SY Programming
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SY Programming Herb ert Janen hejaneuroinformatikruhrunibochumde Version Contents Copyright Intro duction Synthesis Metho ds Additive Synthesis Fourier Synthesis Subtractive Synthesis Analog Synthesis Sample Playback PCM AWM AWM AI Frequency Mo dulation FM AFM RCM Realtime Convolution and Mo dulation Synthesis Phase Distortion PD and Interactive Phase Distortion iPD Waveshaping LA Linear Arithmetic Synthesis Ring Mo dulation Amplitude Mo dulation Vector Synthesis Wavetable Synthesis Wave Sequencing Linear Predictive Co ding LPC Granular Synthesis Physical Mo deling Synthesis KarplusStrong Synthesis FM Theory Simple FM Complex FM Basic FM Setups Some FM Terminology One Op erator Stack Stack in Long Feedback Lo ops CONTENTS Programming Techniques Timbral Characteristics Brass Bowed Strings Choir Realtime Convolution and Mo dulation RCM Plain RCM Lo op ed RCM Inverse RCM Fat Analog Sounds User Dened Algorithms Multisample Shifting Realtime Control of Detuning Velo city Sensitive Detuning Waveshaping Pulse Width Mo dulation More LFOs More Pitch Envelop es Resonance Mo dulation Amplitude Mo dulation Eects Programming Reverb Distortion Resonators Mo dulated FX Realtime Control Pitch Bend Breath Controller Panning Filter Control Eects Control Realtime SysEx Control Lesser known Facts SY Implementation AWM AFM DXto SY Conversion Mo dulation Index Bessel Function Table Pitch Shifting via LFO and PEG LFOFrequency Op erator Envelop es CONTENTS A MIDI Standard A MIDI Note Numbers A MIDI Controllers A Bit Controllers MSBLSB A Bit Controllers formerly switches A Channel Mo de Messages A Registered Parameters MSBLSB B General MIDI B GM Patch Map B GM Drum Map COPYRIGHT Copyright OK here we go Copyright c by Herb ert Janen all rights reserved This do cumentmay b e p osted to any USENET newsgroup online service or BBS as long as it is p osted in its entirety and includes this copyright statement This do cumentmay not b e distributed for nancial gain This do cumentmay not b e included in commercial collections or compilations without express p ermission from the author This do cumentisprovided as is without any express or implied warranties While quite some eort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this do cument the author assumes no resp onsibility for errors or omissions or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein The contents of this do cument reect my opinions only and not necessarily those of my employer Copying and distributing for noncommercial use is highly encouraged Any form of feedback is appreciated This text is available as an online WWW browsable hyp ertext do cument in HTML via httpwwwneuroinformatikruhrunibochumdeiniPEOPLEhejasyprogsyproghtml and as a p ostscript formatted zip compressed le at ftpneuroinformatikruhrunibochumde in puboutgoinghejasylistMISCsyprogzip Intro duction This text is a heterogeneous compilation of ideas ab out synthesis and SY programming that I wrote down over time mostly in a scratch pap er fashion It is also a fragment although it will hop efully increase in size and gain consistency in the future It is essentially ab out the SY since this is the only SY I really know but nearly everything is applicable to the SY and TG and afew things even to other synths The general approach istogiveanyb o dy who is interested a collection of information ab out synthesis and hints and ideas on how to program the SY to use its full p otential My motivation for doing this is that I myself was desp erately lo oking for any information on that matter for years now and have found only rudimentary sources so I contribute another fragment All this is my p ersonal view of things which is based on true dilletantism ie love of the sub ject of synthesis without any professional training or interest Thus I am very interested in any useful commentary on everything esp ecially omissions and errors which I know must be quite plentiful Many of the thoughts contained in this text are actually based on emails and p ostings or inspired by discussions with various net inhabitants as well as bynumerous articles and b o oks Thanks to all the p eople on the SYList and other places on the internet for sharing ideas information opinions and enthusiasm Let me name just a few p eople who denitely deserve credits Adam Mirowski for starting and administering the SYList Ab Wilson for a lot of excellent thoughts ab out FM and synthesis Ken Beesley for his very informative p osts ab out windcontrolled synthesis correcting errors in this do cument and other valuable help Christian Stiens and Argiris Kranidiotis for various details on the FM implementation and tips for voice synthesis Ulrich Kopping for collecting the SY frequently asked questions and answers le SYFAQ Je Harrington for all the microtunings Georg Muller for lots of miscellaneous help INTRODUCTION and Peter Gorges for a bunch of go o d articles on FM b efore he got more interested in General MIDI programming And a very very sp ecial thanks to Michael Neef our SysOp who provided disk space help ed with network and software problems and always has a friendly attitude towards providing free information and software SYNTHESIS METHODS Synthesis isnt about creating sounds its about creating instruments complete with their own expressive charac teristics and then playing these new instruments using the characteristics youve invented Ab Wilson Synthesis Metho ds A go o d background for trying to program a synthesizer is to know ab out the dierentsynthesis metho ds develop ed over the years I think the most imp ortant reason for knowing these is that they represent dierent paradigms of access to sound many timbres can be created with almost any of the synthesis metho ds discussed but each of them has its strong and weak p oints and requires its own way of thinking and playing which may b e useful to develop The most imp ortant dierence b etween the synthesis approaches is in my opinion not so much in the kind of sounds they are able to pro duce but in the programming and the available control parameters Below I have tried to list up the main synthesis approaches and their general prop erties The ability to automatically recreate or resynthesize a given sound Sampling is a sp ecial case here since it allows immediate playback with unsurpassed quality but do es not oer away to mo dulate the sampled timbre without sp ecial programming The ease of programming ie predictability ond power of the synthesis parameters in the hands of an exp erienced user The amount of data that is needed to describ e a certain patch Big amounts of data limit handling and accessibility The necessary hardware to implement this synthesis metho d The interactive control p ossibilities which should b e able to allowa musical relevant access to timbre via phrasing and sp ecial control parameters The sound versatility and quality A go o d measure for this is how natural an acoustical instrumentemulation will sound when played on the synthesizer The table shows that each metho d has sp ecic advantages and drawbacks For me this implies that hybrid resp ectively mo dular synthesis architectures are the way to go additive classical sample frequency.