Additive Synthesis Magical Mystery Tour // Pigments 3, Razor, Loom & Alchemy Resynthesis Tutorial

[@AustrianSynthesizerSchool]

The basic idea of the “Additive Synthesis” is, to generate a sound wave by adding harmonic overtones (= integer multiples of a root wave). In principle every harmonic sound with any timbre can be produced this way. But nature is a little more tricky. On one hand no sound has a constant overtone spectrum. In the most cases the higher overtones fade out faster than the lower, so that a sound start bright and ends dull. On the other hand two or more waves with slightly different frequencies can superpose and produce nice humming interference's. So the “Advanced Additive Synthesis” uses several (2-4) slightly detuned oscillators with fading overtone spectra to produce natural and interesting sounds. You can set an overtone spectrum manually with the volume sliders or you can construct it by selection rules or you can generate it automatically with FFT (Fourier-Transformation) of a natural sound. Take a look to the Windows "Synthesizer Keyboard".

[@summarity]

Finally someone gives Loom the love it deserves. Tip: wait for a sale, it’s $3 once a year.

[@SteveMeiers]

When, how?

[@summarity]

@@SteveMeiers Got mine from AIR last Black Friday, they bundled three synths for $9. One of them was Loom II.

[@arcologies]

Agreed, Loom is an underrated secret weapon.

[@arcologies]

@@SteveMeiers you can find it for under 10 bucks throughout the year... it’s only $30 on adsrsounds right now, which is a total steal... but it can get lower.

[@SteveMeiers]

Those are some great prices, gracias amigos!

[@grafzhl]

Favorite thing about additive synthesis is tuned reverb for bass notes which doesn't muddy the low end.

[@DataBroth]

Additive synthesis is awesome, one of my favorite synthesis methods for sound design and yeah, I love how EVERY additive synth is different, almost none of them do things the same way

[@tebi1kurieudidon172]

Fancy seeing you here ! Additive is nice indeed, for me there is a space in which I love to wander about, defined by it three corners : FM, Wavetable and additive. Each has its own strength !

[@clarinetowl7554]

the random green onions riff in the middle of the conversation was the most charming thing ive seen all day

[@MePeterNicholls]

I love how the brain just recreates the fundamental when it’s removed

[@richardboogie]

Never knew about the wave tab in Loom. Thanks, this wil open a new dimension here!

[@kirkegodfrey414]

Love the glancing Green Onions.

[@MePeterNicholls]

Formants: to experience pure Formants, whisper. Don’t let your vocal chords vibrate, just exhale slowly with open throat. Then, move your tongue and lips to say words or make sounds. Notice how your entire mouth changes the sounds and listen carefully: you’ll hear pitches as if you are using high and low pass filters, and the Q band pass. All with your own mouth!

[@theepicredstoner1604]

Maybe do a video on wavetable synthesis? There's a lot of synths like Vital, Surge, and a few others that are really good.

[@RikMaxSpeed]

Hands down the best explanation AND demonstration of the Fourier signal analysis I have ever seen!! Kudos.

[@deneb42aka]

Speaking of additive synths: there was an old hardware russian synth ANS, which synthesized sounds based on spectral images drawn on paper. There is also a modern mobile application version of it called Virtual ANS in which you can scan whatever you want through a mobile device camera to synth outworldly sounds

[@loopop]

yes, Alchemy has this feature too, it just seemed like a bit of a novelty to include

[@jamesjr2550]

Izotope iris to thats called spectral synthesis

[@3399Animal]

@@loopop Can Pigments do resynthesis?

[@MartinStuertzer]

Regular user: "Cool, 100 new presets for Pigments!" - Pro user: Watches oscillator spectrograms with Loopop. Great video! I used the Kawai K5000 a lot but believe that software has a much more userfriendly approach to additive synthesis.

[@PetraKann]

The Fourier Transform shows that any waveform can be re-written as the sum of sinusoidal functions. In principle you can represent any sound waveform as a collection of sine functions. The reverse is also true. You can synthesise a sound or waveform by fiddling with sine waves

[@GabrielPerboni]

Loved it! I loved everything about this video! No talking down to the audience, no pretensions, no distracting off-topic banter. Just straight to the point and explained with such elegance. Thank you for the class. I'm going to dive into your channel now... have a nice day! By the way: Alchemy is like every person in the universe: It's great if you give it a chance and spend some time learning how it works. Good call!!!!

[@sirbo690]

.......and whallah you once again explain dense matter in complete laymen’s language. I’d love to see you you go super deep into Pigments 3.

[@lycosa2000]

This is probably the best visual learning tool for additive synthesis I've ever seen. A++++

[@josemarquez950]

The introduction alone is why your videos are timeless. Thank you!

[@jakedooom]

Certainly not in subtractive-synth-Kansas… Thank you for this superb tutorial, and overview of tools available to explore and play additive synth music and tones.

[@nik_elektrik]

Great and inspiring reminder for me to go beyond RAZOR‘s, ALCHEMY‘S and PIGMENTS‘ presets. It is amazing to realize once more how much work and creativity went into to synthesis, modulation and user interface concepts of these synths.

[@KipFox]

Cylon community choir... It's the little gems like this that just brighten the day.

[@NatePerdomo]

Sine waves don’t get enough love.

[@anonymusum]

Thousands of flute players think differently.

[@mjhobo5520]

They aren’t phased about it, cos popularity is a cycle.

[@NatePerdomo]

@@anonymusum I always think square wave when I hear a flute. But we all know that ears can’t be trusted.

[@NatePerdomo]

@Mez Kol tell your dad I said good job

[@NatePerdomo]

@@mjhobo5520 🤯🤯🤯

[@macronencer]

This was an extremely useful video for me - one of the best from you. I usually look at your reviews, but I'd love to see more of this sort of generalist content in future. I was always very impressed with Razor, and I also have Synclavier V and Pigments 3 - but I was unaware of Loom II and Polyphilla looks intriguing. Lots to explore in additive synthesis! We're so lucky to live in an age when computing power has finally become equal to these number-crunching tasks.

[@martingoldmannmusic]

Just started playing around with Pigments 3 and additive synthesis. Good timing!

[@IanWaugh]

This is wonderful! I loved the idea of 'creating your own sounds' on the Synclavier back in the unaffordable day. Don't need one now :-) There wasn't much I could do with a 2-oscillator synth back then. Now look what's available!

[@carriersignal]

Great video. The Polyphylla demo around the 19:00 mark reminds me of the old PPG wavetable scanning (and also the Synclavier) that was used back in the 1980s. They were used, I believe, in some sci-fi movies and also by some bands like Rupert Greenall from The Fixx very tastefully to create very complex evolving textures. A technique that has been long lost.

[@blakeiscool87]

nice! new loopop vid me 10 mins later: i have so much to learn

[@valiumdupeuple]

Kudos to Polyphylla who definitely deserves more love! I've made a large amount of the synth pack's included presets so I'm quite enamoured with this synth, and I'm really glad to see it mentioned here ;-)

[@macronencer]

Must admit I'd never heard of it before but was very impressed with what it did in this video. I've added it to my wish list!

[@motherbrain2000]

Reason's "Europa" is an Additive synth masquerading as a wavetable synth. It's just another way a manufacturer can "macro-ize" the modulation of individual partials. Great vid per usual!

[@winddealer1]

Another "gold standard" value packed reference opus added to the treasure trove of Loopop tips and tricks. Superlative production, content and context make each episode easy to understand and comprehend. Thank you for the great update to your ever-expanding tips and tricks publication. Worth the wait every time.

[@nooneinparticular87]

Beautifully spoken.

[@loopop]

Thanks for taking the time to write and support on patreon!

[@nooneinparticular87]

@@loopop Consider it done.

[@herranton]

Damn, that's some impressive left handed mousing.

[@loopop]

years of practice

[@SteveMeiers]

Very nice demos, visuals, audio, and explanations Loopop! Excellent! Thank you.

[@billB101]

Razor and loom 2 are such underrated synths, used them on many productions over the years. Pigments has been my go to softsynth for a while now though, really nice, especially with the new upgrade.

[@TerenceKearns]

Wow. I just picked up Pigments 3.5 but I had no idea Razor was so powerful (came with Komplete Ultimate). I have so much experimenting to do. This video is FANTASTIC! Would be interested to get your take on MCharacter.

[@johnpumphrey7655]

I knew nothing about additive synthesis before this video. Mind. Blowing. Thank you for this wonderful introduction and education.

[@marcbrasse747]

Alchemy is magic! Years ago I was just about to buy Alchemy when it was still a Camel Audio synth and then the whole Apple thing happened!

[@sonicaspect7895]

Excellent summary & video! You have a real knack for thorough breakdowns and product reviews that always end up teaching me something even if I'm familiar with the concept/product. Great stuff as usual sir!

[@greg143]

Fascinating stuff. Things have come a long way since I learnt about programming on my first synth, the mighty (subtractive) JP8000. The depth and breadth of the technology is just mind-boggling these days, extra couple of lifetimes needed me thinks! I'm hooked on modular right now and of course the classic/vintage analogs. Anyway, great video bro. I know where to come if I find anymore hours in the day to start dabbling with additive synths.

[@scottk3292]

We really need the harmonic series of circular membranes (ie:timpani) programmed into these additive synths. They have different harmonics from your normal brass or stringed instrument, and I'd love to be able to play with that for generating various percussion sounds.

[@radiofloyd2359]

Wow this is an incredibly good and educational video

[@spectralknights2]

Nice to see u review on software synths. Thanks

[@gregalee]

This video is totally enlightening. Thank you so much for being an Explainer. The empowering ideas shared in videos like this are what make the real Internet go round. Keep Being Awesome! ❤‍🔥

[@CYGNO]

I really need to explore additive synthesis it seems. I love some of these sounds.

[@KacyDennis]

Very nice exploration and survey of the additive synthesis landscape. Thank you.

[@basvredeling]

Mind blown! Thanks for this tutorial.

[@midnightsocean2689]

I'm a bit surprised. Sat down to relax with some synth talk. Ended up sitting up, paying close attention. Great vid. Made me consider things I hadn't before. I love when things get scientific and educational. I look forward to finding more vids like this as I poke around your channel. : )

[@lars1588]

I've been really enjoying my Kawai K5000S (one of the few _hardware_ additive synths out there), and found this video very informative/interesting. The K5000S can only do sixty-four partials per "source", but allows for six sources per voice, a loopable envelope for each partial, a 128-band formant filter that can be modulated by various LFOs, PCM waveforms, and much more, all on 1996 hardware. It even has a floppy drive for loading firmware and patches.

[@longdongsilver4719]

As always: your explanations are clear and make everything simple. Thank you for the good work and for sharing your knowledge.

[@KOKISMUSIC]

Again and again thank you Loopop for sharing your wisdom🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️

[@BardSonic]

I just downloaded Pigments 3 today.

[@imlxh7126]

For what it's worth, I think Parsec in Reason has one of the best vocoders I've ever heard. The only thing I can compare it to is this TC-Helicon stompbox I bought back when I worked at a Guitar Center.

[@PetrECRice]

I didn’t know that alchemy did that!!!! Thanks!

[@bernardclarke254]

Fantastic video- thanks very much.

[@dartist1176]

Really educational and entertaining what you explain about additive synth. It's a very good news that Arturia added so in Pigments 3. It would be nice to see a serie about different kinds of synthesis. Good job. Thank you for share your enthusiasm and knowledge.

[@nicmcv6925]

Well that's opened a door for me, thanks for making the video :)

[@joostc4750]

fantastic video!

[@Hexspa]

That's insane. Great demo. Time to dust off loom

[@marike1100]

Is it weird that I have every synth discussed? Excellent content, heavy on information, ideas and inspiration,as usual. Thx.

[@briancase6180]

Hey, this is great. Thanks much! I learned a lot about synths I've never seen before.

[@LuminiousX]

This is so informative and easy to understand! You inspired me to jump into the new harmonics oscillator of Pigments 3.

[@fbo6351]

I second that 👍.

[@KordTaylor]

GREAT video. I’m a big fan of spectral resynthesis so nice to see this great tutorial. ❤

[@NetroXi]

14:05 sounds like race car from old gaming console I had in childhood. :)

[@andreyaek2266]

Great video! Lots of nice sounds here. :) Just one pondering about the beginning. It has been my understanding that not all sound breaks down into sines only, but there's also "broadband" sound, noise and transients being examples of this. Regular cyclic movement is the part that is made up of sines and irregular erratic movement is something else entirely. With that in mind, asserting that even noise is comprised of sine waves seems incorrect to me? My intuition is that the sines you get from the noise in your demonstration are introduced by the filters you use, rather than really being present in the noise itself. That would also explain why when you move the filter frequencies apart again, after having them joined at the same freq, we can hear the two cutoff frequencies more loudly than the theoretically infinite amount of sines that we could be hearing between them. At least until they go far enough apart, then the noise seems to take over the sound again. Now first of all, this might seem nitpicky, sorry about that. ;) My intention is just learning. Secondly, while I strongly trust my practical experience as a music producer, my understanding of the physics/math of sound might well be just at that point where the dunning-kruger effect could lead me to be overconfident. So I'm not sure how much faith I should have in what I wrote above. Maybe some physicist or fourier transform wizard can verify or clarify?

[@loopop]

First - thanks! Then some thoughts: - not nitpicky at all - any physicist or fourier transform wizard are welcome to comment - I'm not one for sure - I never said you can make any sound from sine waves... I said that's the theory - in any event, "a sine wave" means at the very least something that can change in amplitude, frequency and phase so quickly it can probably be characterized as noise if modulated enough - The fab filter guys are pretty serious folks, I doubt they'd add resonance without saying so. My guess is we're "hearing" the new peaks because our ears are saying "oh that's new" as the "Q" expands, literally filtering out any other noise. - I think as we expand the bandwidth of noise filtering we hear more musical sine waves until our ear says "screw it, that's just noise" (a non physist's explanation")

[@MrBlueHaze]

Wow thank you for such wonderful insight understanding additive synthesis.

[@damiensimper]

said it before, gonna say it again, best channel on tha tube!

[@KordTaylor]

This is a great intro.Sending to some friends. Thank you!

[@loopop]

Thanks and thanks for sharing!

[@surfthetsunami5596]

Imagine additive synthesis in virtual reality. I hope I live to see it

[@brianreilly6545]

Awesome tutorial much thx!!

[@ilmilles6232]

mann the best video i just seen in a month wow

[@tebi1kurieudidon172]

I know it is not only and additive synth per se, but Zebra ‘s oscilllators are exactly that, with the effects with in etc... Deep synth.

[@PihkaIsMyName]

A super useful and an inspiring video! Got to go make more sounds now

[@oxiinstruments]

Awesome, very illustrative! thanks

[@SeamlessR]

Aw no Harmor ;p Yay additive synthesis though!

[@DataBroth]

also no parsec, my personal favorite as harmor isn't quite available on mac :(

[@HazyJ28]

I LOVE Harmor, especially for it's granular and Resynthesis capabilities. IDC what ANYONE says, Image-Line has made some of the COOLEST Synths. Yes, even you, FLEX. Even you.

[@lokelosk]

It's also missing the CMI v and the Synclavier V, although they have more limited capabilities.

[@lokelosk]

@gridsleep I'm aware, although they are limited only in the number of partials (that's what I originally meant) because otherwise, they are capable of doing a lot of stuff. Both can convert audio to partials, and the CMI V can convert partials back to audio, giving a cool lo-fi sizzle to them (due to limited partial count and low bit depth). And both can have up to 10 layers of sounds, if I remember correctly.

[@Ferrichrome]

Harmor is the best. I've been messing around with it. Does anyone know why IL stopped supporting the VST versions of their synths? I really want to use Harmor but I dont use FL studio.

[@wolfgang4468]

Amazing that you even find the time to make such a great educational video. 2 people (as of today) apparently had only looked for a Beatles album 😆

[@avetisk]

Just an amazing discover tour 🙏

[@janne-seta]

This was a wonderful introduction to additive synthesis and to a number of software tools for it, thanks a lot!

[@mathias841]

I love how nasty additive synthesis sounds like nasty fm

[@Mrlogic10]

Cylon community choir! hahaha that's a great video!

[@loopop]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@issiewizzie]

Can you change the speed from one partial to the other in alchemy . I can see TuneIn panning volume. …. In at Arturia sycliver in one partial, you can create multiple speeds

[@michaelheath1194]

Thank you for this amazing video! I think doing another one of Spectral synthesis would be awesome :)

[@ZigbertD]

How do you do it, man? How do you know every time there’s a specific topic I’ve just become really interested in and then immediately release a great video about it? It’s happened too many times for it to be a coincidence.

[@blankblank4949]

you are awesome for making this

[@prajwal_bagewadi]

awsm video

[@stuncaz]

4:23 sounds like true love will find you in the end!

[@sudhanva-bhat]

How did I miss this gem ❤

[@lundsweden]

I would like to sign up to the Cylon Community Choir!

[@mathias841]

Awesome video. Is there a modern hardware version of additive synthesis ? I dream about the pigment one with knobs on screens... The 'decay' of the loom II is fascinating tho. And the microfreak does a little bit of additive synthesis from what I understand

[@schragemusik]

Ah yes! Alchemy. The wonderful pc synth that Apple took from us.

[@waltervapour]

Very cool. I just wish I understood this, rather than merely looking on in awe!

[@rememberthisnameslut]

Watched this last night, then today I just got an advertisement on Facebook for Pigments 3 and I knew I had seen it somewhere before. Right here 😁 Are there dedicated additive hardware synths out there?

[@loopop]

Sinclavier, Kawai made a few, there's a module called Odessa by XAOC, I'm sure I missed a few...

[@shmackydoo]

The Chef John of sine waves!

[@paulhazel]

Excellent video. Gripping! :D

[@nabooka316]

Wolfgang Palm's PPG Infinite is worth checking out too

[@tobimm2]

Is it available again? As far as i know it's still discontinued...

[@espasphalt]

Wow so all my Mii voices are made of resynthesized voices it makes sense now

[@Janomix]

Loom are magical, powerful, sounds bold and warm, comparable with my Waldorf synths!

[@macronencer]

Sevish just did a live-stream all about xentimbres, which involves making sounds from a spectrum whose partials follow a particular microtonal scale so that one can play in that tonality with "purely consonant" intervals. It would be *really* useful if an additive synth supported that, but so far I don't think I've seen one. It wouldn't exactly be difficult to implement: just add an import feature that could load tuning files, and lock the partials to the frequencies of the loaded scales...

[@trocchiettoski]

alchemy is an undervalued beast not too mention the other nice synth plugins come from Logic

[@HeavyListeningMusic]

I love my Kawai K5, but the software synths look like they do a better job of marshaling you into useful sonic territory.

[@axelrigaud]

loved this one, thanks !

[@briancraig1684]

If you take two different sin waves and add harmonics and push and pull to shape what you ant to hear Then I want to combine both layers into one sound Won’t those two be out of phase ?