INTRODUCTION TO SYNTHESIZERS - hol.gr

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important to you. Solid drum sounds? Realistic piano? Synthetic techno-noises? Do you need 88 fully weighted wooden keys or are you happy with a standard 5 octave synthesizer keyboard? And also if you already have a good solid MIDI keyboard, maybe you should consider purchasing a keyboardless synth module as your second synth. I know, modules can be a hassle - they're stuck in the rack - but if studio space is at premium, like if your home studio is located in your apartment, rack modules can be godsent. Perhaps you're not very interested in actually playing a keyboard instrument, but would rather like to assemble more or less prefabricated rhythms, loops and sequences to a dancey tune? In that case maybe you should consider purchasing a groove box? Make up your mind in advance about how much money you are willing to part from. It's easy to overstep your boundaries. Just like you would expect, there is no upper limit. The most complex musical instrument setups cost more than your house and only the likes of Peter Gabriel and Jean-Michel Jarre can afford them. But what's more important is to avoid the "crappy synth threshold" (CST), a level below which you should avoid getting. Don't aim too low Below the CST you will find synthesizers in which serious sacrifices had to be made to keep the price down - like a lousy keyboard, lack of important functions or a limited palette of sounds. A synth from below the CST will entertain you for many weeks - even months, but eventually you will find that it stops you from developing your musical ideas and you will be looking for something new. So, where is this CST? Well, it's hard to say, but if you stay above the 1000-dollar level, you should be fairly clear. Please understand me correctly - I don't say that you can't find the synth of your dreams for much less, but you should definitely watch out for anything cheaper than, say 600 dollars. Even in otherwise absolutely brilliant designs, like the Korg Electribe-series dance tools you will have to live with compromises, like the lack of a proper keyboard. Try it out The most important is to use your ears. Kindly tell the salesdroid to give you a pair of headphones and ask him to go away. Plug the headphones into the phone output jack of the synth - and not the phone output of the mixer console. You want to know what the synth really sounds like, without the sound first taking a trip through that two-grand aural sound processor unit, right? Listen. Really. What does it sound like? It's very easy to be overwhelmed by any new sound, but try not to be. Step through the programs and use your ears. Focus on those sounds that suit your musical preferences. All those looping sounds and whirling noises may sound very impressing at the shop - but honestly, how likely is it that you will ever use them in your music? Not very much, is it? Also don't play that demo song - it will just give you the wrong impression. Some instruments are also known to be cheating, and feature additional effects and sounds that you will not be able to recreate outside the demo. When you have a feeling for the sounds, try another synth - at a completely different price bracket. Can you hear the difference? What are the similarities? The differences? Take your time, this is actually quite important! The good thing is that you can hardly go wrong. If you make sure to keep above the CST, almost every modern synthesizer is a wonder of sounds and functions. You could also decide to purchase second hand equipment by browsing newspaper ads and by frequent visits in synthesizer shops. However there are some special considerations that need to be made when choosing this approach. Read about them here! 28
Sampled or synthetic If you are into composing your own tunes or setting up whole arrangements you may want to look at workstations. A workstation is basically a synthesizer with lots of polyphonic voices, equipped with a built in sequencer, with effects units and with drum-kits. It's like buying a complete stereo hi-fi equipment with all components integrated as opposite to purchasing each of the component separately. The workstation approach is often a very economic and simple solution to get several important studio components in one box. However, you should be warned that you will loose the individuality of your sound. If you make a composition using only one certain workstation, it will be instantly recognizable. There is an evident danger that your song will not sound like "you", but rather than "a Korg Trinity demo song". Why? Many of these workstations are sample-based. This means that the internal sounds are all based on reallife samples of acoustic instruments. This approach will undoubtedly yield the most realistic sounding imitations of acoustic instruments - pianos, guitars, strings, drums or whatever. However, even if you select a samplebased instrument with as much as 8 or 16 megabytes of onboard samples, its soundscape horizon is not endless. Another thing which you should keep in mind that most workstations are aimed towards popular and jazz music, and the selection of the sounds usually reflects this. Most often you will find sounds which are usable for this kind of music - like pianos, guitars, basses, brasses and strings. Usually not the kind of sounds you need for speed garage or drum 'n' bass. If you feel that this could be a problem for you, then you should definitely look for expandability. Many instruments offer new samples by using added PCM-cards (cards with new sound samples), but remember that these cards are often very expensive and can be hard to find a few years from now. Mainstream workstations are hardly the new-age composer's dream machines. Also, if you are heavily into techno dance-tracks, you may for instance not need a realistic soprano sax, but much rather prefer buzzing, resonant basses and overdriven hardcore drum loops. A far better solution is to use synthesizers which create their sounds by other methods. Even if surprisingly realistic sounds can be achieved by a non-sample based instrument too, the real fortι of a true synthesizer are those completely new sounds, the ones resembling nothing else in the world except for those early 80's synthesizer sounds - filter sweeps, self oscillating sounds and morphing noises. Synthesizers like the Nord Lead should suit your needs a lot better. What do you do if you want both realistic sounds and more high-tech sounds? There are many synthesizers capable of creating both purely synthetic and also acoustic-sounding timbres (like the Korg Wavestation SR), but the obvious answer is to get more than one synth. Chances are that you will end up with several different synths anyway. I might just as well warn you right now, so you can get prepared for it. Why is that? Well, simply because one synth is good at acoustic sounds, another at techno-sounds and the third at ethnic noises. It's little point in having four Alesis QS7's, but a nice variety of instruments of different makes and generations, some sample-based and some pure synthetic ones can create a versatile studio and a highly personal sound. Samplers The ultimate way to make your own world of sounds is to use sampling instruments. If you do techno dancetracks then sampling is really your only choice. There is just no other method to create a better techno soundscape. A sampler takes any "real-world" sound, processes it and outputs it in a whole new way. A good entry-level sampler, such as the Akai S01 can be quite useful as an addition to an existing synthesizer setup, but will not be enough by itself in the long run - don't let anyone fool you into thinking otherwise. Sampling requires a lot of memory and processing power, which makes it a very expensive technology. Even though much has happened since the age of the Fairlight, a really good solid sampler equipped with a healthy amount of memory (at least 8 MB) still costs way beyond 2000 dollars. But if you can afford it, look for hard drive options (or SCSI interface) too - swapping floppy disks can be quite a tedious task! 29
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INTRODUCTION TO SYNTHESIZERS - hol.gr

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