Synthesis

The electronic generation of sound from basic waveforms instead of recording acoustic instruments, typically using a synthesizer. The most common method is subtractive synthesis: an oscillator produces a harmonically rich wave (sawtooth, square, triangle or sine), a filter removes frequencies to shape its tone, and envelopes and LFOs control how the sound changes over time. Other methods include FM synthesis (one oscillator modulating another’s frequency, made famous by the Yamaha DX7), additive synthesis (building sounds from many sine waves), wavetable synthesis (sweeping through stored waveforms, as in Serum and Vital) and granular synthesis (rearranging tiny fragments of audio). Synthesis is the foundation of electronic music and the main tool of sound design.