Author: Avareth Taika

Additive, subtractive, concatenative, waveguides, FM, granular, phase distortion, karplus-strong, LA, scanned, vector, wavetable… We have all these different ways of making noise, but we haven’t come up with a new one since the late 90s. Why is that? The simple answer, of course, is obvious: interaction matters more than sound. See, even a drop dead…

Why do people say the filter is the heart of an analog synth, when it’s only one of several components that make up a synth’s sound? People genuinely think that if you put an MS-20 filter in a Minimoog, it’ll sound like an MS-20, despite synths like Diva that can do this and actively show…

Story time! I make mistakes rather often. These mistakes are often founded in a good idea, and despite hours of research it’s possible to fall flat on your face when it comes time to take action. Sometimes, however, you stand back up having learned things, and using things how you might otherwise not have. Thus…

Hiya! Long time no see! How ya been? Sorry about the last… 10 months?? Whoops… I was hosted on SquareSpace but they were expensive, so I moved to WordPress but never updated the template, so this site was a weird mix of template placeholder and actual content. I’ve finally taken the time to fix that,…

  I’ve been teaching synthesis for several months now, and got and interesting email related to that recently that I figured might be best to answer in blog format (sorry for the delayed response lol). I’ll just paste the message in full (with redactions of personal info): Hey! I saw your contribution in aftertouch audio’s…

  If you’ve ever worked with me before or were thinking of working with me for your next project, you probably want to know things like “how does Ava stick to deadlines” or “What’s her rate?” Realistically it’s all highly variable, and on top of that I tend to work relatively short days to give…

  To set the scene, put yourself in my approximate position: it’s been 4 months since someone asked you, with minimal direction and no pay, contract, or due date, to make a sample pack for their game mod, with the promise of rev share later. Not a great idea, and you barely understand what samples…

Synthesis is a mesmerizing world of sound creation, manipulation, and exploration. Whether you’re an aspiring musician, sound designer, or just a sonic enthusiast, the journey to becoming a synthesis virtuoso is a long one. There’s no shortcut to mastering this craft, but the following steps will guide you on how to get good at synthesis.…

  Written in collaboration with Google Bard. While I do appreciate the existence of such tools, it’s important to understand their limits and function. For this article I asked it to write me an article on “how important layering is in sound design and how it can be used creatively to create new sounds,” and…

Ello frens :3 On January 1st I put out this post outlining what I’m working on for this year, and wanted to give updates as to how that’s all going. Hint: not very well, but for good reason! Taika Modular This has effectively been put on standby. I don’t have time to manufacture modules, and…