I play drum computers and fx (and dj) for years now and I love it.
Now I bought AK.
It is easy to play, and to tweak presets.
But when I start with an initial sound, I cannot make such amazing sounds I hear in presets.Actually, it always sounds the same… or at least in the same direction.
What can I do to become really good in synthesis, that I can make my own amazing presets? Right now (and I love it), I keep on turning around the same type of sound
Hello,
i would say SYNTORIAL, it’s very nice.
Then Select in your favorite synth, your favorite sounds, the one you expect to use/build/use as a start point in your music family or personal vision of what you want to go… personally and DO REVERSE ENGINEERING (I mean put OFF effects, some modulation in matrix, observe what OSC is use, what Filter in action, what ADSR model then hear the Modulation, and Hear the FX
Then study a bit of harmony because, with my experience and opinion some delicious sounds is often build with harmony in mind… But with always the same formula, so use harmony to build some exotic chords, chords and harmony is so important really 
Then Experiment, experiment, experiment…
(for crazy stuff maybe Wavetable and Granular)
The KEY is Timbre, Modulation a lot but subtle and well programmed then, Harmony with delicious chords … don’t forget PAN in some cases
the craziest sounds I came up with were from accidentally turning the wrong knob in wrong direction 
I usually have some idea in mind, but because of this the result is completely different from what I have expected. My favorite example that comes to my mind is about one remix that another artist asked me to make. I started with my usual sound at 180 BPM and it was just not working at all. I was very disappointed and even abandoned this project. After a while I decided to come back and see what else I could do, and for some reason turned tempo knob up to 220 BPM and the result was astonishing. I was so excited that finished this track in two hours.
Of course you have to have some basement sound to tweak the hell out of it. There are loads of tutorials all over the internet, which should give you an idea of how certain sounds are made. There are also good books like “Designing sound”.
But the key (for me, at least) is this “turning the wrong knob” skill, which I try to improve all the time.
So, to sum up: experiment, experiment, experiment.
Google “Sound on Sound Synth Secrets”. Read ’em all. 
Syntorial hands down the easiest and fastest way to gain knowledge on synthesis. Very nice approach.
I second this. Make sure to work your way backwards, they show up from last to first in the list.
http://www.soundonsound.com/search?url=%2Fsearch&Keyword=%22synth+secrets%22&Words=All&Summary=Yes
Hey wouzer,
I don’t know if this helps you but I have a bunch of very varied patches on my website that you could download, import to your AK and maybe take a look on each page how these were set. It’s just a matter of time until you get really deep with this machine and see what paramter you have to tweak to get your desired sound. But the “happy accident” patches are the best Take your time!
Cheers,
Janosch
+1 on Syntorial.
It’s brilliant, really.
I really wish SOS would reformat these or compile them into a PDF for better readability. Still the best resource out there IMO, but it’s a bit unwieldy in its current form.
this is amazing, thank you very much
No Problem De wouzer u welcome ! when i find “Syntorial” i find it very nice it worth the price… of course when you will progress in the course it will be very difficult to repeat and succeed especially if you do it with headphones so pay attention to PAN, Reverb amount and preferably with monitors.
Then i mean when you Finnish i suggest you “How to make Noise” book from Simon Cann
http://noisesculpture.com
and then Reverse Engineering of your favorite patch/preset…
then experiment…
I can’t stress enough how important reverse engineering is. Its easy to overlook because it takes some work, you need to roll your sleeves up and go through the pain period. Once you find a few sounds you love and reverse engineer them you can reference the manual on each setting you controlled and how\why it affects the sound.
Just picking up a manual and reading it was not effective for me until I reverse engineered each sound. I would first write all the settings down of each parameter, then start with a blank patch. I would program the sound with my notes and would pay attention to what really impacted or made the sound. Once I got the fundamentals of that sound I could then apply it to a new patch or modify an existing patch.
The power of knowing what you are doing with theses machines is a true gift to yourself. Take the time and be patient and just learn it first. It will be well worth it.
^Agree, looks super cool.
BTW, I just checked their site out and pinged them about creating a version for iPad. They got back to me in a heartbeat and said they were planning to drop one in early 2015. 
Just bringing this back up as I’ve just tried the Syntorial demo. I thought the whole format and interaction was stellar, but when it came to actually synthesizing, the first demo lessons were pretty easy. Does it get much harder after? Worth the money? How to synthesize percussive elements, maybe emulate acoustic?
I should mention that I felt drawn to it after opening up Zebra and trying to work it out. And since I “breezed” through the demo, I’m thinking perhaps I was just overwhelmed. But if it’s worth, it it’s worth it
I love it, but hardly use it anymore. It will be very difficult, especially the tests where all old lessons come together in one test.
I learned a lot from it
There’s 4 big parts that play a major role
1 ) Wave
2 ) Pitch
3 ) Filters
4 ) Time variants ( modulation ) for 1) - 2) and 3)
5 ) FX
1 ) for the A4 there are many different poss. for the waves X 2
>>> al the OSC wave choises + all sync options
>>> in the A4 the sync result allso dépends alot on
the pulsewith depth and position +++ The relative pich of
each wave +++ the SUBS.
Try to start at this page when making a new sound …
but put off all modulation as OFF far as possible = LFO’s destinations 0
= ENV destinations 0
= FX settings 0
2 ) Try out different pich - settings for both ossc. + subs
>>> make variations in all sync options and sync-depth
>>> depending wich Osc is sinced ( try it out ) changing the pich of 1 of them will result in a pure harmonical change ( you won’t hear the pich altering - but only the " caracter " of the wave
3 ) Next step could be filter positions ( put filter 2 in highpass and reso at 0 for the time being ) so every frequecy passes…
1 > Filter 1 is allways in LOWPASS > so it will take away the high frequencies ( To make the sound " articulate " > High resonance - settings + turn the Cutoff AND LISTEN !
2 > Ones U found something that resonates with you
Now start to play with Filter 2
>>> this filter has many options
> High pass ( cuts away Low or BASS freq. ) 1 steep - 2 less steep - BUT you can allso use it to Blow up Low freq.'s when boosting the resonance with the cutoff set at LOw freq.
> Low pass ( cuts away High or TREBLE freq. ) 1 steep - 2 less steep
> All other Filter - types ( or variations - the image explais visually what they do - likt the low and high pass )
try out different resonance - settings > this can make a huge difference ! U can see filter 2 as a kind of scalpel to cut deeper in the filter 1 result 
4 ) All différences you have heard until now when changing the filter and resonance and waves - settings can be time variant > so instead of changing the values manually these changes can be incorporated in the sound. in time .
>>> This is where the ENVELOPESS and LFO’s are needed.
try to find some literature on this ( to vast to explain here )
1 > LFO’ s are mosttly cyclic ( repeating ) modolators when very fast they change the caracter of the sound - they can be one - shot - Like the ENV’s. ( try differen destinations ) .
2 > ENV’s are one - shot ( for amp or 2 filter ENV’s )
( attack = starting time > until level decay > decay = time until level sustain !!! SUSTAIN is a level ( the time a note is on - by your finger 
or by note length ) Release = Fade-ot time. )
5 ) FX > DELAY
> REVERB
> CHORUS ( very interesting > to fatten or widen sounds make it fast but be careful with the level )
Static sounds can vary ENORM by TIME - VARIABLES… that’s why modulation is so important.
for percussive sounds - use ENV’s with very fast attacks - The A4 has exellent ENV’s for this.
Making very small pich différences on both Ossc’s is good to achieve fazing ( very small ) This can be Time - variant by using the Ossc 2 vibrato. ( Its vibrato and pich-shift is independant from Ossc. 1 so in combination with syncing options > very interesting caracter change = hatrmonics )
FOR DRUM SOUNDS > put the the Ossc2 in RETRIG so it start’s every trig in the same phase ( to aviod slightly differen sounds )
Don’t forget that by trigless parameter-locking you can change the behavior of a sound in time to.
- some tips I could think of straight - away. these are the basic building-blocks - but there’s much more to discover. Ones you handle these the rest wil follow with ease. > Iteraction is the game.
Enjoy - for more detailed explenatios > just ask
In analog synthesi the sweet spot can be found in very tiny parameter - shifts so don’t go turnig those values in big steps rigth - away
BE PATIENT and TRY AGAIN TOMORROW 
If u know that u are going tu use REVERB it can be good to add it at the beginning as this can alter te caracter of a soud deeply 
Ha!
I just did a tutorial inspired by this post. And just now I realize that it came into my feed about a year after it was created.
Anyway - De wouzers initial thought made me wanna share my thought on visualizing sound as a means of understanding synthesis.
Have a look if you please. Thanks for the inspiration, De wouzer!
Great example of what is so great about this forum.
One’s quest for knowledge inspiring and activating another person to share so much. You all rock.
Carl Mikael, if you are trying to visualize sound to demonstrate synthesizers then I recommend that you adjust the display of your spectrum analysis software. I believe you said you were using a spectrum analyzer in Ableton Live - I strongly encourage you to use a logarithmic (log) scale on the horizontal (X) axis so that the harmonic peaks in the signals are evenly spaced. This will be much more instructive for you and your viewers when looking at music and especially at synth spectra.