SYNTH1001

Sometimes I miss doing an STEM degree. The maths was fun and I enjoyed basic coding in MATLAB even if it was mainly as a supplement to the science-y and engineering stuff that was not so fun.

Back then I thought I could cut it doing an engineering/physics major but nah, too late I realised I was not gifted enough in those ways to keep up with my peers. Boy were there some smart cookies.

The science and the maths behind this week's seminar was quite the throwback, especially when investigating the production of sound waves (see week 2) and the wave forms that synths commonly use. These are:

• Sine (think a pure tone, like a fire alarm, with only one harmonic)

• Square (more shrill, almost robot-like)

• Triangle (like a sine wave but more bearable)

• Sawtooth (ouch)

In musical contexts, it is probably most important to understand the the difference between the sounds of these waveforms and the harmonics they use or produce.

For example, the sine wave when played, plays no overtones, the square wave is made of odd harmonics, and the sawtooth is actually a summative wave of sine waves, so every multiple of the root frequency exists in it too.

what? yeah idk either. but! doesn't matter as long you can hear the timbral difference.

Manipulation of these waves is done by change the Attack, Delay, Sustain, and Reverb.

When using DAWS, you can apply filters to your which let through certain frequencies only, like high pass filters or low pass filters, changing the sound of your music. ADSR envelopes can be applied to these filters to further alter the musical result.

...

Okay onto the way cooler bit.

Rowena came in to introduce us to Sonic Pi which combines coding with music. It is pretty dope. Gives me pretty nostalgic feels.

The cool things about it is that it changes your workflow completely. There's not a lot of visual cues as to what you are creating, except perhaps the wave interpreter as you playback your code.

Sam Aaron, the creator of Sonic Pi, made it so midi numbers are used as opposed to tradition notation, but this also allows the user to adjust all the ADSR envelope of each note. Plus there's plenty of in-built filters for your desired sound. But if you're feeling real adventurous and code-y, create your own! The world is your fucking oyster in this Sonic Pi!

I'm kinda in awe of the cross-curricular opportunities and would definitely be implementing this future teaching programs. Plus it feels like you're hacking into the Matrix as you're coding so pretty lit.

Oh! Live coding is a thing? Check my boi out!

Are there any downsides? Sure. You kinda need some foundation in music to understand what you're coding and what it will sound like on the other end. You need a device which may not be accessible to everybody. And you need time and effort to invest in learning, though the support network for tutorials runs pretty deep; pretty sure Sam Aaron himself is really active on the official forums.

Highly recommend playing around with Sonic Pi. I made a short thing. Hear it here. Lmk if you want the code to pick apart and make better lol