M6 — Sound Creation — Synthesis
Status: Outline; the concept articles will be drawn from the public Foundations of Synthesis series on StemShare (written for MUSC 601, each article stands on its own). · Week: 9 · Domain 4: Sound Creation · Sprint 3: Built-From-Scratch Piece (collab) — week 1 of 2
Purpose
Fundamentals of subtractive synthesis: oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs. Groups begin designing original synth patches for Sprint 3 — no factory presets used as-is in the final piece.
Monday lecture (Wk 9): Synthesis fundamentals — oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs.
Calendar alignment
| Week | Monday | Wednesday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Oct 26 — Feedback #2 | Oct 28 — Sprint 3 kickoff + groups | Group plan |
| 9 | Nov 2 — Synthesis | Nov 4 — Group studio | WIP |
| 10 | Nov 9 — Sampling ([[m7-sound-creation-sampling | M7]]) | Nov 11 — Group studio finish |
Articles
| # | Title | Type | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Oscillators & Waveforms | Concept | Sine, triangle, saw, square; harmonics; brightness — from Basic Oscillators |
| 02 | Filters | Concept | Cutoff, resonance; low/high/band-pass; sweeping timbre — from Filters |
| 03 | Envelopes | Concept | ADSR; amp vs. filter envelope; pluck vs. pad — from Modulation: LFOs, Envelopes, and Routing |
| 04 | LFOs & Modulation | Concept | Vibrato, wobble, rhythmic filter; routing modulation sources — from Modulation: LFOs, Envelopes, and Routing |
| 05 | Building Your First Patch | Process | Step-by-step design from init; documenting settings for the sprint |
Assessments
- Quick checks per article
- Sound Creation Review — combined M6 + M7 (the signal path through a subtractive synth, plus sampling)
Teaching approach
Reuses the oscilloscope and wave-comparison demos from Foundations; planned new demos: an interactive filter sweep, a draggable ADSR with audible result, and an LFO-to-destination routing diagram.