The Amateur Gentleman's Introduction to the Principles of Music Synthesis

Introduction

This article is a (relatively) brief introduction to the principles of music synthesis. Each of the basic components of synthesizers are explained, along with descriptions and examples of how these components are chained together to make interesting sounds. The principles discussed are not unique to any specific synthesis platform, but are applicable to music synthesis in general.

I hope this article will help interested musicians and composers access the "academic" tools and literature associated with electronic music. Most electronic music literature assumes a linguistic and conceptual vocabulary which is opaque and inaccessible to the beginner. There's no good reason for this. This article is intended as a good place to start learning; a place to acquire vocabulary without technical training.

The text of this article is accompanied by illustrations, audio examples, and links to working demonstrations in PureData. PureData is a powerful, free, cross-platform, open source music synthesis tool. It's a good idea to read this article with PureData open in the background, building and learning as you go...

More at the actual site; check this out, if you're interested!

Synthesis Basics