Understanding sound design has without a doubt been one of the biggest advantages I have had as a keyboard player. When I switched to working primarily with Ableton, I started to really develop an interest in creating great sounds to play with.
Besides becoming way better at making patches, it made me a more aware and intentional keyboard player.
These are some of the ways that this journey has benefitted me, and how I know it can do the same for you.
Efficiency
Knowing your craft means working quickly. All subtractive synthesizers have only 5 parts.
That means that whatever tweaks or alterations you want to make become way easier to find when you understand what each part does.
I’ve put together the Quick Synth Map to help you easily locate, and understand what each of these five parameters does.
You can also check out this video where I walk through several different synthesizers and show you all of the same parts.
Intentionality
When I began to understand sound design, I stopped settling for things that weren’t meant for what I was working on.
In addition to this, I began to recognize that my patches didn’t exist in a bubble. So I was able to take into account that other instruments might need to have some space in certain frequency ranges.
For example, It might be best to leave a little bit of space open around 1k for the singer’s voice to cut through.
Or if a song is really piano-heavy, it might be a nice tactic to opt for pad sounds that are pitched up an octave or two.
These thoughts aren’t groundbreaking, but they were things my eyes only opened to when I began to build my own patches
Big Picture Thinking
I alluded to this slightly in the last category, but sound design has allowed me to create what I like to call, “Situationally appropriate sounds”.
Not just sounds that are awesome, but sounds that fit the overall vibe of a song, as well as stay in their appropriate lane.
You may even be aware that this something you “should” be thinking about, but you don’t entirely have the skills to do it.
If that’s you, a great place to start opening your awareness is by grabbing a copy of the Quick Synth Map Companion Course.
Easily Recreate Sounds
A lot of great patches tend to repeat themselves from song to song.
Certain things sound really good to the human ear, and so we hear repeating patches across different songs.
Without a doubt, if you listen to 5 songs from the same genre of music, you will hear almost identical sounds between them.
This means that knowing how to create a few sounds, will actually allow you to create many sounds for many different types of songs quickly.
One really common patch is the supersaw. From this patch, you can create a ton of other ones, so if you have never tried creating this sound before, it is worth working through this video to wrap your mind around how it is created.
Good Story Telling
If you are here, you probably already know how important music is to storytelling.
Music is used all the time to drive a point home. It’s used in the background of movies, underneath people talking. It’s used to get people excited during sporting events.
Sound changes the atmosphere.
This is even truer when you are creating music as the actual art, rather than as support for something else that is happening.
Creating the right types of sounds allows you to place the listener in the correct frame of mind almost immediately.
When all parts of the song working together to create one really unified piece, listeners are captivated immediately.
Sound design can be that powerful.
What To Do Now?
If you haven’t grabbed the quick synth map the quick synth map make sure you do now.
If you are ready to get into all the details, join The Quick Synth Map Companion Course