Synthesis Term 2, Assignment 3.

PART I - Fixed Parameters

1. 1 Carrier, 1 Modulator.

1. 1:N - Carrier has a ratio of 1 and N is a whole number.

I started by setting operators (fig.1) as a 1:4 ratio, with both set as sine tones. On raising the modulation index to match the carrier, I immediately realised a bell-like sound, with a heavy bottom-end evident from the Sine carrier. Raising the modulation index by a float point interval gave more and more partials to the outputted tone, and gave me an increasingly thinner, more nasal tone (final settings shown in fig. 2, Audio recording 1.)

Part 1

2. “X:Y = Where X and Y are any whole number > 1.”

Here, I decided to start with a carrier ratio of 3 and a modulator of 7. With both modulation indexes set as 1, I discovered a slightly squarer wave-like tone, with harder edges and very reminiscent of 8-bit composer favourites. (see fig 3, Audio 2 for an example of this)

Raising the gain modulation of the operator in this instance adds treble and creates a piercing, brittle tone, featuring noticeable sidebands when cranked up as far as a modulation index of 10 (featured in Audio recording 3)

1. “A:B = Where either A or B is not a whole number.”

Choosing a float-point ratio was an interesting one, as it gave slightly more interesting sidebands than previous experiments. 

More noticeable in the higher ranges of the minor key passage that I had on repeat, I noticed far more dissonance, and even at a modulation index of 1, this was almost jarring to listen to and was starting to lose the carrier in it’s dissonance. 

Tonally, it remained similar to experiment one, featuring a bell like, slightly hollow tone, however with noticeably less bottom-end in comparison. This can be heard in Audio recording 4, and an example of a screen-grab in fig 4.)

Raising the modulation index on the modulator further added to this dissonance, however, as expected, added the familiar nasal-ness discovered in experiments 1-3. Fig 5 shows the settings on which audio recording 5 was produced, featuring a fairly high modulation index of 13 to illustrate the added sidebands.

b) 2 Carriers, 1 Modulator

Fig 6 illustrates my chosen starting point with two carriers and one modulator. I opted for two sine tones with a sawtooth modulator.

Interestingly, with this setup, I was greeted with a very classic MIDI bass guitar tone (see Audio Recording 6) -



On experimenting with these, I found I quite liked the musical nature of the Operator 1 ratio at 3, Op2 at 7, and Modulator at 9 (see fig 7 and Audio recording 7)

There was a very guitar-like power-chord about the sidebands that had occurred at this balance of operators, still very hard edged and very nasal, but the carriers were still noticeable at this level and it maintained pitch.

On experimenting further with the modulation index relationships between these, I discovered that changing the modulation indexes of either carrier made no difference at all (as seen in fig. 8) I had pushed the second carrier up as far as 28, and no change in tone (although certainly noticeable when removed from the chain)

Setting the modulation index of the modulator higher than 3 or 4 made the tone go beyond nasal and was not a pleasant tone at all in any circumstance. After consideration, I felt it best to leave it at 2, where it introduced just a little amount of midrange and warmth to the tone, without making it too obviously brittle. (See Audio Recording 8)

The Final required example clips are found as follows:

• 2 carriers alone

There’s a noticeable dissonance with this as we’d expect from the ratios given to both of these carriers, and its almost impossible to find the original note tone from it.

• Carrier 1 with modulator alone

Very quacky and nasal on it’s own, but no sidebands and no dissonance, clearly showing its tone in connection with the others. Very soulless and MIDI-like.

• Carrier 2 with modulator alone

Very similar to the very first experiment, this tone is very bell-like, featuring overtones. It’s also got no noticeable sidebands but does feature quite a lot more of the midrange, upper ranges of the spectrum.

• Combined tone.

1.  1 Carrier, 1 Modulator that modulates the Carrier, 1 Modulator that modulates the Modulator

Here, I’ve set up my old favourite ratio of 3:7:9 to my Carrier and two modulators respectively, and set them up as the section in question asks, and this is found in Audio Recording 9.

In Audio recording 10, I discovered that setting the Modulator that modulates the other modulator to the same ratio, gives an amazing result of sidebands affecting sidebands and cancelling each other out, depending on pitch. This gave a really disjointed, awkward resulting pattern. See fig. 11 for the setup of this tone.

1. Each Modulator/Modulator exampled in following sound clips:

• Carrier and modulator 1

This tone hides a noticeable octave partial fairly high above the carrier tone, and as we would expect, gives a nasal midrange with the sine tone bottom end still pushing through.

• Carrier and both modulators

As noted by my above mentioned section on this tone, the conflicting sidebands give a very disjointed tone, affected mainly by pitch. The tone is made less musical, as seemingly random sidebands take priority, resulting in a totally disorganised and very 50’s sci-fi computer tone.

1.  2 Carriers, 2 Modulators

Experiment 1:

Fig.13 shows my first experiment with two carriers, each with their own independent modulator. Audio recording 11 illustrates my fizzy tone, countered by a slightly dissonant second carrier set at a 0.4 ratio, counteracting with the 9 and 12 ratios set on the modulators, putting the pitch somewhat back into musical use.

Although still relatively dissonant, it almost has a minor chord feel, and with its very high pitched octave partials, and its ability to hold onto some kind of bottom end thanks to the original sine carrier set to a ratio of 1, this tone is one of the more useable of the experiments.

Experiment 2:

My less musical experiment example comes from settings displayed in Fig. 14.

Intending on purposely dissonant, rough, and non-musical, I experimented more with float point numbers on ratios, and discovered a balance between the modulators set at 1.3 and 7.9 ratios, gave me pitch dependant dissonance that had some keys on pitch and others off, totally driven by their sidebands thanks to a high modulation index on the modulators.

Again, very nasal and brittle, but quirky, and not as unusable as the conflicting sidebands highlighted in the last section of this assignment. (See Audio 12 for an example.)

PART II - Dynamic Parameters

Using my example setup from section a, featuring a ratio of 1:4 on one Carrier and one modulator, and a modulation index of 5.5, I plotted an envelope set to a fairly smooth and medium speed attack, with a quick decay before rising in volume quickly and decaying. (See fig 15)

The Audio file “Part 2, Experiment A” illustrates this envelope and I think creates quite a nice movement with the very nasal and brittle tone.

In My example from section B, (Audio example entitled “Part 2 - Experiment b”) I decided to use the last example tone, and in my envelope went for a very slow attack time but a quick release, to give the effect of reverse. (Fig. 16)

As a means of taking the nastiness out of this file, it only helped to a certain degree, it still maintained its chilling brittleness and my envelope only served a help in not shocking the listener to an immediate blast of midrange.

Section C’s example (featuring the very dissonant and conflicting sidebanded tone) was interesting to find an envelope for, and so I decided to keep it sounding odd, and went for a very quick attack, but with a slow, pad like release (Fig 17)

An example of this can be listened to at (Part 2 - Experiment C)

Section D’s final example, I decided to go with experiment 1 of that section, and set it up with a quirky envelope featuring a quick attack and decay, but raising it back up again during the sustain before a release time similar to the first decay (Fig 18). 

This gave a throbbing effect and created an almost breath-like quality to it. (See Part 2 - Example D).

Assignment 02 - Creating a synthesis replication

In spending time with logics ES2 Synthesiser, I decided to attempt to recreate the very subtle and classic lead line from Kraftwerk's 1983 single "Tour de France" -


An incredibly classy sounding lead line, it carried a whole ream of nuances hard to put a finger on exactly what to do, however, I motored on and started as follows.

Made up of at least three oscillators, I decided to start with a blank analogue ES2, this means loading from the "Analog Saw Init" preset, to clear the ES2 of any pre-determined settings.

After playing in the melody to logics sequencer, I started with a basic triangle wave in oscillator 1, followed by a Square in oscillator 2

Note: I detuned oscillator 2 to -12, an octave below it's brother, the triangle wave in Osc 1

During experimentation with filtering and cutoffs, I found it very tricky to remove the buzziness of the two, and decided to add a sine tone set two octaves lower, to create a more hollow, wooden tone to the synth

This, when mixed correctly, created a closer tonality, but I was still left with a very staccato synth tone, and so, I decided to then add decay and sustain to the signal. This, I suppose, was an attempt to replicate the reverbrial nature of the synth tone featured in the original track.

By removing most of the resonances and cutoff frequencies, I was able to colour the tone back to a totally natural, fuzzed guitar-like timbre.

I added an operation to subtly extend the note glissando.

The final synth patch:

and the most important part, a clip of how it sounds!

First ideas towards synth creation

In researching synth sounds to recreate, i got a chance to go through my old school techno and electronic music libraries, and figure out what would be a challenge to make but within reach.

I started looking at the obvious pop records with Brian Eno at the helm, and am considering either Ladytron by Roxy Music's very huge, wishy washy opening synth section intro.


Or, the very cool and personal favourite early Techno record, Tour de France by Kraftwerk.

Synthesis Handbook/Glossary.

In class, we discussed:

Tuning Oscillators by various cents off each other to create a phased effect.

Square wave: Closest to the traditional 8Bit tones, hollow, and fuzzy.

Triangle Wave: Somewhat thinner and more nasal than the Square, more distorted in nature, featuring Odd harmonics.

Sine Wave: round, full and "pure" tone - used in conjunction with other waveforms to add body or a naturalness to the tone.

Envelopes can be triggered by a signal or by an LFO (low frequency oscillator) to sculpt the tone.

LFO: Useful for creating a rhythmic pulse on a waveform. Generally bombards it with frequencies beneath our hearing (20hz or less) and causes a throb.

First Post

This is a first text post, to see if this all works.

This is the main text area, where I'll be posting stuff for my learning experience.

This is what a screen grab looks like.