Project Synopsis - Self Reflection

Movie Soundtrack 

Inspiration wise I listen to some of the Interstellar soundtrack, as well as 

listening to a few horror soundtrack. 

I wanted to make something that sounded unsure of itself, as if waiting for an 

unknown occurrence. 

This both worked and did not work, I went slow with the overall song, bringing in some interesting plugins to try and add atmosphere, altered the EQ here and there to lengthen or muffle sounds that I liked and forgot to save at essential moments...

Plugins used: 

• Ringing FM Lullaby 
• ES2 electronic kick drum 
• ES2 Snare 
• ES2 Toms 
• ES2 High hat 
• ES2 Cymbol 
• Bright Panning Strings 
• Chimes (Hello) 
• Signal M 1
• Signal M 2
• Needles

Creating this track was fun, but unfortunately something went wrong after bouncing 

and uploading it onto SoundCloud, not only did some of the sounds change, but 

also I found that a wavy sound had occurred after uploading it. I remember altering a plugin at one stage to give it an uncertain feel, but after uploading it the sound exaggerated until it would probably make you feel more dizzy rather than anything else. I went back onto the original track itself but by that time a glitch must have occurred or I did not save it correctly because half of the sounds had changed, and the annoying wave was nowhere to be seen.


CAUTION

Note to self 

- 

Save EVERYTHING, each time you do something new, SAVE AS

also if glitches and problems occur after, then you will have a safe stepping stone to go back to, 

instead of losing half of your hard work, thus ruining the rest. 

Next time I'm going to plan ahead instead of just 'winging it'. 

Spontaneity is essential, but so is aiming and knowing what you're doing. 

If I ever do something similar I will watch at least 3 or so movies 

around the area I want to mimic, take notes on them and then look at techniques and methods to reproduce what it is that I want. 

This could include researching the soundtracks themselves, maybe even the artists 

and and how they choose to perform and edit/record their work.

Mimic until you find your own.

History of Synths

History of Synths

So, first off, what's a synth? Synth is short for synthesizer, which is a keyboard instrument, programmed to play any number and type of sound. Commonly they are programmed to sound like electric keyboards, but overall have the capacity for any sound, the options now are almost limitless.

A typical synthesizer contains three most basic modules: 

• The Oscillator - the module that produces initial sound. 
• The Keyboard - the module that is used to control the sound in the musical way.
• The Filters and Effects to change the nature of the sound.

There's a lot of history to it, so I'll give a short review of some of the most important 

moments.

19th Century

Early on, in the 19th century (1896/1897) an American inventor called Thaddeus Cahill decided to apply for a patent in order to protect the principle behind an instrument called the Telharmonium, or Dynamophone. 

In 1906 it was presented to the public during multiple concerts, renamed the Telharmony. 

Late 1960's

Fast forward to 1969, the EMS VCS3 was released.

This synthesizer was designed to be remarkably more accessible to a wider audience. Created to be cheap, portable and easy to program, it was the first synthesizer that was truly available to the general public.

An artist for instance, who used this synthesizer: 

White Noise ‘Love Without Sound’ 1969

1970's

The Moog Minimoog, was properly released in 1971, this synthesizer was the first to be fully intergrated into the music industry. Sold as a “professional audio equipment” rather than an instrument, and was pretty out of reach for even most studios and musicians. 

You can hear it on the track Kraftwerk ‘Autobahn’

Yamaha CS-80 1976

This instrument was known to be ridiculously luxurious, unfortunately due to the high price, it couldn’t keep up with the cheaper competition from Sequential circuits Prophet V and Moog’s Polymog.

Roland System 1978

This synth skipped modulars and general bulk entirely, focusing on general consumers first with devices such as the Minikorg 700, Yamaha SY-1 and Roland SH-1000

1990's

Max/MSP 1996

Home computers started to grow in consumption around the 1980’s, which meant the number of musicians wanting software and equipment also rose.

During the 1990’s, the JD-800, M-1, Juno 106 but also Analog synths from back in the 80’s were still also in use.

Now

Throughout history the number of synthesizers had sky rocketed, even now there are thousands of options. Synthesizers have changed the way we perceive and create music for years, it helped mold the hip hop during the 1990’s , and holds a forefront in music for techno music, as well as countless other genre’s that now exist in our time.

An Interactive Timeline

Synthesizers and Samplers

Synthesiser Labels

 Synthesizer 

LFO - 

(Low Frequency Oscillator) provides repeating waveforms (usually between .1 and 250Hz) that may be used for control and timing in voltage-controlled modular synthesizer applications. LFO's are generally used to create slow modulations such as vibrato and tremelo in electronic music equipment.

OSCILATORS - 

Generate the basic signal. This is usually a waveform that is rich in harmonics (see Oscillators). Many synthesizers provide more than one oscillator, and almost all synthesizer oscillators can generate several waveform types.

FILTER ENVELOPE (ADSR) : 

Shapes the filters. It has 4 stages (Attack, Delay, Sustain, Release) which "Alters the way the filter behaves over time" - Steve

The 4 Filters : 

Attack : 

This filter rises the sound up to it's maximum level. When set to nothing, the sound roars straight away to a full blast, whereas if you set it quite high then the sound gradually fades.

Delay : 

This is how long the sound keeps going at the level the attack brought it up to. If it's set to the max, then it will stay at that level forever, it wont budge, if set low, it will be a very short sound. 

Sustain : 

This is the level that the sound stays at after the decay stage had passed (unless Delay is still set to the max, in which case it just keeps going...).

Release : 

This is how long the sustain level takes to quickly/slowly/etc die down to silence. It's similar to Reverb at the end of the sound. When set to nothing the effect wont react - it will be silent. 

AMPLIFIER:

an electronic device for increasing the amplitude of electrical signals, used chiefly in sound reproduction.

ARPEGGIO : 

The Arperggiator listen to the notes being played then it creates multiple intricate plucks (instead of just the one note) to create a far more complex pattern using those notes, played at a set master tempo - just hold down the notes you want or latch them.


Helpful Links! 

What is an Arpeggiator?