Sound creation tutorial
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The other day I wanted to create a simple sound that I could use with the arpeggiator for a track I was working on. I decided to write down how I created that sound, as it might make a good tutorial for those new to creating sounds. 

Darren Richards 2K2 - MS2KSoundTut.syx

Firstly select the patch H16 "Init Program" which is a handy starting point for creating sounds, as all the parameters are set to default values.

Try playing it a bit. Totally boring, right ? Time for some tweaking :-) Press the 'Edit' button to take us to edit mode. When in edit mode you will see the value of the parameter you are editting appear on the screen when you tweak a knob, and this will help you set the values according to my instructions.

1. Setting up the oscillators

In the Mixer section turn up the Osc2 knob all the way, by default the Osc2 volume is set to 0. If you play the keyboard you can hear the sound is much better with both oscillators making a contribution.

By default both oscillators are set to Saw wave, change both of them to Pulse Wave by pressing each Oscillators Wave button once. The great thing about pulse waves is that they are not a naturally occurring sound, so always sound good and synthy :-)

Time for a little lesson. Hold down a chord and twist the Control1 knob of Osc1 slowly. Can you hear that kind of chorusing effect. Nice ! However it would get jolly tedious standing there doing that manually, right ? Set the Control1 knob back to 0. Now turn the Control2 knob to its 12 o'clock position so that the LCD reads 63. 

What are you now hearing is the same effect that happenned when you twisted the Control1 knob, but it seems to be happening automatically. This is because the LFO1 is now twisting the Control1 knob for you. This is called modulation, and you can imagine it as kind of automated knob twiddling. To change the speed of this effect change the Frequency knob for LFO1 (just above patch button #9). Try it, and hear the effect it has. Set the value of LFO1 frequency to 25.

There is one last tweak to make, and its the oldest in the book :) Twist the Tune knob for Osc2 until you read the value 7 on the LCD. This has made the sound seem even richer, by making the oscillators just slightly out of tune. Very nice effect.

Play with the sound created so far. It sounds alright, certainly alot better than Init Program :)


2. Setting up Amp Envelope

Hit a key and then release it. You'll notice that our sound just comes on at full volume immediately and then stops dead when you let go of the key. Very boring indeed. The Amp (short for Amplitude or Volume if you prefer) is where we change how the sound volume changes when your first hit the key, how the volume changes during the time the key is pressed, and how it changes after releasing the key.

Set the envelope as follows

EG2 Attack  = 0 
EG2 Decay   = 60
EG2 Sustain = 60 
EG2 Release = 60

Now it sounds a bit more interesting, like a proper synth sound. You'll find the definition of these parameters in the user manual, but the most important thing is to experiment with them and understand the effect is has on the sound. For example here I've set the Release to 60, and that allows the sound to ring out a little bit after you've released the key. You could imagine Release as being "Fade Out". Setting the decay and sustain the way I have is what gives this sound its staccato kind of feel. You would use completely different settings for pad or bass sound. So the Amp Envelope is very important and defines what kind of sound you are creating. You need to set this up fairly early in the process.

One last tweak to make the thing sound a lot more professional is to set the velocity sensitivity. At the moment no matter how hard you hit a key it sounds at the same volume. That is an extreme sound programming crime :-)

Go page 9E in the menus and set "Vel Sense" to +25. (There is no knob for this function) Now the volume changes according to how hard you hit the keys.  


3. Setting up the Filter

Now we come to the biggy. The Oscillators create the basic sound, but the Filter is how we change the tone of that sound. Turn the Cutoff knob all the way round to its maximum value. Play a chord. Its very bright and sort of fizzy sounding. Now slowly turn the Filter Cutoff knob counterclockwise and keep playing the keys, notice how the sound is getting darker. In fact at the minimum value of 0, the sound disappears altogether its been totally filtered out of existence :-) Set the Filter Cutoff to 30. It sounds a little dull, but don't worry we're gonna tweak up the brightness using another method. Set the Resonance to 16. 

Underneath the Filter Cutoff knob is a knob called EG1 Intensity. That controls how much effect the Filter Envelope is going to have on the Filter Cutoff parameter, that we just tweaked. The Filter Envelope is just like the Amp envelope mentioned above. But this time instead of controlling the volume during the lifetime of a note we are controlling the brightness of the sound.

Play the sound, its sounds a bit dull.

Set the following parameters

EG1 Intensity = 34
EG1 Attack = 0
EG1 Decay  = 18
EG1 Sustain = 39
EG1 Release = 51

Now play it again, its sounds a lot better, 'cos we are varying the Filter Cutoff so it changes during the lifetime of each key press. 

Just like we did with the amplitude lets make the Filter Cutoff velocity sensitive. Go to page 8E and set "Vel Sense" to +10. Now when you hit the keys harder the volume is louder, and the sound is also brighter. LOL, I mean if you have an MS2000 and paid for a velocity sensitive keyboard, why not take advantage of it.

4.Final Touches

To lift the sound up a bit we'll add some EQ lift. Go to page 24B and set LowEQGain to +6, and on page 24D set HiEQGain to +9. Quite a few of the preset sounds do this, to get a fuller sound. Finally turn on the arp, and we have our final sound.













