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Synthesis Vol. 1
An introduction to sound synthesis, written for musicians.
How synthesizers actually work — oscillators, filters, envelopes and modulation — explained by a player, in plain language.
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Most synthesis writing is either too shallow to be useful or too academic to finish. This is the explanation I wish I'd had: what each part of a synth does, why it matters musically, and how to hear the difference. No prior electronics knowledge needed. Available in English and Spanish.
What you'll get
- Understand what every knob on a synth is actually doing
- Build sounds on purpose instead of scrolling through presets
- Learn the vocabulary that makes every other synth tutorial make sense
- Read it in English or Spanish
What's included
- 57 pages in PDF, organised into two modules
- What sound actually is: waves, frequency, amplitude, timbre and harmonics — and how it is represented digitally
- Psychoacoustics: the Fletcher-Munson curves, masking, and why your ears mislead you
- The building blocks of every synthesizer: oscillators, filters, amplifiers, envelopes and LFOs, and how signal flows between them
- Waveforms and their character — sine, square, triangle, sawtooth and pulse — with the harmonic content behind each one
- The filter in depth: low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch, slope, resonance and self-oscillation
- The ADSR envelope and the LFO: how a sound gets its dynamics and its movement
- A hands-on exercise in every chapter, to work through on your own synth
Who it's for
- Keyboard players who want to move past factory presets
- Producers who own synths but don't fully understand them
- Anyone starting out with sound design
Questions
- Do I need to know electronics or maths?
- No. It's written for musicians. If you can play, you can follow it.
- What languages is it in?
- English and Spanish. You choose your edition when you download it.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Enter your email and I'll send it. Volume 2 goes deeper and is paid.
Synthesis Vol. 1
An introduction to sound synthesis, written for musicians.