Re: filters

[james fowler <twostroke@gmail.com>]

I believe that is an important starting point. While with the complexity and power of today's synths, it's typically possible to do any type of sound with any type of synth. I can do bell-like artifical Eighties sounds with a virtual analog, such as the Waldorf Q. I also can do a 303-style bass, complete with filter sweeps, with a FS1R. However, I'll probably will find it easier to get the bell-like sound with the FS1R and vice versa. So depending on what you have available on the sw/hw side, and what kind of sound you're after, another synth altogether might be the right way to go.

- yeah, but i would argue that the yamaha does everything well ; )  i appreciate the notion of not knowing the right thing to do in every instance.  unintentional misuse has resulted in lots of cool stuff...

In addition to that, some synthesis concepts are easier to grasp intuitively. "Three basic and separate aspects of the sound are shaped in the three main sections of oscillator, filter and amplifier. You set the general sound characteristic with the waveform for the oscillators (from left to right: pure to shrill), and the pitch of each oscillator with the octave. Want some combination? Do a linear superposition of two (or three) oscillators. Then the filter section. Turning cutoff to the left makes the sound more dull, to the right more bright. And finally the amplifier section, and with it the most-important envelope of any synthesizer. With that envelope, you adjust how the sound develops over time, so to speak: gently coming in with long attack, percussive behaviour with low sustain and short decay and so on. Even the more advanced stuff – like doing some “mwah” with the filter envelope – is really easy to grasp if you spend some time with one of those." [1].
Using FM synthesis, this is kinda different. Synthesis looses much of its intuitive character if you have to work with double integrals in your head. So with the FS1R, it's not only the manual, it's the architecture. The time-honored DX7 (which, btw, didn't have filters), created a big aftermarket for people who would write books on how to program sounds, or sell soundsets. Now the FS1R has a much more complex architecture compared to the DX7, so it's obvious it's kinda hard to grasp.

gonna read your spiel.  sounds interesting.

Btw, I just had to check - there is a straightforward multimode filter in the FS1R - it's on page 53 of the manual, and you simply find it via Edit->Voice->Common->Filter, except for the options which are under Edit->Performance->Part->Tone, Options 7-10 ;).

yep, dunno...guess i scanned right over this section.  thanks for pointing it out.  gonna have a go at it tonight.

For me, an approach to get how a certain thing is done on a synth is to go from a preset. E.g. use preset A012 "Technical" (an analog-style bass with filter cutoff modulated by the mod wheel) and work from there?

the long and short of it is that this is a machine that requires a lot of time to really get your head around.  anybody got some spare time i can borrow?

thanks rainer.

- jim

Yours,

Rainer

[1]: I did a blog article called "is there a perfect synthesizer" - http://moinsound.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/is-there-a-perfect-synthesizer/

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