User Manual
ARTURIA – CS-80 V – USER MANUAL 50
4 THE BASICS OF SUBTRACTIVE SYNTHESIS
Of all forms of sound synthesis, subtractive synthesis is one of the oldest and still
certainly one of the most employed today.
It is this method that was developed toward the end of the 60’s on analog
synthesizers like the Bob Moog’s ones, ARP
tm
, Yamaha
tm
, Buchla
tm
, Oberheim
tm
,
Sequential Circuits
tm
(Prophet series), Roland
tm
, Korg
tm
(MS and PS series) and many
others. This concept of synthesis is still used on most current digital synthesizers,
complementing sample reading or wave tables, which have progressively replaced
the analog oscillators of the first synthesizers in the 80’s. The Yamaha
tm
CS-80 or even
your own CS-80V constitutes the best illustration of the enormous possibilities of
subtractive synthesis.
4.1 The three main elements
4.1.1 The oscillator (VCO)
The oscillator (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) is the starting module (with the noise
module which is often classed among the oscillators) for the creation of a sound on
an analog system.
It will generate the initial sound signal. We can think of the oscillator like a violin string
that once stroked or plucked, vibrates to create its sound.
The main oscillator settings are:
The pitch determined by the oscillation frequency. You can set the frequency
of the oscillator with 2 controllers: first, the FEET selector (or “range” on other
synthesizers) which determines the fundamental frequency – it is expressed in
feet it contains all of the harmonics at decreasing volume levels in high
frequencies): 16, 8, 4, 2; the highest number (16) brings the deepest tone,
inversely, the smallest number (2) brings the highest tone. – Secondly, the
detune setting (detune or fine tune) allows you to tune the oscillator more
precisely.
On the CS-80V, the height settings (FEET) and detune (DETUNE) are found among
the real time controllers above the keyboard.
The waveform which determines the harmonic richness of the audio signal.
On the CS-80V, 4 waveforms are available:
o The sawtooth presents the richest audio signal of the 4 waveforms (it
contains all of the harmonics at decreasing volume levels in high
frequencies). Its sound is ideal for brass sounds, percussive bass sounds
or rich accompaniments.