This cheat sheet covers the main building blocks of synthesis and electronic music production. Students need it to connect sound design terms with what they hear in songs, film scores, games, and digital audio workstations. It gives quick references for shaping pitch, tone, volume, movement, and space in a sound.
The goal is to make synthesizers and electronic music tools easier to understand and use.
Key Facts
- Frequency is measured in hertz, and doubling a frequency raises the pitch by one octave, such as 220 Hz to 440 Hz.
- A sine wave has a smooth pure tone, a triangle wave is soft with odd harmonics, a square wave is hollow with odd harmonics, and a sawtooth wave is bright with many harmonics.
- A low-pass filter lets low frequencies pass and reduces high frequencies, while a high-pass filter lets high frequencies pass and reduces low frequencies.
- An ADSR envelope controls sound over time using attack, decay, sustain, and release.
- An LFO is a low frequency oscillator used to create repeating motion such as vibrato, tremolo, filter wobble, or panning.
- MIDI sends performance data such as note number, velocity, duration, pitch bend, and control changes, but it does not send audio.
- Sampling rate measures how many audio snapshots are recorded per second, and common values include 44,100 Hz and 48,000 Hz.
- Delay repeats a sound over time, reverb simulates acoustic space, and distortion changes a waveform by adding harmonic content.
Vocabulary
- Oscillator
- An oscillator is a sound source in a synthesizer that creates a repeating waveform at a chosen frequency.
- Waveform
- A waveform is the shape of a sound wave, which affects the tone color or timbre of the sound.
- Filter
- A filter changes timbre by reducing selected frequency ranges in a sound.
- Envelope
- An envelope controls how a sound changes over time, most often its volume or filter brightness.
- LFO
- An LFO is a low frequency oscillator that modulates another sound parameter instead of being heard mainly as a pitch.
- MIDI
- MIDI is a digital message system that controls musical notes, timing, expression, and instrument settings.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing MIDI with audio is wrong because MIDI contains instructions, not recorded sound waves.
- Turning up resonance too much without listening carefully is a mistake because it can create harsh peaks or piercing tones near the cutoff frequency.
- Using attack and release as if they mean the same thing is wrong because attack controls how a sound starts, while release controls how it fades after the note ends.
- Adding too many effects to every track is a mistake because reverb, delay, and distortion can blur rhythm, pitch, and mix clarity.
- Assuming louder always sounds better is wrong because loudness can hide clipping, reduce dynamics, and make fair comparisons between sounds difficult.
Practice Questions
- 1 A synth note has a frequency of 220 Hz. What frequency is one octave higher?
- 2 A delay is set to repeat every 500 ms. How many repeats per second does that time represent?
- 3 A MIDI note has high velocity and a short duration. What two performance qualities do those settings most likely affect?
- 4 Why might a producer choose a low-pass filter on a bright sawtooth synth part during a verse?