How to Make a Noise: Sample-Based Synthesis

How to Make a Noise

by Simon Cann

Sample-based synthesizers can be used to create the sound of a full orchestra or individual instruments. They can replicate the sound of a full drum kit, delicate vintage gear, and specialist instruments. Samplers allow one musician to play the bagpipes, a shamisen, a lute, and a whole orchestra, all at the push of a button.

As well as offering the facility to recreate the sound of real instruments with a high degree of sonic fidelity, sample-based synthesis also allows real sounds to be used as the basis for new sounds. These sounds can then be manipulated and mangled to create unimagined sounds with genuine complexity and depth.

How to Make a Sample-Based Synthesis looks at how to create and control sounds--both realistic recreations of real instrument and creative warped tones--and the tools and techniques that are available to help shape your sounds.

Genres: Music, Reference

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 3, 2011

About the author

Simon Cann is the author of the Boniface, Montbretia Armstrong, and Leathan Wilkey books.

In addition to his fiction, Simon has written a range of music-related and business-related books, including the How to Make a Noise series, the most widely ready series about synthesizer sound programming, and Made it in China, about entrepreneurs building businesses in China. He has also worked as a ghostwriter on a number of books.

Before turning full-time to writing, Simon spent nearly two decades as a management consultant, where his clients included aeronautical, pharmaceutical, defense, financial services, chemical, entertainment, and broadcasting companies.

He lives in London.

Reviews

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book on FM synthesis from this same series, and they are relatively inexpensive, so I tried this one out. Like the FM synthesis book, it focused on a couple of particular software instruments (Native Instruments Battery and Kontakt) to demonstrate some broader concepts. Unlike that book, I actually had those instruments while reading it. It was still very specifically focused on the features of those particular instruments, which took a bit away from how much I got out of it. It is specifically about the kinds of synthesis you can do on a sampler. I had hoped to get a bit more information and advice on how to perform synthesis with PCM sample-based instruments, and I didn't get much that I could use for that, since they lack many of the controls present on samplers. I think it is important to know that this is focused on particular software instruments, and that the information here is progressively less helpful the further away you get from those instruments. Much of this would be helpful on a hardware sampler, but relatively little of it is helpful on instruments that come with their samples already onboard.