Question About Synthesizers / Creating Unique Background Sounds

O.P.H

Sigur Ros always leave me asking, "how did they make that sound", refering to the parts of their music that are usually in the background and seem impossible to be played by normal intruments. After seeing this clip I now think they do it with Synthesizers and this is what I'm after -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E4zvuZhON8

At 00:27 the guy standing starts playing his little keyboard(synth) and makes this unusual backgroung sound and he stops at 01:28, I want to know how he did that.

I know nothing about Synthesizers and am looking for somme advice:
- how do they make those unusual sounds, is it software based and you have to load the sounds onto the Synth and then manipulate the sounds
- why do some come in a small size like his one as oppose to normal length keyboards
- if I was going to buy a model like the one hes got, what ones are best

Any advice would be appreciated, cheers.

Giblet

You have frequency generators for different types of sound waves, filters, modifiers, other oscillators, and a bunch of effects when using synths. Now you can make these live using the synth or you could have presets saved to a disk.

The reason it is so small is, well it just is

He could also be using a midi keyboard and have a software synth on his laptop with the controls mapped to the midi.

If you have a laptop just buy Reason 3.0 and a Midi controller keyboard and stuff like that is really easy.

jimi_t

(not looking at the video) Sigur Ros use a vintage analog monosynth known as a Korg MS20

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/ms20.shtml

A contemporary and affordable alternative would be something like the MFB Synth II (check on Thomann.de for pricing and availability , about e400). Some of their other sounds are made using an e-bow on the guitars with delay pedals, etc...

jimi_t

Had a gawk at the video (Vaka). It's hard to tell, but he seems to be using some sort of subtractive synth - maybe an SH-101 - running through a delay (tape echo?) with the sustain, attack and release all set to close to full and making heavy use of the modulation wheel. Wouldn't be too terribly hard to recreate with some effects and almost any modern VA - it's more the way that they use their synths than the synths themselves; buying all their gear won't necessarily make you sound like them.

O.P.H

Well I'm not really looking for the exact machine or even how to do that particular sound, just thought I'd ask, what I'm really after is some advice on how synths actually work because I have no idea. I realise they are designed to let you do alot more with sound than a regular keyboard but are the sounds built in or do you have to find them and load the on, how excatly does the whole thing work.

jimi_t

O.P.H wrote:

Well I'm not really looking for the exact machine or even how to do that particular sound, just thought I'd ask, what I'm really after is some advice on how synths actually work because I have no idea. I realise they are designed to let you do alot more with sound than a regular keyboard but are the sounds built in or do you have to find them and load the on, how excatly does the whole thing work.

Synths let you produce your own sounds from scratch (or rather, from combining and fecking about with basic waveforms)

Synthesisers incorporate many different types of synthesis - FM synthesis, Vector Synthesis and Subtractive synthesis would be the main types.

Additive/Subtractive Synthesis goes a bit like this;

In simple terms, a synth has oscillators - which produce your basic waveforms (saw, pulse, square etc...), like test tones. Most modern Virtual Analogues would have 2 or 3 of these.

Then, by layering the oscillators (say, having two a fifth apart and the other an octave down to have a fatter sound) and by putting them through various filters (bandpass, highpass etc... a bit like selective eq'ing) and then through lfo's (a secondary oscillator that operates around or below the threshold of human hearing which modulates the sound) and fecking about with the ADSR settings (attack, delay, sustain, release) and and putting them through effects... Well, the world is the limit. There is a very in-depth article on wikipedia about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesiser

mloc

A lot of groups use a type of sound called a "Pad" which is a usually a sound with a slow attack and long duration, and fits very well into the background to thicken up the sound of a sound.

If you want to just feck around with those kind of sounds before you invest in some synth hardware, a lot of keyboards will include pad sounds which you could try out, mess around with, and see if you like them.

crosstownk

As mloc says, it sounds like a pad sound. And it's a very nice soft pad that has some sort of frequency oscillator applied. Most decent synths have this sort effect on board.

Most synths come in either 48 key, 61 key, 76 key or 88 key. It depends on what you want it for. If you only want it for effects while recording then maybe a 48 key would do. But if you want full versatility whereby you can play it live like a piano, then an 88 key is the man.

I use a Roland XV-88 and I find it great.

jimi-t's post basically explains how the synth operates - after that, the more adaptable you want a synth to be, the more it will cost. There are some good software synths out there that can do just as good a job with a decent USB keyboard attached to your Mac/PC.