Tag Archives: synthesis

Introduction to DIY electronics

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Important texts:
Nicolas Colins – Handmade Electronic Music
Andy Farnel – Designing Sound

The world of electronics is a daunting one- but being rooted in science, is one that can be thoroughly understood, this undertanding being of importance when trying to break the creative boundaries. Circuits surround our everyday living, particuarly in a modern society where most of our household and recreational devices are powered by electricity. When creating sound with electronics, having a key understanding of circuits and how they work is the primary step to mastering the craft.

The Victorian Synthesiser

Composed of a battery connected to a speaker driver with two crocodile clips (one clip for the negative and one for the positive terminals), the Victorian synthesiser attempts to achieve effects similar to those of modern hardware synthesisers, but using Victorian techniques. Tweaking and adding differnt components such as breadboards, jump wires and paperclips can adapt the sound created.

In this image, a breadboard is used to route the positive and negative signals, allowing for the crocodile clips to know hold paper clips to adapt the sound.

The World’s Simplest Circuit

Taking the idea of using a breadboard further, here’s an example of what is known as the world’s simplest circuit- albeit with all the jumpwies and “fiddly” little bits, it may seem complex to build at first. These “fiddly” components that have now been introduced are resistors and capcitors.

Resistors
A resistor is a small component made up of a longwire and (usually) another sort of material, such as carbon film, that withstands and controls the flow of curent. Varying resitors carry different levels of resistance, with the lower the resistance, the slower the circuit will operate. Although a resistor doesn’t add anything to the circuit in terms of sound quality or texture, it allows the user to have control over the flow of power. Different types of resistors include LDR resistors, also known as photoresistor, – their resistance being affected by light exposure- and force sensitive resistors, which are affected by chysical contact and pressure, amongst many others. In the photo of a ‘World’s Simplest Circuit’ created by myself (pictured above; the largest component aside from the breadbaprd; large upright square), a force sensitive resistor is used.

Capacitors
Capacitors are components in the circuit which store electrical charge, which is seen in the photo above (the small yellow figure undearneath the resistor). The resistor is then used to control the flow of this electrical charge. Different capacitors have different levels of voltage, so by replacing the capacitor, the user of the circuit can control the texture and loudness of sound that is produced.

Here is a visual demonstration of my circuit in effect. Enjoy!

Creative Synthesis: Software and Hardware

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It is actually perfect that I had already planned to write up a blog on creative synthesis, as my time spent at the studio sparked a much deeper passion for this topic. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by an array of synthesisers and samplers, and much to my satisfaction, the Juno-106 happened to be amongst this collection. Instead of beginning my piece recording ordinary objects to use as percussion sounds as previously planned, I began creating sounds with the synthesisers. Emulating my favourite synth sounds from drum and bass and broken beat tracks, I very quickly realised what had been setting back my productions and compositions: not having used hardware. Sure, I understand how to use a subtractive synthesiser in Logic and Protools, but it just didn’t feel fun, and I feel like the sounds I was trying to create and emulate were just too hard to make. Now having touched and used hardware, I liken this experience to my experience of DJ’ing, where I couldn’t even grasp the concept of it until I was introduced to turntables. With this being said, I feel like I am sonically more pulled into the world of analog- and to immerse myself within it, I need to understand it.

There are four main types of synthesis: subtractive, additive, modular, and FM. I am going to explain how the foremost mentioned works, using annotated diagrams. The idea of subtractive synthesis is to filter sound once it is made to add harmonic complexity.

However, the types of synthesis, and whether you’re using software or hardware aren’t the only factors providing a diverse range of sound in the world of synthesis. Within hardware, there is the option to use either analog or digital synthesis. In the article written by Suresh Bist, there is a video included where the man speaking states that whilst unique sounds can be created using hardware synthesis, they may not align with the project tempo when using effects such as modulation- something which I personally experienced. In the same article, Bist says that analog may still be preferable to digital because of its hands on approach. I agree.