How to make a noise: Free Book

[boin]

its a bank job

OK, OK, I got it...

[Evan]

I gave this a quick look (I am going to read it thoroughly later on). I think this is a MUST HAVE for anyone wanting to get involved with synthesis. Excellent job and I do wish you guys make lots of money out of it! Very well done!

I'd like to make a few quick suggestions for further improvement (keep in mind I have NOT read it yet, only skimmed through it quickly).

First of all, there are some very good freeware synths out there (e.g. Synth1, Triangle II etc) which anyone can use without limits. I think these would have been good/better choices to demonstrate the basics of synthesis. They are also much simpler to use and would cause less confusion to beginners. Native Instruments also made a freeware synth exactly for the purpose of learning synthesis (Soundforum Synth I think it's called). Very cool.

An oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer can be extremely valuable tools for learning synthesis. There is not an easier way for example to grasp filter cut-off than by actually *seeing* the waveform being stripped off its harmonics in realtime and *watching* a sawtooth slowly turning into a sine wave. There are freeware osc/scopes and spectrum analyzer plugins (Voxengo has one I think) and it would be extremely helpful to incorporate them in your eBook to aid learning.

That's it for now, I might post more thoughts on this when I start studying it.

Thanks again for your GREAT work!

[Simon_Cann]

Excellent job and I do wish you guys make lots of money out of it! Very well done!

You guys? There's only me.

I'd like to make a few quick suggestions for further improvement (keep in mind I have NOT read it yet, only skimmed through it quickly).

I'm very grateful for anyone's thoughts - thanks for taking the time to share.

First of all, there are some very good freeware synths out there (e.g. Synth1, Triangle II etc) which anyone can use without limits. ... They are also much simpler to use and would cause less confusion to beginners.

In writing the book, I had to set the limits somewhere. I did contemplate both of these synths but in the end decided against. Perhaps if I set out some of my thoughts leading to this decision:

Vanguard has the most intuitive GUI (to my mind - your opinion may differ): in my opinion this is the best GUI to learn with.

I didn't aim to include absolute newbies within the readership: in writing my "minimum standard" is a functional musician (ie someone who understands how to use their host, how to load up a VSTi, how to record a song etc).

The book is already 80,000 words: to explain to a real newbie how to get things working would have taken another 20,000/30,000 words and would have annoyed a much wider range of the readership. Also, I'm not convinced that new born newbies want to know about sound design when they first start making music: I think they want to know about how to make music first.

An oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer can be extremely valuable tools for learning synthesis.

OK, this is where our opinions diverge. Let me explain with an example: check out the patches "phase I" and "phase II" (described on page 79 of the book). Here are two waves which look very different on the oscilloscope but sound exactly the same. Using an oscilloscope in this instance is simply misleading.

The first person who can hear the difference between those two patches when played on their own and can then
(i) articulate the difference to the point where people on this forum can understand the difference, and
(ii) sonically demonstrate the difference
can have a copy of the patches and the high resolution version of the book for free.

I think oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers help you understand some of the science behind making noises. Personally, I don't believe they really help the musician who is programming their synth. In fact, I think they act as a distraction and a misleading crutch: you need to learn to use your ears and how to use your tools if you are going to programme synths.

Now, that is my opinion. I am happy if anyone wants to disagree.

"How to make a noise" is wilfully unscientific (indeed, you will see there is a warning when the mathematics comes). This was one of the guiding principles - the book has been written for musicians, not for scientists.

However, this unscientific approach goes much further than trying to run away from mathematics. For instance, it includes the first serious FM tutorial I have seen that doesn't try to rationalise FM in terms of mathematics and sidebands.

Have you checked out the FM stuff? I have spent years looking for a book to tell me how to programme FM - in the end I gave up and wrote my own. In addition to the material in chapter 7: frequency modulation synthesis, check out the bits about FM wave-sequencing (page 71 and onwards). This is a technique I have not seen documented anywhere else. I think my brain would explode if I tried to explain this stuff scientifically or if I looked at the output on an oscilloscope.

If you then want to take FM further, check out "z3ta+ piano" on page 98 and "male voice choir" on page 100 (for those of you with the patches, go and play the sounds). Both of these patches were made using a combination of FM and subtractive synthesis.

Before "How to make a noise" there were only a few dissections of z3ta+ patches. This book multiplies the number that are available and takes some of z3ta+'s lesser used features (for instance) FM and brings them to the fore in a few of the patches.

That's it for now, I might post more thoughts on this when I start studying it.

Please do - I would love to hear your comments. And please don't misconstrue this response - I'm just trying to explain why I made some of the choices that I did.

Thanks again for your GREAT work!

I really appreciate your kind words Evan. Thank you.

Simon

[Ian F]

not sure about the ,but only as i personally reserve that one for when ive had a bj

...or a lobster thermidore....but I never get either at home

[KLG]

I can do a PDF version without graphics and with suitable marking which should be readable in a PDA: this is available free of charge to anyone who has purchased the patches. If you want to check that your PDA can read the output, send me an email and I will email some sample pages.

Thanks for the offer Simon. I've just ordered the patches. For the PDA version, I think simply fixing the conversion error is good enough, no need to take out the graphics.

Cheers,

[Simon_Cann]

For the PDA version, I think simply fixing the conversion error is good enough, no need to take out the graphics.

Its no problem, I’ve sorted a version without graphics (or rather, it was easier to do a version without graphics). If you let me have your email address I will send you the PDF which should be readable on your PDA.

Simon

[toine6]

Very gracious of you sir.

[munchkin]

At last! A synthesis book using synths we all love and use. I bought it as soon as I clocked it. This is such a great resource. Perhaps I won't have to rely on presets all the time now. Thanks!

[skank]

man I hope this guy makes mils$$$£££.

Word for the day- BUY!BUY!BUY!

[Saturation]

Thanks

[Klemperer]

Hi,

as this came out I was far away from KVR. Thanks!

[stratcat33511]

Thank You Simon

[alibish2]

Thank you very much, Simon.

Cheers

Alastair

[nuisance sonore]

I just bought the high rez version, and tried to print. Great book, but why the heck is it in landscape format instead of the regular format? Most unpractical, I stopped the printing and will see how hard it is to format it back to regular but that's a major disapointement on an otherwise great book.



[edit]Almost impossible for me to format to a standard for printing without access to the original text doc. Ho well, almost had a book.

[Simon_Cann]

Why the heck is it in landscape format instead of the regular format?

The book is arranged in landscape for two reasons:

• First, to accommodate the screen shots -- most of the featured synths are wider than they are tall: without going to landscape the shots tended to fall off the edge of the page.
• Second, if the book were to be arranged in portrait, to ensure the text was readable then either a bigger font would have been necessary or wider margins. Either of these options would have made the book use more paper and may have led to a larger file size.

If you want to print in portrait (and as you have the high resolution version), someone suggested printing in portrait with two pages per page (ie one page above the other). This sounded like quite a neat solution and saves trees too.

If you don't have any luck printing in this manner, I can let you have a text only version which you may find easier -- drop me an email [simon AT noiseculpture DOT com] and I'll get it over to you.

Simon