[Editors Note: This would seem to be the first part in a two part series on sound synthesis with Massive and Kore… here we go over some of the 101s of sound synthesis, and what’s up with Massive and Kore 2. ] 

I think I talked about this just recently, didn’t I?: The subject of the feeling like I want to make electronic music that’s expressive in new ways…. or in different ways then my music is often expressive…  and to start the process of exploring the possibilities.. and sorta like.. creating the stuff..  I’ve started programming with Native Instruments Massive and Kore 2. Kore 2 gives you a hardware interface into your software…  You get 4 rotary controls you can use to control whatever parameters of the sound / patch program you’re creating you like…

To give you an overview.. wish it was a bit quicker.. here’s a Native Instruments infomercial for Kore 2.. I don’t want to get too bogged down with this stuff.. and if you’re not familiar with this kind of technology.. this maybe way over your head.. don’t worry.. This isn’t what this entry is to be about…

[editor’s note: oh no?] 

 So.. the point is.. you can control all kinds of aspects of your sound via the controller.. all of which is automobile… which is the strategy for getting to that expressivity I was talking about..

I thought I might as well… well through another infomercial at you that might go into massive a bit.. but then I found this infomercial with the keyboard player from Korn talking about it.. and figured that would be pretty groovy…  

Ok.. so that’s a good little overview of something or other, right? Ok, enough of this foolishness.. onto the adventures.

Sound Synthesis in Massive

I’m no sound synthesis master.. I’m more of a.. fumble around.. finding things I like.. and hopefully something interesting happens. My knowledge of how to program synths / there architecture.. what the elements of any given sound synthesis engine are.. these kinds of core concepts..  I’m not totally ignorant in these areas.. I mean I have been working on learning this stuff for years.. but… I do tend to feel fairly clueless..

Given my clue impoverishment, one of the things that’s been impressing me about Massive is how approachable and user friendly the experience of learning it has proven to be..  which is particularly nice given how piss poor Native Instruments manuals tend to be..  

A Massive Basic Overview  

With Massive you basically have 3 main oscillators, a noise generator, a modulation oscillator.. we have 4 LFOs, 4 envelops, a couple of filters, 2 insert effects slots.. with a number of effects choices.. 2 sorta global effects.. plus EQ, the ability to control routing.. and a few other odds and ends.

It’s hard to talk about this process without explaining what all that means.. and I’m not sure how far I’ll go into this but…

Oscillators and Sound Sources 

You’re 3 main oscillators… well.. an oscillator is a sound source.. it creates the sound.. and other stuff modifies the sound.. anyway.. In massive.. these 3 main oscillators are “wavetable oscillators.” 

Wavetables are.. well it’s like you have an audio file.. and you have a parameter by which you can sweep through different locations in that audio file.. or perhaps table..  So when programming a wave table synthesizer, modulating the oscillator’s wavetable position.. is pretty standard stuff.

Now the next sound source we have is a noise generator.. Noise generators are.. I want to say something you tend to use creatively… Or I do anyway. These are often used for programming percussive sound.. your average synthesized snare sound.. starts with a noise generator.

The only parameter our noise generator has, outside of amp or volume, is color..  which, as you might imagine “colors the noise” it generates.. basically.

Filters In Massive

In Massive we have 2 filter slots.. for each we have a choice of 12 filter types. Basically a filter… well it filters the sound.. it modifies it.. taking out various frequencies.. perhaps amplifies some frequencies.. 

Modulation Fun

Modulation is really the heart of our programming adventures. We basically have 2 ways of modulating stuff..  via LFOs and envelops.. beyond this.. we can use key velocity.. or how hard we hit the keyboard.. and.. we have “macro control” which.. is sorta an obvious thing to control via your Kore controller.. via turning the knobs on your Kore controller.. and that’s really the heart of what I’m doing…

LFO

An LFO is a low frequency oscillator.. not really a sound source so much as a modulation source.. think of it as the second hand on a clock.. it oscillates around the clock face slowly.. . We can control our LFO’s rate of oscillation.. The LFO modulates / controls other parameters..  like say how much of a filter is going..  making them change slowly over time.. or at whatever rate you set the LFO rate to.

To make things more interesting.. you have different wave form options.. which is like turning your circular clock into a triangle.. or any other shape you would like..

Envelops

I haven’t bothered to dig into the Massive manual.. which isn’t terribly massive.. but my understanding is that you have.. what do you call them, multi state envelopes? Native instruments pioneered this idea with Absynth..  which is one of my favorite synths ever to program.. 

Ok, we’re getting ahead of our selves here. You want to know what an envelope is, don’t cha? Imagine, if you will, a grid. On our grid, our horizontal line represents time and hour vertical line represents….  lets say amplitude. Basically.. you could say an envelop is like.. a little drawing you make that represents the volume of your sound over time… kinda sorta.

Vanilla, in the world of envelopes and sound synthesis, is the ADSR envelope. ADSR = Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release. Attack is the time.. between when you pluck a string on your guitar, and reaches its maximum amplitude / volume.. Attack is also “well just how how loud are we talking anyway? Or.. what’s the path of the.. lets call it “amplitude acceleration” (don’t you love how I invent new terminology just to complexify a subject we are barley following in the first place? Well I suppose, if you know what I’m talking about, you’re entertained by my fumbling attempts at articulation but..) that the amplitude of your sound follows from being no sound at all.. to its maximum level. You follow?

Ok.. groovy..  So decay is both our volume path.. and the time.. between that maximum level and.. a sustain level..  

Ok.. so Sustain..  you hit a key on your keyboard..  a sound goes through the attack and decay envelope stages.. and then reaches the sustain level..  this is the level… or perhaps the place.. that the volume will stay at for as long as you’re holding down that key… 

Release is.. the path the sound takes from letting go that key, and the volume finally reaching zero.

So that should give you a basic understanding of the adsr envelope.. it’s one of the most important synth program building blocks going.. Now in a modular synthesizer architecture… an envelope, be it of an adsr, or a less vanilla variety, can be used to modulate other parameters then just volume.

Is your brain bleeding yet? That’s the problem.. I’m not really looking to teach you this stuff here.. just to give you a basic framework for understanding this stuff… enough so that I can explain what I’m doing.. such are the challenges of my life… I probably need to build a wiki for my site.. or something, so that I can just link to the terms.. but oh well.. 

So.. for our next entry…   the fun with modulation madness… coming soon to this here RSS feed.

And so, here’s an note to leave you on:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under Komplete & Kore, Music Production, sound synthesis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.