SM tutorial

bones · 25 May 2005

OK, to start - I still cannot connect an oscillator to an output and have it triggered by my controller. I just get continuous, low-pitch sound. So that is surely the most basic starting point - MIDI In to trigger an oscillator to play out to speakers. Then you could show me how to add an ADSR envelope to it. From there I think I should actually be able to start doing stuff.

jorge · 25 May 2005

Here is the first tutorial

[old link] Throughout this tutorial it would be good to create a set of high-level easy to use modules. From this schematic we could use the Input and Output modules and drag them to a new "tut" group:

( bones, let me know if this is working for you and if there is anything you dont understand or dont like the way it works )

jorge · 25 May 2005

Now let's add a VCA. At the moment SM doesnt have a VCA in the toolbox so we need to find one and drag it to our tut group. There is one in the example file that opens when you first run SM:

after dragging it to our toolbox this is how it looks:

and now it's really easy to include a VCA in our schematic:

[old link]

bones · 25 May 2005

Cool! There seems to be just one problem - the files aren't compatible with version 0.9.3o so I can't open either of them.

jorge · 25 May 2005

bones wrote: Cool! There seems to be just one problem - the files aren't compatible with version 0.9.3o so I can't open either of them.

You need the latest version: [old link]

bones · 25 May 2005

A-HA! I was missing was the POLY->MONO component. It obviously does a lot more than it's name would imply. Care to explain its function, please?

jorge · 25 May 2005

[old link]

( bones, I think you're right, PolyToMono implies a simple conversion when it is actually doing a lot more than that, maybe we should come up with a better name )

bones · 25 May 2005

Is it more like a data to audio conversion? It certainly needs a name that makes it look like something absolutely essential, as it appears to be so.

Nu Audio Science · 25 May 2005

I will keep the CHM updated with these, They are excellent Jorge thanx 🙂

lalo · 25 May 2005

great work jorge 😉

anyway in the sm001 toot if you put the release time to 0 the sounds stop..maybe some math weirdness in the POW module or just a problem with ADSR ?

i'll do some experiment 🙂

lalo

jorge · 25 May 2005

In the previous tutorial I explained about the Mono and Poly sections of a schematic. We wont be needing a Mono section for a while so I'll go back to tutorial 001 and continue from there.

Tutorial 001 used a fixed shaped sine oscillator, let's make our synth a bit more flexible by using an Osc with a selection of shapes. Once again there isnt one in the toolbox of the latest version of SM but that can be easily solved. Using the same technique from before lets drag one from the example schematic that loads when running SM the first time:

Let's add it to our collection of modules:

Now it becomes a very simple task to create the following synth:

[old link]

jorge · 25 May 2005

This is just a small step just in case you havent read SM's documentation specially the section about bending links at: [old link]

[old link]

jorge · 25 May 2005

Let's combine the Oscillator and the VCA into one module as an initial step to make a synth module. First select both the Oscillator and the VCA:

Then click on the Make Module button.

You should get the following result:

[old link]

ambitechniques · 25 May 2005

smtut003.osm <--404 error, file not found. 🙁

jorge · 25 May 2005

ambitechniques wrote: smtut003.osm <--404 error, file not found. 🙁

thanks ambitechniques, should be ok now.

bones · 26 May 2005

Thanks Jorge. I have taken some of this stuff and made it more basic. It makes sense to me because I have read most of the available documentation but without that, some of your steps would be hard to follow. I've turned it into an HTML tutorial that you can check HERE. My explanation fo the Poly to Mono component may be a little dodgy but that's because your explanation seems insufficient. i.e. It doesn't make it clear that it is essential in order to get a coherent sound. I'm pretty busy for the next week or so [and I really shouldn't have made the time yesterday to do this] so I probably won't be adding to this for a while. Eventually I will get it up to the stage of a simple subtractive synth.

infuzion · 26 May 2005

bones wrote: I have taken some of this stuff and made it more basic... you can check HERE.

Hey great tutorial; in fact it's the exact same thing I was thinking about making! If you want, you/I can copy it to the WiKi & expand it from there (or keep it on your site to help drive traffic...)

Side note; now I recognize your name; it was your post on KVRaudio that made me try out SM in the first place!

bones · 26 May 2005

You can do whatever you like with it. I don't intend hosting it, 186,000 hits a month is plenty for us at the moment. I was doing it with the thought of it going into the currently empty Tutorials link on the documentation area of this site. I only put it up on my site so that you could have a look at it.

infuzion · 26 May 2005

bones wrote: I was doing it with the thought of it going into the currently empty Tutorials link on the documentation area of this site.

That's a good idea; I like yours better than jorge's (IMHO).

Jorge, will you use your or Bones's tutorial in the Doc page soon, or should I just fill in the WiKi for now?

jorge · 28 May 2005

infuzion wrote: Jorge, will you use your or Bones's tutorial in the Doc page soon, or should I just fill in the WiKi for now?

I'll probably leave the doc's tutorials for Malc, he might get some inspiration from mine but he'll translate them to proper english and do a bit of editing etc. Feel free to put whatever you want in the wiki, it is exactly meant to allow users to edit and add things.

jorge · 28 May 2005

bones wrote: I've turned it into an HTML tutorial that you can check HERE.

Your tutorial is great, I also like it more than mine.

bones · 28 May 2005

Thanks, I figured it would eb easy to write a beginner's tutorial while I'm still a beginner - its too easy to assume knowledge once you get used to things.

cbit · 11 Aug 2005

id like to read bones' tute, has it been copied to someplace?

infuzion · 11 Aug 2005

cbit wrote: id like to read bones' tute, has it been copied to someplace?

Docs/Tutorials 😉

caleb · 14 Aug 2005

You know I'd much rather see tutorials at a much more fundamental level. I like Bones' tutorial because it covers something very basic and necessary, but I'd rather not have tutorials with higher level components. I'd rather see tutorials where people are building VCAs or switchable VCOs etc...

To me the advantage of SynthMaker is its ability to do things from the ground up.

The examples floating around are great, but it's quite hard to look at these things from the top down as there's a hell of a lot of maths involved that you can certainly copy and paste into your own projects, but if you don't know what they're doing you're not going to be able to tailor or trouble-shoot your creation.

Just an opinion.

Caleb