Creating Sounds from Scratch: A Practical Guide to Music Synthesis for Producers and Composers

by Andrea Pejrolo, Scott B. Metcalfe

Creating Sounds from Scratch is a practical, in-depth resource on the most common forms of music synthesis. It includes historical context, an overview of concepts in sound and hearing, and practical training examples to help sound designers and electronic music producers effectively manipulate presets and create new sounds. The book covers the all of the main synthesis techniques including analog subtractive, FM, additive, physical modeling, wavetable, sample-based, and granular. While the book is grounded in theory, it relies on practical examples and contemporary production techniques show the reader how to utilize electronic sound design to maximize and improve his or her work. Creating Sounds from Scratch is ideal for all who work in sound creation, composition, editing, and contemporary commercial production.

Genres: Music, Reference

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 5, 2017

Reviews

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is some useful information here, but it's not really what the title would indicate. I was hoping for more of a primer on sound design, and I had heard it addressed different kinds of synthesis, so it sounded great. There is a little bit of that in the chapters about different synthesis types, but those parts were somewhat scant. There was a long preamble about the history of synthesis, and then a big section about how to set up a modern synth production studio. It is a few years out of date, and heavily focused on software. During those years, there have been a lot of focus on hardware instruments and a vast improvement in iOS synths, which are barely touched on as a new thing. Still, software is as great an option as ever, and a lot of the tips can work in any synth, though the author clearly has favorites, and those sections are a bit more in-depth. I have favorites, as well, and found the frequency modulation synthesis section a bit underwhelming. It focused mostly on the soft synth FM8, which is fairly uncharacteristic for an FM synth, and there was no discussion at all about FM synths that use an algorithmic structure, which is fairly common. There are still some good tips on each kind of synthesis, and a good overview of some central concepts, even if it didn't go quite as deep as I had hoped.

[Joseph Cope · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice couple of introductory chapters on the history of synthesizers and the science of sound and hearing. Chapter 3 then gives an overview of the 'tools of the trade' - starting with oscillators up to the level of the studio. The remainder of the book explains reasonably clearly the principles of subtractive, FM, additive, sample based, physical modelling, wavetable and granular sound synthesis. There is some interesting commentary included on the relative strengths and uses of each, with examples of pieces where they have been used prominently. Each chapter also includes examples of using the methods practically with a specific device (all soft synths it might be worth mentioning). The idea is that these examples can be generalized, but for me there was too much detail on specific instruments given the huge number available and their ever-changing nature. It does seem like these parts will quickly date, whereas the underlying principles will remain useful. Overall this is well worth reading as an introduction to sound synthesis technique and covers a lot of ground.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is fantastic. It covers all kinds of sound synthesis with very practical advice but it is not afraid to dive deep. I got high on this book.

Boot up your DAW and get ready to install all the plugins.

[Lars · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really impressed with this book. It somehow manages to be both incredibly concise and comprehensive. The book is not particularly long, yet it manages to pack in a ton of syntheziser history, lucid explanations of high-level theoretical concepts (how does sound work? How is an analog signal converted to digital information?), and even gets down to practical advice like how to set up your home studio and mix certain synth patches.

Another reviewer mentioned that the book has an addictive quality to it, which I agree with. I think it has to do with the clarity of the explanations and how the practical advice gives a sense of problem-solving as you read it. One aspect of the experience that I particularly enjoyed was looking up demonstrations of the synths mentioned in each chapter and listening to the sounds generated by each method of synthesis as they were broken down and explained to me.

Towards the end of the book things really started clicking into place and I found myself navigating Massive with a new sense of confidence and purpose. This was exactly what I had wanted out of the book.

Not all of the content was directly useful to me as I was primarily interested in analog, FM and wavetable synthesis, but I'll very probably return to the other chapters if I decide to explore additive and physical later. 100% recommended and a deserved five stars from me.

[Sauvik · Rating 5 out of 5]

heard a lot abt this boook

[Bren · Rating 3 out of 5]

a capable introduction if a little dated

[Ben H · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to understanding synthesis and the chance to build on the knowledge I had already established. Will be coming back to this for reference in the future and to look at other synthesis methods I have not yet looked into.

[Dee.P.Tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is based on my impression of the book after completely reading it. It is purely personal. Also, Sorry, if I have made grammatical mistakes in writing the below review because English is not my first language.

Good for Subtractive synthesis mainly... Worth practising as explained.
It is the most detailed out synthesis method in the book.

It has good introduction of other synthesis/sound design principles including FM, Additive, much famous in these days - The wavetable synthesis, sampling as sound creation tool - good details about Kontakt library making is covered.

According to me, the book lacks detailing of sound design techniques other than subtractive synthesis. I put it in different words, if you read this book and new to sound design field, you will easily be able to create sounds with subtractive synthesis than other comparatively more complex principles like FM or Additive synthesis explained in book.

However, I liked the approach of the authors to help readers to create speciality sounds practically in each synthesis method defined in each chapter. So, this way of teaching helps in creating clear understanding of the concepts to readers of the book. Also, it has blend details of old vintage and famous hardware synthesisers and latest in trend software synthesizers.

A brief history of electronic music is covered with explanation of major concepts of sound design in starting of the book.

Overall, a worth reading for new electronic musicians, especially for those who are interested in sound design with Subtractive synthesis.

Respect to authors for this really helpful book.

[Alan]

Unfortunately there are lots of errors in this book so far and I'm only on chapter 5. The FM section has typos, misleading diagrams that are very confusing, hand-waving, plus a lot of the technology it references is out of date or no longer available. The recipes are often given in very plugin-specific steps instead of techniques that are more generally applicable. This text really needs a revised edition.