Synthesizers-part 2 (Malstrom and Thor)

Alright, so last time we got into the knob-tastic world of synthesizers and did a little bit of programming our own patches using the Subtractor.

Today, we're just going to take a little bit more time to talk about synths and take a look at the other synth instruments that are available in Reason.

So, we are pretty familiar with the Subtractor. Do you remember what type of synthesizer the Subtractor is?

Analog synthesis (aka "subtractive synthesis") was the classic, old school way that synths worked. This method of synthesis used actual electrical signals as the basis of the sounds it made. Some of the most famous makers of early analog synths included Moog, ARP and Roland. Here is a picture of the Roland Juno 106, one of the first "affordable" synths on the market:


This is one of the all-time most used synth. It is one of the classic sounds from the 80's. You've probably heard it on hundreds of songs.

As technology progressed, instrument makers started using different methods of synthesis that allowed for more complex sounds. The next big one was called FM Synthesis, or Frequency Modulation Synthesis. Using this method, you could basically take two signals and have one mathematically alter the other. Don't worry, we're not going to get too deep into this, but just know that the sounds were more advanced and allowed people to try to create synth patches that resembled the sounds of instruments. That's when you started to hear cheesy synth horns and strings on pop songs.

After that, things started to get Digital. With digital synthesis, you had a lot more options and a number of synthesis methods came out. One of these was Granular Synthesis. With Granular Synthesis, you are basically taking a sample of an actual audio sample (say a flute sound), and then breaking it up into hundreds of little tiny snippets, or grains. Then, using the different controls, you can reconfigure and mess with all these grains and create completely orignal, crazy new sounds.

This brings us back to Reason:


The Malstrom pretty much uses Granular Synthesis as the way it creates its sounds, though it is laid out very similarly to the Subtractor. Like the Subtractor, it uses two oscillators at the starting point of its sounds. However, if you go through the different patterns, you see that it's not using simple waveforms, but the names of actual instruments as the basis of its sounds. Plus, using the Index sliders you can determine what part of the sample you want to work with.

The third and newest Reason synth is the Thor.

This guy is pretty intense and sounds AWESOME. Basically, instead of using two Oscillators to create its sounds, it uses 6. It also has 6 filters. This guy is incorporating several styles of synthesis at once and allowing for highly detailed and complex sounds.

So, start comparing these different synths and seeing the kinds of sounds they all make. Some are definitely better than others for different styles of music. But they're all tools available for you to use and combine to create your own original sounds.

Synthesizers - part 1 (Subtractor)

There are basically 2 categories of instrument in Reason. For the next few classes, we're going to take a look at the first one: synthesizers.


What is a synthesizer?

Wikipedia says:

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing a wide variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. There are three main types of synthesizers, which differ in operation; analog, digital and software-based. Synthesizers create electrical signals, rather than direct sounds, which are then processed through a loudspeaker or set of headphones.

So, basically, you've got a device that electronically generates one or more audio signals. And then by combining and processing those signals, you can create completely orignal sounds. There are several ways that different types of synthesizers operate. The simplest one is called analog, or "subtractive synthesis".

We are actually already familiar with the sounds of subtractive synthesis though working with our friend...

...the Subtractor!

So, obviously there is a lot going on with all these knobs and sliders and stuff. But once you know how to look at it, it really isn't so overwhelming. Today we're just going to focus on three sections, and from there you should know a lot about almost every instrument in Reason. The three sections are:

1. Oscillators
2. Filters
3. ADSR Envelopes.

We'll start with the first: Oscillators.

Oscillators are basically the heart of the instrument. This is where the sounds originate from. The Subtractor has a handful of very basic types of sound waves that it uses as the raw material for creating instrument sounds. Think of these as the block of stone that a sculptor starts with before he/she starts chiseling it into a specific shape. Any guess what those sound waves might be?

That's right: Sine waves, Square waves, Triangle waves, Sawtooth waves, and some others that are variations of these guys.

Subtractor has two different oscillators that it can combine to create more complex sounds. Let's check this out for a second...(demonstration)

OK, so besides being able to play back two sound waves at the same time, Subtractor lets you adjust the pitch of each each one. What do you think that does to the sound? It also lets you add noise, if you're into that.

Next, we have the Filters.


So, if the sound waves are the block of stone that a sculptor starts with, then the filters are like the chisels and other tools that he/she uses to shape it into what he/she wants. Now filters are what put the "subtractive" into subtractive synthesis, and they are a really common audio production tool in general. Think about it, what does a filter do?

We've got four basic types of filters to choose from, and they all reject different parts of the frequency spectrum. They are:

• Low Pass (LP)
• High Pass (HP)
• Band Pass (BP)
• Band Stop (aka "Notch")

Remember, the key word here is "pass"; what frequencies are being allowed to pass through the filter? In a Low Pass filter, the "lows" are being allowed to "pass". In a High Pass filter, the "highs" are being allowed to "pass". Here, let me just show you... (demonstration).

So, in Subtractor, you can select whichever filter you want to work with by clicking on the red dot. Then you can adjust the Cutoff frequency (the point where the filter starts working) by dragging the slider called Freq.

OK, so the last section of the synth we're going to cover today is the ADSR Envelope.

ADSR just stands for: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, and it's referring to the way the volume of a sound evolves over time. Check out this picture of a waveform:

What it is showing is the different parts of the total sound. Briefly:

• Attack - the quick rise of the volume up to the highest level.
• Decay - the drop from the highest peak to the average level of the sound
• Sustain - the average level of the sound
• Release - the fade out

Here is a common diagram of an ADSR Envelope:

Now, every sound has these four basic qualities, but with synthesizers, you can actually control the points that these things are happening. You can do this in the section called Amp. What do you think "Amp" is short for?

OK, so if your mind isn't completely overloaded yet, know that you can actually use ADSR Envelopes for more than just the volume of the soundwave itself. One of the most common things is to connect it to the Filter and have the filter moving in a completely different way than the Amplitude envelope. Bottom line: more interesting sounds.

OK, we'll cut the lecture off here today and get into actually making a patch from scratch.

Sound fundamentals (part 2)

Last time we got into some of the basics of sound, discussing the two main attributes:

Frequency and Amplitude.

Today we're going to get a little deeper into this stuff so that we can understand how it relates to the music we make using tools like Reason.

OK. So, frequency is basically dealing with pitch, right? How high or low a sound is. Measured in Hertz (Hz). Let's listen to a few tones to recalibrate our ears:

So what we were listening to were pure tones. Here is a picture of what a pure 440 Hz tone (aka "Concert A") looks like:
What we have been looking at and listening to so far are what are called sine waves. Sine waves are basically pure tones - nice and smooth and even, no additives or preservatives. But, as with so many things in life, reality is almost never so smooth and even...

Here is what Concert A (aka 44oHz) looks like when played by a grand piano:

Whoa. Lots of stuff going on here. I should point out that this picture is zoomed way out, so we're not seeing the individual waves like we were in the picture of the sine wave. But my point is this: there is a LOT more than just a simple 440Hz sine wave playing when you hit the A key on a piano.

Major point #1: Almost no natural sound contains only one frequency.

You might be asking yourselves then, "What are the other frequencies?"

Short answer: harmonics.

Harmonics are whole number multiples of a specific frequency.

OK, so I just lost about half the class with that last sentence. But it's really not that complicated. Check it out:


So, we're looking at the first 5 harmonics of a vibrating string. The first harmonic is what is called the fundamental frequency. The fundamental is like the "main note" being played. For example, in the picture of the piano note above, 440 Hz is the fundamental, but all that other stuff in the waveform is a bunch of harmonics:

1st harmonic (aka fundamental) = 440Hz
2nd harmonic = 880Hz (440 x 2)
3rd harmonic = 1320 Hz (440 x 3)
4th harmonic = 1760 Hz (440 x 4)
5th harmonic = 2200 Hz (440 x 5)

Every musical instrument has harmonics, but the amounts and combinations of these harmonics are unique to every instrument. This is why a guitar sounds like a guitar, a snare drum like a snare drum, Mariah Carey like Mariah Carey, etc.

Here is a comparison of a flute, a clarinet, an oboe, and a saxophone all playing Middle C (256 Hz):

As you can see, they are similar (they are all instruments from the woodwind family), but it is the unique harmonic content that gives each one a unique sound.

Major point #2: an octave is a doubling of frequency.

Remember our old friend the octave? A couple classes ago I described an octave as "a set of all the notes you can possibly play".

This is true. That is a musical way of understanding what an octave is.

But you can also look at it from a scientific perspective and see that everytime you go up an octave, you are doubling the fundamental frequency of the key that you started from.

Now that you know about octaves, see if you can answer this question:
Even-numbered harmonics are generally considered to be more musically pleasing than odd numbered ones. Why do you think this might be?

1st harmonic (aka fundamental) = 440Hz
2nd harmonic = 880Hz
3rd harmonic = 1320 Hz
4th harmonic = 1760 Hz
5th harmonic = 2200 Hz


Major point #3: Using electronic equipment (aka synthesizers), it is possible for humans to create all kinds of original sounds that don't exist in nature.

We will be getting deeper into this later when we discuss synthesizers, but for now let's just be aware that there are a handful of common types of sound waves that are used as building blocks in creating electronic sounds and instruments. They are:


1. Sine wave - Our old friend. The simplest of all sounds. A pure frequency.
2. Square wave - A tone with an infinite set of odd harmonics. Pretty harsh sounding, but it's a good material to start with when you're creating new sounds.
3. Triangle wave - A tone that also has an infinite set of odd harmonics, but they fall off in volume more quickly than the square wave.
4. Sawtooth wave - A tone that has all the related harmonics.


We'll stop here for the moment. In the next lesson we will learn about phase, filters and volume envelopes.

Oh yes.

Sound fundamentals (part 1)

Alright, so far we've discussed a bunch of different topics, from music theory to hip hop history to navigating software. Today we're going to talk a little about some fundamental audio concepts.

What is sound?

On the most basic level, sound is the vibration of molecules. Since we live in an air-filled atmosphere, sound for us is usually the vibration of air molecules.

Whenever there is any kind of movement or friction or impact in our air-filled environment, the air molecules get compressed and are pushed out of their normal position. They then react by springing back in the other direction. Same concept as a pulling a piece of string tight and then plucking it; the molecules swing back and forth.

It's important to understand that these vibrations don't just stay fixed in one place; as the vibrating molecules get pushed out of place they bump into their neighbor molecules and cause those molecules to vibrate, causing their neighbors to vibrate, etc. Then those molecules bump into their neighbors, and so on. Basically, the original sound vibration spreads out in all directions in waves, sort of like dropping a rock in a pool of water. This is how the sound gets to your ears. The waves move outward at a steady rate, but get weaker and weaker as they move farther and farther away from the source...


If we try to draw a picture of a sound vibration, we get something like this:
A picture like this is called a waveform.

If we zoom in really close, then we see somthing like this:



What this diagram is showing you is a single cycle of a sound, and in this picture we can see the two basic aspects of sound, which brings us to the main point of today's lesson...

FREQUENCY and AMPLITUDE!!!

On the most basic level, here is what you need to understand:

Frequency = pitch (Hz)

Amplitude = loudness (dB)

Now, more specifically, frequency is the number of cycles that happen in a single second. The faster the vibrations are, the more cycles are happening per second, the higher the pitch. In the waveform diagram above, the horizontal axis is showing frequency. The closer the cycles are to each other, the higher the pitch and vice versa.

The unit of measurement of cycles per second is the Hertz (Hz).

Amplitude is a little trickier to explain, but basically it is the amount of energy that is going into making the sound. In a waveform diagram like above, the height of the wave is showing you how loud the sound is.

The unit of measurement of amplitude is the decibel (dB).

Last and SUPER IMPORTANT thing to know for today:

The human range of hearing is approximately 20Hz to 20,000Hz.

With this information, we can start to get into really working with sound. Tune in next time for the wonderful world of harmonics, folks!

Basic Keyboarding Part 2 - the Major and Minor Scales

So, we've already figure out that the major and minor scales can be identified with the mood of how they sound (happy vs. sad). And we've practiced playing the very simplest of the Major scales - C Major.

What you should know about scales is that they are created by the amount of space between each note.

If two notes have a note in between them, that is called a whole step (for example, C to D)
If two notes are right next to each other, that is called a half step (for example C to C#)

How much space is in between E and F?

Ok, so now that we know whole steps and half steps, I can reveal to you the formulas for the Major and Minor scales. With these formulas, you can create scales from any key on your keyboard.

Major scale formula:

W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Minor scale formula:

W-H-W-W-H-W-W

So, with this info, you're going to create two 4-bar loops, same as you did for the C Major scale. You are going to do G Major and A minor.

Call this Reason session "Major & Minor scales"

Basic Keyboarding Part 1 - Getting Around

So, today I'm going to spend some time working with folks who have never taken a music lesson and get them up to speed with knowing their way around the keyboard.

Of course, some of you have already taken music lessons and don't need this review. So, if you think you're one of those individuals, please do the following assignment:

• Create 2 short Reason songs,
  
• Each will be at least 16 bars long.
  
• The first one will feature a melody in the key of D Major (save this song as "Melody_DMajor_(your name)".
• The second will feature a melody in the key of A minor (save this as "Melody_Aminor_(your name)".
  

If you aren't sure about how to do the above projects, then please hang out with us and review some basics.

First, take a look at the picture below:


We are looking at one octave of a keyboard, plus one extra note. Which note?

So, an octave is basically one section of a keyboard that contains all the notes you can possibly play.

In Western music, there are a total of 12 possible notes. One set of these 12 notes makes an octave. With me so far?

"OK", you might be saying to yourself, "but I've seen a piano before, and there are way more than 12 notes on that thing."

True. So let's see what happens when you play all the notes on your Oxygen 8, from left to right.

1. Make a new Reason song.
2. Go to File>Save and call it "C Major scale_(your name)."
3. Create a Subtractor and make sure it is connected to a Mixer 14:2.
4. Load a patch called "Vibra.zyp" into your Subtractor. You can find this patch in Reason Factory Sound Bank>Subtractor Patches>PolySynths>Vibra.zyp
4. Now play all the notes from left to right. How do the sounds change as you go from left to right? What happens after you get to the middle of the keyboard?

So, a keyboard is made up of octaves stacked on each other. They go from low to high in terms of pitch, but the total number of notes you can play is still just 12. These same 12 notes just keep repeating, getting higher and higher

So what are the names of these notes, you ask?

Simple, the white keys are just the first 7 letters of the alphabet (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) repeating over and over.
The black keys are some extra things called sharps and flats.

We'll get more into sharps and flats later, but for now, just know that a sharp goes up, and a flat goes down. So the black key to the right of A is A sharp. The black key to the left of A is A flat. Make sense? What might another name for A flat be?

Ok, now let's take another look at where all these keys are on the keyboard.


What note does this octave start with? Does that seem a little weird to you? Me too. Don't ask why it is that way. It just is what it is.

But that leads us into the last thing we're going to cover today: scales.

Recap: how many possible notes are there?

Right, 12. but just because you have all those notes, doesn't mean that they will sound good with each other. So a scale is basically a set of notes that sound good with each other.

The two most common scales are the Major and Minor scales. Very generally, the Major scale sounds happy and upbeat. You hear it a lot in pop music.

The Minor scale sounds more sad or intense. You hear it a lot in hip hop and other harder kinds of music.

Today you're going to record yourself playing the C Major scale into Reason

1. Set your Click track to 85 BPM.
2. Set your loop markers for a 4-bar loop (L on Bar1, R on Bar2)
3. Hit play and practice playing all the white notes, from low C to high C in time with the beat. Try playing the high C twice, so that you get an even number of notes in your loop.
4. When you are ready, record yourself.
5. Use the quantize function to fix your performance, or just edit the notes directly.
6. Save it up and you're done with this lesson.

Recreate a beat - part 3

Ok, so we've pretty much got the drum beat nailed down now.

For the last part of this lesson, we're going to record ourselves playing the synth melody for "Dumb It Down".

1. First, create a Subtractor synthesizer by going to Create>Subtractor or by clicking on the Subtractor in the Tool Window.
2. Now load in the correct patch by going clicking on the Browse button. Go to Reason Factory Sound Bank>Subtractor Patches>MonoSynths>Rave Lead.
3. Play some notes on your Oxygen 8. If everything is hooked up correctly, you should be hearing it play back.
4. Now let's find the notes used in this melody. They are C, A flat, B flat, and F.
5. Set your Loop Markers around the first 4 bars of the beat (L on Bar 1, R on Bar 5).
6. Listen to the beat on You Tube for a bit to get a feel for when then notes are played. Notice that the last note is held for a long time. The whole melody is a total of 4 bars long.
7. Now switch back to Reason make sure that the Loop On/Off button is lit up in the Transport Window. Hit play and practice playing the melody over the beat.
8. When you are ready to try to record it, hit the big red Record button in the Transport. Don't feel pressured to start playing right away. You can let it play through the loop once and then start playing when it comes back around.
9. When you're done, press the Record button again, or Stop if you want to stop.
10. How's your performance? Tight? If so, then go ahead and Copy and Paste this Loop for the whole 16 bars.
11. Save, and you're done with Dumb It Down forever.

If your performance was not tight, however, Reason can help you through the miracle of Quantizing...

1. Make sure that your new Region is highlighted
2. Go over to the Tool Window and click on the Tool tab.
3. In the section where it says Quantize, hit the Apply button. What happens?
4. So you may need to fine tune some of the notes even more.
5. To do this, double click on the Region and scroll up or down until you find your notes.
6. Listen to it play back and try to spot where the problem notes are.
7. Click and drag the note in the appropriate direction until it sounds like it's in the right place (make sure that you're only moving one note, and not all of them!)
8. Drag the right edges of some of the notes to be long enough.

Save it and you're done.