Control Voltage is the invisible but crucial signal that makes a synthesizer interesting. Without it, most synths would just make static tones but instead they are able to create a virtually limitless world of sounds - all thanks to CV. In this short video from the course The Foundation Of Synthesis 104 - Control Voltage, synth expert Marc Doty shows you a practical example of applying LFO signal to a filter and how it can quickly make a sound much more dynamic and interesting.
With so many software and hardware synths around and their popularity only growing by the day, it's important to understand how the signal is generated and modulated as this will give you the ability to make and control your own signature sounds much more easily. This short video shows you how it works, and the rest of the videos in the course explain everything you ever wanted to ask about Control Voltage!
The Foundation Of Synthesis 104 - Control Voltage
Marc Doty—lead educator for The Bob Moog Foundation—is here with a series of tutorials in this course on Voltage Control.
But what is Voltage Control and how do you use it in the world of hardware synths? Well, here's the story: In the early days of sound synthesis, if you wanted your sounds to change or evolve in any way whatsoever, you had to do it manually. Need the pitch to go up? Grab the the oscillator knob and turn it! Want the volume to change? Again, grab the volume knob! What about sequencing a series of notes? Well, before voltage control, you had to record every pitch onto magnetic tape and cut them all together in the order and rhythm that you wanted. It was hard work to create electronic music way back when!
Voltage control forever changed all that! And in this course Marc Doty shows how different hardware synth designers harness the power of VCs to transform and supercharge electronic music composition. Taken one step further you'll see how Voltage Control was the mother of MIDI... and we all know how powerful MIDI is!
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