woo, tangent » xsynth

linux music tutorial: seq24, part 2

lsd — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:02:39 +0000

In the first part of my seq24 tutorial series, I looked at creating patterns in the pattern editor, and then triggering those patterns in real-time from the QWERTY keyboard. In part 2, I go in to more detail on both features. This video covers:

Advanced pattern triggering techniques: queuing and snapshots
Basic note editing: copying/pasting notes and changing velocities
MIDI CC automation
Background patterns
MIDI note entry (step-sequencing) and MIDI recording

It’s a little longer than I’d have liked, but there’s a lot in there! If you’d prefer smaller, shorter tutorials in future, feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

For downloaders, there’s also a 720p WebM version available (107MB).

linux music tutorial: seq24, part 1

lsd — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:51:43 +0000

I promised I’d make an introductory tutorial to seq24, and now, I’ve delivered! If you’ve tried seq24 in the past and been confused by it, hopefully this will clear up some of the mysteries; if you’ve never tried it, this might just encourage you to give it a go!

There’s an unspoken “step zero” here — get yourself a working copy of seq24. I’m not sure about other distributions, but on Ubuntu, especially 64-bit, the packaged version seems very unstable. The best thing to do is to grab the 0.9.1 version from the seq24 Launchpad and install that — this new release includes a bunch of bug-fixes, and a few new features, too.

The original plan was for a straight screencast, like my earlier synth tutorials, but I was so impressed by Kdenlive that I decided to have a bit of fun with it — hopefully the fun I had comes through in the finished product.

For downloaders, there’s also a 720p WebM version available.

linux synth tutorial: part 5

lsd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:57:01 +0000

In part 5 of my Linux soft synth tutorial, I look at the concept of modulation — changing synth parameters over time. We saw an example of this in part 4, where we used an envelope to control the volume of a sound over time; modulation extends this to other parameters, such as the pitch of the oscillators and the filter cutoff. Modulation can use envelopes to change parameters over the length of the sound — in fact, there’s a second envelope in Xsynth-DSSI just for modulation — or the low frequency oscillator, or LFO, to perform repeating rhythmic changes.

Modulation can produce effects ranging from subtle vibrato through to sweeping soundscapes and alien sound effects. Either way, it’s a powerful way to breathe life and movement in to what might otherwise be a dull sound.

High-res Ogg Theora version is here, or watch the Youtube version after the jump!

Due to the length of it all, the Youtube version is in two parts:

linux synth tutorial: part 4

lsd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:49:51 +0000

In part 4 of my Linux soft synth tutorial, I look at Xsynth-DSSI’s amplifier section, and particularly the “envelope”, which defines how the volume of your sound changes over time. By tweaking the envelope, you can make your sounds fade in and out softly, hit hard and then slowly fade like a piano, or come on strong and then disappear just as quickly, like a xylophone.

High-res Ogg Theora version is here, or watch the Youtube version after the jump!

linux synth tutorial: part 3

lsd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:47:54 +0000

In part 3 of my Linux soft synth tutorial, I look at the next major component of the traditional analogue synth — the filter. The filter… uhh… filters the sound from the oscillators, typically cutting away at the high frequencies; the effects range from the subtle to the drastic, especially once you start tweaking that “resonance” parameter. In fact, analog synthesis is sometimes called “subtractive synthesis”, due to the way the filter cuts away parts of the sound.

High-res Ogg Theora version is here, or watch the Youtube version after the jump!

linux synth tutorial: part 2

lsd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:42:49 +0000

In part 2 of my Linux soft synth tutorial, I look at the oscillators in Xsynth-DSSI, the different kinds of sounds they can produce, and some of the ways they can be combined to create more interesting sounds. The oscillators create the raw synth sound, before it’s shaped by the filter and amplifier, so it’s more responsible than any other part of the synth for the general timbre of your sound.

Again, if you’re on Chrome or Firefox, or you just want to download it for later viewing, you can grab a high-res Ogg Theora version here, or watch the Youtube version after the jump!

linux synth tutorial: part 1

lsd — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:01:37 +0000

I often talk to people in the open-source music community that want to learn more about sound synthesis, and this is my answer: a series of screen-cast tutorials on that very topic! In this first part, I look at the basic components of a traditional analogue synth, using Xsynth-DSSI as the example.

Linux has some powerful and interesting soft-synths, including PHASEX, Minicomputer, and of course ZynAddSubFX (and its fork Yoshimi). Why, then, am I talking about Xsynth-DSSI? There are a few reasons:

It’s simple — Xsynth-DSSI has a very straightforward design, so it’s easy to get to grips with its components and what they do. It’s also very easy to get your hands on the controls, since they’re all in one cleanly-arranged window.
It’s traditional — the design of Xsynth-DSSI is based heavily on classic 70s analog synths; the synths that shaped all that have some since. Most modern synths are just extensions on these same ideas, and even those that are radically different still borrow some components from the classics, so knowing your way around a traditional analog-style synth will stand you in very good stead when learning other synths.
It’s accessible — just about every distribution includes Xsynth-DSSI packages, and because it’s a DSSI plugin, it’s very easy to use inside DSSI-compatible sequencers like Rosegarden and Qtractor. If you’re not using a DSSI sequencer, you can use the “jack-dssi-host” tool to launch a stand-alone copy:

jack-dssi-host xsynth-dssi.so
It’s good! — despite its simplicity, Xsynth-DSSI is still capable of some great sounds. It’s also resource-light, so even an older PC won’t break a sweat hosting multiple instances of it.

So, without further ado, here’s the video, introducing the Xsynth-DSSI GUI and providing a quick overview of its basic components. NOTE: If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, there’s a high-res Ogg Theora video should work for you here.