Synthesizer Programming Resources

Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook
http://synthesizer-cookbook.com

Roland The Synthesizer OOP (see Ebay for hard copies).

PDF
http://m.analogindustries.com/b1764/

Simon Cann's series of books
https://noisesculpture.com/

Len Sasso has downloads of his out-of-print guides on his website http://www.swiftkick.com/ ,
including a guide and tutorials for Metasynth.

http://www.syntorial.com/

This is an excellent intro to subtractive synthesis with exercises and levels.

Rob Papen has good starting point video, more info at https://www.robpapen.com/dvd-sound-design.html

Foundation of Synthesis is also good resource for beginners



Link: https://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/bob-moog-the-foundation-of-synthesis-102-the-oscillator/

After that ADSR sound is always a good starting point

Programming Analog Synth by Howard Scarr. It was originally written with the Access Virus in mind but there is tons of great, general info in there and it's a fun read as well.

http://www.virus.info/api/download/dlid/222/alternate/0/Tutorial%20on%20how%20to%20program%20the%20Virus%20in%20English (Synthesizer Programming English)

Free download (this link should just trigger the download which comes as a zipped up PDF)

babylonwaves said:

Programming Analog Synth by Howard Scarr. It was originally written with the Access Virus in mind but there is tons of great, general info in there and it's a fun read as well.

http://www.virus.info/api/download/dlid/222/alternate/0/Tutorial%20on%20how%20to%20program%20the%20Virus%20in%20English (Synthesizer Programming English)

Free download (this link should just trigger the download which comes as a zipped up PDF)

Click to expand...

As soon as I saw the post above I was going to suggest this, but you beat me to it.
+1 for this guide.

Hey Babylon, didn't you make some demos for the Virus back in the day? Good stuff!

sazema said:

After that ADSR sound is always a good starting point

Click to expand...

I learned SO much from ADSR. Went I got serious about learning programming, I took ALL their courses on Zebra/HZ (since that's my favorite). The amount I learned about envelopes, filters...it was a precious resource, and I can't recommend those courses more.

If you truly want to master the synthesizer, you could do one yee haw of a lot worse (witness: 90% of youtube, and I'm being gracious aren't I). ADSR is awesome. Y

ou get a free trial, but if you have to pay for a month, you are still getting a super bargain.

All it takes is you applying yourself, really, and if that's the case, you're going to learn quick anyway imo.

synthpunk said:

Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook
http://synthesizer-cookbook.com

Roland The Synthesizer OOP (see Ebay for hard copies).

PDF
http://m.analogindustries.com/b1764/

Click to expand...

You know, I like those, but I'm still waiting for a really good synthesizer book.

Old videos, but I found them very useful

Back in the early 2000s, Sound on Sound Magazine did a spectacular series call "Synth Secrets". It started with the most basic elements of synthesis and by the end a few years later was doing quite complicated patches with various types of modulations and emulations of all different types of sounds.

Synth Sounds of Stranger Things

I second Syntorial. Halfway through the course now and learned a lot already. It goes quite deep and the way it is setup, going between theoretical and practical hands on synth programming, works great for me.

I find the large and comprehensive tutorial section of the Yamaha Synths website to be an amazing (and overlooked) resource.
The best FM tutorials that I found are there (but there's lots more than FM).
The TOC: https://www.yamahasynth.com/synth-programming

An amazing intro to FM series by Howard Massey (the one who wrote "The Complete DX7" back then):

Various series, for various levels, on advanced FM: https://www.yamahasynth.com/learn/synth-programming/fm-synthesis-collection

Intro to subtractive: https://www.yamahasynth.com/learn/synth-programming/subtractive-synthesis-101-part-one-the-basics

The Bazille Cookbook is another synthesis gem.


The PDF is freely available here although you need to have Bazille and the presets for it to make more sense.

babylonwaves said:

Programming Analog Synth by Howard Scarr. It was originally written with the Access Virus in mind but there is tons of great, general info in there and it's a fun read as well.

http://www.virus.info/api/download/dlid/222/alternate/0/Tutorial%20on%20how%20to%20program%20the%20Virus%20in%20English (Synthesizer Programming English)

Free download (this link should just trigger the download which comes as a zipped up PDF)

Click to expand...

The link doesn't seem to work anymore, but I've attached the PDF which AFAIK has always been free in electronic format.

Hi guys, here're some formulas to generate 'smoothened' shapes of triangle wave, square wave or sawtooth wave. The smooth parameter actually controls the reduction of higher harmonics (without filtering).

Reference link:

I attach my code here (written for python).