Tutorial – Basic synth – 3 oscs, modwheel vibrato

Originally written in a facebook post: “How to build a basic midi-playable synth?”
You can check the patch in the Download section.

“The audio is being generated in the VCO, then goes to a VCF, then to a VCA and finally reaches the final output.

You will need the synth to track the pitch of the keyboard, so connect the 1V/OCT output in the midi module to the V/OCT input in the oscillator.

Then, you will need the envelopes to fire when a key is pressed. So, you can do that by connecting the gate output of the midi module to both ADSR envelopes.

To control the amp with an envelope, connect its output to the Exp or Lin input in the VCA. Then, to control the cutoff frequency with the other envelope, connect its output to the Freq input in the VCF, and turn the Freq CV knob.

You can then expand on this basic synth however you like. For example, I’ve replicated the structure of a minimoog-style synth:
The differences with the first version are:
1.- Three oscillators instead of one. The pitch is going to all of them, so they play the same note. Also, i added a mixer to fuse them together before going to the filter
2.- The modwheel is now controlling the vibrato amount. To do this, i’m using the A*B+C module: C is the pitch going out the midi module. This is added to the multiplication of a LFO and the modwheel, so if the modwheel is at 0, the pitch remains the same, but if the modwheel goes up, the LFO starts to act on the pitch.”

5 comments on “Tutorial – Basic synth – 3 oscs, modwheel vibrato
  • Paul Fishwick on said:

    Alex
    Thank you for making this patch. When I open your VCV file, all I get are 3 VCOs (no patch cords), a VCF and VCA, two ADSRs and an Audio Device (not connected–no cords). Your minimoog.png looks interesting but what I get in VCV is nowhere near this image. For example, the following modules in your image do not show when I load your file: VC LFO, Midi Device, “multiples”, A*B+C… It is almost as if I am getting only part of what you have created.

  • Paul Fishwick on said:

    The “mixer” doesn’t show either.

  • Alex Galán on said:

    Maybe you dont have the Audible Instruments / Befaco packages
    Anyway, I’ve updated the file so there is no need for VC LFO (there is a Fundamental alternative now) and the Midi Device is no longer missing (the names were changed in the lastest revision of the software)

  • Paul Fishwick on said:

    Thank you – it works now.

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      256 PM
    • Platform:
    • Category: Synthesizer
    • Credit: Alejandro Galán
    • Revision: 0.0.1
    • Modified: 7 years ago
    • Views: 299
      Likes: 6
      Downloads: 947
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