Category Archives: Synthesizers

Filters for synths—the 4-pole

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Nigel Redmon

The last post noted that the two most popular synthesizer filters are the 2-pole state variable, and the 4-pole “Moog style”. And we started with the state variable—simple, popular, and delivering multiple filter outputs (lowpass, bandpass…) simultaneously. Here, we’ll follow … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Audio, Filters, IIR Filters, Synthesizers | 5 Comments

Filters for synths–starting out

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Nigel Redmon

We haven’t developed a synth filter here yet… Filters we’ve presented Biquads. While they are useful for many simple cases of filtering, they are not a good choice for analog synthesizer emulation. Most notably, they are poorly suited to time-varying … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Audio, Filters, IIR Filters, Synthesizers | Leave a comment

Envelope generators—ADSR widget

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

Attack Decay Sustain Release Attack Curve Decay/Release Curve Plot:linearlog This is the widget I used in making the ADSR video. It’s a JavaScript recreation of my C++ source code.

Posted in Envelope Generators, Synthesizers, Widgets | 22 Comments

Envelope generators—ADSR video

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

Let me know how you like this one!

Posted in Envelope Generators, Synthesizers, Video | 7 Comments

Envelope generators—ADSR code

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

First, a brief example of how to use the ADSR code: // create ADSR env ADSR *env = new ADSR(); // initialize settings env->setAttackRate(.1 * sampleRate); // .1 second env->setDecayRate(.3 * sampleRate); env->setReleaseRate(5 * sampleRate); env->setSustainLevel(.8); … // at some … Continue reading →

Posted in Envelope Generators, Source Code, Synthesizers | 62 Comments

Envelope generators—ADSR Part 2

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

Certain aspects of the ADSR are up for interpretation. Exactly how the ADSR re-triggers when not starting from idle, for instance. Also, we can decide whether we want constant rate, or constant time control of the segments. The attack segment … Continue reading →

Posted in Envelope Generators, Synthesizers | 17 Comments

Envelope generators—ADSR Part 1

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

After discussing the exponential decay of the one-pole filter in a recent article, I couldn’t help but think about envelope generators. Besides, it would be handy to have one to test out some of these other components I’ve been writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Envelope Generators, IIR Filters, Synthesizers | 1 Comment

Wavetable oscillator video

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

If you find this video helpful, let me know, and I’ll work more video demonstrations into articles.

Posted in Aliasing, Synthesizers, Video, Wavetable Oscillators | 6 Comments

About synthesizer control voltages

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Nigel Redmon

Since I write about simulating classic analog synthesizers (a process often called “virtual analog”), mostly notably in my wavetable oscillator series so far, I wanted to touch on the topic of parameter control signals. Classic synthesizers have knobs to set … Continue reading →

Posted in Synthesizers | 1 Comment