Owner’s manual · Vol. 1 · Synthesizers & drum machines
Chapter 0 — Becoming familiar with a synthesizer
Every synth and drum machine is a source, a shaper and something that moves them. Read a short page, play the same idea on the panel, then turn the real knob on the gear on your desk.
Fig. 0-1 · Read on paper, play on metal. The panel next to this page is live — press START.
Press START, then turn CUTOFF fully left and slowly back. You just did Experiment #2 — a filter sweep.
Chapter 1 · Generalist first
Every synth is three jobs in a line
Before any specific box, learn the shape all of them share. A source makes a raw tone, a shaper carves it, and a mover changes those settings over time. Analog circuits or digital code, four knobs or four hundred menu pages — it is the same story.
Drum machines are the same idea with a clock attached: a handful of tiny single-purpose synth voices, fired by a 16-step grid.
Section 2 · Sound recipes
Experiments
Numbered recipes with a clear promise, Web Audio panel, and “try it on your gear” chips. Generalist first — per-synth packs plug in later.
- Experiment #01Raw buzzHear an oscillator with nothing carving it yet.“I can make a sound — and name the source.”
- Experiment #02Four coloursKeep pitch fixed and change only the waveform.“I can choose a wave on purpose.”
- Experiment #03Dark and brightUse cutoff alone to turn a buzz into a muted tone.“I can darken a sound without changing the wave.”
- Experiment #04ResonanceMake the filter sing at its cutoff point.“I can shape a note with resonance.”
- Experiment #05Glass pluckTurn four envelope knobs into a plucked note.“I can shape a note over time.”
- Experiment #06Slow padMake a note swell in and breathe after you let go.“I can write a pad that feels alive.”
Section 3 · The panels
Then play it with your hands
Two open instruments beside the recipes. Both run in your browser with Web Audio — headphones recommended, no plugins, no account.
Module A · Subtractive
Signal Path Explorer
Follow one note from oscillator to filter to amp. Bypass any block to hear what it adds, sweep cutoff and resonance, shape the envelope, patch an LFO.
Module B · Rhythm
Step Groove Machine
Sixteen steps, seven synthesized voices, 808 and 909 flavours. Load a classic groove, break it, add swing — and read why it moves.
Chapter 4 · The gear route
Then plug into real machines
After the fundamentals, the route moves through specific instruments. Each stop was chosen because it teaches something the last one couldn’t, and each one will map playground ideas to the actual knobs, menus and manual pages.
- Stop 01
ASM
Digital wavetable poly
Wavetables, Mutators, a deep mod matrix and polyphonic aftertouch.
Open the pack
- Stop 02
Oxford Synthesiser Co.
Hybrid mono / duo
Additive waveforms into a dual-mode analog filter — 1983 attitude.
- Stop 03
Roland Boutique
SH-101 lineage
One oscillator, a sub, a filter and a step sequencer. Pure basics.
Open the pack
- Stop 04
Roland AIRA
Acid, mixing, rhythm
Accent and slide, then routing a whole live rig through a mixer.
- Stop 05
The canon
Where it started
The bass line, the boom and the hats that wrote dance music.
Fig. 3-1 · Drawings are generic line studies for identification, not product art.
The whole routeStop 01 · First deep dive · Now open
HydrasynthDeluxe
ASM’s flagship is a digital wavetable synth that wants to be played, not programmed. Two of its three oscillators scan through wavetables; four Mutators then bend those waves with FM, sync, pulse-width tricks and harmonic stacking before anything reaches the filters.
The Deluxe stretches that engine across 73 keys with polyphonic aftertouch, doubles the polyphony to 16 voices and lets you split or layer up to four patches. It’s a big instrument — which is exactly why the route starts with the fundamentals. Once you know source, shaper and mover, its panel reads like a map.
- Voices
- Keys · poly AT
- Mod matrix slots
- Envelopes + LFOs
Appendix · Not in this edition
On the bench, not built yet
Planned
Download playground patterns and patches as MIDI files to drop into a session.
Planned
Sync tempo and send notes to Logic Pro or Ableton Live over Web MIDI.
Planned
Short how-tos filmed on the real hardware for every stop on the route.
Planned
Subscribers ask for a sound or a technique; we build the lesson around it.