0

Hello,my name is Derrick and I would like to know how to create my own synths and other electronic instruments in Reason 6?I'm always looking for new sounds via refills and sound kits,but I need my own sound library outside of basic patches and refills.Which are good,but I want to create sounds that are either never heard before or rarely heard.I basically need to know what is the main basis for synths,etc.I know a little bit about the LFO,Mod,Filter,and Wavetables.But I need to learn how to create a sound that I may hear in my head or from somewhere else,say,tv,radio,film?

1 Answer 1

1

Well, you need to practice a lot, and not only using synths. Every artist reaches a point when they feel like they can express themselves i.e. put out the sound that they intended to put out and the grounding for that is that tools and methods are simply tools and methods for doing that, not a reason and not a barrier. And to do that, you need to first know the tools (whatever you use). So well, you just need to keep turning the knobs and reading the manual (or watching tutorials) until you can focus freely on the sound and not the tool, whatever the tool is.

Sound is a different beast however in the sense that you cannot approach it like a drawing. I.e. create a picture directly from your head. You can reason and plan sound and work towards ideas, but you cannot map an idea 1:1 from your head to a sound. You can do this to a certain extent with synthesizers, but synthesizers are limited and incapable of creating most "real-world" sounds, except by performing what is called "analysis/resynthesis" to recorded audio (which is basically just digitalizing a recorded sound to a sine wave representation a la additive synthesis) or modeling sound mathematically (which is not something that artists generally go to do and is quite simply hugely complex).

The best advice for getting a sound that you hear somewhere else is to simply sample it. Keep in mind however that sampling audio that's copyrighted to someone else is illegal.

The best advice to get a sound that you didn't hear anywhere, but found already recorded or you can record the sound, is to simply use or do that.

Use synthesizers for the sounds that they are meant for and for sounds that they can do. Or for sounds that they already contain (presets), if you wish.

For Reason tools knowledge the "Discovering Reason" is a good resource: http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/discovering-reason/ as is the Reason manual.

For general and practical synthesis knowledge I suggest Youtube videos, Wikipedia and hands-on work with different types of synthesizers, or a single complex one. You can dig to books for more theoretical knowledge, but it's not really useful unless you start to actually design and build synthesizers.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.