Overview

In order to test your understanding of the subtractive synthesis theory, you can attempt to emulate some real world instruments. This is good exercise to make you analyse the basic properties of sounds and apply the relevant settings. Of course subtractive synthesis is not capable of producing highly authentic recreations but these patches can be the starting point for some interesting takes on conventional sounds.

Try making the following sounds before reading the instructions on this page ...

• Violin
• Brass
• Helicopter
• Snare drum
• Electric bass guitar
• Piano

These sounds are easier to create if you have separate amplifier and LPF envelopes which you can tweak independently, but perfectly possible to create with a single shared envelope.

NOTE: All subtractive synthesisers have different characters so experiment with these basic settings to get the sound. For example, the same settings on a Roland Juno and Nord Lead produce very different results.

Violin patch

Violins are bright sounding and produce harmonics mostly in the mid and high frequencies. They do not have fast percussive attacks not matter how hard they are bowed, unless they are plucked (pizzicato). Violinist often introduce some (pitch) vibrato to notes shortly after they bow them.

This patch will test your ability to use the LFO to create delayed pitch (vibrato) effects.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Sawtooth	High octave	4/10	5/10	Open	Off	Off	Off	-	-	-	-
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Not too fast	Long	High	Short	4/10	5/10	Yes	No

 

Brass patch

Brass instruments are characterised by the sound starting dull and then quickly brightening as the air pressure at the mouth piece builds during the transient, before quickly become dull again when the pressure "normalises" to a sustainable level.

This patch will test your ability to control the filter cutoff with an envelope. You will need to fine tune the LPF cutoff point and envelope settings to get the fast increasing in brightness and quick decay to dull again.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Sawtooth	Medium octave	Off	Off	4/10	Off	Off	5/10	Not too fast	Short	Lowish	Short
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Not too fast	Short	Lowish	Short	-	-	No	No

 

Helicopter patch

This patch will test your ability to control the filter cutoff with an LFO.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Noise	Any	Off	Off	4/10	4/10	6/10	Off	-	-	-	-
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Fast	Long	High	Short	Vary	Off	No	Yes

 

Snare drum patch

Snare drums have very fast and bright transients which quickly decay in amplitude and brightness.

This patch will test your ability to control the amplifier and filter cutoff with envelopes. You can set transpose to a low octave and add a little sub oscillator if you have one, then find a key/pitch that adds a bit of body. Fine tune the amp envelope decay, and the LPF cutoff and envelope amount. Adding resonance to the LPF will give you a syn-drum effect.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Noise	Any	Off	Off	4/10	Off	Off	6/10	Fastest	Fast	Lowest	Fastest
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Fastest	Fast	Lowest	Fastest	-	-	No	No

 

Piano patch

This patch will test your ability to control the amplifier and filter cutoff with envelopes. You will need to experiment with the LPF cutoff and envelope controls.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Square wave with medium pulse width mod-ulation	Middle	Off	Off	4/10	Off	Off	5/10	Fastest	5/10	4/10	Short
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Fastest	6/10	5/10	Short	-	-	No	No

 

Electric bass guitar patch

This patch will test your ability to control the amplifier and filter cutoff with envelopes. You are aiming for that pluck from the fingers or plectrum and low sustained bass hum.

Oscillator			HPF	Low pass filter
Wave	Trans-pose	CV from LFO	Cutoff	Cutoff	Reso-nance	CV from LFO	CV from envelope
							Amount	A	D	S	R
Sawtooth or square	Low	Off	Off	3/10	Off	Off	5/10	Fastest	3/10	2/10	Short
Amplifier				LFO
CV from envelope				Rate	Attack	Send to Osc	Send to LPF
A	D	S	R
Fastest	6/10	5/10	Short	-	-	No	No