Synthesizers for Dummies

I'm a guitar player originally. Moreover, my favorite music doesn't use synthesizers. When I click on the synths in Logic, it is a bit like going to the zoo. But now I want to use them for a bunch of tunes that are already written. Mostly for variety and to sound modern. But I have no real idea how to go about it. To make it precise, imagine that you were to take early Beatle songs and do them with synths instead of guitars, bass, and drums. (But keep the vocals as they are.) How would you do it? That's really my question: Is there any system for replacing guitars, bass, drums (and piano), by synths? I bring up early Beatles to emphasize that the songs can only minimally be restructured around the synths. Any links, book titles would be appreciated. The only book I have that discusses synths says something along the lines of just pile synths up on top of each other.

 

Thanks in advance.

"How would you do it? That's really my question: Is there any system for replacing guitars, bass, drums (and piano), by synths?"

 

Well, The Beatles had Drums, Bass, and 2 guitars. At least, this is how they did their performances. In the studio i'll bet they all contributed in various ways to get the final recordings.

 

Anyway, using Logic's software instruments, or synths as we say, you would have a drum(s) part (Track), a Bass part(Track), and then 2 guitar Tracks. One guitar doing "lead lines" and the other just playing chords.

 

You would actually have to enter the notes, using the midi notes in each track and write out the Lead parts as well as the combinations of notes that make up the chords. These would be played back by Logics' Synths. There is a "Strat" synth that you could use and even a Bass that looks and sounds like Pauls' Bass. There are a number of guitar synths, actually.

 

The point is, you have to re-create their music, note by note. One song could be a lot of work although once you get going it gets easier.

 

There are "guitar controllers" but they get expensive, but allow you to record the midi notes by actually playing (recording) them directly into each track.

 

So, this is how I see it being done. This is the "system" you seem to be asking for.

No. Sorry. I didn't make myself clear. I just don't understand how bands that use a lot of synths go about arranging songs. If you arrange for an orchestra, you have 20 or so instruments. If you arrange for the early Beatles, you have three or four instruments. But if you arrange for synthesizers, you have a zillion sounds. How do you even start choosing sounds? And how do you arrange for them? It just seems like a huge amount of trial and error.

 

I never should have brought up the Beatles. I only did so to make the point that for the purposes of this question, I want to think of the songs as already written. A better title would have been: Arranging for Synthesizers for Dummies

I think it's nice having a lot of choices.

LPX is loaded with 100's of synth instruments.

Kontakt 5 from Native Instruments is a free download and also has some good ones.

For an oil painting artist, it would be like having more colors available.

 

First, define the sound you want and then search for it, or tweak an existing one to your liking.

 

Like, try to have YOUR ideas SET…. BEFORE you go searching for a synth sound.

Reminds me of when I would go food shopping without a list. I would get back home with a ton of stuff I don't need and sometimes forgot to get what I really went out for.

 

Once you have your Tracks set up, you can try (audition) different ones to see which sound best.

Arranging starts with a lot of trial and error usually.

 

Yoda said, "there is no try, there is do, or do not" (?) something like that.

Well, he was wrong there, a bit.

There is try, try, try try, and then do. I say.

Hey, have some fun with it.

If you know the wave shape of the instrument you wish to replace in an arrangement, then you can create a synth patch pretty quickly.

 

Start at the bottom of this page and work your way up: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Sounds interesting, good luck on your synth quest!

 

I think the best way to look at it is to take into consideration where everything sits in the frequency spectrum. Obviously you can't have bass heavy sound after bass heavy sound and expect things to stay clear, it's just a matter of time going through different textures and seeing what fits with what.

Sounds interesting, good luck on your synth quest!

 

I think the best way to look at it is to take into consideration where everything sits in the frequency spectrum. Obviously you can't have bass heavy sound after bass heavy sound and expect things to stay clear, it's just a matter of time going through different textures and seeing what fits with what.

 

Good response. Each instrument that has a part in either your traditional band setting or in an orchestra should be able to be reproduced in theory in a synthesizer (obviously you're not going to get all the nuances to match the timbre of the instrument). So if you keep that in mind, all a synthesizer is doing is taking a waveform (from the oscillator) and then passing it through filters, modifiers and passed out through the amp/output. So as a basic example, your bass part from your favourite Beatles tune could start off with a sine wave and then the possibilities are endless.

 

Logic's ES2 is phenomenal and there are some really good tutorials on youtube on the basics as well as advanced features. The Logic manual also has some good material with some tutorials at the end on creating some basic sounds....or am I confusing that with the Ultrabeat manual?

And about the arranging part ? Any advance. How to learn to arrange ? What are the minimum requirements to start arranging ? I'm asking cause this is something i try to explore with no luck for now ...

And about the arranging part ? Any advance. How to learn to arrange ? What are the minimum requirements to start arranging ? I'm asking cause this is something i try to explore with no luck for now ...

 

No shortcut in learning to arrange. What sort of music are you trying to write? No minimum requirements - but most genres have an accepted form/structure and arrangement style which can then be altered.

 

Think of your composition telling a story and maybe that can be a starting point on how to arrange. Other than that, listen to multiple artists who compose in the style of music that you want to write in. Analyse their music bar by bar....e.g. a Katy Perry tune - intro of 8 bars with just vocals and bass sound...a noise sweep effect comes in around bar 10....drum build up in bar xxx, kick drum thickens in bar 32. I'm obviously making this up but it is one way of learning arrangement. I mean, people who go to Julliard and Berklee spend days and months learning orchestration and arrangement and analyse classical, romantic, modern styles. I remember watching a Quincy Jones interview where he was talking about studying the music of Charlier Parker all the way to Stravinsky and Alban Berg.

 

If you're not gonna be going to music school, then your best bet is just listening and listening. You'll start to be a better musician/producer/songwriter the more you listen.

 

If you want to learn stuff buy books on counterpoint or you can read Rimsy Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration (its available online for free with audio examples).