Quote Originally Posted by MangaFish View Post
Cheers for your help dude, but could you dumb down the language a little. I know **** all about synths
Sure...

Basically, most synths work using a "subtractive" method. If you've used any kind of analogue (or vitual analogue) synth equipment this is almost certainly the model you will have used. You start with one or more osciallators, which feed out harmonically rich signals. You then remove the frequencies you don't want using a filter... hence "subtractive".

However, though this is the most popular and pervasive synthesis method, there are many, many others.

FM synthesis was incredibly popular in the 80s. It's a digital synthesis method which is famously complex, but creates some very unique characteristic tones - often very "bell" like in nature. Native Instruments FM7 plugin does a very good job of this kind of thing, but there are a few freeware FM synths out there if you just want to try it out. As I say, it's very complex but just messing around can yield incredibly interesting results.

Additive synthesis works in the opposite way to subtractive synthesis. You create sounds by combining fundamental harmonics. There's a VST around called Virsyn Tera which is supposedly very good at this. I'm sure there will be free versions if you hunt around.

Vector or WaveTable synthesis was hailed as "the future" in the 90s, but then everything went retro again and it kind of fell to one side. Possibly the most famous vector synth was the Korg Wavestation. It works by taking very short samples (waves) and looping them. Then, you combine lots of these little loops (wavetables) and you can morph between them in realtime. This is really good for creating pads and atmospheres and other unique sounds that just aren't possible with conventional synthesis.

Finally, a newer concept which sees a lot of use these days is granular synthesis. You start with a sound source in the form of a sample, which you then chop up into very small chunks (grains) which you can play back in arbitrary orders at whatever speed you like. This is the principle that underpins timestretching, and it leads to lots of glitchy noises.

Don't worry if this all sounds really confusing - it is!

The best way to understand a synthesis method is to just mess around with a plugin (or whatever) and understand how the different controls affect the sound. Once you've done that for a bit, you'll be able to read back over some of this and it will probably make much more sense.

Hope I haven't confused you more!