Introduction
The most intuitive synthesizers in the world are patch-chord analogue synthesizers, such as the Arp, Doepfer, Moog and Serge systems. Musicians can randomly patch together modules and still create sounds that are out-of-this-world. No knowledge of music synthesizer theory is required, just the ability to plug one module into another.
On the other end of the spectrum is Csound. The very nature of this computer music language requires a musician to know what they are doing in order to accomplish even the most trivial of tasks. Though wonderful accidents do happen, as with John Chowning's discovery of FM synthesis, these discoveries are often the exception and not the rule. For the most part, a sound designer working with Csound needs a solid foundation of synthesis knowledge.
Yet, even these two extremes exhibit overlap. Both patch-chord synthesizers and Csound are modular in design, as there are no fixed internal structures, giving users free reign to design their patches in virtually any manner they choose. Both utilize modules (oscillators, envelopes, amplifiers, filters, etc...), and for this reason, there is an intersection of compatible synthesizer techniques.
In this tutorial, I will explore a few techniques that I believe bridge the gap between the analogue and digital worlds.
About v2
When I sat down to write the original EAST tutorial in 1998, I was a Berklee student in my final semester. At the time, there was no Csound Book, and information on this topic was difficult to come across. Luckily for me and other students, Dr. Richard Boulanger was a faculty member of the Berklee Music Synthesis department, who provided a wealth of Csound-related materials to those willing to learn.
As part of my senior project, I decided to write a document to both catalog much of the synthesis knowledge I had acquired from my professors, and to pass my personal micro-tome to future synthesists and Csounders.
Much has happened since I coded the original HTML document. The HTML table standards had changed slightly, which threw out anything that resembled alignment in my Csound examples. I've spent time improving my speech craft, something I've always struggled with as my brain is not wired for conventional language use. Plus, I was never truly happy with the final product.
That is why I decided four weeks ago to revisit EAST, and clean it up. What started out as a simple project realigning the tables turned into a nearly total rewrite. I've converted the original orchestra and score files into unified Csound .csd files, and I've rewritten much, if not all, of the verbiage. However, the structure of the original remains, covering the exact same topics as before.
Exploring Analogue Synth Techniques is finally presented as the document I had originally conceived it to be. It is my hope that EAST v2 will be useful to a new generation of Csounders.