D > D# > E > F > F# etc... (1 octave = 1200 cents, duh!)
LFO’s modulate a ‘destination parameter’ with an inaudible waveform/frequency usually between 0.2Hz > 20Hz (or there abouts anyhow...)
If you want to take control of a preset/patch or design/program your own sounds finding an understanding of a synth’s signal flow/path/routing is going to be most useful .
I have not used Ableton’s Analogue synth a heap, but from just having a 10min play with it now I noticed that I couldn’t set the destination of the LFO to the detune, and I would be guessing to say it is hardwired/locked to modulate the filter (at least to my knowledge anyhow, maybe some one will tell us other wise...)
Here’s how you can do exactly what you explained from the Welsch's Synthesizer Cookbook...
> start a new project
> Use browser, and go to ‘Instruments’ and double click on ‘Analogue’ (not one of the presets), this will load Analogue into a MIDI track
> switch off the ‘Osc2’ and ‘Fil1’ by clicking the yellow on/off’s
....so now you only have Osc1 and Amp1 on....
> click on Analogue’s title bar
> control+g or command+g to group
> expand to show the macro’s controls of the Instrument Rack you just created
> click 'Map' on the Instrument Rack's title bar
> click Detune in Osc1 section of Analogue
> click ‘Map’ in Macro Control 1 of the Instrument Rack
...Where the browser was there is now the macro mappings...
> click on the ‘Max’ value and change it to 0.11 (Min should 0.00)
> click on the green map of the Instrument Rack
> Use browser, go to Max for Live > expand Max MIDI Effect and double click LFO MIDI
...This will place the LFO MIDI device to the left of the Instrument Rack...
> click on the LFO MIDI blue ‘Map’ (it’ll start flashing...)
> click on the macro you mapped to detune
...be sure to have the ‘Depth’ knob on the LFO MIDI set to 100%
Now play a note...
You will ‘ear (and see) the LFO modulate the detune 11 cents....
If you adjust the Hz/Rate knob on the LFO MIDI device you get a perfect example of what the LFO is actually doing (try 2Hz)...
(If you turn off the LFO device you ‘ear Analogue with 1 Oscillator and no modulation.... beuuuurrrrrrrrrr!!!
... so turn it back on
)
Hope this helps...
As for the patch names, yeah I know it's a crazy world, but from a positive point of view they don’t use babies to make baby food either
