6.0

167
Mixers and Audio Objects
possible to work with these synthesizers, each of them is
tailored to a special task; for example, the “Carpet
Sweeper” is built to deliver warm and full pad sounds
which give your tracks that soft and spacious feeling. By
tailoring each new synthesizer to a special purpose we
were able to reduce the number of parameters, resulting
in an ease and speed of use unparalleled by conventional
synthesizers.
To make the new synthesizers still easier to use, each even
comes with its own preset selection. By all means use
these as a starting point for your own sound creations but
don’t be afraid to experiment with all the parameters as
well. This is the most enjoyable way to learn about the syn-
thesizers—and it is the best way to create your own
sounds that will set your tracks apart from those of your
competitors.
We know that you do not want to be bothered with the jar-
gon normally associated with synthesizers so, rather than
talking in confusing technical terms, we will use a musical
and understandable language to help you get the most out
of our synthesizers as soon as possible. There are, how-
ever, some terms and principles that have to be under-
stood before getting to each synth in detail. Here we go—
Principles
Synthesizers produce their sounds by providing control
over the pitch, the timbre and the volume of a sound.
To do this, each synthesizer has a sound source, called os-
cillator. An oscillator produces a sound that goes on for-
ever. The pitch of this sound can be adjusted and played
via your keyboard. Typically you can select between wave-
forms that provide different sound characteristics, with
the proviso that they all sound very bright.
This bright sound from the oscillator is then passed to the
filter, which controls the timbre of the sound. A filter can
make the bright sound darker or duller (not dull as in
“boring”, but rather “less bright”), with the amount of
“darkness” being adjustable with the Cutoff control. Fur-
thermore a filter can also add some sharpness or pronun-
ciation to a sound. The amount of sharpness is controlled
with the Resonance control. When Resonance is turned up,
the sharpness gets so pronounced that the filter itself
might start outputting an additional sound. This can be
pitched with Cutoff.
The interaction of the oscillator and the filter gives us lots
of sonic variety—control the pitch of the entire sound at
the oscillator, select different bright sound characteristics
at the oscillator, give the sound a timbre anything between