Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Synthesizer “cookbook” – useful for digital too?
I’m looking at this (somewhat pricey) book, as it seems to be exactly what I’ve been looking for since I began fooling around with synths. But it’s billed specifically as a tutorial for analog synths. I only have software digital synths both on iOS and MacOS. But it seems to me the principles would be equally applicable to digital synths, no? I note that the companion CD contains a software synth (VSTi for Win only).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8866852
The Amazon listing shows some of the “universal” patches that make up the bulk of the book.
Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook: Synthesizer Programming, Sound Analysis, and Universal Patch Book https://a.co/d/dJANFzf
Whaddya think?
Comments
The principles are the same, yes. Different people learn in different ways. For some books and manuals are the way to go, for others tutorials or just plain trial and error.
IMO you’re better off just watching some synth programming starter tutorials on Youtube and use your software synths for learning. I highly suggest picking just one of them to get the hang of it. Once you’ve made yourself familiar with how it works and how it all fits together you can apply your knowledge to any synth.
/DMfan🇸🇪
Thanks. Agree with your recommendation. I’ve worked through an outstanding course by Jamison Nathan Jones that was very like what you suggest – watching over someone’s shoulder while they produce some patches. And he does it with multiple hardware and software synths, so you quickly generalize what you’re learning.
But for me, the “cookbook” approach is also highly effective, with the “recipes” giving me a starting point for experimentation. Thanks for confirming my thinking that the basic techniques for substractive synthesis are the same, analog or digital!
If you really want to learn about synthesis, there's no book more comprehensive than this.
https://a.co/d/jelnv9A
It's f-cking expensive, but it's actually a text book, not just a regular book.
I highly recommend watching Omri Cohen videos on youtube. He's the Bob Ross of sound design.
I have it, and I love it. It’s exactly the same concept with digital emulations of analog synths. The CD with the used version was corrupted, so I only have the text.
Some synth manuals are really good.
What are you looking for in a synth manual? Specific apps? iOS ? Hardware? Pictures?
Asking because I have a few recommendations but I wanna help narrow that what would work.
Both those books are good but they focus on subtractive synthesis, if I remember correctly.
There’s always SOS synth secrets, which is free and covers a vast amount of topics https://www.soundonsound.com/series/synth-secrets-sound-sound
I mean some google fu and you get the same book (maybe not edition) for free and legal
https://archive.org/details/soundsynthesissa0000russ
Here a free pdf book with drum machine patterns https://shittyrecording.studio/
If you can find a copy of Allen Strange’s “Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls”, I highly recommend it as something of an ur-text. The original is way too expensive now, but there was a Kickstarter for a reissue. I know all the hard copies were sold, there may be PDFs around.
I saw the kick starter but it’s been quiet for almost a year from what i can tell. I wonder if it’s still being done
I understand quite well how subtractive synthesis works. Just fooling around with it and discovering how the various elements interact goes a long way, but without some intention or structure to the “fooling around” it’s not very effective learning. I’m looking for something that helps with that intention or structure. The “cookbook” approach seems like a good idea, as it gives you a starting point as well as a “recipe” for how to get to that point. From there, understanding what went into creating the initial patch then provides a foundation for that “fooling around,” and morphing the patch into something different.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks. Not sure if this is exactly what I’m looking for, but definitely worth spending some time with!!
The cookbook is free at my library digitally on an app.
I’m not sure if you already know of Syntorial 2.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/syntorial-2/id6448928707
The first 22 lessons are free. It’s not on iPhone though. When I had an iPad I was using Syntorial before 2.0 came out. I enjoyed it. It is very focused and deliberate.
especially the ARP 2600 manual — written by Howard Scarr, the synth master…
The following was posted on ModWigglers forum:
Check out Roland's free "The Synthesizer" 4 volume set. Google will tell you where.
Thanks. Worth checking!
Thanks. Looks really interesting! A little pricey but the first 22 lessons alone would probably be worthwhile and be a good test of whether the full version is worth the investment.
I bought it for £75 recently during a sale. It covers a lot of ground and is very easy to understand. It's split up into 4 parts, from beginner to expert. I'm not a huge fan of the tests at the end of each chapter and the guy teaching it has quite a monotonous delivery that's almost soporific. That said, I am learning a lot and have one eye on the extra lessons for software synths like Serum, which are around 50 lessons deep.
Appreciate the this share! This little book unlocked a portion of my brain for programming drums that I didn’t quite crack yet. Finally something clicked. Cheers!
In the spirit of this thread I’m sharing This Youtuber who has a series on Music Theory and Sound Design.
It was really helpful in the visual learning part for myself. Really just made a ton of things click for me. Haven’t watched any of their other videos except a bit of the Music theory one they have and it was fine. Wasn’t feeling it as much as the sound design one I linked on this post.