An Introduction to the Seaboard RISE: 3.1 - Signal Flow Video Lecture | Introduction to Seaboard Rise: Advance Music Production

when I began experimenting with
synthesized textures a lot of it was
random knob twisting and button pushing
which in all honesty isn't a bad way to
begin it's easy to get intimidated by
the many many parameters on even the
simplest of synthesizers so a little
fearless knob twisting never hurt
anybody
because of that perceived complexity
lots of people depend solely on presets
when they compose which is a completely
valid approach personally I think
presets are marvelous things the people
who get hired to put those knobs in
those places are very good at what they
do and then a lot of ways it's like
standing on the shoulders of a giant
they've already taken us so far and it's
really up to us to follow our ears and
take it that final distance I know
firsthand how frustrating it can be when
you find a sound which is close to what
you're looking for but not exactly right
and you don't know how to create what
you're hearing so that's the info I want
to provide you with this isn't going to
teach you everything there is to know
about music synthesis but I want to give
you the tools to start being effective
and take your ideas to the finish line
let's start with signal flow and see the
pathway of sound travels inside of
equator pull up preset number 63 named
clicky organ and let's take a closer
look at its most basic level sounds are
just vibrations if we go back to the
violin analogy it's pretty clear how
that vibration is being made a bow is
running across a string causing friction
which creates a vibration and that
vibration can be visualized in a wave
form in a synthesizer whether it's
digital or analog the thing that's
creating the vibration is referred to as
an oscillator some synthesizers only
have a single oscillator an equator has
three each one outputs its own distinct
waveform and layered together you can
create very complex and rich sounds if I
click here on any of the waves shape in
any of the oscillators you can see that
there are many different types of
waveforms to choose from Equator is also
generating sound by using audio samples
of other instruments and those two have
distinct waveforms you can select from
this drop-down menu the last sound
source is the noise generator which
works exactly the way it sounds it
creates a sort of static noise
all of these sound sources move from
their point of origin into filter one
and two synthesized sounds are very
bright and harsh so a huge part of sound
design is filtering out the frequencies
that you do not want to hear the most
common filter you see on a synthesizer
is what's referred to as a low-pass
filter which is a filter that is letting
the low frequencies pass through but not
the highs if I was gonna rename this I
would call it a high no pass filter
because the name can sometimes be
confusing here on filter one we can see
a visual representation of that low pass
frequency filtration and swap it out for
any of the other options here mostly you
can deduce what the filters would do to
a sound by the way they're shaped as you
can see each of the samples and the
noise generators has their own
independent filters which they will pass
through before they hit filter one and
filter to which we can turn on and off
at any point as well really the knob on
any filter what you're going to want to
mess with is the cutoff and most often
than not you'll find it map to one of
the gestures and equators presets
basically cutoff equates to brightness
and the lower the cutoff frequency the
less frequencies will make it through
the filter and vice-versa if you have a
high cutoff the more frequencies are
passing through the filter and the
brighter the sound after the filter
sound runs through this built-in effects
chain where we can tweak all sorts of
stuff and shape the sounds even more all
of the audio effects are running as
inserts on a return track except for the
reverb which is running on its own
separate return this means that the
signal flow in this area is a one-way
street and whatever is coming into this
section is running through each effect
one after the next and we adjust the
amount by reducing the level or wet
amount on any of these effects that
leads me to the mixer section which is
where we can determine how much of each
sound source is running through which
filter and so on if we click on the
mixer up here we'll be able to see how
things are flowing vertically each sound
is represented similar to a mix window
in a DAW and you can see that the
oscillators samples and noise generator
here you can also access the ring
modulator which you don't see in
equators main panel if you hover
anywhere over the horizontal
representation of what's passing through
the filter it highlights the signal flow
for you how far a knob is turned up on
any section is equivalent to the amount
of signal that's being sent to that area
for this preset everything that's coming
in through filter one which is a hundred
percent of each oscillator and sample
then gets sent to filter two which is
currently turned off then that runs
through the effects chain and it looks
like we have a hundred percent of that
filtered sound running through the
effects chain and we have a gain control
over the output of those effects and
then it runs into the reverb and then to
the final main output if you look over
here you can see that a small amount of
the signal coming from sample one is
getting sent straight to the effects
chain bypassing the filters and also
some of the signal is being sent
completely dry with no filtration or
effects processing straight to the
output you can create nice blends of
affected and dry signals this way
whichever part of the chain you hover
over on the Left equator will show you
the pathway that the signal is taking to
the master output a metaphor I like to
use for signal flow and one that I
picked up from another Berkeley
professor is
to compare digital signal flow to a
city's water system first it falls from
the sky in some form of precipitation
which would be our oscillators samples
and noise generator then it makes its
way into some sort of reservoir or lake
and get sent to a filtration center
where any dirt and unwanted stuff gets
taken out which would be the many
filters we have on equator then it goes
through a process where certain things
are added like disinfectants to make it
drinkable or fluoride for our teeth and
those would be the effects processors
lastly it travels from the filtration
center through a complex underground
system and comes out of our faucets at
home which is our main output signal
flow is one of those things which can
take a while to really grasp but it's a
hugely important thing to understand and
it's not just in a digital sense but in
any setting where a sound needs to
travel from one place to another whether
it's an electric guitar on stage or a
very powerful soft synth like Equator
running through a digital audio
workstation with the mixer open browse
through some of the other presets and
see how their signal is being routed
inside of equator once you find one that
looks and sounds interesting to you try
messing around with the amount of signal
being sent to or bypassing the filters
and see how that affects this out
[Music]
then try turning up the gain outlet on
the effects tree
the dry single
see what those results are they don't
forget to save any interesting sounds
you create into your library