Articles about synthesizers/soft synths, referencing any of the courses in the course series “Demystifying Synths”
Let’s face it: It’s basically impossible to keep up with the pace of trade shows through the late winter and early spring. Between the flurry of announcements about monitors, synths, modules, mixing desks, and the endless stream of video demos pouring out, merely paying attention can feel overwhelming, let alone taking meticulous notes on what’s…
Learning to play music should be more of just that — playing! Why not make everything fun? With that in mind, here’s a new miniseries exploring how to make your synthesizer of choice do whatever you want: from burping and farting to shooting out lasers (sonically, of course)! Why? Because laser sounds are actually pretty ubiquitous in music today.…
As you move from your electric or upright to synth bass, you may start to wonder how to support your group or artist while still expressing the arc of the piece. In many situations, we bass players rely on dynamics, feel, and attack to inform our navigation through a piece of music. When I’m building a…
If you have a synth, odds are it has a CV, or “control voltage” input. In more modern synthesizers, like those from Dave Smith Instruments, digging into menus will allow you to assign control voltage inputs to just about anything: pitch, filter, LFO, etc.; in older models, there might just be one CV input that’s hard-wired…
+ Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new online course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design For Producers! Preview for free and subscribe for access. When it comes to sampling and Ableton, there are an overwhelming number of methods for turning almost any recorded sound into a functional musical tabula rasa. From simply dragging and dropping a…
Here’s something I know you’re going to dig! Throughout our free Demystifying Synths series of courses, we explore how to recreate the iconic keyboard sounds from tons of our favorite songs. You may have read our recent in-depth article on how to create that unmistakeable keyboard sound from Radiohead’s song “Everything in Its Right Place” off of Kid A, through…
+ Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new online course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design For Producers! Preview for free and subscribe for access. My love of synthesis is well documented here on Flypaper. There’s just so much to explore, from digital to analog, computer-based to modular. Today, we’re going to take a look at modular synthesis as…
Artists are using loop pedals to improvise with themselves and bring out a new, diverse spectrum of vocal textures and tones.
Get to know these 10 classic synths, and you’ll start recognizing their oscillating tones in all your favorite tracks.
We live in the most exciting time one could possibly hope to be alive. Every day, new aspects of our earthly existence are being discovered, advanced, and technologically exploited to further improve our experience of reality on this planet and in this universe we humbly occupy. Yet, despite these fascinating daily occurrences, we still love…
