Bleeps and Bloops?
When I first showed a demo of Sine Machine to my sister, she asked me “Don’t synthesizers just make bleeps and bloops?”
I laughed. Then thought a while before answering her. It’s a valid question. Yes, they do make bleeps and bloops! And no, that’s not the full story.
Mimicking real instruments
Early synthesizers were really created and marketed to mimic acoustic instruments like flutes and strings.
The goal of most synthesizers is to make things that sound pleasing or interesting to our ears. This has biological implications which I think are worth examining.
In addition to detailing Sine Machine’s engine and UI, it’s worth taking a shallow dip into the words of acoustics, psychoacoustics, sound and synthesis.
Going through fundamentals provides us with two benefits:
- New learners get a bit of extra help and context.
- Experienced sound designers can gain some insight into why certain decisions were made or why certain constraints are in place.
One classic problem: synthesizers rely on a lot of jargon. When I was starting out, it took me a couple years of toying with software synths before I fully understood terms like Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) or reliably remembered which term in ASDR referred to a volume and not a time value.
To experienced synthesists, a new synth like Sine Machine will have a lot of familiar mental models. But of course invent a few new ones with strange names like Sharpness.
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