Content ProSyn Print

Peter Gorges
Programming Synthesizers
Peter Gorges
Programming Synthesizers
w
Author Peter Gorges
Translation Herb Quick
Editor Reinhard Schmitz
Cover art M0type, www.motype.de
Interior design & layout Uwe Senkler
© 2005 Wizoo Publishing GmbH, www.wizoo.de
ISBN 3-934903-48-7
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrie-
val systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.
All product names and company names mentioned in this book are either
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Welcome
To say that the synthesizer plays a major role in my life would be a monu-
mental understatement. Since carrying home my first hard-earned Korg
MS-20 at 13, synthesizers have accompanied me on stage and in the studio
as a musician and arranger. In addition, I have written several books and
countless articles about them, programmed sound banks for manufactur-
ers and at some point even became involved in the development of several
synthesizers.
If I had to name one of these activities as my true passion, it would have to
be sound programming. It’s one of the very few things that can cause me
to forget everything else and awaken hours later out of a trance to find that
day has turned to night, my coffee has turned cold and I have missed yet
another appointment.
I get an enormous amount of pleasure out of tweaking knobs and dials to
tease exactly the sound I’m hearing in my mind’s ear out of a synthesizer.
Some people learn how to do this right away, or just have a natural talent
for it—kind of like riding a bicycle or playing soccer. But I have also met
professional sound designers that struggle painfully with each new synthe-
sizer.
Over the years I have held several seminars on the subject, shown fellow
musicians a trick or two now and then, and written sound programming
columns for various trade magazines. As a result, it has become clear to
me that sound programming can be taught—yet there has never been a
book that does this successfully.
From 2000 to 2003 I published a comprehensive sound-programming
column in the German magazine “Keyboards,” with the prospect of a fu-
ture book in the back of my mind. I had never received so many enthusias-
tic letters from readers as I did for this column. A delayed run of the col-
umn in the US magazine “Keyboard” brought a similar positive reaction
with many of the same comments, most of which read something like this:
“I have been fooling around for years and have read countless articles and
books. Your SoundForum suddenly made everything clear.” Reason
enough to publish the entire series as a book. To that end, the columns
have been edited to serve the book form and condensed and/or augmented
as necessary. The result is a comprehensive course designed to teach you
how to program sounds on your synthesizer(s) from square one. Although
the course references a particular software synthesizer, which was devel-
oped especially for this purpose, the techniques and methods described
are applicable to any synthesizer and any type of synthesis. Think of it like
a driver’s license: you may learn and take your test in a particular car, but
the license is not restricted to that model.
I wish you lots of fun and success with the book.
Sincerely,
Peter Gorges
Contents
1 Hello Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Free Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 The SoundForum Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
How Do I Play and Hear the SoundForum Synthesizer? . . . . . . 21
Configuration—Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Audio Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
MIDI I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
De-Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Configuration—Mac OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Audio Output Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
MIDI Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Using ASIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Buffer Size and Audio Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Playing the SoundForum Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
MIDI Note Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7
Contents
3 Just Do It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Synthesizers! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
It Just Doesn’t Want to Work! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Go! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
How Does Simple Synthesis Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
From Alarm Signal to Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Color Your Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Transistor Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Filter-free Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 Synthesis Tricks—For Experts Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Beating between Oscillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Tonal Shades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
PWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Right Combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Frequency Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Nature of Frequency Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
What Does Simple FM Sound Like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Vibrato Is FM Is Vibrato … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
… Or Trills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Tonal Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Interlude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Visual FM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Science Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Sync and Ring Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
What Does Sync Sound Like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
How Is Sync Generated? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Sync Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Metallic Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Heavy Beating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Ring Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Basic Ring Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8
Contents
Make It Dirty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5 Conclusion of the Basic Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Our Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Laser Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Synth Basses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Synth Horns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Synth Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Weather and Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6 SoundForum Synthesizer Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Basic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Loading and Storing Sounds and Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Storing Single Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Interactive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Remote Control of the SoundForum Synthesizer . . . . . . . . 87
Maximum Number of Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Unison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Monophonic Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Another Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Sound Generation Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Audio and Control Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Audio Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Sound Generation and Sound Shaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Control Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
A Brief Introduction to Control Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Automating Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Activating Control Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Brief Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Sound Parameters in Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Example Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Oscillator 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Oscillator 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Amp Env . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9
Contents
Filter Env . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Filt-Env→Osc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7 Advanced Sound Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

From the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
The Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Sensual Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Power of Precedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Taste Is No Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
A Brief History of Sound Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Just One More Thing … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
The Levels of Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The Five Levels of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Minimum Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Sound Preferences Result from Conditioning and Habit . . . 130
Music and Sound Preferences Are Intertwined . . . . . . . . . . 131
Culture, Personality and Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Perception and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
The Levels of Sound Perception in Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
An Analysis of GM Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Effects and Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Solution to the Homework Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Effects and the Sound Perception Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
EQ and the Sound Perception Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
End of the Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8 Advanced Hands-on Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Sound Perception Levels and Synthesizer Modules . . . . . . . . . . . 148
A Brief Tour of the Synthesizer Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Oscillators and Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Filter Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
10
Contents
Amplitude (Volume) Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Mission: Possible—Exercises in Goal-oriented Sound Design . . 155
From Levels to Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Mission 1: Soft Melody out of Basic Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Mission 2: Juicy Bass out of Basic Saw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Mission 3: Opera Voice out of Basic Sine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Mission 4: Electronic Delay out of Basic Tri . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Mission 5: High Winds out of Basic Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Mission 6: Extra-wide Brass Pad out of Basic PWM . . . . . . 163
Mission 7: Pitched Reverb out of Basic String . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Insight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9 Puzzle Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Completing Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Tonal Color and Tonal Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Basic Tonal Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
What’s Missing in the Tonal Colors? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Which Controls Do What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Sub-bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Octave Square Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
TB Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Black Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Sync Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Fat PWM Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
E-Pianos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Plucked Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Bells/Mallets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
String Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Choir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11
Contents
Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The Four-phase Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
ADSR—with a Handicap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
The Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Electric Piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Harpsichord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Vibraphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Xylophone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Perc(ussive) Organ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Pipe Organ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Acoustic Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Electric Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Acoustic Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Slap Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Synth Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Strings/Ensemble/Choir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Solo Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Brass Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Synth Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Who Is LFO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
PITCH—Vibrato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
PITCH—Laser Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
PITCH—Trill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
PITCH—Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
PITCH—Flanging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
PITCH—Random . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PWM—Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PWM—Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
PWM—Trance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
FILT—AutoSweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
FILT—Repeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
12
Contents
FILT—AutoReverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
AMP—Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
AMP—AutoTrig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
AMP—Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Observing LFO Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
10 Factory Bank Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Example Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
The Factory Bank Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
1: Butterfinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
2: Baked Beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
3: Syncomator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
4: Metallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
5: Ciaoup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
6: PPG 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7: Logical Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8: Fjord Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
9: Machine Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
10: OBY 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
11: FlexPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
12: Chime On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
13: Dream Theam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
14: AmbientraK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
15: Chick Magnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
16: ShakAtak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
17: Revell Yell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
18 to 20: Sound FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Factory Bank Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11 Box of Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Beating between Oscillators Done Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Special Case: Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Pulse Width Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Which Type of Fat for Which Recipe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
13
Contents
Which Waveform Should I Start with? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Where is the Tonal Color Variety Hiding? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Filter Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Key Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Setting the Filter Range Correctly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Resonance as a Third Oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
What Are Band-pass and High-pass Good for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Juicy or Creamy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Contents of the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Mac OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
14
11
Hello Again
While developing the SoundForum concept, my goal was to create a com-
plete solution for myself and for all participants. The only way to realize
this was to have a synthesizer that all participants had access to. I inten-
tionally use the word “participant” rather than “reader” for the simple rea-
son that the SoundForum was conceived not as “dry reading,” but rather as
a pro-active instructional guide for learning sound programming or
expanding and deepening current knowledge.
Free Synthesizer
During my research for the SoundForum, I tested numerous software syn-
thesizers, hoping to find one that fulfilled my list of criteria. My “wish
synth” had to:
❖ offer the necessary feature set yet be expandable,
❖ sound good,
❖ run on Windows and Mac OS,
❖ be adaptable to our needs and
❖ allow free distribution to SoundForum participants.
Several dozen commercial, shareware and freeware synthesizers were
omitted from the list just as quickly as they were installed.
I finally chose Native Instruments. Reaktor developer Stephan Schmitt
was immediately willing to develop a special software synthesizer for the
SoundForum—a simple basic model without any real bells and whistles,
but with all the necessary and sensible features. Not surprisingly, it was
dubbed “SoundForum Synthesizer.”
15
1 Hello Again
For a short time now, the unofficial “successor” to the SoundForum Synthesizer, the
“SoundSchool Analog,” has been available from Native Instruments. This synthe-
sizer is based on the Reaktor 4 technology and runs on Windows XP as well as
Mac OS X.
In spite of numerous improvements and augmentations, the SoundSchool Analog
can import snapshot (.ssf) files from the SoundForum Synthesizer. Thus the new
synth can easily be used with this book.
You can download the SoundSchool Analog free of charge from the Native Instru-
ments website. Type the following URL into your browser’s address field:
✧ www.native-instruments.com/wizoosoundschool.info
Go to “Download,” select the appropriate version (Mac or PC), and log in using the
following data:
✧ Username: synthprog@wizoo.de
✧ Password: soundschool
Register by filling out the required fields on the download page and start the down-
load.
The Concept
This book utilizes a hands-on approach to help you learn the basics of
sound design or to broaden your knowledge on the subject.
If you’re looking for academic acrobatics like “Filters: A Blessing or a
Curse?” or “A Critical Discussion on the Harmonic Series of Basic Wave-
forms,” you’re in the wrong place.
16
The Experiments
The Experiments
I’m sure you’re familiar with the principle of the electronic construction
set: rather than the tedious study of how resistors, condensers or transis-
tors work, you build a simple radio, sound generator or light barrier, and
gather the necessary knowledge in the process.
That’s exactly how this book is conceived, except that our “transistors” are
oscillators, our “resistors” are filters and our “condensers” are envelopes.
I have often said that a thorough knowledge of synthesizer theory is sec-
ondary for a good sound designer. I am a firm believer in the “experiment
first, ask questions later” principle: tweak and find the sound, then figure
out what you did. It’s a fast, effective way to learn, and you get results
along the way.
If you’re serious about learning sound programming or improving your
skills, this book will help you get there quickly. This I promise you.
17
2
The SoundForum Synthesizer
The SoundForum Synthesizer is on the enclosed CD. It is optimized to
correlate perfectly with the book, and is programmed so that it will run
even on older computers. The sound quality and functionality are compa-
rable to that of a professional hardware synthesizer (analog or virtual-ana-
log), making it the perfect tool for a comprehensive sound design course.
SF-Synth
The SoundForum Synthesizer.
19
2 The SoundForum Synthesizer
System Requirements
The SoundForum Synthesizer is based on Native Instruments’ “Reaktor”
technology, and runs on Windows or Mac OS with the following require-
ments:
❖ Windows 95 or better, Pentium 233 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 16-Bit sound
card, MIDI keyboard (recommended);
❖ Mac OS 8.5 or better, PPC 604e, 250 MHz, 32 MB RAM, MIDI key-
board (recommended).
Features
The SoundForum Synthesizer is a high-quality, well-equipped polyphonic

analog synthesizer in software form.
The feature set is quite impressive:

❖ Two oscillators, each with four partially continuously adjustable wave
forms with pulse width modulation.
❖ Ring modulator, FM, sync.
❖ Multimode filters with switchable slope and resonance.
❖ Filter envelope with modulation matrix.
❖ ADSR amplitude envelope.
❖ LFO with four wave forms including random.
❖ Oscilloscope.
❖ Up to 64 voices.
❖ Unison mode.
As you can see, the SoundForum Synthesizer packs plenty of power for
creating dazzling sounds—like the ones you’ll be programming after read-
ing this book.
20
How Do I Play and Hear the SoundForum Synthesizer?
How Do I Play and Hear the SoundForum Synthesizer?

You can play and hear the SoundForum Synthesizer using your com-
puter’s normal MIDI and audio interfaces. If you don’t have a MIDI key-
board handy, the computer keyboard will also work.
Configuration—Windows
The SoundForum Synthesizer requires a sound card to output its sounds.
No special driver is necessary when using a standard sound card. The
SoundForum Synthesizer utilizes standard MME and DirectX drivers,
which are installed with the sound card.
You will have to make several settings in the software to achieve optimal
performance. Please select Sound Card under System > Audio Port, and
open the settings dialog under System > Audio Settings.
Note: The In Port cannot be used with the SoundForum Synthesizer and is not avail-
able for activation under Soundcard Properties.
AudioSettings
Audio Settings dialog for standard sound cards.
21
Audio Drivers
This dialog allows selection of a particular sound card driver for the
SoundForum Synthesizer when more than one sound card (or driver) is
installed.
The Out Port list shows options listed as MME: or DirectSound. Newer
DirectSound drivers generally deliver audio output with far less delay
(latency) than earlier MME drivers and are usually preferable. I recom-
mend trying all available drivers and using the one with the least latency.
Do not use emulated DirectSound drivers (usually listed as such). These
are actually MME drivers that look like DirectSound drivers, and usually
deliver the worst performance.
In order to use DirectSound drivers, the Windows extension DirectX 5.0
(or better) must be installed.
Note: The latency-reducing technology employed by the SoundForum Synthesizer
places high demands on the sound card driver. Many drivers, particularly older
ones, have trouble dealing with this, causing errors and system crashes. Please
ensure that you have the latest driver version for your sound card.
Latency
The delay in audio output (latency or reaction time) depends on several
factors, including the size of the audio buffer assigned to the sound card
by the software. The minimum buffer size necessary for glitch-free opera-
tion will depend on what type of sound card and driver you use.
When first installing the SoundForum Synthesizer, you may want to skip
the settings described in the following paragraphs, so that you can famil-
iarize yourself with the software. Once you have learned the basics of the
synthesizer, you can return to these instructions to optimize the latency
and performance.
22
Configuration—Windows
To determine the optimal buffer size for your system, move the Play ahead
fader to the left while playing the SoundForum Synthesizer with your
MIDI keyboard until glitches in the audio output appear. Then move the
fader slowly to the right, increasing the buffer size, until the glitches disap-
pear. You now have the optimal buffer size setting for your system.
If Play ahead is set too low, an MME driver may cause incessant stuttering,
whereas a DirectSound driver will usually “stumble” once, after which the
effective latency is very long (approximately 1 second).
Important: To ensure optimal performance, the Play Ahead setting should be manu-
ally optimized every time you change the sound card or install a new driver.
By the way: The polyphony (number of voices) and sample rate used by the
software have no influence on latency or timing. They do, however, influ-
ence the demands on the processor and thus the behavior of the entire sys-
tem.
The output level of the sound card is adjusted via the sound card’s mixer,
which can be controlled by the Windows accessory Volume Control, the
control panel’s Multimedia Properties, and/or by the mixer software
included with the sound card.
MIDI I/O
The settings for the MIDI interface, with which the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer communicates with the outside world, are adjusted in the MIDI Port
dialog, accessible via MIDI Settings in the System menu. All MIDI ports
installed under Windows are displayed here.
If an in port is being used by another program, it will not be available to
the SoundForum Synthesizer and will not be displayed. In this case, either
de-assign the port in the other program or start the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer first. Similarly, an in port intended for use by another program must
be deleted from the Installed Inports list within the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer before it can be used by another program.
23
MidiPort
The MIDI Port Dialog.
De-Installation
The following procedure is recommended for complete removal of the
SoundForum Synthesizer from your PC:
1 Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.
2 Select the SoundForum Synthesizer in the list of installed programs in
the Install/Uninstall dialog.
3 Select Add/Remove and confirm removal with Yes.
Configuration—Mac OS
Audio Output Settings
The Sound Manager settings are accessible via the Sound control panel (or,
in older Mac OS versions, the Sound tab in the Monitors and Sound control
panel).
Latency
The delay between a MIDI event and the resulting audio signal (latency or
reaction time) should be as short as possible (less than 20 ms).
24
Using ASIO
Important note: OMS (Open MIDI System) slows the MIDI data flow
noticeably when virtual memory is activated. For best results, select the
Memory control panel and set virtual memory to Off (you will need to
restart the computer for this change to take effect).
MIDI Input
The SoundForum Synthesizer utilizes OMS (Open MIDI System) for
receiving MIDI data.
To select a MIDI input, select OMS Settings in the System > MIDI Settings
menu.
Using ASIO
ASIO (Audio Streaming Input Output) is a driver architecture for audio
cards, which was developed by Steinberg. Available for Mac OS and Win-
dows, ASIO features low latency and supports cards with multiple tracks.
Most manufacturers supply an ASIO driver with the audio card, allowing it
to be used with any ASIO-compatible software. Although harddisk record-
ing has typically been the primary application, ASIO’s low latency has
made it increasingly important for native software synthesizers.
The SoundForum Synthesizer supports ASIO on both Mac OS and Win-
dows platforms. Achieving minimal latency is primarily dependent upon
two things: 1) the quality of the driver and 2) correct configuration.
Mac OS: ASIO drivers must be located in a folder of the same name (“ASIO Driv-
ers”), within the same folder as the SoundForum Synthesizer itself is located. Oth-
erwise, they will not be found by the SoundForum Synthesizer and cannot be uti-
lized by the program.
To activate ASIO in the SoundForum Synthesizer, select ASIO in the Sys-
tem > Audio Port menu. If more than one ASIO driver is installed, the
desired driver can be selected via System > Audio Settings.
25
Which options are available in the Audio Settings window depends prima-
rily on the card you are using; some cards can only be configured via their
own control panel (which can be opened via the Open Control Panel button
in the Audio Settings window). Buffer size and clock rate, however, can usu-
ally be adjusted in the SoundForum Synthesizer’s Audio Settings window.
If your card can be synchronized to an external source but does not auto-
matically adapt to its clock rate, you can usually choose a sync source in
this window.
Buffer Size and Audio Routing

There is one notable peculiarity with ASIO regarding buffer size: ASIO
card manufacturers generally specify a range, in which they are guaran-
teed to work properly. Most ASIO drivers are conceived with harddisk
recording in mind, and not for real-time synthesis. Thus, this range is usu-
ally unnecessarily high in order to avoid pops even in complex systems.
The SoundForum Synthesizer allows a far lower setting than the manufac-
turers generally specify. With poorly written drivers, this can lead to pro-
gram crashes. For this reason, the default SoundForum Synthesizer’s
buffer size will always correspond with the card’s specifications. Experi-
ment to determine whether lower buffer settings are possible.
The SoundForum Synthesizer’s two audio outputs can be routed to the
audio card’s ASIO channels via the System > Audio Routing menu.
Playing the SoundForum Synthesizer

Once installed and configured, the SoundForum Synthesizer is ready to
play. Start the application by selecting the appropriate entry in the Start
menu (Windows) or by double-clicking the program’s icon (Mac OS).
MIDI Note Playback

Assuming you have a MIDI keyboard connected to the computer and the
appropriate MIDI Inport activated (MIDI Settings), you should be able to
play the synthesizer via the MIDI keyboard.
26
The virtual controls are easily operated using the mouse. To adjust a value
assigned to a knob, click on the knob and hold the button down while you
move the mouse up (forward) to increase and down (backward) to decrease
the value. Switches are simply activated and deactivated via a single click.
Menus
The program controls and settings are located in various context menus
and in the menu bar of the main window. The main functions and param-
eters found in the menus are described below.
The File Menu

❖ Open: Allows you to load a previously saved SoundForum Synthesizer
instance (suffix “.ens”). Native Instruments’ Reaktor series instruments
cannot be loaded.
❖ Save: Saves the currently active SoundForum Synthesizer with all set-
tings (snapshots, instrument info, MIDI settings etc.) as an instance
(.ens) file.
❖ Save As: Also saves the currently active SoundForum Synthesizer with
all settings as an instance file, giving you the option to rename the file.
❖ Load Snapshots: Snapshots can be saved and loaded independently of
instances using the Snapshot File Format (suffix “.ssf”). To load a snap-
shot, select File > Load Snapshots. A dialog will appear, allowing you to
define how the snapshot will be imported. Three options are available:
Append: The new snapshot is loaded into the position after the last cur-
rent snapshot.
Insert: Allows you to determine the exact position into which the new
snapshot will be loaded. All other current snapshots are moved back
one step.
Overwrite: Allows you to determine the exact position into which the
new snapshot will be loaded. The current snapshot in that position is
replaced by the loaded snapshot.
27
LoadSnapshots
The Load Snapshots Dialog.
❖ Save Snapshots: Allows you to save snapshots as “.ssf” files. A dialog

appears, allowing you to define which snapshots will be saved via First
and Last parameters. To save a single snapshot, enter the same number
for First and Last. Use the Select All button to save all current snapshots.
SaveSnapshots
The Save Snapshots Dialog.
❖ List of recently loaded files: Allows you to load one of the eight most
recently loaded SoundForum Synthesizer instances via a single mouse
click.
❖ Quit: Closes the program. If any changes have been made to the cur-
rent instance since the last save, you will be asked if you want to save
these before quitting.
28
The System Menu

The items in the System menu serve primarily to control the MIDI and
audio inputs/outputs, audio parameters like sample rate, and to monitor
the CPU load of the SoundForum Synthesizer.
❖ Run/Stop Audio: Allows you to start (Run Audio) or stop (Stop Audio)
the audio processing function of the SoundForum Synthesizer—sort of
an on/off or mute switch. The same function is accessible via the “On/
Off switch” button in the toolbar.
❖ Sample Rate: Allows you to set the internal sample rate for audio sig-
nals. Higher sample rates result in higher audio quality; but will also
noticeably increase the CPU load. If a different internal sample rate is
selected than that used by the sound card, the rate will be converted at
the audio inputs and outputs.
❖ Audio Port: Allows you to select an audio output for the SoundForum
Synthesizer, as well as an audio input to the synthesizer for processing.
Installed (available) cards are listed in black; non-installed (unavailable)
options are in gray.
❖ Audio Settings: Opens a dialog window in which the audio perfor-
mance of your sound card can be optimized. For more details, please
see the appropriate “Configuration” text on page 21 (Windows) or page
24 (Mac OS).
❖ Audio Routing: Please refer to “Using ASIO” on page 25.
❖ MIDI Settings: Allows you to assign MIDI inputs and outputs to the
SoundForum Synthesizer.
To assign one or more MIDI inputs, select the desired input in the
Available Inports list and copy it to the Installed Inports list using the
Insert button. The Delete button removes a selected input from the
Installed Inports list. Click OK to confirm your changes and exit the dia-
log.
If you select a MIDI interface driver as an Inport, you should be able to
control the SoundForum Synthesizer from an external MIDI device
(e.g. master keyboard) using the corresponding MIDI input.
29
The Instrument Menu

❖ This menu contains the same functions as the toolbar. For details,
please refer to the Toolbar section below.
The “?” Menu (Windows only)

❖ Help: Opens the HTML help document in your default Internet
browser.
❖ About: Opens the info window for the SoundForum Synthesizer. The
software version is displayed in the lower section.
The two buttons Soundforum on the Web and Visit the NI* Website open
your default Internet browser and navigate directly to the correspond-
ing Website.
* Native Instruments
The View Menu (Mac OS only)

❖ Show/Hide Toolbar: Turns the toolbar display on and off.
❖ Show/Hide Hints: Turns the “Help Balloons” on and off. When acti-
vated, pointing the mouse cursor at one of the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer’s controls or panels will open a balloon with a brief explanation of
that control or panel.
❖ Show Synth: Brings the synth window to the front (in case it has been
“buried” by windows of other programs).
The Help Menu (Mac OS only)

❖ SoundForum Synth Help …: Opens the HTML help document in your
default Internet browser. Any other items in the Help menu are
Mac OS items, dependent upon which OS version you are running.
30
The Toolbar
Toolbar
The SoundForum Synthesizer Toolbar.
The Toolbar gives you easy one-click button access to many functions of
the SoundForum Synthesizer. These are described below, from left to right
as they appear in the toolbar:
The “On/Off” switch on the left activates/deactivates audio processing,
just like the Run/Stop Audio item in the System menu. This can be useful
to reduce CPU load when no sounds are being generated by the synth. All
audio processing routines are reset each time audio processing is stopped
and started again.
The CPU load display to the right of the switch shows the CPU time used
by audio processing in percent; CPU “overload” is displayed as Over. The
maximum range for glitch-free operation is generally between 60% and
80%—in any case far below 100%. Why? Well, other processes (i.e. audio
data transfer to sound card, MIDI processing, graphic display), other appli-
cations that may be running simultaneously with the SoundForum Syn-
thesizer, and of course the operating system all need CPU power, too. To
determine exactly where the limit is for your computer, simply increase
the number of voices until an overload warning appears (Processor Over-
load), and then reduce the number by one or two voices.
Note: The maximum number of voices depends on your CPU and increases propor-
tionally with the CPU’s clock rate.
The Out display shows the level at the audio output. If no driver is
assigned to the audio output, the display remains grey.
The Show Hints button (arrow/question mark) activates/deactivates the
synth’s proprietary balloon help.
The Info button opens a window containing a brief description of the
SoundForum Synthesizer, including the version number.
31
The Properties button opens a window in which various parameters of the

current synth are displayed and can be edited. For details, please see the
“Properties” section on page 34.
The MIDI Learn button allows you to easily assign a MIDI controller to a
parameter of the SoundForum Synthesizer. To do so, simply select the
desired parameter by clicking on its control element (the parameter name
turns red), activate MIDI Learn, and operate the desired control element
(e.g. modulation wheel) on your external MIDI controller. To cancel the
assignment, double-click on the control element and deactivate Remote in
the Properties window.
The MIDI Activity “LED” illuminates whenever a MIDI event is received.
The field to its right allows selection of the MIDI receive channel, which
can also be defined in the Properties window (the MIDI send channel can
only be changed in the Properties window).
The next field allows you to select a snapshot from the list of loaded snap-
shots. The Store Snapshot button (camera symbol) to its right accesses the
snapshot file window (for details, see “The File Menu” on page 27).
The Compare button allows you to compare two versions of sound edits or
parameter settings: the current edit and the edit stored in the Compare
buffer. When you click on the Compare button, the current edit is stored in
the Compare buffer, while the previous status is restored—audibly and
graphically. You can now use either edit as a basis for further tweaking. As
soon as you begin to edit a parameter again, the current status is first
stored in the Compare buffer. Thus you are always comparing your current
status with your last edit, rather than with the original (stored) snapshot,
so that you can sound-design your way to your desired result step-by-step.
Once you have clicked the Compare button, you must always choose
between one of the two edits, which is then stored in the Compare buffer,
as basis for further editing.
When you select a new snapshot, the current edit is first stored in the Com-
pare buffer. This allows you to compare your edit with any snapshot. If you
accidentally select a new snapshot during editing, there’s no need to panic:
Simply click the Compare button to recall the previous status.
32
The VCS field allows you to define the number of voices (also adjustable in
the Properties window).
The UNISON field allows you to define the maximum number of unison
voices per note. The unison effect is enabled by entering a value greater
than 1. Detuning between unison voices is set in the Properties window
(Unison-Spread), as is the minimum number of unison voices per note
(Min Unison Voices).
The User Interface

The SoundForum Synthesizer’s user interface adheres by and large to
operating system conventions, so that the learning curve is minimal
assuming you have some experience with Mac OS or Windows. Nonethe-
less, I would like to point out a few particularities and explain a few fea-
tures that may be new to you.
Mouse Techniques
In general, when I refer to the mouse button, I mean the left mouse but-
ton (Windows). Virtually every function of the application can be carried
out via the mouse.
Double-clicking with the mouse button on an object (including fields in
windows) has various effects, depending upon the object.
33
Properties
Properties
The Properties Window.
The SoundForum Synthesizer features polyphonic voice allocation. The

Number of Voices field allows you to determine the maximum number of
voices that can be generated simultaneously.
When activated (box checked), the Automatic Voice Reduction option auto-
matically reduces the polyphony when the CPU load exceeds a pre-defined
limit. This is an effective way for the program to automatically adapt to the
available processing power.
Unison mode is activated when a value greater than 1 is entered in the
Max Unison Voices field. Several voices are then assigned to each note, and
each voice can be slightly detuned, resulting in a fat, modulating sound.
The value entered in the Max Unison Voices field determines the number
of voices assigned to a newly played note (assuming this number of voices
is available).
Conversely, the Min Unison Voices field determines the minimum number
of voices assigned to a newly played note regardless of availability. This
value can not exceed Max Unison Voices.
34
Unison Spread determines the amount of detuning between unison voices

in hundredths of semitones or cents. A typical setting is “0.05” (5 cents),
which means that each voice is detuned from the next by 5 cents (“1.00” =
1 semitone).
The Snapshot Recall by MIDI option allows you to load snapshots via MIDI
program change commands. When activated (box checked), a program
change command sent by a connected MIDI controller (e.g. master key-
board) will cause the SoundForum Synthesizer to load the corresponding
snapshot (assuming a snapshot with the corresponding number is avail-
able in the current instrument).
The Receive Channel and Send Channel fields determine the MIDI channels
for the SoundForum Synthesizer’s MIDI input and output, respectively. In
other words, the synthesizer receives MIDI data sent over the channel
entered in the Receive Channel field and sends MIDI data over the channel
entered in the Send Channel field. Essentially any external MIDI device or
software sequencer can be at the other end.
When the All Incremental option is activated, all control elements in the
current instrument are set to incremental mode for remote control. This is
necessary in order to control the SoundForum Synthesizer with Native
Instruments’ 4Control MIDI Controller. If MIDI Learn is activated, incre-
mental mode is automatically set as needed.
The Soft Takeover function, which can be activated/deactivated in the Prop-
erties window, helps to prevent glitches when using external controllers.
The Panel to MIDI Out option, when activated, causes all movements of
the synthesizer’s control elements, as well as snapshot changes, to be
transmitted as MIDI control data via the MIDI out. This allows you, for
example, to “record” these changes via a sequencer for “automated” play-
back.
Similarly, the Remote to MIDI Out option causes all movements of the syn-
thesizer’s control elements performed via remote control to be transmitted
as MIDI control data via the MIDI out.
35
The Upper Note Limit and Lower Note Limit fields enable you to enter MIDI
note numbers to define a range of notes that will be processed by the
instrument. Any MIDI note information received that falls outside of this
range will be ignored.
Note Shift allows you to transpose the instrument in half-steps against
received MIDI note data. If, for example, you want the SoundForum Syn-
thesizer to play a part one octave lower, enter “−12” in this field.
Sustain Control enables you to define the MIDI controller number to be
interpreted as sustain pedal data. (The MIDI standard defines controller
number 64 as sustain.) When sustain is on, e.g. the value of the assigned
controller is greater than 64, a played note will continue to sustain after
the key is released.
Hold Control allows selection of a MIDI controller number for hold pedal
(“sostenuto”) data. (The MIDI standard defines controller number 66 as
hold.) Any notes sounding while hold is switched on (controller value
greater than 64) continue to sound even after the key is released. Hold
does not effect notes played after it is switched on.
Snapshots
Snapshots are the SoundForum Synthesizer’s sound programs, just like
the “programs” or “patches” of other programmable synthesizers. A snap-
shot stores the current positions of the instrument’s control elements.
Loading a snapshot sets all control elements to the stored status. The
SoundForum Synthesizer allows you to store up to 128 snapshots.
Loading snapshots is easily done via the pull-down menu in the toolbar
next to the Store Snapshot button (camera symbol). Simply open the list by
clicking on the arrows, move the cursor to the desired snapshot (it high-
lights) and click.
Snapshots can also be loaded via MIDI program change commands. To
enable this, activate the Snapshot Recall by MIDI option in the Properties
window. The snapshot number displayed before the name is identical to
the corresponding MIDI program change number.
36
To store a snapshot, click on the Store Snapshot button (camera symbol).

This opens the snapshot dialog:
The No field allows you to enter a snapshot (and MIDI program change)
number. This field will default at the next available number, e.g. 21 if 20
snapshots are currently stored. Label allows you to enter a name for your
snapshot. Clicking on the Store button saves the snapshot and adds it to
the instrument’s pull-down list.
The top half of the Snapshot window gives you the option to overwrite or
delete individual snapshots. To this end, a Select pull-down list is provided,
as well as an Overwrite button and a Delete button. The overwrite function
stores your current settings in the place of the snapshot selected in the
Select list. The new snapshot retains the number and name of the overwrit-
ten snapshot.
SnapshotsRename
The Store Snapshot Window: Store, Delete, Overwrite, Copy and Rename
Snapshots.
To delete a snapshot, simply select it in the Select list and click Delete.
To copy or rename a snapshot, first load it via the pull-down menu in the
toolbar. Then click on the Store Snapshot button (camera symbol) to open
the snapshot dialog.
To rename the snapshot, enter its current number in the No field, then
enter a new name in the Label field and click Store.
37
To copy the snapshot, enter a new (unoccupied) number in the No field

and, if desired, a new name in the Label field, then click Store.
38
3
Just Do It
In this section you will complete an initial “fitness course” for sound
designers.
On this, I have good news and bad news. First, some good news: You will
do things that you never believed you could.
Now some bad news: It’s entirely possible that you won’t understand a sin-
gle thing about what you’re doing.
And, finally, some more good news: You will learn all of this and more in
the course of this book.
I’d like to try to kill two birds with one stone:
❖ The more experienced among us will get a chance to get to know the
SoundForum Synthesizer, while
❖ the beginners among us will receive some basic explanations.
Seeing as how the strong should help the weak, not only in fairy tales, we
experienced folks will gladly accept even the simplest explanations.
We will avoid theory at all costs. To use the analogy of driving school again,
theory does not help us learn to combine the pure enjoyment of driving
with technical finesse. It’s no different here.
39
3 Just Do It
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Synthesizers!

Before we can begin this tour de force of finesse and enjoyment, you need
the SoundForum Synthesizer. If you are working through this book in a
traditional fashion, e.g. from front to back, you have probably already
installed and configured the synth. If not, you will find it on the supplied
CD-ROM in the SoundForum Synthesizer folder. The installation program
leads you through the simple installation process. Regarding configura-
tion, please refer to the appropriate “Configuration” section (Windows on
page 21 or Mac OS on page 24).
It Just Doesn’t Want to Work!

Should you—for whatever reason—experience problems with the Sound-
Forum Synthesizer, feel free to contact Wizoo support directly at
mail@wizoo.com.
Go!
You will find the snapshot menu (Save Snapshot; camera symbol) in the
toolbar. As the name implies, snapshots are, well, snapshots of the synthe-
sizer, e.g. its current parameter settings. Using snapshots could hardly be
easier:
❖ Store a snapshot: make all your desired edits, click on the camera sym-
bol, enter a position and a name, click Store, voilà!
❖ Load a snapshot: select a snapshot from the pull-down list (to the left of
the Save Snapshot button).
As you can see, I have already programmed 20 simple snapshots, which
serve as “base stations” on our little fitness course.
40
How Does Simple Synthesis Work?
snapshots.bmp]
The Load Snapshots Menu.
How Does Simple Synthesis Work?

I sense a hint of higher education, of physics and history, in the room.
Countless dissertations have been written on this subject, most of them in
barely understandable scientific jargon that never seems to end.
All the while, simple synthesis—also known as “subtractive synthesis”—is
just a wee bit more complicated than tying shoes.
In its simplest form, it works like this:
The oscillator—nothing more than something that swings or varies back
and forth—generates a raw, unrefined waveform at a pitch corresponding
to the key that is pressed. Press the key, the tone appears; release the key,
the tone disappears.
❖ Load snapshot 3, “Basic Saw,” and try it yourself!
In this case, the oscilloscope displays a sawtooth waveform. This technical-
sounding term really only refers to the shape of the waveform and has no
deeper meaning.
Further down the signal path, the vibration from the oscillator is routed to
a filter; after all, not all sounds in this world should remind us of a saw.
❖ Turn the filter’s cutoff knob fully counter-clockwise. You have just expe-
rienced and thus now understand the basic principle of the filter.
We not only want to vary the color of the sound, but also the volume. We
may want it to fade in, like a soft pad, or fade out slowly like a piano.
41
3 Just Do It
And here comes the only real hurdle to understanding: contrary to the
oscillator and the filter, the third component in the signal path—the ampli-
fier—is not directly visible. So it is with the SoundForum Synthesizer. The
amplifier’s controller, however, is very visible: the envelope, another terri-
bly technical-sounding term. No cause for panic, though: the envelope is
nothing more than a time-based process with adjustable length and shape;
a curve defining the development of the component or sound over time.
◆ Adjust the “Amp Env” section to the following values:
A: 32, D: 12, S: 0.4, R: 52.
The envelope display shows exactly how the sound’s amplitude or volume
develops over time (from left to right).
In a simple synthesizer, the signal flows through three components: oscil-

lator, filter and amplifier.
The other components simply serve to adjust, control and automate these
three basic components, allowing them to create more variations and
more complex sounds.
One of these control components is the LFO, which stands for Low Fre-
quency Oscillator. The LFO generates very slow vibrations that are not
directly introduced into the signal, but rather serve to automatically modu-
late or vary the pitch, amplitude (volume) or color (e.g. Cutoff; you have
already experienced this control) of the sound.
◆ Adjust the “Amount” knob in the LFO section to a higher setting and
play around with the “Rate” knob.
Self-explanatory, right? OK, one could add that the yellow button “Osc P 1”
assigns the LFO to the pitch of Oscillator 1. I don’t think it’s necessary to
explain how that sounds.
If you understand the process so far, you have essentially learned what
simple synthesis is all about. The rest is details and subtleties.
42
From Alarm Signal to Pad
From Alarm Signal to Pad

I know, I know: it’s easy for me to say how simple this all is; but I want to
make it just as easy for you.
1 Load Snapshot 2, “Basic Square.”
Sounds like a tilted pinball machine, huh? A pad, on the other hand, is
supposed to be warm, fat, complex and soft. We’re only a few knob turns
and button pushes away.
2 Adjust “Symm” in the Oscillator 1 section to 0.45.
The knob is roughly at 12:00. Now we’re going to automate it with the
LFO.
3 Activate Sym for both oscillators in the LFO section (“Sym 1” and “Sym
2” buttons should be yellow) and deactivate Pitch (“P 1” and “P 2” but-
tons should be gray).
Don’t hear any difference yet …
4 Adjust the LFO “Amount” to 0.6.
Voilà—the sound begins to fly!
5 Go to the mixer section and set “Osc 2” to 0.7, then head to the Oscilla-
tor 2 section and set “Puls-Sym” to 0.55 and “Detune” to 0.09.
We just increased the “phat factor” by about 50%.
6 Now hit the filter section and set “Cutoff” to 85 and “Resonance” to 0.2.
Now we’re talking warm.
7 Adjust “A” (Attack) and “R” (Release) in the “Amp Env” section to 50.
That’s it: from pinball machine to first-class pad in six easy steps. Now you
see that it doesn’t really take much to get to where you want to go. In this
respect, simple synthesis is very different from more complex types of syn-
thesis like frequency modulation (FM) or additive synthesis.
What all types of synthesis do have in common, though, is that you first
have to understand which steps will lead you to your goal.
43
3 Just Do It
By the way: you won’t find the pad we just created anywhere “ready-to-go.”
What kind of crash course would this be if all you had to do was load a pre-
set ?
You could quickly store your new pad as a snapshot, though:
8 Click on the camera symbol, type “21” in the “No” field and “My First
Pad” (or whatever) in the “Name” field, click on “Store”—done.
Color Your Sound

Snapshots 2 to 8 are very simple basic sounds, unfiltered and sporting
“organ envelopes:” on when you press a key and off when you let go.
Try them out briefly, one after another. As you can see, they are all gener-
ated by Oscillator 1, with the exception of “Basic Detune,” which demon-
strates the modulation created when you combine two oscillators.
Creating polished sounds out of these basic patches is as easy as following
the steps listed in the method table below, which gives you everything you
need to turn a pig’s ear into a silk purse, so to speak.
# What Where
1 Vary the basic sound Oscillator 1
Mixer
2 Add oscillator modulation Oscillator 2
Mixer
LFO
Filt-Env→Osc
3 Program the filter characteristics Filter
4 Program the filter curve Filter Env
5 Program the amplitude curve Amp Env
The method table.
44
Transistor Bass
In practice, of course, things don’t always follow this method. Nonetheless,

it does give you a very good basic framework, which you will adapt to your
own methodic as time goes on.
In the following experiment, as in several subsequent ones, we will stick to
this method table while creating a usable sound out of a raw snapshot.
Transistor Bass
The vision behind the sound we will now program is the legendary bass/
synthesizer/sequencer combination TB-303—a more basic synthesizer can
now only be found in musical greeting cards.
Bild TB03;fehlt nochrs
The legendary Roland TB-303.
1 Step 1: Load snapshot 2, “Basic Square” or 3, “Basic Saw.” Set “Interval”

in Oscillator 1 to −24—after all, it is a bass sound we’re going after.
2 We can skip step 2, since we only need one oscillator.
3 Step 3: Set the filter to “LP2” (a less steep slope), then set “Cutoff” to 80
and “Resonance” to 0.94.
45
3 Just Do It
4 Step 4: Now we’re going to make the filter really crack. Set the filter
envelope (Filter Env) as follows: A: 17, D: 38, S: 0, R: 39.
5 Last but not least, set the “R” (Release) in the amplitude envelope sec-
tion (Amp Env) to 40.
Pops pretty good already, doesn’t it? A little distortion—maybe not quite
what the doctor ordered, but very popular with techno, electro, acid and
co.—is also no problem for the SoundForum Synthesizer:
6 Set the “Level” knob in the Master section to 0.
7 Like to see the cute little animation in the waveform caused by the fil-
ter ? Then crank the Decay (“D”) knob in the Filter Env(elope) section
all the way up, hold a note and watch the oscilloscope.
Here’s a little pearl of wisdom you can take with you: the less overtones the
filter lets through, the rounder the resulting waveform.
While the philosophers among you brood about what this statement has to
do with sawtooth and sine, the rest of you can follow me:
Filter-free Filtering
One of the special features of the SoundForum Synthesizer, which you will
be hard pressed to find in your hardware park, is the possibility to create a
virtually limitless universe of waveforms by modifying the wave symmetry.
To illustrate this, we will now take a first look at—and listen to—this capa-
bility:
1 Load snapshot 4 “Basic Sine.”
A sine wave is initially a waveform without overtones; the aural experience
should be self-explanatory.
2 Hold a note and slowly turn up the “Symm” knob while observing the
oscilloscope and listening to the way the sound changes.
46
Filter-free Filtering
The more angular the waveform, the more overtones the sound contains,
until a rounded sawtooth appears. As the corners get sharper, so does the
sound.
The “Symm” knob can be automated via the filter envelope; this is the pur-
pose of the somewhat cryptically labeled “Filter-Env→Osc” section.
3 Set the Symm knob to 0.4.
4 The Filter Envelope also gets a pre-tweak: A 30, D 50, S 0.5—the release
value (R) is not important here.
Now for the automation:
5 Adjust the Amount value in the “Filt-Env→Osc” section to 1 and switch
the upper “Sym” button on.
Sounds a little like the trumpet in Sesame Street, right?
If you’d like a chance to visually experience the automation, set D (decay)
in the Filter Envelope to 90, adjust the oscilloscope and hold a note.
47
4
Synthesis Tricks—For Experts Only
After warming up with the last chapter, we now advance to synthesis tricks
that only experts can comprehend. Experts like us …
The cryptic, fear-instilling terms that we will encounter in the course of the
next pages turn out to be entirely harmless. I promise. When we’ve fin-
ished the first section of this chapter, terms like LFO, PWM and filter enve-
lope will be flowing out of your mouth with the greatest of ease. You will
be canonized at the latest after the following two sections, which contain
even nastier terms …
Snapshots
In this chapter we’re going to undertake a couple of experiments—just like
in the good old school lab.
There is, however, one difference to the good old school days: Here, we’re
not trying to explode our chemistry teacher, but rather to learn (and have
some fun doing it).
Ready-made experiment sets are available in the form of snapshots.
We will also make some sensible use of the oscilloscope, something the
poor thing rarely experiences, especially in synthesizer courses.
49
4 Synthesis Tricks—For Experts Only
Beating between Oscillators

Among other things, the term “beating” refers to the effect of mixing two
oscillators that are slightly out of tune with one another. The sound gets
fatter and livelier. Finding the right amount of beating is just as important
in sound design as swallowing is in eating. So here we go:
1 Load snapshot 7, “Basic Detune,” from the pull-down menu in the tool-
bar.
2 Select the “Puls” waveform for both oscillators and adjust both
“Sym(m)” knobs to 0.
3 Set the “Mixer” for Oscillator 2 to 0.
If you now play a note in the medium range, you hear a square wave,
which does a wonderful job as a visual study object. If you adjust the oscil-
loscope properly, you will see the wave:
◆ Adjust the “Time” knob until you can only see one or two waves in the
display. Now set “Level” so that the height and width of the waves are
roughly the same.
Now let’s see what happens when we add a second vibration:
4 Slowly turn up the “Mixer” level for Oscillator 2 and watch the oscillo-
scope.
You see that the waveform becomes animated, as if a second one was mov-
ing on top of the first. Simultaneously you can hear that the sound is no
longer lifeless, but has also become animated.
5 Turn the “Detune” knob in oscillator 2 slowly clockwise to around 0.36.
The animation accelerates—both visually and aurally. This is called “beat-
ing,” and the oscilloscope shows very clearly what you hear. Since oscillator
2 is always tuned a bit higher (= faster) than oscillator 1, both oscillators
meet occasionally at maximum level; then oscillator 2 “passes” oscillator 1
again, then they meet at minimum level and so on. The more out of tune,
the faster oscillator 2 “passes” oscillator 1.
50
Tonal Shades
We’ll let that be for the moment and take a look at another effect caused by
this addition of vibrations:
1 Set Detune in oscillator 2 to exactly 0.
2 Hold a note and turn up the Mixer for Oscillator 2 to 1.
Now, proceed with feeling:
3 Turn the Detune knob slightly clockwise or counter-clockwise, until the
two vibrations are added to each other—you will see a very big wave-
form.
4 Now set oscillator 2’s Interval first to 12, then to 24 and to 36.
Observe the oscilloscope: The waveform grows “teeth;” the higher the
interval, the more teeth.
This is easy to explain: An interval of 12 half-steps (24, 36) means that oscillator 2
vibrates twice (or four times, or eight times) as fast as oscillator 1. That’s exactly
what you see.
24square
The “teeth” in the square wave come from adding an oscillator two octaves
higher.
❖ Turn oscillator 2 off completely (“Osc 2” knob in the Mixer) and then
back to 0.5, so that you can see the difference between the two wave-
forms.
❖ Experiment with the “Detune” knob in the Oscillator 2 section a bit;
turn it up to different levels and finally back to 0.
51
Now you can understand why beating can exist between oscillators that are
actually an octave apart—the couple hundredths of half-tones (cents)
shouldn’t really make a difference …
Just for fun, you might try setting oscillator 2’s waveform to “Saw” or “Sine.” Play
around with the mixer level, interval setting and waveform. This will probably help
you understand a lot that you didn’t understand before and that can’t really be
explained with words alone.
Detuning is, however, only one way to create beating. Not all synthesizers
offer two or more oscillators. One possible alternative is PWM.
PWM
Load snapshot 8, “Basic PWM.” Play a note in a medium range and
observe the oscilloscope. You’ll see that the width of the pulse (the upper
edge of the waveform) varies compared to the pause of the pulse (lower
edge).
Pwmscheme
The oscilloscope shows the variation in pulse width with PWM.
This is called Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM for short. The effect is
similar to beating between oscillators but sounds more dramatic. How is it
created?
52
Pwmlfo
The PWM-relevant parameters in the LFO section.
1 De-activate the yellow “Sym 1” button in the LFO section: The effect dis-
appears.
2 Grab the “Symm” knob in oscillator 1 and turn it up and down. Hear it?
Have the LFO do this for you automatically: Re-activate the “Sym 1” but-
ton in the LFO section.
3 Now vary the LFO rate.
You’ll discover that there is a point where the modulation even sounds
detuned, roughly at a “Rate” of 12 and an “Amount” of 0.8. If you lower the
Amount value, the detuning disappears.
You’ll also find out that the detuning seems stronger when you play lower
notes, without changing the settings. This is why savvy sound designers
will set the LFO rate to follow the keyboard whenever possible. We’ll make
a mental note of this and continue.
4 Set the LFO rate to 0 and select various LFO waveforms, one after
another.
Note that the LFO waveform has no direct effect on the waveform of the
audio signal. The LFO waveform merely determines the shape of its
“movement” (think of the manual knob movement you did in the last
experiment). Once you’ve experienced this in real-time it should be easy to
understand.
The LFO is not the only possible control element for PWM. (See? We’re
already tossing these terms around as if we grew up with them.)
53
Load snapshot 8 again. You will now generate PWM via the filter envelope
instead of the LFO:
1 First things first: Set “Symm” in oscillator 1 to 0.
2 Adjust the filter envelope (“Filter Env”) as follows: A: 43, D: 54, S: 0. We
don’t need to worry about R.
3 Switch the yellow “Sym 1” button in the LFO section off.
4 Turn the “Amount” knob in the Filt-Env→Osc section all the way up
and activate the “Sym 1” button.
Now the pulse width is controlled by the filter envelope. When the enve-
lope level is at 0 (at the beginning and at the end), you hear a square wave.
When it is at maximum level, you hear a narrow pulse—sort of a nasal
sound. To hear this more slowly and more clearly, increase the attack (“A”)
and decay (“D”) times in the filter envelope (“Filt Env”) and observe the
oscilloscope.
Play around with the envelope settings to get a feeling for the envelope
itself and the effect of the resulting pulse-width envelope.
We’ve learned enough today. For good measure, though, let’s combine the
two techniques to create a truly universal sound—usable for almost every-
thing from classical to techno—the good old Wurlitzer electric piano.
Gaining fame through hits like “Logical Song” by Supertramp, “I’m Not In
Love” by 10 CC and “A Girl Like You” by Foreigner, this sound is most often
heard today in the instrumental framework for divas such as Shania Twain
or Anastacia. We’re going to program a production-ripe hard-rock variation
complete with a super-phat chorus.
The Right Combination

OK, grab those knobs!
Step 1: Basic Sound

The tonal character of the Wurlitzer piano is closely related to the square
wave, so we’ll start with the square snapshot.
1 Load snapshot 2, “Basic Square.”
54
2 Set the “Symm” knob in Oscillator 1 to 0.02; this adds a little dirt to the
square wave character.
3 We might as well go ahead and do the same with the “Puls-Sym” knob
in Oscillator 2, although this oscillator isn’t in the game yet.
Step 2: Beating, Oscillator Modulation

First the beating:
1 Set Osc 2 in the Mixer section to 0.9 and lower Osc 1 to 0.9.
2 Increase “Detune” in Oscillator 2 to 0.04.
Now we’re going to emulate the metallic tone that is generated by the
metal tines being hit; this tone fades as the note rings out.
3 Activate the “Sym 1” and Sym 2” buttons in the Filt-Env→Osc section
(both should be yellow) and set the “Amount” knob to 0.24.
You can hear the way the sound develops. The change is still too fast, but
we won’t let that bother us right now.
Step 3: Filter Characteristic

Since the sound is way to full of overtones for a harmless little electric
piano, we’re going to filter it. The envelope will open the filter again, so we
have to go for the darkest sound possible.
1 Set “Cutoff” to 83 and “Reson” (resonance) to 0.15 in the Filter section.
We’re using resonance here—as always, actually—to leverage the filter a
bit, making its effect more prominent.
Step 4: Filter Progression

Now we’re going to program the filter’s progression, or movement, which
will—due to the settings we made in step 2—effect the basic sound.
1 First of all, we have to allow the filter envelope to affect the filter. This is
done via the “Env” knob in the Filter section, which we will now set to
20. As you have probably noticed, this parameter is also controlled by
the dynamics of your playing.
55
pianenv
Filter and volume envelopes for an electric piano sound.
2 Setting “A” to 0 in the “Filter Env” section ensures that the piano
sounds like it is hit, rather than blown or bowed.
3 Next, set “S” to 0. “S” stands for sustain and represents the level at
which the envelope remains as long as a note is held. Since nothing
stays put with a piano, we set this parameter to 0.
4 A crucial parameter here is the decay time (“D”); set this to 58, and just
like magic the sound darkens with a smooth curve.
Step 5: Volume Progression

It already sounds pretty much like electric piano, but the volume progres-
sion more resembles an organ. Time to adjust the amplitude (volume)
envelope:
1 Set this envelope exactly like the filter envelope. To prevent the sound
from ending quite so abruptly, set the release time (“R”) in both enve-
lopes a little higher, to 23.
That’s it. Sure, you could do a lot of fine-tuning, a tweak here, a polish
there. But that would be defeating our purpose—we’re not out to win a
beauty contest. The pros among us may be thinking that a seasoned sound
designer would have to go a different route; much more mathematical. To
that I can only say, “Congratulations! Have fun in the bragger’s zone! (And
don’t forget to write.)”
56
Frequency Modulation
In this and the following section, we will gaze beyond the horizon of sim-
ple analog synthesis to marvel at some of the more exotic qualities of many
analog synthesizers. The subject is frequency modulation, ring modula-
tion and sync (or oscillator synchronization, to be more precise).
Terms, once again, that sound so boring you would never suspect that they
represent marvelous things. Things that enormously expand the sound
spectrum of the SoundForum Synthesizer.
This section is dedicated to frequency modulation, while ring modulation
and sync are discussed together in the next section. It may be worth noting
that at that point we will have dealt with each and every parameter of the
The Nature of Frequency Modulation

Frequency Modulation: This mega-sexy youth term represented a brand
new form of sound synthesis in the mid-eighties. Lifted to cult status with
the help of Yamaha’s DX synthesizers, FM virtually exiled good old analog
synthesis until it was finally brought back to life in the early nineties
thanks to the techno revolution.
In the eighties, just about every voice from California to Berlin was almost
exclusively framed in clangorous electric pianos, metallic basses and stac-
cato marimbas that swirled through the stereo image. The classic chiming
DX7 electric piano is still a standard instrument, especially in tear-jerkers
by artists like Celine Dion.
Today, the sounds of the eighties are at best still popular among retro fans.
Besides, the FM capabilities of the SoundForum Synthesizer are no match
for the complexity of the infamous DX series and its successors. They are
included as an addition and are definitely valuable as such.
Contrary to simple analog synthesis, a minimal understanding of the basic
technology is absolutely essential if you want to program sounds in FM
with any efficiency. A beginning course in FM with lots of practical experi-
mentation follows for all of you for whom FM has remained a closed book
thus far.
57
What Does Simple FM Sound Like?

Oddly enough, the entire FM capability of the SoundForum Synthesizer is
actually limited to one single knob in Oscillator 1. And guess what it’s
called? Right …
◆ Load snapshot 16, “Basic FM,” and play a few notes.
This patch is programmed so that the SoundForum Synthesizer generates
very basic FM a la DX7. The result is a metallic, bell-like sound.
How is it generated?
◆ Turn the “FM” knob in the Oscillator 1 section all the way down, to 0.
Then, while you play, turn it up slowly until you reach 4500.
When the knob is at 0, a simple sine wave is audible and visible in the
oscilloscope. The knob lets you continuously add “bell.” It’s got to have
something to do with this knob, but what?
Vibrato Is FM Is Vibrato …
◆ Set the FM knob to 50 and decrease the Interval value to −60. Play
some low notes, below C3.
Now you hear the sine tone, but with vibrato, right? So do I, and there’s a
reason. Take note:
In frequency modulation the amplitude of one oscillator controls the fre-

quency of another.
In the case of the SoundForum Synthesizer: The output waveform from

oscillator 1 affects the pitch of oscillator 2 like a pitch wheel being con-
stantly moved up and down. The oscillator signal is not used as a sound
source, but rather as a control source.
58
… Or Trills
We’ll soon know whether I’m right or not:
◆ Set the waveform in Oscillator 1 to “Puls” and increase the FM value to
100 to better hear the effect. (After this little experiment, set the wave-
form back to “Sin.”)
The vibrato turns into a trill due to the edgier shape of the pulse wave. You
can’t demonstrate much more clearly what FM is all about.
But how do we get from there to a bell sound? Just do everything I do—
don’t worry, professional sound designers do the same thing often
enough—and pay attention at every step whether you hear exactly what I
write:
1 Turn FM all the way up. (You did set the waveform back to “Sin,” didn’t
you?)
The vibrato turns into a cheap “laser” effect.
2 Increase the Interval value in Oscillator 1 in half-tone steps while play-
ing the g key on the computer keyboard (so that we are all playing the
same note).
Starting at an Interval value of around 16, you no longer hear the vibrato as
a modulation of the sine tone—that is, you don’t hear tone and modulation
separately. Instead, you hear a completely new sound.
The reason is simple: Just as we, above a certain frame rate (number of
images per second), no longer see the individual images but rather a con-
tinuous movement, so do we above a certain “speed” no longer hear the
modulation as vibrato—we hear a new sound. This is the case when the
modulated vibration—here oscillator 1—is in audible range. To test this:
3 Set the “Osc 1” knob in the Mixer to 1 and “Osc 2” to 0.
Voilà: The point at which we hear a new sound instead of vibrato is the
point where the oscillator enters the audible frequency range.
59
Tonal Color
As the savvy have probably already noticed, we have two sine waves at work
here; two “tuning fork” tones with absolutely no overtones. And FM’s
strength is the ability to create extremely complex spectrums out of some-
thing so utterly simple.
The tonal color can be controlled via two parameters: The interval of the
two oscillators and the level of the modulator. Let’s give it a try:
1 Set the Interval of both oscillators to 0 and the FM knob to around
3500.
The result is a sawtooth-like sound with very few overtones.
2 Try the following Interval settings for Oscillator 1 and see if you can
identify the changes in tonal color:
1 Basic electric piano sound

12 Square wave
17 Grandfather clock
19 Harp
24 Sharper square wave
30—40 Mallet (e.g. vibraphone)
41—50 Electric piano attack
3 Now try various combinations of Interval values for Oscillator 1 and 2;

utilize the Detune function as well.
The overtone or harmonic content is determined by the frequency relation-
ship, referred to as the “ratio” in FM theory. Put simply:
A musical interval between oscillator 1 and 2 (e.g. a whole-number ratio)

results in a harmonious sound.
60
The second factor—the number of harmonics and with it generally the

“edginess” or overtone content of the sound—is controlled by the amount
of modulation. This is what the SoundForum Synthesizer’s FM knob does:
It acts as a “send” control to an invisible pitch-control input for oscillator 2.
By way of automated control of the modulation amount, the tonal color of
an FM sound can be modulated in time progression, similar to the popular
cutoff-frequency effects in classic analog synthesis (although the effect
sounds quite different). The SoundForum Synthesizer allows such auto-
mation via an envelope, the LFO or even a MIDI controller.
1 Load snapshot 16, “Basic FM,” again.
2 Set the Interval values at 19 for Oscillator 1 and 0 for Oscillator 2.
The result is a simple harp-like sound.
3 While playing slowly, decrease the decay value (“D”) in the filter enve-
lope (“Filter Env”).
What happens? The FM knob (or rather the modulation) is being auto-
mated by the filter envelope; the modulation progression gets shorter as
the decay time is decreased. This process is pre-programmed in the “Filter-
Env→Osc” section: As you can see, the “A(mp) 1” button is activated,
meaning that Oscillator 1’s amplitude is controlled by the filter envelope.
Waveforms
The basic study of FM synthesis, such as that developed by Dr. John
Chowning at Stanford University in the early eighties, is based on pure
sine waves. This makes perfect sense; working with a waveform that is
completely free of overtones, you have total control over the resulting
sound.
That doesn’t mean, however, that other waveforms can’t form the basis of
extraordinary FM sounds. Besides, we don’t have six oscillators to play with
here, as is the case in the DX7, but only two. So using more complex wave-
forms as ingredients can not only be helpful but can also lead to very inter-
esting results, as the following experiment demonstrates:
61
1 Load snapshot 16, “Basic FM,” again.

2 Set the interval value for Oscillator 1 to −24 and for Oscillator 2 to 0.
Turn FM up all the way.
Already sounds pretty cool. Now for the icing:
3 Set Oscillator 1 to “Puls” (pulse wave).
And now pull all the stops:
4 Slowly increase the “Symm” value; it sounds most interesting between
0.3 and 0.6.
Anyone who dares to claim he knew all along that the SoundForum Syn-
thesizer was capable of sounds like this will please stand in the corner for
the remainder of the class while we point and laugh at him.
Now the next experiment:
1 Leave the sound as is and switch Oscillator 1 to noise (“Nois”).
2 Set the attack time (“A”) in the filter envelope to around 66.
Instant vacation on the beach, anyone? No neighbors, no “recliner wars.”
And speaking of war:
3 Set the attack time back (to 0) and turn release (“R”) all the way up.
Turn the FM knob down to around 1100 and set the interval for Oscilla-
tor 2 at 24.
Greeting from “Das Boot.” Perfectionists can exacerbate the sonar effect by
setting “Cutoff” and “Reson(ance)” in the Filter section to 12:00.
62
Interlude
I’ve given you a lot to digest in this section so far. I’m sure, though, that
you have understood most of it. For this and all other experiments in this
book, I heartily recommend the following:
Think outside of the box. Play around with all the controls, not just the ones
defined in the steps, and try to determine which ones do what in each situ-
ation. This will help your “aural memory” learn on its own what the synthe-
sizer does.
That—and only that—is the one important thing you should keep in mind
during the following sound design exercises.
By the way: Why the Synthesizer does what it does (did I already mention
this?) is—academic ambitions notwithstanding—secondary, even if it
doesn’t hurt to understand it. In any case, it should never distract you from
the primary goal: to internalize the often-complex relationships between
knob-twisting and the resulting sound.
Visual FM
We do have a waveform viewer in the SoundForum Synthesizer, and FM is
very visual, e.g. it’s easy to see what’s happening. That said, I don’t want to
deprive you of this last comprehension-building step: To see FM with your
own eyes (on the oscilloscope).
First the experiment preparations:
1 Load snapshot 4, “Basic Sine.”
2 In the Mixer section, set “Osc 1” to 0 and “Osc 2” to 1.
3 Press the t key on your computer keyboard and adjust the oscilloscope
so that you can just see one and a half waveforms, as shown in the dia-
gram:
63
abb 1
The basic FM sine waveform in the oscilloscope.
Now it gets interesting:

4 Slowly turn the “FM” knob in Oscillator 1 up to around 300 while
observing the oscilloscope.
You can see and hear how the original sine wave is modulated. You also
see a flowing animation, caused by the modulation between the two oscil-
lators.
5 Set the “Detune” value in Oscillator 2 to 0 and slowly turn the “FM”
knob up again.
The animation is gone, but you can see exactly what FM is doing to the
waveform. You might want to set the oscilloscope to “Freeze” now and
then when it gets too jumpy.
The modulation amount—controlled by the FM knob—has an audible
effect (more overtones) as well as a visual effect (more bending) on the
basic waveform.
Now let’s look at the visual effect of the frequency ratio:
6 Set the “FM” knob to 1000.
7 Hold the t key on your computer keyboard and activate “Freeze” in the
oscilloscope.
8 Set the interval value for Oscillator 1 to the following values, one after
another; at each value, play t and freeze the oscilloscope: 0, 12, 24, 48,
−12, −36, −60.
64
Sync and Ring Modulation
It’s easy to see: When the modulator (Osc 1) vibrates at a higher frequency
than the carrier (Osc 2), the waveform grows little bumps. How many
depends on the frequency ratio between the two oscillators. We’ll let this
subject lie for now, though.
Science Fair
If you have an insatiably inquisitive mind and would like to learn more
about FM, the SoundForum Synthesizer is a wonderful tool. Here are a
few experiments that you can easily carry out on your own:
❖ Create a few simple FM sounds based on the “Basic FM” snapshot.
Electric piano, harp or square wave lead should be no problem for you.
❖ Load snapshot 11, “Basic Bass,” turn up Oscillator 2 in the Mixer and
the FM knob, and try to add a metallic attack to the sound via FM.
❖ This one is only for true geeks: Determine what effect frequency modu-
lation has in snapshot 19, “Basic Thunder,” and how the effect is gener-
ated.
Hint: Try varying the parameters “FM,” Oscillator 2 “Interval,” the
waveforms for Oscillator 1 and Filter “Cutoff.”
OK, now you’ve earned a short break. That was a ton of information, which
you should try to expand on and further internalize by experimenting on
your own. It’ll get a little easier in the next section—I promise!

“Now that we’ve warmed up on the FM machine, we’ll exercise the sync
muscles and do some presses with the ring modulation barbells.” That’s
how this section would start if the author were a fan of quasi-humorous
introductions.
But he’s not. Rather, I hope you’ve all survived the last section—it was
admittedly a bit heavy. Look at it this way, though: It can’t get much worse.
65
The two techniques we will be learning now, sync and ring modulation,
are much easier and—in the eye of the sound designer—merely modified
alternatives to frequency modulation.
As we have seen, FM is widely used to create metallic sounds or space
effects, or in general to add some edge to analog sounds. Sync and ring
modulation also have their special applications.
Sync lends itself well to the following effects:
❖ “Wiry” sounds (string-like),
❖ pleasantly metallic, cutting or “sawing” sounds and
❖ extreme modulations in which the tonal color also modulates.
Sync is therefore very good at aggressive synth basses, biting poly sounds
and cutting leads.
Ring modulation, on the other hand, is more appropriate for people whose
music represents their rebellion against their parents or the establish-
ment. Somehow ring modulation always sounds threatening or depres-
sive. Not always a bad thing, though, since it does present a number of
possibilities, such as:
❖ Metallic or bell-like sounds,
❖ adding edge or dirt to innocuous sounds,
❖ noise effects to laser sounds and
❖ horror effects.
Have I whetted your aural appetite? OK, let’s get to it.
What Does Sync Sound Like?

That one’s easy: Load snapshot 17, “Basic Sync.”
Reminder: The snapshots for the first chapters are pre-programmed in the Sound-
Forum Synthesizer. You’ll find them in the pull-down menu in the toolbar above the
Filter section.
66
This sync sound is pretty raw and could be refined, whether just as a basis
or as a lead sound. We’ll get to that a bit later. For now, let’s see how sync
feels and how it is generated.
1 Load snapshot 2, “Basic Square.”
2 Turn “Osc 1” in the Mixer all the way down and “Osc 2” all the way up.
Then activate the “Snc” button to the left of the “Ring Mod” knob.
Now it’s time to play a bit:
3 Turn up the “Interval” knob in Oscillator 2 in steps and play a few notes
at each setting.
As you can see, sync opens the door to waveforms and tonal colors that lie
beyond the normal “analog” spectrum.
Make a mental note of the fact that the basic pitch doesn’t change even
though you are transposing oscillator 2. Interestingly, though, the sound
does shift to the transposed pitch at the octave and fifth settings (12, 19, 24
etc.).
4 Set Oscillator 2’s interval back to 0 and experiment with the interval in
Oscillator 2.
Now the pitch does change, but really only at positive values. At negative
values—at least below around −12—a kind of low-frequency noise is added
to the sound.
How Is Sync Generated?

This section is optional; you can skip it if you prefer quick and easy plea-
sures to academic exercises …
Here’s how sync works: Every time one oscillator reaches the start point of
its waveform, sync sets the other oscillator at its start point.
In this case, Oscillator 1 sets Oscillator 2 at its start point; it “synchronizes”
Oscillator 2. This explains why transposing Oscillator 1 higher changes the
pitch, since it then vibrates faster than Oscillator 2, which in turn forces it
to vibrate faster.
67
When you transpose Oscillator 2 higher, Oscillator 1 is still defining the

basic pitch; the faster vibrations from Oscillator 2 act more like an addi-
tional tonal color.
You can observe this phenomenon in the oscilloscope:
1 Set both oscillators’ “Interval” back to 0.
2 Set Oscillator 2 to “Saw.”
3 Play and hold a note and adjust the oscilloscope so that you can see one
full waveform.
4 Now begin turning up the “Interval” knob in Oscillator 1.
You see how the sawtooth waveform is interrupted—in such a way that it
always returns to its null point. This is because Oscillator 1 “syncs Oscilla-
tor 2 to its knees” every time it reaches its null or start point.
Enough theory; time to see and hear the three above-mentioned sync
effects in the flesh.
Sync Lead
Now we’re going to build a sync lead sound—the chain saw of every good
keyboard soloist.
1 Load snapshot 3, “Basic Saw.”
2 Turn Oscillator 1 (“Osc 1”) all the way down in the mixer and Oscillator
2 (“Osc 2”) all the way up. Then activate sync with the “Snc” button.
The basic parameters are set. To actually hear the sync effect, we need
some kind of pitch modulation.
3 Activate the “P 2” button in the “Filt-Env→Osc” section.
This routes the filter envelope to the pitch input of Oscillator 2. Still not
really a killer sound, though.
4 Set the “Amount” knob in the same section to 1 and increase the decay
time (“D”) in the filter envelope (“Filt Env”) to 50.
Now you’ve increased both the effect of the filter envelope (Amount) and
the time that it’s audible (Decay).
68
Sounds pretty “syncy” already; now we’re going to use the filter to make it
really mean.
5 In the Filter section, set “Cutoff” to 90 and “Env” to 40.
Now the filter envelope affects not only the sync sound, but also the filter
frequency. Since we have high expectations, we’d also like the lead sound
to develop a sort of feedback effect when a note is held:
6 Set “Interval” in Oscillator 2 to 12.
Now the sound is edgier and the filter movement ends in a fifth. Now if
that doesn’t arm you perfectly for a heavy duel with your guitarist …
The sound gets even nastier if you turn up the (filter) resonance; you might even
want to set the attack time in the filter envelope to 10 so the sound “snaps.”
Metallic Bass
Here we don’t use sync to create a cutting tonal movement, but rather as a
stationary color to add some metallic edge to an analog bass sound.
1 Load snapshot 11, “Basic Bass,” and set “Env” in the Filter section to 86
to brighten the sound a bit.
This results in a neutral pulse-wave bass with a nice attack. We want to
make its analog character a little more metallic, though, so we need to add
some ore.
To do this, we’re going to bring Oscillator 2 into play and use sync to give it
a metallic color. Here we go:
2 Activate sync (“Snc”) and turn Osc 2 in the Mixer up to 0.7.
Now we’ve got an octave (remember the feedback effect at harmonic inter-
vals ?).
3 Set Oscillator 2’s interval to somewhere between −4 and −1.
Voilà: nutritional iron and trace elements; the bass sounds like a good old
DX.
69
The most effective way to vary the tonal character is with the waveform buttons for
Oscillators 1 and 2, and the “Interval” knob. A universe of electronic bass sounds
awaits your discovery!
Heavy Beating
Sync also lends itself to a flanger-like amplified modulation effect; very
useful for basses, pads or fat lead sounds.
1 Load snapshot 13, “Basic Mini.”
A cute little lead sound, which helps many nursing home-residing Keith
Emerson fans while away the hours between their cardio funk sessions
(No joke—there really are such sessions!).
We’d like it a little more modern, or, to be more precise, mean and nasty. A
simple task:
2 Activate “Snc” and the “P 2” button in the Filt-Env→Osc section.
Our intention here is to create a slow modulation with the LFO that modu-
lates Oscillator 2’s pitch and with it the color of the sync effect.
3 In the LFO section, set “Rate” to −3.5, “Amount” to 0.5 and the wave-
form to “Tri.”
It already sounds a little like oscillator beating; the sound swims a bit. Now
for the sawteeth.
4 Adjust “Interval” in Oscillator 2 to a value between 10 and 20, depend-
ing on how much bite you want the sound to have.
Almost done. Using the following modifications, the sound can be made
progressively meaner:
5 Turn Osc 1 down in the mixer.
6 Increase the “Amount” value in the LFO section.
7 Set the filter to a flatter mode, i.e. “LP1” or “LP2,” increase the cutoff
value and, if you like, add some resonance.
What you just did with the lead sound can of course be applied to any type of syn-
thesizer sound, from basses to effects.
70
Ring Modulation
While not quite as copious as sync, ring modulation is still quite interest-
ing. The term was not chosen very wisely—the non-initiated, logical-think-
ing person couldn’t really begin to imagine what it might mean. It’s actu-
ally very simple: In ring modulation, two oscillators modulate each other’s
volumes; mathematically speaking a multiplication of their amplitudes.
Let’s take a quick look/listen:
1 Load snapshot 3, “Basic Saw.”
2 In the Mixer section, turn Osc 1 all the way down and RingMod all the
way up.
You can already hear ring modulation, but somehow it doesn’t sound very
exciting.
3 Set Osc 2 to “Sin.”
4 Turn “Interval” in Oscillator 2 down to −60 and play a low note.
Sounds like tremolo, doesn’t it? Sure does, and there’s a simple explana-
tion: Oscillator 2 is vibrating so slowly that it’s below the audible range and
acts more like an LFO. Since it modulates Oscillator 1, the result is a trem-
olo with a sine waveform.
5 Switch Oscillator 2’s waveform to pulse (“Puls”), and you get abrupt,
jumpy modulation.
OK, now we’re ready to see and hear ring modulation in action:
6 Hold the z key on your computer keyboard and gradually increase the
interval in Oscillator 2.
At around −30 the oscillator enters the audible range. Above that we begin
to get new tonal colors, most of them non-harmonic, just like with fre-
quency modulation. It sounds a little smoother, by the way, if you set Osc 1
to “Sin” and decrease the “Symm” value. This way, two sine waves are mod-
ulating each other.
At this point we can begin to make sense of the story that ring modulation
yields addition and subtraction of both frequencies. While the Sound-
Forum Synthesizer doesn’t completely stick to the theory, it does harbor
some of this. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
71
Basic Ring Modulation

We’ll start out with an instant recipe: Load snapshot 18, “Basic Ringmod.”
Here you have the classic laser effect that ring modulation is famous for.
To understand the patch, all you need to do is to turn down the “Amount”
knob in the “Filt-Env→Osc” section and then turn it up again slowly while
playing. You could also play around with the filter envelope.
Got it? The filter envelope modulates Oscillator 2’s pitch, sending it
through a universe of non-harmonic spectra.
Bells
One of ring modulation’s specialties is non-harmonics, an important
attribute of bell-like sounds. Here’s a basic patch for hundreds of bell
sounds:
1 Re-load snapshot 18, “Basic Ringmod.”
2 Deactivate the “Filt Env→Osc” section by switching off “P 2” and set
both oscillators to “Sin.”
3 Adjust release (“R”) in the amplitude envelope (“Amp Env”) to 57 so the
bells can ring out.
Now you can create a virtually infinite number of bell sounds by simply
varying the interval values for Oscillators 1 and 2.
Two modification tips:
❖ Edgier sound: Set one of the oscillators to “Puls.”
❖ Gong-like sounds: Use low “Interval” settings, lower cutoff and reso-
nance.
Make It Dirty
The SoundForum Synthesizer gives you separate access to the RingMod
output (in addition to the two oscillators). This allows you to mix it into
other programmed sounds to add a little dirt. It works best when the two
oscillators are set to different intervals.
Here are a couple of examples of easy snapshot modifications:
72
❖ Snapshot 11, “Basic Bass:” Set the interval for Osc 2 to 19 and add ring
modulation via the RingMod knob.
❖ Snapshot 13, “Basic Mini:” Set the interval for Osc 2 to −5 and add ring
modulation.
❖ Snapshot 20, “Modular Echo:” Set RingMod to 1, turn down Osc 1 and
2 in the mixer and experiment with Oscillator 2’s interval.
I know you’ve heard it before, but I’m going to say it (again) anyway: Exper-
imentation outside of the examples is not forbidden and can’t hurt …
After the next chapter you will have already acquired the basic knowledge
necessary to modify existing patches.
73
5
Conclusion of the Basic Course
When you have read all the chapters, including this one, and done your
share of sound programming experimentation, you will be able to right-
fully claim basic sound designer skills.
Our Curriculum
In the previous chapters we have continuously utilized the SoundForum
Synthesizer’s factory snapshots: Very simple little models that we mor-
phed into usable sounds while getting to know the functions of the Sound-
Forum Synthesizer through flesh-and-blood examples.
With this chapter I’d like to wrap up the basic course by examining the rest
of the patches, which are a bit more “finished.”
We’ll look at how they work and do some modifications. With each exam-
ple we’ll be studying a different category of synthesizer sounds.
Laser Effects
Laser effects, synth drums and many other sounds are based on filter self-
oscillation. Filter self-oscillation?!? Sounds complicated, I know, but it
really only means that the filter resonance is turned up so high that the fil-
ter begins to vibrate, creating its own sound. Thus the filter can be
employed as a third oscillator or even as an independent sound source.
The filter vibration is always a sine wave; you won’t find a waveform selec-
tion option here.
1 Load snapshot 10, “Basic Blip.”
75
5 Conclusion of the Basic Course
You hear a sort of “blip” sound that could otherwise only possibly be cre-
ated by rubber ducks sporting x-rated modifications … The filter envelope
controls the length and time progression of the sound by altering the filter
frequency and with it the “pitch” of the filter oscillation.
2 Play around with the attack (“A”), decay (“D”) and release (“R”) times in
the filter envelope while playing some notes.
3 Set the sustain (“S”) value in the amplitude envelope (“Amp Env”) to 1
so that the tone doesn’t die when you hold a key.
Everything clear so far? What else can we influence? Well, the effect of the
curve, for example:
4 Tweak the “Env” knob in the Filter section a bit. This control deter-
mines the amount of influence the filter envelope has on the filter fre-
quency (cutoff).
Now we’re going to create a proper Jean-Michael-Jarre laser sound by
bringing the LFO into the equation.
1 Re-load the same snapshot (10, “Basic Blip”).
2 Set both the “Filter Env” and “Amp Env” parameters to the following
values: A: 20, D: 75, S: 0.5, R: 75.
You’ve already got a perfect sound for a dive-bombing duck in a cartoon …
Moving right along:
3 Activate the “Filt” button in the LFO section and set “Amount” to 0.35.
The LFO is now routed to the filter and its modulation depth set, and we’ve
got the spiral dive for our rubber duck. Now we’ll turn it into a laser:
4 Adjust the LFO “Rate” to 20, increasing the speed of the modulation.
5 Set “Symm” to −0.99—this turns the soft sine tone into something
more sawtooth-like.
Feeling brave? Here are three exercises requiring you to apply what you’ve
learned thus far:
❖ Turn the LFO modulation into a trill in fifths.
❖ Deactivate the LFO and try to turn “Basic Blip” into an electronic bass
drum. It’s really not all that difficult but does require some thought.
76
Synth Basses
❖ Create a wind sound out of “Basic Blip” (you’ll need Osc 1 set to “Nois”
(noise)).
Synth Basses
Load snapshot 11, “Basic Bass;” a very simple, no-frills pulse-wave bass
sound. You could easily use it in place of an electric bass without ending
up with a synth-heavy mix. We will now program a variety of synth basses
by way of small changes while discovering which parameters control
which tonal characteristics.
First exercise is a classic, bone-dry synth bass, instantly recognizable as
such but not overbearing:
1 Set the waveform for Oscillator 1 to triangle (“Tri”) and turn “Symm” all
the way up.
This sets the SoundForum Synthesizer to a sawtooth waveform, which
immediately outs the sound as synthetic.
We also want it short and dry, so we’ll give it more resonance and a very
audible, cracking filter crash at attack:
2 Set the filter resonance at 0.43.
3 Adjust the filter envelope’s decay time (“D”) to 28 and sustain time
(“S”) to 0.4.
4 Turn the “Env” knob in the Filter section up to 70.
And there it is, our arid sawtooth bass.
From here we’ll move on to something really impressive: the kind of bass
that turns popcorn to dust in the cinema. This sound is extremely fat with
that typical dark, threatening decay.
1 Turn Osc 2 all the way up in the mixer. Set its Interval to −24 and
Detune to 0.1.
Now for the real phat: The SoundForum Synthesizer allows you to assign
multiple voices to one note, virtually multiplying the number of oscillators
at work.
77
2 Set the number of voices and the unison option (“VCS,” “UNISON,”
both in the toolbar) to 3.
Talk about power. Now for the decay:
3 Increase the decay time (“D”) in the filter envelope (“Filt Env”) to 55 and
the release time (“R”) in both the filter and the amplitude envelopes to
65.
Done! Now it’s your turn:
❖ More resonance and less “Env” gives you the typical “Das Boot” bass.
❖ While you’re at it, give all the other filter types from BL4 to HP1 a test
drive to see what effect they have on the sound.
Tip: The two letters stand for the type of filter (e.g., LP: low pass), while the number
indicates the steepness of the filter. You’ll learn exactly what that means a little
later
❖ Program the following bass sounds, one after another, and fine-tune
them to usable patches: A pulse bass with resonance and an octaver, a
sawtooth bass without resonance but with a sub-oscillator (two octaves
lower), and a “film score” bass with eight oscillators and slow attack.
Synth Horns
Snapshot 14, “Basic Brass,” demonstrates very nicely how synth horns
work. There are three crucial factors:
1 The waveform(s) of the oscillator(s); you should always start with a saw-
tooth.
2 A slight pitch envelope on the oscillator (refer to the “Filt-Env→Osc”
section) simulates the pitch-stabilization phase at the attack. When
using multiple oscillators, this effect adds to the fatness of the sound if
only one oscillator is “bent.”
3 The filter simulates the blowing effect via a fast—if not abrupt—attack
time and relatively slowly decaying envelope.
Beyond that, our analog possibilities allow us to vary:
78
Synth Horns
❖ The basic sound,

❖ the simulated number of horns and
❖ the “bite” of the sound.
First off, we’ll make the sound softer and thicker:
1 Set Oscillator 2’s interval to 1 and detune to −0.18. Adjust “Amount” in
the Filt-Env→Osc section to 0.04.
You’ll probably ask why increasing the pitch difference softens the audible
detuning. Good question—it’s easy to explain, though: The filter envelope
deflects the pitch from Oscillator 1.
2 Just to see what happens, turn “Amount” in the “Filt-Env→Osc” section
all the way up and listen. Afterwards, set it back to 0.04.
Since sustain is not set to zero, the pitch doesn’t end at its intended value.
We compensated for this with the interval setting. In real life you would
now tune the entire instrument down to adapt it to concert pitch.
Softer still:
3 Increase the attack (“A”) and decay (“D”) times in the filter envelope
(“Filter Env”) to 45.
The sound development is now nice and slow and ballad-like. Now let’s fat-
ten it up:
4 Set the filter to “LP2.”
The sound gets softer and, at the same time, more sparkle gets through.
5 Lower “Cutoff” to 55 and increase “Env” to 80.
Now it almost sounds like Toto’s “Africa,” known in certain circles as the
national hymn of aging Top-40 keyboardists …
And here’s your homework on synth horns:
❖ Turn down Osc 2 all the way in the mixer to give the sound a solo trom-
bone character.
❖ How could you make a clarinet sound out of this?
79
❖ Last but not least, program a brass section in octaves. For this, it makes
sense to re-load the original snapshot.
Synth Strings
Snapshot 15, “Basic String,” simulates something like a quartet of card-
board celli.
The typical fat, floating modulation is crucial to synth string sounds—
everything else is just a matter of personal taste. Not counting external
effects like chorus or ensemble, this effect can be created within the
SoundForum Synthesizer in two ways:
❖ Through vibrations caused by detuning the oscillators against each
other. One gets a vibrato; the other doesn’t. This is how it’s done in the
snapshot.
❖ Through pulse-width modulation, as seen in section “PWM” on
page 52. This method doesn’t work well with the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer, since the oscillators can’t be modulated individually—there is,
after all, only one LFO.
Let’s stick with method a. Right now, the sound isn’t very fat, since oscilla-
tors 1 and 2 are set to different waveforms; therefore, the modulation isn’t
as effective as it could be. We can change that:
1 Set Osc 2 to “Saw.”
2 Balance the mix by setting both Osc 1 and Osc 2 to 0.9 in the mixer.
It already sounds a lot phatter. The speed and intensity of the modulation
can be controlled via the “Rate” and “Amount” knobs in the LFO module.
You’ll soon discover how important these adjustments are.
In order to transform the preset into a nice string pad, we’ll lengthen the
attack and decay times and octave the two oscillators:
3 Set “Attack” in the Amp Env to 60 and “Release” in both the Amp Env
and Filt Env to 65.
4 Set “Interval” in Oscillator 2 to 12.
80
Synth Strings
Now it’s starting to sound like strings. Whenever you octave the oscillators,
be sure that any vibrato is on the higher of the two. Try it the other way
around and you’ll see why.
Now for the final touch:
5 Set the filter to “LP1” and “Cutoff” to 65.
This causes the filter to set in at a lower frequency, while the quartered
slope lets some higher frequencies through, making the sound less edgy—
a bit smoother.
And now a nice space pad to demonstrate the fact that the string model is
also capable of producing fully synthetic sounds:
1 Set both oscillators to “Puls” and turn “Symm” (“Puls-Sym” in Oscillator
2) all the way to the left.
2 Set “Interval” to 0 and “Detune” to 0.11.
Nice and hollow—artificial and cold. Now we’ll underline that with a cave-
like filter effect:
3 Set the filter to “BP4” and “Cutoff” to 60.
Now the filter acts as a band-pass, letting only the frequencies right around
the cutoff frequency through and suppressing not only the higher but also
the lower frequencies. The passing frequency band is accented by the reso-
nance. In addition, we’re going to deactivate the envelope:
4 Set “Env” in the Filter module to 0 and “Reson(ance)” to 0.6.
Done. Now it’s your turn again:
❖ Create a warm synthesizer pad.
❖ How can we make the sound fatter? (Hint: we did it already—see
above.)
❖ Try transforming the snapshot into a single violin (you’ll have to deacti-
vate one oscillator).
81
Weather and Echo

Last but not least you should utilize the knowledge gained in these first
chapters to discover how the two effect sounds at the bottom of the snap-
shot list work. I’m going to leave you on your own here with just a couple
of important tips to help you reach the goal:
1 Load snapshot 19, “Basic Thunder.”
2 Vary the following controls in the order listed, always setting them back
to their original positions:
❖ FM,
❖ Interval,
❖ Cutoff,
❖ Resonance,
❖ Amount (Filt-Env→Osc).
You might want to make a note with each variation regarding which aspect
of the sound each parameter effects. Analyze the sound Sherlock-Holmes
style and then try to vary it in a useful way.
Now for the last snapshot:
1 Load snapshot 20, “Basic Modular Echo.”
2 Vary the following controls in the LFO module:
❖ Rate,
❖ Symm,
❖ Amount.
That should have been much easier.
Congratulations! If you’ve gotten this far, you now have a basic understand-
ing of how a synthesizer works and how its parameters affect each other.
The fact that a good deal of experience is missing and there are still lots of
holes to fill shouldn’t diminish your well-earned sense of pride.
82
6
SoundForum Synthesizer Tutorial
In this chapter, we’ll explore the individual modules of the SoundForum

Synthesizer in depth. Most of the basic knowledge gained will be applicable
to virtually every synthesizer, giving you something for the rest of your syn-
thesizing days.
In my opening words, I vehemently defended the premise that one does

not have to devour endless amounts of dreary synthesizer theory to attain
the capability to program sounds. And, in the foregoing chapters, we
jointly proved this admittedly somewhat questionable premise to be true:
You have already tackled several fairly complex sound-design challenges
without even beginning to feel laden with theoretical ballast.
If you’ve made it this far, you obviously enjoy programming sounds, and I
assume you want to dig a little deeper. Before we can really go much fur-
ther, though, I have to be able to assume that you’re completely familiar
with terms like “resonance” and “LFO rate.”
The goal of this chapter is to examine the functions and modules of the
SoundForum Synthesizer more closely and, with the help of several exper-
iments, to give you a clear idea of what a synthesizer is capable of. This
knowledge can of course be applied to other synthesizers of the same basic
type, whether it be a thirty-year old analog dinosaur or a state-of-the-art
software synth.
This tutorial should also motivate those of you who already felt capable of
sound programming to stop and re-evaluate.
Or, as John Wayne might have said: “Let the horses drink and get a good
night’s sleep. Tomorrow we’ve all got to give our best, and then we’ll show
you who’s the boss around here!”
83
6 SoundForum Synthesizer Tutorial
Basic Functions
Before we embark on the long trek through sound generation, I’d like to
examine a couple of functions that are part of the daily routing of every
dedicated sound designer. Among others, these are the functions for load-
ing and storing sounds, assigning controllers and programming especially
fat sounds.
Detailed explanations for all functions—including the less interesting and more
important ones—can be found in the chapter “The SoundForum Synthesizer” on
page 19.
Loading and Storing Sounds and Banks

Filemenu
The File Menu of the SoundForum Synthesizer.
As we learned in the first chapters, a SoundForum Synthesizer sound is

referred to as a “snapshot.” The entire status of the synthesizer, including
an almost unlimited number of snapshots, can be stored as an “ensem-
ble.”
This nomenclature was derived from Reaktor, Native Instruments’ synthesizer mod-
eling system, upon which the SoundForum Synthesizer is based.
84
Basic Functions
Here, “storing” refers to writing data in a file on a storage medium, e.g. a

harddisk, whereas “saving” refers to placing a set of data in RAM.
When storing an ensemble, not only the snapshots, but also virtually all
device settings—including for example sample rate, MIDI controller
assignments and maximum number of voices—are stored with the file.
We will explore these possibilities in more depth in a following section.
Ensembles can be loaded and stored via the first three entries in the file
menu. And snapshots? You guessed it: “Load/Save Snapshots.”
I suggest using snapshots to share sound banks with other SoundForum Synthe-
sizer users. Using ensembles could wreak havoc on your buddy’s sound card and
controller settings, unnecessarily stressing a good friendship.
Storing Single Snapshots

storesnapshot
Click on the camera symbol, enter a number and name and click “Store”:
Voilà—you’ve stored a snapshot.
If, in the course of your experiments, you come up with something use-
able that you’d like to save for posterity, you can do this by selecting the
“Store Snapshot” entry in the instrument menu.
85
A dialog box opens, enabling you to name and store your current settings
as a snapshot, so that you can load it later from the snapshot list. (The
same dialog is more easily accessible via the camera symbol.) The upper
part of the dialog box also allows you to overwrite or delete individual snap-
shots.
Interactive Help
mousehelp
If interactive help is activated via the “Show Hints” button at the left of the
toolbar, a text will appear at each control element describing its function.
Each function and parameter of the SoundForum Synthesizer features an

integrated help text when the mouse points to the respective control ele-
ment or area on the panel.
❖ To activate or deactivate interactive help, click on the “Show Hints” but-
ton (arrow/question mark symbol) in the toolbar.
You’re invited to take a brief tour with the mouse …
86
Basic Functions
I recommend deactivating interactive help once you’ve become accustomed to the

SoundForum Synthesizer; as nice as help texts are, they can get on your nerves
after a while.
Remote Control of the SoundForum Synthesizer

As with most comparable synthesizers, the SoundForum Synthesizer’s
control elements can be remote controlled. Each parameter can be
assigned to a MIDI controller number, allowing MIDI remote control of
the parameter.
This allows you to control and program the SoundForum Synthesizer
using an external controller like a USB keyboard, or to use a MIDI soft-
ware sequencer to enter and edit controller data, automating the synthe-
sizer with a song. You can also create an editor with a sequencer program
for editing and archiving sounds.
The reverse applies as well: you can also control external synthesizers with
the SoundForum Synthesizer.
MIDI controller assignments are “device data,” meaning that they only
need to be made once (not per snapshot); they are stored with the ensem-
ble file.
The easiest way to assign MIDI controllers is to use the “MIDI Learn”
function:
1 Activate the MIDI Learn function via the corresponding button in the
toolbar (MIDI jack symbol with an “L”).
2 Click a parameter on the SoundForum Synthesizer panel and turn or
push the desired control element on the external controller. Done.
Controller assignments can be inspected, edited and/or manually entered
in the Parameter Properties dialog box (see illustration below), opened by
double-clicking the control element.
87
context_properties
In this example, Oscillator 2’s mix control is assigned to MIDI controller 23.
The left half of the dialog relates to the individual control element, while
the right half affects the entire instrument. Here’s the procedure for man-
ual setting:
1 Activate the “Remote” option for the control element.
2 Enter the desired controller number for remote control of the parame-
ter. Done.
As an extra option for the more adventurous, parameters can also be controlled via
polyphonic aftertouch. We won’t discuss that here; anyone wishing to take advan-
tage of this feature should know how to use it.
Generally speaking, you will be using standard MIDI controllers. It makes
sense to use the same assignments for the SoundForum Synthesizer that
you use for your favorite hardware synth; this saves time and thought, and
allows you to run parallel tracks for both. I recommend reserving a dedi-
cated ensemble for this purpose.
You’ll have to experiment a bit with the assignments; not all parameters
are as clear-cut as “Filter Cutoff” or “Attack Time.” For this reason, I rec-
ommend assigning only common parameters for remote control; other-
wise you’ll end up in the jungle at some point.
88
Basic Functions
To remote control an external synth with the SoundForum Synthesizer

(e.g. to realize parallel filter sweeps), active the “Panel to MIDI Out” option
in the Properties dialog.
If “Remote to MIDI Out” is activated, controller events received by the SoundForum
Synthesizer are forwarded to external MIDI equipment.
❖ The Instrument Properties dialog is opened via a click on the Properties
button in the toolbar (paper in hand symbol).
Maximum Number of Voices

The maximum number of voices, as well as the number of voices for uni-
son mode, can be programmed for each snapshot. The former can be set
in the “VCS” field at the right of the toolbar.
The maximum number of available voices depends largely upon the pro-
cessing power and speed of your computer and the sample rate. More pro-
cessing power and/or a lower sample rate will allow you more voices. I rec-
ommend the following procedure to determine the maximum number of
voices for your system:
1 Set “VCS” to a low value (2 to 5).
2 Select a sample rate in the System menu (44.1 kHz is recommended for
optimal sound quality, whereas 32 kHz is fine for sound program-
ming).
3 Slowly increase the “VCS” value. Wait until the processor load display
stabilizes before each increase.
Be sure to keep at least a 40-percent reserve in standby mode; the processor load
increases as soon as you play. With this kind of reserve, even fast figures shouldn’t
overload the processor.
Speaking of overloads: They can lead to crashes, especially with systems
that are not configured properly, and thus should be avoided (like a key-
boardist should avoid the drummer’s girlfriend …).
How nice that the SoundForum Synthesizer features an automatic func-
tion to prevent overloads:
89
❖ Activate the “Automatic Voice Reduction” option in the Instrument

Properties dialog (paper in hand symbol).
To give you an idea of what should be possible: My timid little writing lap-
top (an IBM ThinkPad 1200 with a 550 MHz Celeron processor) easily
generated 32 voices at 44.1 kHz and 40% reserve—far more than many
hardware synthesizers.
A good—or more appropriately nasty—sound for testing is snapshot 20, “Basic
Modular Echo,” with quick figures.
Unison
The SoundForum Synthesizer allows you to play single notes with several
identical voices that are detuned against each other, giving you 4, 6 or even
32 oscillators per note instead of two. This results in extremely fat, lush
sounds that work especially well for leads, pads and effects.
You can activate the unison mode directly by increasing the Unison value
in the toolbar (far right). However, I recommend opening the Instrument
Properties dialog and entering “2” in the “Min Unison Voices” field. Even
with extreme Unison settings above 4, the SoundForum Synthesizer will
attempt to play all notes by automatically reducing the number of unison
voices in the case of processor overload.
Although we already made acquaintance with the unison mode in the
Synth Basses section on page 77, another small experiment is in order:
1 Load snapshot 15, “Basic String.”
A friendly little pad sound that could use some fat.
2 Assuming you have activated Automatic Voice Reduction and correctly
set Max Unison Voices, set the Unison value to 5.
Quite an improvement already, isn’t it? We’re going to take it a step further,
though:
3 In the Instrument Properties dialog you’ll find the parameter “Unison
Spread,” which determines the amount of detuning between the uni-
son voices. Set this parameter to 0.1.
90
Basic Functions
Even more phat! Careful, though: At values above 0.15 or so it starts sound-
ing more like a hurdy-gurdy.
Caution: The increase in the total number of voices also increases the volume,
which can lead to distortion. If distortion occurs, try lowering the level in the Mas-
ter module above the oscilloscope.
Monophonic Sounds
There are certain lead sounds that are preferably played monophonically.
To achieve this, simply set VCS to 1. To play a monophonic sound in uni-
son mode, set VCS and Unison to identical values.
In this application there is the risk that the “Voice Allocation” settings
(Instrument Properties) may work against you.
1 In the Instrument Properties dialog, set “Min Unison Voices” and “Max
Unison Voices” to the same value and deactivate “Automatic Voice
Reduction.” This way, the sound always plays monophonically, regard-
less of how many notes you play.
2 Try this with snapshot 13, “Basic Mini,” using the above-described set-
tings.
3 For a thin but cutting unison sound, set “Unison” to 3 and “Unison
Spread” to 0.02.
Another Tip
Unison sounds are especially hard on your processor. And it’s not much
fun playing polyphonic unison pads if you have to stop every 30 seconds to
reactivate audio processing due to processor overload.
If you have a sampler, it’s not a bad idea to program a really fat sound with
the SoundForum Synthesizer and sample it as a multisample. Then you
can play it with the sampler’s full polyphony (and use the SoundForum
Synthesizer for something else).
With that, I’ll close the tips-and-tricks section of the tutorial. In the next
section we’ll explore sound generation.
91
Sound Generation Modules
The second part of the SoundForum Synthesizer tutorial will familiarize

you with the sound generation, with the focus on the interaction between
the modules.
Audio and Control Modules

The SoundForum Synthesizer’s sound generation architecture is identical
to that of all synthesizers using analog synthesis. This includes old analog
models by ARP, Moog or Yamaha, as well as the so-called “virtual analog”
synths by Access or Clavia, and software synths like the Pro-53.
In the “How Does Simple Synthesis Work?” section on page 41, I briefly
explained the concept. Here we’ll be exploring the interaction between the
individual sections or “modules” of the synthesizer.
These modules can basically be split into two groups: Audio modules and
control modules.
Audio modules are circuits that generate or directly influence the audio sig-
nal. The chain of audio modules forms the signal path.
Every synthesizer sound requires a time-based progression, e.g. the devel-

opment of the sound between pressing and releasing the key, and a con-
current automatically generated modulation. Enter the control modules,
which automatically vary or “modulate” such things as waveform, tonal
color or volume.
92
Audio Modules
A “normal” analog synthesizer’s audio modules include one or more oscil-
lators, a mixer, a filter und an amplifier.
Different synthesizers will vary in the number and exact configuration of
modules; the SoundForum Synthesizer represents a good average, offer-
ing two well-equipped oscillators and a multi-mode filter above and
beyond “standard appointment.”
Controllable Sound
Module Function Parameters Role
Oscillator Generates the basic waveform Pitch Sound generation
Waveform
Mixer Controls the balance between the Output level of each Sound mix
oscillators oscillator; amount of
ring modulation
Filter Programs the filter characteristic Tonal color Sound shaping
Amplifier Programs the volume Volume Volume control
This table shows the function and role of the various audio modules.
Basic programming of the audio modules looks something like this:

❖ Waveform and pitch are selected for each oscillator. Using different
waveforms for each oscillator results in a waveform mix; different pitch
settings result in modulation or an interval.
❖ The level balance between the oscillators is set in the mixer. The mixer
outputs a waveform mix, which can already include intervals and mod-
ulation. This concludes the actual sound generation.
❖ The mixer signal is routed to the filter, where a tonal color is formed
from the raw waveform mix.
❖ The amplifier controls the volume of the signal. As in most synthesiz-
ers, the SoundForum Synthesizer’s amplifier is invisible.
93
Audio_control
The SoundForum Synthesizer’s audio modules (dark gray) and control modules
(light gray).
The illustration above is a stylized depiction of the SoundForum Synthe-

sizer. The dark gray modules are the audio modules. The signal path flows
from the upper left to the lower right.
For the most part, the user interface follows this layout scheme, which was
introduced with the good old Minimoog.
The amplifier is not visible in the illustration, but is hidden behind the
“Amp Env” module, which actually controls the amplifier (that’s why this
module is partially colored dark gray).
Sound Generation and Sound Shaping

Let’s practice the process illustrated in the functions table on a “live sub-
ject,” precisely following the signal path.
Important: Each step in the following sections builds upon the previous steps.
Please do not overwrite or delete the sound between steps! It’s probably safest to
store the sound after each exercise as a snapshot.
1 Load snapshot 3, “Basic Saw.” Oscillator 1 generates a raw waveform; all
other modules are currently dormant.
94
2 You can influence the pitch, either by way of the note played or with the
“Interval” control.
3 Change Oscillator 1’s waveform by clicking the four buttons “Puls,”
“Tri,” “Sin” and “Nois.” Then select “Tri” and set “Symm” to 1.
Now we’ll bring the second oscillator and the mixer into play:
4 Set “Osc 2” in the Mixer to 0.8 and set Oscillator 2’s “Interval” to 12.
The simple waveform has been transformed to a mixed waveform. The
“Detune” value of 0.02 in the Oscillator 2 module results in a light modu-
lation.
So much for sound generation; now we’ll move on to sound shaping:
1 Set “Cutoff” in the Filter module to 70.
The sound becomes very dark.
2 Set “Reson(ance)” to 0.85.
We’ll leave it at that for now. You can see what a powerful influence the fil-
ter has on the tonal color.
Now we have a waveform mix whose tonal color has been processed by the
filter. The resulting sound is pretty static, though, not to say boring. But
wait: We have the control modules …
95
Control Modules
Control modules are synthesizer circuits that the audio signal does not di-
rectly pass. Their sole function is to generate control signals that automate
specific parameters of the audio modules.
These control signals can be cyclic in nature, i.e. vibrato or tremolo, or sin-
gle progressions which are triggered by pressing a key, such as an enve-
lope.
A Brief Introduction to Control Voltage

True analog synthesizers utilize control voltage as a control signal. The
modules are interconnected via control voltage inputs. Thanks to a uni-
form control voltage, a principle credited to Bob Moog, virtually any
parameter of any signal in the synthesizer can be modulated.
Control voltages can be used to directly influence the pitch of the oscilla-
tors, the center frequency of the filter or the volume.
Like similar virtual analog synthesizers, the SoundForum Synthesizer
exactly reproduces this principle. Some modern virtual modular synthesiz-
ers like the Clavia Nord Modular even feature “patchable” graphic displays
of the modules with inputs and outputs. In the SoundForum Synthesizer,
these connections are invisible—at least almost (we’ll come back to the
“almost” part later).
Automating Sound
Take another look at the “Audio and control modules” illustration (page 94)
and pay special attention to the light-gray colored control modules. They
are not yet active in our current example sound and won’t be until they are
expressly activated. That’s exactly what we’re going to do now.
First we’ll add some time-based modulation to the sound. We want the
sound to develop quickly when a key is pressed and then fade slowly; the
fade should affect not only the volume, but also the tonal color.
96
Time-based modulations are generated with envelopes. The SoundForum

Synthesizer’s envelopes are called “Filter Env(elope)” and “Amp Env
(elope).”
1 Maximize the amount of influence the filter envelope has by setting the
“Env” control in the Filter module to 100.
2 Set the “Filter Env” module’s controls to the following values: A = 20,
D = 45, S = 0.55, R = 60.
3 Set the “R” (Release) control in the “Amp Env” module to 60.
4 Play a note.
The modulation of the sound is clearly audible: The filter frequency
“moves” as if you first quickly opened the cutoff control and then slowly
turned it down. This movement is automated via the envelope, which
reacts to the key being depressed and released.
By increasing the “R” (release) value in the “Amp Env” module, you pro-
grammed the slow fade of the sound after releasing the key.
Now we’ll add a cyclic modulation to the sound; namely vibrato:
1 Set the “Amount” control in the LFO module to 0.13.
2 Click the “P 2” button in the LFO module to deactivate it. Now, only
Oscillator 1 is affected by the vibrato. You’ll find out why in the next sec-
tion.
Contrary to an envelope, the LFO is not dependent upon depression or
release of a key, but rather runs its course independently of any other
action. The SoundForum Synthesizer’s LFO is reset with each new note.
Some synthesizers allow you to choose whether it is reset or not.
The effect of the LFO is similar to a continuous back-and-forth movement
of the corresponding control.
97
Module Function Parameters Purpose

Filter Generates a time-based Attack Tonal color
Env(elope) modulation of the filter cutoff Decay modulation
frequency. Can be routed to Sustain
oscillators via “Filt- Release
Env→Osc”
Filt-Env→ Routes the filter envelope to Modulation destination Waveform or pitch
Osc(illator) various oscillator parameters (switchable), modulation modulation
amount
Amp Generates time-based Attack Volume development
Env(elope) amplitude (volume) Decay over time
modulation Sustain
Release
LFO Generates modulation Waveform, symmetry, Effects (vibrato, wah-
vibrations rate, modulation wah, tremolo, trills,
destination (switchable), random)
modulation amount
This table shows the function and purpose of the various control modules.
Activating Control Modules

While the “Amp Env” module is essentially always active, the control sig-
nals of the “LFO” and “Filter Env” modules must be routed to a parameter
in order to influence the sound.
The “Env” parameter in the Filter module controls the influence of the fil-
ter envelope on the cutoff frequency.
In addition, the filter envelope can be routed to various oscillator parame-
ters; this is the purpose of the “Filt-Env→Osc” module.
The LFO can also be routed to oscillators, filter frequency and amplitude.
In the “Basic Saw” snapshot, for example, it is routed to the oscillators.
The modulation source/destination routing is programmed via a combina-
tion of buttons, which determines the internal patching, as well as the
Amount control, which determines the depth of the modulation.
98
To illustrate: In the “LFO” module, you’ll find a button named “Filt.” This
button routes the LFO to the cutoff frequency. When you activate this but-
ton, the LFO signal is connected to the filter’s cutoff frequency. The extent
to which the LFO influences the cutoff frequency is determined by the
“Amount” control.
Let’s give this a test run:
1 Using the same example sound, click the “P 2” button in the “Filt-
Env→Osc” module and set “Amount” to 1.
The result may not sound very pleasant, but it demonstrates the principle
well: Oscillator 2’s pitch now follows the progression of the filter envelope.
2 For a somewhat less demonstrative but more pleasant sound, deactivate
“P 2” and activate “Amp 2.”
Now Oscillator 2 decays more quickly and the filter effect seems to be
amplified.
3 For a more dramatic effect, set the oscillator levels in the Mixer module
to 0.8 for Osc 1 and 1 for Osc 2.
By simply modifying the routing, you have dramatically transformed the
effect of the modulation.
Brief Summary
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this section is to help you better
understand the interaction of the various modules that make up the
SoundForum Synthesizer. If you’ve done all the exercises correctly, the
example sound that we’ve programmed in this section should look like
this:
99
This is what your example sound should look like.
In conclusion I’d like to present a brief analysis of this sound, which also
forms the basis for your next bit of “homework.” Please compare the anal-
ysis step by step with the synthesizer panel. If the synthesizer is not avail-
able, the foregoing illustration will serve as a substitute of sorts. Correlate
the descriptions with the parameter settings.
Audio Modules
❖ Oscillator 1 und 2 each generate a sawtooth waveform. They are tuned
in an octave and slightly detuned.
❖ The filter is set to a 24-dB low-pass with a high resonance value and is
modulated by the filter envelope.
❖ The amplitude (volume) progresses neutrally until the key is released,
after which the sound decays slowly.
Control Modules
❖ The filter envelope generates a peak when the key is pressed, then
remains at half-mast and decays slowly after the key is released.
❖ The LFO generates a light pitch modulation via a sine wave (vibrato),
which affects only Oscillator 1, thereby intensifying the modulation.
100
Sound Parameters in Depth
❖ Via the “Filt Env→Osc” module, the filter envelope also controls the vol-
ume of Oscillator 2 (independently of the total volume), causing it to
decay more quickly.
Wasn’t too difficult, was it? Now for the “homework”:
1 Go through all 20 snapshots in the SoundForum Synthesizer and ana-
lyze the modules—first the audio, then the control modules. I suggest
you take written notes of your results.
2 Select as many of your favorite sounds in your favorite synthesizer—it
doesn’t have to be analog—and analyze these in the same fashion.
You’ll be surprised at how easy this is, and you’ll almost be able to hear the
mysteries of sound synthesis unravel.
In the next section we’ll be working with a new set of snapshots while we
take a complete tour of the individual modules, during which we will be
putting all—and I mean all—parameters to the test.
In this chapter we’ll be tweaking each parameter and experiencing what it

has to offer.
Example Files
For this chapter we’ll expand our snapshots:
❖ Load Tutorial.ens via the Open entry in the File menu.
101
Oscillator 1
Oscillator1
Oscillator 1
The two oscillators of the SoundForum Synthesizer differ in just a few

meaningful ways.
1 Load the snapshot “Oscillator 1.”
It all begins with the buttons for waveform selection. The choices are
Puls(e), Tri(angle), Sin(e) und Nois(e).
Puls
The width of the pulse wave can be continuously adjusted via the “Symm”
control.
1 Play a few notes.
In the default setting, the oscillator generates a square wave—we are
reminded of the charm of early video games.
This waveform is called “square wave,” meaning that the pulse and the
pulse pause are exactly the same width. You can observe this in the oscillo-
scope. The trademark hollow sound is characteristic for older video game
sound effects.
2 While playing, turn up the “Symm” knob.
The pulse becomes narrower and the sound transforms from “hollow” to
“nasal.”
As we experienced in foregoing sections, pulse waves are universally usable.
102
Next to the sawtooth wave, pulse waves are the richest in overtones and
therefore especially suited for “cutting” sounds of all types.
Tri
The triangle wave contains very few overtones, making it less “aggressive”
and suitable for adding bass portions or for softer sounds. The Sound-
Forum Synthesizer features a special trick: The “Symm” control “bends”
the waveform clockwise until the triangle waveform becomes a sawtooth.
1 Reload the snapshot “Oscillator 1.”
2 Switch the waveform to “Tri.”
3 Hold a note, turn up the “Symm” knob and observe the oscilloscope.
In this way, you can continuously vary the overtone content and with it the
“sharpness” of the waveform. The resulting sawtooth is edgy and cutting.
The sawtooth waveform contains all overtones in the harmonic series and
is best suited for pads, brass, strings and other “whole grain” sounds.
Sin
The sine is a pure tone with no overtones, similar to the tone created by a
tuning fork. As most of you know, any waveform can be dissected into
individual vibrations with different frequencies and amplitudes; in
essence, the sine wave is the atom of sound synthesis.
The SoundForum Synthesizer also allows you to continuously transform a
sine wave into a sawtooth; there is an important difference, however: the
sine-based sawtooth is rounder and fuller than its triangle counterpart,
and thus more suited to basses and pads.
◆ Observe the sine-sawtooth transformation on the oscilloscope.
103
Nois
Last but not least, Oscillator 1 also offers white noise. Common uses
include the breath noise of a pan flute, snare sounds, wind, waves and
steam.
Technically speaking, white noise is a signal which contains all frequen-
cies, statically and in equal portions—comparable to white light as the
sum of all colors.
Symm
We’ve already used this control: It bends a triangle or sine wave clockwise,
distorting the curve and generating waveforms with additional overtones.
Interval
This control transposes Oscillator 1 in half-tone steps.
FM
We explored frequency modulation in section “Frequency Modulation” on
page 57. As a brief refresher on the effect of this control:
1 Load the snapshot “Oscillator FM.”
Here, Oscillator 2 is turned up in the Mixer module. Why? Because it acts
as the carrier in the FM oscillator pair, while Oscillator 2 acts as the modu-
lator.
The “FM” parameter determines the “volume” at which the output of
Oscillator 1 is routed to the input of Oscillator 2; basically a sort of modula-
tion depth control.
In other words, the “FM” parameter determines the overtone content of
the resulting sound spectrum, while the “Interval” parameter determines
the overtone allocation or tonal color.
2 Experiment with both parameters and listen to the results.
The waveforms of both oscillators also influence the resulting tonal color.
Tip: Try white noise with a low FM value!
104
Oscillator 2
Here we only need to look at the differences from Oscillator 1:
❖ The “Puls-Sym” control determines only the pulse width.
❖ A fixed sawtooth wave is included.
❖ The symmetry of the “Tri” and “Sin” waveforms is not variable.
❖ There is an additional “Detune” control.
Detune
This control allows you to detune Oscillator 2 continuously. Well, almost
continuously: the values are in hundredths of whole notes, or cents.
Detuning Oscillator 2 of course only makes sense in combination with
Oscillator 1—then it results in a modulation.
◆ Load the snapshot “Oscillator Detune” and listen to the modulation ef-
fect.
The effect is most noticeable when both oscillators are set to the same
waveform, volume and interval values, especially with overtone-rich wave-
forms.
Mixer
Except for the “RingMod” parameter I would assume that the
Mixer module is self-explanatory. Next to the cautionary tip not
to set both oscillators to full level to avoid distortion, only one
aspect of the mixer seems to merit mention:
RingMod
We paid our respects to ring modulation in section “Ring Mod-
ulation” on page 71. At this point I’d simply like to briefly reiter-
ate on what the control does:
❖ There’s a small, invisible module inside the SoundForum
Synthesizer that multiplies the output signals from Oscilla- Mixer
tor 1 and Oscillator 2.
105
❖ The “RingMod” control mixes the output of this signal with the two
oscillator signals.
Check out what ring modulation sounds like:
1 Load the snapshot “Mixer RingMod.”
2 Tweak the “Interval” and “Symm” controls on both oscillators.
3 Be sure to also experiment with different waveforms.
Filter
Filter
The Filter module of the SoundForum Synthesizer.
If one is to believe the comments found in numerous analog-freak forums,

the filter is the most important aspect of any synthesizer. Some think this
is absolute nonsense. We prefer not to become involved in subjective argu-
ments, but rather to stick to the facts:
The SoundForum Synthesizer’s filter is a rather luxurious multi-mode
model. In other words, the filter characteristic is not fixed, as with simple
filters, but rather selectable.
To this end there are eight buttons on the left of the Filter module, each
labeled with two letters and one number.
What exactly do these labels mean?
❖ The first letter represents the actual filter mode: Low-pass (L), band-
pass (B) or high-pass (H). Except for the combined band-/low-pass
modes, the second letter is always P for pass.
106
❖ The number in the third position stands for the number of serial
switched individual filters or poles. Each of these poles generates a
slope of 6 dB per octave. Thus, a 4-pole filter is the steepest, with 24
dB/octave.
A Brief Introduction to Slope

The frequency at which the filter begins to operate is known as the cutoff
frequency. A slope of 12 dB/octave means that frequencies which are one
octave from the cutoff frequency will be attenuated (cut) by 12 dB. But it’s
always better to hear than to read:
1 Load the snapshot “Filter Slope Test.”
Like the name implies, this snapshot serves to test the slope and is pro-
grammed so that the signal from Oscillator 1—a sine wave—lays almost
exactly one octave above the cutoff frequency when you play G2 (note
number 55) on a MIDI keyboard or the t key on your computer keyboard.
2 Switch the filter between LP1, LP2 and LP4 while playing G2 or the t
key.
In LP (low-pass) mode, the filter only allows frequencies below the cutoff
frequency to pass unchanged. The filter takes effect above the cutoff fre-
quency. This explains why a low-pass filter is often compared to a high-fre-
quency or treble control.
You’ll notice that LP1 has the least noticeable effect (6 dB attenuation),
while LP2 is a bit stronger (12 dB) and LP4 very noticeably attenuates (24
dB).
3 Set “Interval” in Oscillator 1 to 24. The attenuation now increases to 12
dB with LP1, 24 dB with LP2 and 48 dB with LP4, since there are now
two octaves between the audio signal and the cutoff frequency.
One more small experiment:
1 Set “Interval” to −12.
The cutoff and oscillator frequencies are now identical.
2 Play G2 (or the “T” key) and slowly turn up the Interval control.
107
The higher you turn up the Interval control, the quieter the tone becomes
as the oscillator frequency is tuned further away from the cutoff frequency.
Filter mode
Following what we’ve learned so far, the HP1 filter is a high-pass filter with
a 6 dB/octave slope, while BP4 represents a band-pass filter with a 24 dB/
octave slope.
What exactly do low-pass, high-pass and band-pass mean?
❖ We just explained low-pass: It filters the frequencies above the cutoff
frequency (highs).
❖ A high-pass does exactly the opposite: it attenuates the frequencies
below the cutoff frequency (lows).
❖ Band-pass is a combination of the other two; it lets only a small fre-
quency band around the cutoff frequency pass through unaltered.
But we’re getting too theoretical again—time for another experiment:
1 Load the snapshot “Filter—Mode Test.”
The basic signal in this patch is white noise, which allows us to perfectly
hear the effect of the filter since all frequencies are present.
2 Turn the “Cutoff” knob back and forth while playing and listen care-
fully to the effect.
That fat, smacking tone you hear is due to the half-opened filter resonance,
which we’ll get to in just a moment. Now the actual experiment:
3 Switch through the various filter modes one at a time while playing,
and pay attention to their effect.
4 Compare your impressions to the following table:
108
Cutoff value 0 70 140

Mode Filter lets through …
HP Everything Mids/highs Only highs
LP Only lows Lows and mids Everything
BP Only lows Only mids Only highs
Which filter mode has which effect?
There are two more things you should know:

❖ A band-pass is made up of a high-pass and low-pass combined.
❖ The special combination BL4 consists of a 6-dB high-pass and an 18-dB
low-pass. This often sounds more musical than the BP4 mode, since it
attenuates highs nicely but is a little more gentle with the lows.
That’s about the least amount of filter theory we can get away with. Now
we can get on with the rest of the actual parameters.
Resonance
The filter resonance may be just one small, humble knob among many, yet
it’s the thing that gives a sound that unmistakable synthesizer character.
Technically speaking, resonance emphasizes the signal in the range of the
cutoff frequency. Once again, listening is the key to understanding:
1 Load the snapshot “Filter Resonance Test.” Again, white noise is used.
2 Hold a note while gradually increasing the resonance value, and turn
the cutoff knob back and forth with each new resonance setting.
3 Try the same with different filter modes.
If you like, you can also switch to sawtooth or pulse waveforms occasion-
ally. Although the filter seems to get “edgier” with increased resonance,
what actually happens is that a very narrow frequency band in the cutoff-
frequency range is amplified—the filter effect remains the same.
4 Before you finish, set Resonance to 1.
109
Such a high resonance value causes the filter to self-vibrate. You don’t only
hear this vibration, but you can also play it—sort of like a third oscillator.
K-Track
This parameter allows you to play the filter like an oscillator. K-Track
stands for keyboard tracking, and means exactly that: The filter tracks the
keyboard.
The higher this value, the more the cutoff frequency is transposed accord-
ing to the notes played. This is especially effective with instrument sounds;
without it, lower notes sound to bright and higher notes too dull. Again, a
little experiment:
1 Load the snapshot “Filter K-Track.”
This organ sound is created using the two oscillators tuned in octaves,
with the filter acting as a third sine wave playing the part of a 2-2/3' stop.
2 Hold the i key on your computer keyboard.
3 Turn the “K-Track” knob down; the cutoff frequency moves. Compen-
sate by turning “Cutoff” up to 92.
4 If you now play various notes with K-Track set to 0, the filter will not be
transposed and the tonal color will remain the same regardless of the
note played.
When K-Track is deactivated, low notes sound brighter than high ones since they
are further removed from the cutoff frequency.
Tip: You should lower the master level when using high resonance values
to avoid distortion.
We forgot one control, “Env.” I have to admit, though, that this was at least
partially intentional, to increase the anticipation of the following sections,
in which we’ll discuss envelopes, LFO and the modulation module.
110
Amp Env
The “Amp Env” module allows us to program a time-based amplitude
curve for the sound by determining attack (A), decay (D), sustain (S) and
release (R) times. Hmm … we’ve actually just explained the parameter/con-
trol labels …
AmpEnv
A simple ADSR envelope (“Amp Env”) generates the amplitude (volume)

curve.
1 Load snapshot 28 “Amp Envelope Test.”

I did my best to program the envelope so that it’s not only audible, but also
visible.
2 Play a note in the middle range and follow the envelope on three levels:
acoustically, visually using the graphic display and optically using the
oscilloscope.
Now follow the curve through four phases:
1 First the volume increases (attack; “A”).
2 Next it abruptly falls (decay; “D” at 0).
3 Then it remains at a low level (sustain; “S”).
4 After the key is released, the sound fades (release; “R”).
This type of envelope is referred to as an ADSR envelope. The name is
derived from the four fixed phases:
1 Attack: The time after a key is pressed before the sound reaches its max-
imum level;
111
2 Decay: The time until the sound reaches its “hold” level;
3 Sustain: The “hold” level of the sound;
4 Release: The time until the sound completely fades after a key is
released.
The following factors are important to note:
❖ All ADSR parameters control time, except for the Sustain parameter,
which determines the hold level until the key is released.
❖ The A, D and S phases are run through while a note is held; the R
(release) phase is entered once the key is released (hence the term
“release”).
Why a pre-programmed time-based curve? Well, an ADSR envelope is suf-
ficient for a vast majority of all curves needed in practice, and is easy to
program. Beginners love it, sound designers hate it, but it has survived
since the early analog days.
Complex digital synthesizers often use freely programmable phases with
completely adjustable transition times and final levels.
So much for basic knowledge. The following table shows ADSR settings
for a variety of instruments and serves as a reference point; the settings
represent approximately the instruments’ natural amplitude curves.
Program these settings with snapshot 28 and vary them to get a feeling for
the envelope’s effect.
112
Instrument A D S|s R
Piano 0 65 0.0 25
Harp 0 40 0.0 40
Xylophone 0 25 0.0 25
Organ 0 0 1.0 0
Pipe organ 20 50 0.8 20
Strings 40 50 0.85 20
Horns 25 30 0.7 15
Reverse 50 0 0.0 0
Long Pad 65 0 1.0 65
Table of typical amplitude curves (Amp Envelope).
A couple of comments on these curves:

❖ When the decay and release times are identical, as with the harp, it
makes no difference how long you hold the key. This of course is not
the case with the piano.
❖ Minimal steps, like those in the decay times for pipe organ, strings or
horns, are barely audible in the amplitude curve—but just wait till we
get to the filter envelope!
❖ These settings are only meant to be simplified reference points and will
vary from instrument to instrument, as from range to range.
113
Filter Env
Although the structure of the filter envelope is identical to that of the
amplitude envelope, there are three crucial differences:
❖ The filter envelope controls the cutoff frequency and with it the devel-
opment of the tonal color.
❖ While the amplitude envelope always fully influences the amplitude
(similar to an inserted effect), the effect of the filter envelope can be var-
ied or even completely deactivated via the “Env” control.
❖ The filter envelope can be inverted by setting the “Env” parameter to a
negative value.
1 Load snapshot 29, “Filter Envelope Test,” in which the amplitude enve-
lope and the filter are accordingly pre-programmed.
The same curve is programmed here that we had in the amplitude enve-
lope previously. By switching between snapshots 28 and 29, you can easily
hear how much more audible the same curve is when it affects the filter
instead of the volume.
The following table shows several typical filter settings. You can see that
the ADSR parameters alone are not enough—the other filter parameters
are also very important.
2 Program the settings in the table, one after another. I intentionally did
not pre-program snapshots, since hearing the finished settings would
never have the same learning effect as step-by-step programming. Be
sure to play a bit occasionally while programming to hear the effects of
the changes being made.
114
Instrument Cut Reso Env A D S|s R

Piano/percussion 60 0.0 60 0 65 0.0 25
Disco bass 45 0.45 100 0 40 0.5 35
Techno bass 65 0.8 50 0 20 0.0 20
Long drone 45 0.5 85 0 75 0.0 75
Brass 70 0.0 100 25 50 0.5 10
Duck 70 0.7 70 30 50 0.25 50
Lead 80 0.25 55 10 45 0.6 0
Sweep 60 0.7 100 55 65 0.0 55
Reso blip 50 1.0 100 20 35 0.0 20
Double attack 120 0.0 −100 40 0 0.0 80
Echo 85 0.0 −100 50 0 1.0 0
Table of several typical filter curves (Filter Env).
3 Also switch to band-pass and/or high-pass with each setting and pay
attention to the changes in sound!
Filt-Env→Osc
This module of the SoundForum Synthesizer allows you to utilize the filter
envelope to modulate the pitch, waveform and volume of the oscillators.
FiltEnv_Osc
This module allows you to modulate various parameters via the filter envelope.
1 Load snapshot “Filt Env→Osc Test.”
115
Again, the same curve is pre-programmed that we experienced with filter

and amplitude.
It’s clearly audible: The effect of an envelope on pitch is much more appar-
ent than on tonal color or amplitude.
The parameters in the Filt-Env→Osc module operate as follows:

❖ The “Amount” control acts sort of like an input control, determining
how “much” of the filter envelope is routed to a specific parameter and
thus the depth of the modulation.
❖ There are three buttons for each oscillator. “P” stands for “Pitch,” “Sym”
for “Symmetry” and “Amp” for “Amplitude.” The number after each let-
ter refers to the corresponding oscillator.
Activating one of these buttons routes the modulation to the correspond-
ing parameter of the respective oscillator. Activating “Amp 2,” for example,
causes the filter envelope to modulate the amplitude of Oscillator 2, while
activating “Sym 1” causes the filter envelope to modulate the symmetry of
Oscillator 1—in the case of a pulse waveform this would modulate the
pulse width.
2 With snapshot “Filt Env→Osc Test“ loaded, alternately click the “Sym”
and “Amp” buttons for Oscillator 1 while playing. Got it?
We’ll explore the use of these modulation possibilities in more depth later
on. I did take the liberty, however, of programming a few snapshots for
you:
❖ Snapshot 31 demonstrates how the interaction between the filter enve-
lope and pitch with activated sync function can generate some heavy
overtone action.
❖ Snapshot 32 demonstrates the brass effect that results when one of the
two oscillators runs through a mild pitch curve in the attack/decay
phase.
❖ Snapshot 33 is a synth bass sound using a single oscillator. The pulse
width modulation caused by the filter envelope makes it sound as if two
oscillators were active.
116
❖ In Snapshot 34, the filter envelope shapes the tonal color by controlling
the volume of Oscillator 1 and thus the FM portion of the sound. The
result is a classic FM piano sound—courtesy of a simple analog synthe-
sizer.
LFO
The SoundForum Synthesizer’s main modulation source is the LFO. Con-
trary to an envelope, which generates a time-based curve, the LFO gener-
ates a repeating cyclic curve.
The structure of the SoundForum Synthesizer’s LFO is fairly simple. The
parameters serve to determine rate (speed, frequency), selection and varia-
tion of the waveform and routing to a modulation destination.
LFO
The modulation center of any synthesizer: the LFO.
1 Load snapshot 35, “LFO Test.”

This snapshot makes it easy to test all LFO parameters and hear their
effect on the sound.
2 While reading the following parameter descriptions, turn and click the
corresponding knobs and buttons and listen to the results. Reload the
snapshot after each parameter.
117
Rate
This parameter determines the speed of the modulation. The possibility to
set negative values is not a bug, by the way. Negative values are best suited
for celestial, floating modulation effects; positive values for rotating effects
(vibrato, fat pulse width modulation, rotor effects).
Amount
This one should really be self-explanatory. I should note, however, that the
amount should not be set to over 0.16 for pitch modulation effects such as
vibrato if the result is going to be halfway useable.
LFO Wave Form

Now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. Contrary to a regular oscilla-
tor, the waveform of the LFO has no influence on the tonal color, but rather
on the character of the modulation:
❖ Sine: A soft, round vibration, e.g. for vibrato.
❖ Tri(angle): Also soft, but not as round as the sine wave.
❖ Puls(e): An alternating wave for trills or echo effects.
❖ S+H (Sample & Hold): Random values with sudden switches.
Symm
The possibility to freely determine the symmetry of the LFO waveform
represents a very interesting feature that is rarely found in other synthesiz-
ers. It allows you to transform a sine or triangle wave into a positive or neg-
ative sawtooth, or to add inversion to a pulse wave. Try it out! We’ll be
exploring this feature in depth a little later.
118
LFO Matrix
You already familiarized yourself with this type of switch matrix in the
“Filt-Env→Osc” module. It works exactly the same in the LFO module.
1 Load snapshot 35.
2 Alternately click the buttons in the upper row (Oscillator 1), as well as
“Filt” and “Amp” while playing—this should demonstrate the possibili-
ties.
The table below shows which LFO settings generate which effect. Enter
the parameter values one at a time, paying attention to the resulting effect.
The basis for each setting should be snapshot 35.
Effect Rate Amt Wave Sym Matrix

Vibrato 14.5 0.12 Tri 0.0 P
Trill 10.5 0.2 Puls 0.0 P
Laser 20.0 0.6 Tri −0.99 P
PWM 8.5 0.5 Sin 0.0 Sym
Wah-wah 11.0 0.5 Sin 0.0 Sym
Filter echo 5.0 0.7 Tri −0.99 Filt
Tremolo 14.5 0.8 Sin 0.0 Amp
Reverse 8.0 1.0 Tri 0.99 Amp
Hacker 9.5 0.6 Puls −0.6 P, Filt, Amp
Computer image 15.5 0.8 S+H 0.0 P, Filt
Table of typical LFO effects.
Reproduce the effects in the table one at a time, and take the time to exper-
iment with some variations. I guarantee: You will suddenly understand a
few synthesizer sounds that until now seemed like pure magic.
119
7
Advanced Sound Design
How do I get fat, warm, dirty, friendly, silky, lively, mean and nasty sounds?
This has to be one of the most common questions posted by beginning
sound designers in the numerous online forums worldwide. And you know
what? Often, even seasoned pros have to pass on that one.
Time and time again, letters from readers would contain requests for a
sound-designing course that would teach others how the pros program
their sounds.
Regardless of the fact that this is a very difficult subject to begin with, this
was clearly an impossible task without a platform that was accessible to all
participants—like the SoundForum Synthesizer. You simply can’t learn
sound design without hands-on examples and exercises.
So now, after the extensive warm-ups in the initial chapters and the in-
depth exploration in the SoundForum Synthesizer Tutorial, I’d like to
attempt to attain the unattainable: to teach you sound design capabilities
that exceed even those of many who make their living as sound designers.
“If it’s possible to teach sound design,” the critical reader may ask, “then
why haven’t any of the hundreds of workshops and books published so far
managed to do so?”
My take is that most of these workshops and books have restricted them-
selves to explaining synthesizers as such. Always oscillators, filters, enve-
lopes and LFOs. Sort of as if one was attempting to teach writing and
focused entirely on spelling.
121
7 Advanced Sound Design
I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to teach sound design. And I
agree with the traditional approach in so far as that a basic knowledge of
the functions of a synthesizer is a prerequisite—one must know his tools
or his “opponent.” If you have reached this point in the book, this require-
ment should be fulfilled.
Now we come to the truly difficult and important part: The art of imagin-
ing sounds and realizing them on a synthesizer.
Please pay good attention to this crucial message:
A good sound designer must hear a sound before he programs it and knows
how to get there before he starts.
True: One can achieve many surprising results through trial and error. The
fact that even trial and error requires a certain amount of ability to keep the
error factor in check is proven by the “Frankenstein” sounds that are often
produced by the random algorithms in sound editors.
I’m going to do my best to teach you these abilities, which you should then
be able to utilize with other synthesizers. As I’ve said before, your drivers
license is not restricted to the car you take the test in.
From the Beginning

Let’s start nice and easy by contemplating what is really important about
sound design; which “secrets” separate a good sound designer from a
mediocre one.
The Challenge
With the advent of modern electronic music, beginning with techno, clas-
sic synthesizer sounds slipped continuously more into the background.
There are rarely models for the sounds used in genres like Techno, Trance,
House, Ambient and so on.
122
From the Beginning
Even in Kraftwerk’s, Vangelis’ or Jean-Michael Jarre’s music, tangible par-

allels are hard to find. This is apparent in the names used for such sounds:
“String Orchestra,” “Minimoog Bass,” “DX E-Piano” or “Synth Brass”.
These days you can’t even describe the sounds on a Madonna CD using
such examples, and Madonna is not exactly what you might call revolution-
ary sound-wise—we won’t even begin to talk about the typical instrumenta-
tion in contemporary electronic music.
On the one hand, this makes the whole thing more interesting. On the
other hand, however, it places new demands on sound designers.
Sensual Perception
Sound design has a lot to do with imagining sound. But how do you grasp
or describe it? The oscilloscope is certainly no help here, nor is a parame-
ter table.
More often, terminology from the sensual world is used to describe
sounds; what you hear can trigger a feeling or an image. Most terms used
to describe sounds come from the realms of taste, sight and touch:
❖ You can virtually feel a punchy, wiry bass snapping.
❖ A warm, silky pad can trigger an image of a beach bathed in sunshine.
❖ Just about anyone can imagine what hard, fat power chords sound like.
❖ You also hear negative adjectives like tinny, thin or sterile in sound
descriptions.
How and whether such characteristics are perceived depends largely in my
experience upon individual sound preferences. If a sound triggers a posi-
tive or pleasant sensual perception, it is considered a good sound—and
vice versa.
123
The Power of Precedents

This embodies one of the biggest paradoxes: Although everyone constantly
screams for “never-before-heard” sounds, the most popular sounds are
those that remind us of something else—consciously or sub-consciously.
Piano, string orchestra, acoustic drums—these are the bestsellers among

sample CD-ROMs.
Good old herd instinct also plays an important role: Everyone who heard
the DX7 electric piano on dozens—no, hundreds—of hits wanted to use it
himself and thus participate in the success.
The death-rattling “Shamus Theme” sound of the Roland D-50—one of
the dumbest synthesis creations of all time in my humble opinion—won’t
be put to rest; not even by much better substitutes. Why? Because it’s been
heard in so many hit singles, film soundtracks and commercials that virtu-
ally everyone recognizes it immediately (and feels at home).
What I’m trying to say is: The customary should not be underestimated.
Only once in a while does a sound manage to become legendary (even
among non-synthesizer freaks). Next to the above-named examples, one
thinks of the Oberheim sound on Van Halen’s “Jump” or Phil Collin’s
drum sound in the eighties.
Taste Is No Secret
Next to the customary, personal conditioning plays an important role in
sound preferences. Different people react differently to the same sound.
“Wiry” or “distorted,” for example, are not positive attributes for everyone.
Nonetheless, there is consensus in many areas: Full, warm and lively
sounds are pretty much loved by all.
A fat horn sound generates the perception of something that can be
chewed like toffee—just about everybody likes that. A reverberant sound
can conjure up a pleasant, cool feeling.
124
From the Beginning
On the other hand, unintentionally distorted piano sounds can make you
feel like you’re holding barbed wire, while a mushy bass sound is reminis-
cent of biting into a soggy pizza box.
Remember: Sound preferences are determined by widely differing per-

sonal perceptions triggered by particular sounds. The perception itself—
warm, metallic, cool, dirty—does not vary so much from person to person,
but the effect it has varies greatly.
The effect is also influenced by what the listener is accustomed to; all of
this forms the personal sound preference.
A good sound designer must be aware of these factors and know how to
use them. I would even go so far as to say that this capability is twice as
important and only a tenth as common as the basic knowledge of oscilla-
tors and ring modulation.
A Brief History of Sound Synthesis

In the beginning, the primary mission of the synthesizer was to simulate
“real” instruments or noises.
What an exciting proposition for someone who previously only had an
organ or piano to work with—to be able to play guitar, trumpet or wind
sounds on one of the first Moogs!
In time, of course, other typical synthesizer sounds like Minimoog bass,
Prophet synth horns or the Elka Synthex pad were introduced. Nonethe-
less, simulating “real” instruments as accurately as possible remained the
most respected achievement for any sound designer.
The advent of digital synthesizers did little to change this. Even with the
(still) most popular DX7, only a small portion of the sounds were “new,”
while the vast majority consisted of imitations.
I remember well that I spent the entirety of my first days with a DX trying
to program a realistic piano—that was the mark of a good sound designer
in those days.
125
Why? Because there were no samplers. With the introduction of samplers,

the synthesizer almost lost its right to exist. Samplers and their descen-
dents, the PCM synthesizers (especially the Korg M1 and the Roland JV
series), imitated not only real instruments much better than analog syn-
thesizers, but also imitated analog synthesizers so well that the latter
threatened to follow in the dinosaurs’ footsteps.
Their saving grace came in the late eighties in the form of Techno, House
and Acid, to name only a few of the currently popular modern electronic
musical styles that largely ignored the general trends in instrumentation.
Easily understandable: If there was anything that musicians and listeners
could rightfully have had enough of by the end of the eighties, then it had
to be sampled or “conventional” sounds.
Techno and friends have not only survived, but have also continuously
developed. A 12-year old today may find a drum loop more commonplace
and natural than a piano.
Just One More Thing …

… namely the ability to translate everyday attributes into synthesizer
parameters. You know, “How do I get a warm, fat, rich, punchy sound?”
That will be the focus in this and the following chapters.
Being a good sound designer does not mean being able to differentiate
between the sawtooth in a Virus B and the sawtooth of a Minimoog, or
knowing whether the TB-303 uses an 18-dB filter.
These are merely words that can be memorized, but have nothing to do
with feelings or concepts. And believe me, I’ve met enough “experts” who
could listen to a Minimoog and guess its serial number but had no idea
what to do with the thing.
A good sound designer needs a good ear, but only for control. The actual
art is translating an imagined sound into a real sound with the synthesizer
he has at his disposal. The ability to turn an idea into a sound is important.
Nothing else.
126
From the Beginning
This is proven by the fact that the few truly exceptional synthesizer pro-
grammers in the world can work with any synthesizer and deliver any
sound to order—even an acoustic guitar with an analog synthesizer.
The Levels of Perception

In my experience, the reaction to a sound seems to take place on various
levels of perception. The four most important are dimension, temperature,
texture and animation. The impression that a sound makes on a person is
a result of the interaction of these levels.
Dimension
This is the perceived size or spatial spread of a sound. Undulating pads or
sounds with lots of reverb, multiple echoes and wide stereo or even sur-
round spreads are perceived as being very big, while dry, thin sounds with
little movement or modulation are perceived as being small.
Temperature
Is the sound warm or cold? Sounds with lots of low end, heavy modula-
tion, little presence and large dimension are perceived as being warm,
while thin, metallic sounds seem cold. Reverb and/or noise can emphasize
this impression.
Temperature is influenced by pitch, oscillators (i.e. waveform, modulation
depth), the filter and possibly ambience. For example, reverb and delay are
perfect for creating dimension.
Texture
You could substitute material or surface for texture, although they don’t do
quite as good of a job at describing the internally experienced characteris-
tic. Our perception compares the sound more to the effect on a material. A
fat sound can be compared to chewing on something pleasantly soft, or to
smacking your lips with enjoyment. A woody sound may be perceived like
banging on a table (or a xylophone …), while an unnerving, metallic sound
might remind one of fingernails on a chalkboard.
127
Considering that we constantly associate sounds with particular percep-

tions, feelings or experiences, it’s not really any wonder that the same hap-
pens with synthesizer sounds.
If you’re looking to proactively shape texture on a synthesizer, reach for the

oscillator and the filter.
Animation
This refers to the movement of the sound. Does it snap shut? Does it
sound like it was hit, or does it softly fade in? Is it “stiff” or does it rotate in
space?
With acoustic instruments, the animation is usually governed by the tech-
nique: striking, bowing, blowing, specific articulation. With synthesizers,
you’re dealing more with envelopes, LFOs and modulation.
Terms used to describe animation include rotating, standing, fading or
decaying, fading in, tremolo and vibrato.
Interaction
Obviously, these characteristics are not isolated, but rather interact; it is the
combination of these perceptions that results in the final impression.
In the case of a Hammond organ with a Leslie cabinet, the perception of a
large file (texture) might combine with that of rotation (animation).
Shaping or sharpening something dull with a file is generally a pleasant
experience; thus the sound is perceived as pleasant.
Distorted guitars are every bit as popular as the sound of frying fat. This
also illustrates our premise: Sounds that remind of us things we find
pleasant in everyday life are also perceived as pleasant.
To this we add the above-mentioned factor of conditioning: What we’re
familiar with, we automatically like better. How else do you explain the fact
that even in the most complex digital synthesizers most sounds are still
imitations, or that PCM synthesizers with ROM samples sell so well?
128
The Five Levels of Sound
The statements in this chapter form the basis for everything that follows in this
book. Please internalize them. You may even want to take a break from learning for
several days, then re-read them to be sure you have fully digested them before you
continue.
In the next section we’ll return to the synthesizer to sharpen your percep-
tion.

First off, a review of the core statements from the last two sections.
Minimum Requirements
The most important quality of a good sound designer is the ability to imag-
ine a sound before it exists.
Next, the sound designer must be able to translate this sound as closely as
possible using whatever synthesizer is available.
Case in point: Often, sound designers contracted to program sounds for a
new synthesizer will receive requirements from the manufacturer; there
are certain obligatory sounds upon which many synthesizers are judged,
such as simulations of acoustic instruments.
Regardless of whether sample-based, FM or additive synthesis, the sound
designer has to realize the requirements on that particular synthesizer.
Often, the synthesizer itself presents restrictions; more often, however, the
limited capability or experience of the sound designer. That’s what we aim
to change.
If you cannot clearly define the destination, describing the route will be that
much more difficult.
129
Sometimes, the excitement lies precisely in that which does not seem
“possible” or “intended,” like using an analog synthesizer to create the per-
fect Rhodes simulation. Programming the perfect analog synth sound on
an analog synthesizer is not exactly Nobel Prize material.
Sound Preferences Result from Conditioning and Habit

Conditioning through extensive music and sound experiences, combined
with listening habits, are decisive factors in determining individual sound
preferences.
Positive and negative experiences, along with their associated sounds and
music, dictate sound preferences like nothing else.
Without wanting to go into too much detail, I have observed the following
in my own experience and in my environment over the years: The individ-
ual preference “memory” is especially receptive in early years and/or in
emotionally unstable phases, normally encountered in early childhood,
puberty and with each new relationship with a member of the opposite (or
personally preferred) sex.
If, for example, one heard lots of Finnish folk music during a particularly
pleasant vacation in his childhood, he/she is likely to be very fond of this
type of music. The fact that he/she probably has a difficult time finding
anyone to share this preference with outside of Finland does little to
change this.
At around 25 years of age, music and sound preferences are largely fixed,
ready to influence the spontaneous reaction to anything new. New music
or sounds no longer reach the subconscious as unfiltered as they did ear-
lier.
In other words: What you haven’t experienced by a certain point in time is
unlikely to give you goose bumps afterwards.
130
Which explains why 50-year olds consider techno and the like to be mel-
ody-free noise, or why 12-year old hip-hop fans associate the piano with
funeral homes.
Music and Sound Preferences Are Intertwined

One inevitably prefers music in which his favorite sounds predominate.
Similarly, one prefers to play—or program—the sounds that correlate with
his favorite music.
Among other things, this is the source of frustration for numerous no-
longer-twenty-year-olds who power up their sequencers with the intention
of producing a hard-core techno hit, only to end up with another REM
tune … They simply can’t wear that other hat.
As I mentioned earlier: Although people always seem to be looking for
new, never-before-heard sounds, those with recognizable elements will
always be received better; they simply touch the perceptive sensors more
intensely.
How else do you explain the phenomenon that star war films in which
robots and laser swords play the leading roles are accompanied by orches-
tral music? Nobody seems to notice this actually fully obvious contradic-
tion. While this may not really be a good thing, it is totally human. I can’t
help but wonder why I’ve never seen a film on the Roman Empire with a
soundtrack by Kraftwerk …
The conditioning and habit factors must always be taken into account by
sound designers. Whether they decide to utilize them or to fight them is
their own decision. Remember, though: Know your friends!
131
Culture, Personality and Situation

Culture, personality traits and listening situations also play important
roles. Japanese manufacturer Roland recognized very early on, for exam-
ple, that ROM players don’t sell very well when Japanese sound designers
attempt to imitate American or European sounds—not to mention that
nobody needs a workstation full of kotos or shamisens.
The success of Roland’s JV series was not due to good looks or low distor-
tion, but rather to the thousands of presets that satisfied Euro-American
sound preferences.
Depending upon personal conditioning, one will prefer aggressive or
relaxed music and/or sounds. Folk music and speed metal fans tend to
have relatively little in common.
Then there’s the listening situation: Even choleric, violence-praising types
aren’t likely to listen to Marilyn Manson records during autogenic training
sessions, just as a pan flute is not the most effective instrument to get a
club rocking.
This, too, must be considered by the programmer of factory presets:
“Usable” sounds do nothing to increase the sales of a synthesizer, but
rather the sounds that are likely to cause accidents in front of the music
store when demoed.
Perception and Evaluation
In my experience, the perception of music does not differ so much from per-
son to person. Evaluation, however, underlies extreme differences.
Probably just about everyone in the world perceives the sound of a koto as
wiry, nasal and quickly decaying. While the Japanese are likely to associate
the sound with a plentitude of pleasant childhood memories, however, the
European is more likely to look for the nearest lighter. This influences the
evaluation.
132
Another take: Celine Dion is loved by many wonderful women because her
music and voice tickle their well-developed tear ducts so well. For studio
musicians, on the other hand, who have other criteria for measuring the
quality of a voice, she may well represent the incarnation of Lucifer as a
high-performance throat-voice artist.
Having to sift through perception and evaluation makes it very difficult to
define sounds and their character in any kind of usable and generally valid
fashion. Yet these definitions are a prerequisite for teaching sound design.
If you cannot clearly define the destination, describing the route will be
that much more difficult.
As I already implied in the last section, musicians and non-musicians
alike naturally utilize attributes from the realm of the senses to describe
their perception of sounds: warm, fat, wiry, wide, hard, cold. These percep-
tions vary little from listener to listener.
The Levels of Sound Perception in Overview

In the last section, we grouped the perception of sound into four levels of
perception:
1 Dimension: The perceived spatial spread of a sound.
2 Temperature: Icy cold to hot.
3 Texture: Material characteristics that are “felt” when hearing a sound
(wood, rubber, clay), or material processing techniques (striking, strok-
ing, rubbing).
4 Animation: Curve and movement.
Based upon what we’ve learned in this section, we could add one more:
5 Aggression.
133
Aggression
More than anything else, aggression is the factor that separates a soft pad
from a distorted techno snare. It could be defined as the “strength” of a
sound, as in the power with which something is hit, whether it is more
sympathetic (e.g. silky) or non-sympathetic (e.g. unpleasantly wiry or
metallic).
When designing sounds, one must pay close attention to the generation of
aggression at each step along the way. No one appreciates a sound entitled
“Soft Pad” that blows the listener’s fillings out of his teeth.
An Analysis of GM Instruments
In order to understand and practice dissecting sounds into the five levels
of perception you need the smallest common denominator. This is exactly
what the GM standard was originally developed for—a selection of the
most-used sounds worldwide. The table on page 136 lists a selection of GM
sounds and orders them in the five levels of sound perception.
We’ll spare ourselves the temptation to once again make fun of GM sounds—
we’re not concerned with honor here, but rather with a common basis. Besides,
even Porsche drivers have to do their drivers license exam in a Golf …
Let’s get active:
1 Go through the instruments one at a time, at first without listening to a
keyboard. It’s very important that you first imagine the sound while
reading its evaluation in the table.
You’ll notice that my evaluations are subjective and don’t always coincide
with yours. Remember also that the evaluation can only refer to an imag-
ined average sound; depending on how it’s played, a sound can be very soft
or extremely aggressive.
2 Enter your own evaluation, at least in the number columns, to record
what kind of image the sound generates in your imagination.
3 Next, play the sound on one of your sound sources—preferably on a
GM keyboard or module. Once again, we’re not concerned with quality
here, but rather with the smallest common denominator.
134
4 Now compare your current evaluation with the values you recorded in
step 2.
Don’t be concerned if your new evaluation differs from your first—in fact,
this is desirable. The main thing is that you are actively evaluating on your
own and thus training thinking in the five levels of sound perception. We’d
all have it easier if sounds could be evaluated objectively.
5 Last but not least, try to create your own evaluations of sounds that are
not included in the table.
You may want to share evaluations with colleagues, or even organize week-
end tournaments for your synthesizer club … No matter how you do it,
spend as much time as possible analyzing sounds in this fashion.
Just when you’re thinking just how diligent you’ve been, you’ll be hit just
like in school: here’s another exercise …
Homework
Your assignment is to dissect the default snapshots 1 through 20 into the
five levels. You’ll find an empty table for this on page 138.
Outlook
Next to sound design, the five levels can also be applied to other aspects of
sound and music, such as technique/dynamics, mix, EQ or effects. There
are, for example, effects that generate cold or warmth, emphasize ambi-
ence or transform texture, as well as gentle or aggressive EQ settings.
Since effects and EQ are undeniably a part of sound design, they will be
covered in the next section.
Till then, have fun practicing!
135
A selection of GM sounds, divided into the five sound perception levels:
Instrument Dimension Temperature Texture Animation Aggression

1: Small/narrow 1: Cool Perception 1: Gentle
10: Large/wide 10: Warm 10: Aggressive
Grand Piano 3 3 Wooden strike; Slow decay, mildly 4

pleasantly metallic; undulating
vibrating
Electric 3 6 Metallic click; soft Slow decay 3

piano cloth
Clavinet 2 4 Wiry, snappy Quick decay 5
Glockenspiel 2 2 Metallic; short, hard Very quick decay 5

strike
Vibraphone 3 4 Soft metallic; bell-like Slow decay; 3

rotating
Xylophone 1 3 Wooden; short click Very quick decay 6
Percussive 2 6 Metallic, wooden Abrupt with click 5

organ
Rock organ 3 6 Coarse sanding; Abrupt, rotating 8

metallic; smoky
Accordion 2 5 Compressed air; Softened organ 6

breathy; squawking curve; undulating
Nylon-string 1 6 Picking; plastic; Quick decay 3

guitar wooden
Jazz guitar 1 5 Rubbery; picking Soft decay 2
Distorted 2 5 Metallic; mill saw-like; Slow decay 9

guitar sizzling
Slap bass 2 3 Punchy, wiry, snappy Short, dry, quick 8

decay
Fretless bass 2 6 Soft, silky Soft attack and 3

decay; mildly
undulating
Violin 1 3 Wiry squeaking; Quick attack and 9

wooden tone decay
String 7 8 Soft, silky bowing; Soft attack; 3

ensemble warm, wooden tone undulating
136
Instrument Dimension Temperature Texture Animation Aggression

1: Small/narrow 1: Cool Perception 1: Gentle
Synth strings 7 8 Silky; soft plastic Soft attack and 2

decay; undulating
Choir aahs 9 2 Breathy; singing Soft attack; 3

undulating
Trumpet 2 5 Powerful; compressed Quick blowing/ 6

air; “like chewing attack phase
toffee “
Muted 2 2 Thin; cutting; metallic Soft attack 8

trumpet
Tenor sax 2 7 Smoky; wooden; Soft, percussive 5

compressed air attack
Flute 2 5 Breathy; soft; airy Soft attack 2
Banjo 1 2 Wiry; tearing; wooden Quick decay 6
Bagpipe 5 3 Cutting; metallic; Cardboard-like 8

squawking
Drums (kick, 8 7 Striking on a Punchy quick decay 7

snare, toms) rebounding surface;
punchy; pleasant
Cymbals Metallic screeching; Slow decay 9

strained
808 drums 4 4 Breaking plastic Punchy quick decay 6
137
Empty table for your own analysis of the SoundForum Synthesizer snap-
shots.
Snapshot Dimension Temperature Texture Animation Aggression

1: Small/narrow 1: Cool Perception Curve; Movement 1: Gentle
1 Default
2 Basic Square
3 Basic Saw
4 Basic Sine
5 Basic Tri
6 Basic Noise
7 Basic Detune
8 Basic PWM
9 Basic Reso Sweep
10 Basic Blip
11 Basic Bass
12 Basic Sub Bass
13 Basic Mini
14 Basic Brass
15 Basic String
16 Basic FM
17 Basic Sync
18 Basic Ringmod
19 Basic Thunder
20 Basic Modular Echo
138
Effects and Mix
Effects and Mix
In this section we’ll continue to train thinking in sound perception levels

while expanding the concept to include effects, arrangement and mix.
In the previous two chapters we began practicing thinking in sound per-

ception levels.
As a reminder, the sound perception levels are not a meditation technique
that I learned during a self-discovery vacation in Nepal, but rather a very
effective method to transform anyone interested in sound into a sound
designer.
They provide a common language that allows us to characterize sounds
relatively precisely and free of personal evaluations or preferences.
The five levels are—yes, I’m repeating myself: Dimension, temperature,

texture, animation and aggression. Each and every sound, whether natural
or synthetic, can be analyzed using these levels.
Solution to the Homework Assignment

The table below shows my analysis of the 20 snapshots.
And here’s your assignment:
❖ Start the SoundForum Synthesizer.
❖ Load and listen to the snapshots, one at a time.
❖ Look at the analysis—especially the more subjective descriptions under
Texture and Animation.
❖ Try to either confirm these descriptions or to find your own that more
closely describe your perceptions.
139
My analysis of the SoundForum Synthesizer snapshots:
Snapshot Dimension Temperature Textur Animation Aggression

1: Small/narrow 1: Cool Perception Curve; Movement 1: Gentle
1 Default 3 3 Snappy; plastic Blowing into the 3

filter
2 Basic Square 2 2 Electronic — 7
3 Basic Saw 2 3 Plastic — 7
4 Basic Sine 1 6 Soft cloth — 1
5 Basic Tri 1 3 Cloth — 2
6 Basic Noise 3 2 Strong wind — 7
7 Basic Detune 3 4 Plastic — 6
8 Basic PWM 3 4 Sawing plastic Rotation 6
9 Basic Reso Sweep 3 4 Soft plastic Decaying 5
10 Basic Blip 2 2 Rubber band Baring teeth 4
11 Basic Bass 1 6 Muted plastic string Percussive 3
12 Basic Sub Bass 1 6 Plastic string Punchy; percussive 4
13 Basic Mini 2 5 Touching clay Blowing 4
14 Basic Brass 3 5 Touching rubber Blowing, noticeable 6

modulation
15 Basic String 3 5 Rubbing plastic Bowing, noticeable 5

modulation
16 Basic FM 2 2 Striking a bell Slow decay 7
17 Basic Sync 2 2 Sawing metal Decaying 9
18 Basic Ringmod 2 1 Electricity; sparks; Stopping 9

buzzing
19 Basic Thunder 6 3 Muted rumbling Slow decay 3
20 Basic Modular Echo 4 5 Metallic, fat Percussive echo 6
140
Effects and Mix
Effects and the Sound Perception Levels

It’s common knowledge that effects are an integral part of any sound. As
early as the eighties, synthesizer smith Roland recognized that synthesiz-
ers with integrated effects sound better and thus sell better—one crucial
reason for the success of their D-50, which still influences synthesizers
and workstations today.
An effect doesn’t sound like much on its own; it needs a signal to improve.
Take a look at the table on page 143. It represents a selection of especially
popular effects. The data in the table show the “direction” in which the
effect transforms the sound, thus the plus/minus symbols.
Since not every effect changes a sound on all five levels, several effects
show no entry in certain columns. Where this is an empty cell, the effect
behaves neutrally.
What Effect Do Which Effects Have?

Dissecting effects into the five sound perception levels is actually quite
easy:
❖ Ambience effects like reverb or delay are there to enlarge the dimen-
sion of a sound.
❖ Modulation effects like chorus or flanger add warmth and movement to
a sound.
❖ Distortion effects like overdrive are sure to add a certain amount of
aggression.
As you can probably deduce on your own, effects are often used—along
with synthesizer parameters—to take a sound in a particular direction:
wider, warmer, fatter or more aggressive.
141
Trying Out Effects

Now you’re going to have to a little work again:
1 Using whatever parts of your setup work best, set up a piano sound you
can play. This sound is overtone-rich and relatively neutral in regards to
the sound perception levels. A mono sound is preferable.
2 Insert a multi-effect device into the signal path. You can, of course use
the plug-ins for your audio/MIDI sequencer. If you own a workstation
with built-in effects, simply use that.
3 Activate the effects in the table below, one after another. The basis for
the values listed is always a standard setting. Be aware of the fact that
some effects, i.e. overdrive or compressor, must be insert effects.
4 Try to confirm the descriptions in the table or to create your own that
accurately describe your perceptions.
How to Use the Table

The following examples illustrate how to use and understand the table:
❖ Take the effect “Large Hall.” Imagine a small, harmless oboe with
essentially zero ambience. If you add a long reverb, it will become
somewhat wider, but more noticeably it gain depth, being placed fur-
ther back in the room. This is represented in the table with an increase
in dimension at the value 5.
❖ A phaser makes the sound spin. Even a monotonous waveform
becomes animated. The perceived texture is a sort of “gentle whirl-
pool”—kind of like a water funnel.
❖ While an overdrive adds warmth to the sound and gives it a texture like
simmering fat, a hard distortion effect generates a perception more like
two pieces of metal rubbing against each other.
❖ A compressor reshapes the curve of a sound: Percussive sounds
become punchier; sustained sounds get “squashed.”
142
Effects and Mix
Some essential effects and their influence on the sound:
Effect Dimension Temperature Texture Animation Aggression

+: Larger/ −: Cooler Perception Movement −: Gentler
further +: Warmer +: More aggressive
Large Hall +5 −3 Lengthening −3
Wood chamber +3 +3 Lengthening −3
Garage +2 −3 Lengthening
Mono delay, long +2 +2 Repeats −3
Stereo delay, long +6 +2 Repeats −5
Chorus, wide +5 +4 Fat Undulating −2
Flanger +2 Sandpaper Shimmering +2
Phaser, slow +3 Whirlpool Swirling −3
Ensemble +5 +6 Terrycloth Complex modulation −5
Wah-wah +2 Rubber Vocalization
Pitch shifter, detune +5 +3 Butter −3
Tremolo +2 Vertical rotation −3
Auto-pan +5 Horizontal rotation
Rotary +3 +5 Greasy rubbing Complex rotation −3
Overdrive +3 Frying fat +4
Distortion −3 Metallic rubbing +7
Compressor Punchy, squashed +2
Exciter −3 Breathy +2
EQ and the Sound Perception Levels

Equalization (EQ) can also be used to modify sound on at least four of the
five levels. A table doesn’t make much sense here, since the exact frequen-
cies to be boosted or attenuated vary widely from signal to signal. Nonethe-
less, you can pinpoint pretty accurately how changes in the frequency
spectrum affect the four levels.
143
Aggression takes place in the upper mid-frequencies; these frequencies are

perceived by the human ear as “invasive.”
EQ and Dimension
The perceived vertical dimension of a sound is governed by its frequency
content. It’s no coincidence that we refer to “lows” and “highs”—this not
only stems from the Hertz value, but also from the fact that low frequen-
cies are perceived as coming from below, while high frequencies seem to
come from above. Interestingly, bass speakers are almost always posi-
tioned below high-frequency speakers.
When you add low frequencies to a sound, you pull it down in terms of
sound perception. When you add high frequencies, you push the sound
upwards in the acoustic image.
EQ and Temperature
Temperature is the level most noticeably affected by EQ, especially in the
lower frequencies. A “warm” sound is always bottom-heavy, while “cool”
sounds generally have a deficiency in low and lower mid frequencies.
High frequencies, on the other hand, exercise very little influence on the
temperature. A slap bass with sparkling highs can still sound warm, while
a reverb-saturated high-pass pad will always seem cold, regardless of how
much high end it has.
Any sound will get warmer when low mids and lows are added. You can
often make an extremely cool sound much warmer, although it’s always
easier the other way around.
EQ and Texture
While EQ cannot create or completely change the texture of a sound, it can
intensify or attenuate the texture.
Texture perception takes place almost exclusively in the mid- and high-fre-
quency bands, so that you can easily emphasize or mask a sound’s texture
by simply boosting or attenuating the corresponding frequencies.
144
Effects and Mix
EQ and Aggression
You’ve probably never heard of “aggressive” lows, but certainly of “aggres-
sive” mids or highs. Aggression takes place in the upper mid-frequencies;
these frequencies are perceived by the human ear as “invasive.” Hungry
babies, ambulance drivers and recorder players know this and use this
knowledge without mercy.
By boosting frequencies between around 700 Hz and 4 kHz, you notice-
ably increase a sound’s aggression factor; attenuating the same frequen-
cies makes the sound more pleasant and less invasive.
End of the Lecture

That was a lot of new stuff—especially a lot to read—in just one chapter. In
the next chapter we’ll begin practicing thinking in the five sound percep-
tion levels on the synthesizer, and I hope to teach you how to bend a sound
in any direction you desire with deliberation and good aim, regardless of
whether you start with a raw waveform or are modifying an existing
sound. By the way, this craft is called … Right: Sound design.
Until then you can work out and get fit by:
❖ going through as many of your sounds as possible and try to analyze
them according to the five sound perception levels;
❖ trying to determine why you like some sounds and don’t like others.
Describe this as accurately as possible using the attributes dimension,
temperature, texture, animation and aggression, and try to define what
your personal preferences are;
❖ practicing thinking in sound perception levels whenever you hear
music, whether it’s your favorite CDs or just something on the radio.
145
8
Advanced Hands-on Course
After the previous three chapters of pure theory on the five sound percep-
tion levels, we’re finally ready for an advanced hands-on course with the
The last chapter was more of a theoretical introduction to sound design

based on the five sound perception levels dimension, temperature, texture,
animation and aggression. Now we’re going to get down to business, sit
down at the SoundForum Synthesizer and practice these techniques.
Since I don’t want to overestimate the tendency to internalize vital infor-
mation in this age of lightning-fast zapping, we’ll toss in refreshers on the
contents of the previous chapters here and there.
In case you should be gifted with the admirable tendency towards thor-
oughness, I can only recommend that you read the previous chapter sev-
eral times and repeat all the exercises before you continue.
Here again for good measure are the best of those exercises, some of
which you can even do while washing dishes or working out:
❖ While listening, arranging or playing, always dissect sounds into the
five levels. Whenever possible, make notes in a table.
❖ Analyze while listen to music: Which sounds influence the musical
impression in what way and why? When does something sound cold,
aggressive or lively?
❖ Get a hold of every synthesizer within a 100-kilometer radius and tweak
knobs. Which parameters affect the sound on which level?
❖ Do the same thing while arranging and mixing; the levels affect the
entire process, from composing to mastering. There are also cold and
147
8 Advanced Hands-on Course
warm, aggressive and friendly harmonies, as well as hectic and relaxed

phrasings.
Don’t worry: You won’t be filling out tables for the rest of your sound
designing days …
On the contrary: The better and more experienced you become, the less
you will consciously think about and utilize the five sound perception lev-
els. At some point you will delete it from your consciousness entirely; it
will be permanently stored in your subconscious.
This requires, however, that you get on your own nerves for at least six
months by analyzing even cinema spots in regard to temperature and
aggression. This way of thinking has to be literally burned into your
mind—later you’ll be programming sounds on your synthesizer in your
sleep.
Sound Perception Levels and Synthesizer Modules

The crucial question is: How do I translate the five levels to the synthesizer
once I’ve internalized them?
For all of you who have asked themselves quietly whether the 5-level
method isn’t maybe just some kind of esoteric trick I thought up, now the
crucial argument for its use: It translates directly to the synthesizer and it
always works, with any sound and with any synthesizer.
Pretty convincing, huh?
A Brief Tour of the Synthesizer Modules

I’d like to deliver proof of this statement right away. This brief tour of the
synthesizer modules will give us a first, very rough idea of which module
influences which aspects of the sound.
148
Lest you get too euphoric: This is merely basic knowledge. Exactly how
each individual parameter affects the sound and how the modules and
parameters interact—that’s the true science, for which we’ll need a couple
more chapters.
Oscillators and Mixer

Load snapshot 4, “Basic Sine,” into the SoundForum Synthesizer. This is
an absolutely neutral sine wave: No overtones (thus very warm), no move-
ment, no width. In five-sound-perception-levels-speak:
Dimension
Temperature
Aggression
Texture Soft cloth
Animation —
Slowly turn up the “Symm” knob in Osc 1: The sound’s texture changes; its
“edge” (aggression) remains static but it gets a little wider and more
“cheeky.”
The evaluation looks a bit different now:
Before After
Dimension
Temperature
Aggression
Texture Soft cloth Plastic
Animation — —
149
Now turn up Osc 2 in the Mixer module, switch Oscillator 2 to “Saw” (so
that both oscillators sound alike) and increase the “Detune” value to 0.05.
The result: The sound gets fatter, livelier and thus warmer. The movement
sounds like a pleasant rubbing. Texture and aggression barely change at
all.
The evaluation at this point:
Dimension
Temperature
Aggression
Texture Plastic
Animation Rubbing
Now set “Interval” in Oscillator 2 to 12.

The sound becomes more powerful but loses warmth. Another change in
the evaluation:
Temperature
Aggression
Keep this setting for the following section; you may want to go ahead and
store it as a snapshot.
A brief summary for the oscillators: They determine the basic sound and
thus the initial values for temperature, aggression and texture. They can
also influence dimension or animation somewhat; however, they need
help here from envelopes or LFOs.
150
Filter
The filter mode is set to LP4 (steep low-pass). Turn the cutoff control back
and forth a couple of times.
What changes?
The sound becomes less aggressive when you lower the cutoff frequency;
it gets warmer and transforms the texture from hard to soft. Dimension
and animation do not change noticeably.
The mode determines the basic characteristic, while the cutoff frequency
actually controls the affect on the sound. For this reason, there are two rat-
ings for two cutoff frequencies here:
Cutoff Low High

Dimension
Temperature
Aggression
Texture Plastic Soft
Animation Rubbing Undulation, Tremolo
Resonance
Set the resonance to 0.6. The sound changes, most noticeably when you
quickly turn the cutoff control.
Two levels are extremely affected by this:
The temperature falls by at least three values, while the aggression
increases by four or five over the entire cutoff range.
Filter Mode
Switch the filter mode to HP2. In this mode, the filter doesn’t influence the
high frequencies at all, but rather filters low-frequency information out of
the signal. Now the influence of the filter looks entirely different:
151
Cutoff Low High

Dimension
Temperature
Aggression
Texture Plastic Electric current
Animation Rubbing Sizzling
To summarize: Starting with raw material from the oscillators and mixer,
the filter shapes the most important sound-defining levels: Dimension,
temperature, aggression and texture. Even the character of existing anima-
tions is emphasized.
When you look at the comprehensive influence the filter has on the sound,
it becomes easy to understand why the filter is such an important factor for
synthesizer enthusiasts in judging the quality of a synthesizer.
Filter Envelope
We continue our experiment:
1 Set the filter back to LP4, “Cutoff” to 60 and “Env” to 100.
Suddenly, the sound abruptly snaps down. The filter envelope generates—
not surprisingly—an animation; in this case, a “snapping” movement.
2 Set “A(ttack)” to 20 and “D(ecay)” to 30 in the “Filer Env” module.
Now the animation sounds more like lip-smacking; the sound’s texture
changes from plastic to something more rubbery.
Since texture and animation cannot be displayed in a gradual fashion, we’ll
do without our little tables here. Later on, we’ll present a list of envelope
settings with their resulting animations and textures.
152
Amplitude (Volume) Envelope

And now a brief experiment with the amplitude envelope (Amp Env):
1 Set “A(ttack)” to 50 and “D(ecay),” “S(ustain)” and “R(elease)” to 0 in
the “Amp Env” module.
The lip-smacking is transformed into a reverse effect—sort of like “lip-
smacking while inhaling.”
Since, as they say, the third time’s the charm, we’ll add a pitch envelope:
2 Neutralize the amplitude envelope (all parameters to 0), activate both
“P” buttons in the “Filter Env→Osc” module and set “Amount” to 1.
The lip-smacking has now turned into a sort of whipping.
3 Set “A(ttack)” in the “Filter Env” module to 50.
That’s how easy it is to make a vinyl-scratching noise out of a whipping
sound.
4 Now deactivate both “P” buttons in the “Filter Env→Osc” module and
activate the “Sym” buttons. Set “Symm” and “Puls-Sym” in the oscillator
modules to 0 and set both oscillators to “Puls.”
Now you’ve essentially animated the oscillator’s symmetry controls. The
animation varies the texture, as well as the dimension: the sound becomes
wider.
The brief experiments are only meant to give you an idea of the possibili-
ties—you don’t need to understand anything yet.
To summarize again: Both envelopes generate animation. The filter envelope has a
much greater influence on the sound, since changes in tonal color are much more
obvious than volume curves.
The filter envelope can also be routed to pitch or pulse width. The enve-
lopes generate and influence the animation, texture and to some extent the
dimension levels.
The aggression factor is almost totally dependent upon whether the enve-
lope fades in softly or attacks in an abrupt, percussive manner.
153
LFO
The last of the modules is the good old LFO. I believe we all know what’s
coming now: If anything obviously generates animation, it’s the LFO.
There are already good examples of this among the default snapshots:
Load snapshot 20, “Basic Modular Echo.” This patch generates an echo-
like effect via a combination of repeats through the LFO and a decay
through the envelope. Here we have two animations working together.
Here are two very interesting, somewhat ambiguous experiments:
❖ Set the LFO waveform to “Puls” and the “Symm” parameter to 0.08. If
you now play a few notes, you’ll notice that the sound is much more
ambient and the echo is more clipped, less flowing. In this case, the
LFO influences animation and dimension (more ambience).
❖ Activate the “Sym” buttons in the LFO module and set the waveform to
“Tri.” Now the LFO also affects the texture.
Here are a few general examples of how which levels can be influenced by
the LFO:
❖ Dimension: When the LFO generates echo-like modulations, the sound
is expanded along the Z-axis (to the rear). When the LFO generates
undulations (PWM or Pulse Width Modulation), the sound becomes
wider.
❖ Temperature: The LFO has almost no influence on this level.
❖ Aggression: The LFO can make a sound much more aggressive, espe-
cially through pitch modulation. Think for example of a fast, overdone
vibrato. Filter or volume modulations don’t offer quite as much scope,
unless the LFO is set to self-vibration in an audible range.
❖ Texture: Undulating modulations, one of the LFO’s specialties, can
change the texture considerably, for example from smooth to very
rough plastic.
❖ Animation: This is the LFO’s true domain. Regardless of how and
where it’s used, animation always results.
154
Mission: Possible—Exercises in Goal-oriented Sound Design
This is how it could look in table form:
Dimension Medium
Temperature Minimal
Aggression Medium
Texture Medium
Animation Very strong
Mission: Possible—Exercises in Goal-oriented Sound

Design
After our brief analysis of a synthesizer based on the five-sound-perception-

level approach, we will now deepen our newly won knowledge through ex-
perimentation.
To recapitulate: Sounds can be dissected into and described using five lev-
els: Dimension, temperature, aggression, texture and animation. These
five sound perception levels are influenced by the various synthesizer
modules and parameters as illustrated in the table below:
155
Module Parameter … Level

Oscillator Waveform Generate Dimension
Mixer Interval Temperature
Aggression
Texture
Detune Generates Animation
FM, Sync, Ringmod Modify Texture
Aggression
Filter Mode (LP/BP/HP) Shape Temperature
Cutoff Dimension
Cutoff Controls Aggression
Texture
Resonance Increases Aggression
Temperature
Filter Env(elope) Generates Animation
Amp Env(elope) Generates Animation
LFO Generates Animation
Influence of the synthesizer modules and parameters on the sound perception

levels.
In addition, we’ve seen that these terms can also affect other aspects of a
music production: effects, EQ, mix, arrangement and even harmonies.
From Levels to Adjectives

Since introducing the five levels, we have described sounds by dissecting
each into the levels and assigning a value to each level. In this fashion, a
sound can more easily be identified via relatively clear, quantitative values.
As sensible as this may be for the introduction to level-based sound
design: Nobody really thinks in these categories. You want a sound to be
“warmer” and “fatter,” not “Temperature −3” and “Dimension +4.”
156
For this reason, we will now take off our water wings and try to grasp the
levels in the form of adjectives.
Since we’ve been practicing the “quantization” of sound characteristics for
some time now, it should be easy for you to use the common adjectives for
sound description; now you will be able to assign and translate them more
precisely than ever before.
Missions
We’ll practice just that in this section by manipulating the SoundForum
Synthesizer snapshots step by step in a specific direction. I have prepared
ten missions for you, all based on a particular snapshot. I’ll accompany
you through the first steps; after that, you’ll be on your own.
The missions increase in difficulty as you go along. Advanced students are
asked to be patient if they should feel under-challenged at first for the sake
of the less experienced.
At the beginning of each mission, load the snapshot referred to in the
heading, then follow the directions.
At the end of each mission there will be assignments for you based on the
final result of the written directions. The assignments also increase in dif-
ficulty as you go along.
Mission 1: Soft Melody out of Basic Square

Raw, overtone-rich waveforms always sound very aggressive, sterile and
unpleasant.
A square wave has the tendency to gnaw at tender eardrums with its
unmistakable gaming-machine charm. That can be changed. We want to
transform this aggressive sound into a warm melody tone with a soft
attack and take away its aggression, while we mask its sterility via a light
tremolo. Here are the steps:
157
Less Aggression, More Warmth

◆ Set “Cutoff” to 80.
By filtering the upper harmonics, you can take away the edge from any
sound. This works best, of course, when there’s enough low-frequency
content, which is almost always the case with raw “analog” waveforms.
Soft Attack
◆ Set “A” and “R” to 35 in the “Amp Env” module.
A(ttack) determines the time between key depression and maximum vol-
ume; R(elease) the time between key release and minimum or no volume.
By softening the volume curve we’ve done a bit more to tame the beast.
Animation
1 Set “Rate” in the LFO module to 8.
2 Deactivate the upper “P” button and activate the “Filt” button.
3 Set “Amount” to 20.
Now the LFO modulates the cutoff frequency in the filter, generating a
light vibrato, which gives the sound a thicker texture and masks its steril-
ity.
Your Assignments
Now we come to the assignments that you’ll be carrying out on your own.
Each step builds on the previous one, and I’ll give you a clue for each step
as to which module you’ll need:
1 Increase the aggression (Filter).
2 Transform the hollow tonal color into a fuller one (Oscillator; wave-
form).
3 Change the filter animation to a vibrato.
158
Mission 2: Juicy Bass out of Basic Saw

In no time at all, we’re going to transform a similarly sterile, aggressive
sawtooth into a bass whose animation is reminiscent of “whipping” and
with a texture that conjures up images of Jamba Juice.
Whip It
1 Set “Cutoff” in the Filter module to 70 and “Env” to 80.
2 Set “A(ttack)” in the “Filter Env” module to 13.
This sets the percussively programmed filter envelope in motion, generat-
ing the animation. The actual “whipping” effect is due to the low attack
time, which causes the filter to open abruptly.
Juice It
◆ Set the filter resonance to 0.7.
With analog synthesizers, “lip-smacking” is almost always generated by an
abruptly opening filter envelope combined with resonance. Due to the
abrupt opening, the filter’s resonance frequency itself creates a water drop-
like sound that lends “moisture” to just about any sound.
Bass
◆ Set “Interval” in the Oscillator 1 module to −12.
Your Assignments
1 Program the bass so that it decays in a percussive manner and doesn’t
“smack” anymore (envelopes).
2 Make the sound softer without using the filter (Oscillator; Symm).
3 Soften the tonal color even more while leaving the sound static (Filter;
Cutoff, Env).
The result should be a nice sub-bass sound.
159
Mission 3: Opera Voice out of Basic Sine

Here’s a sound with which you can impress at least your closest relatives—
easy to program yet sounds very difficult: A cutting, killer-vibrato
appointed opera diva voice can be created with just a few steps out of a
simple sine wave.
Pay attention to the order of the steps, which I will explain as we go along.
Vibrato
◆ Set “Amount” in the LFO module to 0.2.
It already sounds like opera, even if entry and tonal color aren’t quite right
yet.
Smooth Entry
◆ Set “A(ttack)” to 26 and “R(elease)” to 44 in the “Amp Env” module.
This causes the voice to “rise to the occasion” rather than to “fall through
the door,” and it decays slowly instead of abruptly going silent.
Vocal Power
◆ Set Oscillator 1’s “Interval” to 24. Select the “Sin” waveform for Oscil-
lator 2 and turn it up to 0.8 in the Mixer module. Set Oscillator 2’s “In-
terval” to 12 and “Detune” to 0.
With this move, you’ve added an additional sine wave an octave higher, giv-
ing the sound a good deal more cutting power.
The Icing on the Cake

1 Set “Amount” to −0.2 in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module and activate both
“P” buttons.
Now the pitch is modulated by the filter envelope, creating a sort of lifelike
intonation. Since the envelope doesn’t land at the null point, though, the
final pitch is not yet accurate.
2 Set the “Filter Env” parameter to the following values: A = 0, D = 39, S =
0, R = 39.
160
Now each new note begins with an upward “entry,” which masks the steril-
ity of the sound. The LFO and the pitch envelope generate the entire ani-
mation. Just for fun, turn them both off by deactivating all “P” buttons—
sounds like a video game now, huh? You see how important animation is,
and as in this case, it doesn’t have to be original, just create an original
impression.
Your Assignments
1 Program the vibrato so that it only affects the upper octave, creating the
impression of two voices.
2 Change the interval of the two oscillators so that an organ-like tone is
generated (tip: the difference must be at least one octave plus a har-
monic interval).
3 Remove the “entry.”
4 Program a percussive amplitude and tonal color curve (Amp Env).
The result should sound something like a percussive jazz organ.
Mission 4: Electronic Delay out of Basic Tri

Time for a little break: In this mission, we don’t change all that much, but
merely add a small animation to the sound that gives it more ambient
depth via a simulated echo.
Waveform Animation
1 Set the “Symm” control in Oscillator 1 to 0.45.
2 Deactivate both “P” buttons in the LFO module, set “Amount” to 0.6
and activate the “Symm” button for Oscillator 1.
Now the sound vibrates hectically between a soft and an overtone-rich
waveform—not yet the animation we’re going for.
Echo Repeats
◆ Set the LFO rate to a slow 6 and turn the “Symm” knob all the way to
the left.
161
This changes the shape of the LFO animation from gentle rotation to per-
cussive repeats—in other words, an echo.
Echo Decay
◆ Set the “Amp Env” parameter to the following values: A = 0, D = 50, S =
0, R = 50.
As you can see on the graphic curve, the sound now gradually decays after
the initial attack—just like an echo.
Your Assignments
1 Intensify the echo effect using the filter. Remember that you have to
activate the animation with the filter as well.
2 Make the sound wider and more undulating (Oscillator 2).
3 Invert the echo so that it sounds like a reverse effect.
4 Intensify the animation again using filter resonance.
The result should sound about 200 percent more powerful, wider and
clearer than in the first part of the mission.
Mission 5: High Winds out of Basic Noise

Wind is a classic synthesizer effect, whose genesis you can now follow step
by step.
It is based on white noise; as presented in the Basic Noise snapshot biting,
sterile and choppy. We’ll need to give the sound a darker color, the charac-
teristic whistling and the typical rise-and-fall effect. Actually three very
simple steps, if you know how to go about it.
High-wind Tonal Color

◆ Set the filter cutoff to 60 and resonance to 50.
The cutoff setting darkens the noise, while the resonance intensifies the
color. Both changes give the noise more depth and dimension—that’s
because they give it more of a reverb character. The aggression disappears.
162
The Rise and Fall

As wind “rises and falls,” two things are happening: It gets louder and qui-
eter, and the pitch of the whistling noise follows the volume. We’ll recreate
this using the filter and the amplifier, in combination with the correspond-
ing envelopes.
1 Set the “Amp Env” parameters as follows: A = 65, D = 65, S = 1, R = 65.
Now the volume swells up and down when you press and release a key.
2 Set the “Filter Env” parameters to exactly the same values as “Amp Env”
and turn the “Env” knob in the Filter module up to 30.
Now the tonal color—the whistling—also follows the volume curve.
That was pretty easy, wasn’t it? Have fun playing St. Peter. Only for a
minute, though, then straight to the assignments based on the wind
sound.
Your Assignments
1 Program a crisp, decaying volume curve with a length of about 150 ms
(Amp Env).
2 Do the same with the curve of the tonal color, but make the decay
approximately equal to that of a bass drum (Filt Env).
3 Make the tonal color extremely dark and program a very distinctive fil-
ter curve (Cutoff, Reson, Env).
The result should be a monstrously phat, punchy techno bass drum.
Mission 6: Extra-wide Brass Pad out of Basic PWM

As the name implies, this snapshot also serves up a pretty much still ini-
tialized sound. Just click on “Sym 1” in the LFO module, and you’ll hear a
fully neutral pulse wave—absolutely free of any kind of sound or volume
shaping. Reactivate the button, and the LFO modulates the pulse width of
Oscillator 1. Back in the days when an oscillator was still an expensive
piece of hardware, this feature was used as a substitute for a second oscilla-
tor; the effect adds a modulation-like animation to the otherwise sterile
sound.
163
Let’s plan our dream sound:

❖ First of all, the sound has to be a good deal wider and fuller. We’ll
accomplish this by adding Oscillator 2, somewhat detuned, and switch-
ing to Unison mode.
❖ Next we’ll create the brass effect by sending Oscillator 2 through a little
pitch envelope at entry.
❖ A pad must sound warm and full, which means we’ll have to get rid of a
lot of overtones: Enter the filter.
❖ Last but not least, we’ll program a soft curve using the volume enve-
lope.
Wider, fuller …
1 Turn “Osc 2” all the way up in the Mixer module and set its “Detune”
value to 0.07.
We already have a noticeably thicker and more stable sound.
2 Take a trip to the toolbar and set the UNISON value to 2.
Now each note is played by two voices; the sound is doubled.
3 Select Instrument > Properties in the menu bar. In this dialog, you can
determine the amount of detuning between the unison voices: Set
“Unison Spread” to 0.1.
Now each note is played by four oscillators; these are nicely detuned
against each other, providing an extra-wide sound.
Brass Attack
In real life, every wind instrument needs a couple milliseconds before the
tone stabilizes, causing the pitch of the tone to “swim around” slightly. If
you recreate this phenomenon using a pitch envelope, the ear immediately
recognizes due to its conditioning: “Aha! Gabriel’s blowing his horn!” (or
whatever). Since we’re not dealing with a solo instrument, but rather with
a section sound, we only want some of the participating oscillators to sim-
ulate this attack phase—that way we get some nice friction within the
sound. We’ll program a pitch envelope for Oscillator 2—to this end, the
SoundForum Synthesizer allows us to misuse the filter envelope.
164
1 Active the “P” button in the lower (Oscillator 2) row of the “Filt-
Env→Osc” module.
Right now it sounds horrible, for two reasons: The variation is too strong
and, since the sustain level in the filter envelope is not at zero, the pitch
lands somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We’re going to change that
right now:
2 Set “S(ustain)” in the “Filter Env” module to 0.
Still doesn’t sound quite like brass, but we now only have to soften the
attack of the filter envelope a bit to get there:
3 Set “A(ttack)” to 20 and “D(ecay)” to 40.
Now we’ll bring the still-too-strong detuning down a notch:
4 Set “Amount” in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module to 0.02.
Done: Now the tone swims just right at attack.
Remember: At this point I’m still walking you through each step. Once you’re
standing on your own two feet, you’ll be able to handle this fine-tuning yourself by
continuously tweaking the appropriate parameters.
Hearty Lip-smacking
The acoustic image is still to aggressive and edgy for a pad sound. We’ll
chisel away at that with the filter:
1 Lower the cutoff value in the Filter module to 70 and set “Env” to 30.
Now it sounds a good deal softer; the filter follows the filter envelope, sim-
ulating the typical “lip-smacking” of brass instruments. Brass sounds don’t
call for such a harsh (e.g. steep) filter, though, so:
2 Set the filter mode to LP2 and “Reson(ance)” to 0.4.
With that, we’ve “flattened” the filter from 24 dB/octave to 12 dB/octave
and let more “silk” through. The resonance emphasizes the mids around
the cutoff frequency, giving the sound more body.
165
Your Pad or Mine?

Since we’re going for a pad sound, we want it to fade in and out gently.
That’s an easy one:
◆ Set “A(ttack)” to 35 and “R(elease)” to 55 in the “Amp Env” module.
That’s it—time to store your new sound with a click on the camera symbol.
Your Assignments
1 Using this sound, program a much fatter, undulating sweep. For a
sweep, the filter has to slowly open and close with a relatively high reso-
nance value.
2 Use the brass pad to create a basis for solo brass sounds and, out of
this, approximations of the following instruments: Clarinet, oboe and
trumpet. Tip: Try the band-pass filter for woodwinds.
3 How do you make a “techno-compatible” hook-line sound out of this
sound? Give it a try. Here are a couple of clues: No filter curve, but high
resonance value with a high cutoff frequency. Anything that generates
modulation should be exaggerated.
Mission 7: Pitched Reverb out of Basic String

Any synthesizer can generate reverb—not the reverberation of an external
audio signal, of course, but rather a type of “pitched” reverb that can be
combined with a direct sound. The nice thing is that this reverb can be
tweaked at will using the synthesizer’s parameters. We’re going to build
such a sound out of the Basic String preset.
Again, the planning comes first:
❖ More ambience means less direct sound, so we need to make the basic
oscillator sound more diffused and softer.
❖ The filter is responsible for the ambience characteristic; therefore it can
neither allow too many overtones to pass nor be modulated via enve-
lope or key tracking. We also need it to generate a mildly cool impres-
sion via attenuation of low frequency content.
❖ To create a longer reverb, we must lengthen the decay.
166
Diffusion
1 Instead of pulse waves, as in the preset, we’re going to use triangle
waves. Set both oscillators to “Tri” and the “Sym(m)” controls to 0.3.
This already gives us a much softer basic sound.
2 Diffusion can also be generated via friction between pitches: Intensify
this by increasing “Amount” in the LFO module to 0.17. Since the LFO
is only affecting one oscillator, this creates an extremely wide, diffuse
modulation.
Shaping the Room

In this case, we don’t want the filter to generate a tonal curve, but rather—
similar to the oral cavity—lend a fixed character to the sound.
1 Set both “Env” and “K-Track” in the Filter module to 0.
Now the filter remains stable.
2 Set the filter to BP4, “Cutoff” to 75 and “Reson(ance)” to 0.6.
With the 4-pole band-pass, the filter now only allows a “cave-like” fre-
quency range around the cutoff frequency to pass, while the resonance
additionally emphasizes these frequencies.
Reverb Time
◆ Set “R(elease)” in the “Amp Env” module to 60.
Done. But this is only the basis for a plentitude of room-like sounds that
you will now program on your own.
Your Assignments
1 Modify the sound using noise so that it sounds like a sonar.
2 Now change the sonar so that it is suited for use as reverb for electronic
drums (less pitch).
3 Combine the sound with direct signals from other synthesizers and
adapt the reverb to each respective direct signal.
167
4 Find out how to simulate reverb parameters like pre-delay, early reflec-
tions, decay time, room size or high-frequency damping with the syn-
thesizer.
Insight
In this chapter you have seen—perhaps without being totally aware of it—
that it is possible to realize an imagined sound. After all, that’s exactly what
we’ve done: Imagine a complex sound sculpture and then chisel it out of a
basic patch.
One could say that sound designers have to work like computer scientists:
The solution lies in dissecting the whole problem into several smaller
problems that are easier to solve. That’s what we’ve practiced in this chap-
ter. We analyzed each modification first and then carried it out step by
step.
Planning and executing the individual steps may still be a bit difficult for
you—you’ll likely need a bit more practice first.
What’s important is that you stick to the following steps at first. I’ll leave it
up to you whether you write them down or memorize them:
1 Imagine the sound you want to create in as much detail as possible.
2 Thanks to our comprehensive introduction to the “sound perception
levels” you should have no problem dissecting your imagined sound
into the characteristics dimension, temperature, texture, animation and
aggression. Use these characteristics to define the sound.
3 Find a snapshot in the SoundForum Synthesizer that most closely
approximates this definition.
4 Next, plan the steps you’ll need to take to modify this patch in the direc-
tion of your imagined sound.
5 Start with the basic sound—just like we did in the previous exercises:
Oscillator waveform and mix, detuning, pitch modulation. Continue
with the filter and finish up with the volume curve.
168
Outlook
Since synthetic sounds are often based on acoustic instruments or natural
sounds, there will always be certain “building blocks” that repeatedly
appear. You should actually be able to load these into each module of any
synthesizer; as a matter of fact, you can find this type of envelope or oscilla-
tor presets in several sound editors.
Every sound designer should carry some sort of “preset collection” for
basic sounds, modulations, filter settings and amplitude envelopes. Even
the wildest sounds are often nothing more than new combinations of pre-
set building blocks with a little fine-tuning. If you always need to spend a
half-hour contemplating how to create basic sounds like fat basses, silky
strings or powerful leads before you get started, sound design just isn’t
much fun—and takes way too much time.
In the next chapter, I’d like to introduce you to exactly this kind of reper-
toire—a plentitude of sound building blocks, out of which you can create
finished sounds with the SoundForum Synthesizer.
169
9
Puzzle Programming
In plain English, puzzle programming simply means programming

sounds out of “sound building blocks.” By combining such puzzle pieces
you will at some point be able to create hundreds of synthesizer sounds
with your eyes closed.
After concluding the advanced course with the last chapter, we will now
enjoy sort of a break for our intellectual capacity.
So far we have become acquainted with several ways to transform an imag-
ined sound into a synthesizer sound:
❖ Dissecting the imagined sound into the five levels dimension, tempera-
ture, animation, texture and aggression, and building the sound accord-
ing to these characteristics.
❖ Modifying complex sounds in the desired direction.
❖ Developing basic patches into complex sounds. That’s what we did with
the basic SoundForum Synthesizer snapshots.
Now for an additional method:
Completing Puzzles
We can pretty much assume that there are many synthesizer owners who
have a difficult time programming a sound from scratch, but who have a
knack for fitting puzzle pieces together. In the end, anything should be
allowed that leads one to one’s goal.
171
9 Puzzle Programming
As experienced sound designer, the question always arises as to why one

can immediately program any synthesizer set in front of him, seeing as
how FM is so difficult and the Nord Lead has completely different parame-
ters than a Minimoog.
One reason for this certainly lies in the fact that in time a significant num-
ber of puzzle pieces is collected in the subconscious, from which one at
some point simply takes what one needs. This also explains, by the way,
why seasoned sound designers are able to program the same sounds on
any synthesizer.
We’ll begin with the basic tonal colors, starting with the fundamental ones:
the basses. After that we’ll concentrate on polyphonic sounds. Then we’ll
finish off with curves and modulations.
Upon conclusion of the puzzle programming section, you’ll be able to pre-
pare a treasure chest full of puzzle pieces for every synthesizer and to
expand the personal sound collection stored in your subconscious.
For this chapter we have a new Ensemble entitled puzzle.ens, which you
might as well load right now.
Tonal Color and Tonal Image

Don’t worry: We’re not going to start with didactic dissertations on sound
and vibration. We just want to deepen our understanding of tonal color
and tonal image.
Among many others, one possible definition of a sound is that tonal color
represents a snapshot of a particular sound; a combination of overtones at
a particular point in time. Not until you add time-based progressions do
you have a tonal image.
172
Basic Tonal Colors
Basic Tonal Colors

The SoundForum Synthesizer snapshots that I’ll be presenting here are
basic patches to which elements such as modulation, filter curves and vol-
ume curves can be added. Only then do you get a complete sound.
The basic tonal colors are completely without animation. It’s your job to
make finished sounds out of them, and that’s the focus of this part of the
SoundForum course.
Under the heading “Modifications” I have described the most important
steps in programming a finished sound, although you should actually be
quite familiar with these by now.
What’s Missing in the Tonal Colors?

In the snapshots for this chapter, everything is left out that isn’t part of the
basic tonal color.
“Cutoff” is set to the value that the sound should have with minimal enve-
lope/modulation. You can activate the envelopes later via the “Env” param-
eter. Right now, of course, the control is at a neutral setting, or zero.
Modulations are also deactivated, as long as they are not necessary for the
basic tonal color (e.g. beating).
In other words: What you hear when you load these snapshots is not
exactly exciting, but rather a darkish, sterile basic sound—the wood out of
which you have the honor to carve a masterpiece of the century.
Just so there are no misunderstandings: The snapshots I will be present-
ing during the puzzle chapter are merely meant to be suggestions and
stimulations. They do not represent a complete library—otherwise there’d
be nothing left for you to learn or do.
Your own motivation is much more important than my descriptions. Or, to
cite a stupid example: If, during a photography course, I teach you how to
photograph a house, you will be able to use the same techniques to photo-
graph a tree or an automobile.
173
Which Controls Do What?

You may be asking yourself which control elements you have to tweak to
make a dynamic, finished sound out of a boring basic tonal color. The table
below should be of some assistance:
Module Control Effect

Filter Env All Shape of the tonal color curve
Filter Env Intensity of the tonal color curve
Amp Env All Shape of the amplitude (volume) curve
LFO Amount Intensity of the modulation
Filt-Env→Osc Amount Intensity of the effect of the tonal color curve or filter
envelope (Filter Env) on pitch, waveform or volume of
an oscillator
Mixer Osc 1, Osc 2 Volume balance between the oscillators or
waveforms
Oscillator 1, 2 Waveform, Sym Basic waveform of the oscillator
Oscillator 2 Detune Modulation (undulation)
Oscillator 1, 2 Interval Sound spectrum (octave, pitch)
Oscillator 1 FM Number and volume of the FM-generated overtones
(with FM-based sounds)
Mixer RingMod Portion of ring modulation in the sound spectrum
It might be a good call to copy this table and hang it over your bed, since it applies
to all sounds in the SoundForum Synthesizer, as well as in any other synthesizer.
Sub-bass
Let’s start with a relatively easy example. The term sub-bass refers to a
ultra-low bass sound—sort of a “license to exist” for subwoofers.
Often, a sine wave will be added as sub-bass to an existing bass sound,
since overtone-rich basses rarely have enough low-end punch.
174
Basic Tonal Colors
Our example combines both: Oscillator 1 generates a growling basic sound

under which Oscillator 2 delivers a sine wave one octave below. Simple but
effective.
Modifications
❖ Basic tonal color: Using “Cutoff” in the Filter module and “Symm” in
Oscillator 1, you can determine how much “color” the sound should
have. The mix between Osc 1 and Osc 2 controls the low-frequency con-
tent better than any EQ could.
❖ Tonal curve: Turn up “Env” in the Filter module until the sound is
bright enough.
❖ The “D(ecay)” parameter in the “Filter Env” module defines the length
of the “pop.”
Octave Square Bass

Consisting of two square waves an octave apart, this hollow bass sound
with extreme cutting power is very popular for everything from eighties to
technoid styles. A light filter resonance sharpens the edges, making the
sound more aggressive. Otherwise, there’s not much to it.
Modifications
❖ Basic tonal color: You can vary the aggression via the mix between Osc 1
and Osc 2.
❖ Tonal curve: Turn up “Env” in the Filter module until the sound
“whips” to your liking.
❖ The “D(ecay)” parameter in the “Filter Env” module determines the
length of the filter pop.
❖ More or less “Reson(ance)” (Filter) gives the sound more or less of an
electronic character.
❖ Cut the pulse width in half and you’ve got a seventies disco bass.
175
TB Bass
Technically speaking, the good old TB-303—one of the world’s most popu-
lar groin stimulants—is about as complex as an egg poacher, making its
sound fairly easy to simulate on any synthesizer.
Basically all you need is the following mixture of basic ingredients:
❖ The oscillator generates either a sawtooth or a square wave. You can
choose between the two by turning up either Osc 1 or Osc 2 in the
Mixer module of the corresponding snapshot.
❖ The filter should actually be an 18-dB low-pass; we’re going to use LP2,
a 12-dB filter: The flatter, the fartier.
❖ The filter resonance should be turned up really high and the filter
should “sweep,” e.g. be “whipped” by the envelope.
Modifications
❖ Program a simple filter envelope and turn up “Env” in the Filter mod-
ule as far as you can stand it.
❖ For more obscure tonal colors, set the filter to high-pass or band-pass.
❖ Insert some kind of distortion or overdrive device into the signal path
for maximum credibility.
Black Bass
The politically correct will please forgive me for not naming this snapshot
“Bass Sound Inspired By American Citizens Of African Heritage:” The
short form simply fits better in the snapshot menu. This bass sound is
actually a staple in every basic collection. Think of the seventies, the Bronx,
boom boxes and overfilled trashcans … that’s where the sound comes
from.
The most crucial element of the Black Bass is the two-octave spread
between the two oscillators. We’ll use a pulse wave for the lower oscillator
because of its punch, and a clearly defined sawtooth for the upper oscilla-
tor.
Basically, that already just about covers it.
176
Basic Tonal Colors
Modifications
❖ Basic tonal color: Oscillator 1’s waveform determines the cutting power
in the mix.
❖ Tonal curve: Turn up “Env” in the Filter module. This kind of bass
sounds most authentic with an extremely short filter decay (D) time.
❖ More or less “Reson(ance)” (Filter) gives the sound more or less of an
electronic character.
❖ For robot soundtracks and nasty techno, try adding a vibrato to Oscilla-
tor 1. With this snapshot, a simple click on “P 1” in the LFO module will
achieve this.
Sync Bass
Oscillator sync generates an overtone-rich, “sawing” bass sound with
incredible cutting power. Since the synchronized oscillator (Osc 2) gains
overtones but loses low end, we add Oscillator 1 to the mix.
Both oscillators are set to “Puls” (pulse wave), since that gives us the wiri-
est sound.
Oscillator 2 is tuned to a fifth above Oscillator 1; the desired metallic sync
overtones occur only above this point. The pitch envelope must be modu-
lated for the oscillator to reach this point.
Modifications
❖ Saw blade: You determine the “sharpness” of the sound via the mix
between Osc 1 (fundamental) and Osc 2 (sync/metal).
❖ Tonal curve: Turn up “Env” in the Filter module until the sound has
enough bite.
❖ Sync curve: The actual sync effect comes alive when you activate the “P”
button for Osc 2 (bottom row; “P 2”) in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module.
❖ Alternately, you can transpose Oscillator 2 a bit higher and generate a
flanging effect with a slow LFO. The LFO is prepared for this in the
snapshot; you just have to activate the “P 2” button in the LFO module.
177
Fat PWM Bass

As a reminder: PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation, a technique for
making a sound fatter, wider and undulating via quick modulation of the
pulse width. This bass sound makes use of this effect.
Oscillator 1 and 2 are set almost identically. Pulse width is set to a low
value, since the modulations through the filter envelope or the LFO have
an additive effect. To emphasize depth and dimension, the oscillators are
tuned an octave apart and detuned against each other for animation. So
much for the basic sound.
Modifications
❖ Basic tonal color: You can remove the octave spread to achieve a more
defined and less deep sound. However, you should not modify the mix
or the waveforms.
❖ Tonal curve: The “Env” control in the Filter module adds a curve that is
programmed as a slow sweep.
❖ Modulation 1: You can let the pulse width follow the filter envelope—
the effect is similar to a flanger: Simply activate both “Sy(m)” buttons
in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module.
❖ Modulation 2: The pulse width modulation can, either alternatively or
additionally, be generated by the LFO; in this case it’s not a curve, but
rather a sort of rotation. To this end, activate both “Sy(m)” buttons in
the LFO module.
The only way to get the sound any fatter with the SoundForum Synthesizer
is by using Unison mode.
E-Pianos
Analog synthesizers display definite limitations when it comes to simulat-
ing electric piano sounds. Thanks to its simple FM capabilities, however,
the SoundForum Synthesizer has the potential to create fully usable—if
not entirely authentic—simulations, from DX-Rhodes to Wurlitzer.
Sine waves form the basis here, to which the typical bell-like spectrum is
added via FM.
178
Basic Tonal Colors
Modifications
❖ The basic tonal color is defined above all with Oscillator 1 by adapting
the “Interval” and “FM” parameters to each other. Setting “Interval” to
12 and “FM” to 4000, for example, will result in a Wurlitzer sound.
❖ The intensity of the tonal color curve is defined via the filter (“Env”) and
the amp control for Oscillator 1 (“A 1”) in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module.
Plucked Strings
This label denominates just about any type of plucked strings, from harp
to clavinet to electric guitar—in other words, everything wiry.
Another case for the FM feature in the SoundForum Synthesizer.
The basic tonal color in this snapshot is based on a nasal pulse wave from
Oscillator 1 (“Symm” at 0.5 or higher), with FM from Oscillator 2 supply-
ing the “wire.”
Modifications
❖ The basic tonal color is determined by the pulse width (Oscillator 1;
“Symm”), between harp and cembalo.
❖ You can mix freely between a round (Osc 1 only) and a nasal (Osc 2
only) basic sound in the Mixer module.
❖ The tonal color of the “wire” portion can be varied using the “FM”
parameter and/or the “Interval” control in Oscillator 2 (since the oscilla-
tors are synced, you can’t do anything “wrong” or non-harmonic here).
❖ For a more distinct “bite,” add a filter envelope by turning up the “Env”
knob in the Filter module.
Bells/Mallets
Bell-like and metallic sounds are created by non-harmonic overtones, best
realized with an “analog” synthesizer by way of ring modulation.
179
Modifications
❖ Overtones vs. fundamental: The balance between “Osc 2” and “Ring-
Mod” in the Mixer module determines whether the sound is round or
more metallic.
❖ Type of metal: The “Interval” parameter for Oscillator 1 defines the
basic tonal color. It’s important to note that harmonic values will not
generate metallic sounds; you need “crooked” or non-harmonic values.
❖ Strike dynamics: The “FM” parameter in Oscillator 1 controls the
amount of overtones, which determines the brightness or “sharpness”
of the sound. Again, the intensity of the tonal curve is controlled by the
“Env” parameter in the Filter module.
String Ensemble
This basic tonal color already contains a “built-in modulation;” the sound
of real strings feeds on the undulations and differences in tonal color
between the various instruments.
The analog waveform that most closely approximates the basic tonal color
of a violin or a cello is pulse wave (with “Symm” at 0.5 or higher). Both
oscillators are needed here. The impression of an ensemble is created via
detuning and modulation of the pulse width (tonal color).
Modifications
❖ The basic tonal color can be varied using the “Symm” parameter of both
oscillators.
❖ Use the UNISON mode (at the right of the toolbar) to vary the perceived
number of instruments—you’ll want to use a value higher than 2.
❖ The “ensemble factor” is generated by the LFO via modulation of the
pulse width. “Rate” and “Amount” (LFO) can be used to vary the dis-
crepancy between the instruments.
❖ To achieve the typical bowing sound, try additionally modulating the
pulse width via the filter envelope. To this end, increase the “Amount”
value in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module and the “Env” value in the Filter
module.
180
Basic Tonal Colors
Brass
Compared to metallic or voice-like sound, brass sounds are relatively easy
to program on an analog synthesizer.
You need two sawtooth waves and a little pitch modulation. That’s it.
Using this example, you can program virtually any brass sound in solo and
ensemble versions, from trumpet to tuba.
Modifications
❖ The balance between Osc 1 and Osc 2 in the Mixer determines whether
you get a solo or section sound. For solo you should only use Oscillator
2.
❖ The curve of the attack is controlled by the “A(ttack)” and “D(ecay)”
parameters of the filter envelope (“Filter Env”).
❖ The “Amount” control in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module determines the
intensity of the pitch variation in the attack phase.
❖ As always, the intensity of the tonal color curve is controlled by “Env” in
the Filter module.
❖ To vary between horn and trumpet sounds, use different “Cutoff” and
“Reson(ance)” settings (Filter module). Horns generally need higher
resonance and lower cutoff values; in addition, you should use a band-
pass instead of a low-pass (BP4 or BP2).
Voices
Simulating the tonal color of a human voice with the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer is only possible through a complex combination of FM, ring modula-
tion and band-pass filter. Using this combination correctly, however, will
allow you to program even a solo voice with shaping possibilities you
wouldn’t expect from an analog system.
181
Interestingly enough, the formants remain constant over the entire key-
board, in spite of the transposition, just as the vocal chords don’t grow or
shrink with changing pitch. Better not to ask yourself (or me) exactly how
this works—just be glad it does, and learn how to achieve and modify it
yourself.
Modifications
❖ The “Symm” parameter in Oscillator 1 determines the vowel sound.
❖ “FM” in Oscillator 1 and “Interval” in Oscillator 2 serve to vary the color
of the voice (you can only use octaves or fifths as intervals).
❖ You can achieve more depth by increasing Osc 1’s level in the Mixer
module or by lowering the cutoff frequency of the band-pass filter.
❖ To simulate vowel curves, turn up “Amount” in the “Filter-Env→Osc”
module, allowing the filter envelope to automate Oscillator 1’s “Symm”
parameter. The corresponding LFO parameter generates more humor-
ous effects.
Choir
Don’t expect a substitute for a church choir that’s stuck in traffic here,
either. Vocal ensemble sounds that not only fulfill the function of a choir,
but can also be used as pseudo-reverb under various instrument sounds,
can however be achieved fairly easily with the SoundForum Synthesizer.
Again, the basic tonal color is generated via FM, whereas the Unison mode
determines the number of choir members.
❖ The “Interval” relationship between Oscillator 1 and Oscillator 2, as well
as the “FM” value, determine whether it’s a male, female or mixed
choir—or something entirely different. A male choir is achieved with
−12:0 and FM = 2850, while 0:24 and FM = 1650 give you a female
choir.
❖ The size of the choir is determined by the UNISON setting (right side
of the toolbar).
❖ Adjust the balance of the basic sound with “Cutoff” and “Reson(ance)”
in the Filter module. Care must be taken here to find the right compro-
mise between dull and squawking.
182
Basic Tonal Colors
Breath
This term covers almost any kind of tonal color created by air movement
that generates a harmonic vibration. Examples reach from flute (more
tone, less air) to a blown bottle (more air, less tone) to wind in a cave (lots
of air, hardly any tone).
Three components are required: Tone, noise and formants. Oscillator 2
generates the tone, the noise is supplied by—you guessed it—the Nois(e)
waveform in Oscillator 1, and the filter’s cutoff and resonance are responsi-
ble for the shape of the formants.
❖ The tonal portion is determined via the “Osc 2” control in the Mixer
module, whereas its color is defined by the waveform.
❖ You can add noise in two ways: The “Osc 1” knob in the Mixer module
adds noise directly. A more subtle method is via the “FM” parameter in
Oscillator 1, which serves to modulate the pitch of the tonal portion of
the noise—a darker, more natural effect, especially with solo instru-
ments, since it causes the tone to seem more “raw.”
❖ Tonal shaping is done with “Cutoff” (darker-brighter) and
“Reson(ance)” (rounder-more nasal) in the Filter module.
❖ The entry or attack phase is shaped by the filter envelope (“Filter Env”);
its intensity can be adjusted via the “Env” parameter in the Filter mod-
ule.
❖ Since the “Amp” button in the “Filter-Env→Osc” module is activated,
the noise portion always follows the filter envelope.
183
Envelopes
So far we’ve focused on static basic tonal colors; now we’ll expand to
include programmable time-based progressions or “envelopes,” which rep-
resent a sort of “cover” that is slipped over the static tonal curve.
The synthesizer modules that generate envelopes are called, quite logically,
envelope generators.
The SoundForum Synthesizer features two of these: One for the filter
(“Filter Env”) and one for the amplitude or volume (“Amp Env”).
With the help of the somewhat cryptically labeled “Filt-Env→Osc” module,
the filter envelope can be routed to the oscillators to influence pitch, pulse
width or the volume of a single oscillator.
There are 17 special snapshots for this section, which contain envelope
presets relating to common and recognizable instruments. To make it easy
to discriminate these snapshots from the others, their names all begin
with the contraction ENV.
Each envelope snapshot is a combination of:
❖ a filter envelope (“Filter Env”),
❖ an amplitude envelope (“Amp Env”) and
❖ mild adaptations of the filter (“Cutoff,” “Env”).
With a few exceptions, the basic sound is always the same and is rarely
suited for anything in particular, but that’s not really important: We’re only
concerned with the envelopes.
Go through the snapshots once quickly, playing them as appropriately as
possible: The Piano snapshot like a piano, the Solo Brass snapshot like a
trumpet solo and so on.
You’ll notice that the sounds—even though the oscillator signal is com-
pletely wrong—approximate the original fairly closely due to the appropri-
ate envelopes; they are even pretty playable.
184
Envelopes
One very important factor is that the filter and amplitude envelopes aren’t
each doing their own thing with no regard to the other; rather it’s their
interaction that “makes” the sound.
The Four-phase Model

Before we look at the examples, I’d like to introduce you to a thought pat-
tern that intuitively helps me program envelopes. The diagram below is a
schematic representation. Have no fear: It looks far more technical than it
is.
→ Note On Note Off←

Tone entry phase Initial receding phase Hold phase Final receding phase
Attack “Initial Decay” Decay Sustain Release
This is how an envelope works: In the upper row note on and note off, the
curve phases in the middle, and the ADSR parameters at the bottom.
To clarify: The starting point, length and end of an envelope are deter-
mined by two events: Note on (pressing the key) and note off (releasing the
key).
As the diagram shows, three envelope phases take place while the key is
depressed:
❖ Tone entry phase: Blowing, bowing, striking.
❖ Initial receding phase: Generally gentle, gradual decay after the attack.
❖ Hold phase: As long as the key is held, the curve remains constant at
some point.
❖ Final receding phase: Once the key is released, the final receding phase
begins, which—at least in the case of the amplitude envelope—has to
eventually land at the null point.
185
ADSR—with a Handicap
I personally despise the classic ADSR envelope, which is found in the vast
majority of synthesizers, for the simple reason that one phase is missing:
An initial decay time for the entry phase.
Why? Imagine a vibraphone. The mallet strikes the metal bar—there’s an
initial click, followed by a slow decay. Logically speaking, there is a short
and a long decay time—the ADSR envelope, however, has only one.
This is, in my humble opinion, a serious and fundamental deficit. None-
theless, ADSR has survived and been carried over into even the best and
newest synthesizers.
Now, I’m not telling you this simply to get it off my chest, but because it’s
important that you’re aware of this problem—and of the solution. There is
a way to at least halfway simulate this second decay phase: By using differ-
ent decay times for the amplitude and filter envelopes.
As you can see in the diagram above, the decay cell is split into “Initial
decay” and “Decay.” This represents the different decay parameters of the
amplitude and filter envelopes.
The Examples
I know you’ve heard it before, but I have to repeat it: The examples won’t
do you much good if you copy them and transfer them 1:1 to your sounds.
Play with the sounds, modify the envelope parameters and pay attention to
what happens, to get a feeling for how the envelopes work and what effect
they have on the sound.
Piano
To make it clear at the outset: This preset is not called Piano because we
want to simulate a piano with it, but rather because the preset’s tonal and
volume curves are fashioned after those of a piano (and are thus generally
associated with the instrument).
186
Envelopes
With a piano, the tone enters abruptly when a key is struck and decays
slowly as long as the key is held. When the key is released, the tone does
not stop abruptly, but has a minimal decay time (damper effect).
Many programmers ignore the decay time, by the way, which is why so
many piano sounds are somewhat unrealistic.
Electric Piano
Here the overall sound is somewhat darker than that of the piano. There is
a click at the attack phase (hammer on tone bar), which we simulate with
the decay time in the filter envelope (our initial decay). The amplitude
envelope is very similar to that of the piano.
Harpsichord
This is a very quickly decaying instrument, which explains the extremely
short decay time in the filter envelope. The rebound of the plectrum is
simulated with a trick using the filter envelope: This envelope can be
routed to the filter with negative polarity (“Env” in the Filter module set to
a negative value). In this case, the attack parameter simulates the decay,
and sustain must be set to the highest value (see what happens when you
reverse this). The zero release time in the filter envelope causes the enve-
lope to close immediately and cutoff to snap to 100%.
Vibraphone
The vibraphone needs no special control over the length of the note: You
strike the metal bar with the mallet, and the sound immediately begins to
decay—not unlike a cymbal or a triangle. This explains why the decay and
release times for both envelopes are identical and the sustain times are set
to zero. The result: No matter how long you keep the key depressed, the
tonal and volume curves are always the same.
187
Xylophone
Basically the same as with the vibraphone, except that here the curve is
much shorter and wooden.
Bells
Also basically identical to the vibraphone, but with a very slow decay of
both tonal color and volume.
Perc(ussive) Organ
With an organ, there is generally no volume curve—there is simply on (key
pressed) and off (key released).
The percussion of an organ is simulated via the filter envelope: A short
decay time causes the filter to generate a click at the attack phase.
Pipe Organ
First of all, the entry phase (blowing) of the organ pipes is simulated via a
short attack time in the amplitude envelope, combined with a contrary
decay time in the filter envelope.
Then, a reverb effect as a gimmick: A slow decay in the amplitude enve-
lope combined with an abrupt damping of the tonal color when the key is
released (R = 0 in the “Filter Env” module).
Acoustic Guitar
The entry phase in the filter simulates the plucking noise made by the fin-
gernails (short decay time), while the volume decays fairly rapidly.
Electric Guitar
Here, the amplitude envelope creates a compressor effect (brief click at
attack); the actual decay is generated—due to the lack of a more complex
envelope—entirely via decay of the tonal color (decay at cutoff).
188
Envelopes
Acoustic Bass
The tonal color decays very quickly; the volume only slightly less quickly.
This creates the typical plucking sound, which is additionally emphasized
by the mild pitch modulation via the filter envelope (see the “Filt-
Env→Osc” module).
Slap Bass
This is a combination of volume compression (see Electric Guitar) and
rebound (see Harpsichord) with a slightly darker tonal color.
Synth Bass
The synth bass is one of the easier sounds: A simple, quick decay of the
tonal color (filter envelope) combined with an organ-style amplitude enve-
lope. The decay phase should smack somewhat (short release time in the
filter envelope).
Strings/Ensemble/Choir
This is also a very simple envelope: Soft fade in and out of the volume
(amplitude), combined with a brief bowing sound, generated by way of
contrary amplitude entry and filter decay phases.
Solo Brass
Here, the most important element is the slight bend of the tonal color that
influences the pitch (“Filt-Env→Osc” module). For trumpet or trombone
you only need a sawtooth as a basic waveform and you’re done.
Brass Section
An analog simulation of a brass section is dependent upon at least two
oscillators, one of which generates a pitch bend at entry, possibly an octave
apart from the other(s). Otherwise this envelope is basically identical to
that of the Solo Brass.
189
Synth Brass
Whereas the amplitude envelope resembles that of an organ, the tonal
color (filter envelope) is decisive. The filter is more or less “raised out of
the cellar” by the envelope (“Cutoff” = 43, “Env” = 84). Attack and decay
times should form a soft hump. Set the waveform to sawtooth, add a cho-
rus effect, and the sound is actually ready to go.
LFO
In conclusion we’re going to examine the most important methods of
making a synthesizer sound fatter with the LFO, creating an entire string
ensemble with only two oscillators, or goading screaming techno riffs out
of something as harmless as the SoundForum Synthesizer.
Who Is LFO?
The LFO generates the “oscillating, undulating” modulations in a synthe-
sizer—everyone is familiar with vibrato or tremolo. The rather bulky
abbreviation LFO is short for the even bulkier “Low Frequency Oscilla-
tor”—an oscillator that generates vibrations at extremely low frequencies.
The LFO signal is not an audio signal, but rather a control signal.
The speed of the vibration (rate), the waveform (sine [Sin], triangle [Tri],
pulse [Puls], sample & hold [S+H] and Symm) and the intensity (Amount)
are freely programmable.
The effect of the LFO on the sound, however, is equally dependent upon
which characteristic or parameter it influences. The same LFO setting can,
for example, create a vibrato (→ oscillator pitch), a chorus (→ oscillator
pulse width or Symm), an auto-wah (cutoff) or a tremolo (amplitude).
In order to activate the LFO in the SoundForum Synthesizer for a particu-
lar parameter, a group of buttons is provided.
Before we get lost in dry, ambiguous theoretical possibilities, let’s get to
the snapshots.
190
LFO
Snapshots
As with the previous ones, each of the snapshots for this section represent
a half-finished sound. In other words, not only the LFO modulations, but
also the other sound parameters are pre-programmed.
Once again, go through the snapshots quickly to get an idea of what the
LFO can do with each of these sounds. The more experienced and/or
adventurous among you should feel free to go ahead and experiment with
the LFO settings a bit.
While you’re going through the snapshots:
❖ vary all of the LFO parameters randomly and fearlessly to get a feel for
the elements that make up a modulation and
❖ deactivate the LFO modulations by clicking on the buttons in the LFO
module to hear the sound without the LFO.
PITCH—Vibrato
Let’s begin with the simplest assumable case: A triangle waveform modu-
lates the pitch, resulting in a vibrato.
The effect can be varied via “Rate” and “Amount.” Switch the waveform to
“Sin”—you’ll notice that a sine wave has a milder effect than the smoother
triangle modulation.
PITCH—Laser Gun
Of course we don’t really know how a laser gun really sounds—outside of
C movies.
Here we’ve simply taken the vibrato from the PITCH—Vibrato snapshot,
intensified it and turned the “Symm” knob in the LFO module all the way
to the left. The triangle wave is now a falling sawtooth—a sound familiar to
all of us who spent any time in a gaming room in the early eighties.
191
PITCH—Trill
If you use a pulse wave instead of a triangle as the LFO waveform and
switch the modulated pitch around, you get a trill. The relationship
between the high and low notes can be adjusted using the “Symm” control.
This example illustrates very nicely that the SoundForum Synthesizer’s
LFO functions in a bi-polar fashion. The signal contains positive as well as
negative peaks, which means that the modulated oscillator must be
brought back into tuning via its Interval control.
PITCH—Chorus
Pitch modulations get really interesting when multiple oscillators sound
simultaneously while being modulated differently. Since there is only one
LFO in the SoundForum Synthesizer, we leave one oscillator un-modu-
lated in this and in the following example. Oscillator 1, however, is slowly
“moved” around its original pitch, creating a chorus effect.
The faster the LFO rotates, the less intensity (“Amount”) is needed; a faster
rate is perceived as a more intense modulation. Actually, the amount
should be decreased when playing in lower registers and increased in
higher registers. However, the SoundForum Synthesizer does not offer
this function.
On the other hand, it can perfectly emulate “old-generation” sounds: Try
setting “Rate” to 12 and “Amount” to 0.14—sounds just like a good old
electronic string ensemble, huh?
PITCH—Flanging
The typical sharp, cutting flanging effect is generated via the combination
of sync and LFO modulation. Try deactivating the “Snc” button.
To vary the flanging effect, simply change the “Interval” value for Oscillator
2. To intensify the “sawing” of the flanger, turn down Oscillator 1 in the
Mixer module—now you only hear the “synced” oscillator.
192
LFO
PITCH—Random
The speech of the good old R2 unit R2D2 of Star Wars fame is no secret to
sound designers. His special brand of squawk box can be imitated very
effectively using random pitch. The LFO’s S+H waveform works like this:
A random value is “recorded” from each cycle (Sample) and held until the
next cycle (Hold); thus the term “Sample & Hold” or “S+H” for short.
Add FM to the mixture and it almost sounds like an angry R2 unit. Routed
to the filter, the S+H wave creates a random tonal color; its use with ampli-
tude is limited.
PWM—Chorus
Now we’ve made it to pulse width modulations (PWM). Back in the days
when one oscillator per voice still represented a real, discrete collection of
condensers and resistors, many synthesizers had to make do with a single
oscillator to keep costs in check—and a chorus was not always included.
In those days, PWM was often used to fatten up the sound—successfully,
as the snapshot demonstrates. There’s only one oscillator at work here,
and it nonetheless sounds like two.
If you happen to own a synthesizer with two LFOs, recreate this patch on it
and program a vibrato for the second oscillator with the second LFO. Talk
about phat!
PWM—Ensemble
With a somewhat faster modulation, a second oscillator tuned at an octave
and a bit of detuning, you get a very nice ensemble effect—with just one
LFO.
PWM—Trance
For all of you who have always wondered how the techno freaks get those
insanely cutting leads, to which all of those typical ponytailed, carb-and-
common-sense-free blondes bathe in laser and strobe light while dancing
their calories away, here’s a round of wisdom on me: Turn off all good
193
taste, and cutoff and resonance up to 3/4 … everything else is freely vari-
able. In this example, the two oscillators are tuned an octave apart and
PWM is too intense and too fast. Sounding hip is not really much of a chal-
lenge …
FILT—AutoSweep
And now to the filter modulations. The counterpart of the vibrato for the
filter is a sweep, except that it rotates more slowly. The filter paints the
friendly frequency band with relatively high resonance. Waveform: Trian-
gle; sine wave if you want the ends to be more contoured.
FILT—Repeat
If you set the LFO waveform to sawtooth (select “Tri” and turn “Symm” all
the way to the left), you get a repeat effect—the note seems to be played
repeatedly at the LFO’s tempo. Sir Paul McCartney, by the way, used this
very effect in a tear-jerking Christmas song—do you recognize the sound?
FILT—AutoReverse
Turning the “Symm” control all the way to the right causes the LFO to gen-
erate a rising sawtooth wave, which always sounds like a reverse effect—
most LFOs offer this waveform as a preset.
AMP—Tremolo
Enter the first of three amplitude (volume) snapshots: Tremolo is actually
nothing more than a volume vibrato—instead of the “P” button, the
“A(mp)” button in the LFO module is activated. I went ahead and pro-
grammed the tremolo in a vibraphone-like patch.
194
LFO
AMP—AutoTrig
In this patch, the synth bass seems to be played with multiple attacks,
while the filter slowly opens and closes. What you otherwise would actually
have to play with a Parkinson finger while slowly nursing the mod wheel is
being done for you automatically by the LFO and the filter envelope.
AMP—Echo
If you use the trill effect (LFO with pulse wave) on the amplitude or vol-
ume, an echo effect is generated. The difference in length between “tone
on” and “tone off” can be varied using the “Symm” control. If you set the
LFO waveform to “Sin(e)” and turn the “Symm” knob all the way to the
right, the echo sounds in reverse.
Observing LFO Waveforms

Yes, you can even observe the LFO waveforms on the oscilloscope.
To this end, load bonus snapshot “LFO Wave View.” It generates white
noise that appears at first as a relatively even surface in the oscilloscope.
Set “Level” to 10:00 and “Time” to minimum in the oscilloscope.
If you now vary the LFO’s waveforms and “Symm” parameter, you can
observe the resulting LFO waveform in the oscilloscope as a volume curve.
195
10
10
Factory Bank Project
The time for sowing is finally over—now we shall reap. Become a profes-
sional sound designer and participate in the creation of a factory patch bank
for the SoundForum Synthesizer.
As already announced, I assume at this point that you have acquired a

solid basic knowledge of sound programming and the SoundForum Syn-
thesizer. One of the ways to achieve this lay in actually working through
the previous chapters of this book—at least for the most part.
Be that as it may, beyond this point no more concessions shall be made for
beginner’s questions; the descriptions of individual steps will also be
appropriately brief.
In this section we will be pursuing completion of a clearly defined task, as
is daily routine for the professional sound designer: We have been
assigned the task of programming a factory bank consisting of 20 patches
that will guarantee maximum virtual retail success for the SoundForum
Synthesizer.
The task is defined this way because these patches should demonstrate the
sound creation possibilities of the synthesizer as impressively as possible.
They should deliberately aim for “aha!” reactions. So we really have to get
creative here.
All the while you’re in the enviable position of merely having to look over
my shoulder and follow on your SoundForum Synthesizer. It won’t be all
that easy, though: After all, you are supposed to understand what we’re
doing.
197
10 Factory Bank Project
Example Files
The “Init” snapshot that’s included in various ensemble sets on the CD
will serve as basis for all of the sounds in this chapter. You’ll also find the
individual snapshot on the CD as “init.ssf.” The sounds we’ll be using in
this chapter are also included in the “factory.ens” Ensemble.
Naturally, we’ll be programming all of the sounds from scratch. You can’t
really lean on something created by someone else when you’re program-
ming factory sounds—after all, we are creating original sounds for a brand
new synthesizer here.
The Factory Bank Sounds

1: Butterfinger
The SoundForum Synthesizer is an “analog” synthesizer. One of the first
things a potential user is going to want to know is whether it delivers a
healthy portion of punch and phat; we want to convince him right away.
Our idea is a fat, cinema-style killer bass that flies in when a key is pressed
and slips away at release. We call it “Butterfinger” because cleverly named
sounds whet the appetite and Butterfinger it associated with something
sweet, tasty and fattening.
First we have to program a nice, fat basic sound:
1 Using the Init patch, we start by turning up both oscillators all the way,
setting them to square wave and detuning them by 12 cents. Not thin—
but not really fat either.
2 Next we’ll use the LFO to modulate the symmetry of both oscillators
with an Amount of 0.95 and a Rate of −9.
3 To make the modulation a little less monotonous, we’ll adjust the sym-
metry in Oscillator 2 (Puls-Sym) to 0.04.
Pretty nice basic sound, but since we only need a monophonic sound any-
way, we might as well stack a couple voices.
4 A UNISON value of 5 ought to do it.
198
Now we’re talking phat!

Just a little animation … After all, we’re not just going for fat—it’s sup-
posed to sound spectacular. So we’re going to program a sweep not only
for the filter—but also for the pitch, to get that “flying in and out” effect we
were talking about.
5 First we’ll program a slow filter curve (A = 50, D irrelevant, S = 1, R =
50) and an appropriate amplitude envelope with a fast attack and slower
release.
6 Then we set “Env” in the Filter module to 100.
Nothing is happening yet, because “Cutoff” is set to over 100.
7 So we decrease the cutoff value far enough so that the filter doesn’t
open fully until the envelope peak is reached; this happens at around
cutoff = 60.
8 To add a little edge to the sweep, we turn “Reson” up to around 0.7.
Getting there, but we still want the filter envelope to modulate the pitch at
an octave.
9 To this end, we activate both “Osc” buttons in the “Filt-Env→Osc” mod-
ule and set “Amount” to −0.96 (which equals approximately an octave).
10 For a little more cutting power, we turn the “FM” knob up to 200.
I’d like to see someone beat this with a measly little Minimoog!
11 Now the final touch: since potential buyers in music stores like to play
with the mod wheel, we route it to the FM control.
Aha! Number 1 is a winner.
2: Baked Beans
Now that our virtual potential buyer has heard something spectacular, he
might like to hear something seriously usable. A fat, undulating pad is
another “trademark” analog synthesizer sound and a good contrast to our
first creation. So let’s program a nice, warm, fat, gooey, filling sound—
kind of like the name implies.
199
Dark, animated and mildly filter-sweeping pads seem to go over well

among users, and these are easily realized with the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer.
Once again using the Init patch, we turn both oscillators up and detune
the second one by 9 cents. Both should be set to sawtooth waveforms (in
Oscillator 1, that’s “Tri” with the “Symm” knob turned all the way up).
The good old unison trick will serve us here again as a thickening agent,
but in this case we’ll leave it at two layered voices per note.
For the pleasantly undulating modulation, we’ll program an LFO triangle
vibrato for Oscillator 1 with a “Rate” of −4 and an “Amount” of 0.09.
Now for the soft tonal color, for which we’ll once again activate LP4. A cut-
off value of 73, combined with a resonance value of 0.31, creates a dark,
moist tonal character. The already slow filter envelope (A, D and R = 70)
needs only be enhanced via an “Env” value of 30, so that the sound opens
up a bit. Then we might want to route the modulation wheel to the filter’s
“Env” control to add some MIDI controllability.
The amplitude envelope should fade in and out slowly.
And we’re done with our easily programmed but very convincing pad.
3: Syncomator
The bass was big and punchy, the pad sweet and silky—we’ve got our “fish”
on the hook. Now we have to feed him enough acoustic energy to keep him
going through the next ten sounds. How about a little shake, rattle and
roll?
A tonal curve (in this case sync) that gets chopped up by the LFO, creating
constantly new harmonic patterns, should raise an eyebrow or two, don’t
you think?
To start out with, we only want to hear the synchronized oscillator, so we
only turn up Oscillator 2. Sync is at its meanest in combination with
square waves, to which we’ll set both oscillators.
200
We’ll generate the sync curve with a slowly decaying filter envelope (A = 0,
D = 75, S = 0, R = 75), along with a hearty turn of the “Amount” knob in the
“Filt-Env→Osc” module to 1 and a click on the pitch button for Osc 2 (“P
2”).
Now let’s get chopping. As mentioned, that’s the LFO’s job, which we’ll
route to Filt(er) and Amp(litude). To ensure that it chops, we’ll set “Symm”
in the LFO module to −0.99, transforming the soft sine wave into a per-
cussive repetition.
That chops pretty well, but the filter isn’t right yet. Cutting filter curves are
best realized with a bandpass. We’ll choose BP4, set cutoff to 60, reso-
nance to 0.75 and Env to 90. That way, the filter also follows the sync curve
a bit.
The volume envelope (Amp Env) should decay slowly (A = 0, D = 70, S = 1,
R = 70).
4: Metallurgy
The first three sounds may not have been entirely commonplace, but they
can be created with any analog synthesizer with a halfway respectable fea-
ture set.
Our potential customer will want to know whether the synth is capable of
producing “non-analog” sounds, and we’d like him to have an experience
that leaves a solid impression—a sound that he’d never expect from the
harmless-looking SoundForum Synthesizer. After all, we do have access to
FM and ring modulation, making metallic sounds a very real and easy-to-
realize possibility.
We’ve chosen the name “Metallurgy” to motivate us to create something
metallic and morphing.
In order to get the most out of the metallic FM sound, we start off by only
turning up Oscillator 2. With the SoundForum Synthesizer, the metallic
tonal color is a combination of three factors: The oscillators’ waveforms,
their intervals and the value of the FM parameter in Oscillator 1.
After a bit of experimentation, we end up with the following settings:
201
Both oscillators generate a pulse wave with a symmetry value of 0.5. The
intervals are set to 29 and 38 (Oscillators 1 and 2, respectively) and FM is
set to 1450. Here again we utilize Unison mode with 4 voices per note.
This generates a nice, fine “grinding” sound, as if you were sanding a
church bell using a belt sander with fine paper.
We’re going to emphasize that using a high-pass filter that lets the upper
harmonics pass while attenuating the lower portions. We choose HP2 with
“Cutoff” at 50 and “Reson(ance)” at 0.78. With “Env” at 100 and “Filter
Env” at A = 0, D = 55, S = 0 and R = 55, the sound is enhanced with an
additional “sanding.”
Now we’ll program the LFO to add continuous spectral movement. It’s
going to modulate the symmetry of Oscillator 1 using a triangle wave, a
rate of −13.5 and an amount of 0.66. Now it sounds as if the belt sander
was being moved and turned on the bell.
The amplitude envelope should fade in and out softly (A = 40, D irrele-
vant, S = 1, R = 60).
5: Ciaoup
After all that rattling, whistling and morphing our potential customer
should be convinced that the SoundForum Synthesizer is capable of a
thing or two. Now we want to present him with something solid—some-
thing he actually might use in a song. Since we have no way of knowing
where his musical tastes lie on the scale from slow fox to warp trance, we’ll
play it safe with a true classic. A very slender yet extremely low and con-
toured bass that underscores the synthesizer’s sonic quality.
Using the Init patch, we’ll start working on the basic sound. We activate
“S(y)nc” (slenderizes) and turn both oscillators all the way up. Oscillator 1
gets transposed by −24 half steps and Oscillator 2 by −26 (creates friction).
We want a pulse wave in Oscillator 1, since it delivers more metal than a
sawtooth. “Symm” is set to 0 (square wave).
Now we’ll program the filter to generate a clear “chowoop” effect (that’s
where the name comes from): “Cutoff” at 33, “Env” at 94 and
“Reson(ance)” at 0.77.
202
The whip portion is supplied by the filter envelope (A = 11, D = 40, S = 0.3
and R = 23) and a slightly lengthened release time in the amplitude enve-
lope. The latter creates the noticeable “snapping shut” at the end of the
tone.
We’ll create a bit more overtone development by activating pitch for Oscil-
lator 2 (“P 2”) and setting “Amount” to 0.26 in the “Filt-Env→Osc” mod-
ule.
Here’s a trick for creating a little “fake beating” that doesn’t muddy up the
low end like normal modulation tends to: The LFO slowly (“Rate” = −6)
and gently (“Amount” = 0.5) modulates the pitch of Oscillator 2. Combined
with oscillator sync, this sounds a little like mild flanging.
6: PPG 2002
Many roads lead to Rome. Similarly, an analog Synthesizer can deliver a
convincing PPG-style sound using FM. Since the user more quickly
digests something that has been pre-chewed via the name, we’ll call this
patch “PPG 2002”—a PPG in a millennium cloak.
Our only route to this sound is via FM; this is the only way to generate the
typical gargling tonal colors that made the PPG so popular (and vice versa).
To get this sound, we’ve got to experiment with oscillator combinations:
First turn up the FM control, then tweak the interval and waveform param-
eters until you get the right basic sound. In this case we end up with “FM”
= 1900, “Symm” = 0.14 and “Interval” = −12 for Oscillator 1.
Then we add Oscillator 2 (the actual FM color) with “Puls-Sym” at 0.24 and
“Interval” at 36.
The typical PPG-style wavetable sweep (but even nicer) is realized via the
“Filt-Env→Osc” module, where we set “Amount” to 0.5 and activate sym-
metry for Oscillator 1 (“Sy(m) 1”).
203
Next we program the filter and filter envelope departments for a moder-
ately percussive approach: “Cutoff” at 54 and “Reson(ance)” at 0.33 for a
soft, dark basic color; with “Env” at 84 we add the filter envelope, which
delivers the moderately percussive effect with A = 0, D = 56, S = 0 and R =
60. The amplitude envelope gets a similar treatment (A = 0, D = 20, S =
0.61 and R = 56).
That’s it. No connoisseur would be offended if we mention that this sound
beats the pants off of any PPG …
7: Logical Sound
The electric piano is gradually replacing the piano as obligatory part of a
factory bank. Not all synthesizer customers are 17-year old CD spinners
who became acquainted with music over Fruity Loops. So we should try to
support those among our potential customers who have had three years of
piano lessons in the illusion that it was not all wasted time, which they had
better spent with Fruity Loops. For these candidates, a nice, playable e-
piano sound is possibly the best medicine.
Once again, FM is the basis here. But instead of an everyday Wurlitzer
piano, we’re going to create a shimmering, expensive-sounding electric
piano with lots of metal. We’ll start by setting FM to a healthy 800.
Oscillator 2 is responsible for the metallic portion of the sound, so we turn
it all the way up and set “Interval” to 60. Then we activate the “Amp” but-
ton for Oscillator 2 in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module so that the metal por-
tion decays a bit more quickly than the basic sound (Oscillator 1).
Now for some tonal color shaping: The filter gets a slightly more moderate
treatment than with the PPG sound, with “Cutoff” = 71, “Reson(ance)” =
0.36 and “Env(elope)” = 58—we don’t want it to sweep, but simply dampen
the sound somewhat in the decay phase. Since the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer’s “Env” parameter is permanently routed to velocity, the piano is
automatically velocity sensitive—the same goes for volume.
204
The filter envelope gets a medium-strong percussive treatment: A = 0, D =

55, S = 0 and R = 44; the amplitude envelope gets a slightly longer decay
time (D = 64) and a shorter release time (R = 24). A small but important
detail: Many programmers make the mistake of setting the release time to
zero with piano sounds, which gives them an unrealistic feel that reminds
me of cardboard.
All we have left is a bit of finest-tuning: The LFO modulates Oscillator 1’s
symmetry with “Rate” = 1.5, “Tri” as a waveform and an “Amount” of 0.44,
which in this case creates a mild, pleasant flanging effect.
8: Fjord Lord
After three “usable” sounds we should maybe wake up our imaginary test
listener with something a little different. “Fjord Lord” is a whale-song-like
background lead sound with a moderate overblowing effect in the attack
phase.
We turn up both oscillators, set FM to 1450 and Interval to 12 (Oscillator 1)
and 24 (Oscillator 2) respectively. After setting the Symmetry control
(“Symm”) to 0, our whale-song-like basic sound is finished.
Tweak the FM knob a little to see what it does. The overblowing effect is,
thanks to FM, very easy to achieve: One of the oscillators (Oscillator 1) is
minimally modulated via the “Filt-Env→Osc” module (“P 1” button acti-
vated, “Amount” at 0.08). Now we program a filter envelope with a short
entry: A = 35, D = 34, S = 0 and R = 77. “Cutoff” at 82 and “Reson(ance)” at
0.41 in the Filter module supply a dampened basic tonal color. We’ll cause
the envelope to negatively affect the cutoff frequency with “Env” at −22;
here, you can experiment with the setting and choose the one you like
best—they all sound good.
The LFO generates a slow vibrato. The “Tri” waveform is crucial here, as is
a “Rate” of 11 or lower and a mild “Amount” setting of 0.13. The “P” button
for both oscillators should be activated; you can, however, later deactivate
one of them if you like—three different types of vibrato effect are possible.
The amplitude envelope gets a gentle attack and slow release with A = 15,
D = irrelevant, S = 1 and R = 58.
205
9: Machine Head
Any passionate test listener is going to want to bring the roof down—at
least once. So let’s program a big, fat, mildly animated low-end power saw.
First, we need an earth-shaking basic sound; once again we’re going to
make use of FM. We’ll go ahead and turn it up to 3350, and turn up Oscil-
lator 2 in the Mixer module so that we can hear the FM effect. To get a fat
razor sound, Oscillator 2 should be transposed down a good deal; say to
−26. The interaction of the two oscillators’ waveforms plays an important
role with FM; I’ve chosen “Tri” (triangle) with “Symm” at 0.6 for Oscillator
1 and “Saw” (sawtooth) for Oscillator 2.
The animation comes from the LFO set to a pulse wave with a short
impulse. To this end, we set “Symm” to −0.6, “Rate” to 14 and “Amount” to
0.5 in the LFO module, and select two modulation destinations: The pitch
of Oscillator 1 (“P 1”)—this modulates not only the basic pitch, but also the
frequency relationship between the oscillators—and the filter (“Filt”).
We want the filter to generate a slow, cutting sweep. “Cutoff” at 62 and
“Reson(ance)” at maximum, combined with BP2 (bandpass), gives us the
basic sound we’re looking for. Then we set “Env” at 96 and “K-Track” to 0
for a prominent sweep that remains constant over the keyboard.
Finally, we program slow filter (A = 69, D = 74, S = 0, R = 65) and ampli-
tude envelopes (A = 0, D = 69, S = 1, R = 62), with curves that cause the
sound to build and diminish when a key is held.
Done.
10: OBY 16
Even with contemporary sound banks you have to be careful to not only
think of teenagers—there are still working keyboard players out there. We
know our virtual client will sell the SoundForum Synthesizer to anyone
who puts his money down, so we shouldn’t just chase trends that will be
obsolete tomorrow, and be sure to toss in a true classic now and then. And
what could be more classical for an “analog” synthesizer than the sound
206
whose middle name could be “Fat Fat Fat”—namely the typical Oberheim
brass sound? Oddly enough, many of the people who made this sound
famous could share its middle name—maybe that’s why it sounds so f…
Never mind.
We’ve touched on elements of this sound several times in the course of
this book, so the ingredients should be familiar by now.
The basic waveform for brass sounds is the fat, greasy, overtone-rich saw-
tooth wave. We’ll set both oscillators accordingly.
Next we have to emulate the typical brass entry or attack phase. This is the
job of the filter envelope, which we’ll route to only one oscillator in the
“Filt-Env→Osc” module. The resulting friction in the attack phase tricks
the ear into thinking it’s hearing horns.
We’ll program a filter envelope with short attack and release phases. Sus-
tain must be set to zero, otherwise Oscillator 2’s pitch will land somewhere
in nirvana (try it out).
To get a silkier sound, we switch the filter from LP4 to LP2, making it less
steep and letting more “shine” through. With that, we’ve basically covered
it—the rest is fine-tuning of the individual parameters; I encourage you to
experiment with all of them and try to adapt the sound to your own per-
sonal taste.
11: FlexPad
One simple trick is to present the user at regular intervals with a sound
that he wouldn’t expect from that particular synthesizer because it seems
to lie outside the possibilities of the implemented type of synthesis. If the
sound also earns the rating “not completely useless,” it’s also a very effec-
tive trick.
FlexPad is a pad sound with a complex, morphing overtone structure. Not
too long ago, a surprising number of Yamaha fans with more money than
common sense lightened their accounts by several thousand dollars for a
brand-new VP-1 because of just such sounds. But hey, that’s OK: Other-
wise they probably would’ve just spent it on something even more ques-
tionable …
207
This sound is based on the SoundForum Synthesizer’s welcome ability to

dramatically modify the sound spectrum of an FM sound via modulation
of oscillator 1’s pulse width (Symm). This is exactly what the “Sy(m) 1” but-
ton in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module does when activated: The filter envelope
automatically and invisibly tweaks the “Symm” knob in Oscillator 1. The
basic sound can be widely varied using the FM control.
Except for the above-described trick, the sound is a no-brainer: The undu-
lation is generated by the UNISON mode (value: 3), whereas Oscillator 1
also gets a mild vibrato effect courtesy of the LFO. Determining the appro-
priate filter and amplitude envelopes shouldn’t really represent a challenge
to any of us.
To program your own special variation of the sound, I recommend tweak-
ing the following parameters (next to FM, of course): Oscillator 1 Interval,
Oscillator 2 Waveform and Oscillator 2 Interval. Good luck!
12: Chime On
As we know, the potential customer often has something with him in the
music store; something he generally refers to as “honey.” This “honey” is
only predictable in one respect: It will be yawning in five minutes or less. It
is of primary importance that we take this social component into consider-
ation when programming factory sounds: “Honey” will inevitably exercise
pressure on our test listener with the goal of getting him away from the
synthesizer as quickly as possible and pulling him into the next perfumery,
where our potential customer will end up spending his synthesizer budget
on a collection of liquids that smell like they were made by filling helpless
rodents with soap and then pressing them … This is to be avoided at all
costs, which is why we need to appease “honey” now and then during the
test listening phase.
The wind-chime emulator we call “Chime On” fulfills precisely this task.
Accompanied by the (predictable) sentence: “Listen, honey—just like the
chimes that the Reiki teacher gave you,” our test listener glisses down the
keyboard. The resulting “Oh! It can do that?…” signals say that we’ve been
granted another five minutes to hook our guy.
208
This essentially important sound is very easily programmed: Two oscilla-

tors are set into frequency modulation via the FM parameter; their inter-
vals are set very high and tuned slightly apart. The trick is tweaking the
relationship between the FM and the two Interval controls so that a wind-
chime sound results.
The bandpass filter ensures that only a small portion of the sound spec-
trum is audible, while the envelopes supply the appropriate decay.
To keep the whole thing from sounding too sterile, the LFO mildly modu-
lates the cutoff frequency.
If you want to experiment with variations, I once again recommend FM,
Oscillator 1 Interval and Oscillator 2 Interval.
13: Dream Theam

There is a style of music that developed entirely around one single sound.
It’s that style with the soothingly identical structure, best experienced on
German television made for pubescent teens, for example the NBC music/
lifestyle show “Giga.” It starts with a suspiciously young and suspiciously
blonde teen female presenter type with nuclear warheads where women
typically have breasts warbling a nursery rhyme into a cosmos-sized
reverb. Then the camera pans to something that resembles a gigantic
sweatshirt with ski goggles. That’s the DJ whose creation we’re marveling
at, and with him enters this sound, accompanied by a bass drum that pins
the needles on every seismic counter within a 50-mile radius.
As they say in Germany, simple means lead to simple ends, and so it is
that this sound can not only be perfectly realized on any SoundBlaster
card, but is also perfectly easy to program. All you need is two oscillators
tuned at octaves with fast pulse width modulation for width, edge and hec-
tic movement and lots of detuning. That’s it.
Well, OK: To make it a little more interesting, you can open the filter a
healthy amount and add some bite via the resonance knob. Of course, you
can do the same thing with EQ.
209
One of the most popular “arrangement techniques” in the Trance-Dream-

Dance-Ambient-Rave scene, by the way, is to slowly open the filter while
the nursery rhyme is playing back. A nice touch that doubles as a warning,
allowing more intelligent listeners to bring their brain cells into safety
before the true fans’ remaining vacuum is shaken out.
14: AmbientraK
Even the patch name contains a favorite sound designer trick. The name—
as so often, a play on words using common “Americanisms”—suggests to
The Guy Next Door that this sound comes from another planet and is so
amazing that he’s got to like it, or be riddled with doubt regarding his own
street credibility.
AmbientraK is one of those sounds that anyone—even those who have
trouble associating “finger on key” with “tone”—can do something
impressive with.
Give it a try: Play a major or minor chord (for those described above: three
white keys with one in-between simultaneously—there’s only one tricky
one) every few seconds. You’ll get a cool chill-out phrase every time, to
which you only need to add a bass drum and a bass to become rich and
famous.
And this is how the sound works:
The two oscillators are tuned a fifth apart (“Interval” in Oscillator 2 at −7).
The cool, dark trance factor comes from the almost closed filter with a
medium resonance setting. Here, a sawtooth waveform is used, but that’s
a matter of taste and/or musical context.
The delay effect is generated by cutoff modulation via the LFO using a
pulse wave for its distinct peaks. The delay “feedback” is controlled by the
release time in the amplitude envelope.
The filter envelope supplies a crisp attack and a mild damping of the
sound in the decay phase.
210
15: Chick Magnet

We don’t want to forget an important fringe group among keyboard-testing
customers, which—for lack of a better name—we’ll call John Joseph. Sort
of an intellectual wannabe-Casanova that, around twenty years ago or so,
would take near-sighted, natural-wool crocheting women with names like
Abigail to Emerson, Lake & Palmer concerts in hopes that the rumble of
the organ’s bass pedals might produce something like a hormone rush—
even in a body as organically neutralized as that of his date.
Once in a while these attempts were successful—much to the dismay of all
nearby who were then subjected to a pitiful chain reaction: Batik and
parka-covered vegetarian bodies broke into graceless belly dances, accom-
panied after a few minutes by the unmistakable bouquet of “Brise d’ Be
Eau”… Meanwhile, John Joseph is a social worker in whom the sound of an
organ awakens desire: “Organ” means “I want;” our task is therefore “Here
you go.”
The name for our organ sound not only suggests the opposite of John
Joseph, but also the magnetic sound generation of the Hammond we’re
emulating.
Analog synthesizers with two oscillators give you three “stops” to play
with. One common combination: Oscillator 1 generates the tonic (16'),
Oscillator 2 the 5-1/3' and the filter resonance the 2-2/3' stop. This is
exactly how our sound is structured. The key click comes from an
extremely short filter envelope; the “Leslie” effect is generated by the LFO
modulating the pulse wave in Oscillator 1. Oscillator 2 generates a sine
wave. If you route the LFO rate to the modulation wheel you can even con-
trol the speed of the Leslie.
211
16: ShakAtak
At 17, John Joseph toured India in a VW bus with his CO buddies; since
then he’s an incurable world music freak. Now that we’ve warmed him up
with our organ, he’ll flip out over our lead sound.
This sound name is hard to beat in terms of multiple entendres—it con-
tains hints of “shakuhachi” as well as “shark attack” while contributing to
the creation of new slang by artistically leaving out one “t” and the “c” in
“attack.” The ability to see through this fills John Joseph with a warm feel-
ing of intellectual humor and profound civil intelligence—both of course
purely virtual, in the case of the programmer as well as the target person.
Thanks largely to Peter Gabriel’s mega-hit “Sledgehammer,” the shakuha-
chi (www.shakuhachi.com) has long since become part of everyone’s musi-
cal vocabulary; since then the typical asthmatic yodel is an obligatory pro-
tagonist in love-film soundtracks and ethno-pop songs.
Once again, we take advantage of FM or frequency modulation. An inter-
val of a fifth between the two oscillators, combined with square waves, gen-
erates the breathy-metallic basic tonal color. The filter envelope supplies
the attack, which negatively influences the pulse width (Symm) of Oscilla-
tor 1, creating a second effect: At the end of the decay phase, the tone mor-
phs into a kind of feedback. If you want this effect to be constant, simply
deactivate the “Sy(m)” button in the “Filt-Env→Osc” module.
The programming of the FM and Symm parameters is the key to this
sound—the rest is sound shaping for household use, so to speak.
212
17: Revell Yell

Every synthesizer freak knows sci-fi films and associates them with posi-
tive things—some more, some less. Case in point: whereas others see
Worf when they watch Star Trek: Voyager, I see a bad actor on whose fore-
head someone stapled a model of the Black Forest out of a 1975 garden
railway catalog … On the other hand, I love those old B-movies in which
invisible hands control Revell model spaceships on seemingly intention-
ally not-well-hidden nylon strings in front of a Discovery Channel-style
“Wonder of the Milky Way” poster, making “voom” and “cussshhh” noises
and holding Bunsen burners. Before I was 12, the appropriate soundtrack
for these movies was the synonym for “synthesizer,” and that’s how it’s
stored in my ROM.
Which pretty much explains the name for this aural homage: Revell Yell.
The basic sound needs to be in octaves and pretty thick, which we’ll
achieve via pulse width modulation of both oscillators (“Sy(m) 1” and
“Sy(m) 2” activated in the LFO module). Additionally routing the LFO to
volume (Amp(litude)) creates the rotation effect that one instantly associ-
ates with movement or drive train.
To simulate the sound of the spaceship approaching and/or passing, we
use a combination of a slow attack/release curve in the amplitude envelope
and a slow filter sweep. The extremely steep bandpass filter (BP4) and high
resonance value make the old space ride sound wonderfully shrill and elec-
tronic at the peak of the filter curve.
18 to 20: Sound FX
By now I think even the most skeptical among our virtual test listeners has
noticed that the SoundForum Synthesizer is capable of a broad spectrum
of analog and digital synth sounds. The most important “standards” were
included, as well as several complex sounds and real surprises—all in all, a
nice, colorful mixture.
As dessert—sort of an after-meal wake-up—we’re going to serve our poten-
tial customer (and don’t forget the “honey,” sitting on a guitar amp a cou-
ple yards away, filing her nails) a couple of sound effects, which:
213
1) should create a certain “aha” effect,

2) should be easily modifiable for personal use,
3) should underscore the infinite sound-creating possibilities of the syn-
thesizer and
4) have to come now, because sound effects always come at the end of the
factory sounds—that’s what our test listener is accustomed to and is going
to expect.
Let’s make it short and summarize the three effects here:
❖ 18: Miniplane is a sport plane flying overhead (air battle with Revell
Yell, anyone?). The filter envelope controls the pitch; the amplitude
envelope also fades in and out slowly. The sound character comes from
two oscillators slightly detuned against each other (propellers), while
UNISON emphasizes the undulation. The LFO is in charge of damping
the propeller sound to a muffled mumble.
❖ 19: Cannonball is the sound of a cannon being fired far away, and can
be used as a universal electronic drum reverb. And here’s proof that
impressive sounds can be technically simple: Noise in Oscillator 1 is
transformed to a subwoofer-worthy rumbling via FM. The FM control
determines the distance of the cannon from the listener and should be
routed to the mod wheel. You’ll discover the rest on your own.
❖ 20: Kick Yer Butt is the sound with which you can turn the speaker into
confetti just before you leave the store—proceed with caution! The filter
resonance is responsible for the low-end punch here; the oscillators are
totally irrelevant. The filter envelope generates the click (A = 0, D = 28)
and the slow downward bend (S = 0.25, R = 56); the amplitude envelope
should follow.
214
Factory Bank Overview

Every good factory bank should be documented. If you have serious plans
to join the circle of professional sound designers, take my advice and never
deliver sounds without documentation. Otherwise, you (or your sounds)
may experience some unpleasant surprises during the manufacturer’s
evaluation session: Your sweep pad that takes 20 seconds to fully develop
might be played staccato, or your first-class solo saxophone could be
mutated to an inferno by a ten-finger piano figure. That’s going to happen
at the music store anyway …
The human psyche works in such a way that when you’re offering some-
thing to someone you have to tell them what he should like about it, why he
should like it, and how he should use it.
And so, just as the synthesizer should have an owner’s manual, the factory
sound bank should have playing instructions. And the concise it is, the
more success your sounds will have. Whether you are pitching a sound
bank to a manufacturer or delivering one already contracted, a brief, con-
cise documentation displays professionalism and enhances your sounds
much like a high-quality reverb enhances a voice.
What should such documentation look like?
❖ Be brief: Never more than a sentence; if possible almost in shorthand
style.
❖ Include all important facts: Number, name, and brief description.
❖ Playing instructions work wonders: Whereas almost everyone knows
how a piano should be played, the manner in which some synthesizer
sounds are played is so crucial that you shouldn’t risk leaving it up to
the individual.
The table below shows the documentation for our factory sound bank, just
like you might include with a finished job.
215
Name Description Playing Instructions

1 Butterfinger Fat, undulating cinema-style bass. Long single low notes.
2 Baked Beans Wide, undulating pad as contrast to Stately chords in middle register.
previous sound.
3 Syncomator Cutting, rattling sequencer sound. Long single notes.
4 Metallurgy Morphing metallic sound like a belt Slow melodies or single notes in
sander on a church bell. middle or higher registers.
5 Ciao Oop Low, punchy cinema-style bass. Typical sequencer-style bass lines.
6 PPG 2002 Typical, gargling PPG sound in Slow arpeggios or melodies in
“millennium” cloak. middle to higher registers.
7 Logical Sound Electric piano emulation with digital Staccato chords with varying
ringing. dynamic (e.g. “Logical Song” by
Supertramp).
8 Fjord Lord Whale song. Long single notes in middle register.
9 Machine Head Automated low-end power saw. Long single notes.
10 OBY 16 Typically fat Oberheim brass sound Any typical brass-style chords or
(caution: greasy!). melodies.
11 FlexPad Pad sound with complex, morphing Long chords in lower or middle
overtone structure. registers.
12 Chime On Wind chime emulator; doubles as Random sparkling figures in any
love lure for hippie chicks. register.
13 Dream Theme Fat rave-style lead sound à la rural Simple bumber car-style melodies.
disco.
14 AmbientraK Chill-out phrase for people with low Long, long chords.
blood pressure (that want to keep
it).
15 Chick Magnet Simulation of an electromagnetic Organ-style chords and phrases.
organ with rotor enclosure.
16 ShakAtak Ethnic flute sound with distinctive Slow melodies with lots of
entry or attack phase. embellishments in middle to high
registers.
216
Name Description Playing Instructions

17 Revell Yell B-movie spaceship simulation Long single notes or chords.
18 Miniplane Sport plane flying overhead. Long single notes in low to middle
registers.
19 Cannonball Cannon being fired far away; can be Short single notes. The lower the
used as a universal electronic drum note, the darker the sound.
reverb.
20 Kick Yer Butt Punchy sub-bass with slowly falling Short single notes. The lower the
pitch. note, the darker the sound.
217
11
11
Box of Tricks
As brilliant culmination of the SoundForum course, I will open my box of

tricks for you in this chapter, putting to paper what I have learned through-
out my programming years.
It’s a widely held misconception that sound design represents a cornuco-

pia of creative passion, exorbitant lifestyle and repulsively high income.
The first point is only half true: Sound design is sometimes pure crafts-
manship with a little accounting. Even with synthesizer sounds there is
something similar to mastering. I’d like to teach you some tricks, with
which you can make your own as well as others’ sounds sound just that bit
better and achieve the reaction in users that makes the difference between
“That’s nice” and “I’ll use that in every track.” Perfect sound and good play-
ability are not always the result of cocaine-induced creativity peaks, but
often of the interaction between perfectly harmonizing components. And
that’s exactly what we’ll be focusing on here.
The basis for the following tricks will once again be the Init snapshot,
which—like the other examples for this chapter—can be found in the
trick_collection.ens file on the CD that came with this book.
Beating between Oscillators Done Right

Frequency
Beating between oscillators in a synthesizer sound is the aural counterpart
to salt in the kitchen. Beating determines whether a sound is lively and fat
or simply horribly detuned.
219
11 Box of Tricks
Two factors are crucial to the sound of a beat: Its frequency and its depth.
Beating is generated by pitch friction between the oscillators. The more
they are detuned against each other, the faster the beat—you can hear that.
Here are a few tips on choosing a frequency:
❖ Slow beating: Lead sounds and “thin” basses should undulate very
slowly; slow beating lets a sound be “harder” with more cutting power,
and doesn’t get mushy even when you crank up the vibrato. For slow
beating, set the “Detune” control in the SoundForum Synthesizer
somewhere between 0.01 and 0.03.
❖ Medium-fast beating: This is what you want for polyphonic sounds
(chords, pads), arpeggios, sequencer figures and soft lead or melody
sounds. Medium-fast beating makes the sound fuller, but also less con-
toured. Detune range: 0.04 to 0.07.
❖ Fast beating: Appropriate for catchy hook lines, effects and choppy riffs.
Fast beating creates a mild to heavy detuned character, causing the
sound to stand apart from others. Sounds playing choppy parts can
handle detuning better than those playing stately lead lines. Range:
0.08 to 0.23.
You can try this out using the snapshot “Detune Tester.”
Depth
In the course of a beat, the oscillator signals cancel each other out, causing
a “hole” or a distinct phasing in the sound. You can, however, level out this
“up and down”:
❖ For maximum perceptibility of the beating, both oscillators must be set
as identically as possible (waveform etc.), tuned to the same pitch and
equally loud.
❖ If you want the sound to undulate but still be stable in lower frequen-
cies, either set one oscillator to a somewhat lower level or tune it down
an octave.
❖ Another possibility is to set the two oscillators to different waveforms.
Here’s a generalized rule of thumb: The less identical the oscillator sig-
nals, the less deep the phase cancellation will be.
220
Pulse Width Modulation
If your synthesizer offers a key-track parameter for oscillator pitch, use it

for one of the oscillators at 99% or less, so that the speed of the beating
remains constant across the keyboard. Otherwise the beat frequency will
increase with the pitch. The SoundForum Synthesizer does not offer this
parameter.
Special Case: Bass

Generally speaking, the bass should not “swim” in the mix. Otherwise,
individual notes may disappear. If your track is built on an animated bass
sound, double it with a dry, dark 1-oscillator bass (e.g. triangle, sine or fil-
tered sawtooth) to add fundament.
Depending on the register, this fundament can also be tuned an octave
lower. Several synthesizers offer a dedicated sub-oscillator for exactly this
purpose.
If you want to fatten up your bass using a chorus, flanger or other modula-
tion effect instead of oscillator beating, try the following trick to keep a
healthy bass fundament: Use an external chorus fed through an aux path
(send). Insert a high-pass filter into the aux path, so that the lower frequen-
cies don’t reach the effects processor. The sound will be nice and fat, but
the bass fundament will stay dry and concise.
Pulse Width Modulation

In the good old days, or rather in the good old analog synthesizers, pulse
width modulation (PWM) was actually a stopgap (just like the chorus, by
the way): Many synthesizers had only one oscillator due to cost, yet had to
compete with the big guys. So they were given a chorus module or a PWM
circuit. Pulse width modulation can generate many nuances, from “mildly
undulating” to “totally detuned.”
There are two factors that must be considered:
Contrary to standard modulation, pulse width modulation allows you to
define range and depth. The higher the PWM frequency, the less depth
should be used to avoid detuning.
221
11 Box of Tricks
The lower the played note, the more intense pulse width modulation
becomes. You should always use key tracking when available so that the
modulation speed adjusts to the pitch.
To achieve a well-balanced sound, you shouldn’t use the entire range
between square wave (50%) and a practically non-audible nasal sound,
since the PWM sound wobbles in this range. Be sure to carefully adapt
pulse width and modulation depth to each other.
The PWM snapshots are good starting points for practicing PWM pro-
gramming:
❖ “PWM Range:” Here, the PWM range is set too high; the sound has a
distinct hole. Decrease either “Symm” in Oscillator 1 or “Amount” in the
LFO module. With the former technique, the modulation retains its
depth; with the latter, it becomes milder.
❖ “PWM Speed:” This modulation is programmed so that it sounds good
in a middle register (around C3). Play the sound in lower and higher
registers. You’ll need to adjust the LFO rate and amount to get a consis-
tent sound in all registers.
Which Type of Fat for Which Recipe?

Almost every synthesizer offers four different ways to add fat and width to
a sound:
❖ Detuning via the Detune control,
❖ vibrato on one oscillator,
❖ pulse width modulation and
❖ chorus (external in this case).
The question is: When do I use which one? Should I combine two or
three?
Here again a few rules of thumb, which should ease the decision-making
process. For a direct comparison, use the “Fat Check” snapshots:
222
Which Type of Fat for Which Recipe?
❖ Detuning (of both oscillators) sounds the most natural and doesn’t rob
the sound of its stability, but is usually less spectacular sounding. If you
don’t want the sound to be too synthetic, or if you want it to be “true
analog,” this kind of undulation is your best bet.
❖ PWM sounds harder and edgier, always adds an easily perceptible
movement and is more flexibly controllable than pure detuning (depth
and range in addition to frequency). PWM works best if you want the
beating to be distinctly audible and/or to make the sound thicker and
fuller—fast PWM creates a much wider sound image than fast detun-
ing. You can achieve a “happy medium” between the two by detuning
the oscillators, then adding PWM to one.
❖ For strings, choirs or other ensemble-type sounds, try a medium-heavy
detuning of both oscillators, combined with a vibrato on one oscillator.
This results in a fast, wide modulation that sounds like lots of oscilla-
tors. If you have two LFOs available, you can even modulate both oscil-
lators, but you should set the two LFOs at different rates (the ensemble
or “symphonic” effect algorithms in effects processors function simi-
larly, with several chorus circuits using different settings running
simultaneously). The more different the modulations, the fewer audi-
ble repetitions and phase cancellations you will have. For example, you
could set one LFO to sine wave and the other to triangle.
❖ Chorus/Ensemble: Modulation effects always “mush up” the sound,
since they work with delays of up to several dozen milliseconds, but—
like a good shampoo—they can also add a silky shine. Whereas ensem-
ble should be reserved for more “swimming” sounds (slow attack and
release times), chorus can also be used on percussive sounds. However,
you should only use chorus in the place of detuning if you really have
exactly that chorus sound in mind or if it frees up an oscillator for
something else.
And yet more general rules of thumb:
❖ Detuning should always be the preference for typical analog sounds.
❖ PWM should be used for powerful sounds with more movement.
❖ For ensemble sounds, program different vibratos for each oscillator
(assuming you have two LFOs).
223
11 Box of Tricks
❖ Only use separate/external effects to fatten a sound if you want that par-
ticular sound character or if it frees up an oscillator that you want to use
in another way.
Which Waveform Should I Start with?

The sawtooth is always a good waveform as a basis for programming. All
other waveforms are portions of a sawtooth. I use square waves, for exam-
ple, to program hollow sounds, pulse waves for string-like sounds, PWM
for fat strings or pads and sine or triangle for especially soft sounds. Try
taking any synthesizer sound and setting the waveform to sawtooth—
somehow it always sounds good. Filter curves and filter quality can also be
judged best with the sawtooth.
The Snapshot “Filter Harmonics Test” lets you hear which harmonics are
present in a particular waveform: Hold a note and let the filter close slowly.
Since the high resonance setting causes the frequencies around the cutoff
frequency to be amplified, distinctively audible and visible (in the oscillo-
scope) peaks will result at those frequencies, where the cutoff frequency
meets a harmonic. Switch to square or triangle wave and compare.
Where is the Tonal Color Variety Hiding?

You can only generate a few truly different basic tonal colors with the lim-
ited number of analog waveforms (sawtooth, square/pulse wave, sine, tri-
angle and noise). Two oscillators extend the palette by allowing you to mix
various waveforms and registers.
And even in the simply structured SoundForum Synthesizer, FM adds a
multitude of variation potential. Thus, you can create a broad spectrum of
basic tonal colors with even a simple analog synthesizer.
224
Filter Slope
Simply mixing different waveforms to achieve dramatically different tonal

colors with two oscillators only works if you want a subtle variation. For
more distinct variations, you need to tune the oscillators to different regis-
ters. It makes a big difference in a bass sound, for example, whether a saw-
tooth is added to a square wave an octave higher or vice versa (snapshots
“Bass Saw/Square” and “Bass Square/Saw” demonstrate this).
Filter Slope
Just as with the SoundForum Synthesizer, most filters in other synthesiz-
ers offer various filter slopes. 12 and 24 dB are common; often you’ll also
find 6 dB or 18 dB. Steeper slopes like 36 dB and higher are rare.
The practical rule of thumb: The steeper the slope, the more dramatically
the filter modifies the sound; the edgier and fatter it sounds—but also the
more artificial.
This fact can be incorporated into a simple sound designer’s golden rule:
The more natural the sound should be, the flatter the slope should be
used. This becomes especially important when working with a sampler,
sample player or sample-based synthesizer (like most workstations). If the
filter is responsible for shaping the sound of a piano or string multisam-
ple, even 12-dB filters will often sound artificial. You can hear how the
sound is “cut off” and doesn’t decay naturally. Tonal color curves—like the
gradual decay of the harmonics in the release phase of a piano tone—are
very subtle in acoustic instruments; a 24-dB filter is simply to harsh to
simulate this.
See for yourself, using snapshot “natural → synthetic” how dramatically
different the filter modes sound: Select the various low-pass modes LP1
(6 dB), LP2 (12 dB) and LP4 (24 dB) one after the other. Whereas LP1 very
closely resembles a natural decay, LP4 gives the sound a distinct synthetic
shape. It is precisely this sound-shaping character that determines the
quality and appropriateness of a filter. The sound of an old Moog synthe-
sizer is largely a result of its Moog filter, whereas a Prophet 5 has an
entirely different, equally characteristic filter.
225
11 Box of Tricks
Key Tracking
Most synthesizers offer a key tracking control, which enables the filter fre-
quency to be controlled by the keyboard or played pitch. Without this, low
notes sound too bright and high notes too dark—if they don’t disappear
entirely.
You can test this with the snapshot “Filter Key Track:”
❖ Play the sound in broad registers. It sounds narrow, undefined and bor-
ing.
❖ Now set K-Track in the Filter module to 1 and play again: now it sounds
well-balanced across the entire keyboard.
For this reason, you should always use key tracking in the filter with
sounds that should sound natural and/or be well playable. And here’s the
trick: Generally, key tracking is neutral at C3. That’s why I always set the
cutoff frequency while playing notes around C3. Afterwards, I test the
other registers and adjust key tracking accordingly.
You can also use key tracking to influence the character of filter sweeps:
Without key tracking, filter sweeps are the same for all simultaneously
played notes; the sound evolves in one synchronized movement. Key track-
ing enables you to break the synchronicity and add more movement to the
sound. Give it a try using the snapshot “Sweep Key Track,” playing in
broad registers with and then without key tracking.
Setting the Filter Range Correctly

In order for a sound to be truly playable, the range that the filter empha-
sizes must be chosen correctly. Here’s the fastest way:
1 Envelope depth and velocity off; deactivate or neutralize any other mod-
ulation sources.
2 Play in the range around C3 and set cutoff to its minimal value, but not
so low that the sound disappears.
3 Program key tracking so that the sound is audible and well-balanced
across the entire keyboard.
226
Resonance as a Third Oscillator
4 Now set attack in the filter envelope to zero and sustain to its maximum
value. Turn up envelope depth until the desired maximum value (the
brightest desired sound) is achieved.
5 Finally, program the envelope, velocity and other modulations.
If you stick to this method, your sounds will be much more playable and
well-balanced.
You’ll find an example in the snapshot “Perfect Filter Setting”—the filter
sounds balanced over the entire keyboard and dynamic range.
Resonance as a Third Oscillator

Many synthesizers allow you to use the filter resonance as a third oscilla-
tor. When fully open, it generates a sine wave via self-oscillation, whose
frequency is dependent upon the cutoff setting. Some synthesizers require
the filter to be triggered by an oscillator to be set to vibration—this is not
necessary with the SoundForum Synthesizer.
This signal can be used as a third oscillator—especially effective for creat-
ing organ sounds with analog synthesizers.
In the snapshot “3Drawbar Organ” an organ sound is generated using
three sine waves (registers 16, 8 and 2-2/3); the highest of these comes
from the filter.
A special trick: Since the coarse resolution of the cutoff control often makes it diffi-
cult to get exactly the desired tone, as in this case, we fine-tune it with a combina-
tion of a very low sustain value in the filter envelope and the envelope depth con-
trol. The key click is also generated by the filter envelope (extremely short decay).
By the way: Cave-like or other noisy, reverby sounds (sonar, flute) can be
simulated quite effectively via a combination of noise from an oscillator
and a self-oscillating filter—try it out! The Snapshot “Tuned Noise” was
created out of the snapshot “3Drawbar Organ” by modifying just a few
parameters and demonstrates exactly this effect.
227
11 Box of Tricks
What Are Band-pass and High-pass Good for?

Although multimode filters are standard these days, a low-pass filter is
used for probably 99% of all synthesizer sounds. This is not due to a lack
of creativity on the part of sound designers, but simply to the fact that a
low-pass filter shapes the type of curve that most acoustic instruments pos-
sess, and you need this type of curve for most sounds. After all, the human
being is a creature of habit.
But what can you use band-pass and high-pass for?
An acoustic impression is available in the snapshot “HP BP Test.” Hold
chords while switching between the various BP and HP modes of the filter.
BL4 is a special case: It’s actually a BP (band-pass) filter, but with a 6-dB
high-pass and 18-dB low-pass, and sounds more musical than BP4.
A high-pass filter—which shouldn’t be surprising considering the name—
is exactly the opposite of a low-pass filter: It lets high frequencies pass,
attenuating the portions below the cutoff frequency. Therefore, high-pass
sounds are thin and cutting, because the highs are always fully present,
while the lower harmonics are missing in part. The snapshot “HP Intro
Sweep” shows how a high-pass filter can be used to create a sweep sound
that evolves essentially out of nothing into an ice-cold pad.
A band-pass filter, on the other hand, is a combination of low-pass and
high-pass. It lets only the harmonic content around the cutoff frequency
pass unaltered and is therefore especially effective for shaping formants—
for example the resonant characteristics of an instrument body (i.e. guitar,
piano or woodwind). In this case, the bandpass filter works like a paramet-
ric midrange equalizer. The snapshot “Oboy” demonstrates just that: A
sawtooth wave is cut here in such a way that the sound has the same thin,
nasal character in all registers. Why? Because key tracking is deactivated,
causing the cutoff frequency to remain the same regardless of pitch. Not
that I want to imply with this patch that an analog synthesizer is capable of
simulating even vaguely realistic brass sounds … The idea should come
across, though.
228
Juicy or Creamy?
Juicy or Creamy?
In previous chapters I have philosophized now and then about the subcon-
scious association between sounds and perceptions. Sounds that one likes
trigger pleasant associations, which is why people generally like warm, fat
or cool sounds, whereas thin, mushy or screeching sounds are less popu-
lar.
With this last little trick, I’d like to show you how you—using almost only
the filter—can realize sounds that automatically trigger associations from
“juicy” to “creamy,” as if one would bite into a ripe peach or a piece of tof-
fee, depending of course on individual taste.
For some reason, sounds like this are especially popular among the audi-
ence at large and are widely used, among other things, in songs that seem
to always have something to do with reproduction or its preliminary activi-
ties.
Give the snapshot 20 “Juice or Cream” a test drive, and you’ll see exactly
what I mean.
You get these sounds automatically with a certain combination of filter, fil-
ter envelope and amplitude envelope. The better the filter, the more dis-
tinct the “wellness” effect.
The core of the whole thing is the effect of letting the frequency of a low-
pass filter snap open quickly and then slowly close again—similar to the
time curve with which a cream pie covers a victim’s face (attack) and frees
it again (release).
Cutoff and envelope depth settings must be set according to the descrip-
tion above.
The liquidity is determined by the filter resonance. At a lower setting, it
sounds like cream or toffee; at a higher setting it approaches syrup or
juice. (In case you might suspect that I was under the influence of a South
American “medication” purchased in a dark alley while writing these lines,
check the description again. The association is generally similar among
musicians with a similar social background …)
229
11 Box of Tricks
It’s also important to avoid a “cardboard”-like effect when the key is

released. To this end, the release time in both the filter and amplitude
envelopes must be very short.
The thickness of the associated substance can be influenced by the attack
time in the filter envelope—longer attack times create a riper, mushier
tone.
At this point, feel free to tweak everything on the SoundForum Synthe-
sizer except the described modules. You’ll discover that regardless of what
goes into the filter, toffee or syrup comes out. Which proves once again
just how crucial the filter is to the sound.
230
Contents of the CD-ROM
Windows
❖ Soundforum Synth Setup.exe
This is the installation program for the SoundForum Synthesizer. Start
the installation with a double-click; it will automatically take you
through the installation process step by step.
❖ Sounds folder
This folder contains the ensemble and snapshot files that you’ll need
during the course.
Mac OS
❖ Soundforum Synth Installer
This is the installation program for the SoundForum Synthesizer. Start
the installation with a double-click; it will automatically take you
through the installation process step by step.
❖ Sounds folder
This folder contains the ensemble and snapshot files that you’ll need
during the course.
231
Index
A D
Acoustic bass 189 Decay 112
Acoustic guitar 188 Detune 105
ADSR envelope 111, 186 DX-Rhodes 178
Amp Env module 111
Amplitude envelope 111
E
Attack 111
Auto sweep 194 Echo 195
Electric guitar 188
Electric piano 187
B Ensemble 189, 193
Band-pass filter 108 Envelope
Bass ADSR ~ 111
Acoustic ~ 189 Amplitude ~ 111
Slap ~ 189 Attack 111
Synth ~ 189 Decay 112
Beating 50, 219 Filter ~ 114
Bell sound 72 Release 112
Bells 179, 188 Sustain 112
Brass section 189 Envelope generators 184
Brass sounds 181, 189 Envelopes 97, 184
Breath sounds 183 EQ 143
Equalization 143
C
Choir 182, 189
F
Chorus 192, 193 Filt-Env→Osc module 115
Chowning, John 61 Filter 106
Control voltage 96 Band-pass 108
Cutoff frequency 107 Cutoff frequency 107
233
Index
High-pass 108 M
Low-pass 107
Resonance 109, 227 Mallets 179
Slope 107, 225 Metallic bass sound 69
Filter Env module 114 MIDI Learn 87
Filter envelope 114 Mixer 105
Filter self-oscillation 75
Flanging 192 N
FM 57, 104
Noise 104
Frequency Modulation 57
G O
Organ
Guitar
Percussive ~ 188
acoustic ~ 188
Pipe ~ 188
electric ~ 188
Oscillator 41
H P
Hammond organ sound 211
Perc(ussive) organ 188
Harpsichord 187
Pipe organ 188
High-pass filter 108
Plucked strings 179
Horn sounds 181
Pulse wave 102
Pulse width modulation 52, 221
K PWM 52, 221
Keyboard tracking 110 PWM bass 178
K-Track 110
R
L Random Pitch 193
Laser effects sounds 75 Release 112
Laser gun sound 191 Resonance 109, 227
Latency 22 Ring modulation 65, 71, 105
LFO 42, 117, 190 RingMod 105
LFO waveforms 195
Low Frequency Oscillator 42, 190 S
Low-pass filter 107
Sample & Hold 118
Sawtooth wave 103
Sine wave 103
Slap bass 189
234
Index
Slope 107, 225 Synth brass 190

Solo brass 189 Synth horns sounds 78
SoundForum Synthesizer 19 Synth string sounds 80
ASIO 25
Audio Drivers 22
T
Compare 32
Configuration (Mac OS) 24 TB bass 176
Configuration (Win) 21 TB-303 45, 176
CPU load 31 Trance lead sound 193
De-installation (Win) 24 Tremolo 194
Features 20 Triangle wave 103
File Menu 27 Trill 192
Help Menu (Mac OS) 30 Trumpet sounds 181
Instrument Menu 30
Latency 22 V
MIDI Learn 32, 87
Number of voices 89 Vibraphone 187
OMS 25 Vibrato 191
Playing the ~ 26 Voices 181
Properties 34
Remote control 87 W
Snapshots 27, 36
System Menu 29 Waveforms
System Requirements 20 Noise 104
Toolbar 31 Pulse 102
Unison 33, 90 Sawtooth 103
User interface 33 Sine 103
View Menu (Mac OS) 30 Square 102
SoundSchool Analog synth 16 Triangle 103
Square bass 175 White noise 104
Square wave 102 White noise 104
String ensemble 180 Wurlitzer 178
Strings 189 Wurlitzer electric piano 54
Sub-bass 174
Subtractive synthesis 41 X
Sustain 112
Xylophone 188
Sync 65
Sync bass 177
Sync lead sound 68 Y
Synth bass 189 Yamaha DX synthesizers 57
Synth bass sounds 77
235

Content ProSyn Print

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Content ProSyn Print

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Peter Gorges

2 The SoundForum Synthesizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4 Synthesis Tricks—For Experts Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

5 Conclusion of the Basic Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6 SoundForum Synthesizer Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Filter Env . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

7 Advanced Sound Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

8 Advanced Hands-on Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Amplitude (Volume) Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

9 Puzzle Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

10 Factory Bank Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

11 Box of Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Which Waveform Should I Start with? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Contents of the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

The SoundForum Synthesizer.

The SoundForum Synthesizer is a high-quality, well-equipped polyphonic

The feature set is quite impressive:

How Do I Play and Hear the SoundForum Synthesizer?

Audio Settings dialog for standard sound cards.

The MIDI Port Dialog.

Buffer Size and Audio Routing

Playing the SoundForum Synthesizer

MIDI Note Playback

The File Menu

The Load Snapshots Dialog.

❖ Save Snapshots: Allows you to save snapshots as “.ssf” files. A dialog

The Save Snapshots Dialog.

The System Menu

The Instrument Menu

The “?” Menu (Windows only)

The View Menu (Mac OS only)

The Help Menu (Mac OS only)

The SoundForum Synthesizer Toolbar.

The Properties button opens a window in which various parameters of the

The User Interface

The Properties Window.

The SoundForum Synthesizer features polyphonic voice allocation. The

Unison Spread determines the amount of detuning between unison voices

To store a snapshot, click on the Store Snapshot button (camera symbol).

To copy the snapshot, enter a new (unoccupied) number in the No field

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Synthesizers!

It Just Doesn’t Want to Work!

The Load Snapshots Menu.

How Does Simple Synthesis Work?

In a simple synthesizer, the signal flows through three components: oscil-

From Alarm Signal to Pad

Color Your Sound

The method table.

In practice, of course, things don’t always follow this method. Nonetheless,

The legendary Roland TB-303.

1 Step 1: Load snapshot 2, “Basic Square” or 3, “Basic Saw.” Set “Interval”

Beating between Oscillators

The oscilloscope shows the variation in pulse width with PWM.

The PWM-relevant parameters in the LFO section.

The Right Combination

Step 1: Basic Sound

Step 2: Beating, Oscillator Modulation

Step 3: Filter Characteristic

Step 4: Filter Progression

Filter and volume envelopes for an electric piano sound.

Step 5: Volume Progression

The Nature of Frequency Modulation

What Does Simple FM Sound Like?