Editing/Writing Sounds

[freakmeeko]

Sorry, but I always hear people talking about writing sounds and editing sounds on synths and stuff, but frankly I have NO idea what this means. How do you get different sounds? How do you upload/overwrite sounds? I'm sorry, but once I know this, I'll have a clearer view of synths.

[shreddy]

Hi,

My first post here.

Think of keyboardists editing tones is kind of like a guitarist tweaking a tone. The means are slightly different in that they would get better pickups, using various effects modules or pedals, trying different amps or settings on your amp etc..

With keyboards there are a number of presets that come with the syth. In most cases people want to have their own tones. The easy way it to take a preset tone (one that comes with the board from the factory) and modify it, possibly try a different effect on it, change a waveform, edit it to have a faster attack etc...

For me I wanted a tone that was similar to Jens Johansson's tone. Reading up on how others created that tone I started from the ground up and created my own tone. It doesnt sound the same and it took me a couple days to get the tone the way I wanted it. You have to understand the basics of synths to get a grasp on editing tones, also there are software packages called Editors that are available for most keyboards that allow you to edit a patch using your computer vs paging through the menus on the board. Its much easier and quicker to use the software to do it.

There are also other tones that I've edited that were much simpler that allowed me to customize my layout for the songs I was playing at the time. Brass on the left hand and split it to strings on the right or using splits and layers of tones.

Ed

[freakmeeko]

I don't think you really grasped what I'm saying. I have MIDIsport, and I try to plug my synths into it, but nothing happens, even if It did work how would I make new sounds to upload?

[shreddy]

What keyboards do you have? There is a difference between editin/adding sampled tones vs sysex tones (for standard synths).

I think the first step is to try to backup and dump some tones that you downloaded for your specific synth first. There are sites out there with tones for the more common synths (Roland JV/XP/XV family, Korg N/X, Triton, Fantom, Kurz etc..). This is a process that you will eventually need to get down. Also backing up your tones too. I try to keep a back up of my tones on my PC so if the board ever gets fried I still have all my tones backed up and can dump them down to another board (of the same family).

You need software to take a data file or sysex (System Exclusive) file and dump it down to the computer. There are apps like SoundDriver which allow you to edit almost all the synths that are on the market. Most synth makers now provide their own apps to allow you to edit and dump the tones down to your synth. Some also are librarians where you can keep a large database of different tones and organize them and dump them down to your synth.

If you have a sequencer you can send sysex data down to your keyboard its not as simple as using dedicated software to do it, I use Sonar and its somewhat complicated.

You know the editor/librarians are not limited to keyboards, you can get one for a POD and tweak your tones or download new ones from the web very easily.

Here is a site that has an editor for an old Roland.
http://www.synthzone.com/mschreier/html/pcjx8p.htm

Ed