The Path To Replication

I got an email from George in Greece asking not how to make a sound, which I get asked a lot, but instead asked about advanced techniques of replicating real sounds with synths. They figured that’s a complex task, and that there might be a path to start on that gives you direction to replicate a sound, continuing to say that if you know that path, you can replicate any sound. George also asked what to focus on and how to work with synths and experiment to replicate sounds, postulating that separating the reference sound into frequency bands could help, and further asked if there’s a source one can reference for how to find the right path to follow, like books. Normally I would reply to emails directly, but in this case I feel it’s useful information for everyone. So, let’s talk about that.

First, as far as I know there’s really no books on this, which is why I’m writing one! You have books like the synthesizer cookbook, extended scientific articles like Curtis Roads’ Microsounds, and magazine series like Sound On Sound’s Synth Secrets, but most of those focus on relatively simple techniques and synthesis methods to create musical sounds. Synthesis in sound design isn’t necessarily new, but using it exclusively for creating new sounds, or even just layers of sounds, is not very well covered, mostly because it’s the most difficult path to entry compared to recording the world around you and mangling those samples, or just using library sounds.

Also, regarding splitting a sound into different frequencies, that actually is a useful technique, but more often than not there will be several sounds in a given sound, and most of them will bleed into other frequency bands. Much like how you can learn to listen to specific instruments in a song based on timbre, it helps to learn to listen to a sound effect you hear and break it up in your head. Best way to train this is the same as with music: hear sounds individually out of context, and you’ll learn to ID them within a larger sound. Also, with synthesis, learn what different patches sound like. Learn what filters sound like, basic waveforms, different synthesis methods like additive or Karplus. You kinda have to experiment and take mental notes – for now, until my book is written 🙂 Really wish it was available, this would be a great post to shill it…

Now, on to the main question: what is the path you go down to be in the right direction to replicate a sound? The answer is… well, have you ever been walking in a densely wooded park or forest, only to find the trail seemingly ends and you have to make your own way through? That’s pretty much synthetic sound design in a nutshell. You have to use your own intuition and go with what sounds right. You can prime yourself by doing the above exercises of learning what specific patches sound like and what each component of your synthesizer does. George mentioned wavetables a few times in their email, and while those are useful, I do recommend modular for sound design purely because of the synthesis options and granularity in control available to you.

The truth is, you just practise and learn what things sound like and how things interact. There’s no definitive path to follow.