Synthesizers can get complicated but there’s nothing inherently difficult about them. For people who are just getting started, the issue is often that to get beyond “preset cruising” you have to know everything before you can do anything - the subject is very “front-loaded”.
If you’re new to synthesis then Concept from Krotos might be ideal as it’s been designed not to intimidate the new user. It’s a very capable synth but it’s been created avoiding menus and tabs, making it easy to read. The modulation system uses a drag and drop system based around colour making the modulation which is so important in any synth patch easy to set up and easy to comprehend.
Concept Modulation
In this, the first of a series of three free tutorials brought to you with the support of Krotos, Julian Rodgers creates all the patches in a short demo song using Concept. Over the course of these free videos, he builds each of these patches, taking you through the patch section by section to help you understand not only how Concept works but how each parameter and its associated modulation contributes to the timbre.
What Is Modulation?
Modulation in synthesisers refers to the practice of building in variation over time. This can be done by using low frequency oscillators, envelope generators or other “modulation sources” to create variations in the basic settings of the synth by changing, or “modulating’ them over time.
In this video, Julian auditions the track and previews the only factory preset used in the track, a patch called “Ambience of Doom”, it’s a complex patch with lots of modulation causing multiple changes in timbre. Modulation is crucial in making synth patches, which hold the interest of the listener. Static sounds sound unnatural as all sounds in nature change over time. It looks bewildering on first inspection. Using a far simpler patch, Julian demonstrates the basic approach to modulation and returning to Ambience of Doom, it looks much easier to understand, there is a lot of modulation but none of it is particularly difficult to understand.
Octave Bass
Moving on to the other sounds in the demo, the bass patch sounds sequenced but actually the alternating octaves come from modulation. A low frequency oscillator (LFO) is a shared modulation source for both oscillators - the section of the synth which provides the raw sound which is used as a starting point for all patches. By modulating the volume of the oscillators with a square wave a quarter note pulse is created. By inverting the modulation on one of the oscillators, the oscillators take it in turns to sound - as one gets turned up the other gets turned down. By setting the two oscillators to sound an octave apart an alternating octave effect is created in the patch rather than by sequencing the notes on the timeline.
Bass Drop
The second patch created in this video is a bass drop, a simple patch, which introduces a second modulation source, and envelope generator. Whereas an LFO is cyclic - this alternately raises and lowers the level of a parameter over and over again, an envelope changes a parameter over time, playing through its four stages from beginning to end and not repeating. This makes them very useful as an alternative to the cyclic motion of LFOs.
What’s Next?
In the second of the videos, Julian creates a Bladerunner inspired pad sound using a ring modulator and then creates a synthesised kick drum sound. Check back for that next week.