Sytrus

Sytrus Synths Creation Manual
Table of Contents
Foreword................................................................................................................................................. 4 Sytrus Synth Creation.............................................................................................................................. 5 1. Simplicity ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Basic waveform shapes ....................................................................................................................... 6 Waveform sliders ................................................................................................................................ 7 Chorus ................................................................................................................................................. 9 Effects tab, FX ................................................................................................................................... 13 Delay ................................................................................................................................................. 13 2. Envelopes .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Operators .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Operator settings .............................................................................................................................. 20 3. Synthesis ........................................................................................................................................... 29 4. Modulation........................................................................................................................................ 38 5. Complexity ........................................................................................................................................ 52 Choral Pluck ...................................................................................................................................... 52 Deep Saw .......................................................................................................................................... 54 Deep Square Hit ................................................................................................................................ 55 Maktez .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Phat Grinder ...................................................................................................................................... 57 Synth Brass Pluck .............................................................................................................................. 59 Synthy Guitar Saw ............................................................................................................................. 60 Thick Plucked String .......................................................................................................................... 62 Thick Pluck......................................................................................................................................... 63 Warp Pluck ........................................................................................................................................ 66 Basic Heavy Saw ................................................................................................................................ 67 Violin ................................................................................................................................................. 68 Flute .................................................................................................................................................. 69 6. Sequence ........................................................................................................................................... 71 7. Wrap Up ............................................................................................................................................ 76 The Amazing Arpeggiator.................................................................................................................. 76 Secrets of the Oscillator .................................................................................................................... 79
Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 2
All Those Weird Buttons ................................................................................................................... 81 How The Heck Portamento Works.................................................................................................... 83 Index...................................................................................................................................................... 85
Foreword
This Sytrus Synths Creation manual was first published 2008 at this location by Erik McClure: blackhole12.deviantart.com/art/Sytrus-Synth-Creation-Part-1-75704794 When I first discovered Eriks material I did not realize how good it was. The original manual was published as jpg images and this was not a convenient format for me. I tried to find tutorials that was equally good but most of the time I came back to this manual. On 10th of January 2013 I chatted with Erik about the manual. He then told me that he is not using Sytrus anymore. He had been trying to convert his manual several times to selectable text but he had given up on that project. He was all fine with that I would convert the text. From that evening and onwards I used all my free spare time to work on the conversion project and on 6th of February 2013 I had the first version of the document ready. It is very well possible that during the conversion process some spelling mistakes were introduced due to the Optical Character Recognition software. If you find something you think could be improved or you want to thank me or for whatever reason please tweet me at @JensMalmgren. During the conversion work I have been listening to Ideal Club World Radio at www. idealclubworld.com. Special thanks to Ideal Club World Radio for keeping me company and in a good mood and got me going through this entire project! If you got this book sent to you but you dont know where it came from then please check out my own server for the latest version of this book on this location: www.jens.malmgren.nl/Sytrus.pdf In case you are completely new to creating music with FL Studio it could be a good idea to read my manual about music theory first. You find it here: malmgren.nl/j-mtheory.pdf. Especially the last section gives a kick start in how to use FL Studio. When you are done with this manual I would like to point you to a site I have been visiting a lot to learn all sorts of things: howtomakeelectronicmusic.com. It is the creation of an electronic music hobbyist that I admire for that he generously share his knowledge to the world. Special thanks to Kenneth Wanstall @ketwuk for proofreading the manual! I am not affiliated with Image-Line other than that I bought a license for FL Studio. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 4
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity
Sytrus Synth Creation

This tutorial covers the creation of synths using FL studio Sytrus plugin. The version used here is Sytrus 2.5, which was released early in 2007. When we are creating synths to use in a song, we must keep in mind that a synth is merely the creation and modification of a waveform. A synth does not need to be terribly complex in order to sound cool many of the more versatile synths have simplistic waveform bases with choral and reverb effects attached. We will explore these synths through a series of exercises, so be sure you have FL studio open to a new project. Before we begin - Sytrus is evil. A single wrong click of the mouse can erase the hours of work you put into a synth. As there is no easy way to save presets I have erased all of my work trying to save many times. To avoid these sticky circumstances, save the project you are creating the synth in. That way, you can just hit Ctrl-S to save your progress on the synth without risking hitting the wrong button.
What the heck?
1. Simplicity
To begin making our Sytrus synth, we're going to use a preset called Default. As the name suggests, this contains the default settings for building a Sytrus synth from scratch. The Default preset is located in Plug-in Presets -> Generators -> Sytrus. Hopefully, you know how to assign this to a channel - if you don't, your reading the wrong tutorial! Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 5
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity So... that's a lot of stuff, isn't it? We've got volume controls and modulation tables and all sorts of crazy stuff. The good news is that its all useless and we can ignore it. For now, let's head straight into the bowels of Sytrus. On the top of Sytrus you will see a bunch of tabs. Select the tab labeled "OP 1" and make sure that the "VOL" tab is highlighted in the panel, as shown here. Using the keyboard on the bottom, play a few notes. As you can see, it's a very boring, basic sine wave tone. We're going to change that. In the upper left hand corner you can see a window showing the current waveform along with a series of sliders that control its shape.
Basic waveform shapes

Sine
This is your basic, boring tone, but it often forms the basis of more complex waveforms, and is useful for dreamy smooth synths. Most woodwinds and brass instruments have a waveform that is derived from a sine.
Saw
The saw waveform is the stuff you hear with techno. It is simultaneously the coolest waveform and the easiest to work with. If you're looking for something synthy, this is probably the waveform to start with.
Triangle
The triangle is a less used waveform, sort of like a sharper version of the sine wave. Violin and strings sometimes use waveforms derived from this, but the other basic waveforms are usually used in place of this one.
Square
The square is often used in hyper sounding synths, and they have a very distinctive sound (as well as a distinctive waveform). You can get some very nice high pitched synths with this form, as well as good bass if you manipulate it correctly. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 6
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity These are presets selectable by right clicking on the graphical representation of the waveform and selecting them from a drop down list. They are just the tip of the iceberg, however. To really get into it, we need to start playing around with those sliders; here are a few of my personal favorites:
Bent Saw
This is very often used in FM synthesis (we'll look at that later on in the tutorial), and it is very popular in euro saw synths.
Tempered Square
A sine wave with an extreme amount of tension, this is a softer version of the square synth, with a slightly different tone to it.
Saw Sine
This is an incredibly useful for string synthesis. With a proper filter, this waveform can churn out long, flowing notes.
Square Saw
A harsher synth form, this is a very versatile (and cool sounding) waveform to work with.
There is an additional method of producing waveforms but we aren't going to look at it until later.
Waveform sliders
For now, let's understand what each of the sliders do.
Shape, SH
The more you raise this slider, the closer the waveform will get to a Square synth. It begins at 0% (A sine wave), passes through 25% (a triangle wave), then 50% (Saw wave), 75% (Square wave), and finally 100% (pulse wave)
Tension, TN
This increases or decreases the severity of the wave. If you drag this down to 0%, you will notice that most of the wave will now be silence, with only the very high points still visible. If you drag this up to 100%, you will notice that almost the entire wave has been pushed to the top or bottom, and that only the very nearly silent portions of the wave still remain that way. If done on a sine wave, pushing the tension to 100% results in something very similar to a square, and if you check the values on the 'Tempered Square" waveform as detailed above, you will notice that is exactly how it was created. The "Bent Saw" was also made this way.
Skew, SK
The best description of this slider is that it squishes the waveform into the center. The "Saw Sine" uses this.
Sine Shaper, SN
The sine shaper is a bit of a strange slider. The best way to figure out what it does is to try using it on a sine wave. Two additional sine waves will appear in the upper left corner and bottom right corner. This is useful for things like bell synths, usually left at 0%
Pre-filter, FL
The pre-filter is used to reduce the amount of harmonics. This technique results in smoother waveforms and is commonly used in organs or woodwinds. In any other synth, it is usually left at 100%.
Noise, NS
The percentage of noise does exactly that - replaces that % of your wave with random noise. At 100%, you will no longer be able to hear your waveform at all, as it will be noise. This is used for wind and air effects, and is used in a synth we will be making later on. This is usually left at 0%.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity While you are having fun with the sliders, try pressing some of the buttons that are above the waveform selector. The button on the left cuts the waveform in half, only using the first half. The middle button inserts a band of silence - use it on the basic wave shapes to see its effect. The button on the right takes the absolute value of the wave, so it will all be above the middle line. On a sine wave, this will result in two small humps, while on a saw wave it will result in something resembling a seesaw. These are not often used, but we will be covering some synths that do use them. In addition, there are several other parameters and tweaks in this top section of the operator, but for now we will ignore most of them. Let's set our oscillator to the Saw waveform. Now, if we play a note using this waveform, its going to sound very unrefined, and thats because we need to add some choral effects.
Chorus
Chorus is a very easy way to add depth and texture to your synth, and it is used in lots and lots of synths. To add chorus to our synth, we need to change our view to the FX tab. There's a lot of stuff here, but we only need to worry about the Chorus part of it. As you can see from the settings, we have an order of 4 on our choral effect, as well as the default settings for the tabs. The order of the chorus can range from 0 (no sound produced) to 9. An order of 1 greatly exaggerates the "wahwah" effect that is the signature port of a chorus effect. As you increase the order, the panning will start to take effect, and the effect is less obvious. Most choral effects are on an order of 4 or 7, sometimes 2 and occasionally 1 (A chorus of 1, however, is difficult to work with, and usually ends up sounding bad. Avoid 1 and 9 if you can). Avoid The Extremes A good rule of thumb in synth creation is to never go to the extremes. The synthesizer is designed to have reasonable limits set on its sliders, but even with those limits, pushing sliders to their absolute extreme is more than likely to result in bleeding ears than a cool synth. This doesnt apply to everything though. Things like mixing and other volume related things are almost always set to 100% Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 9
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity Before we edit our choral settings, we need to make some adjustments to our synth output. If you look at the matrix on the right side of the window, you can see that it has rows corresponding to the tabs. 1, 2, 3 etc. for OP 1, OP 2. OP 3, as well as Pan, FX, Out, and the 3 filters. Ignoring the filters for now, we need to know exactly how FX and Out work. Currently, your synth is pumping 100% of its volume directly into the Out channel, with no filter processing whatsoever. We want to change this so that it also puts 100% of its volume into the FX channel. To do this, we click the corresponding dial and move it all the way to the right by dragging our mouse up. In the upper left hand corner of the screen (the tooltip area under the menu) it should say "100%". Out and FX are the only two ways you can produce sound. Out will produce completely unprocessed sound, and FX will produce sound modified by a range of effects. We'll look into more FX settings later. For now, hit a note and notice how it is now much richer in tone. You can modify the produced sound by changing the order of the chorus (drag up on the number to increase, down to decrease), and by playing around with the various sliders.
Depth, DP
This does what you would expect it to - it Increases the depth of the chorus and gives it a fuller texture. I tend to prefer having this at or near 100% as it produces a fuller voice, but if you're looking for a sharper, more defined voice, try a lower value (near 0%) instead. As always, experimentation is key, and it's hard to make a synth sound bad with this slider.
Speed, SP
This controls the speed of the "wahwah" effect. Putting this slider at 100% is a great way to make your synth sound horrible - Usually this value should be between 65% and 85%, and sometimes between 10% and 20% if you're looking for a really slow choral effect (there are, however, better ways to do that).
Delay, DL
This is the amount of time it takes for the chorus effect to come to full strength. When dealing with plucked or extremely short synths, a high value here can cause bizarre artifacts that are usually not desired, so it is recommended this setting be kept near 0% and probably no higher than 25%. 5% and 10% are good values as it gives the synth a bit of subtle lead in and helps create a refined feel.
Spread, SR
This is how obvious your "wahwah" effect is going to be if you have this at 100% which is what I usually prefer, your choral effect will be spread out among the number of orders you have and should be evenly distributed. Keep this at 100% if you're looking for a synth that has a constant sound, putting this at 0% produces an immediately identifiable effect - try it.
Cross, CR
This is a pretty cool slider. This determines the arrangement of the sub-voices and how they interact. The effect of this is that a high positive value will result in the synth appearing to come from in front of you. while a high negative value will result in the synth appearing to come from behind you (if you happen to be wearing headphones, at least). Creative use of this effect can help when you're separating instrument locations to avoid blurriness.
Volume, VL
This controls the volume of the choral effect.
For my synth, I set the values to be the following, but you can set them to whatever you like. Now we have a cool sounding synth with only a basic saw wave and a chorus effect! It is time, however, to add a bit more complexity. We're going to shuttle our wave through a filter to process it, and then output it through to the chorus effect. To do this, we must reduce OP 1's FX and output percentages to 0% and then mixes OP 1 with filter 1. Since we only have one operator (our basic saw wave), we'll want to mix it 100% so crank that dial all the way up. Then, if we're going to hear anything, we need to have Filter 1 output to FX and output, again 100% each, shown here: Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 11
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity Great! Now if you play a note, you will notice its range of frequencies has been reduced greatly. To see why click the Filter 1 tab and make sure the VOL tab is highlighted in the corresponding panel (Figure 13). This is where you choose the type of filter and tweak its parameters to your liking. Currently, we are using the default Chocolate State Variable filter and its default parameters. The state variable filter is rather complicated, so we're going to choose a different filter for our saw synth. Right click the panel that says "SVF' in it and choose the item labeled "Lime Low Pass" (Alternatively you can just click and drag up until the letters "LP" appear). This filter has 3 parameters: Envelope amount, Cutoff frequency and Resonance. We don't care about Envelope amount right now, but we do care about the cutoff frequency. Because this is a low pass, the lower the value on the cutoff frequency knob, the less sound will get through the filter, because you're cutting off the waveform at a lower and lower frequency. On the flipside, Figure 13: The filter editor if you turn the cutoff frequency all the way up, the filter won't cut off any sound - Try different settings and play different notes to get a feel for it. For our purposes, we don't want to slice off any sound (yet), so set the cutoff frequency to 100%. The resonance is a much more subtle property of the filter, and it adjusts what can only be described as the resonance of the waveform. To get a sense of what this knob does, compare the sound you hear when it is set to 0% and you play a note, to the sound you hear when it is set to 85%. That squealing sub-noise there is the resonance. Resonance is a powerful tool - do not underestimate it. It becomes more important later on when we are modifying our synth parameters. For now, a 30% resonance value is good for our filter.
Effects tab, FX
Now that we have our filter set up, let's go back to the FX tab to take a look at some of the other things we can do, the Pan knob on the upper left lets you adjust the center location of the chorus, panning it to the left or the right. I usually avoid panning an effect on a synth like that as it tends to make the synth lopsided. In the center, we have our send parameters, which are also of limited use, but it is there if you need it. The number corresponds to the send mixer track that you want to shuttle the output of FX through (and only the output of FX). The knob controls the volume of the sound that is Lime? Mango? Do these guys have some kind of fruit fetish or sent through (By default it is something? set on 100%, or full volume). On the right hand side, we have something far more useful. Here we have a set of 4 tabs - 3 delay banks and a reverb control. Let's start by clicking on the first delay bank.
Delay
To enable delay effects, click the "Enable" button and then play a short note. You will notice it now has a delay (or echo) effect, similar to the one produced by the Fruity Delay 2 postprocessor. The radio buttons on the right hand side toggle what type of delay it is - Normal, meaning the delay will occur on the same side as the instrument, Inverted, meaning the delay will have opposite panning, and Ping Pong, meaning the delay will "bounce" between an inverted and a normal panning state. I have a preference to using Pong for most of my synths as if is a cheap (CPU-wise) and easy way to add depth to a synth. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 13
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity The four sliders control the parameters of the delay.
Feedback Level, FB
This is the percentage of volume, 0% to 100%, that each successive echo has based from the previous one. The higher this value, the longer the echoes will last, and the slower their progression to being quiet will be. The lower the value, the shorter the time it takes for the echoes to fade away.
Time, TM
This is the amount of beats between each delay, 0:00 to 8:00. Its default setting is 3, but 2, 3, 4 and 6 are all commonly used. A value of 1 will produce a reverb-like effect that may be desirable when you have a lower tempo.
Stereo Offset, SO
This adds a slight delay and a panning offset (either left or right) to the effect: usually used in conjunction with the Pong setting. 500 ms left to 500 ms right.
Volume, VL
This controls the volume of the initial delay, -100% to 100%, and is usually set around 50%; setting this to a negative value results in the delay subtracting itself from the output instead of adding itself.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity Delay 2 and Delay 3 are the exact same as Delay and allow you to layer on multiple echoing effects. A combination echo of time 3 and time 4 often sounds nice. Now, let's look at the reverb tab.
Reverb
If you have used Fruity Reverb 2, this will be very familiar to you. The controls are exactly the same except for a few missing ones (namely bass and cross), plus the "color" of the reverb, which ranges from Warmer, to flat, to Brighter. To enable reverb, simply click the "enable" button. Since the functionality of this is almost identical to that of the Fruity Reverb, I will leave it to you to experiment with your favorite settings. A Note On Reverb Good sounding reverb usually either has a very low high cut, a very low high damping, or both. This enables the volume of the reverb to be increased along with the length, without blurring everything up and making compression difficult. If you want a reverb with high frequencies in it, I recommend keeping its volume low and its time relatively short. There we have it; a simplistic, yet nice sounding saw synth. Next, we will explore the use of envelopes and how they can add lots to a synth, along with some more complex concepts.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes
2. Envelopes
For this section of our tutorial, we will be making a sine-based warble synth. Open up a new channel with the Default synth, and head straight to the filter section (we will be using a base sine wave for this). Once we have the filter section open, we need to adjust our mixing. We want to take the full strength of Operator 1 so we will mix that at 100% while reducing its unfiltered output to 0%. We also want to add about 68% of operator 2, and then take the result of the filter and output it at full volume through both FX and basic output.
We should get this
Operators
Why did we add operator 2? Mixing multiple operators to a filter produces a stronger sound, and helps when you're layering different base waveforms on top of one another to create a layered effect. In this case, since we are only using a base sine wave, adding on an additional sine wave helps strengthen the synth and makes it more noticeable. Now, in the filter, we are going to do something different. Near the letters "SVP there are a series of radio buttons. The one currently highlighted is labeled "x1", and above it there is one labeled "off." Click the "off' radio button - we have now completely disabled the filter. If you are getting clipping problems, simply reduce the volume of the channel. So why are we routing operator signals through it? Because of the mixing - in order to mix operator 1 and operator 2 we have to do it in the filter itself or they will both get individual FX effects and interfere with each other. Now that we've disabled the filter, let's go to the FX tab and adjust our chorus effects.
Chorus Settings
Order: 9 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 80% | Delay: 53% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100%
This synth uses a 9 order chorus for a reason. If you reduce the chorus to 7 you can hear slight aliasing problems. Now that we have our chorus set up, we can play around with our Delay banks. Select the first delay bank and turn it on - we will be using its default settings. Play a short note - we have an echo on our synth now, but it's rather plain. To solve this, open up the second delay bank, enable it, and change its time value to 4:00. Now if you play a short note, the dual echoes enhance each other and create a very rich texture. Our effects are now set up, and we can get to the real part of this synth and this section of the tutorial - a pitch envelope. Navigate to the Operator 1 tab, choose the "pitch" tab, and make sure "ENV" is selected.
The two delay banks
Welcome to the core of Sytrus - the envelope editor. While this editor also controls LFO, keyboard mapping, etc., the actual editing controls are the same for all of them. By default, the editor is in Snap and Slide mode. Snap will snap the points to the grid, and slide slides the rest of the points after the one you selected. "Step" is an alternate mode of editing that can sometimes be useful, but should largely be left alone. "Freeze" locks all editing.
Starting with a clean slate The default envelope shape only works for some synths, and you may find yourself deleting it many, many times. To speed up this process, enable "step" editing mode, right click on the right side of the editing window and drag the mouse across to the left side. This will delete all the points except for the origin, giving you a clean slate to work off of.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes We are going to leave the editing mode in its default state, and we want to erase the current default envelope. To do this, right click a point and click "delete" on the popup menu that appears. Do this for all the points, except the first point, which is known as the origin and cannot be deleted, Now, our first envelope is going to be very simple.
Make sure the pitch tab is selected.
Figure 6: Putting down the first point
Add a point to the editor, wherever you want, by right clicking somewhere in the window. A line should now connect the origin with your new point. Left click on your new point and move it so Figure 7: Creating the curve that your editor looks something like figure 6. The line connecting the two dots is our envelope, and we can adjust the amount of curve it has by clicking the handle in its center and dragging up or down. We want a very extreme curve, so click and drag up as far as you possibly can, until you match figure 7. Congratulations, we have made our first filter! But, if you play a note, you will notice nothing has changed. That is
Don't forget to adjust the point to the new grid.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes because the little button in the lower left hand corner has not been clicked - this will enable the envelope. Once you have enabled the envelope play a note and notice how the pitch is now following the envelope we created. If you want, you can click and drag the point around to create more bizarre pitch changes - go on, give it a try! There is one last thing to do with the envelope, however. Near the middle, there are two buttons, "tempo" and "global." I will explain global later, but what we want to do is click the "tempo" button. When you do, the lines in the editor will change, and your point will no longer be aligned to the grid. To fix this, just click and drag your point around so that it snaps to the new grid size. Why was a new grid size created? If you scroll to the right (Or if you zoom out by moving the scroll wheel down), you will see a highlighted vertical bar on the grid this represents a measure, and you can probably figure out how the other bars correspond to this in terms of beats. We have set our pitch to last for exactly 1/16th of a measure, so if you adjust the BPM, the effect will get shorter or longer in response.
Enabling Tempo Mode When you click the tempo button and the envelope hasn't been enabled, it is automatically enabled. Thus, you can save yourself a mouse click by clicking the tempo button instead of the enable button. Using Tempo Mode The tempo mode is useful not only for keeping your synth effects in time with the beat, but also for timing the envelopes in general. When tempo mode is enabled, the bars let you know exactly how long your envelope is going to last, 1/4th of a measure, 1/2 of a measure, etc.
Operator settings
Now, we have a few last things to do if we're going to finish off this synth. Navigate back to the OP 1 tab and notice the four toggle buttons on the right side of the waveform sliders.
Center
Sometimes a waveform will, for whatever reason, be biased to the top or bottom of the spectrum, Center will center an operator's waveform so that it stays in the middle of the spectrum. It's usually pretty obvious when a waveform isn't centered, as your oscillator viewing window (by the volume level) will show a waveform that's either really low or really high.
Declick
What this essentially does is create a super fast increase of volume from 0% to 100% that eliminates any clicking that might result from a phase changed waveform (clicking happens when the waveform does not begin at 0 amplitude and in certain other circumstances). Our current synth is clicking right now.
Band Limit
This band limits the waveform, which helps in aliasing problems; if your wave has extreme amplitudes (or is just loud in general). It doesn't hurt to enable this.
Pluck
This changes the operator synthesis mode to Pluck. We will cover this later, after the Oscillator editor. Our waveform is centered already, so we don't need to enable that, but its clicking, and that clicking is starting to bug me. Enable the Declick and notice how the initial click of noise is now gone. For good measure, because sine-based Enable Declick/B.Limit on both operators! waveforms are extremely susceptible to clipping and aliasing problems, we're going to enable Band-limit as Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 20
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes well. Enable Declick and Band-limit on the second operator as well. Because we have only made an envelope for operator 1, we will need to make an identical pitch envelope for operator 2. To do this, we click the small arrow button in the middle of the bottom (right next to the Global button), and choose "Copy State." Now turn to operator 2's panel, Figure 9: Paste the state after you have copied it from Operator 1 turn to its pitch tab and click that same little arrow button. Instead of clicking "Copy State," click "Paste State," and we will have successfully copied and pasted the envelope from operator 1 to operator 2 (be sure to enable it). For the final touch, we are going to go to adjust its frequency ratio. Left click and drag down on the big 2 in the window on the right hand side, so that it turns into a one and looks like Figure 9. Operator 2 is now an octave lower then operator 1, and you can hear that the synth now sounds much deeper. Section 3 examines the frequency ratio and other operator specific parameters in detail. For now, let's go back to the main page of our Sytrus synth and give it a name. On the bottom of the panel you will see a window that has "Patch Name," "Patch Author," and "Patch Description." Highlight the patch name and replace it with your own, then do the same for the
Figure 12: Going back to the other synth.
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes author and the description. I called mine "Warp Pluck" and put "Blackhole12" as the author. My description is "Watery Pluck Synth." Now, we need to save our preset. Before doing this, I highly recommend saving whatever project you have open, and you should have been saving every now and then throughout the tutorial, in the very top left corner there is a button called "Plug-in options." Click it, choose "Save Preset As," and then give it a good name. Whatever you do, do not hover over "Plugins." Give it a try after you've saved your plug-in to find out why. To use our newly created synth, let's give a simple arpeggio to run through. I'm rather fond of this one. Now, for more complex envelopes, we're going to return to the synth we created in section 1. Open it up and navigate to Filter 1, and make sure the "VOL" tab is highlighted in the panel (shown in Figure 12). As you can see it's the exact same envelope shape we saw in the pitch editor for our other synth except in this case, the envelope is modifying the Volume, as we are in the Volume tab. If you went to the "Pan" tab. the envelope there would edit the panning of the filter's output. So why do we want to edit our instrument's volume with an envelope? Well, we're going to make it plucked - to do so delete the default envelope, hit the "tempo" button to simultaneously switch us to tempo mode and to enable the envelope, then Figure 12: Going back to the other synth left click and drag the origin point to the top. Once you have done that, add another point approximately 2 beats to Figure 13: Give if a good curve! the right, on the bottom, and give it a good curve (Figure 13). Now play a note. You will notice that it no longer matters how long you hold down the key - this is because our envelope has no defined areas. The volume is being reduced until the envelope stops, and at that point the volume is at 0 so no matter how long you hold down the note, you will not hear it. Likewise, if you play the note for only a short period of time, because the envelope has not been configured to stop, the envelope continues to function until it reaches its end. If you want to stop it from doing that, Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 22
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes right click the point you added and select "Sustain Loop End." Now when you play a note, it stops when it is supposed to. Raise the point up halfway, and add another point. Now try playing a short and a long note. Notice how the envelope portion after the sustain loop end point always plays when you release the note, but the portion of the envelope before the sustain loop end point will only play while you are holding down the note. We will discuss this more later; for now, we only need a pluck, so revert your envelope back to Figure 13.
The "S" denotes a sustain loop end point
Now its time to have some fun with our filter, click on the tab labeled "CUT". This corresponds to the filter's cutoff frequency knob that you should currently have set to 100%. Likewise, VOL affects volume, PAN affects panning, RES affects the resonance, and LOW/BAND/HIGH does not affect anything because the filter we have chosen does not Delete everything except the origin have those parameters (only the state variable filter does). This time, however, instead of forming an envelope, we are going to use one of the other methods. Next to the ENV tab you will see a tab labeled LFO. Highlight it, Figure 16: Use the SPD knob to and you will find yourself at the controls of an LFO. change the LFO An LFO is basically a waveform that is applied to any Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 23
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes given attribute on a synth, which loops over and over. Sytrus allows you to do weird things with the LFO, but we only really want a basic one. To get rid of all the weirdness, wipe the slate clean. You will be left with the origin point notice how in the LFO, it is in the center, not the bottom. This is because the LFO functions in both positive and negative directions. If you raise the origin up, the LFO will begin going positive and increasing the attribute it is linked to (cutoff frequency, in this case), then go down below the line and decrease the attribute it is linked to by the same amount. For our purposes, we're just Click the button labeled "Global" going to put the origin at the bottom to give the LFO a full range. Once you have done that, click the "tempo" button to both enable the synth and switch to tempo mode. At the bottom of the LFO editor you will see 4 knobs. We only really care about the "speed" knob right now, as it determines how fast our LFO wave oscillates. Since we are in tempo mode, Sytrus will automatically snap to tempo-based settings, which is very handy. Set your LFO so that it looks like Figure 16. Now, play a note. You will notice the cutoff filter is now going down at the start of each note, following the curve of the LFO. However, like an envelope, the LFO is being retriggered each time a note is played. To make it sound way cooler, we're going to toggle the "Global" option. Now, if you play many notes, you will notice that instead of being retriggered on each note, the LFO is constantly operative, affecting all the notes at once. It is now a global LFO, and this same concept can apply to looping Envelopes, which we will explore later. To really get a feel for what this LFO is doing, try inputting the following motif into the piano roll. Now, if you put FL studio in pattern mode and play that, you will notice how the LFO is affecting the cutoff ratio based on the tempo time and how it corresponds to Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 24
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes the wave. However, some may point out that the LFO only appears to be affecting the cutoff ratio when it is going down - when it is positive, there is no audible effect, making it seem like its only working half the time. The reason for this is that we've set our cutoff frequency at the highest possible value. When our LFO is in the positive range, it can't increase the cutoff frequency anymore because it's already maxed out. To fix this, reduce the cutoff frequency to 80%. The LFO will now have a more pronounced effect. Actually, its effect will be TOO pronounced! We can barely hear the stupid synth now! To fix this problem, we must turn to the Envelope knob on our filter. The envelope knob is what is controlling the peaks of our LFO and envelope. Currently it is set at 50%, which means our LFO is alternating between subtracting 50% from our cutoff frequency and ENV: 35% | CUT: 85% | RES: 30% adding 50%. We can reduce this to 0% or raise it to 100%, but for this synth we want it at around 35%. Now the synth sounds a bit better, but the high part of it seems a bit short, so let's raise our cutoff frequency to 85%. There we go! Now that we have a cool sounding cutoff frequency effect, let's go to the Resonance tab. As you'll recall, the resonance of a synth is that subtle harmonic frequency that is best described as, well, resonance. We're going to use an envelope to modify our resonance, causing it to peak at the beginning of the note and then falloff to nothing, which should further enforce the plucked nature of the synth. Remember to enable tempo mode before creating the envelope! Now try playing that pattern sequence again. The resonance effect is immediately noticeable. Using Resonance Resonance is a powerful tool that's often overlooked. Proper use of resonance can really add a lot to a synth, giving it a more refined feel and making it sound better in general. Be careful not to go overboard, however, as a high resonance value can ruin a synth completely. If we want our synth to be even more obvious, we can utilize the controls at the side of the synth selector: 1x, 2x, 3x, alt 2x, and alt 3x. Click around on them and compare the sounds. Higher values (3x) tend to produce more refined sounding synths by Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 25
The resonance envelope
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes exaggerating the effects of the filter and any envelopes/LFOs you have made.
HQ/flat
The HQ button renders the filter with high quality. You can use it in a draft, or it is usually automatically enabled when you are rendering (that's what the "enable HQ for all plug-ins" setting does on export). Flat "flattens" the filter - give it a try. As a final exercise, we will look at the controls on the right side of the filter, denoted with the initials "WS." WS stands for Wave Shaper, and it can be a powerful tool in building your synth. Click the "enable" button and you will instantly hear a richer, thicker texture on your synth. To find out what's causing this, switch to the "WS" panel. Here you will see what looks like another envelope - that would be correct, it is another envelope and The Wave shaper tab can be edited just like you did the others. To get a feel for how WS functions, click the anchor on the curve and drag all the way up your synth will adapt a very rich harmonic range, similar to that of an electric guitar. Drag it all the way down and the opposite will happen. I'm keeping my wave shaper dragged all the way down, but you can do whatever you feel like doing.
My Amp and Mix Values

Amp: 116% | Mix: 66%
There are two knobs in the WS section, AMP and MIX. AMP controls the amplitude, or strength, of the wave shaping. Mix controls how much of the wave mix is used in place of the normal voice. If this is reduced to 50%, half of the sound produced will be from the filter, and the other half will have been processed with the wave shaper. Before we head off into the land of synthesis, let's do one last envelope effect. Go to the PAN tab, and as you will recall, the PAN tab controls the panning of the filter's output. Note that it only controls this filter - if we had multiple filters, the other filters would be unaffected by this. Instead of simply creating a pan envelop, however, we're going to use one of the other methods available to us. So far, we've used an Envelope and an LFO. In addition to these, there are KEY M (Key mapping), which allows you to change an attribute based on which key is being pressed. VEL M (Velocity Mapping), which allows you to change an attribute based on the volume of the note played, RAND (Random), which allows you to change an attribute Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Converted to an e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 26
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes completely randomly, and MOD X, MOD Y, and UNI, which will all be covered later. We are going to use Key mapping to control the panning of our instrument. Switch to the KEY M tab and notice that it is yet another envelope. By now you should be rather familiar with how to edit envelopes, so lower the first point to the bottom and raise the second point to the top. Now the lower notes are panned to the left
The Key mapping tab, with the basic envelope applied
speaker, and the higher notes are panned to the right speaker. If, however, we want to exaggerate this effect, we need to do something special to our curve.
Select the PAN tab
Right click on the second point, and on the drop-down list you will notice several kinds of shapes. Single curve, the one that is selected, is the one we are currently using. Double curve is the one we want, and the others will be investigated later. Once you have set the curve to a double curve, click the anchor and drag down. Whoa! What just happened? This is a double curve instead of being a single curve, it acts as a sinusoidal curve originating on the anchor point. These are very useful for Key mapping and Velocity mapping when you want to exaggerate the effect.
The double curve, dragged down
Name your synth, save it, and try out the motif shown below. Notice how the LFO effects greatly add to
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes the chord changes, and how the pong-style echo enhances the melody and gives it a full texture. Sometimes, you can build a melody based off of a synth, and other times you can build a synth for a melody (or bass line). It is usually a good idea to try and match up the synths in your song so that they complement each other, and know that some synths work with some melodies, baselines or chords better than others.
Now, on to section 3, Synthesis!
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis
3. Synthesis
It's time to go back to Operators and really dig into some waveform synthesis. Sytrus is primarily a Frequency Modulation synthesizer, which is what the big huge matrix on the right side of the window is all about. If you look at the bottom of the matrix, you will notice two buttons, "FM" and "RM." RM is called "Ring Modulation". What's that do? It changes how Sytrus combines the waveforms, but is only good for industrial or other harsher voices. Since exactly none of the presets that come with Sytrus use Ring Modulation, we're going to ignore it. It has its purposes but we are not going to cover those here. Let's start by opening up a new Default preset. All synth creation starts by creating a basic waveform to work with (unless you're in very weird circumstances), so switch to Operator 1. For this synth, let's have some fun and set the Shape slider to Lower the Frequency Ratio to 1.0 100% - we don't need to change anything else. Play a few notes, and notice that a raw waveform rarely sounds good. However, harsh waveforms like the one we are using now often benefit from being lowered an octave, so go to the Frequency Ratio and move it down to 1. This actually sounds pretty good, but it's only a basic waveform. It's time to get into some frequency modulation, so open up Operator 2 and set the Shape to about 60%. Then, go to the matrix, and modulate operator 1 with 5% operator 2, as shown in figure 3.
Figure 3: Modulate Op 1 with Op 2 by 5%
Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis What's going on? The base waveform in operator 1 is being modified by the waveform in operator 2, in this case, by 5%. This, in essence, mixes the waveforms together to form a single, new waveform. If you mixed together a saw and a square, for example, you would get a wave that looked a little like a saw and a little like a square. Because operator 2 has a frequency ratio of 2 and operator 1 has a frequency ratio of 1, operator two is Enable the Even button only about half as long as operator one, which makes it about an octave higher. Change the frequency ratio of operator 2 to match operator 1. Now operator 2 has the same frequency ratio as 1 and is on the same octave. For more fun, lets enable the "Even" button on the waveform for operator 2 as silence, its functional part is actually about an octave higher, but its only modulating half of operator 1s waveform. That means that for the silent part of operator 2, operator 1 has no change in its waveform. We don't want that though, we want operator 2 at a frequency ratio of 1.0000. An example of what modulation does to a wave can be seen in the picture to the right. For us, Operator 1 is the Carrier, and Modulation Example (Image Image-line Studios) Operator 2 is the Modulator. Negative values on the operator subtract waves and positive values add waves.
The Frequency Offset Now, what about the window to the left of the frequency ratio? This is the frequency offset, and you can use it to make very minor changes to the wave frequency: this is useful for low frequency modulation or minor tweaks to the wave frequency, but we'll just ignore it for now. Below the frequency ratio there are two dials. One is the volume, which controls the
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis amplitude of the wave, and the other is the pitch envelope amount. I suggest leaving the pitch envelope amount well-enough alone, because it's set to a very special value by default and we don't want to mess it up. The volume, however, is fair game, and just reduces how loud the wave is. For example, if we were to reduce the volume of our wave to 50%, then it would look like figure 8 (we, however, want our volume at 100%). Theres one more dial, and it is below the frequency offset. It is called the Starting Phase, and it can be extremely powerful. Before we mess around with that, however, let's give ourselves a motif to listen to. The one I'm using is a modification of ParagonX9's "Chaoz Fantasy" baseline (I changed my BPM to 160).
Chaoz Fantasy is an awesome song.
Lets start playing that, and now change the phase around. It will instantly change the character of the synth going through a huge number of sounds. I happen to like how it sounds Figure 10 when the starting phase is at 25%. What's this mean? It means that the wave, instead of starting at the beginning, is starting a quarter of the way in, so that it looks like figure 10. The starting phase is your friend - use it to create unique sounding synths. Now, it's time we introduce another tool into the synth-maker's toolbox, so we don't have to listen to this infernal basic wave that's making my eardrums cry out for mercy. Head back into the main tab and let's experiment with Unison by clicking
Figure 11: Setting up Unison
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis the empty box next to its sliders and dragging up until the number 2 appears, as shown in figure 11.
Panning, PN
This controls the panning of the instruments. At 100%, the full stereo spectrum will be utilized. At 50% the maximum panning will only be at 50%, At 0%, there is no panning done at all. Be mindful that you will be completely unable to do panning effects when this is set at 100%. If you want your instrument to go from one speaker to another, set this very low, or consider not using Unison at all.
Volume, VL
This controls the volume of the effect.
Pitch, PT
This is the pitch variations on the individual instruments, and while helpful and powerful, can screw up your synth. Be careful when lowering this down near 0%, or up near 100% as those values often sound bad. Try raising this to 100% to see why.
Sub-level, SB
This generates an additional set of instrument instances at an octave lower than the current one, and mixes them according to the percentage. If this is at 50%, 50% of the sound produced will be one octave lower than normal, and 50% will be generated on the normal octave. Note that usage of this doubles the CPU usage.
Phase, PH
This is the phase variation put on the instruments, and is used to widen the sound. Like the starting phase dial, the sounds produced by different values of this depend completely on the synth in question, so experiment with it.
Envelope Variation, EV
When you have a volume envelope set up (or any other envelope, for that matter), this is how much the envelope points are scattered. An interesting effect of this when using a pluck volume envelope is that higher values tend to exaggerate the pluck effect. Play around with these settings until you've found one that you like. Remember that Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 32
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis Unison is your friend - it can very quickly make a synth sound cool. Heck, unison makes almost anything sound cool. Seriously.
My Unison Settings
Order: 2 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 25% | Sub-level: 27% | Phase: 70% | Envelope Variation: 0% Now that we've played around with Unison, let's put in some Choral effects. Choral effects are a very dependable way to make your synth sound good, because, like unison, they'll make almost anything that's got a decent base waveform Use That Chorus! sound good. Just crank up the FX Chorus rocks. Use it unless you're output for operator 1 to 100% and looking for a very distinctive tone on bask in the choral goodness. your synth. If you are just looking for a nice sounding synth, Chorus will give it My Chorus Settings to you. Use Chorus. Order: 5 | Depth: 30% | Speed: 80% | Delay: 0% | Spread: 100% | Cross: -100% | Volume: 100%
My Reverb Settings
Color: Brighter | Low-cut: 43 Hz | High-cut: Off | Pre-delay: 73 ms | Room size: 76 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay: 2.7 seconds | High Damping: 7.4 kHz | Volume: 38% To give our synth some depth, turn on Reverb and Delay. Be careful about using Sytrus' reverb effect since you'll probably want to replace it with a proper Fruity Reverb 2 post processing effect. Delay, on the other hand, makes almost anything sound better - however, there is the danger of making your synth blurred or cluttering up your song, so keep that in mind. For my delay bank, I'm using the default settings, but I whipped up a custom reverb setting. We will be returning to this synth later to add in a filter, so for now, turn off the unprocessed output to hear just the FX output. This can sound pretty cool, but the extra power that the unprocessed output has is usually preferable for most synths.
Only FX Output
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis Now that we are familiar with FM modulation, it's time to look into the advanced areas of Oscillator synthesis. Let's create a new, default synth - go into Operator 1 and make it a Saw wave, then click the tab labeled "OSC." This allows you to edit all 256 harmonics of the waveform. To get a sense of what this is doing, click the second bar and raise it to 100%, as shown in figure 12. As you can see, a second part Figure 12: First and second bars at of the wave has now 100% appeared in the middle of it. If you play a note, you will notice that two octaves are now playing simultaneously - the default octave, and an octave above it. If you go to the fourth bar (which you will notice is darker than the rest), and raise that to 100%, three octaves will play simultaneously. The darker bars are ones that correspond to octaves - the lighter bars are in between those octaves.
Click the OSC tab
Yuck!
To demonstrate this, remove all but the primary harmonic, then choose a non-octave harmonic and put it at full strength. Play a note, and wince at the conflicting pitches. One thing to notice is that the Figure 14: Bar 1 100% | Bar 2 75% additional | Bar 4 50% harmonics adapt the shape of the wave you are using, if we change this to a sine, for example, the added harmonics will look like sine waves. To demonstrate a good synth created through the oscillator, switch back to a saw and use the settings in Figure 14.
Filter settings for our synth
Now we have a very rich saw synth. Eliminate Operator 1 's output and route Operator 1 into the first filter, Choose a Lime Low Pass filter and set the cutoff frequency to 100%, and the resonance to 60%, then give Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 34
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis filter 1 both FX and basic output. Now we're going to switch to the FX tab and remove the chorus by setting its order to 0, then enabling a default delay bank plus reverb. Then we add a bit of unison, the parameters I used are shown below.
My Unison Settings
Order: 2 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: ~ 34% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: ~ 50% | Envelope Variation: 0% By not using chorus, but using unison, we have produced a very distinct sound, one that can sound pretty cool in the correct circumstances, but is mostly limited to being either a pluck or otherwise very short synth.
Sustained Synths Plucked synths or synths that do not last very long are relatively easy to make. Delay and reverb can make almost anything that's very short sound good. Things start getting trickier when you want a synth that can be held down for long periods of time, in which case harsh waveforms (like the saw and square) need to have filters and choral effects to soften their impact.
The Oscillator is another place where you should try to keep things simple. A crazily complicated waveform is usually only going to sound crazily complicated instead of actually sounding nice. The next wave we create is going to look crazily complicated but in fact is relatively simple. Open a new Default preset, navigate to Operator 1's oscillator editor, then click and drag your left mouse button so you get a curve that looks like figure 16. Be sure to zoom out by clicking and dragging down on the button in the bottom right corner.
Figure 16: Zoom out using the button in bottom right
This may look like a crazily complicated wave that won't sound good, but the Oscillator Editor has a really neat feature that will help us out. In the bottom left corner there is a label called "Smooth". Click this repeatedly with your mouse and watch as the curve you drew with your mouse is magically smoothed out. After you've smoothed it out, reset the first bar to 100% and play a few notes. Because the Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 35
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis harmonics are set in a smoothed curve, the resulting wave is relatively pleasant to listen to, and relatively pleasant is all we need to make it sound good. Slap on some chorus to that, and you will notice that unlike our simpler waves, this thickened wave has a lot more depth, and an indescribable "fullness" to it. By using the oscillator to create full sounds like this, they come in very handy when dealing with drawn out string synths, background synths, or other synths that need what is called a "rich spectrum." Noise can also provide this rich Smooth that curve! spectrum, as is demonstrated by the Pluck mode. Before we look at pluck mode, feel free to screw around with that synth - add some reverb, some echo, try out the unison, and in general just have fun with it. I'll leave it to you to come up with a motif to entertain yourself with. Save that synth though, because we're going to come back to it later and filter-ize it. I will refer to it as Smooth that curve.
Pluck Mode
Now, let's open up another default preset in a new channel (by now you probably have around 8 or so), and head to the oscillator. This time, we're going to do something that normally would not be recommended. Randomly click around the bars until you get something like Figure 18.
Figure 18: Totally random wave craziness!
Why in the world would we want something like this? The answer lies in the pluck mode. Go ahead and turn on pluck mode for operator 1 and play a note. If you have something that looks like my wave, it will probably sound like a bell of sorts. It will also sound nice - which is rather unexpected with our ad-hoc oscillator editing. That is because the Pluck mode is dependent on only one thing the richness of the harmonics. You will notice that 100% noise produces a distinct tone while in pluck mode you cannot modulate the operator with any other operator. Keep this in mind before using it. Now, let's try something else out. While the oscillator editor lets us create rich harmonics, random noise works too. Crank the noise slider for operator 1 up to 100% and play a few notes. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 36
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis It sounds like a guitar! Well, that's what plucked mode is used for - plucked strings. This is very useful for synthesizing things like banjos, guitars, and whatnot, but it's almost impossible to use for anything that's sustained. In the case of noise, since we have random noise set at 100%, no matter what we do to our waveform (you can go ahead and erase it completely if you want), it will produce the exact same tone. To get unique tones, take a base waveform and then add on about 50-70% noise, which will give you both a unique sound and a good, rich pluck. Chorus works on plucked things too. Set operator 1's FX output to 100% to hear it. It sounds a bit weird because of the choral effect, but there is a little trick we can do to create a cool effect.
Chorus Settings
Order: 9 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 80% | Delay: 100% | Spread: 50% | Cross: 100% | Volume: ~ 80% Strings are very susceptible to chorus delay, depth, and spread. The effect usually only works well with a very high order, but it can sound cool even if it's a bit CPUhungry. You can produce a wide range of effects using only chorus and pluck. Try adding on a bit of echo too; though this doesn't sound quite as good as if the synth had a filter on to take off some of its sharpness. Before we head into the next section, a few notes on the oscillator editor, It has a menu button with various functions on its bottom left corner, you can scroll through the harmonics using the slider, and it has secondary bars underneath the bars we were working with. These bars on the bottom represent the starting phase of each harmonic, and can be used to reposition the modifying harmonics of a wave.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation
4. Modulation
Sytrus has a very handy function on its primary page, an X/Y modulator. These X Y values are completely customizable and can control whatever aspect of your synth that you'd like to map to them. Before we get into this, however, we are going to return to one of our older synths and explore the state variable filter. Let's take the synth in Figure 1 and put it through filter 1, with the settings shown in Figure 2 (detailed settings shown in text below).
Figure 1: A synth we worked on earlier, Smooth that curve
What's going on here? The state variable filter is a filter that can act as many different kinds of filters, because it not only has a cutoff frequency and resonance, but a low, band, and high pass. By manipulating the low, band and high pass parameters, you can change what kind of filter it is, and thus change what the cutoff frequency actually does. The low pass can be thought of as cutting off the lower frequencies, the band pass as cutting Figure 2: Filter settings out the middle frequencies, and the high pass as cutting out the high frequencies. However, the band pass changes its behavior as the high pass changes, so be wary of that. In our filter, we have the following settings: SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 50% | Low: 100% | Band: 100% | High: 0% | WS - On | WSamp: 150% | WSMix: 66%. We preserve the low and middle portions of the frequency but eliminate all the high frequencies, essentially creating a kind of combo low pass and band pass filter. The wave shaper gives us a nice, unique tone to our synth, and becomes instrumental later on when we warp it.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation The reason we set the cut at 50% is because the envelope amount is at 50% and this also affects the MOD X/MOD Y adjustments. Speaking of modulation, let's map the cutoff ratio to the X axis. To do this, go into cut, and then MOD X, and you will see an envelope. The far left of the envelope represents the far left of the X axis, and vice versa. Right now the envelope is completely flat, and therefore changing the Mod X value will have no effect. To change this, manipulate the envelope so if looks like Figure 3.
Figure 3: Mapping the X axis to the CUT value
Now, head back to the main screen of Sytrus and look at the Modulation panel. You can either click or drag around the target point, or you can use the X axis knob located on the right side of the panel. Both will change the filter, and you can achieve a cool sounding effect by Modulation dragging the X value from panel the left to the right (this technique was used in Hell's Maw, if you haven't recognized the synth yet). Next, let's map something to the Y axis. Since we're using a state variable filter, we can now utilize the LOW, BAND, and HIGH panels, and map any of them to the Y axis just like we did with CUT. Or, we can also map the WMIX value to the Y axis. Let's try that (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Mapping the WMIX value to the Y axis
The WMIX value corresponds to the MIX dial in the wave shaper, but it has a different design than CUT, RES and PAN. WMIX/LOW/BAND/HIGH use a method similar to VOL, that is, they only reduce, they do not increase. When Y is maxed out, the WMIX value will be 66% because that is its current value. When it is bottomed out, the value will be 0%. Therefore, when mapping these values to the X and Y axis, we have to set them to their highest possible values, not their optimal ones, and then manually choose the best setting with the modulation panel.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation Since we mapped X and Y to the CUT and WMIX values, respectively, we can switch to any filter we like and still have valid mappings, since all filters have cutoff and the wave shaper is independent of the filters. With that in mind, let's explore the various filters that Sytrus has to offer. While the State Variable filter can do almost anything, sometimes a simpler filter is best. The following list can be accessed by right clicking the filter panel.
The available filters
Chocolate State Variable, SVF

The only filter with the LOW, BAND, and HIGH values, this filter can mimic almost any other filter, as well as everything in between. Is usually the filter of choice.
Lime High Pass, HP

A simple high pass filter, chopping off all the frequencies below the cutoff amount.
Vanilla Low Pass, LP2

Another low pass filter, with a slightly different algorithm.
Vanilla Band Pass, BP

A band pass filter, where the resonance controls the bandwidth of the frequencies. A band pass filter, instead of chopping off all the frequencies above or below a certain amount, takes all of the frequencies surrounding the cutoff amount and removes the rest, depending on the resonance value, thus acting as a "middle" frequency filter.
Vanilla Notch, NOT

This is the inverse of a band pass, removing all of the frequencies near the cutoff amount and leaving the rest.
Vanilla High Pass, HP2

Another high pass filter, with a slightly different algorithm. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 40
Vanilla All Pass, AP

This is a combination filter, moving through several different algorithms to give you another way to make your synth sound different.
Vanilla Low Shelf, LS

Similar to a low pass filter, except with a gain parameter allowing you to exaggerate the filter output.
Vanilla Peaking, PK
This filter is entirely dependent on the "Gain" parameter as it takes the frequency cutoff amount and "peaks" it based on the Gain parameter, with a bandwidth size again determined by the resonance. This allows you to take a certain frequency band and exaggerate or eliminate it. The peaking filter is capable of mimicking both the band and notch pass filters.
Vanilla High Shelf, HS

Similar to a low pass filter, except with a gain parameter allowing you to exaggerate the filter output.
Mango Low Pass, LP3

This is a low pass filter with a "drive" component, allowing you to achieve an effect similar to a very harsh wave shaper.
Cherry Phaser, PHS

This is a phaser filter that lets you adjust the properties of the phaser through the cutoff amount and the resonance. Filters are a huge part of making synths, especially realistic synths. Because realistic synths are almost always based off of a sine wave, they depend entirely on FM modulation and filters to create their sound. The reason realistic synths are always sine-based is because real-life instruments are always sine based. Trust me; the waveform produced by a violin is not going to look like a saw tooth wave. You can also use the knob in the upper right hand corner to feed the output of one filter into the next, allowing you to apply up to 3 filters to the same signal (alternatively, you can apply 3 filters to 3 different signals and have them all output at once).
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation There is one last panel that hasn't been discussed yet and that is the UNI panel, next to the RAND (random mapping) panel. The UNI (unison mapping) panel allows you to fake a given value (be it volume, panning CUT/ RES/ LOW/ BAND/ HIGH/ WMIX/ whatever) and determine how much it will be affected by Unison's automatic parameter changing. For example, if you wanted Unison to put variation into the envelopes of filter 1s volume, but not Unison mapping filter 2, you could reduce the entire envelope to 0, preventing any change. However, this is only used in extremely advanced synths and is rarely necessary. Going back to Operator 1's panel, we can see that there are 3 settings left unexplored MOD, PHASE, and DAMP. Phase should be relatively self-explanatory - it modifies the phase of the wave, just like the phase knob beneath the frequency offset. MOD (Modulation) however, is more complicated. MOD doesn't have anything to do with the X and Y modulation axis, but instead with frequency modulation. The envelopes here control how much the waveform is modulated at different Changing the modulation of a signal percents. the left being what occurs when its being modulated -100% by another wave, the middle when its 0%, and the right being what occurs when its being modulated 100% by another wave (except for envelope and LFO, in which case it is bottom and top, respectively). By default, it is at full strength in all circumstances, but you can change its behavior by, for example, reducing the amount that a lower percentage has. Because MOD can be mapped to any of the default modifiers (ENV, LFO. KEY M, VEL M, MOD X, MOD Y, RAND and UNI), you can actually map it to the y or x axis coordinate, and then control the modulation of the signal from the modulation panel in the main screen.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation The DAMP parameter is exclusive to pluck mode, and it controls how much the pluck is damped. This is the only parameter in Sytrus that has a default setting of a curve - click the KEY M modifier to see. This curve is set for all instruments by default, and for traditional plucks is best left alone. However, should you want to adjust it, you can. Time to make a synth! Open up a new Default preset and set operator 1 to a saw wave, then Default Damping KEY M curve set its frequency ratio to 1.9999 and its phase to global. Mix it 100% with Filter 1 remove its output completely and give filter 1 both FX and output, (see Figure 11). The filter 1 settings are relatively simple: SVF xl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 100% | RES: 66% | Low: 100% | Band: 0% | High: 100% | WS - Off. However, we are also going to add an envelope modifier to the Resonance of the filter. This is done to emphasize the beginning of the synth and to counteract the slight fade that occurs in the beginning, giving it a sharper, more defined feel because of its aggressive attack.
Figure 11: Oscillator 1 settings
Operator 2 Settings
Shape: 65% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | SineShaper: 0% | Pre filter: 0% | Noise: 0% In addition to these settings for operator 2, we're going to reduce its frequency ratio to 0. This, of course, would make the wave infinitely long, and therefore nonexistent. However, we're going to use the frequency offset, and set that to exactly 1.00 Hz. Now we modulate operator I with 13% of operator 2, giving us a harsher tone.
Figure 12: Filter 1 settings
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Choral Settings
Shape: 65% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 0% | Noise: 0% To enhance the bass of our synth, we're going to go to Filter 1 and feed its output into filter 2 by using the knob as shown in Figure 15. Then, we go to filter 2 and use the following settings (Figure 16): SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 36% | RES: 83% | Low: 100% | Band: 0% | High: 0% | WS-Off
Figure 15: Feeding filter 1 into filter 2
Now we just give Filter 2 100% unprocessed output (you can also give it either 100% or -100% FX output if you want) and we're on to the last few adjustments. Flip to the main panel of Sytrus and add some Unison to the synth. An order of 4 is very commonly used in Unison, as it is the one that usually sounds the best.
Figure 16: Filter 2 settings
Unison Settings
Order: 4 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 42% | Sub-level: 0% | Phase: 100% | Envelope variation: 100% As a final touch, we're going to go to the Pitch slider and drag it all the way down, lowering our synth by 24 semitones (2 octaves). This is essentially the same thing as lowering the frequency ratio, but produces a slightly different tone, and doesn't affect how the waveform is modulated. If you want, you can also give the draft 2x oversampling, as shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18: Changing the Pitch Oversampling is a way to make the synth sound better, but costs more CPU. 2x oversampling doubles the CPU usage, 4x quadruples it and so on. Draft is what your
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation hearing right now - it's what the computer uses to process the synth in real-time. Render is for when FL studio is rendering the actual song. By default, HQ envelopes and 8x oversampling is used on all Sytrus synths when rendered, and no oversampling/HQ envelopes are used in drafting. If your synth sounds different when it's rendered, you can bet it's because of oversampling. Now let's give the synth a name. I've chosen "Phat Saw" because that's what it sounds like, and if you'll notice in Figure 19, I've included what the Mod X and Mod Y axis values change on my synth. This is a good habit to get into - if you have mapped values to the modulation panel, tell the user of your synth what changing the X and Y values will do. I did not Figure 19: Adding information tell you to add those X and Y values because I'd like you to explore what mapping different values does. Try as many values as you can, maybe even changing the strength of operator 2's modulation. If you want to do that, your synth should look like Figure 20. Save this as a preset, Figure 20: Changing the modulation and we're amount going to dig into it a little more. Right now, if we hold down a note, it sounds ok, Figure 21: The beginning of our envelope but we can change this into a primitive sequence synth with a single envelope. Go to Operator 1's pitch value ENV panel and wipe it clean after enabling tempo mode. Then move the origin to the center of the Figure 22: The Hold shape window and create a new point 2 step over as shown in Figure 21. Next, right click on the point, but Instead of choosing a "double Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 45
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation curve" like we did last time, we're going to choose "Hold." This should give you something that looks like figure 22. The hold shape, as you can see, is a square, and is useful when you need to suddenly switch from one value to another value without sliding. Right click on a point level with the origin and 1 beat away so you get Figure 23. There are 5 shapes in total, Single Curve, Double Curve, Hold, Stairs, and Smooth Stairs. Single curve is the default, simply a curve from one point to the next. Double curve is two curves, one curve going from the first point to the center, and the other curve going from the center to the second point. Hold keeps the original value until the next point is reached, at which point it abruptly changes. Stairs create a stair-like structure leading from one point to another, and smooth stairs create smooth stairs in the same fashion. Go ahead and create a point 2 beats away from the origin on the bottom of the panel, as shown in Figure 24, setting it to the "stairs" shape. While at first glance, it looks like a linear curve, it is in fact stairs. You can see this for yourself by dragging the center anchor point up or down - instead of curving, stairs will appear, growing larger and then growing smaller again. If you right click on that point again, and choose 'Smooth Stairs,' you can achieve the same effect, except with smooth stairs.
Figure 23: Our second point
Figure 24: Stairs
Get rid of that point, since we're not going to be using it, but right-click on the second point again, In addition to the delete command and 5 shapes, there are 3 loop related commands. Sustain loop start, sustain loop end, and delay. Click and drag the anchor to make stairs Delay does not actually change anything - it is appear. only a marker to tell sytrus where the delay of an envelope begins and rarely necessary. Sustain loop start marks the beginning of a loop, and Sustain loop end marks the end of a loop. When the envelope reaches Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 46
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation Sustain loop end, provided that the note is still being sustained, it will return to the Sustain Loop Start point, and continue looping until the note is released. Once the note is release, any envelope that is located after the sustain loop end point will play. Lets create a loop by setting our second point as the end loop point and our origin as the loop beginning (Figure 26). Now, play and hold a note. It rocks back and forth from an octave below. Just like our loop specified (the pitch screen, by default, moves the instrument up to 12 semitones up and 12 semitones down, or an octave up and an octave down). Try the motif shown in Figure 27.
Figure 26: Creating a loop
Figure 27: A simple bassline
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation Our pitch envelope rocks the synth back and forth while it's on the long, sustained note, preventing it from sounding repetitive. This is a common technique you will find in lots of trance/techno songs that use saw synths as bass line instruments. Now, open up another default preset, because it's time to make another synth!At this point you are probably groaning and beginning to wonder if this is a tutorial or a high school biology class, but trust me, practice makes perfect, and making lots of synths is how you get better at it. On this synth, the only change to
Initial settings
Loop Point Behavior It is worth mentioning that the behavior of the end loop point is different if there is no loop start point. If there is no loop start point, the envelope will simply freeze at the end loop point until it is released. Once it is released, any envelope after the end loop point is played. If you do not specify an end loop point at all, however, the envelope will keep on playing no matter what happens! Operator 1 will be its Frequency ratio, lowered to 1.0000. Change the modulation grid so that operator 1 is modulating itself by 100%. Am I crazy? Not quite; the pure sine wave is the only wave (that I'm aware of) that can be modulated with itself 100% and not make your ears bleed. The result is something similar to a soft saw wave. Make sure operator 1 has no output, and then mix 100% of operator 1 with filter 1. Next it's on to the filter. Use the following setting for filter 1, plus a traditional pluck volume envelope (Figure 29): SVF x2 (HQ) | ENV-50% CUT-17% | RES-100% | Low 0% | Band - 0% | High -100% | WS - Off. Instead of outputting Filter 1 to FX and output, we're going to use the Next knob to shuttle 100% of Filter 1's output to Filter 2. Filter 2 should have the following settings: SVF xl (HQ) | ENV-50% | CUT-93% | RES10% | Low-100% | Band-45% | High-20% | Figure 29: Filter 1 settings WS - Off. If you're wondering how I keep coming up with these values, the vast majority of it is random experimentation, tweaking values and seeing how they affect the sound.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation Now, instead of outputting Filter 1 to FX and output, we're going to use the Next knob to shuttle 100% of Filter 1's output to Filter 2. Filter 2 should have the following settings: SVF xl (HQ) | ENV-50% | CUT-93% | RES-10% | Low -100% | Band - 45% | High - 20% | WS - Off.
Chorus Settings
Order: 6 | Depth: 60% | Speed: 80% | Delay: 20% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100% Slap on the default Delay 1 bank, change it to 4:00 time, and give the synth a whirl. Its sounding a bit harsh to me, so I think we should put on a bit of unison. Before we do, though, let's pitch the synth up 12 semitones.
Unison Settings
Order: 4 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 50% | Sub-level: 0% | Phase: 73% | Envelope: 0%
Figure 32: Filter 2 CUT key mapping envelope
Figure 33: Filter 1 CUT key mapping envelope
There are a number of problems with our current synth, the primary one being that high notes sound bad. To fix this, we're going to use some key mapping to adjust our cutoff frequency, thereby compensating for higher notes. Create an envelope on filter 2 similar to the one in Figure 32, then copy and paste it into the resonance key mapping panel. That's one problem solved, but our
Harmonic minor!
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation middle notes have too many low frequencies on them. To solve this problem, we'll go to filter 1's cutoff frequency key mapping, and put in an envelope similar to Figure 33. Now our synth is relatively stable and sounds pretty good. Try the Harmonic minor motif above. There is still more we can do, however. Let's try mapping the Xaxis modulation to the frequency modulation of Operator 1. To do this, simply create an envelope like the one you see in Figure 35, in OP1 MOD x-axis mapping. Since this is a full power mapping (ranges from 100% - 0% only), you will hear the modulation reduced to 50% after you create the envelope, because by default the X axis modulation is set to Figure 35: x-axis modulation mapping the center. Go to the synth main page and reduce the X axis modulation to 0%. Now we have a sort of dreamy pluck sound, with massive clicking problems. To fix those annoying clicks, go to Operator 1 and turn on Declick. Much better! As you can see, modulation mapping can completely change a synth's tone. But we're not done yet! Go to operator 2, turn on Band limit, and reduce its frequency ratio to 0.5000 and change its starting phase to 50%. Now modulate operator 1 with operator 2 by 100%. Provided you kept the X-axis modulation at 0, you shouldn't hear much of a difference, but gradually move the x-axis modulation up and a stark change will become evident in the synth. Unfortunately, this change doesn't sound good for very long - by the time Figure 36: Mapping Operator 2s volume you've reached 50% on the x-axis, the synth starts to break down. Operator 2 simply can't be modulating operator 1 at full power and still sound good, How can we fix this? If we reduce the volume of Operator 2, we can reduce its influence on operator 1, therefore preserving the sound of the synth. We will need to inversely map operator 2's volume with the x-axis modulation (Figure 35). Move the x-axis around and you will be rewarded with a synth that can sound like 4. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 50
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation The power of mapping modulation points and adjusting the volume of operators that are modulating other operators cannot be emphasized enough. Try mapping the modulation of operator 1 to a key mapping, like in Figure 36. Now lower notes take on the properties of a smoother synth and higher notes take on the properties of a The Best Ideas Are Mistakes It's a classic proverb that the best ideas happen by mistake, and its true with synths as well. A perfect example is sitting right in front of us - try taking the notes of the motif your currently playing using our synth and bumping them up as many octaves as FL studio will let you [Ctrl + Up Arrow]; make sure x-axis modulation is at 100%. I don't know what the heck that is or why it happened, but it sounds cool and would make good ambience. harsher one. All this, and we haven't even mapped the Y-axis modulation to anything yet! Just remember that if you aren't modulating an operator with anything, the modulation attribute will have no effect.
About The Equalizer

The equalizer is useful if you know your synth needs its frequencies adjusted before it will start to sound good. The equalizer has 3 bands - top, middle, and bottom that you can adjust the frequency position of and the bandwidth via the knobs below their sliders. The EQ also has 4 modes - Off, Out+FX, Out, and FX. Out+FX makes the EQ affect both unprocessed and FX output. Out only applies it to unprocessed output and FX only applies it to FX output. Or, you can leave the equalizing to something more precise, such as the Parametric EQ 2. Our synth is now finished, so give it a name, explain what the X-axis does (I would explain it as "changes the voice of the synth"), and whatever you made the Y axis do, if anything. Before you save it, you might want to enable the "Gibbs Off' option - this should help with those slight pitch warbles happening on the really high notes. Another button near the "Gibbs Off' option is an option called "Global Pitch." This is useful if you want to change the pitch of all the operators all at once - by enabling it, the pitch envelope in operator 1 acts on the entire synth instead of just operator 1. However, we don't use pitch envelopes in this synth, so enabling this option wouldn't change anything. On to part 5, Complexity!
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5. Complexity
Now that we know our way around Sytrus this section will be dedicated to explaining how many different synths in many different circumstances are created. This is more of a reference guide then a tutorial - take what you need from it then move on to the next section. Note that if a parameter is not specified, it should be at its default value.
Choral Pluck
Description: A soft, echoey string pluck. Mechanics: This string is based on a very high harmonic range wave, with a heavy filter applied along with chorus. The chorus settings are by far the synth's most important asset. The high harmonic range was produced by a fairly standard oscillator curve that utilized the phase modifiers on the bottom to chew up the waveform. Operator 1: Shape: 50% | Tension: 50% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 50% Pluck: Enabled. Oscillator: Utilized (see first picture) Filter 1: SVF xl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 0% | LOW: 100% | Band: 100% | High: 100% Envelopes: VOL+ENV, CUT+MODX. BAND+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 1 | Depth: 50% | Speed: 70% | Chorus Delay: 30% Spread: 100% | Cross:-25% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 55% | Time: 2:00 | Stereo Offset: 1.4 ms left | Volume 25% Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 52
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation Reverb: Brighter | Low-cut: 35 Hz | High cut: 8.3 kHz | Pre delay: 46 ms | Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 2.5 | High Damping: 2.5 kHz | Volume: 40% Main Screen: (Unison) Order: 4 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 50% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: 77% | Envelope: 60% Modulation: OP1 -> 100%-> Fl | Fl -> 100%-> FX | Fl -> 100%-> Out. Comments: 100% noise is going to give you a very sharp pluck. For this synth we only use 50% noise and rely on a harmonically rich waveform to produce softer pluck (augmented with a low pass filter), thickened through heavy chorus. The Mod X value was tied to the cutoff frequency so the sharpness could be changed and the Mod Y stuck on the band pass, which allows for a change of texture.
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Deep Saw
Description: A very strong, thickly textured saw synth apt for use as a supporting/bass voice. Mechanics: Built off of a basic, yet strong saw waveform, this synth applies a huge amount of pitch variance to produce a wide harmonic range. This synths sound comes from its base waveform and unison settings. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 47% | Skew: 51% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Declick: Enabled Frequency Ratio: 0.9995 Filter 1: LP x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 36% Envelopes - VOL+ENV, CUT+MODX FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 4 | Depth: 75% | Speed: 84% | Chorus delay: 17% | Spread: 100% | Cross:-69% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 1:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 50% Reverb: Brighter | Low cut: 75 Hz | High cut: 5.3 kHz | Pre delay: 46 ms | Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 2.5 | High Damping: 2.5 kHz | Volume: 40% Envelopes - VOL+MODY Main Screen: (Unison) Order: 2 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 50% | Sublevel: 50% | Phase: 59% | Envelope: 0% Oversampling (draft): x2 Modulation: OP 1 -> 100%->F1 | Fl -> 100%->FX | Fl -> 100%->Out Comments: While the chorus on this saw is significant, at its core its relying on a very high pitch variance value in the unison settings. Pitch variance is a powerful tool in created smooth background synths because it has a similar effect to chords.
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Deep Square Hit

Description: A very deep Square hit with excellent bass potential in the lower keys. Mechanics: This synth uses a basic Square waveform, tied to a filter, chorus and unison. Almost the entire synth is defined by its Chorus settings. Operator 1: Shape: 75% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B.Limit Frequency Ratio: 0.5000 Filter 1: SVF altx2 | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 47% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 0% | HIGH: 100% Envelopes:VOL+ENV, CUT+ENV, HIGH+ENV, HIGH+MODX. CUT+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order 4 | Depth: 0% | Speed: 50% | Chorus delay: 0% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 4:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 67% Reverb: Flat | Low cut: 75 Hz | High cut: Off | Pre delay: 0 ms | Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 2.3 | High Damping: 3.5 kHz | Volume: 20% Main Screen: (Unison) Order: 3 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% Pitch: 64% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: 12% | Envelope: 0% Master Volume: 78% Master Pitch: +12 semitones Modulation: OP1 -> 100% -> Fl | Fl-> 100%-> FX Comments: Perfect example of how Chorus and Unison can take a basic waveform and transform it into a powerful synth.
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Maktez
Description: A somewhat brassinfluenced synth that warp around and has a faint hint of formant. Mechanics: The unique modulation is what powers the sound of this synth, supplemented by the unison settings. The chorus is used only for thickening the voice. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Declick : Enabled Frequency Ratio: 1.9995 Operator 2: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Frequency Ratio: 1.0010 Filter 1: LS x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 0% | RES: 62% | GAIN: 55% Envelopes: RES+ENV | Next: 100% Filter 2: SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 72% | RES: 0% | LOW: 37% | BAND: 100% | HIGH: 55% | WS: Enabled | WS AMP: 127% | WS MIX: 87% Envelopes: CUT+MODX, BAND+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 9 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 80% | Chorus delay: 0% | Spread: 100% | Cross:-27% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 3:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 50% Main Screen: (Unison) Order: 3 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% Pitch: 16% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: 0% | Envelope: 0% Master Pitch: -12 semitones Modulation: OP1 ->62%->OPl | OP2->-47%-> OP1 | OP1-> 100%-> Fl | Fl -> 100%>FX | Fl -> 100%->Out Comments: A good example of how two simple waveforms can be modulated Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 56
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation together to create a unique sound.
Phat Grinder
Description: A very rough, textured saw synth. Mechanics: The fact that the synth is pitched -24 semitones, along with its filters and unison settings (unison settings especially), are what make this synth "phat". Operator 1: Shape: 50% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B-Limit, Global Phase Frequency Ratio: 1.9999 Operator 2: Shape: 50% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Frequency Ratio: 0.0000 Frequency Offset: 1.00 Hz Filter 1: SVF xl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 100% | RES: 66% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 0% | HIGH: 100% Envelopes: RES+ENV, HIGH+MODX, LOW+MODY Next: 100% Filter 2: SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 36% | RES: 82% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 0% | HIGH:0% FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 2 | Depth: 28% | Speed: 49% | Chorus delay: 0% | Spread: 50% | Cross:-100% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 4:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 85% Reverb: Warmer | Lowcut: Off | Highcut: 2.5 kHz | Predelay: 67 ms | Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 0.9 | High Damping: Off | Volume: 47% Main Screen: (Unison) Order: 4 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% Pitch: 43% | SubSytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 57
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation level: 0% | Phase: 100% | Envelope: 0% Modulation: OP2-> 13%->OPl | OP1 ->100%->F1 | Fl ->100%->FX | Fl -> 100%-> Out Comments: Another use of the basic saw waveform, but with a huge reliance on filtering and other effects in a very precise manner to create a thick texture thats good for bass-oriented synths. This synth also utilizes a rather unique echo.
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Synth Brass Pluck

Description: A very plucky brass synth that has an offset of 1/16 of a measure. Mechanics: What really makes this synth unique is its usage of a 1/16th measure volume attack in its envelope, which really exaggerates the pluck. The actual voice is done through various sine-based waveforms heavily modulated with one another. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 20% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% |Pre filter; 100% | Noise: 0% Operator 2: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew:0% | Sineshaper:0% Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Frequency Ratio: 1.0000 Operators: (Even)-Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% Pre filter 100% | Noise: 0% Operator 4: Shape: 0% | Tension; 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% Pre filter 100% | Noise: 0% Filter 1 - SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT; 0% | RES: 66% | LOW: 100% BAND: 100% | HIGH:0% Envelopes: VOL+ENV, CUT+ENV, RES+ENV, PAN+KEYM, LOW+MODX, BAND+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 4 | Depth: 50% | Speed: 80% | Chorus delay: 0% | Spread: 100% | Cross: -27% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 3:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 50% MainScreen: Modulation: OPl->28%->OPl | OP2->24%->OP2 | OP3 -> 22% -> OP3 | OP 1 -> 16% -> OP4 | OP2 -> 15% -> OP4 | OP3->21%->OP4 | OP4-> 16%->OP4 | OP1 -> 100%->F1 | Fl -> 100%->FX | Fl ->-100%->Out Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 59
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation Comments: There's a lot of modulation going on in this synth, but its also subtracting its unprocessed output from FX instead of adding it. The choral effects are somewhat important for establishing the Synth's atmosphere.
Synthy Guitar Saw

Description: A rather weak guitarish synth attempt. Mechanics: Usually guitar synths rely on conflicting frequency ratios to produce their sound, but this is just a glorified saw synth with modulation. Operator 1: Shape: 50% | Tension: 22% | Skew: 0% | Sineshaper: 0% | Prefilter: 100% | Noise: 0% B.Limit: Enabled Frequency Ratio: 1.0000 Operator 2: Shape: 50% | Tension: 23% | Skew:0% | Sineshaper 0% | Prefilter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B.Limit Frequency Ratio: 0.5001 Filter 1:-SVFxl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 100% | RES: 0% | LOW: 30% | BAND: 0% | HIGH: 100% | WS: Enabled | WS AMP: 128% | WS MIX: 100% Envelopes: VOL+ENV, CUT+MODX, WMIX+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 9 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 60% | Chorus delay: 29% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100% Reverb: Flat | Lowcut: 35 Hz | High cut: Off | Pre delay: 98 ms | Room Size: 85 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 1.3 | High Damping: 6.1 kHz | Volume: 30% Main Screen: (Unison) Order 4 | Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 43% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: 69% | Envelope: 0% Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 60
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation Modulation: OP1 -> 16%->OPl | OP2->22%->OPl | OP1-> 100%->F1 | F1->100%->FX | F1->100%->Out Comments: Not particularly that good of an example as a guitarish synth, but it sounds nice anyway. Notice how it utilizes the wave shaper heavily.
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Thick Plucked String

Description: An echoey plucked string. Mechanics: This synth is based around the modulation of a basic waveform by a plucked one, and chorus settings with high delay and quick echo. Operator 1: Shape: 50% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 55% Enabled: B.Limit, Pluck Frequency Ratio: 0.9990 Envelopes: VOL+ENV, VOL+MODX Operator 2: (Half)-Shape: 50% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 85% | Sineshaper: 85% | Prefilter 100% | Noise: 0% Frequency Ratio: 1.0000 Starting Phase: 50% Envelopes: PHASE+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 6 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 80% | Chorus delay: 0% | Spread: 100% | Cross:-100% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 0.44 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 50% Reverb: Flat | Low cut: 35 Hz | High cut: 20.2 kHz | Pre delay: 83 ms | Room Size: 85 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 2.9 | High Damping: 3.0 kHz | Volume: 16% Main Screen: Modulation: OP1 ->22%->OP2 | OP2-> 100% -> FX Comments: The echoey effect in this synth is achieved by a rapid fire delay echo.
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Thick Pluck
Description: A very deep sine-based pluck synth. Mechanics: This synth relies solely on basic sine wave modulation, and does not go through a filter, instead using the chorus. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% B.Limit: Enabled Frequency Ratio: 3.0000 Envelopes: VOL+MODY Operator 2: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% J Skew 0% 1 Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B.Limit Starting Phase: 50% Envelopes: VOL+ENV, PHASE+MODX Operator 3: Shape: 0% | Tension:0% | Skew: 0% | Sineshaper:0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B.Limit, Declick Frequency Ratio: 3.0000 Envelopes: VOL+ENV FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 4 | Depth: 35% | Speed; 75% | Chorus delay: 16% | Spread: 63% | Cross: 36% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 3:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume 50% Reverb: Flat | Low cut: 35 Hz | High cut: Off | Pre delay: 72 ms | Room Size: 80 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 1.9 | High Damping: 4.2 kHz | Volume: 21% MainScreen: Modulation: OP2->23%->OPl | OP1->21%->OP3 | OP3-> 100%-> FX | Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 63
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation OP3-> 100%->Out Comments: Few synths do not use filters, but this is one of them. As a result, the X and Y values had to be mapped to rather unorthodox attributes.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation Horn Pluck Description: very smooth horn pluck with heavy reverb. Mechanics: This synth operates off of two modulated high-tension sine waves that are then fed into a relatively weak filter. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 30% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Declick: Enabled Starting Phase: 69% Frequency Ratio: 4.0000 Envelopes: VOL+ENV Operator 2: Shape:0% | Tension: 28% | Skew:0% | Sineshaper: 0% | Prefilter: 100% | Noise: 0% Enabled: B.Limit Envelopes: VOL+MODX Filter 1: SVFxl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 87% | RES: 50% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 100% | HIGH: 100% Envelopes: VOL+ENV, RES+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 1 | Depth: 0% | Speed: 0% | Chorus delay: 6% | Spread: 0% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100% Reverb: Flat | Low cut: 35 Hz | High cut: Off | Pre delay: 98 ms | Room Size: 85 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay time: 1.3 | High Damping: 6.1 kHz | Volume: 30% Main Screen: Enabled: Center Modulation: OP2->-37%->OP1 OP1 -> 100% -> Fl | Fl -> 100%-> FX | Fl -> 100%-> Out Comments: The chorus effect helps add depth to this synth, but its sound and feel is primarily generated by the modulated waves (its base waveform), not by filters or effects. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 65
Warp Pluck
Description: Watery synth plucks with pitch bend. Mechanics: This synth is almost totally reliant on the pitch bend. Without the pitch bend its pretty nondescript. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Declick: Enabled Envelopes: PITCH + ENV, PHASE + MODX Operator 2: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Frequency Ratio: 1.0000 Declick: Enabled Envelopes: PHASE + MODY Filter 1: Off FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 9 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 80% | Chorus delay: 52% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 0% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 3:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume: 50% Delay Bank 2: Feedback: 50% | Time: 4:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume: 50% Main Screen: Enabled: Center Modulation: OP1 -> 100%-> F1 | OP2-> 65%-> F1 | Fl-> 100%-> FX Fl -> 100%-> Out Comments: Pitch bends and volume envelopes can be used to take what would normally be a boring synth and give it a unique flair.
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Basic Heavy Saw

Description: A very simple, strong saw pluck. The pluck can also be turned off Mechanics: This synth, as expected, is based off of a simple saw waveform, and almost the entire synth is reliant on the choral effects. Operator 1: Shape: 50% | Tension: 0% | Skew:0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% B.Limit: Enabled Frequency Ratio: 1.0000 Filter 1: SVF x3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT:0% | RES: 34% | LOW: 100% BAND: 100% | HIGH: 100% Envelopes: VOL+ENV. CUT+MODX, HIGH+MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 6 | Depth: 77% | Speed: 70% | Chorus delay: 12% | Spread: 100% | Cross: -64% | Volume: 100% Delay Bank 1: Feedback: 50% | Time: 4:00 | Stereo Offset: 0 | Volume: 50% Main Screen: Modulation: OP1 -> 100% -> Fl | Fl -> 100% -> FX Fl -> 100%-> Out Comments: This is an example of how a very, very simple synth can sound good, and in this case manage to sound good in many different circumstances. Simplicity is your friend!
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Violin
Description: A violin synth with vibrato. Mechanics: This synth has 2 things going for it - its oscillator based waveform and the vibrato from an LFO on the phase in operator 1. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Oscillator: Utilized (see picture) Enabled: B.Limit Frequency Ratio: 2.0008 Pitch Envelope Amount: +340 cents Envelopes: VOL+ENV. PITCH+ENV, PHASE+LFO Operator 2: Shape: 25% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% Envelopes: VOL+ENV. PITCH+ENV, PHASE+LFO Filter 1: SVF xl | ENV: 50% | CUT: 61% | RES: 0% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 100% | HIGH: 12% Envelopes: RES+LFO, LOW+MODX, HIGH+MODX | Next: 100% Filter 2: LP2 xl | ENV: 86% | CUT: 79% | RES: 13% FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 7 | Depth: 100% | Speed: 0% | Chorus delay: 45% | Spread: 100% | Cross:-45% | Volume: 100% Reverb: Brighter | Low cut: 384 Hz | High cut: 6.4 kHz | Pre delay: 85 ms | Room Size: 59 | Diffusion: 64 | Decay time: 2.1 | High Damping: 4.1 kHz | Volume: 25% Main Screen: Master Volume: 78% | Modulation: OP 1 -> 100% -> F1 | OP2-> -66% > F1 | F2 -> 100% -> FX Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 68
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation Comments: Realistic synths are often reliant on the oscillator to generate specific base waveforms to work with. These waveforms are usually used without modulation with other waveforms, though in this case, a triangle waveform was subtracted from OP1 in the first filter to help create a sharper sound. Oddly enough, the raw waveform used here almost sounds like a trumpet.
Flute
Description: A flute that does not have vibrato. Mechanics: Flutes utilize the pre filter, often using 4 harmonic waves modulated with a few base-sine waves. This flute happens to also utilize Chorus a lot. Operator 1: Shape: 0% | Tension: -100% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 0% | Noise: 0% Operator 2: Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 16% | Frequency Ratio: 2.0001 Operator 3: - Shape: 0% | Tension: 0% | Skew: 0% | Sine shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0% | Frequency Ratio: 1.9999 Filter 1: -SVF xl | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 0% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 0% | HIGH: 100% Envelopes: VOL+ENV. HIGH+MODX, LOW + MODY FX Settings: (Chorus) Order: 7 | Depth: 58% | Speed: 31% | Chorus delay: 85% | Spread: 100% | Cross: 66% | Volume: 100% Reverb: Bright | Low cut: 1312Hz | High cut: 1.0 kHz | Pre delay: 85 ms| Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 64 | Decay time: 2.5 | High Damping: Off | Volume: 100% Main Screen: EQ Low Band: -18.0 dB | Mid Band: -2.0 dB | High Band: 5.8 dB | Enabled: Center | Master Volume: 125% Modulation: OP2-> 5%->OP 1 | OP1 -> 100%->F1 | OP2->-24%->F1 | OP3->42%-> F1 Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 69
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 5. Modulation | F1 -> 100%->FX | F1 -> 100%->Out Comments: Most flutes really should have vibrato using an LFO on the phase of the primary operator (like a violin), but this one doesnt. Rip'em To Shreds If youre ever wondering how your favorite synth preset was made, open it up in Sytrus and start tearing it apart. Listen to the base waveform, listen to the part of a filter, listen to it without chorus, turn off the unison, find out what makes it tick.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 6
6. Sequence
The culmination of our knowledge of synth creation will be a Sequence Synth, arguably one of the most absurdly complicated synths anyone can make. Sequence synths utilize envelopes and pitch modifications to create a bass line in the synth itself. The sequence synth we will be making is going to rock back and forth between the tonic and subtonic chords with a variety of instruments playing different patterns. To begin, we will create our first voice, which is going to be on Operator 1. Right-click OP1's waveform and choose a Saw waveform, then lower its frequency ratio to 1. Shuttle 100% of it into Filter 1, and then change filter 1 to the following: [LP x3 (HQ) | ENV-50% | CUT-100% | RES 34%], then stick in a volume envelope as shown in figure 1. This voice is going to serve as our long, sustained background voice. While building this synth I originally had no volume envelope on this voice, but sustained voices usually need some sort of volume variation if they are to sound good, and in a sequence synths it is very, very easy to go overboard and make everything blurry. Always try to put in volume envelopes to make the instruments Figure 2: Operator 2 settings either fade in and out or simply pluck, otherwise you'll muck up the output. We could have also stuck this volume envelope in the operator itself, but we didn't. It really doesn't make a difference for this synth.
Figure 1: Filter 1 Settings
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 6 Operator 2 is where things start to get interesting. To begin, build a waveform with the following settings: [Shape: 0% | Tension: -30% | Skew: 58% | Sine Shaper: 40% | Prefilter: 100% | Noise: 0%]. Next, add a pitch envelope according to Figure 2. This pitch envelope defines the melody in our synth; notice how it goes from the tonic to the subtonic. The entire thing is set to tempo and to loop every measure (since its one measure long). We must keep that in mind while building the rest of our sequence synth. Speaking of which, our first operator isn't switching chords halfway through the measure! This is a problem, so fix it by applying a pitch filter to operator one as shown in figure 3. Now that we've fixed that, we need to do something about the fact that operator 2 is sustained. We don't want it to be sustained, so we're going to add a looping volume envelope. Because each pitch change (or note change) occurs every 2 steps, hence logically we should make our volume envelope 2 steps in length as well.
Figure 3: Operator 1 Pitch Envelope
Apply the envelope as shown in figure 4. Mix 100% of operator 2 to Filter 2 then output 84% of Filter 1 to FX, 52% of filter 1 to Out. -68% of filter 2 to FX, and 100% of Filter 2 to Out. Try the synth out! Before this is going to sound good, we need to setup the second filter: [SVF xl (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 50% | RES: 50% | LOW: 50% | BAND: 100% | HIGH: 85%]. Now, it's starting to shape up, but we Figure 4: Volume Envelopes really need another layer, so open up Operator 3 and copy the settings from Operator 1, then mix 100% of Operator 3 into filter 3.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 6 Add a pitch envelope according to Figure 5, then set up filter 3 with the following settings: [SVFx3 (HQ) | ENV: 50% | CUT: 83% | RES: 33% | LOW: 100% | BAND: 77% | HIGH: 100%]. Also apply a volume envelope, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 5: Pitch Envelope
Notice how the volume envelopes are always engineered to line up with the pitch envelopes. You can also make volume envelopes that trigger multiple notes without changing the pitch, but remember to keep the entire synth in tempo time Figure 6: Volume Envelope again! and to line everything up by snapping in a sequence synth, it is crucial that every part of the synth sync perfectly with the others. Our synth is nearing completion, but we have a few more things to do. First, let's improve our FX effects a bit by adding this chorus, and a bit of reverb. [Reverb color: Bright | Low cut: 183 Hz | High cut: Off | Predelay: ~41 ms | Room Size: 100 | Diffusion: 100 | Decay Time: 1.3 sec | High Damping: 2.6 kHz | Volume: 32%]
Chorus Settings
Order: 6 | Depth: 89% | Speed: 60% | Delay: 30% | Spread: 100% | Cross: -34% | Volume: 100% This synth isn't going to have any delay echo effects on it but what we will do is flip back to the main page and turn on unison. This time, however, we're going to enable oscillator-only unison, which applies the unison affect to the oscillators without applying it to the entire synth. This gives us a really cool effect, especially with how our sequence synth is set up.
Unison Settings
Panning: 100% | Volume: 100% | Pitch: 64% | Sublevel: 0% | Phase: 74% Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 73
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 6 | Envelope: 0% Now it's time to add the final operator to our synth; a square-based one. Head to Operator 4 and input the following parameters for its waveform: [Shape: 50% | Tension: 80% | Skew: 0% | Sine Shaper: 0% | Pre filter: 100% | Noise: 0%]. Make sure you enable B.Limit as well. Then, copy and paste the pitch envelope from operator 1 into operator 4's pitch envelope (make sure it's enabled), and create the volume envelope as shown in Figure 9. This envelope does not correspond with the pitch changes, but it is synced with the beats. This creates an echo effect where one note is played, echoed, and then another note is played on the subtonic and echoed, Pump out 100% of Operator 4 to FX and -70% of it to Out. Now we're really getting somewhere!
Figure 9: Operator 4 Volume
Figure 10: Filter 1 - RES + MODY
Filter 2 - BAND + MODY
There is one last thing to do for this synth, and that's adding X/Y modulation. Because this is a sequence synth, we're going to have to map MOD X and MOD Y Figure 12: Filter 3 BAND + MODY to multiple attributes, sometimes doing an inverse proportion relationship between them. Starting with filter 1, put a default mod X envelope on its CUT attribute, then put a half-cut, inverse mod Y envelope on Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 74
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 6 the RES attribute, as shown in figure 10. There we go, our synth is complete! Now, like any finished synth, we should give it a name, explain what the X/Y modulation does, adjust our X/Y modulation to the optimum value, and save it as a preset, Here is what I decided to call mine: Congratulations! You have made your first sequence synth. Peel free to edit this one, either by taking out its chord change, adding in additional variation, or changing its melody.
My synth information
Maybe even come up with something completely new! Our journey with Sytrus is almost over, so head over to Part 7. Wrap Up, and well finish this tutorial.
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7. Wrap Up
Our synth-making tutorial is almost complete, and with this last section I will be detailing several more obscure features of Sytrus that were not covered earlier for whatever reason. Most of these topics are very advanced, but some of them can really help out while creating a synth. Thanks for reading the tutorial!
The Amazing Arpeggiator

In addition to exploring the Arpeggiator, we will be looking at a Sytrus preset and discussing the various techniques in how it was made, so if you are going to read any section of part 7, make it this one. Some of you will be familiar with arpeggiators in FL studio and some of you will not. Regardless of what you think you know, Sytrus's method of making arps is fairly unorthodox. To demonstrate how and what an arpeggiator is, navigate to Plugin presets -> Generators -> Sytrus -> Arp and load up the "Countdown" preset. Play a single note - it sounds just like a regular sequence synth. However, if you open up the piano roll and input a chord sequence like the one you see
Figure 1: Altered Behaviour
in Figure 1, the synth will do something very, very different. Holy crap, what in the world is it doing? Other then sounding really cool, the Countdown synth is hopping around the notes you gave in the triad instead of playing them all at once - the arpeggiation. Why is it doing this? To find out, we need to look at Countdown's Operator 1 Volume Envelope.
Countdowns Volume Envelope
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 This volume envelope may look like a normal one, but notice the funky looking arrows at the bottom of the peaks. These are what make the arpeggiator tick. The little "up" arrows cause the synth to move to the next highest note in the given triad, the little "down" arrows cause the synth to move down to the next lowest note in the given triad, and the "dash" symbol that you see by the sustain loop start point tells the arpeggiator to stay on the current note in the triad. When the arpeggiator goes below the given notes, it will loop back to the top, and vice versa. If you right click one of the points and hover over "Arpeggiator Break" in the drop-down list, you can see that either Previous, Same, or Next has been chosen for that point. How exactly does this relate to the envelopes? Well in this synth there is a volume envelope that creates a series of notes, just like in a sequence The arpeggiator breaks synth, but instead of simply repeating the same note in some rhythmic pattern, the arpeggiator breaks either bump the note up one note in the given chord, or lower it one note in the given chord. For example, if we take our chord of C4, Eb4, and G4, we begin on the C4 (or root) note of the chord, and when we reach the end of the first envelope, we hit an "up" arpeggiator break. This causes the current note to be bumped up to the next note in our chord, which in this case is Eb4. After this volume envelope, the note goes down, back to C4, then up again, to Eb4, then up once more, to G4. Now, when the envelope loops, the first arpeggiator break we hit is a "Same," which means the note will stay at G4. Then, we hit another "up" arpeggiator break - but we have no more notes in our chord! When this happens, the note carries over to the lowest note, which for us is C4, Likewise, if the current note was C4, and the synth encountered a "down" arpeggiator break, if would carry over to the highest note (G4, in this case). The chords you give an arpeggiator can be mode of 2 notes, 3 notes, 5 notes, or 18446744073709551615 notes - it really doesn't matter, but layering two notes on top of each other will only have the effect of making that note in the arp sound really loud.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 Before we try to implement this in our own synth, we'll take this opportunity to look at what countdown is. While it sounds like a complicated synth, it in fact is comprised of only 3 envelopes - Volume, Modulation, and Pitch, plus effects. The modulation envelope is a pluck-based envelope that causes the synth to have a plucky feel to it. Modulation envelopes can often be used when a synth needs a plucky sound to it. You may also notice that the modulation The Modulation Envelope envelope has arpeggiator breaks on it as well. This is not recommended, as it is completely pointless. If you remove these redundant arpeggiator breaks, the synth will sound exactly the same. Because almost all arp synths will be using a volume envelope to create multiple notes, it's a matter of common sense to put the arp breaks on the volume envelope. Usually it is the volume envelope of the Operator, but they can also go to the filters. The pitch envelope on Countdown is very interesting. At first glance, it looks like it could never work - going up 3 semitones? But if you take a closer look, you will notice that the Pitch envelope knob has been turned all the way up to +4800 cents. This is four times the default amount of +1200, which means that while the default had 24 semitones from top to bottom, this pitch envelope has 96. Likewise, even though an octave The Pitch Envelope in the default pitch envelope is 12 grid steps, because the range has been multiplied by 4, the number of grid steps has been divided by 4. 12 divided by 4 = 3. 3 steps, one octave. So what our pitch envelope here is really doing is going up and down approximately 4 octaves. That is all this synth is doing; running around the octaves with an arpeggiator.
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 By flipping it and making the origin start at 0% volume, we won't get the initial chord and will be free to enjoy our arpeggiated synth in peace. If you want, you can adjust the pitch envelope knob to +4800 and put in a pitch envelope for operator 1 that's similar to Countdown's. You might also try changing the delay time to 3:00. Echoes usually work best when they have trigger times different than the rhythm of the notes on the synth.
Secrets of the Oscillator

The Oscillator has a lot of bizarre features, and while some are a bit useless, others can be helpful, first, go to your Basic Heavy Saw synth and open up Operator 1's oscillator. It's pretty boring since it's just a basic wave, but if you use tension to change it into a bent saw, we can do something cool with the oscillator. Open its menu and click "Convert Shape to Sine Harmonics." This will automatically turn the wave into a sine that's been This sine waveform has an identity crisis modified with the oscillator to resemble a bent saw. Clearly it's not a perfect replication, but this feature is handy if you want something a little more organic-sounding out of a very non-organic waveform. Reset the wave back into a saw, open the menu again and choose "Analyze Single-Cycle Waveform." You will be given a list of wave files to choose from. These wave files contain waveforms similar to the ones we are creating in Sytrus. As an example, open up "Sytrus shape_11.wav" Sytrus will analyze the waveform that's inside the wave file and create the sine harmonics that match it. Directly below "Analyze Single-Cycle Analyzing .wav files Waveform" in the menu is "Export Single-Cycle Waveform" This allows you to export your own waveforms and load them up later. Handy!
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Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 You can also use the menu to lock various harmonic channels. The "Lock Harmonic" menu option gives you 5 different ways of locking harmonic channels - you can lock all the channels, the even channels, the odd channels, any inactive (unused) channels, or you can invert whatever is currently being locked. This is useful for editing when you need to edit only the evens or only the odd channels, or don't want to accidentally activate a harmonic channel while editing. There are a number of other handy editing functions on the menu, and most are self explanatory (just experiment with them a little). The Gibbs phenomenon is, well, the only thing you need to know is that it makes synths sound bad so the attenuate/remove Gibbs phenomenon options are extremely handy if your synth isn't sounding too good and you're not entirely sure why. Unfortunately these options can also ruin your waveform, so keep that in mind.
Locking channels
Holy cow, background gradient!
While we're on the topic of menus, there are a few options available to the envelope menu as well (accessible from any of the filters or operators). As we have explored before, it lets you copy/paste envelope states, but it also lets you open/save state files. You can also access the undo history from the menu. flip the envelope upside-down, Randomizing phases do automatically smoothing on the envelope changes, and toggle the background gradient (what an incredibly useful feature! *ahem*). You can also analyze an audio file, which results in a volume envelope being created that follows the average volume output of the given file. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 80
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 One more thing - if you go look at the Wave shaper in one of the filters (doesn't matter if it's being used or not), you will notice a "+"sign to the left of the Amp knob. If you click this, the wave that is shown in the WS envelope window of the filter will become bipolar. No. I don't mean it's going to try and stab you if you insult its mother. I mean the negative part of the wave shaper wave can be edited. Unfortunately, this is rarely useful unless you want a really, really extreme wave shaper effect.
All Those Weird Buttons

It is time to head back to the Sytrus main page and tackle a few of the things we've ignored. The first and foremost are the Volume and Filter attack/ decay/ sustain/ release sliders located to the right of the master volume/ LFO/ pitch sliders. These sliders will not have any function unless you have volume envelopes or envelopes in filter effects that have at least one defined point (It could be either decay, sustain loop end, or sustain loop begin). This is what that stupid Delay setting is for - even though setting a point to "Delay" will have absolutely no effect on the envelope itself, it serves as a marker for the volume and filter sliders. Using the volume and filter sliders you can exaggerate or decrement all of the volume and filter sliders globally, which is beneficial in some cases.
Gated Gold Saw one of the few presets using this
Now, there's a bunch of buttons on the main panel that we really haven't explored. Here's a brief explanation of their function and relative usefulness.
Random
Most synths utilize random things like random noise, and some randomness in unison/choral effects. Turn this off and your synth will be as predictable as the moon. Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 81
Mono key
This prevents multiple instances of your synth from playing on the same note. The effect is obvious when you layer multiple notes on top of each other. When mono key is enabled, only one of the notes will play. When mono key is disabled, all of the notes will play and it will be very loud.
Soften
This is a pretty cool feature that adjusts the volume envelope according to the velocity of the key that's being hit, so you can make the fade in of the synth more obvious for quieter notes.
Global pitch
These makes operator 1s pitch envelopes affect the entire synth (yes, the entire synth, no exceptions).
Center
This centers the waveform, similar to the center option on an operator, except for the total output of the synth.
Gibbs off
Another way to get rid of that nasty Gibbs phenomenon.
Porta
This is a very confusing feature that will be explained in the next section. Since we're on the main page, lets talk about the Sytrus Main Menu. The main menu of Sytrus, as shown in figure 22, puts many options and tools at your disposal. You can copy/paste an entire preset or an oscillator, as well as randomizing and Figure 22: The Main Menu resetting waveforms. You can also morph oscillators 1 through 5. What this does is best demonstrated. Create a new synth, change operator 1 to a saw synth and operator 6 to a Square synth. Click on "Morph Oscillators 1 through 5" and you will notice that oscillators 2-5 are now Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 82
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 intermediate steps necessary to transform operator 1 into operator 6. Useful for experimentation. Sytrus also has a selection of effect presets for chorus, unison and reverb, plus a few obscure, mostly self-explanatory options for the arpeggiator, portamento effect and volume envelopes.
How The Heck Portamento Works

What is portamento? Portamento is a cool effect where when a note is played, it is automatically pitch shifted from whatever the previous note was. This effect blends the notes together and is often used in bass line saw synths. Getting the stupid thing to work, however, is a bit more complicated. We're going to apply it to the TUT Phat Grinder synth - to start, we need to enable Portamento by clicking the "porta" Figure 23: A Weird Envelope button on the main panel. Next, we need to go to the pitch envelope of the first operator in the Phat Grinder synth and create an envelope that looks like figure 23. There are two things we need in this envelope, a decay point and a sustain loop end point. What's terribly annoying though is that you can't assign those to the same point, so we basically have a useless trailing portion of our pitch envelope. The portamento effect only cares about the distance between the origin and the decay point. In this case, we have made it 1 beat, so if you input the motif shown (Figure 24), you can Figure 24: A cool motif hear the portamento effect quite clearly. Unfortunately, we can hear it a little too clearly when we're going down almost an octave. We can solve this by sticking in silent notes that trigger the portamento silently, thus ensuring that the portamento effect has nothing to pitch bend when the note is hit (Figure 25). Confusing, but easy enough to use once you get it working.
Page 83
Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 7 That concludes the tutorial on Sytrus Synth Creation. There are several areas of synth creation that are out of the scope of this tutorial, but hopefully you now have the knowledge required to start making some synths of your own. Always remember to experiment!
Figure 25: A fixed motif
All content contained In the seven parts of this tutorial are copyrighted under the Creative Commons 3.0 license, Including synths, melodies, and text. FL Studio and Sytrus are proprietary software programs owned by Image-line Studios.
This tutorial and Its Images may be freely distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 3.0 License.
Copyright 2008 Erik McClure
Converted into a PDF by Jens Malmgren 2013 @JensMalmgren
Page 84
Sytrus Synths Creation, Index
Index
AMP, 26 Analyze Single-Cycle Waveform, 79 Band Limit, 20 Bent Saw, 7 Center, 20 Cherry Phaser, PHS, 41 Chocolate State Variable, SVF, 40 Chorus, 9 CPU, 37 CPU usage, 32, 44 CPU-wise, 13 Cross, CR, 11 DAMP, 43 Declick, 20 delay, 13 Delay, DL, 10 Depth, DP, 10 Double Curve, 46 echo, 13 Envelope Variation, EV, 32 Even, 30 Evil, 5 Export Single-Cycle Waveform, 79 Feedback Level, FB, 14 Frequency Modulation, 29 Gibbs phenomenon, 80, 82 Global, 24 harmonics, 34 Hold, 46 KEY M, 26 LFO, 23 Lime High Pass, HP, 40 Mango Low Pass, LP3, 41 MIX, 26 Spread, SR, 11 Morph Oscillators, 82 Square, 6 Noise, NS, 8 Square Saw, 7 OSC, 34 Stairs, 46 Panning, PN, 32 Starting Phase, 31 Phase, PH, 32 Stereo Offset, SO, 14 Pitch, PT, 32 Sub-level, SB, 32 pluck, 32, 43 sustain loop end, 46 Pluck, 20 Sustain Loop End, 23 Pluck Mode, 36 Sustain loop start, 46 Portamento, 83 Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren Page 85 Pre-filter, FL, 8 rendered, 45 Reverb, 15 Ring Modulation, 29 Saw, 6 Saw Sine, 7, 8 Shape, SH, 7 Sine, 6 Sine Shaper, SN, 8 Single Curve, 46 Skew, SK, 8 Smooth, 35 Smooth Stairs, 46 Speed, SP, 10
Sytrus Synths Creation, Index Tempered Square, 7 tempo, 19 Tension, TN, 8 Time, TM, 14 Triangle, 6 UNI, 42 Vanilla All Pass, AP, 41 Vanilla Notch, NOT, 40 Vanilla Band Pass, BP, 40 Vanilla Peaking, PK, 41 Vanilla High Pass, HP2, 40 Vanilla High Shelf, HS, 41 Vanilla Low Pass, LP2, 40 Vanilla Low Shelf, LS, 41 VEL M, 26 Violin, 6 Volume, VL, 11, 14, 32 Wave Shaper, 26 WMIX, 39
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Sytrus Synths Creation Manual

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity

Sytrus Synth Creation

Basic waveform shapes

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 1. Simplicity

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes

We should get this

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes

The two delay banks

Make sure the pitch tab is selected.

Figure 6: Putting down the first point

Don't forget to adjust the point to the new grid.

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 2. Envelopes

Figure 12: Going back to the other synth.

The "S" denotes a sustain loop end point

The resonance envelope

My Amp and Mix Values

The Key mapping tab, with the basic envelope applied

Now, on to section 3, Synthesis!

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 3. Synthesis

Figure 3: Modulate Op 1 with Op 2 by 5%

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Chaoz Fantasy is an awesome song.

Figure 11: Setting up Unison

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Click the OSC tab

Filter settings for our synth

Figure 16: Zoom out using the button in bottom right

Figure 18: Totally random wave craziness!

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Figure 3: Mapping the X axis to the CUT value

Figure 5: Mapping the WMIX value to the Y axis

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

The available filters

Chocolate State Variable, SVF

Lime High Pass, HP

Vanilla Low Pass, LP2

Vanilla Band Pass, BP

Vanilla Notch, NOT

Vanilla High Pass, HP2

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation

Vanilla All Pass, AP

Vanilla Low Shelf, LS

Vanilla High Shelf, HS

Mango Low Pass, LP3

Cherry Phaser, PHS

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Figure 12: Filter 1 settings

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Sytrus Synths Creation, Chapter 4. Modulation

Figure 15: Feeding filter 1 into filter 2

Figure 16: Filter 2 settings

Sytrus Synth Manual by Erik McClure. Edit to e-book by Jens Malmgren

Figure 23: Our second point

Figure 24: Stairs

Figure 26: Creating a loop

Figure 27: A simple bassline