Post by bear on May 6, 2020 8:27:13 GMT -7
I've been staring at a blank page for a few days now trying to figure out how to begin to explain synthesizers. Finding the right tone (pun intended) can be a struggle to include just enough background information to make it understandable without being overly technical and filled with unfamiliar jargon. So, I suppose the best way to start is with a sound wave. waldowally this one is for you bro.
What is sound?
Sound is a change in air pressure. Without air or an atmosphere, there is no sound because there is nothing for the wave to travel in. We are walking around every day in a giant, invisible soup that conducts and disperses pressure changes and we have an incredibly fascinating "device" that can detect these changes: the human ear. I could spend a whole day on how the ear works and how it connects to the brain, but we will save that for another time.
As sound waves travel through the air they have different rates that the wave vibrates at and this determines the pitch. The slower the wave vibrates, the lower the pitch, and the faster the wave vibrates, the higher the pitch. For example, a low B on a 5 string bass guitar vibrates at a frequency of about 30 hertz (hz), or about 30 times a second. This translates to a very deep, low note for our ears. In the middle of a piano we have the aptly named "middle C" which is about 262 hertz, or 262 vibrations a second. We typically tune instruments of the Western musical tradition with the A note at 440hz. (An interesting factoid is that pitches are logarithmic, so when you double the frequency you get the same note: an A note can be 110, 220, and 440 hz.) Ultimately, pitch names are arbitrary since they are just a simplified way of talking about wave frequency, but the relationship with the previous pitch when we hear it is what makes music out of sound.
How does this relate to synthesizers?
Similarly to how air vibrations are translated into pitches by our ears, we can create vibrations using voltage. This is the essence of synthesis. We use a control voltage, or CV, to generate a signal, which is sent to a speaker, and then on to our ears. Most synthesizers have a keyboard that is used to determine pitch, but this is not always the case because the keyboard is really just a controller for the synthesizer, since they can be completely separate devices.
What parts make up a synthesizer?
Now that we understand how CV can be used to create a pitch, let's talk about the various parts that make a synthesizer. We are using electricity to create a sound wave, but waves have different shapes to them. The first component of a synthesizer is called and oscillator which generates the shape of the wave. The sine wave is a pure synthetic pitch like you might hear on an old telephone, and it doesn't have a lot of flavor to it. Most synths have oscillators for a triangle wave, a sawtooth wave, and square wave. Now would be a good time to check out this video so you can hear the different shapes.
There you have it. Those are some of the wave forms that are possible to generate with a synthesizer. In our next installment, we will discuss more components of a synthesizer that help shape the sound, such as the filter and the envelope, and hopefully sometime in the not to distant future we will arrive at those massive, modular setups, and talk about what it is they can do.
What is sound?
Sound is a change in air pressure. Without air or an atmosphere, there is no sound because there is nothing for the wave to travel in. We are walking around every day in a giant, invisible soup that conducts and disperses pressure changes and we have an incredibly fascinating "device" that can detect these changes: the human ear. I could spend a whole day on how the ear works and how it connects to the brain, but we will save that for another time.
As sound waves travel through the air they have different rates that the wave vibrates at and this determines the pitch. The slower the wave vibrates, the lower the pitch, and the faster the wave vibrates, the higher the pitch. For example, a low B on a 5 string bass guitar vibrates at a frequency of about 30 hertz (hz), or about 30 times a second. This translates to a very deep, low note for our ears. In the middle of a piano we have the aptly named "middle C" which is about 262 hertz, or 262 vibrations a second. We typically tune instruments of the Western musical tradition with the A note at 440hz. (An interesting factoid is that pitches are logarithmic, so when you double the frequency you get the same note: an A note can be 110, 220, and 440 hz.) Ultimately, pitch names are arbitrary since they are just a simplified way of talking about wave frequency, but the relationship with the previous pitch when we hear it is what makes music out of sound.
How does this relate to synthesizers?
Similarly to how air vibrations are translated into pitches by our ears, we can create vibrations using voltage. This is the essence of synthesis. We use a control voltage, or CV, to generate a signal, which is sent to a speaker, and then on to our ears. Most synthesizers have a keyboard that is used to determine pitch, but this is not always the case because the keyboard is really just a controller for the synthesizer, since they can be completely separate devices.
What parts make up a synthesizer?
Now that we understand how CV can be used to create a pitch, let's talk about the various parts that make a synthesizer. We are using electricity to create a sound wave, but waves have different shapes to them. The first component of a synthesizer is called and oscillator which generates the shape of the wave. The sine wave is a pure synthetic pitch like you might hear on an old telephone, and it doesn't have a lot of flavor to it. Most synths have oscillators for a triangle wave, a sawtooth wave, and square wave. Now would be a good time to check out this video so you can hear the different shapes.
There you have it. Those are some of the wave forms that are possible to generate with a synthesizer. In our next installment, we will discuss more components of a synthesizer that help shape the sound, such as the filter and the envelope, and hopefully sometime in the not to distant future we will arrive at those massive, modular setups, and talk about what it is they can do.
