max/msp

is anyone familiar with this program? i'm wanting to use it to build my own kick drum synth and i'm looking for a few tips to get started

I've screwed around with it a little bit before - but don't really know how to give you some tips to get started... it really requires synthesis generation knowledge and time. (which i never had and so I gave it the arse). It's very similar to the nord software for the modular's - perhaps try and find some tutorials on the nord stuff and adapt it to Max/MSP... it's all too much of a waste of time for me - i've got plenty of synths and vst's, don't have the need to be screwing around building stuff from scratch. i understand the appeal though - good luck :)

machina

i suppose to start with you want to have a genrator with sine wave > adsr maybe have a few other waveforms that you can mix in as well. but you dont want anything with too many upper harmonics.

You'll need to modulate the pitch of the sine wave with an envelope.

You might want to have a play with something like Attack to get an idea of how kick drum synthesis works, first.