ES2 Synthesizer

ES2 Synthesizer

In this blog I will be telling you what does what and what things do (If that made sense to you, we're off to a good start!). Firstly I'm going to look at the top sections of the synth.

Oscillator Section

 The oscillators generate the waveforms. As you can see in the picture you can choose up to 3 separate wave forms. They can be turned on or off by clicking the numbers 1, 2 or 3; you can change the waveform by dragging the knob. In the triangle you will see a square, you drag that square depending on what you want to have most presence (to the corners). The knobs on the left tune each oscillators , you can fine tune them by dragging the numbers beneath them.

Global Parameters

This section here lets you select if you wanted the synth to be in Poly/Mono/Legato. These are all different a work in different ways. Poly allows more than one note to be played at once, Mono and Legato only allow one. the difference between the two is that the every time you were to press a note on Mono, the effect/setting it's set to restarts while Legato carries it on.

Glide

This knob here determines how long it takes from one note to transpose to the other. Instead of just going straight to the other note this bad boy changes the pitch until it hits that note.

Filters

We use the filters to modulate the sound. It can be switched on or off using the filter button. It can also be flipped using the filter configuration button, this makes filter one lay horizontally on top and the second channel lay horizontally beneath it.

At the top of the filter section is the Filter Blend, this allows you to choose the balance between the two filters.

The Filter 1 buttons switch Filter 1 between lowpass, highpass, bandpass, band reject, or peak filter type. The Filter 2 slope buttons change the kind of slope.

 

This knob here can be used to increase the fundamental sine wave. This can act as a sub bass!

 

This synth has its own effect processor and this is what it looks like.

You can only have 2 effects active at the same time! (Distortion and Chorus/Flanfer/Phaser)

You control the mix using the X,Y parameters.

Just below the filters is a control which can be used to create random patches. All you do is adjust the slider to how random you want it and it does the work for you. This can be very creative and can come out with some interesting sounds and if not that. It may amuse you!

Envelopes generate a level that changes over time

ATTACK - When a note is triggered the envelopes level goes from zero to the maximum level. You can set how long you want this transition to be (time).

DECAY - After the note has reached the maximum level, it will start to decay until it hits the sustain level.

 SUSTAIN -This is the level at the end of the decay stage. You set the sustain level and the envelope level will sustain while the note is held.

RELEASE - Once the note is released, it will enter the release stage. This is the amount of time it will take it to go from the sustain level to zero.

The Harmonic Series (BASIC)

What is the harmonic series?

 Right, basically the harmonic series is the over tones of a note played. When you play a note it does not only contain the one note but a set of overtones too. These are known as harmonics! Harmonics can be found in all pitched instruments (string, brass, woodwind, keyboard and some percussion). For now I’m going to be focusing on piano.

When you play a note, the first over tone you will hear will be an octave higher than the original note, after that will be the next 5^th followed by the next 4^th then the 3^rd. Notice there is a pattern going on here? All of these overtones are found in the original string and can be found because the string is vibrating differently through the whole string, the diagram below makes a bit more sense!

If I were to press C1 the harmonic series will be C2, G2, C3, E3. This will continue but each overtone will get quieter and quieter till it can’t be heard. 

There is a way of hearing this for yourself. If you press C2 on a piano gently so it makes no noise and hold it and strike C1, you can clearly hear the first over tone. Try this with the notes listed above or in the diagram and you should get a better understanding. Remember, all of these notes are all within the fundamental string. This exercise just amplifies it.

This video here will show you what I mean!

Waveforms (BASIC)

What do you mean by waveforms? 

Waveforms are the shape or the form of the signal played. Sounds that you hear in everyday life (e.g people talking, clicking fingers etc. basically anything that isn't artificial!) travel in sine waves; when you alter these waves you get a drastically different sounds. I will be looking at Sine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth!

These waveforms look very different and produce different sounds and have different characteristics!

 

Sine waves: As I said in the beginning, sine waves are heard in everyday situations (Any sound which is naturally made and not put through a computer will be a sine wave). When we're talking about digital audio, this wave contains no harmonics, only the fundamental note! A sine wave is a true sound! You can tell if it's a sine wave because it's smooth and goes up and down like the ocean.

Square waves: This wave contains only odd harmonics (so the 1st, 3rd, 5th etc.). The harmonics are very dominant within this waveform! This gives it a buzzy hollow sound that is more noticeable at lower frequencies! Square waves are actually used to make artificial clarinet sounds. It's called a square wave for obvious reason (it looks like a square!).





Triangle waves: Triangle waves are very much like square waves because they only contain odd harmonics but unlike the square waves, the harmonics aren't very dominant because they're not as loud. To be honest they sound like a sine wave just with a little bit more added to it, not much. Some synthesizers favour triangle waves over sine because it has just that little bit more content. Again called the triangle wave for obvious reasons.... 




Sawtooth waves: A sawtooth wave is different to the others because it contains all of its harmonics. It is very distinctive to the others for its buzzing sound. This wave form is often used to create artificial bass, strings and some woodwind sounds.  The harmonics are natural sounding in a way because they are similar to what an acoustic instrument would be (Getting quieter in halves, then thirds then quarters etc.).  I don't even need to say say why it's called a sawtooth wave, I think you get the idea.

This example will let you hear the differences for yourself!