Synthesizers as Landscapes of Potential Sounds
“How do I use a synthesizer to create the sounds that are in my head?”
I see this problem arise often, I’ve even faced it myself in the past, at some point in our music creation process we begin to develop an imagination for sounds and sound design. The only issue is that the tools are so complex, it can be challenging to recreate these sounds and bring them into reality. Well, there’s one other issue that you may not have considered, it might not even be possible to recreate the sound you are imagining with the tool that is in front of you.
While I’m a firm believer that any sound can be recreated via synthesis and enough processing, I do not believe every tool is capable of every sound. In fact, I believe that every tool has a unique field or “landscape” of sounds it can possibly recreate. This range is often very very large, so it is possible that your sound or at least something close enough is in there. But finding it is a whole other ordeal to itself. There is something to be said about learning how to craft any sound using the right set of tools, this is a skill that takes time and knowledge. I think it’s a goal worth pursuing in the long run, but I think there is a different approach worth taking that can often be more inspiring and fun
Instead of trying to imagine sounds and apply them with our synthesizers, it is worth inverting the process, and allowing our imagination to remember sounds that we know the synth can create. In thinking about these synths as “landscapes” of potential sound, there’s a metaphor I’d like to illustrate. Imagine you are a photographer, now you might have an idea of what you’d like to capture. But if you’ve never been to a location before, you have no idea if your image is even there or not. Instead you’d be better off exploring and finding the right scene to capture in the moment, or recalling what you know of the spot when you revisit it.
I think it’s worth applying this concept to sound design. Instead of expecting to find the sound we imagine in the synth we choose to use, we might be better off exploring the field of potential sounds a synth is capable of, and capturing these when we come across them. You can capture sounds by either saving a preset or recording audio. This gives us a few resources now, for one, we have the sound exactly as it sounds, it may not be one we have imagined, but it is one that we can use. Additionally we have an idea of some of the sounds this synth is capable of, we can “imagine” these sounds via memory, we know at least some of the potential sounds that the synth is not only capable of, but we can recall and come back to later.
What we can do with this information is apply our imagination in new ways. While we are not achieving new sounds from or mind, we can imagine applications for these sounds we are now aware of. If you can fabricate a nice melody or beat in your mind with the existing sounds you know you have access to, you will have an easier time creating new ideas. Also it’s worth mentioning that this process of discovery is inspirational, you might create new music or beats that you wouldn’t have imagined prior, and being able to explore and roll with what you’ve found is an incredible tool for improvisation. Lastly being able to create a mental map of these tools and sound design processes will make learning other synths easier, you’ll develop a library of techniques to try out, and in your off time you may even imagine new combinations of techniques or ideas you’ve yet to try.
I’ll have more to say on this process of exploring synths and developing experimental processes in the future. I also think it is important to be able to create sounds that you imagine, and develop the ability to achieve our imagined “end state” of a piece. I only suggest this method if you find that any sort of fixation on an “end state” of a piece is holding you back from finishing music or developing as a musician. These techniques I suggest are not hard rules to adhere to, but simply ideas that might drive motivation. For now I thank you for reading this article and hope it has been useful. I have a couple more articles on the process of music creation and plan to release more of these on a regular basis, so please check out my previous musings and check back for more in the future.