Learn Core Synthesis Skills With Marc Doty & David Earl

Synthesis is all around us in the music world, from free softsynths right through to the most high-end modular hardware systems. But how much do you really know about how it works? Even if you use synths a lot, some people (more than you might imagine) skip the fundamentals and learn the parts they need, but a solid foundation will always serve you well. Luckily here at the AskAudio Academy we have a great selection of courses to help you learn all aspects of synthesis and various synth models. Here are a couple to get you started. 

The Synthesis Of Synthesis

Bob Moog Foundation lead educator, Marc Doty, introduces you to the basic concepts of the physics of sound. Here you'll learn all about the two foundational ingredients of sound and synthesis, frequency and amplitude, and how they interact in myriads of ways to create every aspect of what makes sound... SOUND!!

From there, Marc takes you on a journey through the history of electronic music. You'll see how some of electronic music's earliest 20th century inventions, like Thaddeus Cahill's Teleharmonium, or the Ondes Martenot, though decades ahead of their time, were the cornerstones of the future of music! He ends up this course with an animated timeline of electronic music that puts everything about electronic music into historical perspective.

In this short video from the course, Marc gets to the absolute starting point of what sound is and how it is generated. How do the movement of air molecules appear to us as sound? How do different frequencies and waves work? It's an excellent introduction to the world of sound itself. 

FM8: FM Synthesis and Sound Design

In this tutorial, FM Synthesis and Sound Design, MPV expert trainer David Earl takes you on a wild, carrier wave ride showing you all you need to know about FM synthesis and how to program synth sounds that add depth and punch to your productions!

David ignites this tutorial with an incredible history of FM synthesis. From there he explores all the nooks and crannies of the FM8’s well-stocked "sonic kitchen" and shows you how every knob, button and slider works. Now you're ready to jump in and do some real programming! Mr. Earl dissects the FM8's incredibly versatile Arpeggiator and shows how you can make your notes sing and dance just about any way you like. You'll also learn how to morph your sounds using the super intuitive Morph pad, where you can load in some of your favorite presets and mix 'n' match 'em to concoct a delicious sonic stew!

In this short video from the full course, David explores how to create rhythmic sounds in FM8 by using Operators to introduce movement and triggers into a patch, changing it from being static into having much more interesting motion and dynamism.