There are many ways to synthesize a musical tone.
Here are a few popular synth types and how I would describe them:
Subtractive: We first make a harmonically rich buzz. Then we filter the buzz down to something that sounds pleasing. This is where it all started. Think Minimoog and the Juno 6.
FM: Modulate one oscillator’s frequency by another oscillator to generate wild timbres, then tweak work to tame that madness. Think 1980s. Think Yamaha DX7.
Wavetable: Create sequences of stored waveforms. Play through the sequences at different rates, transitioning between them to create rich and rapidly evolving tones. Think Dubstep. Think Serum and Vital.
Granular: Chop up tiny slices of samples into grains that then get time-stretched, pitch-shifted, randomized to create textured evolving sounds. Think ambient, glitch, film soundtracks.
Additive: All sounds can be technically decomposed into pure sine waves components. That means theoretically, one can build up any sound from combinations of pure sine waves. Think Kawai K5000 and Harmor.
And think Sine Machine. Sine Machine is an additive synth, giving you control of over up to 500 sine waves per voice and their modulation.
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