samplers – Simon Hutchinson

8 January 20248 January 2024

Spotting Subaudio

Finding and removing subaudio from sample files with a waveform editor.

Subaudio are frequencies below the range of human hearing (below 20Hz). These frequencies can sneak into our recordings, and work against us in a number of ways. If we can address subaudio in our samples, we can do ourselves a favor in the later stages of our mixing process.

0:00 Defining Subaudio
0:59 Example 1: Spotting Subaudio
2:04 Example 1: Doing the Math
2:50 Why Did This Happen?
3:11 Removing Subaudio with Parametric EQ
5:53 Example 2: Not Really Subaudio
7:27 Harmonics of Subaudio
8:31 Example 3: Trimming
9:15 Example 4: Bringing It All Together
10:16 Closing. Next Steps

8 November 2021

Are There Just 5 Types of Synthesis?

You can find a lot of lists out there on “Synthesis Techniques You Must Know!” These can be pretty compelling, but it can be helpful to take a broader look, and simplify synthesis into 5 big categories:

-Playback and Manipulation of Recorded Audio (Sampling and WT Synthesis)
-Additive Synthesis
-Subtractive Synthesis
-Distortion Synthesis and Modulation Synthesis, and
-Physical-Modeling Synthesis

By zooming out and thinking about these larger ideas, we make synthesis more accessible to people who are starting out, and we give a framework for people who are innovating new synthesis techniques.

0:00 Synthesis isn’t that complicated.
1:03 Five Categories for Synthesis Techniques
1:33 Playback and Manipulation of Recorded Audio
2:34 Additive Synthesis
2:52 Subtractive Synthesis
3:20 Distortion Synthesis (Modulation Synthesis)
4:08 Physical Modeling Synthesis
4:25 So What? / Hybrid Synthesis

“Clean” Sample Editing (Again)

I made a follow up/update to my video a couple years back about “clean” sample editing.

Taking the time to refine and polish the ingredients for our sampler instruments (or other sample-based synthesis) can lead to huge improvements in the final piece or project. I once again go through my framework for evaluating samples, and check out a bunch of examples and how they can be improved.