Synthesizer

A Synthesizer or also spelled as synthesisers ,Synthesizer is derived from word ‘Synthesis’ which means to produce or regenerate sounds. As we all know that different instrument produce different sound .

Sound is longitudnal disturbance that travels in different medium because of combination wavelength,amplitude and frequencies. Every instrument have their own tonal characterstics (combination of frequency, wavelength and amplitude)because of which they sound different from one another.Synthesizers may either regenerate  Instruments like piano, Guitar, flute, Drums; natural sounds like ocean waves etc or generate new electronic sound by simply manipulating or changing (amplitude+frequency+wavelength) of a waveform.

Synthesizer mainly constitutes :-

• Electronic oscillators are present inside the  synthesizers which start to oscillate at certain frequency amplitude and wavelength to regenerate exact sound like a piano or we can produce new sound.

• ADSR envelopes – ADSR which can be said as a characterstics of a waveform provide envelope modulation to “shape” the volume or harmonic content of the produced note in the time domain with the principal parameters being attack, decay, sustain and release. These are used in most forms of synthesis. ADSR control is provided by envelope generators.

Before going into how synthesizer works we need to have basic idea regarding different waveforms which mainly gets attenuated in a oscillator

The waveform is the shape of a wave as it travels. There are many different waveforms.But they are classified as Simple waveform and Complex waveform

Simple waveform :-These are usually a shape which is repeated over and over (a “periodic waveform”). A common waveform is the sine wave.

Complex waveform :-A complex waveform is the result of combining the amplitudes of two (or more) sine waves.Different complex waveforms :- Triangle wave, Sawtooth wave,Square wave and rectangular waveform

 

Working of Synthesizer

A synthesizer basically regenerates or produces a instrument  sound which is  natural acoustic process. So instead of a plucked, vibrating guitar string, the vibration — called “oscillation” which oscillates at certain frequency to mimic that particular sound . oscillator works  from an electrical signal generated by rapidly changing voltages in a circuit.

Those oscillations repeat periodically, in patterns called waveforms. And every aspect of a waveform its size, speed, structure can be further shaped by the synth’s controls to carve out a sound’s pitch, timbre, tone and more. Then eventually, the electrical signal is amplified and sent through a speaker to convert it back to sound the human ear understands.