Synthesis Practice/Education Inspiration

[Starphoenix]

This isn't really a request as much as curiosity on my part. I've been trying to better understand synthesis and creating my own sounds. Currently Sytrus in FL Studio because has been main synth of choice since I find it very easy to work with and am able to produce some pretty cool sounds. Lately I've been finding myself challenged to recreate the sounds from the Metroid Prime series. The futuristic/sci-fi sounds Yamamoto interwove throughout the series' soundtracks were some of what made the soundtrack memorable to me. However, this made me kind of curious, and so I ask: for those of you who have a good grasp of synthesis or are in the process of learning, what music has or does inspire to either replicate the sound or just play around building synths?

Like I said, just curious.

 

[timaeus222]

I try to listen to a wide variety of music, but generally what inspires me in terms of sound design is stuff by @big giant circles, @zircon, @Joshua Morse, and other people who have an established 'sound palette', because they have a distinctive set of sounds that emanate their essence, in such a way that you can tell when they've written a particular piece. That is, you listen to a piece by them, and can immediately identify it as theirs, because the sound design is memorable and innovative/unique/distinct.

I've also found that as you actually try to make certain sounds, you start to feel more inspired by them more easily. I didn't like dubstep music about 2 years ago, but after designing a bunch of dubstep basses, it's one of my primary musical genres to write.

You may find some ideas here in this playlist:

[Starphoenix]

14 hours ago, timaeus222 said:

I try to listen to a wide variety of music, but generally what inspires me in terms of sound design is stuff by @big giant circles, @zircon, @Joshua Morse, and other people who have an established 'sound palette', because they have a distinctive set of sounds that emanate their essence, in such a way that you can tell when they've written a particular piece. That is, you listen to a piece by them, and can immediately identify it as theirs, because the sound design is memorable and innovative/unique/distinct.

I've also found that as you actually try to make certain sounds, you start to feel more inspired by them more easily. I didn't like dubstep music about 2 years ago, but after designing a bunch of dubstep basses, it's one of my primary musical genres to write.

You may find some ideas here in this playlist:

That's a really good video series.

There is a PDF tutorial I've been working through for Sytrus that has been extremely helpful. I'll look for it when I have access to my laptop for anyone reading this thread who may find it helpful.

EDIT: Found the PDF link

https://www.malmgren.nl/Sytrus.pdf

[APZX]

What gets me is synthesizers themselves. Take your beloved Sytrus for example. Right there you've got an incredibly powerful FM & Subtractive synth. Want bells? No problem. Want strings? No problem. Clean FM Bass? No problem. I mean the amount of sounds that are lurking inside of Sytrus is simply absurd. But contrast that with say the Roland Juno-60. There are tons of emulations of it available, but it is such a simple synth yet capable a very wide range of sounds. Synths like the Roland D-50 with its Linear Arithmetic synthesis engine to Yamaha's DX7 or even Casio's CZ1000 with its Phase Distortion synthesis. How can one not want to explore what they have on offer?Take the Oberheim SEM as an example. An incredibly simple synth, yet when you put 8 of them together you get the Oberheim 8-Voice.

What really got me thinking this way was Gordon Reid's excellent Synth Secrets. I try to let the synth tell me where I should take the sound. Sure, I might start off with the idea of trying to make a brass sound, but it could very quickly turn into some sonic mayhem of awesomeness.