Any tips or online guides for newbies wishing to pick up electronic music via analog synthesizers? Asking for a friend with no experience and no knowledge of music theory etc ;)
Not really a "guide" like you're asking for, but for me these have been the best because they expose a wide array of products and ways of using them.
Of course software solutions abound but there is no substitute for knob twiddling, and doing it in software makes it too easy to look without really listening.
As far as reading material goes, this is the best course available: https://web.archive.org/web/20160403115835/http://www.soundo...
the long answer: entire genres were built on not knowing music theory or disregarding it (techno, i'm looking at you). most music producers started by turning knobs without knowing what they were doing. most music producers continue to turns knobs just to see what happens, even after learning stuff about synths. the knowledge will come over time ; if you get "the bug" you will inevitably start reading stuff about all this.
of course, there may be exceptions. most "worldwide mainstream" electronic is obeying the usual codes of popular music, so if that's what you want to do, don't listen to me (and maybe produce on a computer).
Thats putting things mildly. The entire electronic music scene was born from experimentation. From the Kraftworks and other synth pioneers, to the beginnings of the dance scene with Chicago house and Detroit techno. From sample heavy genres like Jungle and Hard House, to synth heavy genres like trance. Even IDM was born from producers disregarding popular conventions and look how much that has since bled into the mainstream with tracks incorporating glitchy effects into pop songs.
But it's not just the domain of electronic music either. Prog Rock existed because uni students wanted to push the boundaries. Then Punk came about because they wanted to redefine what it meant to writing music and play an instrument.
So long as music remains an art form, it will be subjected to ignorant hobbyists with a creative flair. And that is what I love most about music; when people say "I have an idea, it might not work but we will have fun trying". But very occasionally, those hobbyists create something so popular they then become trendsetters themselves, like Prodigy, Orbital, Aphex Twin, and the other artists I alluded to above.
Here's a free barebones synth plug-in (you'll need a VST/AU host, for example Garageband that comes bundled with macOS) : https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker
To be honest many producers in the younger generation haven't ever touched real hardware synths (let alone real analog synths) and do everything "in the box" using software. There's endless debate on whether this sounds the same (it's the "Emacs vs vi" wars of the synth world), but as Tatsuya says in the last paragraph of the interview, you'd be hard pressed to hear any difference once in a mix.
A few of the best sounding classic-analog-emulating software synths would be : Diva, Serum, SynthMaster, Sylenth1, Spire, and the Arturia collection.
Hardware synths are fun though, and most importantly their interface can spark inspiration where technically equivalent but mouse-operated software synths wouldn't.
A small selection of hardware synths, by rough ascending price :
- The cheap and fun Korg Volca range mentioned in the article. - The Boutique range from Roland. Spot-on virtual analog (=DSP-based) reissues of their classics, the JU-06 is probably the easiest to figure out and most faithful to the original Juno 106 (a staple of the 80s), but it's sold out in most places. - The Arturia microBrute and miniBrute. They spearheaded the cheap analog renaissance a few years ago and sound lovely and gnarly - The beautifully designed Korg Minilogue mentioned in the article. - My all-time favourite interface on a synth is the Nord Lead 3's. It's full-featured but especially suited to beginners because of a truly unique feature : endless rotary knobs with LEDs indicating current value. It's virtual analog (DSP-based) with everything you'd expect on the substractive synthesis front, plus the easiest FM synthesis interface you'll find anywhere. It's been discontinued for years (and its successors don't have the LED knobs), but some units pop up on eBay regularly. - At the higher end of the price range, there are also dozens of options : the Prophet 6 and OB-6 by Dave Smith Instruments (the inventor of MIDI) are poised to become modern classics. The DSP-based Virus TI is incredibly versatile (although it's getting long in the tooth, as CPU power has caught up with DSPs meaning a plug-in like Serum is just as good)
If you buy them used, you should be able to sell them for what you bought them used for.