Goal 🔗

• Fun
• Learn some basics
• Learn to listen to music differently
• Hands-on experiments with a minimal toy synthesizer

Topics 🔗

Basic synth engine - oscillator 🔗

• Sine (useless)
• Triangle / Sawtooth (very common)
• Rectangle (sounds somewhat similar to triangle, but different frequencies)
• FM - frequency modulation (became famous in computer games and early 80's)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk82DPrAugs
• Noise
• Wavetable
• Much much more

Sequencer 🔗

• Stores notes per "step" (usually 1/16th note resolution)
• Defines the measure, melody and rythm of a track
• Think of scores
• Bars / scenes

Arpeggiator (ARP) 🔗

• Plays notes automatically based on given input notes
• Italian for harp (arpa)

ADSR envelope (Attack Decay Sustain Release) 🔗

• Makes a static simple sound coming from an oscillator sound like a real-world, mechanical sound
• Describes an envelope curve controlling the volume of the oscillator
• Typically also used to control the filter

Filter 🔗

• Low-pass / High-pass
• Reverb
• Can be set manually, but very often together with the ADSR
• .. or LFO

Effects 🔗

• Delay
• Reverb
• Phaser

Drum machine 🔗

• Similar to the sequencer, but stores per-step invocations of drum elements
• Typically kick/bass, snare, closed/open hi-hat, claps, percussion

Low frequency oscillator (LFO) 🔗

• Controls "slowly changing" parameters
• Can be the same as acoustic oscillators, but also any input signal
• Typically controls filter-/oscillator-/ADSR parameters

History and Examples 🔗

• Moog
• Giorgio Moroder
• Chase original https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpW3C_k0WMY&list=RDmpW3C_k0WMY
• Chase live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH2guTTyX8s
• Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene Pt. 4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSIMVnPA994&list=RDmpW3C_k0WMY
• Der Mann mit der Maschine

Additional notes 🔗

• https://muted.io/drum-patterns/