The Rock Synthesizer Manual: A Revised Guide for the Electronic Musician

128 Pages·1986·14.528 MB·English

by  Geary Yelton

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ROCK TECH PUBLICATIONS
Woodstock, Georgia
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by Geary Yelton
©1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form without the written permission of
the author.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 83-62290
International Standard Book Number 0-914283-01-4
Printed in the United States of America.
Rock Tech Publications
171 West Putnam Ferry Road, Woodstock, Georgia 30188
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4
ELECTRONIC SOUND 5
Basics of sound 7
Electronic sound sources 11
Voltage control 15
Voltage-controlled amplifiers 19
Envelope generation 21
Filtering 23
Modulation 29
Keyboard controllers 33
Sequencers 39
Sample & hold 41
»
Footpedal controllers & footswltches 42
Programmable patch memory 43
EXPLORING YOUR SYNTHESIZER 45
Where to begin .47
The sawtooth waveform 48
Tuning to standard pitch 49
The square waveform 50
Altering pulse width 50
••••51
Other waveforms
Manual filter control 51
The natural harmonic series 52
Filtering noise 52
Tuning in unison 53
Other intervals .54
Detuning 54
Phase 55
Oscillator phase sync 56
Envelope generation 57
D3mamic filtering 59
Keyboard filter control 60
Filter self-oscillation 60
Playing the filter 61
Pitch bending 62
Portamento 63
Modulation routing 63
Vibrato 64
Trill 65
Cross-modulation 65
Pulse width modulation 66
Pitch sweep 67
•....68
Sync sweep
Sample & hold 69
Interfacing 71
PERFORMANCE PATCHES 73
Sound effects 75
Surf 75
Wind 75
Gunfire 76
Handclaps 76
Explosions 76
Flying saucers 77
Instrumental sounds 78
Organ 79
Clavichord 81
Piano 82
Bass 83
Brass 84
Strings 85
ANALOG AND DIGITAL HARDWARE 87
CHOOSING A SYNTHESIZER 95
Monosynths 99
Polysynths 101
Used synthesizers 107
GLOSSARY Ill
INTRODUCTION
Hello, and welcome to THE ROCK SYNTHESIZER MANUAL. There are many
possible reasons for reading this book. Perhaps you just bought your first
synthesizer, and you want to unlock its mysteries. Maybe you're a keyboard
player in a new rock band, and you've decided that it's time to master the
machine. Or could be you're just curious about synthesizers, and you'd like
to learn a bit more about them. Well, my friend, whatever your excuses,
you've come to the right place.
Synthesizers exist in a great variety of shapes, sizes, and configura-
tions. They can produce and reproduce an enormous range of sounds, both
musical and non-musical. And as anyone can tell you, they make great toys.
But more than that, they're serious, sophisticated musical instruments to be
studied and cherished.
If you're like most musicians, you collect isolated scraps of information
and, all too often, blatant misinformation about synthesizers from other musi-
cians, from magazine articles, and possibly from manufacturer's demonstrations
at school or in music stores. Most people just blindly stumble around until
they accidently discover how to make a few interesting sounds. Where can you
turn when you've got questions? Most books on electronic music are either too
sketchy or too scholarly to be very useful. Practically the only books that
concentrate exclusively on synthesizers are written as manuals to accompany
specific models. This one was written to serve as an operator's manual for
all voltage-controlled synthesizers, regardless of make.
THE ROCK SYNTHESIZER MANUAL'S goal, simply stated, is to teach you the
art of electronic music synthesis. It's mostly about analog synthesizers, but
a lot of information can be applied to digital synthesis. Whether you're
playing rock & roll, new wave, technopop, fusion, funk, or ambient music, the
basics are all the same. Like any musical instrument, you really need to
learn what synthesizers can do to realize your full potential as a synthesist.
At the very least, this manual will teach you the everyday language of synthe-
sizers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank the following people (and companies) for their part in
making this book possible: Ben Bradley and Jim Henriques, for their technical
and editorial assistance; Colbert Duffey, for his help with the illustra-
tions; Robert Herman, for the generous use of his word processor; Rock
Wehrmann, of Moog Music; Todd McKinney, of Oberheim Electronics; Chris
Salet of Sequential Circuits; Greg Armbruster, of Keyboard Magazine; Donna
,
Densmore, of New England Digital; Jonathan Sa'adah, of Intermedia, for the
Synclavier photo; Korg/Unicord; Roland Corporation; and special thanks to
my parents, and to Suzanne, for their patience, faith, and encouragement.
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