Lessons with PhantomOftheOpera

Sorry for the delay T, been very busy last couple of days. Ehm, do you want me to do some exercise concerning syntesizing and upload it or something?

No, I don

Yes, I did in fact, I tried to make a short cue using just the dx-10... didn't come out too bad :) But sure, we can go on... I'm guessing that the most juicy part of this will be the Cytrus, right?

I

Ah, the most juicy parts, you say - well, the Sytrus itself features all the things we covered earlier, but with a little more possibilities everywhere. It

Great, I will let you know if I have some questions, gonna check these out later today.

Not a too brilliant set of demos, I must admit.

Am I right that I never really explained anything about LFOs? Actually those are some of the more basic things to deal with and I guess you already know what they do, am I right? Do you want me to explain anything LFO-related?

If not, please tell me, if you need to know any further details concerning the Wasp / Wasp XT.

Explaining synthesizers is really something that can get quite difficult at a certain point - of course, the technical details and the way a synthesizer works can easily described with just a few sentences, but it

Well I know basics about LFO-s, about as much as I could find at wikipedia :)

But if you feel we should get into more detail about this then by all means do.

I find Wasp synths very user friendly and pretty easy to work with, the only problem is I don't really make new sounds, but constantly get something I already heard in the presets of other synths etc...:)

I have one question, since I haven't been experimenting with this too much. Do the effects you apply in the mixer, like compressor, flangers etc. influence the sound that you get out of your synth setup in a important way or do they pretty much do what they do to other sounds when applied?

The mixer has its own role when synthesizing. One of the important things you should ask yourself is always the question "how do you want to play your synth?". The important thing for you to know about your synth is, what kind of role is associated with each synth. Before we get into applying rules or do

Hey T, I did a semi-synth piece and posted it in the incidental forum here: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/electro-symphonic-piece-20891.html

Although it is not mainly synth oriented I would like to hear your opinion on it and maybe give me an advice about some synth lead I was going to put in there as a melody. I want to make it myself, so any ideas on where I should start or with what synth I should do it with would be great.

Hey, I

Well I want to add some more lead synths, I have a written solo, but I want an interesting synth lead that really jumps out at ya, kind of like a sax, you know... also I would like to make drums a little more drum&bass style, you know very electronic sounding with maybe ping-pong pannings, but I cant seem to find a suitable drum pack for that.

Alrighty!

For your drums you could easily choose one of the popular drum breaks to start with. I

Assuming that you already read some basics about LFOs, here

It

Well, there isn't any specific track that I got inspiration from, it's just that I have been listening to lots of synth-orchestral music (some of which you recommended), and I wanted to try something like that myself. I don't really want to copy any specific song. It's just an idea that came to me, I kind of feel that a guitar-like solo synth would fit in nicely here.

Okay, now before we get into this complex Sytrus thingie, let's slow down for just a moment here.

I guess the LFO's theoretical aspects should be pretty clear now, how about some areas of application and possible usage?

And I guess I explained anything that belongs to the Wasp (XT), so can you handle this thing now? If not, where would you require some more help?

The Sytrus

The Sytrus, FL Studio's most complex synthesizer, offers a variety of techniques that can hardly be achieved by any other FL synthesizer. The way the Sytrus works seems a little different from what you have seen before, but getting used to this thing might be worth it. Sometimes I even think that beginners in music production should try to learn this thing early, because shaping waveforms - one of the most basic ingredients of synthesizing - could never be done so detailed and with so much freedom, and this is where I would like to start right away.

The basic interface:

The tabs of the interface have different names from here on. Op (1-6) refers to the component where you can find the oscillators, but it is called Operator since the possibilities go far beyond only oscillating. Furthermore there is the 'Main' window which covers the latest step of processing and rendering, three tabs for independent filters and one tab for internal effects. The matrix constantly seen on the righthand side of the interface enables output routing, filter and effect handling and ring-modulation as well as frequency-modulation for the operators. Think of it as the Sytrus' own internal mixer.

Oscillation and the Operators:

From now on I suggest to open the 'Default' preset from the list of presets since this will allow you to directly hear any changes made to what we do.

In this preset the operator 1 is the only one which you will hear (you can see that in the "out" column in the matrix). In the small window on the top right side of the operator window you can already see the waveform that is currently processed, but let's locate the basic oscillation functions first.

To define the tonal range of the oscillator you can use the two small windows that contain a set of numbers. There is no such knob as 'coarse' or 'pitch', but the very same functions can be adjusted in a more detailed way here. The left window let's you adjust a frequency offset while the right window acts as a multiplicator of the frequencies (therefore a multiplication by the factor zero will mute this whole operator, but the offset is added after the multiplication, because People Eat More Donuts After School).

The other basic functions that are still missing are located below, but before we start to find out how they can be used, we should mess around with the waveform itself.

I would like to show you a very good way to get acquainted with overtones right before we start to handle the waveshaper faders. Please make sure that you still see the sine wave in the top left window and hit the tab called 'OSC' which is the last one of the parameters listed below. Another window showing a zoomed version of your waveform should be visible now. This window let's you define the overtones (harmonics) of your waveform and I'd suggest to start with this window before adding adjustments to the waveshaper section. Unfortunately we discover such a nice way to get acquainted to the spectrum of harmonics, now that we have been working with synthesizers for quite a long time now. No other synthesizer features such a decent way to adjust not only the amount of overtones, but also their volume as well as their phase, though the last aspect might seem a little meticulous. To use this function simply click on one of the small bars and drag the volume (called magnitude) to where you want it. You should notice a sudden change of the waveform in both windows immediately. You can also use the right click to drag a line of different volume settings across many harmonics to make adjusting them even easier. You might notice that some of the bars are a little darker than other ones - those are the multiplications of your original frequency and they occur every binary step (second, fourth, eighth, sixteenth, ...). Pulling their volume up quite a lot will get you the typical organ sound. Keep in mind that the volume of harmonics decreases as the number of harmonics ascends, well, for a natural signal, that is.

Experiment a little with the 256 harmonics and also take a look at the waveshaper by yourself. There are functions that could only be explained in a very mathematical way (the one called 'sine shaper' for example), but they can be understood be simply sliding the fader and watching the oscillator window.

The only bad thing about this whole section is that none of the parameters you see can be automated now, so the waveshaping and oscilalation remains static.

I will explain the rest of the operator's functions in my next post.

The Operator part II:

Now to the basic parameters: right below the section we covered in the last post there are the following parameters: panning, volume, modulation, pitch, phase and damping. So far, how can they be used?

You have to link them to one of the tabs below in order to bring them into play. The tabs below show different ways of using an associated parameter:

ENV let's you define a standard envelope for a parameter. If you're looking for the standard envelope window that let's you define the ADSR of the notes you play, then the Env needs to be linked to the Vol.

LFO let's you make a parameter follow an oscillated automation that can get very complex due to the editing capabilities of this window. I will explain more about how you can handle the controls of curves and their functions later.

KEY M is a feature that checks for the note you play and then triggers the paramater associated with this function. You can tell the panning of your sound to go to left at the lower notes and go to the right at the higher notes for example.

VEL M is similar to the Key Mapping, but it checks for the velocity at which the note is being struck.

MOD X/Y are parameters that can be altered in the piano roll, but can also be automated now. If you want to use them you need to associate a parameter with a modulation variable and then define whether this parameter increses or decreases when the modulation level increases or decreases. This does not sound like a lot of fun at first, but remember that up to six operators can be used and increasing the modulation can bring some aggressive new operator into play or a set of operators with lots of overtones and LFOs and whatnot.

RND is for adjusting a the randomness that occurs for a parameter when hitting a note. http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/random-27-51.html

UNI means unisono and it is only activated when you make use of the unisono function in the main window. In case you thought of the randomness function as a good way to broaden up a signal, then you should rather use the unisono function as it is perfectly designed for purposes like this. I will explain the unisono once we get to the sytrus' main functions.

The parameter Damping refers to the 'pluck' function, so in order to hear change made to the damping parameter you need to tick the box called 'pluck'. This function let's you simulate a plucked instrument and it makes most of your aggressiveness within your signal vanish during the sustain, since it's trying to simulate an oscillating string of an instrument.

So, that would be 6 parameters that can be linked to 8 manners of automation - 48 different windows for only one operator, not including filters and effects, not even including synthesizing techniques yet. The possibilities are harrowing, so take it slowly and have some fun playing around with all those functions.

Stay tuned!

Woah, this is a pretty large part of the Fl? You don't mind if I take my time while I do some exercises considering the sytrus?

Big is a good word here. Don't do exercises, just play around with the Sytrus. Explore it on your own or post all the questions you have right here.

Don't forget that I only wrote some brief explanations on the way the parameters are being processed, but the capabilities of only the operator window still go deeper - so do we.

The window that let's you edit the curves and LFOs works a little different than all the other synthesizer's windows, but in a way that opens a massive amount of new possibilities. You might want to open the default preset once again. Take a parameter where you can easily recognize the changes made, for example the VOL - ENV.

First of all this option needs to be activated with a hit on the small button on the bottom left next to the ATT knob. At firs this window looks a lot like any other envelope editing window, but there are so many options hidden within these yellow points and it's good to be aware of them:

First of all, yellow points can be added by right clicking* on an empty space within the envelope window. The state where the point is located at (A, D, S or R) matters a lot here, though you can change the position of the sustain afterwards, too. This can be done with a right click* onto an existing point. The drop-down menu that appears shows other very important functions as well: Curve properties and arpeggiator breaks.

The curve properties are easy for you to discover by just trying out these options. If you adjust the red point that is located half way back from the adjusted point, then you can clearly see the possibilities of the envelope editing. The arpeggiator break points are a little complex and I think we should come back to the Sytrus' arpeggiator functions at a later point.

What might matter to you are other basic envelope editing options, such as freezing the current state which basically prevents any changes done to the current state of the envelope, unless you 'unfreeze' the envelope. Sliding is an option that you might want to deactivate once you know the basic shape of the envelope - detailed adjustments are much easier to do, if you are able to change the position of a single point without affecting any other points. Step editing and snapping the adjustments to the background grid might help speed up the process a little, too, but:

*) in the step editing mode the controls for adding points are reversed and the pop-up menu of a yellow point cannot be accessed!

There's one more thing that is a lot different from any previous envelope windows: The four knobs for the ADSR now change the ratio of the envelope state, hence affecting multiple points at once, if you decide to have more than one point within one state. Also note that, even though the envelope view snaps back to its previous state once you alter the position of one of the four knobs, the change still remains active.

So far, I know that there is lots of stuff here, so don't rush and take it the way it feels good for you. Instead of doing exercises I would rather suggest to look at some presets or imitate a sound you like, but before we do that I will explain the other functions of the Sytrus here. I might also upload a preset file or two in one of my next posts.

Here's a short overview of the parts that are still missing:

The Matrix:

Hot Stuff! Let's begin with the Synthesis.

The Matrix is capable of synthesizing one operator with another one while applying ring modulation or frequency modulation. It is important to have the OUT / FX knob above zero for at least one of the synthesized operators. If you want to experiment a little with the matrix, it's enough to have the Default preset loaded, but you will achieve best results if you change the waveforms of the active operators for frequency modulation - even better, if you create tonal differences between the signals for ring modulation.

The routing itself is rather simple as you can either have X sent to Y or vice versa, though the results with FM will vary. Technically, a broad explanation of what is going on here can become very complex, so I rather suggest you to try around with the possibilites and the outcome of what you see fit rather than precisely analyzing the synthesis itself. If you want to cover some of the technical stuff of synthesizing, then just let me know, but frankly I would say that this is important to technicians rather than to musicians. Here's some more applicable stuff:

The parameter MOD is related to the FM or RM synthesis and therefore can only be noticed, if you have the associated operator included within at least one synthesis.

The knobs you see in the matrix can either have positive or negative values, but differences can rarely be heard - it is like sine and cosine, though there are certain situations where this might become more notable.

Any synthesis done within the matrix heavily affects the outcome. If you have a lot of knobs turned up to their maximum, then the result is very likely to become plain white noise. Changes done to the FM or RM are better if adjusted with care - also the spectrum of overtones of a signal get's pretty aggressive without even synthesizing, so filtering might become important afterwards (and the filters of the sytrus are amazing and it is a whole different set of filters compared to the other synths). What you can do to avoid overly aggressive results is to check the 'pluck' box, which allows you to get rid of any aggressive sustain within one operator, but this also disables the ability to add the plucked operator to a frequency modulation and ring modulation won't affect the signal too much.

I know that a lot of my explanation here is a collection of hints rather than a precise analysis, but I sometimes don't see the point in over-technicizing what can be done. Instead, I believe that guiding you around in order to get yourself acquainted with the possibilities as well as the way this thing works will be fine for a beginning and I'm ready to go deeper into this material as soon as you decide to do so, but there is also one more thing that bothers me about complex synths, especially the Sytrus:

Among this remarkably big list of presets there is not even a single one of them which I like, not even one of which I think that it serves as a good example of what can be done with a gizmo like that. To me every preset is rather an example for a result that does not require what the Sytrus offers to its users - this is somehow paradox. I think that this might be connected to what the people see in the Sytrus and this is why I gave you such a plain and basic shape of explanation so far. This is also why I don't really see any point in doing exercises here, because technically a tool of comparable complexity CAN of course be understood by merely spending enough time with it, but this is not what synthesizing is about. Unfold your imagination and get a feeling for how a signal wants to be played and also what can be done with it - you are more likely to figure out the real stuff while discovering the possibilities your own way. An exercise won't guarantee any of the important stuff...

Okay, now I would like to ask you to take a look at the internal FX-unit - I think that most (if not all of it) is self-explanatory. If you find the time to take a closer look at it, then let me know if you want to skip this section and we go on with the filtering with my next post.

Sorry to break the current flow of the lessons, but I've been playing around with the Sytrus a bit, mostly taking a preset and then trying to move a few pots and see what I come up with. And the thing that interests me now is this: I've found a kind of a bass-line-action sequence synth, one of the acid synths, and I see that it is made of of like a 3 different synths. And I managed to get lets say one of the oscillators to be panned left, the other right and so on, but I'm curious is it possible to make a ping-pong effect, so you can get a rhtyhm of the synth jumping from left to right, but only using the sytrus itself, and not the ping-pong option of the fl?

Yes, this should be done within the panning parameter of one operator.

I hope I got it the right way - here is my suggestion on how to do it:

Actually you only need to link the panning of one operator to an LFO. This would make one of your three operators jump from left to right - if you do that with two out of three (while having the third operator as a centre, just as an example) then you can either have part of the signal bounced from left to right (same LFO shapes for both) or you can have two different operator soundscapes swapped places from left to right (different LFO shapes - one operator with an LFO as you see fit, the other one the same, but negative). If you want your whole signal to bounce from left to right, then you would need to add the same LFO shape (linked to the panning) for all active operators.

Since you cannot assign any automations to the knobs within the matrix, you can only set static values for an operator's panning, so the matrix won't help you out here.

Double check for your active effects within the Sytrus as there are three delay units and every one of them is capable of adding another ping-pong panning to any of your operators. Experiments with the panning will be very confusing as long as this feature is activated...

Your problem solved?

Whoopdiwhoop, here goes my last post concerning the Sytrus for now. Two sections remain to be presented: the filters and the main window's functions

This time my explanation will be a little different from my previous ones: Since the filters work almost the same way as all the other Sytrus' functions, I will this time provide audio files in order to exemplify new functions and I will explain what I have done in which of the sections. Beforehand I will give a brief overview of the filtering.

Sytrus filtering:

First of all, all those filters are different from ones of the synthesizers we've covered so far, hence they all have different names. Furthermore, every filter has at least 3 different slew rates (see http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/lessons-phantomoftheopera-18959-11.html#post292517) plus alternate resonance types and some of them even provide a knob for overdriving which allows for some real distinctive settings. There is also a section for a built-in waveshaper, which is very useful when included in the mod X or Y settings or whereever you see fit.

Generally the functionality remains the same: Nine different windows refer to the filters parameters (pan, vol, cut, res, low, band, high, ws, wmix) while eight of them can be processed the same way as the operator's parameters can be processed. The one that cannot be processed is the waveshaper setting itself (ws), but the amount of the waveshaper (wmix) can be altered in any way.

The filter types itself are the common ones (LP, Band and HP) plus shelving filters, one dynamic state variable filter (which allows you to adjust the amount of low, band and high all by yourself), a phaser filter and an all-pass filter. The last two ones are a bit different:

The all-pass filter does not really cut any frequencies. The purpose of this filter is to off-set phases of different frequencies, so you could change the phase of higher frequencies only without affecting the lower ones. Can't think of a meaningful use of this feature right now...

And this is what the plug-in description reads about the phaser filter:

The Cherry Phaser is implemented as a filter type (see above) giving you full control of the frequency and enabling the phaser to be synced to the LFO, with full control of the LFO shape.

Res- Phaser feedback.

Filter Mode - Phaser order. The buttons marked 1 to ALT x3 provide phaser order 1 to 10. To keep the interface simple ALT x2 and ALT x3 are orders 4 & 5. The 'FLAT' switch adds 5 to these buttons giving you 6 to 10 on the same switches. For example, FLAT + x1 = 6, FLAT + x2 = 7 ... FLAT + ALT x3 = 10.

So far, it's time for the listening: Sytrus Xample Op1Fil1.mp3

This example features the built-in effects. The set-up itself is not very complicated. The important thing is the LFO-automated filter. I have used the state variable filter (SVF), but this example can easily be reproduced with only a LP. The automated parameter is the 'low', while the associated fader is turned up to its maximum (the faders are only shown when the SVF is the active filter). If you want to reproduce this with an LP-filter, you would need to automate the 'cut'. The LFO waveform is like a square wave, but the important thing is the delayed impact. I have activated the tempo-based view, in order to make my changes snap to the metronome. Another change within the attack stage of the synth is a opening cutoff, so I chose the 'cut' to be envelope automated. If you now play a operator with a waveform similar to a sawtooth and have some polyphony within your matrix, you should get very close to this audio example.

Another one: Sytrus Xample C.mp3

This exemplifies the use of X and Y controlling. The operator setting itself is really simple - a sinewave with manually enhanced overtones (within the 'osc' window). The filter features a lot of different settings:

The filter is a band pass with its resonance affected by the velocity of a note. (res to Vel M)*. The initial value for the resonance is 50% and it will increase according to the velocity of the currently played note, so it's actually never really on 50%.

The cutoff has been mapped, as well, but this time to the 'Key M', which makes the frequency band correspond to the pitch of the currently played note. This feature is similar to keyboard tracking (one of the important features of the Wasp's filters).

When listening to the example, you should notice a constant change to the sound itself. This is a simple automation of two parameters (Mod X and Mod Y), which slowly alters the whole presence of the signal and also brings the built-in effects into play. The Mod Y affects the FX amount (FX: vol to Mod Y) - the mapping formula is a simple X(vol)=Y(FX amount) and so is the automation.

The Mod X is a little different as it includes the waveshaper(WS). I chose a very aggressive WS setting, so that increasing the WS amount strongly affects the signal. The setting of the WS itself is similar to an overdrive, mapping quiet inputs to maximum output, and with the drive knob turned to its maximum, this adds heavy, but also smooth overdrive to the signal. The WMix has been mapped to the Mod X with the same mapping formula as for the FX.

And by the way, every one of my examples features slide notes to allow some short and fast automations, which brings vividness into my examples.

Here is another audio example featuring almost the same settings - if you have a good playback of lower frequencies, you might really enjoy this synth blowing around. Most of this characteristics derive from the WS plus the band filter resonance.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nntdomvvhcz **

And here is my the last example for this post: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yjooyhmirjj

The synths in this example were meant to make use of the same features shown in my second example, but with a little more variety this time. The Filter is a LP of the first order, once again with the resonance, but also the cutoff affected by the velocity of the current note. This might (depends on several other factors) make the output for notes with not so hard velocities drop below notable, due to the change in the cutoff. Therefore I have added a compressor to the mixer. This is not really a big deal, but it shows one aspect that might become troublesome with hard compressor settings here: As in my second example I wanted my synth to have a good amount of reverb and also a little delay. Now if I have the built-in effects set active, they are being compressed along with the original signal, since the routing goes through all of the Sytrus' sections and to the mixer afterwards. This set-up requires a reverb to be added in the mixer.

I have also added notes with different Midi channels, which allowed me to slide one note without affecting another one. In order to do so, you need to hit the colored box in the top left corner of the piano roll and choose a different color for two notes that you want to slide independently. As a rough guide you can always remember, that slide notes only affect notes of the same color as the slide note itself.

Well, that last example was not really too much about the Sytrus, and therefore I have prepared a preset file containing the stuff I wanted to exemplify within my latest example. I was a little too messy with the project names and now part of what I wanted to show to you is gone, so I had to create most of it again. This preset is about a different X-Y mapping which allows for even more possibilities regarding dynamics and it's a good thing to include in your Sytrus knowledge, since this is one thing that most of the other softsynths can't do. Here's what's up: Most of the Sytrus' functions I already altered in my previous examples are being mapped to either the Mod X or the Mod Y. The mapping formula is similar to the earlier ones, but with a little twist: Both sections have been divided into halves, which provides more possibilities with adjustments to the Mod X and Mod Y. The mapping formula would be similar to this:

For X(Mod) = [0;0.5[ -> Y