whats a synth?

[Tait]

in a thread i was just reading about a synth on ebay, i realised i have absolutely no ideas what a synth is, so could someone please explain?

oh, and sorry if this is in the wrong section, but due to the nature of this thread (as in i've not got a clue what a synth is) i had absolutely no idea where to post it.

Edited February 3, 2009 by LWTAIT

[YouMa]

wikipedia it,its a very in depth topic,failing that download some human league or daft punk .A synth is basically a way of manipulating electricity into different sounds using filters and oscilators.Most dance rave electronic type music makes use of them,you can get some amazing sounds from them.

Edited February 3, 2009 by YouMa

[Eight]

What he said.

A synth works by generating sound waves with a fully controllable shape . As opposed to natural instruments which give off a sound wave depending on their natural properties (materials, size, force e.g. of plucking etc.)

All the knobs etc. on a synth are used to shape the waveform to give different tones/qualities etc.

Edited February 3, 2009 by Eight

[leschirons]

And Synth is short for Synthisizer

[elros]

And synthesis implies that something complex is generated by combining several simpler parts....
so, a (musical type subtractive) synthesizer generates complex (that is, harmonically and aurally complex) sound from simpler components like sine / triangle / saw / square waves and noise, and puts this through filters and amplifiers controlled by envelope shapers.....
but there are many ways to Rome, so to speak. Many other synthesis types exist.

[Ou7shined]

Just in case he's on about bass synths -> [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_synthesizer"]linky[/url]

and



youtube link added

Edited February 3, 2009 by Ou7shined

[Tait]

well i wasn't sure what the difference between bass synths and synths were, if there was one, ou7shined. i'm thinking a bass synth just a synth thats in the bass clef, either done on a keyboard or on a bass?

and a synth is just something that digitally reshapes sound waves so that you can make different sounds with it? so i'm guessing that fuzzy sound that i always relate to synths isn't the only sound you can make with them? or am i completely off

[MythSte]

Not quite, a bass synth Takes the signal from your bass and manipulates it, rather than a straight electric wave signal. There are lots of ways to make a bass [i]sound[/i] like this, without actually doing it though!

Edit, But you can play a Synthesizer in the bass registers also.

You can more or less make any sound you want with one. Typically renowned for that warm fuzzy bass - Lots of soaring Leads and Epic Pads are all synths or variations there of.

Edited February 3, 2009 by MythSte

[The Funk]

[quote name='MythSte' post='399387' date='Feb 3 2009, 08:35 PM']Not quite, a bass synth Takes the signal from your bass and manipulates it
[...]
Edit, But you can play a Synthesizer in the bass registers also.[/quote]

Yes, wise edit. Sometimes people refer to keyboard synthesizers in bass registers as Bass Synths, such as the Moog Taurus (which is coming back out very soon).

[Happy Jack]

I've been drifting into the same territory after watching the "Official EHX Video" here:

[url="http://www.ehx.com/products/bass-micro-synthesizer"]http://www.ehx.com/products/bass-micro-synthesizer[/url]

It doesn't explain what a synth IS but it certainly gives a good idea of what you can do with it.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='MythSte' post='399387' date='Feb 3 2009, 08:35 PM']Not quite, a bass synth Takes the signal from your bass and manipulates it, rather than a straight electric wave signal.[/quote]

Just for completeness' sake: Some bass guitar synth FX do totally replace your bass signal with an oscillator-generated signal, they only use your bass signal to determine what note to generate. The Robot Factory Pulse Synth is one example, so's (in hard-sync mode) the Moog FreqBox.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='399445' date='Feb 3 2009, 09:46 PM']I've been drifting into the same territory after watching the "Official EHX Video" here:

[url="http://www.ehx.com/products/bass-micro-synthesizer"]http://www.ehx.com/products/bass-micro-synthesizer[/url]

It doesn't explain what a synth IS but it certainly gives a good idea of what you can do with it.[/quote]

I'm never quite sure whether to call that a synth. I suppose it is, really, because it does produce the octave signals, but it's a very simple kind of synth.

Not that it doesn't sound good - it sounds awesome. I'm keeping mine, I've just got an Octavius Squeezer on the way to do all the cleverer stuff.

[YouMa]

The only true way to control a synth would be fitting a midi pickup which is amazing fun.The only other way is to get an audio in synth like a mini or korg ms20 and you can use the synths filters on your bass.

[wizbat]

Check out Kiwi,s midi 6 bass that jon,s building at the mo for an example of a midi bass for triggering a synthesizer.

[mrcrow]

electronic keyboard which is programmed for lots of different tones and sounds

ours has clapping and hurricane noises

we use ours to add string sounds and occassionally flute etc

some of the sounds are naff

clarinet and sax especially...i play both and my skin crawls when i hear the sounds

better for electric piano, jazz piano, honky tonk and mainline keyboard effects

you can change pitch by just pressing a button

very versatile and goes lower than a 4 string

thats why 5 strings were used by session bassists originally to get lower than the synths..iirc

[Count Bassy]

To me a synth is something that creates a sound from fundamental components, as someone has already said.
This is quite different to a keyboard with sampled sounds, which most keyboards seem to be these days, or something that takes an already complex sound and adds effects to it.

[Dr.Dave]

A synth is often thought of as an electronic keyboard instrument that makes weird noises as well as replicating the sound of traditional instruments.

Understandable as the marriage of a synth with a keyboard to trigger it's sounds inside one 'box' is -probably - the most widely used and convenient form of a synth.

In fact , a synth is a box of electronics and it's sounds can be triggered by almost anything. Drum pads , guitars , basses , footpedals , wind instruments etc.

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='399952' date='Feb 4 2009, 01:35 PM']A synth is often thought of as an electronic keyboard instrument that makes weird noises as well as replicating the sound of traditional instruments.

Understandable as the marriage of a synth with a keyboard to trigger it's sounds inside one 'box' is -probably - the most widely used and convenient form of a synth.

In fact , a synth is a box of electronics and it's sounds can be triggered by almost anything. Drum pads , guitars , basses , footpedals , wind instruments etc.[/quote]

Fair point.

I suppose a theramin is just anotherform of synthesiser really.

[Stan_da_man]

A synth is the worst invention ever. It makes annoying, tinny, bleepy noises and was used by every prog rock band in the 80's. Today it has been adopted by bands desperate to be signed and think they're down with the kids.

[wizbat]

As far as I understand it, the Theremin, designed by a russian scientist called Leon theremin was the first regognised synthesizer ever built.
It was produced by the RCA company back in the thirties( I think) and they are worth a bomb now if you can find one tho there a multitude of kit versions you can build yourselfaround today.

[Stewart]

[quote]I suppose a theramin is just anotherform of synthesiser really.[/quote]

No, a theremin is just an oscillator (which is invariably one of the sound sources in a synthesizer) with control of pitch and amplitude provided by antennas - which are affected by the proximity of the players hands (or any other body part...)

To my mind it's voltage control (of oscillators, filters and amplifiers) that's key feature of a synthesizer

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Stewart' post='400084' date='Feb 4 2009, 03:46 PM']To my mind it's voltage control (of oscillators, filters and amplifiers) that's key feature of a synthesizer[/quote]

I think that's how a Theremin does work, it just uses the capacitance of the performer him/herself to adjust the voltage of the oscillator.

[YouMa]

[quote name='Stan_da_man' post='400063' date='Feb 4 2009, 04:32 PM']A synth is the worst invention ever. It makes annoying, tinny, bleepy noises and was used by every prog rock band in the 80's. Today it has been adopted by bands desperate to be signed and think they're down with the kids.[/quote]
You are joking of course. I would not describe the lush huge chordal pads in the blade runner soundtrack as "tinny" or "bleepy" the yamaha cs-80 that made these sounds has monster bass,i think you might be thinking of casio.

Edited February 5, 2009 by YouMa

[The Funk]

[quote name='YouMa' post='400205' date='Feb 4 2009, 05:32 PM']You are joking of course. I would not describe the lush huge chordal pads in the blade runner soundtrack as "tinny" or "bleepy" the yamaha cs-80 that made these sounds has monster bass,i think you might be thing of casio.[/quote]

I agree with you. Tell me the bass part in [i]Flashlight[/i] is sh*t.