Synthesizer 101

As I journey into the world of synthesizers, I've noticed that nobody really lays out what it all means to the musician. The problem is that most of the info I've found sort of assumes that I already know what I'm looking for. I can find lots of stuff that talks about LFO's, arpeggiators, and samples... but few that have helped me piece everything together. So, I'm going to take a few blog posts to talk about synthesizers, and how a rock musician can make the most of them.

To start with, you have to understand how everything is layed out in the synth world, and where the boundaries are. Take a look at this diagram, and I'll define what each word means:

• Musician: This is the guy who is creating the music. It's usually a warm body. Sometimes it can be a computer that is creating the music.
• Controller: This is what the musician actually touches so that the music will be made. Usually, it looks like a piano keyboard. However, controllers can take many shapes... including a guitar, saxaphone, trumpet, and wierd antenna thingy (like the Moog Etherwave Theremins). The controller does not make any noise (unless you drop it on the floor... but that's not the kind of noise you want.)
  
• Sequencer: This is like an automatic musician, but it's actually just a computer. The musician will program the notes and whatnot for a song (usually using the controller). The sequencer will then play back the notes, sending the signals to the sequencer at the right time so that the song has an actual tempo.
• Synthesizer: This is a device that actually makes noises. It's usually an electronic device in a box that you never see (thus the transistor icon). It responds to signals coming from the controller and/or the sequencer. It doesn't care if it's being played by a controller (i.e. a musician) or by a sequencer. All it sees is incoming notes... and it generates tones according to the incoming signal and its current settings and parameters (typically called a patch).
• Listener: Obviously, the tones from the synth are sent to an amplifier and then heard by a person. However, sometimes it's a recording device... or perhaps another signal processor. I put it here because it represents the complete process.

The blue arrows represent a signal flow from one part to the next. Between the controller, sequencer, and synthesizer the data communication is usually done through a standard protocol called MIDI, but not always. In the old days, before MIDI, it was often done by sending a voltage signal. The voltage represented the desired pitch, and the pitch change was 1 volt per octave.

This is a very flexible system. You can purchase all-in-one systems (like the Yamaha S08). However, you can also break it up and just buy a controller (M-Audio's Axiom 49), sequencer (a PC running MusE or Steinberg's Cubase), and/or a synthesizer (Dave Smith Instrument's ). Because MIDI is the standard communication protocol between them, it's easy to mix and match components. But even if you buy an all-in-one package it is important to know where the divisions are. The all-in-one systems are usually logically divided up like this, and use these terms.

What's more, these days you can do all three on a computer. It's not uncommon for me to use the computer keyboard as my controller, use a software sequencer (MusE, Rosegarden, or seq24), and use a softsynth (a software synthesizer like ZynAddSubFx or FluidSynth).

In future posts I plan to talk about musicianship with synthesizer (i.e. how to use them for music), MIDI, the basics of how a synthesizer creates tones (internally), samples, loops, some of the different types of synthesizers on the market, and integrating it all into a live setup.