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Comment by chrisvalleybay | Hacker News Reader

I've been playing synths and piano for a while, but I've been struggling to get some solid intuitions about what is going on when I tweak the synths. One thing that really helped on this site, is the «dot» that is bouncing back and forth on https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/playground . Try tweaking the nobs and see how the dots movement changes. It helped me visualize something that I wasn't able to grasp before. Nice link!

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The best way I found to understand a bit more about how synths work, was to give VCVRack a try. Basically "build your own synth" in a box, AKA " Modular synthesizer", which lets you build what a mainstream synth comes with, from scratch.

It’s also pretty easy to create your own VCV Rack modules, assuming you don’t mind doing a little math.

There is also Cardinal, a GPL fork that you can run as a plugin directly in your DAW of choice (I believe you need the paid VCV Rack to do that):

https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal

I tend to thing that non-modular is a better place to start. Modular is great, I've wasted untold shameful consumerist dollars on Eurorack, but I think it's better to get the core concepts from a well-known fixed-architecture synth (like a Minimoog clone/VST) before moving on to modular. Modular can be very overwhelming when you're new.

To this point, are there any free/cheap apps/browser apps that clone simple/older/well known synths you'd (or others here) would recommend for skilling up a bit? Doesn't need to be anywhere near pro quality sound-wise, not what I'm after.

A million years ago I had some analogue korg model and have been interested in playing around again. But I know myself well enough to know that my interest may very well be fleeting and I don't want to invest much in the way of $$ to go that route.

Sylenth has a free trial. Garageband probably has an analogue synth in it. There's also v station:

https://stgdownloads.novationmusic.com/novation/novation-sof...

I’m a fan of Helm but it’s got some complexity under the hood.

If you’re an iOS user there are a ton of good soft synths on iOS that are criminally cheap. E.g. Moog has a version of the Mini that’s like $15.

I guess semi-modular is a good half-way :)

Personally, I'm not into modular synths, so I don't recommend them as "Stop buying synths and start doing modular synths" but more like "If you're already into synths, but want to learn more about how they actually synthesize the sound, give VCVRack a try", merely as a learning tool.

That’s fair, I misunderstood GP’s post thinking you were making that recommendation to total noobs. Modular definitely has enough rope to hang yourself.

If someone is going to buy a hardware synth to learn on, I think a well laid-out semi-modular that has a good default signal path is a good way to go. Just ignore those funny 3.5” jacks until you’re ready.

Some VSTs animate the modulated controls, which is awesome because it immediately makes clear how one thing impacts another. I believe Serum does this?

I can't say for sure but there is surely a VST that allows to visualise the signal and understand what changes do what

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