Synth Secrets is a 63-part Sound On Sound series covering synthesis from waveforms to instrument emulation

Gordon Reid’s Synth Secrets ran monthly in Sound On Sound over five years (May 1999 to July 2004), 63 instalments, and is still assigned as essential reading in college and university synthesis courses. It works through subtractive synthesis from first principles — waveforms and harmonics, filters, envelopes, VCAs, modulation, FM, additive synthesis, vocoders, sample & hold, mono/duo/polyphony — and then applies the theory to synthesizing real instruments: brass, plucked and bowed strings, percussion, pianos, flutes, tonewheel organs, and finally effects-as-synthesis with delays. This resource is the series index; each article body lives at its own URL.

Examples

Part 1 ‘What’s In A Sound?’ (harmonics); Part 4 ‘Of Filters & Phase Relationships’; the FM introduction; the closing delay-synthesis instalments.

Assessment

State the scope and publication span of Synth Secrets and name three synthesis domains it covers beyond basic subtractive theory.