How are Synth-based patches created?

OP-1
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#1

Hello,

I was wondering, what are the ways Synth-patches are made?

Are they just altered versions of existing patches within a synth-engine, by adjusting parameters, till you shape new sounds out of it?
But if so, would that mean, that an engine possesses something like one only default sound, and ALL patches are just alterations of that one „sound“? That would mean, I could go let’s say, choose a random preset patch and with enough tweaking I could rebuild one of the other preset patches perfectly?

Or are they genuin sounds, that you build with additional software, programming it for an engine and then bring them into the engine folder? If so, how could this be done?

Fab

#2

They’re just made directly on the device.
Each engine only has 4 unique parameters so a patch is a save of those 4 parameters, plus the envelope settings (4), effect settings (4) and LFO settings (also 4)

So technically a patch is a snapshot/save of 16 parameters (note: LFO and Effect can be turned off so if it’s off that’s also saved. If it’s on, it remembers which LFO and Effect you saved)

So you start from an existing patch, tweak settings to your liking then hold one of the 1-8 preset slots to save it.

As far as I know, you can’t create patches off of the device, like there is no software patch editor or anything.

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#3

Some useful tips for the synth engine.

  1. If you are playing around with a patch, and want to go back to the saved version - SHIFT-SYNTH

  2. If you want to create a fresh patch, not based on any preset - SHIFT-1 (you have to be on page 1 of the synth engine to use this)

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#4

The engines aren’t a single sound–instead,they represent different types of synthesis. So it’s not like there’s one default sound but instead a default behavior, if that makes sense. I’m no expert so I’m gonna oversimplify things but I hope this is still helpful:

For example, the FM engine uses frequency modulation. Put simply, in this engine all four numbers on the screen affect each other and the frequency of the sound being produced. There’s no one default sound, but everything you make with that engine will involve frequency modulation and nothing you do will change the FM engine into the voltage engine because the parameters do such different things.

Another example is the Dr Wave engine, which I think just plays the waveform shown on the screen (maybe?). Different waveforms have different sounds and behaviors, but again you won’t be able to get the engine to behave like the voltage or FM engines.

I hope that explanation makes some sense!

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